The Voice - Match preview #26: Bradford City vs Walsall Saturday 25th January 12:30pm

Well they were yesterday, but that is because we made them look poor

 

We played really well and perhaps caught Walsall on a rare off day, but poor they are not, that's just nonsense

 

As I and some of their fans are now saying, without their two scorers they perhaps dont have a plan B . If they lose Matt to injury and as a consequence don’t replace their two top scorers then they should have enough in the bank to get promoted. When he went off they became a predictable and somewhat average side perhaps or as suggested yesterday , were we that good?

 

'Pulled us out the shit?' We've been in the sh*t for years now. We've been embarrassingly poor especially at home. Our attacking play has been dire and we've served up turgid displays at home for an eternity.

Mentioning Cook's goal scoring does not adequately answer the question around whether or not we are a better team with him in it or not.

 

My sympathy for losing their best striker is limited. It may become a blessing for us losing ours… Our manger may have stumbled on a plan B …. We seem to tip tap past big numpty centre halves now and our midfielders are all at it too… speed always kills them and once you have confidence I.e. shoot on site you have a chance.

 

The players definitely seem to have found a resolve that was absent before.

Two things for me, playing direct with the right press and 'getting up the field' is not a problem at all - suits Alexander and the team as it now stands. Notice even Man City are trying to be a bit more direct and get forward quicker, suits Haaland as he has options to go it alone or feed runners (and to answer the debate on here that could definitely work with Cookie).

The other thing for me is Alexander is himself being a lot more positive. I hold my hands up I wanted him gone and as things are now looking I was wrong (apologies GA). But despite the injuries I still feel we were often sent out on the back foot before the games even started because Alexander didn't totally trust what he had available. This meant dull, uninspiring football - if we scored we were desperately trying to hang on rather than being assertive to get another. This must have rubbed off on the players and their mentality, just human nature.

Anyway, despite one or two posters coming out with their usual crap, yesterday left me feeling really good and excited for the rest of the season. I'll never be able to do a Shoatsy but this is why City means what it does to us all - Come on City!

 

They've been excellent thanks to having a settled squad with few injuries to key players up to now. They have a couple out at the moment and we certainly benefitted from that yesterday, along with Lowe gone, Jellis not being in the squad and Matt getting injured in the first half. That's not to take anything away from our performance, but Walsall were definitely not at their strongest yesterday.

 

So you are blaming Cook. Ok.

 

Matt going off was huge in terms of how the game panned out.

 

Just turn around and ask him at the next home game m8.

 

It's all about opinion I guess but some of the stuff I read on here has me questioning my own sanity.
To even mention Walsall as a poor side shows a real lack of intelligence, the form team in the entire 92 league pyramid is apparently poor. They live amongst us.

 

Great Post. Likewise on GA, getting stick from fans is hard to take no matter how much experience. He has done really well.

 

One more thing before I have to go out in this deluge...Brad Halliday!
Back to his absolute enthusiastic best - smiling, fist pumping, endless energy, yes still making mistakes and misplacing passes but everything wholehearted that made him our landslide player of the season last year. Good to have the fully fledged Brad out there and congrats on becoming a dad again

 

There fans thought it was there poorest display of te season while saying we did a proper job on helping that happen.
I think all around its a poir league form all around get the basics right and you will do welk at this level lets also not forget we should have got something down there ....................honestly that side stays the same without the injuries and with our bench we should deffo go close ..............its jyst a worry with our upcoming fixtures all against teams we should put away then the old Bradford City will turn up

If GA keeps them grounded then we should start cementing a place in at least the playoffs

 

Very aimless long balls in the first 20 minutes.

At times we're like a rugby team. I genuinely think the tactic is to hoof it half way into their half for a throw so all the team can move up and then we try and pressure them into a mistake from the throw in.

 

I would snap your hand off for 40 points from 16 games thanks very much. Win the league numbers.

 

I'm not sure flick ons are Alexander's or Cooks game he's a far better player than just being used for that and it's really a nonsense when he usually has at least one if not two 6' + defenders on his back, I believe Alexander prefers to get delivery from our wing backs but there is no doubt at times it's an easy option for his team mates.
As we've seen week in week out Cook is far from happy with that ball, some say he bitches at his team mates I'd suggest he's every right trying to win headers as I say against 1/2 big defenders.
I do think both Kavanagh and Pointon have improved because we have a midfield that teams can't just run through which has been the case most of the season Smallwood trying to stem the flow, I don't think our results and resent performances are down to not having Cook but far more to do with the likes of Pattison, Sarcevic, Richards, Shepherd, Pointon and up to a point Halliday finding some sort of form most of us hoped we'd see when they signed, allowing Smallwood to do his job.

 

In many ways what you say is correct, an aimless ball does give us chance to get up field. And lets be honest, there are going to be a fair few of those from League 2 defenders (and RS!).
But when it is accurate and put the defenders under pressure, with the right press and sufficient players pushing forward it can produce great returns (as yesterday). If the team is committed and have self belief in this option then we have to use it.
Also important to note it didn't stop our attempts to play a shorter more intricate game to supplement more direct tactics

 

I really don't think Alexander picked Mellon on the bench just in case we lost both Kavanagh then his replacement in Leigh, I'd suggest if that was to happen Pattison could play that position without a problem, but getting back to yesterday's actual situation we were winning the game 3 - 0 just having to see the game out IMO giving Mellon 20 was a very easy call, as we're given to believe Leigh is more a midfield player than a striker, I'll be more than happy for us to continue winning games in the style we did yesterday irrelevant of our opinions on the subsitutes or game in general, long may it continue.