Wilder in determined mood as Sheffield United face Man City and Liverpool

‘They won’t be doing too much overlapping,’ laughs Chris Wilder, when considering the impact his central defenders might have in trying to keep Sheffield United’s extraordinary unbeaten Premier League away record intact over the coming days.

In a remarkable start to life in the top flight, the Yorkshire club have gone half a season undefeated on the road but face their biggest two tests to date either side of the new year with this evening’s trip to champions Manchester City followed by one to the runaway leaders Liverpool.

Wilder’s reflections are not a dilution of his positive philosophy, just a realisation that the quality of opposition might prevent Jack O’Connell and Chris Basham, the two marauding defenders he refers to, embarking on the volume of forward forays that have been a feature of their first nine fixtures.

‘The two ends are both comfortable in possession and going forward,’ said Wilder.

‘Sometimes you have to drive their best players back and give the opposition a different problem.

‘One they may have not faced before. With video analysis there are no secrets out there but fortune favours the brave and we will certainly be brave in our approach.’

Although Sheffield United’s idiosyncratic ‘false fives’ system has successfully forced top-flight teams back due to a wariness of being outnumbered in key areas, its inception dates back three years to their League One days, when rivals sat in defensive banks behind the ball to stymy their attacks.

Having accrued just one point from their opening four fixtures and come from 1-0 down to win the fifth at home to Oxford in 2016-17, Wilder ditched the 4-4-2 formation and opted for three at the back for the sixth at Gillingham.

Alan Knill, his long-term No2 with a fascination in the technical side of the game, got to work on creating overloads and passing triangles on the training ground.

Wilder, pragmatic rather than gung-ho, ensured such patterns were only created high up the field in matches.

‘We have a structure, an identity and a consistency in our play,’ said Wilder. ‘Listen, it has been tested and there have been a couple of games where we have thought “how have we got away with that?”

'In the next two, we might get done by three or four. I don’t know what’s round the corner and when you are playing two world-class sides anything can happen, although I do know what I’m going to get and that’s always, whether it’s home or away, an opportunity of winning games.

‘We understand we are not going to have a lot of the ball on Sunday and Thursday but at least we have something behind it that will try to make it as difficult as possible and pose problems.

‘I don’t think any of our results on the road have been backs-against-the-wall. You still have to have something going the other way to test the opposition. We have to get that balance right.’

The system and team shape has taken hours of drilling and it has helped that half a dozen players have been ever-presents since promotion, while the defensive lynchpin John Egan has missed just one match.

Understanding its dangers has been equally important. Take Oliver Norwood’s acceptance of a yellow card to prevent Aston Villa launching a three on two from deep at Bramall Lane this month as an example.

Not that Wilder anticipates too many similar situations developing on Sunday as he goes up against Pep Guardiola in ‘the last game of an incredible year at this football club’.