Sheffield United are going to need a huge end to the season, as well as a bit of help from other teams, to secure automatic promotion from the Championship.
The Blades are currently five points adrift of Burnley, who they still have to play, and Leeds United with just four matches left to play before the end of the campaign.
Chris Wilder’s side have lost their last three Championship games and scored just one goal in that time, which must be particularly frustrating after they splashed the cash on a new centre-forward in the January transfer window.
How much Sheffield United paid for Tom Cannon
The Athletic reported that Sheffield United agreed a fee of £10m to sign Tom Cannon from Leicester City earlier this year to bolster their attacking options.
They made that move off the back of his return of nine goals in 22 Championship matches on loan at Stoke City in the first half of the season.
Unfortunately, though, Cannon has failed to hit the ground running at Bramall Lane and has not been the boost to their promotion chances that supporters may have hoped that he would be at the time of his big-money move.
The 22-year-old attacker has failed to score in 12 league matches for the Blades to date, registering just one assist in that time, and it is fair to say that the striker has flopped due to his complete lack of goals.
£10m was a big outlay for a centre-forward at Championship level, which is why more should be expected from him, and this is illustrated by the fact that United once sold Che Adams, who is now miles better than Cannon, for just £2m.
Why Che Adams is miles better than Tom Cannon
The Blades sold Adams to Birmingham for a reported fee of £2m in the summer of 2016 after he had scored 15 goals in 55 first-team matches for the club.
After scoring 38 goals in 123 games for the Blues, the English-born centre-forward signed for Southampton for a fee of £15m in the summer of 2019.
Following several seasons in the Premier League with the Saints, Adams went back down to the Championship last season and thrived in the second tier, before his move to Torino in the Serie A last summer.
|
Che Adams |
23/24 Championship (Southampton) |
24/25 Serie A (Torino) |
|---|---|---|
|
Starts |
25 |
25 |
|
xG |
13.79 |
6.27 |
|
Goals |
16 |
8 |
|
Conversion rate |
20% |
17% |
|
Big chances created |
7 |
5 |
|
Assists |
4 |
3 |
|
Stats via Sofascore |
||
As you can see in the table above, the Scotland international was prolific for Southampton last season and has carried his impressive finishing over to Italy, outperforming his xG by almost two goals in the Serie A.
These statistics show that Adams is a clinical forward who is reliable in front of goal in one of Europe’s major leagues, whilst Cannon is currently goalless in 12 games for Sheffield United.
The Torino frontman is, therefore, currently significantly more effective than the Blades number nine, as he is thriving in a top European league, whilst the Ireland international cannot score in the Championship.
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He could add real quality in the final third for the Blades.
Sheffield United once sold the attacker for a fee of just £2m and it currently remains to be seen if their £10m signing will ever reach the heights that the Scottish dynamo has hit in his career.
