The possibility of a back four as Sheffield United prepare for Man Utd

Playing with three contral defenders has been crucial to Sheffield United’s success, ever since Chris Wilder took charge seven years ago. Since then, very rarely have the team veered away from that system.

This weekend, though, current boss Paul Heckingbottom is faced with a problem given his shortage of players, in the centre of defence particularly. No John Egan, no Chris Basham... the Blades are left with three senior centre backs in total in Anel Ahmedhodzic, Auston Trusty and Jack Robinson.

So does Heckingbottom continue with all three or does he go with a back four, a formation used sparingly and mostly during matches as he looked to change things up or there’d been an injury or red card? No doubt the manager will have spent the international break contemplating the potential change.

“It’s something we would work on previously [playing a back four] as a go-to shape within a game,” he told The Star. “If we were chasing a game we had a system we would go to. Now I think it’s a little bit different because we know Egs and Bash are going to be out for the foreseeable length of time, what’s the odds on us getting through until January with no injuries, no suspensions? We have to be proactive and make sure we plan for that scenario.”

Heckingbottom has been in this position before as a result of injuries but he had a fallback plan at that point, with wing backs able to cover further back and maintain the three central defenders. Such is the length of the injury list, that option isn’t available to him this time.

“There was a time a few years ago, I think it was my first game, when we played three centre backs but Enda played centre back and George Baldock was right centre back. Again we haven’t really got those players, because of injury, to use those wing backs inside either,” he added.

“At the minute we’re working on scenarios where when we need to we can change shape. So what’s the difference? So, when it was a go-to shape it was very much about the attacking intent to that shape, now it’s a little bit different because we are going to have to prepare for a degree of control we want without the ball as well when we change shape. That’s probably the bit that we are adding.”