Will Leeds wish they still had Sharp as he returns with Sheffield United?

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Billy Sharp returns to former club Leeds with Sheffield United and is arguably what the Whites now need.

Leeds United manager Thomas Christiansen gestures on the touchline during the English League Cup fourth round football match against Leicester City.

One of the biggest clashes of the Championship weekend will see fourth-placed Leeds United host third-placed Sheffield United in a Yorkshire derby.

A subplot of the evening match at Elland Road will be the return of Billy Sharp to the club who sold him to the then League One outfit in the summer of 2015.

Blades manager Chris Wilder claims that Sharp, who has scored five league goals in nine appearances so far this season, is a better player now than when he was at Leeds.

Chris Wilder, manager of Sheffield United, looks on during the Sky Bet Championship match against Norwich City.

“I thought the way he played last Saturday [in a 2-1 victory over Reading] especially was first class,” Wilder told the Sheffield Star. “You are getting a better performance from Billy Sharp overall than maybe he has produced for quite a while now. I’m not certain but what I’m seeing is him doing the things we need him to do.

“Whether that’s his link-up play or his pressing, it’s there. Since we walked in the door, to where we are now, his game has changed. And that makes us a better team.”

Billy Sharp of Sheffield United celebrates after scoring during the Sky Bet Championship match against Barnsley.

Sharp played for the Whites during the 2014/15 campaign, scoring five times in 35 games before he rejoined his boyhood club for a second time.

Since coming back to Bramall Lane the 31-year-old has netted 56 times in 107 matches, firing them to the League One title last season as the division’s topscorer.

Arguably, since the summer sale of Chris Wood to Burnley, Sharp is the sort of striker who leads the line that Thomas Christiansen is missing – despite Pierre-Michel Lasogga having scored four in seven since his loan move from Hamburg.

While the goals have been shared out more in the team this term than when Wood was the main source in 2016/17, the experience and potency in the box of Sharp could now be a very useful asset to Christiansen.