The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Walsall Saturday 3 September @ 3:00pm

Interesting to hear we were overrun again in midfield. I didnt go today as on holiday but remain worried. XG of less than 1.0 (0.89 today) at home is poor and their xG was 1.99. Sounds like we got lucky, as many have said on here.

The whole set up is wrong and things need to change. We are in trouble, for all we fluked a win today by all accounts.

Nice to see Young bag again.

 

Different game after the subs came on. Although Jake scored, both him and Banks were anonymous for the most part. The introduction of Oliver, Ty and Dion made a difference. If we start with them the xG will improve considerably.

 

I wouldn't go as far as say fluked a win, yes we were caught of guard today in certain areas of the pitch, but end of day it's swings and roundabouts with L2 players, full credit to Walsall today they turned up to win the game, and we weren't quite at the races for sure, but tbh we benefited from Walsalls attitude to win by hitting them on the break. After our opening home fixtures it was a refreshing change.

 

We weren't overrun in midfield, but the combination of Sutton and Smallwood didn't work because we never had any control of the game. Our problem was our inability to win defensive headers on long throws/set pieces which allowed Walsall to have too many goalmouth scrambles.

 

Yes we have dominated most f the matches we played this season with very mixed result we didn’t dominate today and came away with three. We are in decent shape we have a big squad with one or two injuries we just need to get the balance right.

 

Yes we have dominated most f the matches we played this season with very mixed result we didn’t dominate today and came away with three. We are in decent shape we have a big squad with one or two injuries we just need to get the balance right.

 

Supply line. The connect from middle to the attack ain't working. Hughes has to get this right. And use the full width of the pitch

 

Far from the only error the referee made.

Very poor performance today from a man that looks like a typical know-it-all.

 

I do agree that we need to be better but under Adams the XG sometimes was off the charts and look how that turned out.

Plenty to do and certainly improvements to be made but I'm not unduly worried by the XG stat. Once we find the right balance I'm sure all of the stats will take care of themselves.

 

Today was not exactly a belting day at the office, but the reason we won was the good work in the transfer market.

Sure, Cook was here last season, but the pivotal players ended up being Lewis & Young, and the new signings up front added something as well.

I just don't know who is going to be able to match our transfer market prowess this season. Both our defeats were ridiculous in nature. When we've drawn, we've been stupidly unlucky.

Next week we're playing a team that are bang in form in Mansfield, they've only dropped points against high flyers - if we beat them, it will be clear we're a force this season.

I might even promote us from a 7th place expected finish.

We have an embarrassment of riches, and we haven't even got going.

 

I can't wait for next Saturday....bring it on....

 

Wouldn't say we are in trouble I'd say the best is yet to come. We didn't fluke it to be honest Lewis played a blinder and we took our chances. The 1st goal was against the run of play somewhat and we had to be resolute but we were and that's what counts. Genuinely think if we can get on a roll we'll take some beating this season.

Olivers best game for us today he won alot against a very physical defence and should have scored as should Kian and Chapman for that matter. We need a bit more urgency in our play and we do miss Walker. Fair play to Walsall they had a proper go, they were physical and made it difficult but they didn't batter us.

A high xG is great but you know what it's just a stat it doesn't get you three points.

I've really liked what I've seen from Young might be on my own but there's just something about him. He's got the nuts to keep having a go even if it's not working. I don't really care if he loses the ball a few times I just want to see him keep being brave and having a go at teams.

 

At least this season we have strong options to come in ............ our changes late on proved that ........... still got a feeling that Oliver will have a big day this season ......... he caused the CBs problems when he came on

 

Hope Oliver has more than one big day mate.

 

Walsall are a big team and Flynn has set them up to be a “in your face” team. 2nd half we struggled with the overload of strikers they had on the pitch. But that to me shows the difference in management thinking in this division. Walsall played as you would expect from a typical league 2 team, but we have a manager who wants to play football as it should be, the build up to our two goals showed this.
Saying we have players who are crap and should be dropped are a little unfair. MH is wanting to play in a particular style and it doesn’t help when we are up against the stereotypical teams in this division. This showed yesterday when Walsall were pressing us, we still tried to play the ball out to clear it, in recent seasons we would have just hoofed it down the pitch and it would have come back to us putting us back under pressure. But having said that it is still up to us to figure out a way to beat this type of team and for me yesterday showed we had just enough to come out on top.

 

Just seen two minutes of highlights and the Cook goal/ Young goals. The first, he could have easily given up the chase for that ball, but his determination to not only get it but execute a superb cross for Cook was tasty as was the strike by Cook.

I’d like to see the Young goal from a different angle, but the shots bending in towards the far post from the flanks are becoming a potent weapon.

Great finishing …both!

 

Gilliead and Walker are big misses for me in/through the middle. Coping ok without either but when they return we should really kick on. Gilliead offers more than Sutton, East and Songo at CM. Smallwoods best choice partner.

 

Critchlow was poor today. It was a pen. He let the man cut inside too easily. Lackadaisical. He was culpable for the goal and didn’t clear his lines leading to panic in the box.

Sutton was good first half stretching play beyond cook. Should have been subbed second half earlier for Songoo as he kept getting caught wrong side as Walsall broke on us leaving Smallwood and his lack of pace exposed. Songoo calmed us down. We saw the injury time out better than the previous 10 minutes.
Lewis was excellent and he had to be. Walsall unlucky not to win today. Lewis performance was the best I’ve seen since we’ve been back in this division. Rightly MOTM.

You may be proved right in the long run and whilst I thought Critchlow was poor yesterday he has been pretty good to date and is still young and learning. He is going to occasionally be poor but he’s worth the risk based on the season to date. It was noticeable Walsall’s front man sat in him. Flynn didn’t want Critchlow on the ball at the back. They were happy to let Platt have it instead as he isn’t as comfortable in possession. We should expect other teams to adopt similar tactics as it stalled our build up play. Smallwood saw much less of the ball because of this. City will need to work on how they adapt in future. on another note it was great to see the fresh impetus off the bench. Both wingers made a positive impact.

 

big say bud

 

If we are up near the top 3 come his return it will give us a massive boost going into the new year ..............