The Voice - Match preview #9: Morecambe vs Bradford City Tuesday 1st October 2024 7:45pm

This comment is almost word for word my reply to a fellow poster who asked why we go and watch games, we get why you've given up on City but others haven't and shouldn't need to post their reasons for attending games that was my point.
"Whilst people attend City matches to have a beer and meet friends".

 

GA saying we should see it as a positive that we got a point last night because we don't know how important that point could be come the end of the season. FFS, we've just played Harrogate and Morecambe Graham, not Man City and Liverpool. If you are genuinely serious about mounting a promotion challenge then you need to say it as it is, and to come away with one solitary point from those two games is not good enough, period, so please don't try to dress it up any other way.

 

Trouble is we need drinks both before and again after a match to kill the pain......!!

 

Morecambe have drawn away at Fleetwood and had a perfectly good goal not given for what would have been a win over Notts County at the weekend so let's not believe that they are that crap.
Yes not the best from us with the whole of our first choice back 3 out and 2 of what would be our first choice midfield out, but let's stop making it out that every team in this division isn't capable of doing something.

 

We were discussing this on the way home last night. Probably won't happen this month but at the same time it wouldn't be a shock if it did happen, how many times have we been in this position a few months into a season, fans get disgruntled, Sparks panics and pulls the trigger

The only conclusion we could come to last night was that if GA is axed, then Sparks must do the honourable thing and resign too. It isn't working, it hasn't worked for all his tenure, time to try a new perspective with fresh ideas from the top level. Also has dick head Rupp even shown his ugly face at any pont this season??What happened to the guff about being more involved this season and investment?! Oh yeah, sound bites to appease the gullible twots that we are

I'll never turn my back on the club I love dearly. But the matchday experience for the past few years is getting worse and worse game by game and something will give. I've said it before and i'll say it again, I go to practically every single game but this would not happen if my lad didn't go too. If his work shift patterns change, for example, live games would become a thing of the past for us and the way it has been for a while now, I wouldn't miss it one single iota. In fact, it'd probably do wonders for my health. I spent the first 88 minutes last night stood there with my arms crossed, shaking my head in anger and disbelief, and fuming inside. I cannot explain the relief when that header went in

 

Well considering he played against Harrogate, cant have been.

 

Plus the young kid Liverpool bought from Wolves - estimated £400k income.

 

Sparks will never resign. He doesn't see himself as the problem. The only way he'll go if he is reieved of his duties and as we're 'Sustainable' that ain't going to happen anytime soon

 

Exactly, as I said in my post late last night. They signed 18 players the day before the season started, and they more than matched us last night and certainly know where the net is. It is an unbelievably sorry state of affairs that our fans have to put up with, and has been for several seasons now

 

You're probably spot on with that to be fair. Sparks has always been a narcissistic bastard so unless his superior gives him the bullet then we are stuck with him sadly

 

Let's put aside the manager, tactics etc to one side for a bit.
What I don't get is as a professional footballer surely you don't need motivation to win a game of football. Motivation should come from within as natural. Whether you're playing a game of pool with your mate or a game of cards with the Mrs your natural instinct is to win, no?
Most of us dreamt as kids to be a professional footballer. Very few make the grade. However, playing a Sunday league game in the park you didn't really need a manager to bellow from the sidelines. You wanted to win and would bust a gut to win your individual battle.
Back to the manager. I'm not making out he's blameless, far from. But some individuals need to have a good look at themselves and stop hiding behind the manager.

 

He's doing his dream job and he can't understand why people give him grief. He's perplexed as to why we aren't all super happy for him. (His words, not mine).

 

GA hasn’t helped himself one bit. The team selection for the first 4 games was poor. Kavanagh being selected when it was obvious he was not upto the job, Walker left out, Sarcevic played out of position. He just doesn’t have a clue who to put where because he’s got too many choices. When you look across the squad, who can we truly class as quality other than Cook (as a goal scorer)? His comments about only needing 4 or 5 have come back to bite him well and truly on the backside.

 

How many managers need to be replaced before we realise the problems extend beyond the manager.

Two of his starting midfield and 5 defenders unavailable. His starting wing back pushed into midfield. Having to change formation. It was pretty poor last night but some things need to be taken into consideration.

 

Agreed but before the injuries we haven’t looked like a cohesive unit.

 

Looking at the top 10 in that early 2023 table, 6 of those teams went on to either win promotion or finish in the play offs.
Very few teams statistically who are outside the top 10 after 10 games go on to get promoted.

 

It’s ALWAYS about the manager and the players. How many managers did Lawn / Rhodes fire before they got lucky and stumbled upon PP?
Was it the CEO’s fault when we hired Peter Jackson and almost went into the NL. ?

 

I don't think Cook has looked quality at all, he has been fairly anonymous and had his work cut out holding up the ball, but he knows where the goal is when he gets infront of it. He is 34 in a few weeks and it is starting to show. Same with Smallwood, players can go past him as he doesn't have the legs.

Can only hope these injured players come back soon and we can at the least sort the defence out.

I don't like Alexanders football, it seems to rely on good attacking play from the fullback/wingbacks - who have been rubbish (bar Benn)

I have come to conclusion we are just not very good - an average squad with a lot of injuries. Here we are in early October left clinging onto some pipe dream of the playoffs.