Sheffield United: What the boss told his players during post-Mansfield huddle
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Paul Heckingbottom, who would later strike a measured tone with journalists during the post-match interviews, wanted to address them. A quarter-of-an-hour or so after delivering his message, United’s manager revealed some of its basic tenets to the media.
“We’ve reached that stage now,” he said, looking ahead to next month’s Championship opener at Watford, “When you can either play your way in or you can play your way out. That’s what I was getting across.
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Hide Ad“My focus, and the focus of the staff, is going to change now. There will be much more demands on performance. They’ll see the difference and we wanted to let them know that.”
United contest the penultimate fixture of their summer programme at Burton Albion on Friday, before travelling to Barnsley less than 24 hours later. Although Heckingbottom has reminded the scheduling of the contests means their final scoreline will not influence his selections for Vicarage Road - “If it was about results, we wouldn’t be doing them back to back” - the calibre of United’s work will. Particularly at the back where, after losing 3-2 at Scunthorpe over the weekend, five of the last six goals they have conceded were wholly preventable.
“I’m not going to lie, because you know I’d be talking rubbish, that it isn’t tough to stand on the sidelines and not be assessing all the time,” Heckingbottom said. “Of course you are looking where people are at and how they are doing the things they are supposed to be doing it. I saw things (at Mansfield) I didn’t like and some good things as well.”
“Previously, the emphasis was all on fitness,” added Heckingbottom. “Now, it’s different. Now it’s on what we are actually doing and how we are doing it. The way we get ready for these matches will be different and so will the recovery. The players will see that and then, from that point on, it’s all about Watford.”