Sheffield United facing ‘long week’ after 5-0 hammering at home to Aston Villa deals another big blow to survival belief
After Sheffield United’s 5-0 home loss to Aston Villa at Bramall Lane on Saturday, Chris Wilder has cautioned the players that they must take all constructive criticism to heart. The Blades’ relegation hopes were further dented by the most recent humiliation, which put them ten points outside of safety and further cemented their fate.
With a trip to fellow struggling side Luton Town coming up next, safety is still mathematically possible, but this evening revealed both the lack of faith and confidence in United’s players as well as their shortcomings on the pitch. Choruses of jeers rose from the stands after the half-time and final whistles, and Wilder later apologised to the supporters, acknowledging that his team had “let them down”.
“When you play the game at that level, in front of 30-odd thousand, it can drain you,” stated Wilder. Both individually and as a team, it depletes you. The fastest players appear the slowest; every pass becomes extremely challenging to play and you appear slow. Everything is a response, not a prediction. I understand that some may reply, “Oh, we didn’t touch them.” We were definitely not at our best when they went up 4-0 in the afternoon.
“I have to stand in that technical area as the manager, and I’ve stood there a lot of times while people have been singing our names. I’ve said it a lot: people are always willing and ready to speak good things about you when it’s going well. And when you have days like this, you have to accept everything that comes your way and it’s well and truly deserved
“On the floor are the players. They are lying down. They’re not thinking about what they’re going to do later on or doing cartwheels or anything of the sort in there. And they won’t be travelling with me moving forward if I believed they were. It’s not easy to accept. People call you names like this, that, and the other; they claim you’re indifferent and passive.
“And you have to accept that if that’s how it appears. However, since we’re on the ground, something must be done. We have a long, long week ahead of us, and as usual, I must make the correction. Whether I choose the appropriate persons, strategies, or team. All those decisions, I have to ask myself. I wasn’t going to make things more difficult for myself when we went out at half past five by selecting the wrong formation, players I didn’t think were on the appropriate team, or those who couldn’t carry out their jobs for us.
“I chose a football team that I thought had a chance to win. I didn’t see it coming so I have to question all that stuff with my coaches, and the players have got to get their head down and and take the medicine.”
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