Football journalist Daniel Storey has slammed Sheffield United winter signing Sander Berge for his recent performance against Newcastle United.
Storey was recently a guest on the latest episode of the ‘Totally Football Show’ podcast and he was talking about the Blades’ performance at the weekend. The journalist chose to focus on Berge’s display at St. James’ Park and he had criticism for the winter signing.
Chris Wilder’s men fell to a 3-0 defeat at the weekend, as John Egan was sent off in the second half. After that, the Magpies got one goal each through Allan Saint-Maximin, Matt Ritchie and Joelinton. Berge had started in the game and featured in midfield beside Oliver Norwood and John Fleck (via the Guardian).
When talking about the performance, Storey slammed Berge and said: “I have to say, Sander Berge – Sheffield United spent a lot of money on him and it worries me if their next step after staying up is to start spending more money on players, that worries me.
Would you call Berge a 'flop signing' for Sheffield United?
Yeah, he's been poor
He's been alright!
“I cannot see what he brings to that side at the moment that John Lundstram hasn’t done at least doubly well so far this season. And there are plenty of managers who have been brilliant at getting sides up and very few of them have done as well as Wilder when they’ve got there.
“But that next step is to bring in new players because next season everyone will know how Sheffield United play and they will have to find new ways of doing things. And right now, it was almost as if they were playing with ten men [with] the amount of times he was giving away possession in midfield. It was really poor.”
Clearly, Storey wasn’t really pleased with the performance Berge came up with on Sunday and he had stinging words to say too.
TIF Thoughts…
The 22-year-old Berge, who is currently valued at £18m according to Transfermarkt, didn’t have a good game against the Magpies. He earned an unimpressive Whoscored rating of 6.13. He didn’t win a single tackle in the game and made just a single interception. He was also taken off in the second-half by Wilder (via WhoScored).
While it wasn’t a good outing for the Norwegian, it is key to note that it was only his sixth league appearance for the Blades. He had arrived at the club from Genk in the winter and since he is only 22 currently, he may take time to completely settle into life in England.
Even though the criticism is justified, Berge will only improve once he gets completely acclimatised to playing in the Premier League. So maybe, patience will do fans a lot of good.