Chris Wilder's Sheffield United demands as Blades look to kickstart unlikely autos rescue bid v Cardiff City

A disastrous run of three defeats in their last three games has left Sheffield United’s automatic promotion hopes dangling by the thinnest of threads but Chris Wilder is not about to tear up the tactical plan that put the Blades in the top-two conversation in the first place. United return to action on Good Friday against Cardiff City looking for a reaction from a horror week.

They slipped five points adrift of Leeds United and Burnley after losing 2-1 at Plymouth Argyle on Saturday, with even the most optimistic Blades supporter now resigned to the probability of a play-off tilt. While a host of theories have been proposed for United’s shocking recent form, including nerves, pressure and almost everything in between, Wilder’s belief is simple.

“Confidence is a massive thing, and pressure is a privilege,” he said. “That's an excuse, pressure. It's nonsense. We should be embracing that. We've just not done the basics right in both boxes.

“We've not defended well enough on some set pieces and some actions, and any team can score a goal on any action. I remember us going to Liverpool last year undercooked at the start of the season, a really difficult season for us. We concede a really poor goal and score in the 75th minute from one action. Anything can happen.

"I'm not going to take a wrecking ball to the overall shape of the team because that's got us to over 80 points. More than two points per game. So it'd be quite difficult for us to massively change our philosophy and all the work we've put in in pre-season and right the way through.

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"Tactically there might be a few tweaks. Selection is obviously key but I'm not going to take a wrecking ball to it. I still believe massively in this group of players that have got us more than two points per game.”

Such loyalty is admirable but it is also time for those same players to step up and arrest their alarming slide, beginning with the home clash with struggling Cardiff before Monday’s trip to Turf Moor to face Burnley. The online fall-out amongst the United fanbase to a trio of losses has been nuclear, with Wilder and skipper Jack Robinson amongst those target particularly vociferously this week.

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“Expectation levels have gone up through the season,” Wilder added, “and I get that. I was reading an article yesterday, I think the levels across the board in any sport and anything you do professionally have gone through the roof. It's at a completely different level, whether it's social media or whatever. So you've got to handle that.

"I'm not trying to deflect, we've had a really bad week. Of performances and results. But there'll be a lot of people who were talking about our season at the start as a season of transition. There will have been a single-figure percentage that would have expected us to be in the position we are now, with the points we've got.

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“There'll be a decent percentage saying we’d be in and around the play-offs, fighting for the top six. Another group thought below midway and another group thinking we're going through the trapdoor like another one of the relegated clubs could possibly do [Luton Town]. They're the opinions set on us.

“The big things for me now are energy, belief in what we've done for the majority of the season. Resilience in terms of a reaction, and personality with performance. I don't know what the atmosphere's going to be like on Friday; we have to get on with it and accept the position we're in. Accept the negativity around the place and do something about it with a proper, front-foot winning performance that we have to produce.”