Sheffield United v Millwall: Khadra starts as Heckingbottom makes changes

It’s back to Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane for Sheffield United fans today, as Millwall become the first visitors to S2 this season.

There are painful memories for United fans of last season’s corresponding fixture as a late Jake Cooper strike condemned United to a miserable defeat while Slavisa Jokanovic was in charge. Of course, Cooper has scored in his last four outings against United, and will be looking to add to that today.

However, this is a different Blades side than that day under Jokanovic and Paul Heckingbottom will want to get off to a winning start in front of the home supporters. Here, then, is all the team news ahead of the clash with The Lions.

The Blades are still without a number of players who could be considered as first-team starters. Jayden Bogle is out until October time, while new signing Tommy Doyle is injured as well. Jack Robinson, Enda Stevens and Adam Davies are expected to miss weeks of action, while the likes of Oli McBurnie and Billy Sharp are fighting their way back to fitness and might be involved off the bench.

New signing James McAtee might hope to be involved but having only been at Shirecliffe a few days, it could be a risky move for Heckingbottom to throw him straight into the action. However, there could be starts for Reda Khadra, who came off the bench at Watford, and new defender Anel Ahmedhodzic. Chris Basham is also back fit, and could be an option for Hecky.

Up front, Rhian Brewster will be hoping to start ahead of Daniel Jebbison. Billy Sharp also came on at Vicarage Road, and could also be given the nod.

There needs to be more balance to the team than there was at Watford, as well as more threat up top. With that, we think Ciaran Clark will move over to LCB, with Ahmedhodzic coming in alongside John Egan.

In midfield, we’d like to see Sander Berge drop in deeper for John Fleck, who was poor at Watford. That allows Khadra to come into the mix alongside Iliman Ndiaye behind Rhian Brewster.

Here, then, is how we see United lining up against Millwall at Bramall Lane today.