The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Crewe Alexandra Saturday 27 August @ 3:00pm

Angol is an interesting one, he was given another 12 months ?, after the extention offer he was on video saying this was a big season for him so far he's hardly been instrumental in the games he's played this season a talent wasted where Hughes is playing him IMO.

 

This is what I mean.

In past seasons we've had glaring issues - major issues - but they're simply not present this season.

I know it's hard to adapt to, but we look like a monstrous task for the opposition at VP right now. Nobody wins all their games, and Crewe and Donny are probably two of the better teams in the division this season - yet we were better than them.

It's not a question of whether we can make improvements - we can, and we will.

But if the question is are we in trouble? Hell no. I just don't know what people are thinking at the minute. I almost wish we could fast forward to next Saturday, but only in football terms lol.

 

I've always said 7th Fordy.

The whole Summer I said 7th/play offs.

Some probably did set themselves up for disappointment talking about champions or top 3, but all we need is promotion - thereby 7th is the target. Anything better is a bonus

 

Under previous regimes we've had fundamental flaws such as no defensive midfielders or centre backs who turn slower than an oil tanker and squads with no back up. We aren't perfect by any means but the big plus point is we look solid. A base to build on. Having three attacking threats out at the same time has limited Hughes attempts to cure the left side problem but hopefully two of those will be back soon.

 

Sutton has been poor since the turn of the year and really shouldn't have been given a new deal.

 

A point a lot have missed when saying Banks wasn't using Halliday enough. He did use him to effect the cut inside the defender, that threat is going to create a fair few chances doing that this season.

 

For fun is a massive exaggeration, but not unexpected. He was outnumbered by their winger and full back a few times when Banks was more central on the counter, they resulted in absolutely nothing. As I say micro analysis to the extreme.

 

Thank goodness for Andy Cooks goals so far this season, without them there would be far more booing, I think you'll find most of the stuff you mentioned were because of the service to both him and Oliver when he came on was very poor.

 

Just watched highlights,definite pen in my opinion

 

Ref was as useless as his father was but hey we have diversity

 

In short, I don't think we're that far off having a side that can go on a good run of wins.

Walker has been a big (and unexpected) miss.

There's a long way to go in the season. I'm optimistic we'll continue to improve performances and results. Hughes has shown he's quick to make changes when he's not happy. I'm optimistic we'll have a good season.

 

I can't argue with the analysis, it's exactly what we're all seeing but the difference for me is that under Hughes we look like we have a lot higher ceiling.

Whether we reach that ceiling or not in terms of performance and results is up for debate but I'm still fairly optimistic that we can improve enough to start to find that cutting edge to our play.

 

I though his dad Jarnail had a blinder at Wembley against Notts County back in 1996.

 

His dismal performance at Shrewsbury will live long in the memory of allowing them to score unopposed while our players were trying to save the life of the fullback who had swallowed his tongue following a robust tackle on him, while the player was on the floor shaking and holding his throat our players rushed to him to try giving him aid calling for the medics, The ref allowed them to play on and score in an empty net, worst refereeing I have seen and a player may have died

 

Disappointing performance yesterday. Looked 0-0 from early doors. Final third is a problem as is for most teams. Get this right and we're good to go! Anyway my thoughts on performances yesterday.
Harry Lewis - not much to do, but distribution was excellent.
Halliday - tried to get forward where possible but looked vulnerable on one on one encounters.
Ridehalgh - disappointment for me so far this season. Crossing not up to last season's standard.
Smallwood - didn't impact the game enough. Crossing from dead ball situations was generally poor.
East - tidy on the ball and rarely gave away the ball. However, played it too safe at times.

 

I think our squad is still a bit big, but I do think we need a new left sided player. If we’d had Vernam yesterday the game would have been over by half time, we had all the space in the world out there and didn’t utilised it at all.

 

I don’t know which game you’re referring to here but it can’t be our match yesterday.

Entertaining? Mate, that was one of the dullest games we’ve had at VP for many a year.

End to end doesn’t really count when the end product is crossing the ball out of play or to the oppo keeper.

Don’t see how you feel we should have won when we literally had one shot that smacked the cross bar, aside from that we never looked like scoring, or creating anything.

We’re far too easy to defend against because we’re always playing in front of our opposition defence. We need to be making runs and playing through balls not passing side to side then crossing to nowhere and nobody.

That being said we haven’t yet conceded at home with 3 clean sheets and that’s a great stat and something to build on.

 

Nothing so far has suggested we can go on a long winning run. Nothing!

 

Agree re cooks goals. It was more about fans applauding dumb play. I don’t understand it.

 

Thought he was one of the better ones. Agree that the holding of Oliver and the subsequent block where it hit the defenders arm both could have been given. City had way long enough to take the lead. Our play was sloppy, passes behind the intended target, giving the ball away aimless crosses not able to spot the where Oliver wanted the ball playing. We had lots of opportunity to put them to bed but it was a poor performance. Yes the ref wasn’t perfect but I’ve seen many worse. Darren Deadman anyone?????