Chris Wilder insists there is no crisis unfolding at Sheffield United, despite a series of chastening home defeats leaving the Blades’ Premier League survival hopes hanging by a thread.
Sheffield United prop up the Premier League table ahead of Sunday’s trip to Wolves, sitting seven points adrift of 17th-placed Everton, and their tally of 65 goals conceded is the worst ever recorded through 25 games of a season in the competition.
The Blades have saved some of their worst performances for Bramall Lane, losing their last two Premier League home games 5-0 to Aston Villa and Brighton and Hove Albion, with the Seagulls also winning 5-2 on the ground in the FA Cup last month.
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Wilder, though, believes his players’ commitment has been beyond reproach, saying preventable errors have been the cause of their struggles.
“I am not shying away from anything and I will take full responsibility,” Wilder said on Friday. “I know the narrative will be about what happened against Villa and Brighton in the league.
“I look at it a different way. I am not trying to protect the players. I thought the scoreline wasn’t just in the cup game. We went for it and conceded two late goals without our full team out there.
Injury news from Wilder! ????
“There’s been progression with two or three players, whether they’ll be involved in Sunday afternoon, we’ll wait and see. We’ll leave it until the last minute.”#SUFC ???? pic.twitter.com/D7ZgmvosI8
— Sheffield United (@SheffieldUnited) February 23, 2024
“Against Villa there is no getting away from the fact that they went 4-0 up in double quick time and absolutely punished us for our mistakes. It was a really long, difficult evening.
“Then we get a man sent off against Brighton on Saturday and concede two quick goals. The situation we are trying to rectify is the quick goals that are going in and the trend that is happening.
“You look at it one way, the way I look at it is the players have given everything. Is there an absolute crisis on our hands here? No.”
Sheffield United will be without Mason Holgate at Molineux after he saw red for a horror challenge on Kaoru Mitoma last week, catching the Brighton winger above the knee with a reckless lunge.
Wilder revealed Holgate has apologised to his team-mates for his sending-off, saying: “He understood it straight away, he’s not jumping through hoops.
“We understand the reckless attitude of the challenge and the out of control part of it. He spoke to the group, now me and the staff have to deal with it.”
