Blades of Glory: Chris Wilder and the Rise of Sheffield United

The sight of one of Sheffield’s centre-backs bursting downfield, with or without the ball, has become a familiar one over the course of this campaign.

It would be insulting to paint Wilder’s system as a gimmick, as it relies on so much more than his wide centre-backs serving as attacking outlets.

Sheffield’s system relies not only on the centre-backs, but almost every player being comfortable enough to operate in multiple roles. Wing-backs will drift inside, centre-backs will overlap on both the inside and outside. Forwards will drop deep and rotate out, and midfielders will drop into defence, or split out wide.

Wilder’s attacking setup sees his side work the ball up one side of the pitch, before relying on frequent switches of play, aided by the overlaps to attack quickly down the opposite wing. No team has played more long passes than Sheffield this season, and they’ve done so on the fourth-lowest amount of touches, indicating that they look to switch play early and often.

The role of the central midfielder and the wing-backs becomes vital within this setup. It will usually fall on the midfielder or one of the wider defenders to play that switch to the wing-back. As the defending team is forced to transition from one side to the other, this opens up the opportunity for the quick overload down one wing, and a cross into the box.

Despite averaging only 44% possession per game in the Premier League, they have put in the 4th highest number of crosses.