Chris Wilder reacts to Sheffield United play-off final defeat

The Star, Sheffield

Chris Wilder reacts to Sheffield United play-off final defeat to Sunderland at Wembley, speaking to BBC Radio Sheffield

Transcript

00:00Chris Commiserations, how do you assess defeat today?

00:03It's going to take a long time to get over off.

00:06So, it's the game of football.

00:09We're all involved in it for so long, the highs and the lows.

00:14Whether it's a season, whether it's a few games

00:17or whether it's just a one-off final, the eyes of moments today

00:21and the lows obviously coming off the pitch as a losing football team

00:26and it's going to take a long time to get over for myself and the players.

00:32Most importantly, the supporters.

00:35It's going to take quite a while.

00:38So, there you go.

00:41The game, if you want to talk about the game, we can do.

00:46But yeah, ultimately, shock I suppose is the feeling from myself and the group.

00:53I think that's the feeling of a lot of people

00:55because you've controlled it for most of the game, haven't you?

00:59Yeah, we have.

01:00The start was what we were after.

01:03Great chance.

01:05Not a chance, it's a fabulous save.

01:07Get our noses in front.

01:08The contentious decision will be the one that,

01:12you know, from Harrison's point of view,

01:17and I listen, it will be a subjective decision and I suppose it was from the referee.

01:27I've got to say, and I think their manager went up record as saying it as well.

01:32Why are we involved in VAR when the 46 plus two playoff games we don't?

01:38And then we bring it in here.

01:40It's a subjective decision.

01:42So, that's on his opinion.

01:44For me, I don't think the goalkeeper is saving it.

01:46I think it's gone past them.

01:48But he thinks a different way.

01:52That changed things.

01:56It gave them more energy.

01:58It was a massive let off for them and a lifeline for them.

02:02But still, you know, never really felt in danger.

02:08I think the stats will back that up.

02:11We just needed to be better in terms of when they open the game up

02:14and they take risks and chances.

02:16We had that opportunity to go and get that second goal and third goal.

02:20And, you know, people talk about maybe the chances that we've had,

02:24but it was just, you know, we were just too loose on that transition and turnover.

02:29And I think if we weren't, if we were tighter, we'd have found the second goal

02:34and possibly we'd have found the third goal, which would have killed the game.

02:37But we didn't.

02:39The goals are really poor ones from our point of view.

02:41The first one, we get caught up in a poor situation and they find a fabulous finish.

02:53And the second one with an L off the pitch goes up.

02:58We lose possession.

02:59The middle of the park is wide open from an organisation point of view.

03:03You know, we weren't at that.

03:08You know, you're going into the 97th minute of a final.

03:13You go 4-4-1 or you go 4-5 and you just see those final minutes and then you regroup.

03:23Obviously, the situation with an L, we didn't really know where we were at with it.

03:27We didn't want him to come off the pitch because I thought it was really good.

03:30And I don't really want to make an important substitution at that time because it can affect extra time.

03:37And the ability to freshen it up in extra time, I think would have been okay.

03:44But we're wide open.

03:46So maybe a bit of a leadership point of view, not from the captain but players on the pitch.

03:52You know, experience point of view as well, to narrow that off, see that moment out and get to extra time.

04:00Then we make a decision on her now because I think it was going to be okay.

04:06And ultimately, the two goals of Ertas and it's going to take quite a bit to recover from this.

04:12When you reflect back on this game, will you reflect?

04:16There hasn't been a degree of misfortune here.

04:18You've mentioned the VAR, but also the two finishes.

04:21I mean, the second finish, you couldn't have picked the ball up and put it in that spot.

04:25Any better.

04:26And they've not had many chances when they've gone in there.

04:28I mean, they couldn't have hit either of those shots any better.

04:31Now they've found their finishes, we've not found ours.

04:33As I said, I think we knew what the game was going to be like when we were 1-0 up.

04:37You know, I've never felt in danger.

04:41The stats backed that up.

04:42The old XG that we all like to talk about.

04:47You know, there wasn't any big chances from them.

04:49I don't think Michael has had to make a save all game, really.

04:53But concede poor goals or they find their fabulous finishes.

05:00And these things happen.

05:05But, yeah, as I said, we were in the right place.

05:13In a controllable position.

05:15You know, I thought we started to get some passes in.

05:19A little disappointed in our decision-making, really,

05:21when they put a screener in front of Kiefer.

05:23We had to play out from the back a little bit more.

05:25And we found that little bit of rhythm then.

05:28When they went high-press, just our quality needs to go over the pressing

05:31into the front a little bit better.

05:33So our decision-making on that, I think we just went a little bit too long at times.

05:37And it was too easy to go into Kiefer from goalkeeper or back to front.

05:45And then, as I said, you have those opportunities to punish them on the turnover and transition.

05:51And if we'd have been a bit tighter and a bit cleaner, then, for me, the game goes to two and goes to three.

06:01And then we find ourselves in the Premier League.

06:03But we didn't.

06:05We leave ourselves when it's only one for them to get back into the game.

06:09They do from a fabulous finish.

06:11And then the second one, you know, we'd have fancy our chances going into extra time.

06:15I don't think that was a negative sort of scenario

06:17because I thought we were in the game and controlling it, really.

06:21And they found a memorable finish from their point of view.

06:26And, obviously, an incredibly disappointing one from ours.

06:31Throughout your time at Sheppard United, you've often been very good at finding the words

06:37to lift the fans in difficult moments.

06:40Is there anything that you can say tonight to lift them?

06:43No, no.

06:44It's been an incredibly challenging season, as we've talked about.

06:48I thought there was real energy in the supporters leading up to this game,

06:53in the playoff games, with the history and the record.

06:56I know that was talked about quite a lot.

06:59The players were in good shape.

07:01I'm not just saying it from a preparation point of view.

07:04It's as good as they've been in my time since 2016 for one game.

07:09Doing a great place.

07:10We started off the game well.

07:12We controlled what we needed to control.

07:14I thought the discipline was good.

07:16We just made some poor decisions at key times.

07:19When you do that in a game of football, one or two actions can change that.

07:26But I think we're all walking away from here and scratching his head in terms of

07:31how we're not in the Premier League.

07:34From a point total, 92 points is an incredible achievement.

07:39We've suffered because of the quality of the teams that went up automatically.

07:48This place is no place for losing football teams.

07:53We're a team that lost a game of football that we really should have controlled and won.

07:59Will there be a time that I find the right words?

08:04Yes, but at this minute we're all suffering individually and collectively.

08:11It's going to take some time to get over.

08:15The team that lost this game last season won the league next season.

08:19Is that going to be the aim now?

08:21Well, it's not as easy as people talk about to go up, as we've found out this season.

08:27There's always some nonsense about parachute payments by lazy, ignorant people

08:33that think that we've tripped a load of dough at it this season.

08:38We haven't. We've tried to build a team.

08:40What we'll say is that the younger players will be better for the experience.

08:43Obviously, it's going to be a big summer.

08:45It might probably be a little bit more of a rebuild.

08:47We might lose a few players.

08:50We'll obviously have to recruit smartly.

08:54I just imagine those discussions are for into the future, of course.

09:00You have to harness the disappointment of not going up,

09:04which I thought we did really, really well after the Burnley game.

09:07You've got to harness this disappointment now to come fighting back.

09:10I think one thing you have seen, it's a club built on getting over disappointments.

09:21This is possibly the biggest one that we're going to have to get over.

09:24But we're going to have to, and we will.

09:28There'll be a time where we shake ourselves down and have to go again.

09:32Nobody's going to feel sorry for us. I won't feel sorry for us.

09:36The game is in our hands, and we've basically not grabbed that opportunity.

09:43We have to accept that and deal with everything that goes with it.

09:47But what a new pre-season does offer you another opportunity.

09:53We have to take that opportunity and go again.

10:00The proof will be in the pudding in terms of when we do that and how we react.

10:07I think what we recognise is that the culture that we're trying to create,

10:13and myself, will dust ourselves down and go again.

10:18I've had to do that personally right through my career as a player or as a manager.

10:23Those players are going to have to deal with disappointment.

10:26We're going to have to deal with disappointment from the coaching staff and the playing staff.

10:30The only way you can do that is to come roaring back and set the tone,

10:35hopefully, for a positive season.

10:37It's a season where we've not achieved what we wanted to achieve,

10:41and love our goals and our ambitions and our targets for next year,

10:45and we have to go again.

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