Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United ‘data’ rant post-Sheffield Wednesday has aged terribly as fresh statistic emerges

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Sheffield United and Chris Wilder are facing the realistic prospect of the play-offs after losing three games in a row to seriously dent their automatic promotion hopes.

The Blades are set to miss out on the financial reward of automatic promotion unless Chris Wilder finds a way to arrest this recent slide during the automatic promotion run-in.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LeedsLeeds	42	25	13	4	82	29	53	88
2	BurnleyBurnley	42	24	16	2	57	13	44	88
3	Sheff UtdSheffield Utd	42	26	7	9	57	33	24	83
4	SunderlandSunderland	42	21	13	8	57	38	19	76
5	Bristol CityBristol City	42	16	16	10	54	45	9	64
6	CoventryCoventry	41	18	8	15	58	53	5	62

The gap is such that things don’t look likely to go right to the wire and the final day of the season as they did just one week ago. Leeds and Burnley are getting things done in a businesslike manner to ‘get over the line’.

Recent updates from supercomputers were predicting the Blades to get the job done but they cannot account for consecutive defeats to Oxford United, Millwall, and Plymouth Argyle — games where most neutrals expected at least seven points, if not the maximum of all nine.

• READ MORE: Gary Neville fires warning to Leeds and Sheffield United with ‘one thing’ they’ll be punished for in Premier League

Chris Wilder’s Sheffield Wednesday quotes have aged terribly

Wilder and Tyrese Campbell won the March accolades with the manager and player of the month awards, but it appears to have been somewhat of a jinx given their form in April thus far.

Wilder expected a brave performance from Plymouth in a game where his opposite number predicted they would win, even though pundits thought that the Blades would get back on track at Home Park.

There were ugly scenes in the tunnel at full-time and their promotion hopes are now no longer anything like in their hands, with the points gap to Burnley five points. Even if they beat the Clarets on matchday 44, they will be requiring another slip up from Scott Parker’s side in one of the other three games.

Having won eight in ten recently, losing the last three on the bounce has come somewhat out of the blue. They beat Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 during that run and Wilder had some strong words post-match which have aged like milk.

Wilder said: “Stick your data where you want to stick your data. We’re here to win and we’ve won two big games in the city.”

That is an area of concern for the Blades this season, although the strength they possess in both boxes has been enough to win them plenty of points. They have a goalkeeper and forwards who make a real difference at both ends and come up with match-winning moments.

It has since caught up with them in games of very few chances and low-margin affairs, with the Blades on the receiving end of when the data can catch up to you. Since this, and since the ‘data’ hinted their performances were not up to standard, Sheffield United have lost three of their last five games, per Louorns on Twitter/X.

It was a short-sighted and unnecessary thing to say. It was perhaps unwise and misguided to keep talking with such arrogance when the season was nowhere near done. Has it come back to bite them in their pursuit of Championship glory?

• READ MORE: Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United fans are loving Sheffield United ‘falling apart’ again

Sheffield United’s underlying performance data compared to Leeds and Burnley

From a statistical point of view, Leeds are far and away the best side in the division. That has not always meant they have sat top of the pile, but their dominance has been evident all season.

On the one hand, Wilder is right that the data isn’t everything. However, recent displays have been more worrying and it’s not a great surprise to see the results suffer as a result of it.

Their xGD in terms of taking away xGA from xG over the last eight games, since their 3-1 loss to Leeds, is just 1.5xGD. That is nothing like what it takes to be promoted from the second tier in most seasons at the crunch during the business end of a campaign.

Many thought Leeds were falling apart again, but it is actually Wilder and Sheffield United — and the data he hates shows it, too.