There is no doubting that the Championship is a tough league to get out of, evidenced by the likes of Swansea City and Stoke City, who were Premier League material last season, lingering in the bottom half of the table.
Yet it is also one of the most unpredictable – who had Norwich City and Sheffield United in the two automatic places with just eight games to play? Both deserve their positions but for different reasons. The attacking Canaries versus the compact Blades and it is the latter we are going to focus our attentions on after a brilliant victory away to Leeds United.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Sheffield United are hunting a return to the Premier League. Despite limited resources, they were promotion candidates for large chunks of the campaign before dropping out of contention towards the end of the season.
Perhaps drifting somewhat under the radar, manager Chris Wilder’s innovative tactics have presented much of their success – United have won more Championship games than any other side since the start of last season. Deploying a 3-5-2 formation, Wilder encourages his centre-backs to overlap the full-backs in a tactic difficult to defend. With such players more than capable of playing out wide, it is an idea that is particularly effective in a physical league that demands accurate crosses. It is perhaps a surprise that other clubs in the top two English leagues haven’t followed suit.
The manuscript of the squad possesses ingredients to be successful in the second tier. A playmaker with a golden touch in Oli Norwood, a workhorse in the number ten role that is David McGoldrick and an inspirational leader that always produces by the name of Billy Sharp. During pre-season, I sat down with a League One manager who told me that Sharp was ‘done’ – the United captain has 22 goals to his name this season and played a part in the Blades’ goal on Saturday and the red card for opposing goalkeeper Kiko Casilla.
Sharp is an organiser from the front in a team that is full of players ready to work for the team. There are no egos at Sheffield United, just a squad always willing to do the dirty work, as was the case in the crunch Yorkshire derby at Leeds that was undoubtedly a six-pointer at the top of the table.
Norwood found himself as more of a play-breaker than a playmaker; Chris Basham, better known as a defender than a midfielder, did a job in the engine room and was rewarded with the winner; Martin Cranie, who loves to go forward as one of the overlapping centre-backs, proved his quality defensively as a talented Leeds attack could not find a way past. The hosts failed to have a single shot on target despite boasting 70% possession.
The clean sheet is now a seventh on the bounce for Sheffield United since they capitulated against Aston Villa…a match where they conceded three late goals to draw 3-3 and could have caused their season to spiral like last season.
Yet this team continues to dig deep. They may not have the budget of several big clubs in the league but they have one of the most underrated managers in the country and a squad of players willing to fight on every blade of grass.
A club worthy of a place back in the big time.
Long Raking Diagonal Ball 