Sheffield United were predicted to go straight back down to the Championship by many pundits following their promotion to the Premier League in 2019. However, the Blades stunned us all and claimed a 9th place finish in their return to the topflight of English football.
A lot of Sheff Utd’s success came from their unique style of play that hadn’t been seen before in the Premier League era. Chris Wilder used underlapping centre-backs that pushed forward during attacks to great effect.
Many Premier League sides were left confused by this tactic as it made marking that much trickier and pulled players out of position.
The Blades ended the season with 14 wins under their belt and secured nine draws on the road. Goals remained an issue for Sheff Utd, who lacked a quality centre-forward capable of scoring into double figures. Forwards Oli McBurnie and Lys Mousset joint top-scored for the Blades with 6 league goal apiece.
At the other end of the pitch, Sheff Utd were fantastic. On-loan goalkeeper Dean Henderson kept 13 clean sheets last season, leaving him level with Alisson and de Gea. The defence only conceded 39-goals, which was fewer than Chelsea, Leicester, Spurs, Wolves, and Arsenal, all of whom finished higher in the table.
So where did it all go wrong? The 2020/21 campaign has begun with five straight defeats for Sheff Utd in all competitions, leading many to claim that the club is suffering from ‘second season syndrome’.
Second season syndrome is a term coined for clubs that impress in their debut season in the Premier League but then suffer a fall from grace in the following season, which often leads to relegation.
Sheff Utd opened the new season with a 2-0 defeat at home to Wolves and then were knocked out of the league cup on penalties by Burnley. Next up for the Blades was a trip to Aston Villa, a team that only just escaped relegation last season.
Villa claimed a 1-0 win, and Sheff United then lost their next game 1-0 at home to newly-promoted Leeds. Last time out, the Blades travelled to Arsenal, where despite scoring their first league goal of the season, they ended up suffering a 2-1 defeat.
Losing goalkeeper Dean Henderson back to Manchester United has been a key factor in Sheff Utd’s poor start to the season. However, the club have spent money in the goalkeeping department, bringing in Aaron Ramsdale from Bournemouth for £18.45m.
Money has also been spent on Rhian Brewster from Liverpool and Oliver Burke from West Brom, as well as the Derby county full-backs Lowe and Bogle.
Another reason behind the Blades’ contrasting starts to this and last season is that they have been found out. The rest of the Premier League clubs know what to expect from Sheff Utd now and can set their teams up to combat Wilder’s style of play.
It will be interesting to see if the Blade’s boss will switch his style or continue until it starts working again. With a place in the Premier League at stake, Sheff Utd need to fix this problem before the rot sets in.
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