Here’s the match report from Paul Doyle.
Less a new manager bounce than a dead cat thud.
Sheffield United have conceded five goals in a game as many times in one match after parting company with Chris Wilder as they did in 227 games under him.
— Richard Jolly (@RichJolly) March 14, 2021
As we wait for reaction, more Julian Cope, as sent in by Gavin Herbert: “They must be raving mad on the Sheffield Moors.”
The Moor is actually the 60s planning nightmare shopping centre.
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It goes without saying that Sheffield United are bottom but Leicester have had a good weekend.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 30 | 43 | 71 |
| 2 | Leicester | 29 | 21 | 56 |
| 3 | Man Utd | 28 | 23 | 54 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 29 | 19 | 51 |
| 5 | West Ham | 27 | 11 | 48 |
Full-time: Leicester 5-0 Sheffield United
Leicester take full advantage of both Chelsea and Everton’s slip this weekend and of a team bereft of, well, anything. Blades were very poor, and looked shellshocked by the loss of Chris Wilder. Kelechi Iheancho’s hat-trick carved them open. Paul Heckingbottom on the sidelines has his arms crossed and he knows he has a thankless task.
90 min: Two minutes added on as Leicester pass their way out of defence. The cigar is on now, and the smoking jacket.
89 min: Kasper Schmeichel gets a touch. He’s not had many of those. Blades: have they had a shot yet?
88 min: Oof, nasty foul on Tielemans. Lundstram is booked, and his opponent calls out on pain. The Belgian should be OK and that came close to a loss of control from the Blades player.
86 min: Leicester force a couple of corners. No let-up here. Goal difference could be key. They must hope their rivals do not play Sheffield United too often.
85 min: Iheanacho could have had five. First a wayward shot then one too many touches when Vardy - again - sets his partner away.
83 min: This has got worse and worse for Blades. They have been pulled apart by Leicester, who bided their time and then took the fullest advantage.
81 min: Two subs, two debutants: on comes Ndiaye for Blades, and Leshabela for Leicester. Pérez and Norwood depart.
Goal! Leicester 5-0 Sheffield United (Ampadu, 80 OG)
Amapadu scores an own-goal after Vardy escapes down the wing. It was neither shot nor cross but Blades are falling apart.
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Goal! Leicester 4-0 Sheffield United (Iheancho, 78)
A solo run from Ampadu is stopped. The ball runs clear, and it comes to Iheanacho. He has time and space to shoot. He takes it on, and pulls the shot into the bottom right-hand corner. That’s the hat-trick.
76 min: Jamie Vardy chases back and wins the ball, as if to show where it’s all gone wrong for Blades. They were such hard workers, and then they weren’t.
74 min: Blades’ Kean Bryan is booked for pulling Iheanacho back. Desperate play from him.
73 min: A similar chance for Perez, from the edge of the area, from a set piece laid simply into his path. Blades are losing heart, and fast.
71 min: Perez might have had a second but shanks his shot. It was laid on plate. Blades defence laid out like a spilled cutlery set.
70 min: That was lovely from Vardy. Again, what a player, even when his finishing is more Stuart Barlow/Ade Akinbiyi than Daniele Massaro, he’s such a clever player.
Goal! Leicester 3-0 Sheffield United (Iheanacho, 69)
Vardy the creator once more. He spins out left, and with his left tees up a pass that Iheanacho thumps into the net. A seventh assist of the season for Vardy.
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66 min: Oh Blades, oh no. This has been pretty harrowing for them. Somewhere in Sheffield, Chris Wilder has just cracked open another one and told whoever is listening that it really isn’t that easy, is it?
65 min: Pérez’s last three goals have come against Sheffield United. Having him back has made up for the loss of Harvey Barnes. He’s been far too sharp for Blades.
Goal! Leicester 2-0 Sheffield United (Pérez, 64)
From Fofana’s clearance, Albrighton heads down the wing. A simple pass inside and Pérez wallops the ball in.
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63 min: Blades sub: on comes Mousset for Burke, who did not have much of an afternoon. Mousset almost gets on the end of a free-kick but Fofana does well to head clear.
62 min: Leicester continue to pass the ball around in the fashion that made their manager famous as Swansea boss.
60 min: Jamie Vardy is limping after reaching to try and beat Ramsdale after an Iheanacho pass. He might have done better there, and he’s still not full pelt, though still presenting a huge problem to Blades.
59 min: Jason Tindall looks a tad lonely in the stand. His notebook is still in his hand but what has he written in it?
58 min: More metronomic Leicester passing...more Blades trying to keep their shape.
56 min: Leicester keep the ball when it comes back to them from a cleared free-kick. They exude real comfort, and look to be enjoying themselves until a loose Soyuncu pass. Brendan is a believer in ‘resting on the ball’. That means conserving energy rather than what would seem the discomfort of actually lying on a football.
54 min: Brendan is not happy. He’s brainstorming from the sidelines. “Tempo!” he bellows.
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52 min: Fleck takes the corner, headed away by Fofana and Perez is stopped as he tries to escape on the counter.
51 min: This has begun with more zest than the previous half which took a while to get going. Leicester smell another. Blades look a little more interested and force a corner.
49 min: Lovely move from Leicester, great defending from Chris Basham as he runs back to the line and heads away from a shot laid on a plate for Vardy by a sweeping attack in which there are multiple exchanges of passes.
48 min: A player in form.
⚽️ Kelechi Iheanacho has scored in 3 successive games for the first time in his 133 PL app career
— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) March 14, 2021
Has scored 4 PL goals since the start of February - had scored only twice in previous 13 months pic.twitter.com/hSGX7YnGUz
47 min: Leicester corner, cleared by a low header from Norwood.
46 min: Back away we go, and Leicester have made a change. Marc Albrighton replaces Ricardo and it looks like he will play as a right wing-back. Now, can Blades get a shot on goal in this half? They didn’t manage one in the first.
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Half-time: Leicester 1-0 Sheffield United
Leicester’s quality has told. Blades haven’t been bad, they’re just not good enough this season and as yet there has been little evidence that losing Chris Wilder is the cure to their ills. They were undone by a fine goal, with Iheanacho completing a fine half with a good goal.
45+1 min: One minute added on...
44 min: Vardy heads down the left-hand channel from which he created the goal. He doubles back and Leicester keep the ball. It eventually goes all the way back to Kasper Schmeichel. He gets called by two names as he has a famous dad. That’s different. See Harry Redknapp and Jamie Redknapp for another example.
43 min: Only hurried defending stops Iheanacho getting another. It looked to be sat up and ready.
42 min: Leicester contentedly play the ball around. There’s no rush, and Blades look, er blunt too.
40 min: That goal was the product of patience. Leicester were always going to find an opening as their passing is so slick. Vardy might be short of goals but he always plays with his head up. What a good player he’s been and continues to be.
Goal! Leicester 1-0 Sheffield United (Iheanacho, 39)
At last. Vardy is sent down to the flank. His pass is a pearler and Iheanacho cannot miss. Three fine passes set up that goal. Blades had no answer.
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38 min: Leicester forced back by some decent, organised pressing from Blades. Billy Sharp almost picks off a Soyuncu pass but loses it immediately.
36 min: Tielemans injects some zest. He cuts inside and unleashes one, and Ampadu’s flailing form deflects the ball behind. Nobody knew where that might end up.
35 min: The game has hit a flat spot, though it’s hardly been full of too many peaks before that. It’s very much a pandemic football game.
33 min: Sheffield United stepping forward. That’s possibly dangerous, as Leicester are a team that plays on the counter. And what actually do Blades have to lose?
31 min: Frustration for Leicester? They have no goals to show for 30 minutes of dominance. Vardy attempts to pick Bryan’s pocket once more. He’s clearly being targeted as someone who doesn’t pass the ball quickly enough.
29 min: Bryan does well to stop Iheanacho at the touchline. Then suddenly, both he and Chris Basham both take time over tying their shoelaces.
28 min: Blades have defended well, and in numbers. That’s the main reason Leicester are not leading. They are all over their opponents.
26 min: Ollie Burke, an absolute speedster, and a unit and a half, is in the Blades team but it’s the speed of release that’s stopping him having an impact here.
23 min: Leicester utterly dominating possession here. But Blades win a free-kick after a foul from Fofana. Fleck takes it, Soyoncu heads away. Blades’ attack is slow, very slow. That’s been their problem this season, even more so with now Didzy or Brewster.
21 min: Iheanacho’s pass to Vardy is overhit to say the least. Not even 2016’s Jamie Vardy would have got to that. Not unless he was riding Streethawk.
19 min: Ramsdale bails out Bryan, who loses the ball to Vardy in the penalty box. Vardy’s shot is a not great considering where he has found himself. He might perhaps have passed it but his goal drought dictated his desire to try and nab a goal.
17 min: It’s all Leicester again. Hurried clearances by Baldock and Basham, and Ricardo is almost in before Enda Stevens - another in the full-name club - comes across to stop him.
15 min: Billy Sharp holds up the ball as Blades mark out some territory at last. Like the in absentia Harvey Barnes, Billy Sharp must always be referred to as ‘Billy Sharp’. Never merely ‘Sharp’.
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13 min: A glancing header from Perez rattles off the post, after a fine fingertip save from Ramsdale. Lovely cross from Ricardo too. It’s all Leicester.
11 min: Jamie Vardy is dropping deep, which is unlike him. Presumably the plan is for Iheanacho and Perez to push on. Blades are back in big numbers. Tielemans tries a diag, but it’s just overhit as Iheanacho, the target, applauds the idea. Tielemans is a seriously talented player.
9 min: A shot. Ndidi snaffles possession and Vardy weaves and shoots, but not with much power. That’s little threat to Aaron Ramsdale.
7 min: This has not been very good so far from either team.
5 min: A flicker of some action as Perez’s flick almost finds Jamie Vardy. James Maddison, is sat in the stands wearing a bobble hat in what looks like the design of Refresher sweets. He is also wearing his facemask in the ultra-fashionable nose-peeping style.
3 min: Jason Tindall, brought in to work alongside Paul Heckingbottom, is sat in the stands, and has a notebook in his hands. Eddie Howe taught him well. What has he learned so far? Not much, it has been rather pedestrian.
2 min: Can Leicester make hay after Everton and Chelsea slipped up? They begin on the back foot with Sheffield United pushing on a fair bit.
1 min: We’re off.
The teams are on the pitch at the King Power, and Blades are in a shade of pink that rather resembles their former manager’s face when thing were going wrong. There’s a huddle, and off they go....
Leicester can put real distance on their chasers for the top four, and hope Manchester United actually do them a favour by beating West Ham.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 30 | 43 | 71 |
| 2 | Man Utd | 28 | 23 | 54 |
| 3 | Leicester | 28 | 16 | 53 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 29 | 19 | 51 |
| 5 | West Ham | 27 | 11 | 48 |
Paul Heckingbottom spoke to Sky Sports.
I’ve had no time working with the players, it wasn’t official until last night for a few reasons, the main one being Covid because I’ve been in a different bubble. I’ve known it could happen for 24 hours and the players have been good as gold after what’s been a difficult week. It’s been me conferring with existing staff and we’ve picked the team that we believe will cause as many problems as we can for Leicester.
Now Wilder is gone, Blades must climb Kilimanjaro, or they will be fried. That’s probably quite enough Julian Cope/The Teardrop Explodes references for one day but that’s the last gig I attended before the Great Unpleasantness. That was in 2020, and a Cope solo gig rather than the Teardrops who probably last played live some time in 1983 at the latest.
Paul Doyle’s account of Chris Wilder’s departure is well worth a read.
The bews on Didzy McGoldrick is that he has a knee injury, so nothing too sinister there. Get well soon. Blades defender George Baldock is quoted thus in the Sheffield Star:
It’s been a tough couple of days, a lot of the boys were brought in by the gaffer so we all have a huge amount of respect for him and we wish him every success in the future.
It hasn’t been ideal preparation but we all have a duty to put in a performance and give our all. We owe it to the club to do our best and give our all.
Leicester are a top team with a top manager, they play with real freedom and attacking players and it’ll be difficult. But if we’re at it, we can give anyone a game and we’re hoping we can do that.
What do those teams mean?
By ‘Eck, the interim Blades manager has dropped David “Dids” McGoldrick altogether. Let’s see if there’s an upshot from that. In come Chris Basham, Olly Burke and Billy Sharp, out go Jayden Bogle and Rhian Brewster, alongside Dids.
Daniel Amartey’s reward for his goal last week is to be dropped to the bench though Leicester fans will welcome Jonny Evans back. Sidnei Tavares, who has shown flashes of his talent in recent weeks and given rise to several Top of the Pops puns, makes way for Ayoze Pérez.
The teams
Leicester: Schmeichel, Evans, Fofana, Soyuncu, Ndidi, Ricardo Pereira, Perez, Tielemans, Castagne, Iheanacho, Vardy. Subs: Albrighton, Ward, Amartey, Choudhury, Mendy, Fuchs, Thomas, Leshabela, Daley-Campbell.
Sheffield United: Ramsdale, Ampadu, Basham, Bryan, Baldock, Lundstram, Norwood, Fleck, Stevens, Burke, Sharp. Subs: McBurnie, Mousset, Lowe, Jagielka, Foderingham, Bogle, Osborn, Brewster, Ndiaye.
Referee: Peter Bankes (Merseyside)
Preamble
After last week’s escape at Brighton, where Daniel Amartey’s winner was a present after some rather quixotic goalkeeping, Leicester’s push for the Champions League is endangered by two possible bounces from Sheffield United. First, the dead cat bounce, since Blades are all but buried, heading down to the EFL. And then the dreaded new manager bounce, with Chris Wilder finally given his cards last night after a couple of days of conjecture. His replacement - for now - is Paul Heckingbottom, perhaps the only man in football who is even more South Yorkshire than Wilder himself. ‘Heck’ hails from Barnsley, see, a place where Sheffield is considered to be full of effete, arty types with hair bunched into a collection of ponytails and who hold their noses in the air while grooving to the sounds of the early Human League on their poncey Sony Walkmans.
Accompanying Heckingbottom in the dugout will be Jason Tindall, for years Eddie Howe’s bagman at Bournemouth and briefly his successor, and Alan Knill, for many year’s Wilder’s Cavour to the 100% Blade’s Garibaldi. Sheffield United without Wilder will be, frankly, a bit weird, and his former players have little but pride at stake, having had an awful season. They were terrible last week against Premier League whipping boys Southampton. It could be worse, they could be Wednesday, but this is the first day of the rest of their footballing lives.
Kick-off is at 2pm. Join me.
