Paul Heckingbottom outlines Sheffield United’s blueprint to pull off shock Tottenham Hotspur win

Paul Heckingbottom will demand his Sheffield United side “plays with no fear” when they travel to Tottenham Hotspur for their latest tough challenge in the Premier League this season. Spurs are second in the early top-flight table with three wins and a draw from their four games so far, while United travel to London still searching for their first win of the campaign.

Both sides suffered huge transfer blows on the eve of the season, with Spurs selling Harry Kane to Bayern Munich and United agreeing a deal with Marseille for Iliman Ndiaye. But both have also reinvested the transfer cash, relatively speaking, with Ange Postecoglou bringing in James Maddison and Brennan Johnson for fees of around £50m this summer.

Heckingbottom acknowledges that the home side will start as favourites on an afternoon most Blades fans will have marked out as one of the most eagerly-anticipated away days in the calendar, at the hosts’ £1billion stadium. But the Blades chief does not want to see his side be passive and not have a go at their illustrious opponents, believing that blueprint represents their best opportunity of getting a shock result in north London.

“I want us to play with no fear. I want us to have a go,” he insisted. “They’ll be favourites, and rightly so, but I believe in this group of players and that we can go there and win. Definitely. But we’re going to have to get a lot of things right. They’ve got some undoubted threats and we’re going to see that. “We can’t go there hoping they’re just going to underperform, we’ve got to go there expecting them to show their quality and their threats.

“They’ve got players who haven’t been quiet in any game this season. So we know it’ll be tough in that respect. But I like to think we can cause them problems as well and if we play in a really fearless nature, which is what we’re going to try and work towards week after week and improve in that respect, then we’ll try and pose them problems going the other way as well.

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“We have to achieve that positivity and fearlessness in everything we do. The worst way you can set a team up is defensively but with no aggression. Sit behind the ball, we want to take risks when we’ve got it. We want to create chances. We know that’s tougher this season than last but we have to be of that mindset. We want to be positive and when we defend, it’s about trying to win the ball back.

“There has to be an aggression about us even in our defensive third. It’s about aggressive and not worrying about consequences, just going out and trying to perform. If they make mistakes trying to get on the ball and do the right thing, I’ll defend them all the way. If we haven’t got players on the pitch willing to take the ball, I’ll change the players. The same if they’re not willing to fight or run or compete. We’ll change the players. If we’ve got that attitude and willingness to do it then brilliant, we’ve got a better chance of succeeding and improving, game on game.”

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United have shown glimpses of their ability to hurt top-flight defences already this season, despite travelling south with one point to their names from four league games to date. Gus Hamer and Cameron Archer, their two marquee attacking signings of the summer, both scored on their league debuts for the Blades while Unitedites are expected to get their first glimpse of James McAtee this season after he resigned on loan from Manchester City on deadline day.

“We’ll get 10 men behind the ball to defend but we’ll also get 10 men on the ball to try and score,” Heckingbottom added. “Where we are at the minute, there’s so many people with an opinion that you can’t get away from it, no matter what you try. So the new boys especially might be affected by that if they make a mistake.

“As long as you’re doing what we’re asking in here than that’s fine and it’s important to go and take risks and get on the ball and play on the front foot. We’re a team that plays on the front foot and competes to win it and will take chances doing both, because I enjoy watching us play that way and I think it gives us the best chance of picking up points.”