The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Harrogate Town Saturday 16th September 3:00pm

Christ you always had some strong contributions on the matter.

I'd give anything to have a Hanson circa 2013 in the side now mind.

 

Which side of the debate where you on again?

 

I'm sure I once read that Harry Kane also only got his chance because Spurs missed out on a couple of big targets and the poor form of Soldado who they did bring in.

 

With our one up front and a "ten" It'd be like he was playing up front with Clarke again and completely ineffective.

Hanson needed Wells movement around him, that's how we got the best out of him and it was no surprise that when Wells moved on Big Jim had less and less of an influence on games.

 

Cook definitely has broken some ribs.

 

Rumours he’s having knee surgery caused from the awkward fall at Crawley.

 

I agree, strong and direct runner which scares the shit out of central defenders. Needs the ball on the floor, as he looked liked he couldn’t jump higher than his grandma. Good luck to the lad.

 

Yes he looked a right handful for the time he was on the pitch. I liked his dropped shoulder to win a comerc when he first came on, he was alert and focused immediately and not overawed in the slightest.

 

In the training match front 3 were Pointon, Derbyshire and Walker.

 

Oduor will hopefully replace Derbyshire on his return from international duty, assuming he is fit.

Have a feeling Hughes will be going tight and negative again though hoping to sneak a 1-0 victory.

Another dull afternoon of football beckons I reckon.

Although attending, just no enthusiasm for this season so far.

 

Hopefully the season will gather momentum as it goes along.
As bad as it’s been so far, had Cook not had a shocker and we’d beaten Stockport, we’d now be sitting in 9th place just 2 point off the top 3.
Let’s see where we are at the end of the month after the Walsall home game.
The key is Hughes scrapping the 5 at the back debacle (modern football)

 

I think he won’t change his 3/5 at the back for the Harrogate game. Hope I am wrong

 

Bet placed @ 12/1.

 

Same, I think he sticks with 5 at the back until it lucks its way into grabbing wins. He knows at HT he can always switch to 4231 if we are losing, but he seems dead set on making this flat back 5 work.

 

I hope Derbyshire doesn't start, but it's the easy choice. Experienced out and out centre forward to lead the line... even though he's washed up.

I hope he sneaks the winner to justify signing him in the first place from the Indian Retirement Village.

 

Both the Crewe and Grimsby first halves were appalling, on top of some miserable away games. If Hughes doesn’t find a way of:
A. Making the 3 at the back much more offensive and pressing
Or….
B. Reverting to a back 4
….AND if we are drawing or losing at HT, I really fear what the reaction of the crowd will do to our confidence.

We cannot keep going game after game changing at HT because we keep seeing the same outcome from the formation. A line has to be drawn - we cannot perform as badly as we have or even more supporters will turn.

 

His problem is no pace or movement in the back three or the midfield if Pattison or Gilliead aren't there, It simply has no attacking prowess in it. Which in turn leaves the attacking full/wing backs isolated with no options to go central, which invariably leads to passing back we constantly see.
His only excuse to not go four at the back is if Stubbs is injured, there is no natural leader amongst the others.

 

I think when it gets to the stage you're switching from a back 5 at half time pretty much every game because it's not working, it's time to switch full time.

I'm sorta surprised Hughes hasn't already given up on the 5, I won't be very happy if we line up with it yet again on Saturday.

 

We play our 5 at the back more like Scotland did it last night, and it will never work against any decent team. Our back line falls instantly into a flat back 5 when we don't have the ball. The problem when we do get the ball, we aren't set to go forwards as the wing backs are 15 yards too deep, the midfield has little to no pace to fill areas of space and the forward just gets isolated because the system is too defensive to be fluid. If the other team has the ball, we look like we want to find the mistake and counter. Our problem is we don't have the pace up front or the bravery in the wing backs to counter successfully.

I don't blame anyone who has played WB for us this season, as they are running two roles but neither the CBs or the CMs have the pace or positional play to cover the gaps they will leave by going forward. So it just ends up with a lot of hesitation on the field and going centrally to lose it or back to the keeper to start again.

 

England were top class night; any team would struggle against them in that form.