Sheffield United

Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock has confirmed he is looking to bring a new coach to the club.

The Premiership new boys have added numbers to their squad over the summer and Warnock admits there are now too many players for him and assistant Stuart McCall to cope with.

Warnock is aiming to add a new first-team coach to his backroom staff sooner rather than later, with former Leeds and Manchester United coach Brian Kidd strongly linked.

"I am looking to bring in a new senior coach because Stuart and I just need some help," Warnock admitted.

"The fact is we've got too many bodies for the two of us to cope with."

The Blades are likely to face competition for Kidd's services, with reports suggesting Roy Keane will try to bring him to Sunderland if he becomes manager at The Stadium of Light.

It was 12:00pm, on 19th August 2006, normally i'd be getting ready to go to Bramall Lane to watch the Mighty Blades up against newly promoted Brighton! But today was different, i was already in my seat, soaking up the atmosphere getting ready to watch my team play recent European Champions Liverpool!!

12 years ago, Mark Stein sent us down at Stamford Bridge, with a last minute goal. We are now back in the top flight, happily losing our 12 year 'longest serving club in the league' status in the Championship.

The line-ups:

Blades: Kenny, Geary, Unsworth, Bromby (Leigertwood 74), Morgan, Tonge, Jagielka, Ifill (Gillespie 60), Armstrong, Hulse (Akinbiyi 85), Webber.
Unused: Sommeil, Nade.

Liverpool: Reina, Kromkamp, Hyypia, Riise (Gonzalaz 26), Gerrard, Fowler (Pennant 83), Aurelio, Bellamy, Sissoko, Carragher (Agger 34), Zenden.
Unused: Dudek, Crouch.

Much suprise in the Liverpool line-up, a stronger side was expected, had Mr Benitez under-estimated the newly promoted Blades?

Sir Neil, had kept faith with the majority of the players that had won us promotion, Hulse the only new signing in the starting XI.

From the first half it was evident that Liverpool had come to attack and exploit the lack of pace in our central defence, Bellamy trying hard to beat the offside trap on more than one occasion. The Blades though more than matched the high-flyers, with battling midfield displays from the likes of Tonge, Jagielka and especially Armstrong.
Webber varied his position, sometimes supporting the hard-working Hulse and the majority of the time slotting onto the left side of the midfield.

At the start of the second half it was Webbers pace which forced the first decent set-piece. Tonge and Unsworth stood over the ball, eventually delivering the ball over where HULSE beat the 'Pool defence with a diving header, unmarked, at the back post. The whole ground went into raptures, Hulse punching the air in front of a buzzing Kop.

Now, we had to repell the backlash. As predicted, Liverpool came at us moving Gerrard inside to attack through the middle. We held our own, camping ourselves i our own half for near on 20mins. It was then that Gerrard made one of his trademark bursts through the centre he managed to put in a weak shot which Kenny saved comfortably, despite the close attentions of both Jagielka and Morgan, the referee then blew up and awarded a penalty, Morgan adjudging to have clipped Gerrard on the way through to goal. Replays showed that Morgan in fact did not touch Gerrard. After much debate between Bellamy and Fowler, it was FOWLER who picked up the ball, wrong footing Kenny, and bringing the Reds level.

The remaining 20mins of the game, was pretty much the same as the first half, with the Blades frustrating the Reds and not allowing them any time on the ball. As the Blades tired, Hyypia hit the post with a header from a corner, which is the closest the game came to a third goal.

The whistle was blown and fully satisfied crowd cheered. Our first game back in the big time and we match Liverpool to collect a point - but it surely should have been all 3!!

Former Crystal Palace defender Mikele Leigertwood to Bramall Lane is Neil Warnock's latest recruit. Are the Blades going to spend a season defending?
The 23-year-old, out of contract at Selhurst Park, represents Neil Warnock's second delve into his reported £10M transfer budget, as Leigertwood's age means that United will have pay a fee of £600,000.

Leigertwood played in the Premiership with Palace and is regarded as a centre half, though he can play at full back or even as a holding midfield player.

Enfield-born, Leigertwood began his career as a trainee at Franchise FC when it was Wimbledon, getting his league start at the age of 19 under Terry Burton. He moved to Palace in February 2004 for a fee of £150,000.

Having signed David Sommeil and Claude Davis, with the arrival of 'keeper James Walker rumoured to be imminent and with Craig Short due to report for pre-season training, Warnock has certainly focussed his efforts on not conceding goals.

Assuming all of the goal hopes are not being pinned on the unknown French Terminator Christian Nade, of course.

So, when is Warnock going to add to the squad's firepower? At present he has Danny Webber, Steve Kabba, Ade Akinbiyi and Neil Shipperley - not a bad starting point, but not one, at this point in time, which is going to strike fear into Premiership defences.

That may change if Webber and Kabba have the quality to step up, but with goals being the undoubted difference between top-flight survival and relegation, it's a big gamble.

Warnock still has around £7M of his transfer kitty left after the Leigertwood deal, and supporters still await that 'oomph' signing that will really mark out United as a Premiership team; the player who will lift everybody else and make the difference.

The Ghanaian Derek Boateng would perhaps be a step in the right direction in terms of calibre and aspiration, but he's a midfielder.

United are, unfortunately, not going to compete for the likes of established Premier League players like Jason Roberts or Andy Johnson, even though they can afford them, and the last thing the team needs is an ageing Premiership player looking for a last pay day. So, the task for Warnock is - realistically - to scour the Championship or the foreign market.

The bid for Rob Hulse showed that Warnock's looking for a young, powerful, ambitious striker, but when the Blades need a Dean Ashton - preferably with a smaller price tag - Hulse does look a little second-rate.

Warnock should shift his gaze across the Pennines and back to whence came Claude Davis - the player he's looking for is Preston's David Nugent.

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