Don Goodman evaluates Sheffield United’s play-off chances | OneFootball

Don Goodman believes Sheffield United will have their work cut out for them to gain promotion this season.

The former striker turned pundit was speaking about Paul Heckingbottom’s side, where he revealed his thoughts on their season so far.

Goodman admitted the disruption in the fixture list has likely hurt some teams more than others.

“It’s a tough one, these rafts of postponements are affecting teams,” said Goodman to OLBG.

“Fulham weren’t in the greatest of form until they started playing again, Coventry and Luton came off a poor-ish run of form.”

United returned to Championship action on January 15, following a pause of 26 days between league games. Since resuming play, the Blades have lost one and drawn another.

“Sheffield United were flying before their games were postponed and then they went and lost first game back,” added Goodman.

“They’ve got games in hand, but they need to get back on that winning run pretty quickly.

“I think it’s a tall order to be honest with the form of some of the teams above them.

“It would be one heck of an achievement, but if they can get on the winning trail now, then you never know.”

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The 2-0 defeat away at Derby County ended a run of four victories in a row for United. That included a three game winning streak since the permanent appointment of Paul Heckingbottom at the end of November.

Heckingbottom replaced Slavisa Jokanovic, whose poor start was deemed enough to earn a dismissal from the club.

Sheffield United now find themselves 11th in the table, with as many as three games in hand on some of their play-off chasing rivals.

Sixth place Middlesbrough have played twice more than the Blades, but have the comfort of a nine point gap between the two sides.

Up next for Heckingbottom’s side is the visit of Luton Town on January 22.

The Verdict

The break in play has been an unfortunate byproduct of trying to play through a season of football during a pandemic. These are now the consequences we have to accept while we are still in this situation.

However, for some clubs the break can come at a good time but for United it came at a bad time. It interrupted their good form and destroyed their momentum.

They will need to regroup after two poor results and try to re-find that form. They should be able to do this seeing as they’ve done it once before already. But it could be too late to reach the play-offs by the time they start to click again.