Chris Wilder explains Jack Lester, Keith Andrews decisions as Sheffield United coaching team takes shape

Chris Wilder looked "intensely" at how other clubs go about their coaching set-ups before deciding he wanted Jack Lester to remain at Sheffield United in the wake of Paul Heckingbottom's sacking. Former United striker Lester worked as the club's striker coach under Heckingbottom, who departed yesterday alongside fellow coaches Stuart McCall and Mark Hudson.

Lester, who was United's academy chief before accepting Heckingbottom's invitation to step up to the first-team after his appointment just over two years ago, is highly-rated with both club and country, having been seconded into the Wales set-up earlier this year as a coach. He will join familiar United faces Alan Knill and Matt Prestridge in Wilder's coaching team, with Keith Andrews a new name at Bramall Lane after leaving the Ireland set-up recently.

United's hierarchy were also keen for Lester to remain in post while Heckingbottom, in a show of class befitting the man, also gave his approval. He worked with Wilder for the first time on Tuesday, when he and Knill oversaw training for the first time since returning, and will be in the dugout tonight when the Blades host Liverpool at Bramall Lane.

"I've looked intensely at other football clubs and how they go about it, and what was needed to give the players the best opportunity," said Wilder. "So Jack's part of my new coaching staff, along with Keith Andrews who I've known a long time. I've got an awful lot of respect for him and know how he works and what his mind's about. And what he can bring to the staff and most importantly to the players. Obviously, Alan and Matt Prestridge have been part of the staff for a long time."

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The make up of Wilder's backroom team - with he and Knill former defenders, Andrews a midfielder in his playing days and Lester a forward - led to the question of whether he was following Heckingbottom's lead in appointing specialist coaches for specialist positions, something the former Blades chief believes is the future of coaching. But that will not be the case at Shirecliffe.

"It's more generic," Wilder confirmed. "If you're working at this level, or have done, you've got to know what you need to know regarding a defensive point of view or an attacking one. We'll split it up, we'll look at it and we'll make sure that all bases are covered. Because the game's moved on from a set-play point of view; people talk about set-piece coaches now. So the staff will deal with that as well.

"Analysis is huge now, the work that goes into it. But what I would say is that we can't overload. I could sit and do a presentation for two hours on Liverpool and the boys would be on the floor. You've got to show the strengths but you've got to show what we're good at and what we can do, to hurt the opposition and make it a game."