Leicester prey on ‘fine margins’ as Blades find false bottom
“Mr Beer and Mr Wine,” quipped Chris Wilder when asked how he is coping with Sheffield United’s woes. He said “fine margins” differentiate this season from last amid claims his side have ‘been found out’. Eight out of ten losses by a single goal – including this 2-1 defeat to Leicester – provide strength to his first assertion, if not proof contrary to the second.
The marginal gains were – if anything – in Sheffield United’s favour at Bramall Lane on Sunday. They can viably compain (not that they will) about the unfortunate way Marc Albrighton’s deflected shot fell to Ayoze Perez to smash home Leicester’s opener. But Jamie Vardy and James Maddison hit the same post in the first half and Max Lowe should have been shown a second yellow card before he was replaced at half-time – take note, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
But the moment that mattered most, a miscontrol by John Fleck in the 90th minute, was as typifying and hideous an example of the “fine margins” Wilder speaks of.
It was a grim end to a promising display from the Blades. Oli McBurnie – who was excellent in the air in both boxes – did what the collective have failed to do in six of their eleven Premier League games: he scored a goal. His fine header – the sixth Leicester have conceded from a corner this season – came almost immediately after they had conceded, in the midst of their opponent’s most dominant spell.
Perhaps undeserved at the time, the equaliser was subsequently merited. The second half saw far more of an attacking threat from the home side, with McBurnie better occupying the Leicester centre-backs, Fleck and Sander Berge winning as many battles as they lost in the centre of midfield, and chances – or half chances – being carved out.
Sheffield United didn’t deserve to lose and Leicester certainly didn’t deserve to win. Brendan Rodgers’ side were toothless in the second half and failed to find fourth or even third gear after second was enough before the break. And that will make this defeat perhaps the hardest to take for Wilder, the players and the Blades fans, who keep finding false bottoms to what they think is their Premier League low.
Fleck may well be boozing along with his manager this evening. It really was a horrible error, as the ball bounced off his knee into the path of Maddison, who showed a rare bit of quality to perfectly slide Vardy through, who showed another bit to slot past Aaron Ramsdale.
Leicester ‘got away with one’ and it doesn’t feel right now like we will ever again say the same for Wilder’s side, who didn’t do much wrong on Sunday, but continue to linger on the wrong side of those fine, horrifying margins.
Will Ford is on Twitter
