Sheffield United have got their identity back says Oliver Norwood

It’s beginning to look a lot like Sheffield United.

Only beginning, mind. If this season has taught us anything it is not to read anything into one or two good Blades performances, and Paul Heckingbottom has only been in charge for two matches, both won. Even after four consecutive draws, Fulham still provide the Championship’s toughest test at Craven Cottage.

But 2021 has been a year of drift, probably rooted in the spring 2020 lockdown. The Blades lost what they were about.

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They came out of football’s lockdown hit-and-miss where they had been consistent, susceptible to injuries where they had been indestructible. It carried into the next season and worsened. Jack O’Connell suffered cruciate knee ligament damage, Aaron Ramsdale took time to settle as Dean Henderson’s replacement and other signings were not good enough. As the campaign started badly, confidence drained, the team became less agressive and the vicious cycle kept spinning.

BACK TO BASICS: Sheffield United's Oliver Norwood, far right, believes the Blades have got their spark and identity back. Picture: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images.BACK TO BASICS: Sheffield United's Oliver Norwood, far right, believes the Blades have got their spark and identity back. Picture: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images.
BACK TO BASICS: Sheffield United's Oliver Norwood, far right, believes the Blades have got their spark and identity back. Picture: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images.

Wilder left and although caretaker manager Heckingbottom did his best to rediscover what was lost, it was hard from such a hopeless position. After relegation his successor Slavisa Jokanovic tried to play the more patient, possession-based football that brought him two promotions but with a squad built for the Wilder way, there were no more than glimpses of success.

Now Heckingbottom is back in a permanent (as if any manager is ever that) capacity, and so are the principles Wilder built the club’s recent success on.

“It’s funny how football changes so quickly, isn’t it?” chuckles Oliver Norwood, a key component of the good days, often a scapegoat in the lean months.

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“When things aren’t going as well as you’d like players are too old, players need moving on, players are done, but we’ve proved in the last couple of weeks that’s not the case and we seemed to have found our spark again.

TOUGH TEST: Sheffield United head coach Paul Heckingbottom takes his side to Sky Bet Championship leaders Fulham tonight. Picture: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images.TOUGH TEST: Sheffield United head coach Paul Heckingbottom takes his side to Sky Bet Championship leaders Fulham tonight. Picture: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images.
TOUGH TEST: Sheffield United head coach Paul Heckingbottom takes his side to Sky Bet Championship leaders Fulham tonight. Picture: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images.

“It’s close doors, batten down the hatches and work hard. There’s no substitute for hard work, there never has been.

“We might not have the quality on the day, we might be having a bad game, but there’s nothing to stop you running around, doing everything you can to win the game. We’ve gone on the front foot, got at teams a bit more, got a little bit nastier. I think we’d gone a bit passive but the last couple of games we’ve got back to where if teams want to have a fight, we’ll have a fight, if they want to outrun us we’ll outrun them.

“I think Sheffield United fans can identify their team again.”

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It is a dilemma for all clubs trying to recapture past glories: go back to what brought your success, as Heckingbottom is trying, or avoid living in the past and try something different, as Jokanovic attempted? The answer is probably somewhere in the middle – and neither manager’s methods were so black-and-white – it is just a question of where.

Ex-Fulham midfielder Norwood is more in the first camp.

“That was all we did for three or four seasons with Chris and everybody you spoke to said it was horrible going to Bramall Lane, you just know that you’re going to turn us around, run after us, press,” he says, proudly. “We know what makes the fans tick to make it a difficult place, we know what gets them off their feet.

“It’s about an attitude, an intensity and an aggression to make it a really difficult place to come.”

For now Heckingbottom is still on honeymoon, but Norwood is basking in the glow.

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“It was a different way of playing (under Jokanovic), that’s all,” he insists. “It was a broken pre-season and maybe he didn’t get across how he wanted us to play as much as he’d like but since Hecky has come in we leave everything out there and that’s what playing for Sheffield United means.

“The dressing room was never split, it was just results weren’t happening and it’s difficult to be happy because we all live for one thing – to win a game of football. We feel the frustration (of the fans), we feel the anger sometimes and we feel the exact same but we’ve got time to turn it around.

“If you’d come here at this point last season I don’t think there’d be many worse places in the world.

“We’d not won a game in 20 or whatever it was and it was a grind, really tough. Now you’ll see smiles on their faces, people enjoying their football and coming to work.”

As starting points go, it is not a bad one.

Last six games: Fulham DDDDWW; Sheffield United WWWDLD

Referee: J Linington (Isle of Wight)

Last time: Fulham 1 Sheffield United 0, February 20, 2021, Premier League.

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