The Voice - Match preview #29: Luton Town vs Bradford City Saturday 7th February 2026 12:31pm

I was shaking my head when I heard him say that. A lot of these players are currently low in confidence in their own positions so why he thinks they will suddenly be able to work out during the match which one or two of them need to be covering somewhere else and then be able to execute that without compromising their primary position is a mystery. For a man who has often talked about keeping things simple, I think he's asking too much of them. Get back to basics, set them up away from home with an extra man in the middle and let the rest of them concentrate on what they are best at rather than expecting them to be something they are not.

 

Opinions eh? Their 10 was their driving force . Two “ enforcers “ in the middle arnt enough. We need that real forward thinking midfielder that makes us tick . All good sides have them , we haven’t to any extent. Not only that the two in the middle get swamped .
I’m beginning to think Lincoln are better than Birmingham were last season btw and will beat Cardiff to the top spot?

 

And Stockport getting there .

 

Not wrong but did you ask them how much they have spent on transfer fees in the last Four transfer windows and on wages . We may have a better balance perhaps?

 

It's definitely a weakness of ours. To be fair that's as good a central midfielder as we will face in league one, for us to improve to the next level we need that sort of drive from the central area of the pitch, without it the game plan is limited to predictable wing back options.

 

what gets me first 6or7 games we looked unbeatable win 3-1 at Cardiff
what has gone wrong its baffling there seems to be no answer.

 

We've regressed to the mean is the answer.

Teams have people patches where they look unbeatable and teams have barren runs where they look terrible. Neither is actually true and by the end of the season we'll probably find out where our true level lies.

 

Maybe its down to players just simply dropping off form
I know we can alude to tactics etc but if players aint on form its always gonna be a stuggle
Look at Josh Neufville after the 8 or so games he looked a million pound plus player all day long at the start so whats gone on there ?????

 

Nobody respected him early on and he was able to run riot. Same with Bobby. Teams watched footage of us and realised how to shut us down, then other teams followed suit. He’s often just been marked out of games.

We’ve been saying for months we need a CM to break from midfield but GA sold Pattison, who was our only competent player. Leigh was too sift to play midfield. He’s brought in Evans but left him on bench.

so we’re still stuck in the same situation. We have our fullbacks marked. Power and Metcalfe don’t bomb forward, so we’re still trudging through matches creating diddly squat, going behind and then finally mixing this up, playing better, but finding its all too little too late.

Alexander’s success was based on strong starts and us flying out of the traps. Away from home now we just seen unable to do that.

Sarcevic and Bobby’s injuries have been big blow too though.

 

Dislike of a player can blinker you. In the first 30 mins on Saturday, Tyreik put in 2 crosses that simply begged someone to get on the end of. He also waltzed down the byline and had an attempt on goal that hit his own player. In the first 30 mins we certainly matched Luton But their numerical midfield superiority allowed them to take charge, We missed good chances at crucial times. Had we been able to take them, the outcome might have been different but we were left exposed once we were chasing the game and piling forward. No matter where we finish, we have had a good season, we are new to the division, have a much stronger squad than last year and the January dealing has left us in a position to strengthen again. We have to keep in mind though, we cannot financially compete with quite a few teams in this division. Every other one of the play off hopefuls can blow us out of the water. Anyone not enjoying the ride?

 

It’s pretty simple really. First few games were against teams like Cardiff, Wycombe, Luton and the Dogs, that played out from the back. We swarmed all over them and forced lots of mistakes to create chances. That, and our long diagonals allowed our wingbacks get behind them consistently. Teams have stopped playing out from the back against us and worked out how to counter the wingback threat. So our chances have largely dried up.
Without the high press and wingback threat being effective we really don’t have much creativity at all. Power and Metcalfe are good players but neither is creating many chances, set pieces aside.

 

I thought Tyriek Wright was our best player at Luton

 

And that's where the frustration lies. I thought Saturday was probably his best half of football and he did look a threat, although his mazy dribble never really looked under control. He's had tons of game time this season but until Donny he's done diddly squat. Let's hope the penny has dropped and he continues in this attacking vein, because when he tries he can make a difference.

 

We've brought a fair few players but gone with the same approach. Even when we were winning it was clear we didn't offer much threat down the middle once Pattison fell out of favour. Changing the front free wasn't going to change that. We aren't going to change a back three so its a case of moving the rest of the chairs on the deck of the ship to solve the problems in the middle.

 

I think saying he doesn’t try at times is harsh, he certainly lacks a lot of self confidence from what I can see but not effort.

 

Exactly.. this is what is so frustrating.. every one of us sees it but the tactics to combat it is long ball into the abyss.
We need playmakers to bring the front 3 into play but Power and Metcalfe have to cover defensively as well as bring the ball forward.. 3 in the middle would give us the extra man to carry the ball when it breaks.. instead of getting neck ache watching another hoof heading for orbit.

 

Actually that's fair comment. What I perhaps should have said is when he tries to get on the front foot and go at the opposition

 

His best two performances this season have coincided with him being played further forward. I can't for the life of me think why that might be the case.

 

Exactly this, he isn't a wing back. Plymouth tried the experiment and he ended up back with us. Needs to be played further forward to see the best of him.

 

It's a crazy notion to play players in their natural positions; still, the player usually takes the flak off someone rather than the manager (That last part isn't aimed at Wright, but at others who haven't performed when we haven't played to their strengths).