Sheffield United facing a crucial test of nerve as wild Championship swings demand calm and composure
Sheffield United head into the international break looking to build on recent progress, but Chris Wilder knows the importance of keeping perspective as the Blades prepare for a tougher run of fixtures ...
Players and managers often talk about keeping a level head in modern-day football but at a time when a win sparks promotion ambitions and a defeat leads to relegation fears, that must be more difficult than ever. Sheffield United may be feeling that themselves going into the international break.
A good run of results saw many suggesting they had turned a corner in their season, before defeat at Charlton last weekend rendered what has gone before irrelevant in some eyes. United are still only two points off eighth going into the two-week hiatus.
And while they still have issues to address - not least two more avoidable goals conceded at the Valley and how to cope with the long-term injury loss of Femi Seriki - there are also reasons for cautious optimism ahead of another period that will tell us a lot more about this group’s promotion credentials.
United’s next six games are against opponents with an average league position of 14th over the current international break, including clashes with Southampton (seventh), QPR (eighth) and West Ham (ninth) in succession.
Their last six have been against teams with an average position of 18th, highlighting the step up in quality the Blades will be facing in the coming weeks. But all those teams have had their own challenges this term, not least West Ham. They sacked Nuno recently and replaced him with Scott Parker, and there doesn’t seem a great deal for United to fear anywhere in the division.
“We’ve just got to keep our heads down and keep moving forward,” boss Chris Wilder said before the break. “Picking up points, improving our performances, dealing with the setbacks, dealing with the disappointments.
“We’ve not even had a third of the season yet and there’s still a lot of football to be played. We’ve all seen the ups and downs of Championship football, the rollercoaster ride that it is. I'm not going to make any predictions, and we've just got to keep moving forward.
“The Championship is the Championship. There are no gimmies, no shortcuts. There's a load of competition in there, as we’ve all seen. Watching the games can be head-scratching at times and exciting as well.
“Everybody knows that they can win games, everybody knows they won't win games. I's just about keeping a nice balance, emotionally. Making sure that we're nice and calm and we keep moving forward.”
United found some much-needed momentum over the last international break and will hope to do the same when they return against Watford, albeit from a better platform.
“Before the international games there were some good bits and there were some not so good bits,” Wilder admitted. “But, and I keep going on about it, the team has been chucked together.
“It’s had challenges, I’ve had challenges and I always will have those challenges. And I'll be open and vocal about it, because I'll back the group and I'll back myself. But you've got to keep your head down, keep moving forward and keep striving for that winning feeling.”