The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Crewe Alexandra Saturday 26th August 2023 3:00pm

He was poor on that observation. Mind you so was Cook if I were to be honest.

 

There is and always will be a bigger thread when we lose as opposed to winning, that's just the nature of the beast. And let's be honest, yesterday's game was so dull and boring there was very little to talk about, hence the lack of posting interest.

 

Not sure what to make of Cook so far this season Kev. The attempt at a new formation has left him isolated at times and as a team we've been guilty of creating him little bar the Stockport game. 6 games without a goal (league and cup) is a worry that either we've done something fundamental leading to a goal drought or that he simply is badly off form and at this time I'm firmly with the former.

 

Usually, I comment about 20+ times a match thread but I was busy yesterday and had Wifi problems

 

Yes, Smallwood alongside McDonald. We eventually used five subs and morphed into what looked like a 4231 - Halliday and Ridehalgh at fullback, Stubbs and Platt at CB, Odusina, Pattison and Derbyshire in the three with Cook limping around on his own up front.

 

A win is a win, but as you say , far from impressive nor convincing. Pattison seems one step ahead of all those around him. Notably Cookie perhaps?

 

Agree , the 5 isn’t working.

 

I haven't read the whole thread but no one seems to have mentioned Cook's injury. He took a big bang in the side and spent the last 20 minutes hobbling around, unable to run, often holding his side. If that's a rib crack or significant side muscle strain then he could be out for weeks. Oliver is injured. Do we bring in a loan striker?

 

Osadebe mate

 

Fair… I believe it’s a combination of the two. It may sound strange , top scorer in the division last year and he looked isolated during games even then. The change of formation magnifies it even more? Coupled with a loss of confidence with that formation and we have a Cookie as you describe.

 

Credit should be given to the defence that kept him quiet

 

Did others notice that, after our goal, when the players all went to the bench, Stubbs was having a right go at Hodges and Hughes. Looked like he was pleading with them to change something because it wasn't working.

 

Can’t believe how many empty seats there were yesterday and pubs beforehand were noticeably quiet. People had enough or all on Jet2 holidays!?

 

He didn’t look in a good way at all at full time.

 

There would have been plenty of posting interest if we had lost

 

I think the boo boys were well disappointed when we scored,they were just warming up,

 

Yes I mentioned this on post #220. Can see him missing the next 2 or 3 as he was in lots of pain, looked more like his hip to me? And we couldn’t bring him off as we had used all our sub windows

Problem is now who replaces him? I have little faith in Smith, so it looks like all the pressure is on Darbyshire

Anyone want my Wrexham or Mansfield tickets….

 

The ref normally gets 10/15 pages of his own.

 

I saw that, credit to our Captain for having the balls to question a formation that is making players look worse than they are. The whole idea of a back 3 is to somehow play with more further forward, either as a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 pushing the wing backs forward. It simply doesn't work for us.

 

The players must talk to each other about this and if they haven't already, I hope they collectively raise their concerns with Hughes and Hodges next week. Whether they'll be listened to though is another matter.