The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Accrington Stanley Tuesday 11th February 2025 7:45pm

ah I didn't know he had played that position - I thought you were being sarcastic

 

W@nkrs shoulder.

 

yup - neither of those 2 touches were a skyhook or a foul, hence I don't think he's a Smallwood type player....unless he had a go at the ref and I missed it

 

I agree that we're making it incredibly tough for Kavanagh but he's not holding anything with his feet either and on the rare occasions he gets space with the ball the move always seems to break down.

That said, he's a young lad with loads of enthusiasm and not a great deal of experience so it's a tough ask coming into to play that lone striking role and perhaps we shouldn't be too critical.

 

Have a 'virtual' recovery drink on me.

 

Moi?

 

I may be wrong but when the kid was brought on he seems to play wide on the right, and as you say take the ball to the corner flag when possible, it's called (game management) if your winning, it's called time wasting if your chasing the game .

 

That's a fair comment @Park bantam but well never know if having a fit Andy Cook playing along side a midfield of Smallwood, Pattison and Sarcevic would have been as big a success as it is with Kavanagh up top, it would be a brave man to say it wouldn't, you can't replace a natural goal scorer and although Kavanagh obviously does what Alexander wants (although Alexander suggested his lake of goals is secondary) we have struggled to score that second killer goal since we put 3 past Walsall.

 

100% ^^^^^^^^ Cook rarely if ever played in front of a midfield of Sarcevic, Smallwood and Pattison.

 

I don't think it's just that we aren't scoring the second goal, it's more that we aren't creating the chances or even having periods of sustained pressure.

I think a more natural number 9 like Cook would help us retain the ball higher, win more ball higher up and by consequence, allow our two attacking midfielders to recover the ball higher up which in turn should lead to the creation of more goalscoring chances.

 

I genuinely think if we moved to this system with a fit Cook, with this fit and firing box midfield behind and around him, we'd catch Walsall. How many balls do we see go in the box with just no threat in the last 2 or 3 games? Standing balls up for all 4 foot 9 of Kav to try outjump people to win. The amount of times we break away and Kavs instinct is to come wide or drop deep for the feed ball, rather than stretching the defenders and pushing for that danger spot in the box is infuriating at times. AK brought it up on comms last night when we took Kav off and Walker a lot of times was left as that man on the half way line, just timing his runs and knowing when to go in and when to go out is half the battle.

Cook is/was our only killer in front of goal, unless we ever find out what Mellon has.

 

Not sure Mellon is a target man but one of the few times I've seen him in a 90 minute game was playing for Morecambe and he certainly had presence that afternoon.

 

I think Cook replacing Kavanagh, would only enhance the team.
We lack that killer instinct in the oppositions goal area.
There was 1 cross last night that was an absolute beaut second half , that cook would have buried, instead it fell to a centre half, who glanced it wide,
It might also help if the centre halves found the scoring touch as well , 1 or 2 per season each is a poor return, Oh for an Aden Flint or a Rory Mcardle in his pomp.

 

I might be well off with Kav, but to me he seems like a player than needs something to go well for him early or his head and shoulders just drop and you might as well take him off after 20 minutes. Same last season, if he got a good shot off early or a good ball in for an assist or something, he looked up for it for the game. But if he struggles for early service or cant get a threat going, as soon as he gets the ball its a panic strike from wherever he gets that ball, if its 3 or 30 yards out or if there's 5 bodies in the way, he's hitting it to try and get one popped off.

He seems a stages player and if the first stage he cant get any joy, he goes into like a panic mode and snaps at shots, snaps at touches, snaps at runs, and is just off it. Against Walsall, we attacked out the gates and he got an assist early on. Then from there he looked lively and the thing I've noticed you can tell with Kav if he's "on it" or not.... he starts chirping at the defenders and the keeper. He tries getting them on edge or wound up. If he's off it, he's too busy over thinking everything and his next touch is a rush, his shot is a rush. Same with Carlisle, came out that second half, scored a goal and then was pressing like a mad man, having a word with the oppositions all the time.

 

He seems to like a chirp at his own players too!

 

Cook with that midfield would give any team in this league a huge headache the easiest way to stop us was to stop Cook now no doubt the oppo teams will be trying to stop our midfield. Lets be right we aint creating chance after chance over the last few games something that was more or less happening with Cook up top .................honestly i hope it doesnt come back to haunt us but if it come down to us not having enough up top then its yet another massive fail by the recruitment team ...........still have faith that at some point the forwards will start scoring

 

Remember the days back when we complained if Cook missed a chance unfortunately at the moment as you say although were getting the results we certainly aren't creating many chances, which makes fans edgy as only having the one goal lead we know the opposition will create at least one goal scoring chance, apart from a great save by Walker against Morecambe that game could have so easily been a 1 - 1 draw, thank goodness Accrington created little the entire game.

 

Completely agree and on reflection, Accrington created more than us if we're being honest.

 

That’s fair, holding the ball up is a much neglected skill tbf.

 

The trouble is with an out and out target man it’s to easy play the ball up to him and it gets predictable. Kavanagh for all his faults is a whirlwind and unpredictable. Leigh seems decent in the air and can hold the ball up but hasn’t shown he can finish for us yet