Are maxed-out comments from Wilder simply to push Sheffield United on?

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Chris Wilder says his Sheffield United team are “maxed out” following Hull defeat, but is this simply mind games from the manager?

Chris Wilder has suggested that Sheffield United have perhaps gone as far as they can in a surprise bid for promotion after coming up from League One last season.

The Blades were beaten 1-0 by struggling Hull City on Friday and their manager was not happy with the performance at the KCOM Stadium.

“Maybe we’ve maxed out with this group?” Wilder told the Sheffield Star.

“Maybe I maxed out with what we were given in the summer and maybe we maxed out with what we had in January?

“Maybe we’ve over-achieved but, as anyone who knows me will understand, I want to keep on achieving and driving things forward. What I’ve seen out there isn’t good enough for me.”

Yet while victory at Hull would have been a great help in United’s push for the top six, it is not as if defeat means they are completely out of it either.

Wilder’s men have a game in hand over those teams around them because of their run in the FA Cup, which they play on Tuesday night when they travel to Reading.

Win that and the South Yorkshire club will move into sixth position in the table above Bristol City and four points from Fulham in fifth.

So perhaps Wilder is playing mind games with his players by publicly calling them out in this manner, hoping that they will react by trying to prove the 50-year-old wrong?