After struggling in their second season in the premier league, Sheffield united unfortunately didn’t survive and was relegated into the Championship which is seen as the most difficult league to get out of, they have also competed in the FA cup and the EFL cup. The runs in both cup competitions wasn’t a big success as they went out in the third round in both cups the FA cup lose came at the hands of Wolves who beat them 3-0 at the Molineux Stadium. The EFL cup lose came on penalties 4-2 against Southampton after a remarkably close game that ended 2-2 in full time.
Sheffield United came into the campaign looking to go straight back up into the top tier of English football and in the first 10 league games of the season it did not look like it was going to go so well. In the first 10 games they picked up 12 points from a possible 30. They beat Peterborough, Hull and Derby who have also been struggling all season. This form didn’t really change either going into the next 8 fixtures as they again only picked up 8 points, and if they wanted to go up, they really needed to change something as they would have remained fighting to stay around mid-table.
After a dull 0-0 draw against Coventry on matchday 18, form changed as Sheffield United went on a 4-game win streak with wins against Reading, Bristol City, Cardiff and a shocking 1-0 win against league leaders Fulham this was a result nobody saw coming as Fulham was dominating everyone in the league and with form not being the best all season this was the game people started to pay attention to the Sheffield club. They continued this streak of picking up points as they got 5 from a possible 9 and the non-losing streak then ended as a resurgent Derby beat them at Pride Park.
After that loss to Derby, they then went on the best streak this season picking up 19 points from 21 and in that run of games came wins against Luton who have had a great season, West Brom who was one of the sides that also went down from the premier league, and the best win from this run of games was Blackburn who currently sit 3rd in the league. This form saw the Yorkshire side move up into the play off places which before Christmas was almost ruled out. Since that incredible run of form, it dipped drawing with Nottingham Forrest who are also battling for the play off places, but then lost to Coventry and 4-1 and drew to Blackpool. In the most recent game, they got back to winning ways with a 2-0-win against Barnsley FC.
Only 7 games remain in the championship season for Sheffield United and they have some difficult games still to play as they have Bournemouth, QPR and Fulham, getting as many points as possible with be especially important in reaching the targets from the start of the season which nobody halfway through the season would have ever imagined. The teams playing for the play off places are Luton, Huddersfield, Sheffield United and Blackburn who are in the spots currently but the likes of Middlesbrough, QPR and Nottingham Forrest.
Sheffield United have the joint 6th goal scorer in the league with 14 goals and that player is Billy Sharp who has 15 goals in all competitions this season and is averaging a goal every 191 minutes. Billy Sharp also has the most assists in the league for Sheffield United with 7 he is joined on the same number by Morgan Gibbs-White who is on loan from Wolves. Wesley Foderingham has had a great season so far and that shows as he is joint 2nd in the league for most clean sheets with 14.
Sheffield United are a well organised side who aren’t a team that picks up many cards, they are a side who have had only 2 red cards this season the two players who got these are on loan start Morgan Gibbs-White and centre back Charlie Goode.
Louis Whittaker.