Liverpool vs Sheffield United
19:30, Thursday 4th April
Anfield, Liverpool
Premier League
Referee: Stuart Attwell
Top meets bottom in the Premier League on Thursday, as Sheffield United travel west to face Liverpool at Anfield. The hosts regained control of the league table on Sunday, beating Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 shortly before Manchester City and Arsenal played out a goalless draw – Jürgen Klopp’s side have dropped points just once (drawing 1-1 with City three weeks ago) in the six games since losing away to Arsenal in early February. Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United have drawn their last two matches (away to Bournemouth and home to Fulham) but prop up the table on just fifteen points, the visitors languishing seven points from safety.
The sides last met in early December, with the Brammall Lane fixture representing the first match of Chris Wilder’s second spell in charge of the Blades – they went into that game bottom of the table, and have remained there since. The Reds (decked out in purple that night), claimed an away victory courtesy of a first-half goal from Virgil Van Dijk and a second – in second-hand injury time – from Dominic Szoboszlai.
The last Anfield meeting between the sides took place in late-October 2000 – after an excellent 2019-20, Wilder’s side had started the season in dire form and sat 19th on just a single point after five matches; Champions Liverpool, meanwhile, had dropped points in their previous matches (a remarkable 7-2 defeat away to Aston Villa and a 2-2 draw with Everton at Goodison Park) after winning their opening trio of matches. Sheffield United took the lead on the day, courtesy of an early Sander Berge penalty, but Bobby Firmino levelled matters before half-time and Diogo Jota scored the winning goal of the match midway through the second half. The Reds’ puzzling form continued through autumn before collapsing alarmingly during the winter (in a run that saw them lose six consecutive home matches in the league) – a late-season surge saw them finish in a very decent (given the context) third-place. The Blades were bottom of the table within a couple of weeks, and remained there until the end of the season – Wilder was dismissed in mid-March, but Paul Heckingbottom’s side ended up over sixteen points from safety.
Much of the squad that had seen Sheffield United promoted in 2019 remained together following the Blades’ relegation in 2021, but a downside to this was that they carried their form into the 2021-22 campaign too. Former Yugoslavian midfielder and Watford & Fulham manager, Slaviša Jokanović had taken charge for the new season, but his side took just two points from their opening five matches and he was sacked in late-November – United sat 16th, having won just six of their opening nineteen matches. Having been interim manager following Chris Wilder’s dismissal the following season, Paul Heckingbottom was again the man that Sheffield United turned to – this time on a permanent basis. The Blades’ form improved dramatically – they won his first three matches, and eased their way into the playoff positions by the time spring came around. Having finished fifth, Sheffield United were ultimately denied promotion after losing their semi-final against eventually-promoted Nottingham Forest on penalties – it was their form during the first half of the season that really did the damage, however, and they should really have been competing with Fulham and Bournemouth for the automatic-promotion spots.
The 2022-23 season was much more straightforward for Sheffield United. With Heckingbottom at the helm for the duration, they were early-season leaders during the final weeks of summer and – despite two poor periods of form – spent most of the season in the second-place in which they would finish, achieving promotion with a comfortable eleven point margin over eventual playoff-winners Luton Town. Only champions Burnley conceded fewer goals than the Blades last season, with only Burnley and Middlesbrough scoring more – forwards Iliman Ndiaye & Olly McBurnie, along with midfielder James McAtee (on loan from Manchester City) provided most of the goals for the side.
Unfortunately for Sheffield United, that security & sharpness of last season has deserted them entirely this time out – after three quarters of the season, the Blades have scored the least and conceded the most goals of any team in the Premier League, and top-flight survival from this point on would represent one of the league’s greatest escapes. The departure of Ndiaye – signed by Marseille for a reported £20m – appears significant, although quite what difference the forward could have made to the Blades’ actual points tally is difficult to predict. Camerson Archer and Bénie Traoré were the forwards signed in the summer to provide goals, but the former has scored just four league goals and the latter has departed on loan after failing to score in his paltry eight appearances. Heckingbottom was dismissed in early-December, with United having just a win and two draws to show for their first fourteen league matches. Only two wins and four draws have been earned in the fifteen matches since, with Chris Wilder having returned to the club he had previously represented as both player and manager. The Blades are very likely to be relegated this season, and it will be interesting to see what decisions the owners take – it seems fair to suggest that perhaps this ‘era’ is coming to a close for the club, and that a bit of a reset is needed for the club to mount a bid for longer-term top-flight stability a little further down the line.
Daft as it seems to not acknowledge the sense of pressure around any team in the relegation zone, Sheffield United’s plight seems almost impossible to the extent that there can reasonably be no real pressure on them this midweek. The real pressure is instead on table-toppers Liverpool, as they look to maintain retain or regain – depending on the Arsenal and Manchester City results – control of the league table during this final stretch of Jürgen Klopp’s tenure. Luis Díaz and Alexis Mac Allister turned in eye-catching performances again Brighton & Hove Albion at the weekend, but injuries have tested the resolve of the Reds’ squad this season and so some changes are to be expected. Harvey Elliott, Ryan Gravenberch, and Cody Gakpo – each introduced from the bench on Sunday – will all be in the running for a start, perhaps along with unused substitutes Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate; Curtis Jones is also set for a return to the matchday squad, following his recent injury lay off. The league table is very tight with nine matches to go, and Klopp will need to continue to use his squad wisely to positive effective if the Reds are to close in on the domestic & European prizes that they covet.
