Sheffield United: What Premier League winner and Wigan boss Kolo Toure thinks of The Blades

After Paul Heckingbottom’s side staged a friendly against Leicester City last week, the Wigan Athletic manager admitted to speaking with his counterpart in the east Midlands about their strengths and weaknesses ahead of Monday’s Championship fixture.

Kolo, who played under Rodgers at Liverpool and Celtic before joining City’s coaching staff, admitted: “I had a few words with Brendan of course. But I am still working with the players and they have got a good attitude. They just need to believe in their ability and in their opinions, to use their skills.”

Heckingbottom admitted he suspected Toure, whose team were beaten 2-1 thanks to goals from John Egan and Billy Sharp, would be briefed on United by Rodgers ahead of the clash in Greater Manchester. But after using the behind-closed-doors contest to ease injured players back to fitness, stressed that nothing of any value had been inadvertently shared.

Although Wigan dragged themselves back into the game when Nathan Broadhead scored just past the hour mark, United strengthened their grip on second place by opening up a five point gap over Blackburn Rovers in third. They are three points behind leaders Burnley ahead of Coventry City’s trip to Bramall Lane on Boxing Day.

Taking charge of his first home match since taking charge of Wigan towards the end of last month, Toure was impressed by both the strategy United devised and how it was executed.

“These two teams (United and Burnley) are dominating at the moment,” the former centre-half, who lifted the Premier League title with Arsenal and Manchester City, said. “But there is a long way to go in this league. Both teams have very talented managers.”

“Sheffield United are really good at set-pieces,” Toure added. “We should have defended better and tighter but, in this process we are going through, we will make mistakes.

“Sheffield United, they press you hard and it is difficult to find space. They are strong and you can see this is a team that believe in themselves.”