Sheffield United travel to Leeds United in the Championship on Friday.
Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder has shared his impression of Leeds United, and explained what surprised him about Friday night’s opponents this week.
Both sides have enjoyed bright starts to the new campaign, with third-placed Sheffield United a place and four points ahead of Leeds going into the game at Elland Road.
The Whites recently ended a three-match losing streak in emphatic style, beating another promotion hopeful, Bristol City, 3-0 on their own patch last weekend.
When asked what he thought of Leeds under Thomas Christiansen, Wilder told BBC Radio Sheffield: “I think if you read the comments of the manager they’re set for promotion – not in an arrogant way, but they’re geared up to get out of the division and that’s their goal.
“With that comes the recruitment, comes the money spent, comes the players that they’ve got and the size of the squad and the quality that they’ve got in it.
“They’ve had a couple of blips along the way but they’ve had some good results as well, some really good results. Maybe all that goes out the window on Friday night because this is another, different type of game to maybe the majority of games that they’ve played in.
“It’s one of the first local derbies at home for them and it’s third versus fourth so it adds a little bit of extra spice to it, and these are the games we’ve craved for as a football club and ones that we’re not going to shy away from.”
When it was put to Wilder that Leeds was probably the second most anticipated fixture for Sheffield United supporters ahead of their return to the Championship, he replied: “Yeah, there’s a saying isn’t there that flies around (in Sheffield) – I’m not going to upset our friends up the road!
“But it’s a historic, fabulous club, I went on Tuesday to watch them versus Leicester and they made 10 changes so I think that shows where their priorities are. They’d got an opportunity of getting into the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup.
“We were talking about it on the way back and I think they will possibly have recognised that Leicester were going to make a lot of changes as well. It’s quite surprising that – I thought they may have played a little bit of a stronger side.”
Unlike Leeds, Wilder’s Blades will have had a full six days to prepare for their trip up the M1, having had their own Carabao Cup campaign ended by Leicester in August.
However, Kalvin Phillips was the only Leeds player to start both Saturday and Tuesday’s fixtures for his side.
Who will win Friday’s Yorkshire derby at Elland Road?
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