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The Championship is reaching a real pressure point and with the final two months of the season now upon us, have we finally seen a chink in the armour of Sheffield United?
They have been a well-drilled team all campaign and played some bright football, but their attacking nature came back to bite them on Saturday. Leading 2-1, they went onto lose 3-2 and suffer back to back defeats to Bristol City.
If the Blades are to achieve promotion and the final automatic place, they must adapt and learn to see out games – and that must come from manager Chris Wilder, whose error in judgement cost his side on Saturday.
Crumbling at the wrong time?
Before the weekend, Wilder’s men hadn’t lost in the league since December. It’s hard to jump on one defeat after such a good run, but it could be a telling moment in the season.
Sheffield United haven’t come unstuck on too many occasions this term and they’ve often delivered in the key moments. However, the ball wasn’t in their court on Saturday and for once, Wilder got something wrong.
With 15 minutes left to play, he withdrew Jack O’Connell and put on Marvin Johnson. The latter took up Enda Stevens’ left wing back place whilst he slipped into defence. On the face of it, it was a bizarre substitution. Many managers would opt for a more defensive change at 2-1 up in that moment of the game.
It was ultimately a sub that would cost Wilder and his team, conceding a minute after the more attacking Johnson was introduced.
But speaking after the game, Wilder told reporters, via The Sheffield Star: “I’m not going to change. We have set our standards. We wrestled back the initiative from a good side and although our shape left us a little bit open, it gave us a chance of creating something.”
At such a crucial moment in the game and in terms of their season, it was something he couldn’t afford to get wrong. If the Blades are to get promoted then it’s the little things like this that will matter and Wilder will have to accept the need for pragmatism when a similar scenario comes around again.
A sign of a good side is that they can adapt when the pressure is on and the Blades will need a different plan if they’re to reclaim the advantage in the promotion race. However, this could have been the reality check they needed to seal their promotion bid in professional, pragmatic way.
