WE'VE PUT IN A LOT TO EARN THIS BIG CHANCE…
A CHAMPIONSHIP table knocking around cyberspace shows Sheffield United would sit top had the season started when Paul Heckingbottom took charge.
“I've seen it,” admits the 44-year-old, who stepped straight into the breach when Slavisa Jokanovic was dismissed in late November. “And, yeah, we'd be up there. But seasons last 46 games, don't they?”
Indeed they do and, for the first 19 of them, United were wretched. Turgid and tortured, mentally scarred by a harrowing relegation from the Premier League; Jokanovic, glowering and grim, simply could not wring a tune from players who had romped to a joyous promotion just two years earlier.
Enter Hecky. The former Leeds and Barnsley boss -a boyhood Blades fan -had briefly taken charge at the fag end of United's second season in the Premier League, raging against the dying of the light with victories over Burnley, Brighton and Everton. Once again tasked with cuing a lost cause, res- he immediately restored the high-tempo 3-5-2 system that supercharged the Chris Wilder era and watched as a galvanised squad soared into play-offf contention.
“A lot of peoplee said the season was a write-off when I took over, but I never believed that,” says Heckingbottom.
“Because I'd worked with thesee players last season. I knew them. I believed in them. We were 16th, but I truly believed it was a false position.
“My message to them was simple. The success that Chris got here, taking them up from League One to the Premier League, was achieved with a hell of a lot less than we've got now.
“But there can't be a sense of entitlement. What gets you anywhere in life, not just in football, is hard work and a mentality that you'll give everything to succeed.
“I said to these players -and I'll say it now -that if they give everything, I'd back them to give any team in this league a game. That's exactly what they've done.
“Coming from where we were, 16th to fifth, it's taken a lot of effort and energy. It's taken a toll on the players, and we've had a lot of injuries. But it's also given us a right chance. We're on a level playing field.”
Asked to explain exactly what he has done to enact such a dramatic reversal of fortune, Heckingbottom is careful not to hammer his predecessor.
“I'm not going to say what we've changed because stuff like that is disrespectful, isn't it?,” he explains.
Mentality
“And to be totally honest, it's more about mentality than any tactical changes. Putting an emphasiss on trying to score goals, trying to be positive, trying to play forwards. Being creative.
“We'vee tried to inhe tempo in ev- crease the tempo in everything we do, training and games, and I want them to play with a fearlessness. Whether that's with the ball, risking possession to try and score, or without the ball, taking risks to win it back.
“If you give 100 per cent, if you try to score and to entertain people, that's all the fans want. I'll never have a go at anyone for giving the ball away, but I'll certainly have a go if they're not getting on the ball and trying to make things happen.”
One man who has fully embraced that dictat is Sander Berge. Signed for a then club-re-cord fee of £22m in Jan-uary 2020, when the Blades looked set to gatecrash the Europa League, the Norwe-gian midfielder has rarely lived up to his billing.
Perpetually injured and criticised by some supporters pla ying for safe, featured just 15 times last term and would have been sold in the summer had an acceptable offer arrived.
It didn't, but after further injury issues and a slow return to fitness, the 24-year-old had, pre-weekend, scored three goals in his last four games and started both of Norway's recent friendlies.
“Sander's had a tough couple of years with injury,” said Heckinbottom. “I managed to work with him at the end of last year, but he hurt his other hamstring and ended up having surgery. That was a real blow, and it's taken a while for him to get back up to speed.
“Criticism always comes from outside, and it's irrelevant. The people who know you, who work with you every day -they are the only ones in a position to judge. And me, I never had any reason to criticise Sander.
“I know how good he is, how hard he works. He gave absolutely everything in training, forced his way into the team.
“But I had to use him -sparingly is the wrong word -sensibly. We've had two games a week for about two months and it was impossible for Sander to keep producing on that schedule
Rotated
“So we used him steadily, rotated him along with the other players, and by the end of that stint he's played five games in two weeks.
“Now he's got to a level where he's scoring goals, people are singing his praises and he's in a very good place.”
Berge, of course, may yet be sold, with United in need of cash to rebuild a squad containing too many players the wrong side of 30. The £180m jackpot on offer for promotion might help, but Heckingbottom is experienced -and cynical -enough to know that it might not.
‘What gets you anywhere in life is hard work anda mentality that you'll give everything to succeed'
Paul Heck ingbottom
“There's not many managers got hold of the purse strings,” he says. “Unless you buy your own football club, it's not your money, is it?
“But, yes, the Premier League is everyone's aim. Of course it is. But we're not talking about it as players. We're not talking about it as staff. We're just focussing on the next few games, and if we give our all in those, what more can we do?
“We've had a little recharge in the international break. That's allowed us to get a couple of bodies back and really have a reset for this final sprint. If we maintain our form then we give ourselves a very good chance. After where we've come from, that's all we want.”
