Sheffield United (h); The Preview

Jon: You seem a nice bloke. A reasonable bloke. An understanding bloke. So I’m sure you’re not an advocate of the whole ‘Take your time, take your time, Norwich City…..’ fanfare that currently resides around Bramall Lane.

Social media can be a strange place, but it does seem like a large number of Blades fans have it in for Norwich. Is there actually any explainable reason behind this, short of the fact we shit-housed our way to one win at your place around 18 months ago?

Gav:It’s funny that is the first question as only this week I saw Norwich City fans on social media responding and reacting to Chris Wilder’s post match interview after our defeat to Swansea City on Saturday saying he really is a sore loser and a bitter manager after he claimed we should have been out of sight at halftime and shouldn’t have lost to Swansea. By the way, Chris is right with that opinion, but it does appear that the two sets of fans Chris Wilder is easy to trigger and get a response out of are Wednesday fans who he has on strings and fans of Norwich City after the antics last season at Bramall Lane and Carrow Road.

You did shit house your way to victory at Bramall Lane last season which is why we gave it back when we won at Carrow Road and obviously it made it sweeter when we won extremely late on at Bramall Lane earlier this season. So not only is this game a crucial one at the top of the table with both teams going great it’s got some spice to it too, spice that only Blades and Canaries would understand why it is there between 2 clubs miles and miles apart.

Wilder seems to be one of those managers that is quite happy to get up people’s noses. If he’s with you, you love him. If he’s against you, you’ll never be fond of him. Let’s call it the Robbie Savage effect.

I think the curiosity for Norwich fans is that the ‘Take your time, take your time’ still seems to be sung by Blades fans. Seems a bit strange given the amount of time that’s elapsed.

From the outside, it seems that Wilder quite likes to employ my Football/Champ Manager tactic of just signing every striker available, then wedging them into a coherent formation later. With Billy Sharp as the obvious first choice, is it difficult for Wilder to accommodate Madine, McGoldrick, Clarke and Woodburn around him?

It’s a fun chant, it’s a bit of banter and no doubt will be sung by the Blades fans on Saturday even before the game has kicked off.

As for the signing strikers, I wish we would sign more. Good quality strikers are expensive and we haven’t got the money to compete with the teams around us as proven with Waghorn at the start of the season so we have to make the best with what we have got and the best we can find on limited funds. McGoldrick has been sensational for a free that is apparently injured all the time. Woodburn has gone back to Liverpool and never made an impact so it’s Clarke and Madine who are the other strikers tasked to get the goals. That’s not that many forwards and it is rumoured that Clarke maybe leaving.

It will be Sharp and McGoldrick 9 times out of 10, their link up play is great and they have formed a partnership. Madine is a big physical target man that we have been missing. He is a “Plan B” signing. Put him on and win headers, hassle and bully defenders, lead the line and create space. He also has a better touch than people give him credit for so if he plays we won’t just turn into a long ball team.

So it will not be that difficult for Wilder to accommodate the strikers into the team as they all bring something different and can complement each other.

Ah didn’t know Woodburn had gone back, that’s interesting as we were linked with him prior to the season starting.

McGoldrick is a talent for sure, nearly got a move to the Premier League before injury plagued him at our ‘friends’ down the road.

Saturday’s game isn’t season defining, but you get the sense it could signal a real momentum shift either way. City win and a 6 point gap is tricky to claw back, a United victory puts us pretty much level pegging with plenty of games to play.

Given where we are right now, what constitutes success for the Blades come May, and are you fearful you could fall away, a bit like you did last season?

I’m not fearful of falling away for two reasons.

1. We already had started to slip away this time last season but having just won 4 games on the spin and closing the gap to yourselves and Leeds United (it was at one point a few weeks ago a 10 point gap) it has given us a lift that we can stay the course this time around. We have a better team (Norwood in midfield has been an excellent addition) and we have that vital Championship experience from last season.
2. We have 5 of the bottom 6 of the league currently to play at Bramall Lane. Our head to head record against the teams at the top this season is pretty poor which could be good news for yourselves but our record against the teams at bottom is excellent. We lose the teams you can understand us losing to but we beat the teams we should be beating and that is why we are 3rd.

Success for the Blades this season is more points than last season and a top 6 finish. We cannot blow teams away with our spending power of get that one big money signing to make a key difference so we have to build gradually so more points than last season is a success and we are on course to do that.

The other teams that have come up from League 1 both with us two seasons ago and last season are all mostly struggling right now with them down towards the bottom of the league. Blackburn are the highest placed side in 10th. The job Wilder has done to put United in the running last season and again this season is truly amazing.

Aside from the promotion, that sounds remarkably similar to Norwich. We’ve had to sell the family silver and rebuild a squad which, Tettey and Klose aside, is unrecognisable from the one which was relegated from the Premier League.

We have also struggled against other top six teams, but have a happy knack of disposing of the sides below that. It should make for an interesting run-in. Your lot seem a bit more ‘tried and tested’, while City have great technicians with the ball who haven’t been here before. Still, we could just both go up automatically when Leeds implode, yeah?

Talking of Leeds, how’s that Yorkshire rivalry bubbling up?

If one team can implode then it is Leeds. If everything is rosy and comfortable at Elland Road they seem to find and press the self-destruct button. Spygate was very interesting. I was in the company of a Leeds United fan when Bielsa called the press conference last week and they were so fearful of him leaving. Without Bielsa, Leeds United are not the force they are.

I’m sad to report the rivalry is not bubbling or simmering at all right now between us and Leeds. When Wilder was asked about spygate he didn’t care too much and said there were other things in football that annoyed him more (I wonder if Norwich was on his mind?!). Other managers at other clubs have spoken about fines and points deduction but Wilder didn’t care. This was well received by Leeds fans with many stating on social media that if Leeds United and the Blades went up automatically that would be great. Leeds have warmed to Wilder.

The rivalry between the Blades and Norwich has plenty more heat to it.

It’ll be a feisty affair on Saturday for sure, I’d imagine Wilder will have his troops fired up, whereas Farke will opt to try and calm his side down, as his team’s ability to be cool in possession is key to any success we might hope to have.

You mentioned possibly two up front with McGoldrick and Sharp, but what kind of tactical system/formation are the Blades using right now?

5-3-2 with wing backs racing forward and over lapping centre halves. To my knowledge we are STILL the only team to have centre halves overlapping to put crosses into the box. We have a technical midfield with Norwood dropping deep to get the ball off the defenders with Fleck and Duffy ahead. Duffy’s role is to sit behind Sharp and McGoldrick and link up play with them from midfield but also to run beyond them to get into the box. Our style is very fluid and that is why it is difficult to combat at times.

If you manage to sit on Duffy and stop him from playing, which is what Leeds did at Bramall Lane then we could struggle, but we now have Kieran Dowell on loan from Everton who is competition for Duffy and a very good player.

So wing backs surging forward at every opportunity, over lapping centre halves to put crosses in, technical midfielders who can pass it around comfortably with Billy Sharp upfront to pounce on any chances in the box.

Our young full backs both like to get forward at any opportunity so it could well leave gaps at both ends of the park. Will make for an exciting spectacle for sure.

Very specific prediction time then. I’m going for a 1-1 draw, which will leave no-one with an inkling of where the two teams might end up, and keeps it interesting. United to take the lead on the stroke of half time through a Fleck piledriver (first time we’ll have seen one of those at Carrow Road for a few years), only for Jordan Rhodes to come off the bench and slot home an equaliser deep into stoppage time. Oh and Chris Wilder will be sent to the stands after he questions Farke’s brand of aftershave, leaving the two of them to have a minor scuffle. You?

I’d be happy with a point. The way you are at home I’ll go for 0-0 87 minutes, 3-2 win for the Blades after 95 mins after you take a 2-0 lead!

Seriously, I will go for 1-1 too. 0-0 at half time, predictable but Sharp to score first, Pukki to equalise late on as the Blades take their time and play football the Norwich way to try and hold on to a very good win.

Oh, and our coach to arrive on time is 5/4. I’ll have a bit of that.