“Looking to come flying back on Tuesday”, Sheffield United Boss Speaks Highly of Coventry & Provides Hamer Update | OneFootball

Top of the league Coventry City welcome struggling Sheffield United to the CBS Arena on Tuesday evening.

Frank Lampard’s men will be eager to respond after suffering their first defeat of the season, a thrilling 3-2 loss away to Wrexham on Friday night. It was a chaotic contest that saw former Blade Kieffer Moore bag a hat-trick. Despite the setback, Coventry remain an attacking powerhouse, with 36 goals already this campaign, the only Championship team to have broken the 30-goal barrier. Their nearest challengers, Hull City, have scored 14 fewer, a remarkable gap that highlights just how devastating Lampard’s side have been going forward.

By contrast, Sheffield United make the trip south on the back of another deflating result, a 3-1 home defeat to Derby County. The Blades have now conceded six goals across their last two fixtures, both against teams among the division’s least threatening in attack. That defensive fragility is an alarming sign ahead of a meeting with the most prolific side in the league.

Coventry City’s Outstanding Attack vs Sheffield United’s Fragile Defence

WREXHAM, WALES – OCTOBER 31: Ephron Mason-Clark of Coventry City celebrates scoring the opening goal with Tatsuhiro Sakamoto of Coventry City during the Sky Bet Championship match between Wrexham AFC and Coventry City at Racecourse Ground on October 31, 2025 in Wrexham, Wales. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Coventry enter the match as clear favourites, and for good reason. Their front line, spearheaded by Haji Wright and Brandon Thomas-Asante, has been electric. Both players possess what every coach dreams of: explosive pace, strength, and technical ability. They can stretch defences, drift wide, combine smartly in tight areas, and create danger from almost any attacking phase.

Between them, Wright and Thomas-Asante have 20 goal contributions, double Sheffield United’s total goal tally (10) for the season. Statistically, Coventry are outpacing the rest of the Championship in almost every attacking metric. They lead the league in non-penalty expected goals (28) and also top the charts for non-penalty goals vs xG (+7), showing their clinical edge in front of goal.

For Sheffield United, the numbers paint a much grimmer picture. While Wilder has made slight improvements offensively since returning to the dugout, his side remain the worst in the league for non-penalty goals vs xG allowed (-5.55), meaning they concede far more than expected. Opponents are converting 13% of their shots against the Blades, a worrying figure considering Coventry’s 15.8% non-penalty conversion rate, the highest in the division.

Chris Wilder Praises Frank Lampard Ahead of Coventry City vs Sheffield United

WREXHAM, WALES – OCTOBER 31: Frank Lampard, Manager of Coventry City speaks with Kieffer Moore of Wrexham following the Sky Bet Championship match between Wrexham AFC and Coventry City at Racecourse Ground on October 31, 2025 in Wrexham, Wales. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Speaking ahead of the match in his pre-match press conference, Chris Wilder was full of respect for Lampard’s work at Coventry:

“Built sensibly in the summer off their achievements. I think Frank will always recognise the contributions of Mark [Robins] and what he did. [Frank Lampard] picked a really talented group up and what he added was outstanding from him,” he said. “I’m a Frank fan and from an English manager’s point of view a supporter of England and English managers. He’s a competitor and we’ve had some battles against his teams in the past, some really tight games. They’re a good group that have grown and added and got that stability about them. They suffered a setback on Friday and he’ll be looking to come flying back on Tuesday. I’m sure with his career Frank will be looking at us with respect but we’ve got to go and earn that respect by playing well, being hard to beat and not making mistakes.”

Wilder also provided an update on former Coventry star Gustavo Hamer: “I don’t think it’ll be before the international break. We’ll see what happens Thursday or Friday but he won’t be ready for tomorrow. He’ll definitely be available for the game after the international break,” that ‘game’ of course being the small matter of the Steel City derby at Hillsborough.

Meanwhile, the Blades boss continued to state that versatile defender Ben Godfrey is still not available due to personal reasons. Godfrey featured for the U21’s against Wigan Athletic on Tuesday afternoon and has been involved regularly at that level in recent weeks.