The Voice - Match preview #44: Chesterfield vs Bradford City Monday 21st April 2025 3:00pm

If you believe that crap and a manager is playing a player only because the player had a “word, really, sorry but that’s not how pro football or any decent manager works. The interpretation people put on “ words” is frankly daft!

 

I don't believe that for a second but I do think GA likes to rotate/tinker to keep much of the squad involved. He often makes the point that he trusts ALL of the squad, but I feel in some cases that trust is misguided.

 

Agree that’s a different debate altogether . My considered opinion is he’s being too wary by trying to protect what we have. Falling back encourages the opponent to attack. He’s made mistakes , he’s not perfect , but he’s in L2 after all.

 

No idea how Byrne is back but how did he end up back in the squad when the 7 games he was out of it we won 5 drew 1 and lost 1 and the last 8 he has been back in We are now 2 wins out of 8.

Mental

 

I’m getting sick and tired of Alexander’s poor team selections. He’s fannied about at the back and at times it hasn’t been necessary.

If he starts Byrne again he fully deserves whats coming - more dropped points and maybe even us dropping out of the top three. We need less hoof, and more pace than a clunky CB provides.

lets stop arsing about and pick our best XI (minus Richie):

walker, tayo, crich, shep, baldwin, halliday, Khela, Patto, Bobby, Sarcevic, Kavanagh

Huntington in line at CB if any injuries. Walker or Lapslie in line for attacking role. Mellon waiting if Kav gets tired.

byrne shouldnt even be in the squad.

 

I do agree I can only see him getting what he deserves if he goes Byrne again.

 

It's beyond me that he can't see that the Baldwin, Halliday, Sarcevic line up was so effective for us and he negates it by moving Baldwin to the centre and sticking Byrne on the right.

 

Byrne is getting picked because Alexander prefers Baldwin in the central spot. The only other option is Johnson who is never fit/hasn't impressed when he has played.

Byrne is crap but unless Alexander starts playing Baldwin back on the right, he's probably going to have to play unfortunately.

 

That would also be my starting 11 but unfortunately I don't think that's what he'll go with. Hoping I'm pleasantly surprised!

 

Has Baldwin in the middle actually worked though? Not to sure? It has to be either

Baldwin Shepherd Crichlow/Kelly
Or
Johnson Baldwin Shepherd

We’ve only seen Johnson at rcb twice, 60 minutes against Accrington, 90 against MK. He was very good against MK, impressed breaking into the box for a should be penalty and the team also kept a clean sheet in Both. He’s been pretty average at wing back however.

Isn’t even close if you’re adamant on playing Baldwin as the middle cb, Johnson has to be the rcb.

GA will go Byrne though and I fear a 2 wins in 9 occurring

on a side note having been poor against Port vale, I was impressed with Kelly on Thursday

 

Yes, we've seen it a few times recently.

Baldwin started in the middle against Crewe, Accrington, and Colchester. We conceded 1 goal in those 3 games.

During that run we decided to play Huntington in the centre for one game instead.

We lost that game against Port Vale 2-0. We also didn't play him in that position against Swindon or Notts County.

Somewhat bizarrely, we played Huntington at the back in the 1-0 defeat against Gillingham, while Baldwin got the nod in the 3-0 win over Cheltenham.

Not saying it's a magic bullet, but aside from the 1-0 defeat to Tranmere, YES, it did look to be working.

The one thing I would absolutely not do at this stage that I've seen others suggest is play Huntington. I'm grateful to him for coming in and doing a great job while we were severely depleted but I think his EFL days are pretty much over now. Again, much respect to him, but this is not the time.

 

Baldwin is the best ball playing centre back we have and Alexander wants a ball player in the middle of the three. Whether it's the best option is open to debate but that's why he picks him there

 

One thing I believe the EFL need to renegotiate with Sky, is that teams involved in the promotion race at this stage should kick off at the same time. Either we all kick off at 12.30 or we all kick off at 3pm. No team should get an advantage of knowing what needs to be done in their game at this stage of the season. Also it's more nervy/exciting keeping one eye on your game whilst listening out for the others.

 

How far back in the match calendar are you proposing , the last month, two months?

 

Let's just go for it today up and at em from 1st minute and NO easing off
I dread us going 1 up and "Tinkerman" pulling us back to defend the lead
Even worse making his disastrous defensive substitutions
We are well capable of having the game in the bag by the time we start flagging
So come on GA take the brakes off, forget about settling fora nervy 1-0 and bring the points home

 

What's he supposed to have said? "Play me or I'll leave"?

 

We just have to hope that our three match winning players are getting to match fitness after their layoff. It’s no coincidence that our form collapsed after Sarcevic,Pattison and Pointon were unavailable at the same time. Then we suffered another major blow losing Smallwood for three crucial games as well as losing the Swindon game when he was sent off. Hopefully we get it right today as I suspect other results will go against us this afternoon.

 

It doesn't make much sense to me, as we never actually play through the central CB. All they do is ship it to the right or left CB and they ping it down the channel. Baldwin is our best passer in defence but he never actually passes the ball in this central role. He needs shifting back to the right slot in my eyes.

 

The Opta thing has us 3rd at the end of the season so I don’t see what everybody is worried about.