Chris Wilder has vowed that Sheffield United’s approach will remain positive going into the final two games of the Championship season before the play-offs – even if some parts of their tactical set-up may change in a bid to reach the Premier League. The Blades face Stoke City and Blackburn Rovers, with Wilder setting them a target of breaking the 90-point barrier.
But many supporters will understandably already have half an eye on what follows, with defeat at Burnley on Monday officially consigning United to the end-of-season shootout as they bid to join Leeds United and the Clarets in the top-flight next season.
United travelled to Turf Moor knowing that they needed to win to keep their outside automatic promotion hopes alive, and began brightly after a slight tactical tweak saw physical Welsh international Kieffer Moore paired with Tom Cannon. Moore tested James Trafford’s handling with a couple of efforts before he was denied a certain goal by a superb Maxime Estève tackle, while Cannon dragged the Blades level with his first goal in United colours.
Moore also won an outstanding 10 aerial duels against statistically the league’s best defence, with boss Wilder describing Estève as “arguably the best defender in the division,” and although United are not about to abandon their principles and become a route-one, “long-ball” team, the option to miss out an opposition press and find Moore could be a useful weapon in their arsenal.
Moore began the season as United’s first-choice striker but had played only a bit-part role of late before starting at Turf Moor, after undergoing hernia surgery earlier this year. Tyrese Campbell goes back to Stoke on Friday as United’s top scorer, having hit 10 goals in a season for the first time in his professional career, while Cannon’s first goal will be a weight off his shoulders following his big-money move in the January transfer window.
“We’ve been on the front foot all season,” said Wilder. “I’m not having this talk of a ‘negative approach’ in the three games we lost in that week [to Oxford, Millwall and Plymouth which effectively derailed United’s automatic promotion hopes]. We just weren’t good enough in both boxes, which I’ve said a few times now. There’s always been that approach.
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