The 'full tilt' Chris Wilder comments that should act as a warning to Sunderland and Regis Le Bris

Much has been made of Regis Le Bris’ decision to rest and rotate key members of his Sunderland side in recent weeks ahead of next month’s Championship play-offs.

The Black Cats are currently on a run of four consecutive league defeats, and while a number of those results have come with weakened starting XI, Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at the hands of Oxford United was notable insofar that Le Bris named something much closer to his strongest available side.

And now, with just one home clash against QPR separating Sunderland from their much-anticipated run at the play-offs, there are those on Wearside who are questioning whether the Black Cats have made the right decision by willingly tinkering with their preferred side in the name of cautious preservation.

To that end, it is also an approach that none of their play-off rivals have taken either. While the likes of Bristol City, Coventry City, Millwall, Middlesbrough, and Blackburn Rovers head into the final day still gunning for a spot in the top six, and therefore unable to exercise the luxury of rotating, Sheffield United, who have been guaranteed a third-placed finish for some time, have sought to end the campaign on a high, rather than easing their way into next month.

What has Chris Wilder said about Sheffield United’s momentum?

The Blades may have stuttered at times in their own run-in, but have won two of their last three outings, and while Wilder has occasionally altered his starting XI, many of his key assets have been handed plenty of minutes in recent weeks.

And in that regard, the Sheffield United boss has suggested that he believes it is important to enter the play-offs on a roll. Speaking after a 2-0 victory over Stoke City on Friday evening, he said: “To get back to winning ways was important, there have been a lot of things to balance in the last few days,

“The energy of the group has been outstanding since Monday night and the energy of the supporters was amazing. People perhaps thought we’d be taking it easy, taking our foot off the gas but we know you can’t do that, you can’t just turn it on and off, it was important we went full tilt and we never tough a step back in what was a physical game.”

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And perhaps Wilder’s comments should serve as a warning to Sunderland. If the Black Cats fail to beat QPR on Saturday, they will have gone six games without a win heading into their three most pivotal outings of the campaign. If Wilder is correct and teams “can’t just turn it on and off”, then it would presumably be a mammoth task for Le Bris’ men to suddenly rediscover their best form when it matters most.

The flipside, of course, is that if Sunderland march their way to Wembley and back into the Premier League over the coming weeks, then regardless of their recent showings, the head coach’s thinking will have been vindicated. But for now, the question of momentum is likely to remain an unavoidable concern.

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