Sheffield United: Big boost received ahead of Nottingham Forest showdown
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With the meeting with Steve Cooper’s side coming six days after last weekend’s visit to Millwall, United are enjoying their longest break without a game since the end of January.
That has enabled Heckingbottom and his coaching staff to prepare as they usually would for a match of this magnitude. With United forced to compete seven times in the space of 22 days during February, most of their work of late has been confined to the video analysis suite at the base in Shirecliffe as Heckingbottom, assistant Stuart McCall and head of player development Jack Lester attempted to reduce the demands being placed upon the squad.
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Hide Ad“It’s been relentless, and that means we’ve not actually been able to do much work on the grass,” Heckingbottom admitted. “The sessions have changed quite a lot, because we wanted people to be fresh.
“We’ve been happy with a lot of the things we were doing, and the work to try and improve has been constant. We’ve been trying to improve relationships on the pitch and also looking directly at opponents. When there’s a gap, you can do things a little bit differently. In a more recognisable way, if you understand.”
Forest finished the latest round of fixtures in ninth - two places and points behind United - after taking part in only five matches last month. Although the quick turnaround has allowed Heckingbottom’s men to make inroads towards the top of the table, following a spate of postponements over Christmas and New Year, it has also taken its toll with Chris Basham, Jayden Bogle, Rhian Brewster and David McGoldrick among those to suffer injuries in recent outings.
Charlie Goode, on loan from Brentford, is suspended for the clash with Forest.
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Hide Ad“The workload we had was limiting the grasswork,” said Heckingbottom, who has also blamed it for United’s fitness issues of late. “Fortunately, because we’ve been able to get a style of play, that’s been really important because it’s allowed us to paint some pictures.”