Blades must now tighten up at back to gatecrash play-offs
SHEFFIELD UNITED manager Chris Wilder believes the key to his side completing their play-off mission is exerting more discipline defensively.
The Blades chief has been irked in recent weeks by positive play up the field being undone by lapses in concentration at the back.
It means that instead of being level with, or better than, the sides in the top six going into the final three games they are three points adrift and playing catchup.
Against Millwall last Saturday and Brentford on Good Friday United conceded from punts into the area, just as they did against Middlesbrough last Tuesday week although on that occasion it did not cost them any points.
Nevertheless it is a habit United need to eradicate if they are to finish in the top six. “We have to be brighter and more disciplined,” said Wilder whose side head to relegation-threatened Birmingham City tomorrow.
“On the set-plays where we switched off against Middlesbrough and Brentford it is about concentration, discipline and doing your job.
“It’s not always a centre-half, it’s a centre-forward going back that has to be switched on because right now it’s hurting us.
“From tee to green we’ve been the dominant side, in the last five or six games especially, but we’re killing ourselves in the goals that we concede, so we have to tighten ourselves up and we’ll look at that for next season.”
More immediately the pressing business of securing a place in the play-offs is of greater concern.
“If we win all our games we’re in with a shout,” said Wilder, whose side face fellow top-six hopefuls Preston and Bristol City in their final two games.
“Our performance levels at the business end of the season have been really good. But we’ll have to come up with some big moments.” HEAD COACH Jose Morais believes that Barnsley need to win a minimum of two of their remaining four games to retain their Championship status.
The third-from-bottom Reds face two critical away dates in the next five days, starting with tomorrow’s derby at Leeds United before playing their game in hand at Nottingham Forest on Tuesday evening.
While the Reds’ form has improved since the start of the Easter programme, Morais’s side have still managed to win just once in their past four matches, with the Portuguese having triumphed in only two of his 11 games in charge.
Questioned on his targets ahead of a crunch away doubleheader, Morais said: “Now the idea that I have is that we definitely need to win the next game. Then we need to look to the table and opponents’ results and see what is going on.
“Obviously we have four games left and the more points we can pick up the better it would be. If we win the four games it would be extraordinary, wonderful, remarkable. If we do not win the four games we want to be close to winning them. I think it is a minimum of two games that we have to win.”
After successive fixtures on the road, Barnsley entertain Brentford in their final home game of the season at Oakwell on Saturday week before visiting Derby County on the last day of the campaign on May 6.
Despite three of their four remaining games being away from home, Morais retains hope and is not even discounting the prospect of Reds securing their safety before a final-day trip to Pride Park.
“If we win the games that we need before the last game then it is perfect,” Morais added.
“I believe it is still possible to go to the last game already thinking we are still in the Championship.”