The arrival of flying right winger David Cotterill should ensure that the Blades have the threat of real pace and quality delivery at their disposal.

Kevin Blackwell made no secret of the fact that he was chasing the Wigan man who was originally brought in by Bryan Robson last season, and who blossomed under the regime that took over:

"He's very direct, gets at people with pace and delivers the sort of crosses we are looking for.

"We want to get him going forward at teams at every opportunity, although we don't want to be unbalanced as a result."

The United manager accepts that Cotterill has defensive limitations that have to be worked on but has shown that he is not afraid to take the 20 year old out of the firing line if they work against United's necessary gameplan:

"Those twenty minutes at the start of the game at Southampton before I pulled him off were his worst because he wasn't doing the defensive job I wanted to in that game.

"That will be the same for any player but David will learn from it and is working at improving that side of his game."