Plymouth Argyle travel up to Bramall Lane on Saturday afternoon to face top of the league Sheffield United. Argyle are without a win in the last five. Whereas The Blades are unbeaten in their last 5. Wayne Rooney’s time at Plymouth is at risk if results don’t start to change so will be looking to upset the league leaders away from home.
These sides last met in 2021 in a FA cup tie, which saw The Blades victorious with 2-1 win. Their last league meeting was in 2010. The odds are heavily stacked against Argyle in this fixture with United on an eight-game win streak at Bramall Lane without conceding a single goal. Alongside this, Argyle have not won away in 12 games, with only two of those being draws. Argyle rarely get a result away at Bramall Lane, with one win and one draw in their last 16 league meetings there. A familiar face for the green army will be against them tomorrow afternoon, Ex-academy and first team goalkeeper Mike Cooper will be expected to start in goal. Cooper signed to The Blades in this year’s summer transfer window for a fee of two million. With a bright start to his time in Sheffield he will be looking to stop his boyhood club for putting the ball in the net.
Argyle are hoping that the appointment of new assistant manager Mike Phelan can change their fortunes. This comes after the departure of Pete Shuttleworth from Rooney’s backroom staff. Phelan is well known for his time as assistant manager under Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United form 2008-2013. In this time, he won three Premier League titles, two league cups, and made it to two UEFA Champions League Finals. Argyle are hoping he can help Rooney with his wealth of knowledge form the top end of the game. Phelan believes that Argyle players should have less fear amongst them, Speaking to Argyle TV he said, ‘If you’re selected to play for Argyle, then bring it on, bring it out there, take it out there, and don’t fear that.’ With Phelan’s first game as Rooney’s assistant came at a 2-1 loss at home to Swansea, he feels there needs to be improvements in this game to improve the confidence in the squad.
Blades Boss Chris Wilder has received manager of the month award for November, with them being unbeaten all month and taking 16 points from the 6 games. Wilder is remaining humble about their match against Argyle, in his pre-match conference he stated ‘they know how to win, and they’ll be looking at us, and they’ll be looking to puncture our home record and get themselves up and running.’