Sheffield United: "Surprised" boss demands big improvement at Cardiff City
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Three days after beating Championship leaders Burnley, United slipped to a shock defeat at home when Matt Taylor’s side recorded their first win at Bramall Lane since 1980.
Although Heckingbottom insisted the visitors’ display had not caught his players unaware, the 45-year-old did concede the drop in their own standards had shocked both him and his coaching staff.
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Hide Ad“We expected this to be as tough a game as Burnley,” he said. “There were no surprises in that regard from our point of view. The only surprise for us was our own performance.”
Despite accepting that United had fallen way below the levels expected of a club with designs on promotion, Heckingbottom was quick to dismiss suggestions they had taken a positive result for granted after dispatching Vincent Kompany’s men 72 hours earlier.
Taylor made four changes to his starting eleven for the meeting with United, despite the fitness issues blighting Rotherham’s squad. Heckingbottom’s options have also been slashed by injuries, with John Fleck and Oli McBurnie the latest names added to a casualty list which already includes the likes of Rhys Norrington-Davies, Rhian Brewster, Tommy Doyle and Sander Berge. Jayden Bogle, Max Lowe and Daniel Jebbison also sat out the loss to Rotherham.
“I’m not sitting here saying how bad we were,” Heckingbottom said. “But I thought we looked jaded.”