THE VERDICT: PREMIER LEAGUE
BLADES SHOW
OVERLAPPING
CENTRE BACKS
REALLY WORK!
Wilder’s novel use
of his defenders
leads to winning
goal against Palace
O
n an emotional Pre-
mier League home-
coming to Bramall
Lane, Sheffield
United made it clear
their new-found reputation
for fancy football hasn’t
come at the expense of still
being able to mix it.
Chris Wilder’s side provided fur-
ther evidence that his overlapping
centre back system can thrive in
the Premier League when Jack
O’Connell buccaneered forward
and helped set up the only goal
of the game, scored by John
Lundstram after 47 minutes.
But bruises in the Palace dress-
ing room also taught us the Blades
from south Yorkshire will retain
their traditional cutting edge in
the battle for survival.
From Lundstram’s early reducer
on Wilfried Zaha (right) to a late
kick by George Baldock on Palace
substitute James McCarthy,
described as ‘nasty’ by Eagles boss
Roy Hodgson, United were at it.
Most importantly, there was
enough in the underdogs’ perform-
ance to confirm they won’t be this
season’s whipping boys. David
McGoldrick missed a sitter before
Lundstram’s winner and after an
unbeaten start to the campaign
they look in better shape than
Palace, who still await their first
goal of the season.
‘We had to marry the emotion
with a disciplined performance as
well,’ said Wilder, a boyhood Blades
fan and former player who has
taken them from League One to
the promised land in three years.
‘We needed a good shape to stop
Palace from counter-attacking but
as the home team we also wanted
to go forward and create problems.
I thought we got the balance right
and later in the game we stood
tough when they went direct.
‘I know more than anybody what
these supporters have gone
through in recent years and they’ve
kept coming back. This is defi-
nitely a day for them. Hopefully we
are pointing in the right direction.
We have to now go on and prove
consistently we are at this level.’The noise that greeted United’s
players at kick-off sent shivers
down the spine. The return to top-
flight football in Sheffield has been
12 years coming and in the early
stages there was a danger the
players would be overawed.
Palace — with Zaha restored to
the starting line-up — had the best
chance of the opening half-hour
when Christian Benteke muscled
clear before firing at the legs of
goalkeeper Dean Hender-
son, on loan from Man-
chester United and being
watched by England
manager Gareth
Southgate.
Gradually the home
side got into their
rhythm, with wing-
backs Baldock and
Enda Stevens getting
forward, supported
on the flanks by Chris
Basham and O’Connell
from centre back.
A mistake by Patrick
van Aanholt after 40 min-
utes should have cost Palace.
Lundstram took up the loose
ball and whipped in a perfect
low cross for McGoldrick,who shot straight at goalkeeper
Vicente Guaita from four yards.
United broke the deadlock when
O’Connell, the left-sided player in
Wilder’s three-man defence, burst
forwards towards the Palace pen-
alty box before feeding Stevens.
He in turn supplied Luke
Freeman and Guaita parried his
shot into the path of
Lundstram, who buried
the rebound for his first
goal in 18 months.
The midfielder is a
typical Wilder signing.
Picked up for £500,000
from Oxford, he has
now scored in all
four divisions. ‘He is a
typical modern midfielder:
athletic, mobile, technical,’
enthused Wilder.
His opposite number Roy
Hodgson admitted: ‘We
didn’t do enough to get back
in it. We seemed to lose our
composure and to some
extent the passing
quality after they
scored.’
The Palace boss
refused to con-
demn United’sphysical approach, even though
Zaha seemed unhappy with it on
the pitch.
However, Hodgson did question
why McCarthy was given equal
punishment to Baldock after
reacting to a bad challenge.
‘It was a nasty one on the ankle
and hurt him. As a football person,I find it hard to accept both got
yellow cards,’ said the former
England manager.
Wilder made it clear he wants his
team to continue rattling cages as
well as playing attractive football.
‘It is still a contact sport. People
make tackles. I don’t want to take
that out of my team and the sup-
porter wants to see tackles made,
in the right way,’ he said.
Wilder sent on 37-year-old Phil
Jagielka for his second debut for
United. He was in the last Blades
side to play in the Premier League
in 2007 before rejoining from
Everton this summer. A fitting way
to complete a perfect day.
SHEFFIELD UNITED (5-3-2): Henderson 7;
Baldock 6.5, Basham 7, Egan 6, O’Connell 6.5,
Stevens 7; Norwood 6, Fleck 6 (Freeman
29min, 6.5), LUNDSTRAM 8; McGoldrick 5
(Jagielka 89), Robinson 6 (McBurnie 56, 6).
Subs not used: Moore, Besic, Osborn, Sharp.
Scorer: Lundstram 47.
Booked: Lundstram, Baldock, Freeman.
Manager: Chris Wilder 7.
CRYSTAL PALACE (4-4-1-1): Guaita 6; Ward 5.5,
Dann 6, Kelly 6.5, Van Aanholt 5; Townsend 6
(McCarthy 70, 6), McArthur 6 (Wickham 82),
Milivojevic 6.5, Meyer 5.5 (Schlupp 65, 6);
Zaha 5.5; Benteke 6.5.
Subs not used: Hennessey, Cahill, Kouyate,
Ayew. Booked: McCarthy.
Manager: Roy Hodgson 6.
Referee: David Coote 6.5.
Attendance: 30,197.1
0
CRYSTAL PALACE
Lundstram 47SHEFF UTD
JOE
BERNSTEIN
at Bramall LaneRoy laments lack of ‘magic wand’
CRYSTAL PALACE manager Roy
Hodgson said there is ‘no
magic wand’ to solve his club’s
early-season goal drought.
Palace have not scored in their
two opening Premier League
games, after having failed to
invest in a new striker with the
£50million funds from Aaron
Wan-Bissaka’s move to
Manchester United.
It has left the club reliant on
out-of-form Christian Benteke,
who scored only once last
season, winger Wilfried Zaha
who wanted to leave the club in
the summer, cut-price buyJordan Ayew and Connor
Wickham, who has only just
returned from long-term injury.
‘We must do the same as
always, keep working at our
game,’ Hodgson said.
‘We have to make the moment
right, attack the right areas,
and practise those things
on the training ground,
the quality of passing and
crossing.
‘There is no magic wand that
changes these things. We have
played 180 minutes and not
scored a goal and we know
that you can’t win gameszero-zero. I do believe we have
players in the team capable of
scoring goals. We have to make
sure we keep faith in them and
they keep faith in themselves.
‘As a coach, all you can do is
give support and backing and
that the players go out and
perform how they want.’
Palace only tested Sheffield
United goalkeeper Dean
Henderson twice at Bramall
Lane, and Zaha cut a
frustrated figure as he was on
the receiving end of heavy
Blades tackles.JOE BERNSTEINFreemanO’ConnellLundstramStevensHOW DEFENDER HELPED STUN PALACE
Running off the ball Running with the ball Pass/Shot47 mins
1 In a perfect example of
United’s overlapping centre
backs, O’Connell charges
down the left wing before
playing the ball directly to the
feet of Stevens
2 Stevens feeds Freeman who
bursts into the box and shoots
3 Guaita can only parry the
ball to the feet of Lundstram
who smacks it home1
2
3
Winner:
Lundstram
has now
scored in
all four
divisionsPICTURE:
IAN
HODGSONv1