Sheffield United: The tricks promotion-chasers are performing to ensure they are prepared for Blackpool

With only 48 hours to prepare for tomorrow’s visit to Blackpool, a match of critical importance at both ends of the Championship, the 45-year-old obligingly answered questions on United’s latest success.

But where he really wanted to be was back downstairs in his bunker located in the bowels of Bramall Lane’s Tony Currie Stand. Queens Park Rangers, another upcoming opponent, were facing Cardiff City live on television and United’s data and analysis experts believed the footage could reveal how best to approach next week’s meeting with Neil Critchley’s team.

“The pause button has been pressed,” Heckingbottom told The Star, politely reminding his audience that he’d rather be somewhere else. “The boys are down there now, waiting to flick the switch and get back on with watching the football. There’s a really fast turnaround over this period and so it’s important we get everything arranged properly. You’ve got to use every second of time you have wisely.”

The festive fixture programme presents a challenge for managers such as Heckingbottom, who prides himself on the level of detail he goes into when studying rivals. Second in the table and eight points clear of third place, United know a win at Bloomfield Road could provide them with a double digit cushion over those clubs hoping to force themselves into an automatic promotion position. But with Michael Appleton’s men battling against relegation, Heckingbottom expects this latest assignment to prove every bit as challenging as the Christmas schedule.

“We don’t have much time to do our prep but we will do it properly, you can be sure about that,” he said. “The analysts started doing bits and pieces a few days ago, because they do things a game ahead a lot of the time. But we have to take all of the stuff they come up with and then present it to the lads.”

“We know certain things about Blackpool from watching them anyway,” Heckingbottom continued. “We know they’re going to try and upset us and we know they won’t want to take a backward step.

“We also know that, when a team is determined to be like that, they have to be respected. Because often you can’t stop it. You just have to deal with it. At the end of the day, we have to cope with what they’re going to do, accept it, but then play the way we want to while adapting to different situations and environments. That’s the key.”

In order to do that, United’s coaching staff must distil the information collated by their scouts down into easily understandable and bite sized chunks capable of being digested quickly on the training ground.

“We like to think that we have a bit of a head start in these situations, because we have an identity and a way of playing that is set,” Heckingbottom said. “That makes it a lot easier, when there’s not a lot of time between matches, because we know how we want to go about our work. What we do is come up with ways of giving us the best possible chance of doing that in a variety of scenarios. The chances are, we’ve already faced something like we’re going to come against here before. And so we can go back to that situation, and show people how it works. But footballers at this level are intelligent people, and they can take things on board very quickly. They know the picture they’re looking at.”

United travel to Lancashire having won seven of their last eight outings. Blackpool are without a win in seven but, with former United centre-forward Gary Madine expected to spearhead their attack, expected to pose a big physical threat. Madine made no secret of the fact he wanted to stay at United after completing his loan from Cardiff City four seasons ago. But having helped Heckingbottom’s predecessor Chris Wilder guide them into the Premier League, United failed to offer him a permanent contract. Whenever he has faced them since, Madine’s performances suggest he is still hurt by that snub.

“They’ll look to play off him, because we know what he can do and what he’s capable of,” Heckingbottom acknowledged. “We understand what Blackpool are good at because we watch them whenever we get the chance.

“There’s so much football on television now, from the top-flight, Europe, right the way through to the international stuff. The thing is, and I think this is important, I only tend to watch the Championship because it’s vital you know what’s going on right the way across the division. So if there’s a Champions League game on at the same time as one in our league, I’ll watch the one in our league every single time. That’s all I tend to watch in fact.”

Blackpool drew with United in October; a match which spawned six goals and four sendings-off. Oliver Norwood snatched a last gasp equaliser for Heckingbottom’s charges, after Jerry Yates’ appeared to have helped the visitors condemn them to defeat. Blackpool saw Marvin Ekpiteta and Dominic Thompson dismissed during the closing stages before seeing Shayne Lavery suffer the same fate after tangling with Wes Foderingham following the final whistle. The United goalkeeper also received a red card.

United cross the Pennines without John Egan, after he collected two cautions during the victory over City. Chris Basham, previously of Blackpool, is expected to start as United reshuffle their rearguard in the Republic of Ireland international’s absence.

“We’ve got things to work on, regarding them and also us,” Heckingbottom said. “First, we look at patterns of play etc. Then, once all of that is done, we go into more detail about things such as likely line-ups.”