“Unless Hull can still be counted as Yorkshire our record against sides from over the border is poor this year and on the evidence of last year’s two performances we’ll need to be at our best.
I do however remember two or three great ‘turning point’ wins against the Blades in the not too distant past so, here’s hoping for another.
Defeat would begin a bit of a minor crisis”“could really do with three points and a battling performance against a team that will come at us, hopefully it plays into our hands. Let’s make a statement”
“sheffield united play 3 at the back. We know one lone striker struggles against three defenders so there is no point persisting with 4231 v 343. Perfect opportunity to try summat else.”
“last year I personally thought that Sheff United were the best team we faced over both games. Seems like they’ve carried it on!”
“Who knows which Derby will turn up. I’d take a point.”
“Sheff Utd are in great form and will be full of confidence, so it looks like being our hardest game since we were outplayed by the DYS.
On our day we could win this one, but we’re too inconsistent to risk much money on the outcome.”“We couldn’t have picked a worse time to face them they are on fire But we’re Derby anything can happen certainly have to up our game to get anything “
“Going into an international break on a winning or losing run does not automatically mean you come out of it the same way.
Also Derby are well known as breakers of opposition winning/losing streaks.”“how often do teams go into an international break on fire and come out of it extinguished or vice versa? I think we will get something out of it”
“International break over….. Sheffield good run to come to an end.”
“How many of United’s side would you swap for ours?”
“A tough one but, I think the Rams will play well in front of Sky again”
“it’s Derby so we will probably win but I can’t see it given our inconsistency and their run of form”
“I’d like to see us match their formation in this one. Go three at the back… Man for man I think we have more skill and we will beat them.”
“We should play to our strengths and let them worry about our quality rather than switching formation to a back 3. If we play with a 3 at the back we will either have one less midfielder or one less attacking option, and playing in a back 3 is hard to adjust to. With the players we have got and our style of play I would say it wouldn’t work becuase what is the point of going down the wing and crossing with the wing backs a lot when we don’t have someone aerially dominant to win the headers.”
“If David McGoldrick serves us up a lesson in football I am going to have to go off sick for a week.”
“On paper this de-darby team ought to knock the breadcakes out of ’em. (Sheffield bants). “
“Did you know that, originally, it was Wendy who were the Blades? They adopted “The Owls” when they moved to the Owlerton district of Sheffield and the red half of steel city nicked the dropped Blades tag.”
“Ticket sales very slow again. Looks like a poor crowd against the top team.”
as a blade looking forward to possibly our biggest test so far. Would be happy with a draw