No derby advantage for Blades, insists boss Wilder
Wilder v Bielsa is pure clash of heavyweights
BOXING fans may be licking their lips in anticipation over tomorrow’s Wilder v Fury clash but closer to home it is another battle of the heavyweights that is most capturing the imagination.
Wilder v Bielsa deserves top billing, as the unheralded scrapper who has fought his way up from the bottom goes toe to toe with a champion lauded by the likes of Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino.
Neither Sheffield United nor Leeds United will be able to land a knockout blow at Bramall Lane. Not with the Championship season yet to reach the halfway stage.
But, make no mistake, this 79th meeting of two old Yorkshire foes offers the chance to inflict lasting damage on a major rival in the quest to reach the Premier League.
In attempting to land that blow, neither side is expected to hang back and Mateusz Klich, the Leeds midfielder, believes this could make tomorrow’s derby genuine Box Office fare.
“I expect a tough game and a very open game,” said the Polish midfielder to “Sheffield United will want to attack and they will play forward as well.
“I think there is going to be goals – maybe not like this week at Aston Villa (who drew 5-5 with Nottingham Forest). But there will be goals.
“It is going to be more like the Derby and Norwich games (which Leeds won 4-1 and 3-0 respectively earlier in the season).
“They tried to attack us and that was good for us because it meant we had space to attack them as well. We won those two games playing like that and I hope we are going to win this one as well.”
Klich’s assertion that the two teams will look to be on the front foot seems a safe one.
That is how both Chris Wilder and Marcelo Bielsa have approached every game this season.
Whether the pair have a little something extra up their respective sleeve remains to be seen but their first meeting in the dugout promises to be a fascinating affair, not least because of their contrasting characters.
Where Bielsa invariably sports an expression during games that borders on a ‘poker face’, Wilder wears his heart on his sleeve.
If something has to be said, even amid the racket made by 25,000 plus United voices at the Lane, Wilder makes sure it is said.
Likewise if his players’ standards slip – as was the case in the recent draw at Rotherham – the Blades chief is not one to hold back. Even then, though, Wilder’s words are carefully chosen and clearly designed to elicit the kind of response that brought victory at Brentford in midweek.
The pair’s respective paths to this season’s Championship promotion race could also not be more contrasting.
Bielsa arrived in Leeds last summer via two stints in international football and a host of jobs coaching big European clubs. His first job was in charge of Newell’s Old Boys, two years after the Argentinian club had finished runners-up in Copa Libertadores.
Wilder, meanwhile, started at the bottom with Bradway FC in the Meadowhall Sunday League and every success has had to be earned the hard way.
Not for nothing did he used to joke about attempting to steer a distinctly skint Halifax Town to promotion from the Conference as being akin to “trying to win Formula 1 in a Ford Escort”.
Three promotions and a gradual rise that, on the evidence of the opening 19 games, has a good chance of continuing into the Premier League next season are testament to the qualities that Bielsa admits to having already seen in his Blades counterpart.
“As I am not very familiar with English football I take many precautions before making an opinion,” said the Argentinian.
“But if I was in a bar having a coffee with friends I would say that Sheffield United’s head coach is someone with new ideas and I have seen very few people with these ideas.
“Head coaches will usually look at what our colleagues do to learn from them and we want to learn new things.
“Not what everyone is doing because usually when you observe someone you observe the new things and the ideas of our next opponent deserve to be studied.
“I don’t know the story and history of their head coach but I think what I am saying is right.”
Both Uniteds head into the derby buoyed by midweek victories, the Blades edging a five-goal thriller at Brentford as Leeds beat Reading thanks to a last-minute penalty save from Bailey PeacockFarrell.
Pontus Jansson was absent for the victory over the Royals but he is available again after recovering from a foot injury sustained in the defeat to West Bromwich Albion on November 10.
“I have seen very few players with this consistency,” said Bielsa about the returning Swedish centre half. “I haven’t seen many players that tall and that heavy that can have the same response as a full-back.”
The return of one heavyweight brings further intrigue to the Box Office clash that is Wilder v Bielsa. SHEFFIELD UNITED manager Chris Wilder believes that the Blades’ Championship double over Leeds United last season will not provide his side with a psychological advantage ahead of tomorrow’s derby encounter.
For the second successive campaign, both the Blades and Leeds have recorded hugely impressive openings to the season, with the stakes high ahead of the first meeting between the pair in 2018-19 – just as they were last term.
Wilder’s side famously produced an outstanding display to triumph 2-1 at Elland Road in October 2017 and followed up with victory by the same margin in the return at Bramall Lane.
That latter win in February is regarded by many Leeds fans as the moment when their play-off hopes realistically ended.
But Wilder believes that events of last season will not hold any significance in the current one, with Leeds having been afforded new hope by the arrival of a world-renowned managerial figure in Marcelo Bielsa.
Wilder said: “We played really well last year at Elland Road in front of nearly 40,000 live on the TV and did extremely well to win both games. They will not want to think about that and we should not really.
“They have a new manager, new ideas and a new direction added to what was already a really talented group to start with. He (Bielsa) is not going to be wracking it (last season) all up.”
Meanwhile, Wilder says that he remains relaxed regarding the timeframe of contract discussions with international full-backs Kieron Freeman and Enda Stevens.
The pair are set to be offered new deals with initial talks having been held – with further discussions to take place in due course.
The Blades chief admits to currently having more ‘pressing issues’ to consider with the January window opening in just over a month’s time, while being mindful that utility defender Martin Cranie’s deal is due to expire at the end of January.
On the situation with Freeman and Stevens, Wilder said: “We have said we will try and get through this period and then address it in our own time. The initial contact with players and agents has been made.
“There is 18 months left on those deals. It is not an unbelievable priority to get them both done now. We will see how it goes.
“There is Martin (to consider) because he is short term and more pressing issues as well coming up as well in January.”