Chris Wilder’s worries over Lys Moussett’s lack of conditioning appear to be over after the French striker lasted 87 minutes from the start against Tottenham. Mousset was told to work on his physical conditioning to become a regular starter under the no-nonsense Sheffield United manager, who was prepared to put the time in to improve the Frenchman’s fitness.
Wilder went public with his reasoning for not starting the ex-Bournemouth man more following his stellar display against West Ham late last month.
Some Blades supporters were puzzled why the £10million summer signing had been on the bench for a sixth league game this season despite scoring the winner against Arsenal the previous Monday on his first Premier League start.
Wilder admitted his coaching staff still “had to get [Mousset] up to speed” by putting on extra training for the striker, who suffered an interrupted pre-season after his arrival from the south coast.
Having assisted all three of the Blades’ goals against Burnley on November 2, Mousset was always going to be in the line-up against Spurs but had never previously lasted more than 65 minutes on the pitch in his two former starts.
But with United chasing a famous win at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Wilder left Mousset out there as long as he could to utilise his pace and power to stretch the ragged home defence.
While Bournemouth felt they could do without Mousset this season because of Josh King and Callum Wilson’s similar attributes, Wilder had no-one like him at his disposal before the ex-Le Havre man set foot in South Yorkshire. class=”markup sc-gNJABI gLxnEn”>
The Blades boss has cited Mousset’s “explosiveness” as one of the factors behind the club’s decision to invest in him and, at 23, there is still much scope for him to become even more of a Premier League force.
But alongside that must also go careful man-management – which is where Mousset is lucky to have a very astute man making the decisions at the club. “Sometimes it’s about different bodies and different dynamics in terms of what you’re like,” Wilder replied when asked recently why Mousset has yet to become a regular fixture on the pitch for the Blades.
And he was quick to stress: “It’s not an attitude thing because he’s done everything he can. It’s all about work on the training ground, just general conditioning, because he’s got something that can hurt defenders. And we want him to be explosive so, if it takes a little more work, then great. Because that’s what we want him to be.”
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