Sheffield United v Carlisle United: Blades welcome busy schedule as they aim to regain confidence

The Blades were unsurprisingly rusty after a Covid-19-disrupted pre-season, taking on Birmingham City on Saturday without a single player who had completed 90 minutes of football in pre-season.

It makes tonight’s League Cup visit of Carlisle United an opportunity to get much-needed minutes into legs.

“It’s positive to have another game so soon,” insisted former Fulham and Watford manager Jokanovic.

“But it’s ‘Welcome to the Championship,’ it’s nothing new.

“I know what this competition is like and I prefer not to stop now. I wouldn’t want an international break or something like this.

“It’s a great chance for some people who didn’t play against Birmingham and some of the people who did need to play more minutes. It’s positive for us.”

The League Cup has been increasingly undermined over the years by managers prioritising league points but centre-back Jack Robinson says the competition will be irrelevant to the players’ mindset as they try to build some belief and momentum.

“We’ll be looking to get the confidence up around the team and take that into Saturday and hopefully get another result,” said the Merseysider.

“Players take the League Cup as we always do, it’s another match, a competition we’re in and a game we want to win. It’s up to the manager the way he wants to go. If he goes with the same team we’ll take it on as we always do and try and get the win but if he changes it to try and get the result we’ll always going into the game trying to get a win and nothing less than that.”

Confidence is perhaps an issue at Bramall Lane after the Blades were comfortably relegated last season.

Against Birmingham they were allowed to dominate possession - something Jokanovic wants to encourage - but as so often in 2021-22, they failed to make the most of it, and were beaten 1-0.

It is therefore down to the Serbian to get them in the right frame of mind to win his third Championship promotion as a manager.

“If they don’t believe (in themselves) they will believe soon, that’s it, it’s simple,” he said.

“They showed a lot of character on Saturday.

“People will doubt us because we didn’t win any points and after a defeat it’s not easy to defend the players but they showed a lot of positive things. The negative is the game, of course, and the result is more important.

“I try to encourage them. In the last moments they pushed and tried to score a goal but we weren’t clinical enough, we weren’t fresh enough.

“It’s not a question of if we deserved it or not, as a game it was ‘Welcome to the Championship.’”

Last six games: Sheffield United LWLWLL; Carlisle United DDWDDL.

Referee: J Oldham (Derbyshire).

Last time: Sheffield United 1 Carlisle United 0, March 12, 2014, League One.

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