Ben Meakin spent some time reflecting on Sheffield United’s 1-0 loss to Aston Villa this past Monday during the most recent edition of BladesPod. During the show, the podcaster shared his thoughts on Oliver Norwood, who didn’t feature for the Yorkshire-based club in that game.
After playing 76 minutes for the Blades in their opening game of the 2020/21 Premier League season, Norwood remained on the bench for the entirety of the Blades’ 1-0 loss to the Villans.
Meakin talked about Norwood’s lack of involvement in the Blades’ most recent league fixture during this recent edition of BladesPod and the podcaster shared that he hopes nothing more than a lack of fitness was behind Wilder’s decision to leave the 29-year-old on the bench for that game.
He said: “I don’t know about not playing Norwood. I hope there’s a fitness reason for that, because he’s so important to what we do and I thought he had a good game against Wolves.”
Is Oliver Norwood a very important player for Sheffield United?
YES, DEFINITELY
NO, I DON'T THINK SO
TIF Thoughts…
As per WhoScored, Norwood was the Blades’ joint-sixth-highest-rated player in the Premier League last season, with the midfielder playing in all 38 of Sheffield United’s league games during the 2019/20 campaign.
With that in mind, it may be understandable why Meakin believes the £8.1m-rated man is “so important” for the Yorkshire-based club and as a result, we feel it’s not a particularly big surprise that he questioned Wilder’s decision to leave him out of the Blades’ recent 1-0 loss to Villa and shared that he hopes nothing more than a lack of fitness, as opposed to a potential departure being on the horizon, perhaps, is behind his absence from that game.
With the Blades set to take on Leeds United in their third game of the 2020/21 Premier League season this weekend, it will be interesting to see if Norwood returns to action, remains benched or is even left out of the squad altogether.