Sheffield United’s Cutting Edge: Dissecting The Blades’ precision in the 2023/24 January transfer window – scout report

Each year, the January transfer window can be a time of excitement for fans of many clubs – the chance of bringing in some fresh faces to bolster the squad can make or break a season for many. In some cases, no new players are brought in – Liverpool and Arsenal, for example, seem happy enough with their respective squads going into the second half of the season. On the other hand, some clubs deem it necessary to bring in several new names – either to improve squad quality or to simply add squad depth.  In the 2024 January transfer window, Burnley made more signings than any other Premier League club, with Vincent Kompany’s side recruiting no fewer than seven signings.

One club that was especially active in the winter window in terms of bringing in players to have an impact this season was Sheffield United. Their fight against relegation has been well established in our recent analysis of Sheffield United. Chris Wilder set out in January to bring in fresh players to give his club a better shot at survival. This scout report will provide a tactical analysis of the four players the Blades brought in during the January window and how they could fit into Wilder’s tactics.

Ivo Grbić

Croatian goalkeeper Ivo Grbić joined the Blades from Spanish giants Atlético Madrid near the end of January for a reported £2.13m and was signed to bolster Wilder’s options in goal following inconsistency from Wes Foderingham. Standing at 64, he brings a significant presence between the sticks and arrives with experience from leagues around Europe.

As you may imagine, his time with Atlético saw him operate as an understudy to one of the world’s top goalkeepers  Jan Oblak, which is why Grbić only featured in 14 fixtures since his arrival in 2020. In the 2021/22 campaign, the Croatian international (two caps) spent a season on loan with Ligue 1 club Lille, where he featured 29 times in all competitions, including six UEFA Champions League appearances. Grbić’s career started in Croatia’s top tier with Hajduk Split before moving to fellow Croatian club NK Lokomotiva. Grbić has already featured for the Blades in the EPL since his arrival – their 3-2 defeat to Crystal Palace, but of course, he suffered an injury which resulted in his league debut being cut short and then had to follow concussion protocol, meaning he missed United’s 5-0 defeat to Aston Villa and their 3-1 win at Luton Town.

The comparison graph above shows us what we can expect from the big Croatian and why he may just be a more solid option than Foderingham for the upcoming relegation battle. After all, manager Chris Wilder confirmed to the media that going forward, Grbić will be the Blades’ number-one keeper for the remainder of the campaign (when available).

Grbić failed to make an appearance for his former club this season before his move to England, so we’ve used his data from last season to compare to Foderingham’s performance this campaign. Last season, the Croatian made 12 La Liga appearances in Oblak’s absence and gave a fantastic impression of himself, posting high percentile rankings in key areas like save rate %, and goals conceded per 90 (within this metric, a higher percentile rank means a lower number of goals conceded). Impressively, he boasted La Liga’s highest register for goals prevented per 90, keeping out 0.37 per 90 – an indication of his strong calibre.