How Leeds United set promotion example for Sheffield United to follow as “actor” Chris Wilder plots response
Leeds United resurgence sets promotion blueprint for Sheffield United as “actor” Chris Wilder plots response
If Sheffield United need a reminder of how quickly things can change in the topsy-turvy world of a Championship promotion race, they need only to look 30 miles up the M1. Just a few days ago, after being held by Luton to a fourth draw in six games, Leeds United were down to third and, according to many across the county in West Yorkshire, with their promotion hopes up in smoke.
Four days later they are back top and, for the time being at least, all is rosy. A 1-0 Leeds victory at Middlesbrough, on an evening when both of their nearest rivals took one point between them, blew apart the title race once more and meant that, at least until the weekend, the Blades are the ones on the outside looking in after falling to third.
The lead in the Championship has changed hands 27 times this season so far and, United hope, may do a few more times in the final five games of a three-way title tussle that still promises to go right to the end. Cool heads are essential; something that, in modern-day football and at every club up and down the land, is in short supply on the terraces.
In Chris Wilder, though, United possess one in the dugout. “I’m cool. I’ve been down the stretch before so I’ve had experience of it and had success coming through it,” he said. “So we try and put that to the players. They’ve got to enjoy it, they’ve got to stay calm.
“But they’re the ones in front of 25,000 people on a Tuesday night with five games to go and a massive prize in front of them. So it’s quite difficult to get away from the situation. You can’t board them up and lock them up and turn the TVs off and get rid of their phones. They have to deal with it and handle it and come through it.”
Six weeks or so the Blades fell five points adrift of Leeds, who had just beaten them 3-1 at Bramall Lane, and the thought of even being in the title race at this stage seemed fanciful at best. But United travel to Plymouth this weekend two points off both Leeds and Burnley, with perhaps some of the pressure lifted a little as they become the hunters rather than the hunted.
“There was a situation, wasn’t there, not so long ago when we were a few points off it,” Wilder added. “So it’s still incredibly tight but for me, what we have to deal with is our performance and giving ourselves an opportunity of putting in a good enough performance to win a game of football.
“We’ve got to be better to get the big prize,” admits Sheffield United boss
“We’ve got to be better. If we want to get the big prize, we have to be better individually, connect as a team a little bit better and and win games of football at this stage of the season. And if not we all know the outcome of that. We’re the only ones that can deal with it and make it better.”
Defeat at Millwall on Tuesday night saw the Blades lose back-to-back league games for only the second time this season but their slump in form is certainly untimely, with Wilder and his coaching staff set to assess the mood of their squad ahead of the long trek to Home Park where they will look to get their Premier League push back on track.
“I think as a manager, you’re always an actor,” said Wilder, when asked how he masks his emotions to his players. “So you have to feel the mood and feel the tension, if there is any, and come off of them. And there are times when you need to step on them. So we’ll try and get that that feel right but ultimately, the players have got to be able to handle those situations.
“That’s why the top players are the top players. Because they can handle the emotion, they can handle this stage of the season. They can handle the pressure, and we’re in a high-pressure situation. We all are. There was a result down the road [Burnley drawing at Derby on Tuesday night] that nobody, I should imagine, would have expected as well. So it’s it’s not just on us.
“But ultimately it’s those teams that find a way, and deal with it the best, they’re going to come out winning and we’ve got to find a way and deal with it better. There are two points in it, it’s swung but I was asking the guys: ‘Have we ever been really cut adrift all season?’ I don’t think we have. So it’s five games, but we ultimately have to put everything into Saturday.
“Not really worry about what’s coming up next Friday or what’s coming up next Monday or what’s coming up at Stoke or what’s coming up against Blackburn. We’ve got to be better in everything that we do, off the pitch and on the pitch, to give ourselves a chance of getting a win on Saturday.”