Sheffield United: 'Personality and persistence makes this a promotion chasing squad'
and live on Freeview channel 276
The midfielder has just been asked to describe how Sheffield United negotiate their way through excruciatingly tight games. Ones like last weekend’s win over Preston North End, which saw his teammate conjure more magic to set Paul Heckingbottom’s side on their way before Oli McBurnie sealed the victory with his fourth goal in five outings. Norwood bursts into laughter after providing his answer. But as he traces United’s journey under Heckingbottom, noting how the squad has evolved since the 44-year-old’s appointment, one begins to suspect there is actually something in this theory. But only because Ndiaye, one of the most exciting talents to emerge from the club’s development programme in recent seasons, is surrounded by equally gifted and gusty professionals. United, now three points clear at the top of the table, are comfortable being viewed as the Championship’s most coveted scalp.
“The thing is, the lads here realise it’s all about getting victories in this division,” Norwood continues. “It’s not about having 1000 passes and looking really pleasing on the eye, although we can do that I think. It’s about coming through on the right side, getting through those difficult moments when you have to stick together. The beauty here, everyone will fight for each other. But then there’s the lads in the group who can take the opportunities when they come. Iliman does that. He’s not the only one, mind. Sander (Berge) does brilliantly for the second goal, getting past their man and then teeing up the ball. Oli Mac, who then sticks it away, he’s another one. And at the other end of the pitch, you’ve got Wes making saves at vital times when people do finally manage to get past the boys at the back. It’s all good, but we’ve got to keep it going.”
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdWith the domestic fixture schedule now pausing for the international break, it seems like an opportune moment to reflect upon United’s progress under Heckingbottom; a manager who, it is worth remembering, was viewed as a soft choice by the board when he was unveiled in November. Ten months and 23 wins later, Slavisa Jokanovic’s replacement has rejuvenated a squad which was languishing in the lower reaches of the table when he first took charge. Languishing in sixteenth and consumed by self-pity after being relegated the previous season, United went onto reach the play-off semi-finals where they were beaten on penalties by Nottingham Forest. Despite that defeat - “I’d actually call it heartbreaking” - Heckingbottom’s reign has been a remarkable success. The narrow loss Norwood and his colleagues suffered after returning to action at Watford remains the only one time they have tasted defeat so far this term.
“It’s been a fantastic start, since the first game we haven’t looked back. It’s not just this season, it’s since Hecky took the job 11 or 12 months ago. It’s been incredibly the rise, the points we’ve picked up. We just ran out of time back then, even another 10 minutes in the Forest game and I don’t think it would have gone to spot kicks because we had the momentum.
“The fact we’ve been doing this over a long period now, that gives us great confidence. It’s not a flash in the pain. Take Preston for example. We were nowhere near at our best. But we’ve got that thing that helps us come through.”
Norwood, who achieved promotion with United under Heckingbottom’s predecessor Chris Wilder, believes the group assembled by the club’s former under-23’s coach shares similar traits to the one which went on to finish ninth in the top-flight after going up the season before.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“You have to have something inside you that makes you want to go again. You’re either built that way or you’re not. That’s why so many players don’t get to the level we’ve been at and we want to get back there. You always hear people talking about having it, but they don’t always have that character.”
Of course, calibre also comes into the equation. But noting that “only around five” senior players are remaining at Bramall Lane this week - “The rest, they’re all internationals and that tells you something” - Norwood, now retired from international duty with Northern Ireland, quickly returns to his favourite theme. United’s personnel might have changed, following the arrival of names including Anel Ahmedhodzic, Tommy Doyle and Reda Khadra. But their personality, Heckingbottom’s determination to build a ‘no excuses’ culture, remains as stubborn as ever. That could prove crucial following news that Ahmedhodzic, one of their most influential performers of late, has been diagnosed with a thigh injury after linking-up with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The centre-half, according to officials in the Balkans, is set to be out “for at least” a month.
“We don’t make them, excuses” Norwood continues, acknowledging United hadn’t been at their best at Deepdale. “Okay, so there might have been a few tired bodies with all the travelling we’d done. But that’s not something we want to drone on about. We just want to get the job done.”
That job, of course, is sealing a return to the Premier League. Having won all of their last four encounters, and kept a clean sheet in each, United will attempt to continue their impressive sequence of results when Birmingham City visit South Yorkshire next month.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“Teams are going to look at us and raise their games by five or 10 percent,” Norwood says. “It’s always difficult, never easy. But we just hang on in there and do what we do. Plus, the good thing is, we always know if people give some of our lads an opportunity then they’re going to get punished.”