Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WE’RE AT THE SHARP END WATCH OUT.. I’M NOT A SOFT TUCH
Blades must take off shackles to survive says veteran striker Billy Chelsea boss is happy now but will get on the bawl if things go wrong
BILLY SHARP claims it is glory or bust for Sheffield United in their desperate attempt to survive against the odds.
The Blades have won six of their last nine games in all competitions to give themselves confidence and momentum, and Sharp believes they must be bold against West Ham tonight. “We need to take the shackles off now and just go for it,” said the 35-year-old striker.
“Everybody’s written us off now so we need to try to build momentum and belief and just go for it. We have six wins in nine so winning more games than we’re losing, which we weren’t doing at the start of the season.”
Sharp scored for the fifth time in 10 games with the winner against Bristol City last time out and needs one more for his 250th career goal. The Blades kept only their second clean sheet of the season in that FA Cup tie, with defensive mistakes having hurt them.
They gave away a penalty for Chelsea’s winner in their last league game minutes after equalising. “A good bonus against Bristol City was the clean sheet because we know if we keep clean sheets we can score goals,” said Sharp (below, scoring against West Brom). “We need to keep doing that.
“We didn’t make any mistakes like we did against Chelsea, where if we hadn’t made any mistakes we’d have got something out of the game.
“We need to cut out individual and collective mistakes because we’ve made a lot of them this season and we didn’t make many last season. Those are the small margins. We’ve not lost games by two or three goals, we’ve always been in games.
“It’s just about getting that first goal, which is so important in the Premier League. It gives you something to hold onto and build on. That’s something we need to do on Monday, score first.
“We need to win a lot of games, so it was nice to win our last game. It was good for us ahead of West Ham.”
THOMAS TUCHEL has warned his Chelsea players not to be fooled by the lovein going on in the Chelsea dressing room.
He is merely saving himself so that his first major row can have maximum effect.
The Chelsea manager is currently highly enamoured with his players after they followed up the goalless draw against Wolves that started his reign with four wins going into tonight’s visit of Newcastle United.
But he has been biting his tongue on the minor niggles that have sprung up so that his first tiff with his team has the maximum effect.
“Just because I am trying hard to be kind to you guys in the media, it does not mean I am trying too hard so that everybody loves me in the dressing room,” he said.
“At the moment. I am happy, so I can tell them I am happy with their attitude and performance.
“But can I be a shouter – yes, if it is absolutely necessary.
“I can be totally emotional and a shouter if I feel it is the moment to do it and to surprise them.
“If you do it all the time nobody would listen because it becomes a habit and everybody gets used to it. But if we have to point out things clearly I am a big, big fan of doing it in front of the whole group.
“If they have caused trouble for the team on the pitch we should tell the players individually but also I believe strongly that the group has to handle it and everybody has to have the personality to swallow some criticism in front of the group.
“I don’t do stuff to be loved by everybody in the dressing room.”
Moreover,
Chelsea should be aware that tonight could be a candidate for Tuchel to lose it after the German admitted Valentine’s Day was one of the worst of his life. “Privately, taking the Chelsea job did mean we had to take a very, very quick decision family-wise, that my family stays at the moment in Paris to finish school with the kids,” he said. “And at the moment that isn’t easy – impossible, in fact – to travel for all of us.
“Things are well-organised, my kids go to school, but it would be nice if we could be together.
“But this was the decision and now we have to cope with it.
“Like many other people, this is absolutely not easy and I miss them a lot.
“So Valentine’s Day was a Zoom meeting family-wise this year, which is pretty sad.”
MANCHESTER CITY may finally lure Lionel Messi to the Premier League when the Barcelona superstar’s contract is up.
But Pep Guardiola says he would not swap any of his current players after they extended their winning run to an incredible 16 games.
City were emphatic against Tottenham and, while they may not have a stand-out individual like Messi plundering goals every week, their collective effort is driving them towards a third Premier League title in four years.
That is what pleased Etihad boss Guardiola most as he reflected on another commanding performance that confirmed his formidable side as champions-in-waiting.
“I will be honest,” said the Spaniard. “I’d like to have a player to score four goals every single game and run like these players can run. I would love it.
“But I will not change any player we have right now. All of them have shown up in the bad moments.
“I’ve said many times how I prize my captain, Fernandinho, how he helps us on and off the pitch to stick together, in the bad moments.
“The big teams, the big players, show it in the bad moments. In the good moments it’s easy for everyone to play. But we’ve had bad moments this season.”
One of those bad moments was the turning point for City, a 2-0 defeat at Spurs on November 21, the last time Guardiola’s side tasted defeat in any competition.
Since then, they have gone 23 games unbeaten, picking up 41 points from 45 in the leagu wins
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