Stoke City vs Sheffield United – Preview | OneFootball

The Blades take on Stoke City at the Bet 365 Stadium on Monday night in what will be the final game of 2025 for both sides.

After starting the season in excellent fashion, Stoke have now just won once in their last six games. Their most recent result was a goalless draw at home to Preston North End on Boxing Day.

Sheffield United seem to be “the entertainers” of the Championship of late. They can score bucket loads of goals, but they are also capable of leaking multiple goals as well, as seen in their 5-3 defeat away at Wrexham on Boxing Day. Prior to that result, they breezed past Birmingham City 3-0. Over the last few weeks it seems like it’s one step forward for United and then another step back.

Team News

The Potters have a selection dilemma at left-back with Eric Bocat and Aaron Cresswell both having injuries. In addition, Junior Tchamadeu will be unavailable as he is involved in the Africa Cup of Nations with Cameroon. Meanwhile midfielder Lewis Baker has been out for several weeks.

Chris Wilder could still be without the injured quartet of Sydie Peck, Ben Mee, Chiedozie Ogbene and Tom Davies.

Stoke City’s Impact Player For This Game

Million Manhoef continues to be a player to watch out for in the Championship. The Dutch winger has already netted five times and added an assist to his name this season.

The 23-year-old excels in situations where he can pick the ball up and drive at his opposite number, using his speed and quick change of direction to bamboozle defenders. Manhoef averages over four progressive carries per game, ranking him in the 91st percentile, and he averages over four take-on attempts per game at a decent success rate of 48% (76th percentile). With Sam McCallum likely up against Manhoef, this should be a key battle to watch within the contest on Monday night.

The entire Blades defence struggled on Boxing Day; they allowed driving runs down the sides of the defence, and then crosses from the byline and from deep constantly kept the defence under pressure. This is something where Stoke can utilise Manhoef to recreate that same sort of pressure because he can drive into the box and force defenders to commit. Manhoef averages over two carries into the penalty area per game, ranking in the 96th percentile.

Sheffield United’s Impact Player For This Game

SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 23: Tyrese Campbell of Sheffield United scores his team’s first goal past goalkeeper Ethan Horvath of Sheffield Wednesday during the Sky Bet Championship match between Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United at Hillsborough on November 23, 2025 in Sheffield, England. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)

The Blades hugely lacked any form of cuteness to their game on Boxing Day in terms of alleviating the pressure off the defences by holding the ball up, drawing fouls to break up the game. Instead, the majority of the game was United clearing it away only for Wrexham’s defence and midfield to win first, second and third balls, and then reloading another attack. This is where United could look to tweak the shape slightly in order to hold the ball up better.

Tyrese Campbell and Patrick Bamford up top would give United the ability to come short to hold it up, and the pace factor of Campbell to chase the ball down the channels and potentially win throw-ins and free-kicks high up the pitch.

Plus, Campbell and Bamford have shown moments of brilliant combination play together in the few times they have been on the pitch at the same time.

United could even try Campbell in the right-winger role that Tahith Chong has been occupying, and considering Stoke may struggle to field a left-back, Campbell could fancy his chances against his former club. Equally, this change would give United more tactical flexibility in-game.

My Prediction

United are offensively much better than Stoke City in terms of creating non-penalty chances (Blades are fifth in that regard, whilst Stoke are in the bottom six). Defensively, they are of similar quality, with both possessing a Championship average defence in terms of non-penalty expected goals given up.

It’s difficult to assess the Blades at this moment in time because they seem to be capable of producing any type of performance and result, evident in their last two games (3-0 win against ten-man Birmingham City, and a 5-3 loss against Wrexham). However, they should have the edge over Stoke City, and considering how much success they had from corners against them a few weeks ago at Bramall Lane, United could once again exploit this avenue.

Sheffield United can win this one and can score multiple goals despite facing one of the Championship’s best goalkeepers in Viktor Johansson, but I also expect Stoke to score as well. I believe a 2-1 or 3-1 win for the Blades is the more likely result.

Stats taken from FBref and Opta.