The recent success of Sheffield United can shown by two very impressive statistics.
If the Blades keep a clean sheet against Bristol City in their next match they will equal a club record.
United host City in the Championship after the international break having kept seven consecutive clean sheets in the league.
Making it eight would equal the run they achieved under Nigel Clough in League One during the 2013/14 season.
Stefan Scougall played in that team and also under Chris Wilder in his first year in charge at Bramall Lane. The Scot explains to the Sheffield Star what it takes:
(Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
“Clean sheets, or a long run of clean sheets, don’t just happen by accident. A lot of work on the training ground goes into it. Even if it’s half an hour a session, it all adds up.
“Back then, Cloughie used to drill it into us not to concede because that meant we wouldn’t lose and he trusted us to score.
“When Chris first went to the 3-5-2 system, very quickly everybody was taught their jobs within that. The wing-backs knew when to tuck in, the midfielders knew where to be when we were out of possession and the same goes for the strikers and so on. There’s a lot of work goes in behind the scenes.”
More impressive statistics
For success in defence the cliche would be that the team needs consistency. Yet Wilder has bucked that trend by proving that modern football is a squad game.
The Blades manager has not named the same starting XI since his side lost 1-0 at Swansea City on January 19. Since then they are unbeaten in 10 league games.
“We had 13 or 14 players last year and, no disrespect to the others, but it was a difficult at times,” Wilder told the Sheffield Star.
“Now we look a lot stronger in terms of experience and quality. That’s the difference.”
