Blades equipped to ride out inevitable storm
SHEFFIELD UNITED suffered a third consecutive defeat for the first time since December 2017 on Sunday, but manager Chris Wilder believes it should be the platform for them to start rebuilding their confidence.
The Blades drew 0-0 at Aston Villa in a lacklustre restart to the campaign they so impressed in before the coronavirus shutdown. They followed it with 3-0 defeats at Newcastle United and
Manchester United, all of which came in the Premier League.
Their first game at Bramall Lane also ended in defeat, but the performance in the FA Cup quarter-final against Arsenal deserved better than to lose it 2-1 to a stoppage-time goal.
Wilder thinks it should be the start of his players regaining their self-belief.
“It should be,” he said. “I’m no spin (doctor), it gets said if I think players have let themselves down and the team down.
“These players have not let anybody down at all. This dip (in form) could have happened at any time.
“I was told in July by other managers we were going to have to handle disappointment and it might be for three, four, five games.
“Perhaps what we should have done is lose a few games at Christmas and be bottom and then win one and people would pat us on the back. But I didn’t really want to take that approach!”
Sheffield United were in good form going into the enforced break, losing one of 10 games and with a game in hand to take them into the top five which, unless Manchester City can overturn their European ban, is a Champions League place.
It has been more difficult since. Centre-back Jack O’Connell played every minute of the first phase Premier League campaign, but has not featured since after colliding with goalkeeper Dean Henderson in training, while European
rivals such as Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United have seen key players recover from injury. The new temporary rules allowing more substitutes and bigger squads favour those better-resourced clubs too.
“We pushed Arsenal to the limit defensively on Sunday,” said Wilder. “They’ve had to work hard and do things right from the defensive side to get through to a semi-final.
“It was a performance good enough to win a cup tie.”