Sheffield United continue to excel on the pitch despite unsettling backdrop

L ast week George Baldock enjoyed watching Manchester City obliterate Bayern Munich courtesy of complimentary tickets from Erling Haaland, but he and his Sheffield United teammates travel to Wembley for Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final fully aware they cannot afford to hand the striker any freebies. Baldock went to the Etihad Stadium with the Blades midfielder Sander Berge, who is close with his Norway teammate and stayed with Haaland after the match. So it is good to have friends in high places? “Exactly, it’s who you know,” Baldock says, smiling. “He’s a monster, isn’t he? He is a goalscoring machine. Everything he touches at the minute seems to turn to gold.”

Baldock and his teammates stand in the way of City’s quest for the treble. Sheffield United’s manager, Paul Heckingbottom, presented a video analysis of Pep Guardiola’s side on Thursday and Friday, and his squad are under no illusions about the severity of the task. Baldock has studied clips of City’s wingers and forwards to prepare. “You owe it to yourself to give yourself the best possible opportunity to nullify them in the game,” he says. “With the quality of players like [Kevin] De Bruyne, sometimes they can put it in an area where it is impossible to defend. Some of the goals they score, it’s not because of bad defending but formidable attacking play. We’re not just going there to make up the numbers. We’ll go there to attack the game and try to have a go.”

On the pitch United have excelled this season. The top goalscorer Iliman Ndiaye, who signed from Boreham Wood in 2019 and played for Senegal at the World Cup in Qatar, has lit up matches, and the Manchester City loanees James McAtee and Tommy Doyle, both of whom are ineligible to face their parent club,