No Sheffield United crisis says Oliver Norwood, but we we must not let the season peter out

Oliver Norwood says there is no crisis at Sheffield United but they do need to ensure their season does not peter out into mid-table mediocrity.
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Just two games into the resumption of what has been a season which has defied expectations, it seems ridiculous to even suggested that Blades are in a crisis after a draw where they had a goal wrongly ruled out and an admittedly chastening defeat at Newcastle United.

NO CRISIS: But Oliver Norwood admits Sheffield United do need to up their game since the restartNO CRISIS: But Oliver Norwood admits Sheffield United do need to up their game since the restart
NO CRISIS: But Oliver Norwood admits Sheffield United do need to up their game since the restart
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Victory on Wednesday at Manchester United, who are regarded as having restarted well despite drawing their only game so far (at Tottenham Hotspur), will move the Blades above the Red Devils but Norwood admits they will have to improve on their first two performances to get it.

"It has been quite obvious in the last two games that we haven’t been great,” said the midfielder, who came through the Manchester United academy but did not play for the first team. “We were in a good place before the madness of everything that came along and maybe we are yet to find that fluidity, but we are confident it will come back.

“It is not a crisis, we lost a game of football and first since Manchester City away (nine games ago), so we're not in a bad place, but we need to get ourselves going and back to the levels we set earlier in the season.

"Physically we’ve been fine and the numbers we are told by the sports science staff are good and where we would be in a game. I think it is the mental side where we need to adapt quickly and get our heads around it as quickly as possible as we don't want this season to peter out and just end up mid-table.

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“We have worked ever so hard to put ourselves in the position we have and want to pick up. It is difficult, I am not going to sit here and lie and say the games have been brilliant. They have been poor and as group we have got to accept that and find a way of shaking ourselves and finding some form.”

A top-half finish would be an outstanding achievement from a newly-promoted side hotly tipped for relegation at the start of the season, but they went into the resumption seventh in the Premier League with a game in hand on the teams directly above (their position is the same, but their game in hand gone), with two realistic chances of qualifying for Europe for the first time in the club's history. They are also in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

Had goalline technology not failed in the Blades' first game back at Aston Villa and Norwood's first-half free-kick been given as a goal, there is no way of knowing how it might have changed that game, but manager Chris Wilder called their performances in that match and the 3-0 defeat at Newcastle “bang average”.

Games are coming so fast that the mood can quickly change, or be exacerbated. After Wednesday's trip to Old Trafford, the Blades welcome Arsenal – whose restart has been even more difficult – in Sunday's Cup quarter-final.

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