Sheffield United players miss huge opportunity in Mansfield Town cup shock - and leave manager in eye of misplaced criticism
Sheffield United players miss huge opportunity in Mansfield Town cup shock - and leave manager in eye of misplaced criticism
Sheffield United’s fringe players missed a big opportunity to give boss Chris Wilder some more food for thought ahead of a key period in the Blades’ season, as they fell at the first FA Cup hurdle yesterday. Boss Wilder made 10 changes to his side against Mansfield Town.
That decision sparked predictable debate after an eventual 4-3 defeat to the League One side but the reality is that the starting XI was more than good enough to book a place in the next round, if they performed at the levels expected of them.
The 11 that lined up against the Stags had 2,291 career appearances between them in the league alone, an average of more than 208 per player, including a former England international up front, United’s prized asset midfielder and the reigning Championship player of the year.
It was a far cry from United’s scratch side in the same stage of the competition last year against Cardiff, which saw rookies including Jamal Baptiste, Billy Blacker and Owen Hampson feature amid an availability crisis.
And while Wilder’s decision to make changes attracted criticism after defeat - despite almost all of those who dropped out doing so amid various fitness issues - the focus of frustration should surely be on those who were given the opportunities to impress either Wilder or other clubs who may offer them an escape route from Bramall Lane this month - and who failed spectacularly to take them.
Sheffield United players miss huge opportunity in Mansfield Town cup shock - and leave manager in eye of misplaced criticism
“Maybe I'm boring them because I'm going after them again, and it just feels that way,” Wilder said. “But it has cleared up quite a few bits as well for me today in terms of players that haven't played today and how important they are.
“The only unenforced one I’ve left out was Callum [O’Hare] because of how good he's been, how important he's been to us, how many minutes he's played, the big distances he's covered. He needed a little bit of a breather and it was a great opportunity to give him that, but that team was good enough to win a game of football.
“So, I'll get the criticism and and I'll look at that but it doesn't really come down to that in my opinion. It comes down to the goals that we've conceded, in my opinion. There were opportunities for players who have played in the team and for ones who may be in and out to go ‘bang’.
“And put themselves right in front of me. And they haven't. So I would say, for a few players, that’s a missed opportunity today. It's not process, it's not tactical. We found ways to score three goals and three goals should be enough.
“We had opportunities to score more as well, first and second half. But the two centre-halves got dominated by the centre-forward and that wasn't good enough from both of them.
“The impact of the subs, Femi [Seriki] and Brooksy [Andre Brooks], wasn’t at the level I would have expected from both of them, in terms of how they'd been playing as well. I thought Pat [Bamford]’s was, and that's the reason I'm delighted that we've got him and chased him.
“I thought Pat's introduction gave us something and Tom Davies got some minutes but the performance level went down as the game grew, which is disappointing. These boys have been in the building by the way, so they know how we play. They've got good quality.”
Only time will tell when, and where, they get the next opportunity to show it.