“I don’t know...” - Chris Wilder’s honest Sunderland admission as Sheffield United prepare for mystery Wembley test
“I don’t know...” - Chris Wilder’s Sunderland admission as Sheffield United prepare for mystery Wembley test
Chris Wilder admits to being unsure about which Sunderland threats his Sheffield United side will face at Wembley this weekend - and has implored his side to carry out their gameplan no matter what they come up against in the play-off final. The Blades are out to return to the top-flight at the first time of asking against the Black Cats.
Both games between the two sides in the regular season ended in favour of the home side, with United sealing a late winner thanks to Tom Davies’ dramatic strike at Bramall Lane and a Kieffer Moore penalty miss, plus a couple of errors at the othe end, proving decisive at the Stadium of Light early in the year.
Regis Le Bris’ side booked their place at Wembley in the most dramatic of circumstances, thanks to defender Dan Ballard’s injury-time goal to beat Coventry City in the semi-final, while United’s progress was more serene as they overcame Bristol City 6-0 on aggregate.
Asked ahead of the game what type of test he expects from Sunderland, Wilder admitted honestly: “I don’t know. I don’t know. I can go on how they played at the start of the season. I could go on how they played at their place. Or I could go on in the last two games. Everybody has a way of playing, so we have to prepare for both aspects.
“The games have been different, and I don’t know how this game is going to pan out. If I was going off the Coventry game and if they sit in, then we have to break them down. But they’ve played against us at their place where we missed a penalty, we made a couple of mistakes and they punished us. And we weren’t strong enough.”
This, though, will be a much stronger United squad than the threadbare one that travelled to the north-east, before a much-needed January influx of signings fleshed out the options at Wilder’s disposal as they finished the regular season on 90 points and won exactly two per game over the case of 46 matches.
“One of the big things that I’ve talked about is substitutions and strength in depth,” the Blades chief added. “I look at our bench that day and basically it was an under-21 bench. So that had to be dealt with in January, which we certainly did.
“I think if you look at our bench now, especially at the weekend, it would be completely different. In the home game, they started off very well. You watch them play, they’re a young side. They’ve got plenty of energy and plenty of personality, and they’ve got quality.
“They’ve got threats all over the pitch because they wouldn’t have got the points that they’ve got if they weren’t a good side. And I think the same with us. We wouldn’t have got points if we had not done a lot of things right.
“They’ve done a lot of things right, and I’ll respect that. But we’ve done a lot of things right as well. So we have to make sure that we’re bang at it and we execute our game plan, against whatever is put in front of us.”