'Nothing to lose' - Manchester United sent blunt warning ahead of Sheffield United visit

Chris Sutton is not expecting an easy game for Manchester United this evening against a Sheffield United outfit with ‘nothing to lose’.

Chris Wilder’s Blades head to Old Trafford this evening in desperate need of points, having spent much of the season rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table. Saturday’s 4-1 drubbing at the hands of second-bottom Burnley compounded misery but survival is still possible and United will fight until the end.

Manchester United played a day later than their visitors and endured an extra 30 minutes during the FA Cup semi-final win over Championship side Coventry City. Erik ten Hag’s side are favourites to win this evening but the visit of United will be no walkover and Sutton is expecting a difficult evening.

“I am going to predict a Manchester United win here,” Sutton wrote in his column for BBC Sport. “I don't think this is a particularly good game for Erik ten Hag's side to face next though, against the team at the bottom of the table with nothing to lose.

“The Manchester United players probably won't relish being expected to win easily again, just as they were against Coventry, but even they should be able to beat Sheffield United - surely.”

Manchester United are still fighting for a place in Europe but a run of four Premier League games without a win has seen them drop off the pace. They may also a number of key stars missing, with Erik ten Hag confirming assessments will be made late on Marcus Rashford, Scott McTominay, Bruno Fernandes and Alejandro Garnacho, who all suffered knocks during Saturday’s FA Cup win.

The Blades will hope to end a nine-game winless run, having last taken three points at Luton Town in February. Wilder will likely be working with the same group of players as Saturday, with Gustavo Hamer expected to be available despite being forced off in the 78th-minute at Bramall Lane.

United are 10 points away from safety with five games remaining and so wins will need to start coming sooner, rather than later. Wilder expects opportunities to fall for his side against a fatigued Reds outfit but they need to be taken if there is any chance of a positive result.

“We talked about how powerful the division is and the quality of it but we’ll get we’ll get some opportunities,” he told reporters. “We have to defend better than we have done, whether it’s a back four or whether it’s a five. Individual, basic defending is something that we have to get so much better at and like we talked about, when someone makes a mistake, who’s there to get somebody out of it? “Does it go from one mistake to two mistakes the three mistakes? If you look back at a lot of our goals this season there are areas there where somebody can stop that happening and we haven’t been good enough to do that. So we are going to be tested defensively, structure-wise and in individual big moments. They find the big moments and we have to find our big moments if we’re going to get a result.”