Cardiff City v Sheffield United: Chris Wilder's mini target for next two games and what is says about his Blades
They have one of the most dogged defences in the division and in Chris Wilder, a wily operator in the dugout and the transfer market, but that seasoned campaigner knows more than most just how quickly it can turn if people do not stay focused on the task at hand.
The media want to know about the takeover by COH Sports, so Wilder has to have an opinion on that.
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Hide AdFans want to know who the Blades are signing in January to strengthen their promotion push, so he has to drop a little crumb here, and a little crumb there to keep them interested.


The EFL does not want to know his opinion on the scheduling of Blades matches, but he will tell them his thoughts anyway, in pre- and post-match press conferences, and in a conversation with the league.
Pundits want to see United pitted against the big boys, so have scheduled them against Burnley, West Brom and Sunderland over the space of seven days over Christmas.
Wilder has an opinion on all of it, but is experienced enough to know nothing matters more than the game in front of his side and trying to get three points out of that.
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Hide Ad“They’re all massive fixtures,” he said yesterday when asked if he had an eye on the games beyond Saturday’s trip to Cardiff City.


“I don’t see the points total for individual games changing just because we’re playing a Sunderland or a West Brom or a Leeds. Yes they’re big games and you like to take points off the teams that are in and around you, I get that, but you have to win games of football.
“We’re coming up to the halfway point of the league, we’ve got the opportunity in the next two games to get to 53 points (51 with the two-point deduction taken into account) and we’ve played everybody. So every game is massive. Plymouth at home, Swansea at home, Oxford at home, Bristol City away are just as important as the other teams we play.
“This period will be challenging because we’re light on bodies and getting stretched at the minute a little, but we’ve coped with it and I expect them to show that attitude through these next four or five games.
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Hide Ad“This is a group that’s learning on the job, but we’re learning and winning. We might lose and we will lose, but the recovery since we did lose last has been outstanding.”
He admitted last week’s win over struggling Plymouth Argyle - in which they stretched their unbeaten sequence at Bramall Lane to nine games with clean sheets in all of them - was of a team that was tired after a hectic period. And with that in mind, one eye may glance ahead at the busy schedule ahead when it comes to team selection.
“Maybe I should have flipped it around more last weekend, and maybe next time I will change it, but I felt the team was good to go again and I wanted to get some rhythm into the team as well,” he admitted.
“Maybe now looking at that fixture list we have coming up, we might change one or two, I don’t want to make wholesale changes, but the group is strong enough to deal with it.
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Hide Ad“We won’t be complacent, we won’t be arrogant. Sometimes we won’t be good enough. But we’ve got that ability to win.”
Wilder reiterated on Friday that he wants to make “two or three” experienced additions during the January transfer window. It will be a key period in determining whether United have the legs to last the distance in the promotion chase.
He already sees them as “massively ahead” of schedule in the rebuild he began overseeing in the summer.
They were immediately burdened by a two-point penalty for not paying their bills in a previous season, but Wilder has not let that come into his or his players’ thinking.
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Hide Ad“We’re on 47 points,” he insisted. “That’s the mindset, it’s been the mindset right the way through. It has to be because that’s what the players have produced, that’s what we’re produced.”
And then there is the schedule which he has railed against before and which he knows he will have allies on in Daniel Farke at Leeds and Scott Parker at Burnley, to name just two.
“I can imagine another team up the M1 will have the same feelings about it, Daniel, so will Scott, so will other teams up the top end. That comes with winning games of football,” said Wilder.
“There could be a bit more thought into it, I suppose I get shot down regarding that. The answer we got back off the EFL was people want to watch Leeds, Burnley, us, West Brom; the teams at the top.
“We had a phone call and discussion with them and got a straight answer, we have to accept it, but it doesn’t make it right.”