After yet another game without a victory in midweek, United come into Saturday’s game in poor form against their promotion rivals Norwich City. Equally, the Canaries are also in poor form.
Sheffield United have picked up two points from their last five games. Whilst Norwich City have picked up four points from their last five games.
Dean Smith has played an attacking 4-3-3 formation thus far. This is how I think Norwich will line up against the Blades on Saturday:
This team is a very attacking ball-possession-based team.
The Canaries are the second-best team at keeping possession – recording an average possession of 61%. They play short and quick tempo passes in order to keep the flow of the attack – playing an average of 473 short passes per game – third highest in the division.
Norwich City commits the lowest amount of fouls out of everybody else in the league with 7.7 fouls per game. As a result of this, they have seen the lowest number of yellow cards in the league with 16, but they have had 2 sendings off already this season.
On Saturday afternoon there will be plenty of goal attempts at Bramall Lane, as the game features the top two teams in terms of shots recorded per game.
Dean Smith’s side can be guilty of being a soft touch; they are in the bottom half of the league when it comes to tackles per game and interceptions per game, and they are the second-worst team at aerial duels.
They do have an in-form striker that they can call upon, Josh Sargent has been in exquisite form this season. He has scored eight goals and registered two assists – making him the joint-highest goal contributor in the Championship.
Norwich has registered 8.4 dribbles per game, the same number that Blackpool have registered, and we all know how much trouble they caused United on fast-break opportunities.
Both teams are massively out of form coming into this game. But I think given the pressure on United being at home and the poor form they are in, I can see Norwich coming out on top in this one.