Sheffield United boss's verdict on Erik ten Hag's Man Utd position as he sets big Old Trafford challenge

Chris Wilder, the Sheffield United manager, does not have a great deal of sympathy for Erik ten Hag amid ongoing uncertainty over his position at Manchester United ahead of tomorrow night’s clash with the Blades. The Dutchman is facing increased scrutiny over his job despite leading his side to a second successive FA Cup final this season.

It was more the manner of Sunday’s semi-final shoot-out victory over Championship side Coventry - who fought back from 3-0 down and almost won it before a dramatic VAR decision ruled out what would have been one of the biggest fairytale stories in the competition’s history - that upped the pressure on ten Hag, whose side are seventh in the Premier League table ahead of the meeting with the rock-bottom Blades.

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The Old Trafford hierarchy are widely expected to look for a new manager in the summer but Wilder has his own problems to focus on at Bramall Lane, with his boyhood club sliding towards a Championship return after a horror season which has seen them win just three league games and go within one goal of breaking Derby’s unwanted record for the most goals conceded in a 38-game Premier League season.

“I think the manager will be pretty secure in his own thoughts regarding what he’s achieved previously that got him the Man United job,” Wilder said of ten Hag. “This is the scrutiny that comes in the Premier League and most certainly comes when you’re Manchester United manager. So he’ll accept that and get on with it.”

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The original United suffered another chastening afternoon on Saturday when they were beaten 4-1 by second-bottom Burnley on their own patch. The mood amongst the players afterwards, Wilder revealed, was as negative as he could remember since he returned to the club in December but they will at least have enjoyed more rest and recovery than ten Hag’s players, who played 120 minutes at Wembley a day later.

“Listen, we’re looking for every advantage, of course,” Wider added. “I should imagine it was a tough afternoon emotionally, for everybody connected to the game including Manchester United players. But they came through it. The way they play is the way they play, they’ve got some talented players so when we have the big moments, like we had on Saturday, we have to capitalise on on those. We had moments against Man City and when we went to Liverpool and you have to capitalise on them. If you don’t then, regardless of who you’re playing, it’s going to put you on the back foot.

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“We talked about how powerful the division is and the quality of it but we’ll get we’ll get some opportunities. 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.”