The Voice - FA Cup Special Round One: Bradford City vs Harrogate Town Saturday 5th November @ 12:30pm

Of course it’s a argument, you judge players on performance for your team and for the last 3 months you couldn’t put a cigarette paper between them

 

Apologies I though you were referencing my comment.

 

It doesn't Monkey but he hasn't been any better than Gilliead this season and its what he does now that counts.

 

He's definitely been better than Gillead and people will only debate otherwise because they see RS giving the ball away and his poor set pieces.

What they don't debate is Gillead getting away with it and effectively hiding because he doesn't even try a difficult pass or cross a ball.

We're carrying him as a team and it's been evident in most games this year that the midfield "triangle" isn't as effective as a unit as it should be

 

He really hasn't.

 

As far as contributing goes, Smallwood has 2 assists and a goal. Gillead has nothing of note yet, as usual. That's despite him spending some of his time in the attacking midfield role.

 

Smallwood takes all the set pieces, he's gonna have at least a couple of assists. I don't think Gilliead is the right foil for Smallwood but neither do I think Smallwoods form depicts a player who has played in the championship for years. We might see a different Smallwood with a different player but as it stands his form is poor. Can't cover that one over by blaming anyone else.

 

I don’t think either have been bad this season, last two games yes but overall they’ve been decent and at times it looked like Smallwood actually missed Gilliead earlier in the season. But since Gilliead returned he’s been poor and so has Smallwood. Hopefully they can improve becomes we need them too.

Interesting however the stat on the other thread @Jordan put about Smallwood being the 6th highest rated player by score. He’s been poor on the ball but we’d miss his off the ball work if he was left out. We have the second best defence for a reason and him and Lewis have contributed to that in a big way as well as the back 4 and that’s probably where Smallwood gets his high ratings from.

 

We need a ball carrying dominant midfielder for Smallwood to pass to. Smallwood breaks up play effectively but when asked to take on the role of provider, he’s fallen short. Maybe some supporters didn’t quite now what his strengths were, including me. I’ve said for a long time that we’ve never replaced Gary Jones and he’s exactly the type of player who would turn this squad around. Gilliead has fallen into a position that calls for dynamism but he doesn’t have any. I think the fact that he’s the fittest in squad and runs around a lot, has masked his frailties at getting us on the front foot. To say he startled out as a winger he poorly lacks that attacking instinct needed in his current role. He’s another who should be starting from the bench and brought on to defend a lead when needed.

 

People can't moan about Smallwoods terrible set pieces but then refuse to acknowledge it as an assist when we score from one though.

This isn't really about defending Smallwood though because I do agree that he's been below par but more about how absurdly non existent Alex Gillead is as a footballer.

If there is anyone, and I mean ANYONE who can tell me what he actually contributes (other than the fictitious "unseen work") then I'm all ears.

The truth is that he came as a winger and didn't contribute so we moved him inside, where he doesn't contribute and now plays in a deeper midfield role where is very difficult to again see what he contributes.

There's definitely a common denominator there and it's a complete lack of ability and/or bravery.

 

Monkey is right in that Smallwood is a quality player and I still believe he is absolutely pivotal to how successful we are. Gilliead has been playing the role asked of him. I think that's where our problem lies, that those two central mids have to be encouraged to be more proactive.

 

Both have dropped of lately. Smallwood has two assists, both to Cook, both glancing headers inside the 6-yard box from corners, both in the same week in September.

Those score ratings take everything into account thats measurable, not saying he's a padder for that stuff but a lot of his passing is either a few yarder back to the CB or FB. In terms of pass completion, Smallwood is the 8th best midfielder in L2 with an 80.1% completion, as stated with him being on corners and technically, a corner cleared goes down as a miss placed pass, he's probably a lot higher than 80%. Only Platt has intercepted play more in a City shirt than Smallwood, he also has the third best tackling numbers for a CM so far this season. He does the stuff that doesn't get praise very well, but as the 3 attacking players aren't producing numbers, i think we expect the CMs to try and be just as effective, and ours aren't going forward.

 

Can't complain about his set pieces? They've been dire. Have you had your eyes shut when he's taking them? And I think it's a bit insulting to accuse players of lack of bravery. Problem is do we really know what Hughes is asking Gilliead to do? If he's asking him to sit deep and break up play then that's what he's been doing. But that's Smallwoods game, we can't have two doing the same thing. And if I had to choose one to do it it would be Smallwood every day of the week.

 

I think we need a ball carrier to partner Smallwood, but as you say the attacking players are a bigger problem imo. Their production is terrible in terms of goals and assists, which ultimately is what gets you promoted. Only Cook looks like scoring, and that’s when the 3 behind him actually give the end product to set him up.

 

I'm quite surprised that Gilliead managed to become a father.
That must have been the only shot he got on target for a few seasons.

 

Talking to my brother who was at the game on Saturday he said Smallwood and Gilliead were both poor saying Gilliead has not looked the same player since the birth of his child.

 

Poor soul. Did he have to have a C section ?

 

I was there on Saturday and nothing worked. There was no urgency or coordination in the middle of the park.

 

I listened on the radio and I've never heard Morais lost for words with regards our poor play and changing things when it was clear it was not working, it was not as if Harrogate had scored late in the game giving us little time to respond we had 80 minutes plus injury time.