Paul Heckingbottom reveals major day-to-day concern at Sheffield United

Sheffield United boss Paul Heckingbottom has shared his unhappiness at the training pitch his side have following their 4-1 defeat at Coventry City yesterday.

#sufc PH: "The big one for me is that our training pitch has been terrible this year. Someday's its just been a bog. We have to address that in the summer. The change in surface does no good."

— Andy Giddings (@SportGids1) March 12, 2022

That loss was a major setback for the Blades, who have been transformed under the guidance of the former Barnsley chief.

But, it was a bad day at the office for Heckingbottom’s side in the Midlands, as they were dominated by a slick Sky Blues side that deservedly ran out winners.

And, whilst he didn’t use it as an excuse for the performance, Heckingbottom explained how the training ground is a problem for the team right now when speaking to reporter Andy Giddings.

“The big one for me is that our training pitch has been terrible this year. Someday’s its just been a bog. We have to address that in the summer. The change in surface does no good.”

Despite the defeat, Sheffield United remain in the play-off places and they will be hoping to bounce back from the poor showing when they take on Blackpool away from home in the week.

The verdict

The timing of this from Heckingbottom is strange because people will naturally think that the boss is trying to deflect from a poor performance, even if he did criticise the players for their display.

Clearly though, it’s an issue that he has and he obviously felt it was the right time to make that known to the fans, maybe to try and put pressure on key figures so changes are made.

Either way, Sheffield United shouldn’t be having a ‘terrible’ training pitch given their resources, so hopefully