“We are being tested,” Paul Heckingbottom tells Sky Sports. Sheffield United are top of the Championship. Since the Yorkshireman was appointed last November, the team have picked up 79 points – 10 more than anyone else. But it has not been easy.
The manager of the month for September has seen his side go three without a win in October. One point from those three games is the worst run since he was appointed and there is no great mystery as to why. He is without nine players. Seven are defenders.
Shorn of his wing-backs, it necessitated a switch to a back four for the defeat to Stoke on Saturday with young Kyron Gordon at right-back. Ahead of the defence, John Fleck broke his leg in August. Sander Berge was injured late on against Queens Park Rangers.
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Highlights of the Sky Bet Championship clash between Stoke and Sheffield United
“I have not taken a coaching session properly for about seven weeks,” says Heckingbottom. “When we have had players train, there have not been the bodies out there so it has just been individual work. During the international break, we only had four players.
“It has just been a case of wrapping the players up. For me, it is frustrating when I am just coaching on the tactics board or with the video analysis. I want to be on the grass with the players getting stuck in. Hopefully, that time will come soon.”
Heckingbottom is not whining, just blunt. This time last year, Sheffield United were in the midst of losing five games out of eight under Slavisa Jokanovic and found themselves in the wrong half of the Championship table. He has been a restorative influence.
There was a return to three at the back, playing a system that suited the personnel, one they were familiar with from more successful times under Chris Wilder. It took a penalty shootout defeat to Nottingham Forest to end hopes of promotion through the play-offs.
Paul Heckingbottom with the Sky Bet manager of the month award for September
The challenge this season has been to ensure that momentum was not lost. “Straight after the Forest game we had a few beers back at Bramall Lane. Everyone was disappointed. But we wanted everyone to be together and send everyone away with that message.
“In my position, you don’t feel it. You just move on to the next. But you are aware it is a major hangover for the players and for the fans. We certainly made a conscious effort to make things fresh and bring lots of energy from the first moment we came back.
“We have obviously had to cut our cloth accordingly with it being another season in the Championship, the budget coming down and losing some good players. But we have managed to recruit some good players and found a good balance to the squad.”
The signing of Anel Ahmedhodzic has helped. “He always wanted to be here. We could not get it done in January so he ended up going to Bordeaux and attracted a lot of attention there but he always wanted to be here and could not get us out of his head.”
Anel Ahmedhodzic has been superb for Sheffield United since arriving in the summer
The 23-year-old defender is already a fan favourite and it is easy to understand why. Sheffield United have won seven of the eight games that he has started, drawing the other. They are without a win in the five games that he has missed.
“He was our first choice and we were desperate to bring him in. Just because you could see him playing in the red and white, the role we wanted him to play, the way we play, we could see him fitting into that. I think it excited him. He has slotted in perfectly.”
Others have improved. Iliman Ndiaye, the 22-year-old signed from Boreham Wood in 2019, has been the outstanding forward this season, bringing a more fluid movement to the team in the final third of the pitch. “When I came to the club he was just back from a loan at Hyde and he impressed me straightaway,” recalls Heckingbottom.
“He has kicked on and on. As soon as he got into the first team, you could see he was good enough. It was just a case of him trying to be the best player he could be. He has got himself into the Senegal squad and it would be fantastic if he could go to the World Cup.”
Heckingbottom was aware of Ndiaye’s talent having been Sheffield United’s U23 coach before taking the top job. He believes it has helped. “I had been part of some of their journeys already so I felt invested and I knew what the club was about,” he explains.
“In other jobs, I have gone straight in as the manager. This time, I have actually had 18 months performing other roles within the club, getting to know the players, the staff and the fans. I feel lucky with that because when I stepped up I felt a lot more responsibility.”
Paul Heckingbottom with his staff after receiving the Sky Bet award for August too
Perhaps that also explains why he has appeared more in tune with the supporters’ demands of their team than his predecessor. Having also been the interim manager following Wilder’s departure, Heckingbottom feels more of a natural bridge to those years.
“I like the bravery that we play with. We know we are not going to win every game but we can still be that team that is on the front foot trying to force the issue. We want the possession to mean something. We want efforts on goal and bodies in the box.
“Listen, we want to do it in a way that has control but we do want to play forwards and risk possession. If we lose the ball, fine. Just try to win it back as quickly as possible. Those are our simple rules. I don’t want us to be boring. I want us to be exciting and take risks.
“At times we have had our middle centre-back playing diagonal balls in behind to our left centre-back. We are trying to improve. If you only ever do the same thing then you become easier to play against so we are constantly looking to see what we can do next.
“We are also conscious that because of how we want to play the game most of the teams who play against us will have their joy on the counter-attack so we have worked hard on stopping that, while still committing the same if not more bodies forward.
“But we do not want to be gung-ho. We are very conscious that most teams play on the counter-attack so we have to work to stop that. One of the problems against QPR was that we started chasing the game and we weren’t us. We still want a lot of control.”
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Highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Preston and Sheffield United
Perhaps that will return soon. Ahmedhodzic, still unbeaten in his Championship career, is expected to be fit for the game against Blackpool on Saturday. Next month will see other key players available once more. Sheffield United’s promotion push can resume.
“We are not hiding that it is our goal. It is everyone’s goal. Everyone thinks they have a chance. But we can take confidence from the fact that we have done it for quite a long period of time. We are improving but we have been like this for 11 months now.”
Unfortunately, there are no prizes for that. “We cannot shift the dates. We have to accept that we have to keep doing it for a lot longer.” In the Championship, the hard work always continues.
