Chris Wilder makes Sheffield United admission as damning stats highlight Achilles’ heel that has undermined season

Sheffield United’s big Achilles’ heel that has undermined them all season bit them once again this afternoon as their faint play-off hopes were virtually extinguished by defeat at home to Wrexham this afternoon. The Blades went into the game realistically needing to win to keep even remotely in touch with the top six.

And things looked good when Andre Brooks gave them a deserved lead in the second half. But as has happened so often of late, the Blades threw away the lead and then went on to lose 2-1 as Josh Windass and Sam Smith secured a big three points for the visitors.

Defeat left United 17th in the Championship and 13 points off sixth place, with seven games of the season remaining after the upcoming international break. United should really have been out of sight even before Brooks opened the scoring, with top scorer Patrick Bamford missing a sitter and Gus Hamer seeing a goal chalked off for offside.

It is the third time in the last four games alone that the Blades have dropped points from a winning position, taking just two points in that period. No team in the Championship has conceded more goals or lost more games than United after going ahead this season.

Chris Wilder makes Sheffield United admission as damning stats highlight Achilles’ heel that has undermined season

Their record in the first and second halves of games are also markedly different. They have conceded just 16 first-half goals this season - the third-best record in the league - and 38 in the second, which is the second worst.

“The points from winning positions, as you’ve talked about, and rightly so... physically, there's definitely something in that. We're not where we need to be in my opinion, physically. I want us to play in the way that we want to play, we don't just want to sit back and just think one goal is enough. We want to go for two and go for three and we've done that at home as well.

“But most importantly it’s a mentality. At times we're too easy to open up and by the way it's not a tactical thing. Tactics never really played a part in that today, one team comes with one approach, another team comes with another, they've come to win.

“It’s individual moments, a mentality from a unit point of view or an individual point of view, a desire to keep the ball out of the back of the net. I just think that at times the ball goes in the back of our net far too easily. It's something that I've known about, of course, and we need to definitely address next season if we want to be better at winning games of football.”

There seems to be a recognition from the majority that United’s issues stem back to a disastrous summer but a growing section are questioning Wilder’s impact, despite him steering United away from the relegation zone and helping keep their play-off dream alive until deep into the season.

There is an understanding and acceptance of what needs to change from him and the coaching staff but what isn’t there is the time or opportunity, in the middle of the season, to do a great deal about it.

“It's difficult,” Wilder admitted. “You can work, but you don't get too much time to do stuff with the schedule. You can work at it, you can assess it, you can analyse it and if people aren't up to the job to do it, then you have to find a solution.

“I want us to play in the way that we play. I don't really want to play three centre halves and play five-four and sit in and be a counter-attacking team. The way suits us. We've played this way for a year and a half now, nearly two seasons. In possession, it's been pretty good, but we've got to get the other thing right.

“We want to play well and I think for the majority of this afternoon we've done alright. We've played okay against a decent side, but I don't want to play well and not win. I want to play well and win, I want to maybe play average and win and if we don't play well, I still want to win. And that at the moment is obviously letting us down.”