David McGoldrick makes encouraging Sheffield United promotion comparison | OneFootball

There are similarities between the current team and the one of six seasons, according to the former Blade.

David McGoldrick has predicted a top two finish for Sheffield United this season, whose current squad remind him a lot of the promotion-winning side that he played with in the 2018/19 season.

The idea of the Blades being one of the leading contenders for promotion at the end of last season, when they were relegated from the Premier League, was a complete fever dream.

Teams that come down from the top flight to the English second tier do tend to be the most likely teams to go up in the following campaign, especially of late. But United weren't just any team coming down from the Premier League, they were one of the worst teams in the league's history, objectively.

Now the script has flipped. They revitalised their team over the summer, without a takeover being completed, and are now top of the Championship after more than a third of the season.

It's now no surprise to see people backing them to go up, and they have received further confidence from one of their former players.

David McGoldrick backs Sheffield United to finish in the top two

The Irish striker, who now applies his trade with Notts County in League Two, thinks that the Blades will win automatic promotion this season. United have achieved that feat twice in the previous five terms; McGoldrick was in the squad for the first of those times, in the 18/19 campaign. He believes this current iteration of the team is a lot like the one he won promotion with.

"I do see similar traits between the current side and the one I was part of in 2018/19," McGoldrick admitted to The Star. "They are very solid and don't concede many goals.

"They brought in a top goalkeeper [in Michael Cooper] and they've got some good players; Gus Hamer, Callum O'Hare. I've played with Kieffer Moore – he's a good striker. They’ve got Tyrese Campbell, and they've got some youth in there that's coming through the academy, which the fans love.

"The likes of Ollie Arblaster and Sydie [Peck] – they're doing well. They're a good team, and they'll be top two, hopefully, this year."

Sheffield United need to take advantage of unexpected promotion opportunity

Last season, in the second tier, it became clear pretty quickly that it was between four teams for the top two spots: Leicester City, Ipswich Town, Leeds United and Southampton. That's the order they ended up in, with the Saints beating Leeds in the play-off final to join Leicester and Ipswich in the Premier League for the current campaign.

This time around, things aren't quite as sewn up. Sure, the current top four have a bit of a lead over the others, but you couldn't rule out the likes of Middlesbrough messing up the party for the others and adding themselves to that automatic promotion conversation.

So, with the uncertain nature of this season's promotion race, United need to make sure that they do all they can to maintain this lead at the top for as long as possible, because it could slip away from them very fast.

Their strong defence will be key to this, as it gives them a chance of picking up points in pretty much every game, but they won't want to have as many narrow victories as we get deeper into the season.

This was a scenario that they didn't expect themselves to be in at the start of the preparations for this term, so they must take it with both hands.