Paul Heckingbottom admits Sheffield United will have to think on their feet at Kolo Toure's Wigan Athletic
Never mind the Blades players, even the Latics are probably still getting to know how Kolo Toure wants to play less than three weeks into his first management job.
For those outside the camp, clues have been scarce with only one competitive game – last weekend's 1-1 draw with Millwall, where they switched to a 4-2-3-1 having played a back three towards the end of Leam Richardson's tenure.
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Hide AdSo Heckingbottom's big focus this week has been reminding the players how to respond to different scenarios.
"You take as much as you can from the previous game but there's been a bigger gap between the Millwall game and Wigan playing us than Kolo coming in and the MiIlwall game,” he said. “The biggest thing is we know how we adapt our game playing different shapes and systems so as soon as we see what it is, we make the necessary changes.
"I like to do all the prep before and to know exactly what the next few days are like because I know exactly how the game's going to pan out.
"We'll focus on ourselves with little reminders of how we play against certain things because that will not change.
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Hide Ad"Then it's recognising as soon as possible what will be the most important things in the game."
The Blades are in better shape for their last game before Christmas thanks to Wednesday’s behind-closed-doors friendly featuring Sander Berge, Chris Basham, Max Lowe, Jayden Bogle, Tommy Doyle, Daniel Jebbison and Jack Robinson.