Sheffield United believe key trait can help them overcome huge challenge ahead of Norwich City trip

With a huge swathe of Paul Heckingbottom’s squad called up by their respective countries ahead of the latest round of friendlies, Euro 2024 and African Cup of Nations qualifiers, only a handful of players expected to start the match at Carrow Road remained in South Yorkshire following the FA Cup quarter-final victory over Blackburn Rovers earlier this month.

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Although Heckingbottom has been able to begin formulating a plan for the meeting with David Wagner’s side, he conceded he won’t know if it can be actioned until Thursday - when the likes of Iliman Ndiaye, Sander Berge, George Baldock and John Egan all report for duty at the Randox Health Academy.

“That’s when everyone will be back here,” the United manager said. “There might be a few a little earlier but basically, in terms of actual training, that’s the first time we are going to see everybody who went away. Obviously it creates a problem in terms of the schedule but everyone is in the same boat. Everyone who had lads go away that is.”

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With their push for automatic promotion at a pivotal stage, members of United’s fitness, conditioning and sports science department have kept in regular touch with those called-up during their trips abroad or to St George’s Park, where on loan midfielders Tommy Doyle and James McAtee have been based after being selected by England under-21’s. As The Star revealed over the weekend, Anel Ahmedhodzic, Ismaila Coulibaly and Ndiaye were all required to send daily selfies to a special mobile phone application, which enabled nutritionists to monitor their body shapes during the early stages of Ramadan. Rather than being a sign that they distrust the work of their international counterparts, the policy is designed to help Heckingbottom, his assistant Stuart McCall and head of player development Jack Lester begin making tweaks to the strategy they hope to employ in East Anglia. Time, as Heckingbottom conceded, will be of the essence.

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“There’s not going to be long to get everything ready,” he conceded. “But again, no excuses. It’s something we’ve faced before and again, it’s a challenge others across the division will recognise.”

Despite that admission, United’s preparations have been complicated by the fact they face another long journey so soon after many of their leading names have returned from destinations as far afield as Senegal and Mali. Second in the table and three points clear of third-placed Middlesbrough, Heckingbottom believes one of the traits he has encouraged since being appointed 16 months ago should help them cope.

“It’s important to have an identity, a way of playing that everyone involved recognises,” he said. “I think that’s something we’ve got. You know what a ‘United Performance’ looks like. There’s things you can do differently within all of that of course. There’s things you might want to adjust game to game. But basically, everyone knows their job because everyone has been doing it right the way through. Any changes don’t change the overall approach we have. They are more to do with making sure we can continue to do what we want to do against different opponents.”

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