After a tame effort in the Premier League last season, Sheffield United are good again under Chris Wilder and looking to get back to the top flight for another go.
This time last year, Sheffield United were reeling after a 5-0 hammering away at Burnley, leaving them bottom of the Premier League.
The Blades had won just one of their 14 league games, losing 11 (D2) and conceding 39 goals. They would go on to finish bottom, conceding a Premier League record 104 goals.
A year ago today (5 December), Paul Heckingbottom was sacked as manager following that chastening loss at Burnley and replaced by the returning Chris Wilder.
Eyebrows were raised, especially given Wilder’s underwhelming spells with Middlesbrough and Watford, but fast forward 12 months and their 1-0 win over Sunderland last Friday sent Sheffield United to the top of the Championship. They currently sit one place ahead of Burnley, with the Clarets (six) the only side to have conceded fewer than their nine goals after 18 games.
The emotions between the final whistle at Turf Moor last year and the moment when Tom Davies fired in an 83rd-minute winner against Sunderland at Bramall Lane couldn’t have been more different. That it was Davies who scored it almost summed up the ‘comeback’ feeling at the club.
The former Everton midfielder made his first appearance since early March when he came off the bench in the closing minutes of the 3-0 win over Oxford United in late November, and was brought on again by Wilder with 14 minutes remaining on Friday, scoring the only goal of the game seven minutes later.
After a promising start to the season that saw them win six of their first nine, drawing the other three, Sheffield United lost back-to-back games in October at Leeds United and Middlesbrough. However, they have won six from seven since (D1) and sit top of the table.
It would be easy to suggest Sheffield United’s significant improvement in form owes to the chasm of quality between the Premier League and the Championship, but given Luton Town – who finished above the Blades in the top flight last season – have lost more games than any other team in the Championship (10), it shows how performing at your best in the second tier after relegation is far easier said than done.
It helps having a manager who feels so comfortable in the role. Wilder – who also had two spells at the club as a player – was beloved by Blades fans after winning the League One title in his first season as manager at Bramall Lane in 2016-17, before securing promotion to the Premier League just two years later.
An impressive first season in the top flight led to a ninth-place finish, though a very difficult second campaign in 2020-21 saw Wilder leaving the club by mutual consent after winning just 14 points from 28 games, ultimately leading to relegation.
Coincidentally, man and club were reunited over two-and-a-half years later with the club struggling at the bottom of the Premier League. Although Wilder was unable to keep the club up, their start to the 2024-25 season suggests he was the right man in the long-term.
It’s not just back to the old ways for Sheffield United, though. Not only are the famous overlapping centre-backs of Wilder’s first spell gone, so is three at the back entirely.
The Blades play with a back four now, usually with Anel Ahmedhodzic and gigantic Australia international Harry Souttar at centre-back. You can see from Ahmedhodzic’s touch map from the opening day of the 2022-23 season against Millwall and the opening day of this season at Preston that the centre-backs are not being instructed to overlap all the time as they once were.
Souttar was signed from Leicester in the summer to bring a lot more height and physicality to the backline. He has made 86 clearances this season, at least 31 more than any other Sheffield United player and only nine players in the Championship have recorded more.
Both he and his centre-back partner have received red cards in recent games though, Ahmedhodzic getting his marching orders in the 2-2 draw at Coventry while Souttar was dismissed in that win over Sunderland shortly after Chris Mepham was sent off for the Black Cats. Jack Robinson stepped in ably for Ahmedhodzic, and Chelsea loanee Alfie Gilchrist may have to provide cover for Saturday’s trip to West Brom.
The defence is something that has markedly improved this season. While you obviously must allow for the difference in level of opposition, Sheffield United conceded 2.7 goals per game in the Premier League last season, while in the Championship in 2024-25 that number is all the way down to 0.5.
One reason for that is probably the increased control they’re having. While Sheffield United are far from a Manchester City style team – they average 49.9% possession in games this season – when you compare their zones of control with last season, where it basically amounted to only having control of the ball (more than 55% of touches) in the middle of their own penalty area, you can see why they’re feeling more comfortable in the Championship.
Another reason is the form of goalkeeper Michael Cooper. The 25-year-old was signed from Plymouth Argyle in the summer and has taken to life in Yorkshire seamlessly. His penalty save from Sunderland’s Patrick Roberts last time out almost garnered a reaction as loud as the eventual winning goal.
Cooper has conceded just seven goals in his 16 Championship appearances this season having faced 11.3 xGOT (expected goals on target), meaning he’s prevented around 4.3 goals. Only Stoke’s Viktor Johansson (8.3), Oxford United’s Jamie Cumming (5.9) and Blackburn’s Aynsley Pears (4.7) have prevented more in the division, but all have faced at least 55 more shots than Cooper, so have had greater opportunities to increase that figure.
At the other end, Sheffield United have been spreading the goals out. They’ve scored 25 goals, the sixth-most in the Championship, but their top scorer is Tyrese Campbell with just five. Gustavo Hamer and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi have four each, while Davies became the 10th different player to find the net for them in the league this season against Sunderland.
In their last campaign in the Championship under Heckingbottom in 2022-23, Sheffield United were second for high turnovers (366) behind only Luton (390), and were level with Rob Edwards’ side for goals from high turnovers (14). So far this season they’re level with Leeds for goals from high turnovers (4), but they’re not pressing as often generally. The Blades are 12th for high turnovers (115) and joint 13th for shots from high turnovers (20). They’ve simply been more clinical when finishing those chances off.
They suffered a big blow in the 1-0 derby win over Sheffield Wednesday last month, with young captain Ollie Arblaster rupturing his ACL, likely ending his season. The 20-year-old has still created the most chances from open play (19) for the Blades in the league in 2024-25 despite not playing since 10 November.
They do still have a potent source of creativity in Hamer, though. The former Coventry man has four assists to his name and has created five big chances – defined as a chance from which an attacker would be expected to score – as has left-back Harrison Burrows.
Burrows has been another astute signing by the club, arriving from Peterborough United in the summer. Last season saw him top the League One charts for chances created (119) and expected assists (12.8), while only Derby’s Nathaniel Méndez-Laing (16) assisted more goals than him (15).
The 22-year-old, who was captain for Darren Ferguson’s side before heading north, has attempted more than twice as many open-play crosses (37) as any other Sheffield United player in the Championship this season. He’s also made the second-most tackles (36) after Vinicius Souza.
That’s nothing to be sniffed at, either, as Souza has made the second-most tackles in the Championship (62), carrying on the form he showed in Sheffield United’s otherwise forgettable campaign in the Premier League last season, when only former Fulham midfielder João Palhinha (152) and Wolves man João Gomes (128) made more than his 125 tackles.
The Opta supercomputer is backing the Blades to maintain this momentum. Sheffield United are the favourites to win the title from here, doing so in 35.6% of 10,000 data-led simulations, while they secure automatic promotion in 62.6%.
It is credit to the team that they have shown such focus despite news of the death of former player George Baldock in October. The 31-year-old had spent seven years with Sheffield United before joining Greek side Panathinaikos in the summer. The club paid tribute to Baldock with a minute’s silence before their game at Leeds, while fans raised over £4,000 for a giant banner that was displayed ahead of their home win over Stoke.
There is still plenty of work to do in what is looking to be a tight promotion race. There remains just five points between Sunderland in fourth and Sheffield United at the top, and 28 games remaining. The Blades have tricky away games coming up against West Brom and Millwall. Six points from those would leave them in a very healthy place.
At this stage, though, Wilder is starting to make the popular belief that managers should never go back for a second spell at a club appear quite misguided.
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