What’s gone wrong at Sheffield United?

Sheffield United have endured one of the worst ever starts to a season, and look like contenders to break Derby County’s lowest ever points in a Premier League season record (11).

But after such a stellar first season back in the top flight, it begs the question of what has happened for things to go so off the rails since?

The lockdown

Prior to the halting of football in March, United had lost just three times in 13 games. And those three defeats? Two against Manchester City, and one against Liverpool. So it’s fair to say the Blades were in superb form until football stopped.

When the Premier League came back in June, United notably struggled. They drew 0-0 with Aston Villa in a drab game, before consecutive 3-0 defeats against Manchester United and Newcastle.

A burst of form followed in a four-game run of three wins and a draw, before three straight defeats to end the 2019/20 season. And we know the rest since the new season started – just a single point courtesy of a draw against Fulham.

The two notable takes from this are a lack of fans and a sudden brick wall crushing the Blades’ momentum.

As mentioned above, Chris Wilder’s men were flying into March and to have that suddenly pulled away with little opportunity to train and keep fitness up will have been a blow. Then trying to fire things up and get some momentum back again a few months later will have been a tricky task.

And what seems to have made it an even trickier task is a lack of fans. It’s an effect that’s hard to really pin down and literalise, but there has been a notable lack of edge and intensity to this Sheffield United side.

It’s an effect that only seems to be self-perpetuating further as the losses pile up, and United’s confidence is slowly eroded away.

A return of fans to Bramall Lane in the near future is possible, but it may be too little too late for Wilder’s side.

Jack O’Connell

When the Blades kicked the Premier League season back off in June against Villa, there was one big absentee from the team sheet: Jack O’Connell.

He and Chris Basham have played vital roles as ‘overlapping centre backs’ in this United side, and the loss of O’Connell has been keenly felt.

The former Brentford man brings solidity in defence as well as an excellent aerial ability. And his driving runs going forward coupled with moments of quality and intelligence are key components in United’s attack.

None of his replacements – Jack Robinson, Enda Stevens and now Kean Bryan, who spent time on loan at League One Bolton last season – have really been able to fill the gap that O’Connell has left.

The style and structure that Sheffield United occupy is a particularly specialist one, and to an extent leans on the abilities of the players who have adapted to become experts in that role.

The overlapping centre back role that O’Connell plays is particularly niche and one that he executes superbly. Without him, the Blades are struggling to find balance and replicate the output that he brings to the side. He has just two appearances this season as injuries continue to stop a full return.

Missing chances and shipping goals

Sheffield United were not a team renowned for goalscoring last season, and don’t really possess any consistently proven goal scorers aside from the injury-plagued Lys Mousset.

While they didn’t create a shed load of chances last season, they proved themselves to be effective at getting into dangerous areas with their clever movement and interchanges between players.

This season, the same level of variety and inventiveness of United’s system has been lacking, as well as a void in quality in the final third. They are further hindered in this regard by O’Connell’s absence, with a majority (42%) of attacks now coming down the right-hand side – reducing the variety in the Blades’ attacking.

There has also been the issue in finishing chances. This season has seen a giant underperformance of xG, with United scoring just five goals from around 12 xG according to Understat.

Then coupled with this, the Blades’ defensive over performance from last season – 39 goals conceded from about 52 xG against – has pretty much gone completely.

That’s not to say they’ve been underperforming this season, though, with 18 goals conceded from roughly 18 xG. But it does indicate that the change in goalkeeper from Dean Henderson performing heroically to Aaron Ramsdale who seems to be performing at an ‘average’ level has seen a negative effect.

Doomed already?

With just a single point this season, things are looking incredibly gloomy for Sheffield United. Their only bright spark has been the fact that several other teams are performing particularly badly, although Fulham and West Brom did pick up surprise points recently against Liverpool and Manchester City.

It’ll take an almost unheard of turnaround from United to have any chance of staying up, a real shame following such an exciting first season which established the Blades as an excellent addition to the Premier League.

But with no wins, confidence at an absolute zero (-273 Kelvin levels) and a system that is malfunctioning, things do not look hopeful at all for United.

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