Paul Heckingbottom delivers his verdict on Oli McBurnie’s form at Sheffield United

Oli McBurnie is yet to find the net in 21 Championship appearances this season as the Scotsman continues to struggle in front of goal at Bramall Lane.

The 25-year-old is yet to open his account in the league despite getting on the end of chances equating to over 3 expected goals, according to Wyscout.

With Rhian Brewster and David McGoldrick on the treatment table, McBurnie is going to be relied upon even more at the business end of the season, but Paul Heckingbottom remained confident in the Scotsman’s ability when he spoke to the Sheffield Star.

He said: “With Oli, it’s game time.

“If you get him on the pitch, then he’ll score goals and his record tells you that.

“It proves that.

“But I can’t leave him on the pitch just to score goals.

“I’m not concerned about Oli, because I see him every single day in training.

“All he can keep doing is fighting and knuckling down.

“Because eventually a chance will drop for him and he’ll tuck it away.

“Then, when that happens, we’ll all be talking about something different won’t we.

“The story will change.”

It has to be seen as a positive that McBurnie has been getting himself into goalscoring positions and the numbers would suggest that the goals will come eventually, if he can receive the same service in the coming weeks.

The Verdict

It is definitely the right move from Heckingbottom to be backing McBurnie in the interview, strikers tend to suffer from a lack of confidence more than any other position and it does feel like one goal will be the trigger for McBurnie to go on a run.

The time to worry is when the team is not creating chances and when the strikers are not receiving any goalscoring opportunities, that really is not an issue at the moment and McBurnie will be hoping to