It was a given that Sheffield United were not going to dominate possession against Manchester City on Saturday. Similar to the 1-0 defeat last season at Bramall Lane against Pep Guardiola’s men, the home side had to be well disciplined without the ball and pick their moments to attack against a side featuring the likes of De Bruyne, Sterling and Mahrez. Chris Wilder said “If people think we can open up and go toe-to-toe with Man City they are deluded, Wilder believes players not backing themselves to deliver crosses or pick the right pass on the edge of the area is something that happens naturally when you are on a run of this nature. However, he is warning his players that they have to overcome the current issue regarding a lack of self belief.
Chris Wilder said “It’s got to be confidence, there’s no other way, It’s difficult, but it’s a moving game, we are not ‘this is how we play and we are always going wide’ players have to recognise that if it goes wide and they have bodies over then there’s got to be somewhere else that’s open and an opportunity to go and expose. We play centrally and work on stuff centrally, as well as playing wide, we are not just a team that says ‘let’s get it out wide’ and then what teams do is say ‘let’s get bodies over’. If there are bodies over then there are other areas you can expose. That’s just individual decisions that they take. Some of the decisions against Man City, I just didn’t get. It’s got to be a belief and a confidence issue. I am sure you understand it’s a positive environment, our place. You don’t do what we’ve done without it being. We support the players but it’s a big boy’s league and when you step out there you have got to show that individual quality in everything that you do that shows you why you are playing in this division, why you deserve to be in this division and why you want to stay in this division. You have to show that bit. I keep saying it’s not a duck from me. Everybody has their own system and if the system was flawed we wouldn’t have the opportunity to go and break the play up and attack the opposition. We would have conceded three or four against a team with the likes of De Bruyne, Mahrez, Sterling, Bernardo, Rodrigo – everybody. It’s top end Premier League football, but it’s got to be a connection between a lack of confidence and belief that comes when you don’t get the results that affects your play, your decisions and individual quality.”
