Swansea City vs Sheffield United – Preview | OneFootball

Sheffield United travel to Wales on Saturday afternoon to face Swansea City at the Swansea.com stadium.

The Jacks recorded three points in their opening away day fixture after coming from behind to beat Stoke City 2-1.

The Blades, meanwhile, were held to a goalless draw at home to Birmingham City, in what was a poor game to watch in truth.

Team News

Swansea have already suffered a season-ending injury just one week into the season. Experienced centre-back Cameron Burgess is due to miss the entire campaign with a cruciate ligament injury. To add, Portuguese midfielder Goncalo Franco could miss the next few games with a thigh issue.

Summer signing Ross Stewart could feature on the bench for the home side after missing the first game due to a niggling shoulder problem.

Blades boss, Chris Wilder will again be without Kalvin Phillips as he looks to play catch-up on his match sharpness. United may opt to hand Tahith Chong a start on the right flank in favour of youngster Romelle Donovan. Meanwhile, United will monitor Ryan Oné after he suffered a knock in his substitute appearance last weekend despite him carrying on in obvious discomfort.

Swansea City’s Impact Player For This Game

Vitor Matos’ side finished 11th last term, four points above the Blades, and that was largely down to the excellent goalscoring form of Zan Vipotnik.

The Slovenian striker finished as the Championship’s top scorer with a stunning 23 goals to his name with only a total of 13.42 expected goals registered. Statistically, he outperformed his xG tally by some margin, and you would expect his actual numbers to fall off this season if he was to register 13 xG once again. However, we saw in recent years for Swansea that they are able to find strikers that can consistently outperform their expected number of goals; Joel Piroe mastered this.

Vipotnik is more than just a goalscorer though. He leads the line extremely well with his tall frame. He occupies a defender’s space with his strength; he can pin his man and spin in behind to chase balls into the channels. He has good technique when it comes to drifting wide and swinging a cross into the box, but ideally, you want him in the box where his movement thrives.

For a free transfer in the summer of 2024, Swansea’s scouting team have done exceptionally well to find a striker who has netted 32 times in 94 appearances, and his numbers will be expected to grow this season, including in the game on Saturday afternoon.

Sheffield United’s Impact Player For This Game

United’s opening game was poor from a creative point of view, creating just one big chance all game. The man that carved out that big chance was Callum O’Hare, who was occupying the role that Gustavo Hamer had last season.

The versatile attacking midfielder had an unbelievable start individually last term, and given Wilder’s lack of attacking options this season, the Blades will need to hope O’Hare can spark into action in a similar vein this time around.

O’Hare is neat and tidy in possession, making up for his lack of explosivity. When you watch him closely, you can see he has a good footballing IQ; picking up positions in spaces where the defenders don’t know whether to step up and mark him, or to leave him be. Either way, it forces the opposition to get drawn out.

From there, he can use his quick thinking to exploit the gaps that form. And he could be coming up against a largely inexperienced defender on Saturday afternoon in 21-year-old Filip Lissah.

My Prediction

This time 12 months ago, Blades fans were saying this fixture was one of the most boring matches in recent memory, when Ruben Selles’ team lost 1-0 to Swansea in a lethargic performance by United.

Unfortunately, I can see a scenario where fans are saying something similar once again this time around. Barring anything like a red card, I think this has 1-0 to either side written all over it.

The Blades may have to wait another week to register their first win; Swansea City will edge this 1-0.

Stats taken from Fotmob.com