Sheffield United were one of the surprises in the 2019/20 Premier League season. Just being promoted from the Championship they demonstrated impressive defensive discipline and satisfying balance in their back-three formation.
Finishing ninth was a dreamed start of their top tier journey and they definitely got under the spotlight, becoming one of the most exciting teams to watch.
The expectations for the new 2020/21 season were high, but the team didn’t look quite the same, starting off with four disappointing defeats.
While their defensive performance is still relatively satisfying they look quite lost in their attacking ventures. Their inconsistency when it comes to creating goal-scoring opportunities and their failure in taking advantage of them proved crucial in their first games of the season with their latest disappointment being a 2-1 defeat by Arsenal.
In this tactical analysis, we will look into their attacking performance and seek the reasons why they underperform in front of the goal. We will include scout report of their forward players and see are their efforts enough to get Sheffield out of the difficult situation.
The back threes functionality
The manager Chris Wilder relies on the back-three formation in his tactics and sets the team up in a 3-5-2 on almost every occasion. By using different rotations, overlapping centre-backs and attack-minded wing-backs, who are equally involved in their defensive phase, he managed to achieve a balance between the lines last year. It looks like they have become pretty predictable for their opponents and relying on scoring a low number of goals while trying to protect the lead by using their strong defensive performance won’t work out anymore.
With pretty consistent back three, they try to play with width and most of their possession is exactly in the wide areas where the wing-backs Enda Stevens and George Baldock are the team’s most important figures. Most of their build-up methods include the wide areas, although they do have the support of George Norwood in the number 6 role. The other regular starters in midfield John Lundstram and John Fleck are the ones that have more advanced positions and occupy the half-spaces and the wide areas supporting the attacking actions.
Their movement allows their teammates more freedom, which helps in making positional changes and different combinations, creating spaces and engaging defenders. They also provide the needed additional support in defence during transitions.
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