Man Utd boss promises to heed Sheffield United warning after Man City and Tottenham examples

Under-fire Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has spoken to the press as Saturday evening’s game against Sheffield United draws ever closer following the international break.

While the Blades are currently rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table, having drawn one and lost seven of their eight league games, Ten Hag has made it clear that he will not be taking the game lightly.

He noted that many of the Blades’ defeats this season have been closely-contested affairs, citing United’s encounters with Tottenham Hotspur and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. Paul Heckingbottom’s side lost both fixtures 2-1, with their home defeat to City coming after an 88th-minute goal from Rodri while Spurs scored twice deep into stoppage time to beat the Blades in North London.

The Dutchman noted that if Man United do not play to the best of their abilities at Bramall Lane, they could very easily fall to defeat against the Premier League’s bottom club.

Assessing Sheffield United in his pre-match press conference Ten Hag said: “Every game in the Premier League is difficult, if you have seen their results against City and Spurs, they were very narrow wins. If you don’t play your best football, you can have a loss. We won our last game away, finally, it’s not about that. You can’t figure out the past and last year we were third in the league, we won a cup, we were in another final, we live in the future, we have to change the future.”

The game will begin at 8pm, making it an unusually late kick-off time for a Saturday game. Last time out, the Blades fell to a 3-1 defeat against Fulham at Craven Cottage, despite keeping the game at a stalemate for much of its duration.

The Cottagers’ goals were scored by Bobby De Cordova-Reid and Willian - Wes Foderingham also scored an unfortunate own goal. Meanwhile, United’s only goal of the afternoon game courtesy of an own goal from Jack Robinson.