Sheffield United: What happened last weekend and the unusual step taken ahead of trip to Swansea City
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His team should have been in action, facing their neighbours from Rotherham in a derby at Bramall Lane. But instead, following the decision to postpone the entire weekend schedule as a mark of respect to the late Queen Elizabeth II, the 44-year-old and his coaching staff organised an impromptu training session before reconvening at the Randox Health Academy this morning.
“The first thing I told the lads was ‘This isn’t a Monday after a day off.’ I wanted them to know it was part of the usual programme before a game,” Heckingbottom told The Star. “I didn’t want them switching off, mentally speaking. I didn’t think for one moment that they would. But it was something we felt was worth referencing and referring to anyway.”
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United face Swansea City in the Championship tomorrow night, having prepared for the meeting with Russell Martin’s side on top of the table and unbeaten in seven league outings. The call to shelve an entire round of this term’s fixture programme has proved contentious in many quarters, with supporters claiming it denied them an opportunity to pay their respects to the monarch and, just as pertinently, in a cost of living crisis, left many people out of pocket after pre-booking travel tickets and hotel rooms.
Speaking ahead of the trip to south Wales, Heckingbottom admitted he understood why the governing bodies reacted the way they did, when the passing of Her Majesty was announced. But, speaking in respectful tones during his latest audience with the region’s media, the United manager expressed his disappointment that the clash with Paul Warne’s men had not gone ahead as planned.
“From a personal point of view, I wish it had been played and that we’d paid our respects in that way,” Heckingbottom continued, acknowledging some people’s concerns that political sentiments in certain parts of the country meant the national anthem might not have been respected. “But those are still here with us anyway, the things that might have influenced it.”
Framing the debate within most courteous parameters possible, the choice made by the FA, the EFL and the Premier League has left people like Heckingbottom facing several challenges unique to those involved in sport. The fact the 44-year-old and his assistants chose to address United’s squad ahead of its final get-together before departing for Swansea confirms professional athletes prepare to peak psychologically as well as physically before entering competition.
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Hide Ad“We had a tough workout on Saturday,” Heckingbottom said. “Not as tough as a game, but pretty tough still. So in that regard, there won’t be a lot of difference.
“Our plan, relating to what we do, hasn’t actually changed that much anyway. Sunday was always going to be a day off, for downtime, anyway and we kept that as it was. We just wanted to guard against the other side of things, and that’s why we gave the lads the reminder, the little nudge, that we did.”
Heckingbottom admitted that United will be able to draw upon their experiences of last season, when they saw a number of games called off at short notice because of the Covid-19 pandemic, as they look to negotiate their way through this period. Unusually, perhaps with one eye on the injury issues which mean the likes of Ciaran Clark, Enda Stevens, Max Lowe, Adam Davies and Ben Osborn will all be unavailable for selection against City, Heckingbottom has arranged for his team to stay in a hotel near Swansea both before and after facing their 19th placed opponents.
“We’re staying there after the game as well,” he said, before detailing United’s pre-match agenda. “We’ve flown down before and so a bit of it is cost, because we couldn’t get a flight this time. It allows us that training day we might not have had otherwise, and the lads who haven’t been involved will have access the all the facilities they ned to ensure their levels are where they need to be. They won’t miss out on anything.”
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Hide Ad“Usually, the first thing we do when we set off is have me beat (assistants) Jack (Lester), Macca (Stuart McCall) and Dukey (United’s goalkeeping coach) at cards,” he continued. “Macca usually tries to cheat, because he just basically keeps changing the rules until he wins but I’ve got my eye on that now.
“Normally, we’d have a bit of video work to do on the bus as well. We choose what we want to show the lads beforehand, the important bits about us and the opposition. But we’ve been able to get that done on Sunday. We’ll have some meetings on the day of the game, a bit of a looser, more video work and then the lads will go back to their rooms. Like I said, though, we’ve been able to use the break to get our side of the video work done.”
The unexpected pause in United’s calendar has enabled them to focus on some of the fitness concerns which have been influencing Heckingbottom’s selections. Lowe is scheduled to undergo another round of tests tomorrow afternoon in order to discover the extent of the damage he sustained to a hamstring during the recent win over Hull City. Fellow defender Anel Ahmedhodzic is now recovered from the illness which, despite not threatening his involvement against Rotherham, might have affected his performance. Sharp, United’s captain and centre-forward, has also been working on his conditioning following an ankle complaint.
“Someone like Bill has had a couple more training sessions,” Heckingbottom said. “Anel was ill, he would have played, so that maybe helped us. Because he’s over the illness, But we’d rather have played and then dealt with this afterwards. But obviously that wasn’t possible. We’re just looking forward to getting back out there now, especially because of the momentum the lads had built up.”