Sheffield United v Swansea City: Conor Hourihane and Oliver Norwood offering Blades plenty of midfield variety

When Heckingbottom became Blades manager in November, Conor Hourihane and Oliver Norwood were rivals for the job of deep-lying midfield playmaker.

With John Fleck injured and Ben Osborn and Sander Berge late substitutes, Heckingbottom paired them for the first time in his opening game and they have not lost as a partnership since, eight matches yielding 20 points.

With Heckingbottom rotating to try to keep his squad fresh there is a chance Hourihane and Norwood could be broken up today, but a match against another possession-based team in Swansea City seems made for them.

Ask Heckingbottom what he most likes about the pair and he replies: “It’s probably that they haven’t lost!” but their organisational qualities are important too.

“They haven’t half seized the opportunity,” he says. “We wanted to play that (3-4-3) formation (against Bristol City), we had Sander and Flecky out of contention so they were the two fittest and they seized the opportunity.

“It’s probably raised everyone’s game because when you’ve got two players as good as Sander and Flecky pushing to get back in, every time they pull on the shirt you can see how driven they are.

“One thing (Hourihane and Norwood) have is a voice and they really understand the game.

“When we’ve not got the ball they understand how we want to press, they give good information to the front three and they fill in the holes behind them, pinch a lot of balls and fill a lot of gaps.

“It’s not only about the aggression to win the ball it’s about being in the right place to stop the forward pass or to pinch the ball and about giving information to get everyone in front of you to be in the right place. That’s where those two are really good.”

Today’s game should be different to the last two, both 0-0 draws. Whereas Huddersfield Town and Hull City are 14th and 18th in the Championship for possession, Swansea hog the ball most, with Sheffield United third.

“Teams have been coming to Bramall Lane for the last few games trying to make it really difficult, whether that’s been stopping us playing out and being really high against us or retreating and trying to deny space and slow the game down, then countering,” says Heckingbottom.

“That’s how football should be. Different opponents are going to pose different threats and try and deal with us in a different way.”