"No breaking..." - Sheffield United dressing-room vow after poor run sparks noise increase
Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder has insisted the bond between himself and his players will not be broken by the growing noise around the club, while accepting the Blades face a potentially negative atmosphere when they return from the international break.
Chris Wilder has warned that there will be “no breaking” of the bond between himself and his Sheffield United players, despite the growing noise around the club amid their poor run of form. The Blades headed into this international break on the back of four defeats in their last five.
The result of Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Stoke City, if not the performance, gave them plenty to reflect on as two late goals saw their hopes of going into the three-week hiatus on the back of a morale-boosting win dashed.
Days earlier United were booed off by supporters after losing 1-0 at League Two Fleetwood Town, and the manager accepts that the mood around the club will not be a positive one when they return to action at home to Lincoln City next month.
But he insists that the outside noise will not be allowed to fracture the group. “The players are super tight and I'm super tight with them,” Wilder said.
“So there's going to be no breaking, however many people want to try and break and chuck bombs in all over the place.
“There'll be no breaking of that. That trust between myself and that group of players out there ... I'm looking them in the eye and they're giving everything.
“They're really disappointed that they've not got a result for themselves, the football club, the team. These are the parts of seasons that you have to deal with and come through.
“And I’m sure we will. I get it'll be potentially a negative environment when we play in our first game back, and we have to deal with that. That's what professional football is all about.
“That’s what makes top players, top players. When it’s not going their way, they wrestle it back. And I'm sure we've got enough of those characters to wrestle it back and change the feel about the place.”
In many ways Stoke are the blueprint for what Wilder is looking to do. They began the season with three successive defeats in the league but have turned things around and went into the break having taken 13 points from the last 15 on offer.
“I’m sure we can emulate what Mark and Stoke City have done,” Wilder added, “in turning some losses into some wins pretty quickly and changing the feel about the place. We’ve got done in the 90th minute twice now [after defeat to Wolves the previous weekend].
“That's just the way it goes. It’s going against us a bit at the minute but we can't feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to get back on the training ground and reset.”