The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Newport County Saturday 13 August @ 3:00pm

You obviously missed Shota Arveladzes post match comments he was hardly complementary with regards Hills overall performance, he seemed to be quite annoyed Hill didn't play better and possibly win the game.

 

Wasting your time mate. Any time City win, it's always because the other team were poor or not taking it seriously, never because we actually played quite well.

 

I think Angol gets benched. An attacking three of Chapman, Walker and Banks. All much more direct than Angol.

 

Managers tend to come out say something different to the media than to the players.

Hull won’t be losing any sleep about losing to us. In fact didn’t they beat Norwich yesterday? That was a bigger game for them.

 

Add into the mix Young, and it gets an even more interesting dilemma!

 

I thought the game was quite even in the 1st half, the sending off and our 2nd goal killed it as a contest. Dont think we were as comfortable as others and that they got in behind us a few times and caused us a few problems, particularly down our left side. Angol was much better offensively in the 2nd half and Chapman put in more effort too. I was suprised he got motm as I thought he was a bit poor in the first half, static in his movement and not really providing much link between the midfield and Cook, but again, others seemed to feel he played really well. Was much better in the 2nd half I thought.

Think Gillead, Critchlow and Smallwood were far and away our best players, really like the combination of Smallwood sitting a little deeper alongside Gilleads willing running, dribbling and endeavour. Platt looked solid too and good to see we have a keeper with a bit of variety/quality in their distribution.

One thing that suprised me was in the last 15 mins or so we moved Halliday into midfield a few times and Smallwood to right back. Is this something we've done in previous games does anyone know? Those two plus Sutton played some nice passes to maintain possession so it worked but couldnt quite figure out the motivation for it. Either Hughes has watched Pep play his fullbacks as extra midfielders and thinks "I'll have some of that" or else we're having a look at Halliday in midfield in case of injuries. Was a bit unusual anyway.

 

An

And Harratt!

 

Yes I agree they won't be losing any sleep and beating Norwich would be more important but I don't think any team goes out to lose, and for much of the firsf half they looked very interested in winning.

 

They interchange to provide “in game” cover. So if Halliday gets exposed up the field for example someone will fill in and cover. All good teams do it. That’s the experience Smallwood brings. His onfield sense of presence is on a different planet. That excuses the odd misplaced pass any day of the week.

 

Yes, forgot him!

 

I didn't understand why Hughes had him playing in that position I like the lad hes got loads of ability but not playing where he did yesterday, first half most of our wide attacking play came down the right flank through Halliday and Banks you could see Angol getting more and more frustrated shouting and throwing his arms about.

 

Yeah fair enough, could have been that, this is the first Hughes Bradford game I've been to, so was unsure if its a tactic he's employed before. Didn't appear to me to be "in game cover" though, Smallwood didn't drop in to cover Halliday overlapping Sutton, Halliday went into centre midfield, Sutton stayed wide and Smallwood went to right back. Only happened fleetingly for the last period but enough to catch my eye.

 

Yes, I did notice that. We haven't done it before.
I wonder if it was Smallwood trying to get some more space and time on the ball?
With Newport playing wingbacks/narrow midfield, the spare men we're in the fullback positions.

 

For the entire second half, Newport played a 4-3-2 formation
By stretching the game out wide, it dragged the "outer" midfield player away from the centre of their formation, creating more space to play through the channels ( effectively used by Shutt and Stallard at Blackpool in May 1996, for those who can remember!)

 

On a side note, does anyone know who counted as our homegrown player in the squad yesterday?

 

You must be joking. Two of their midfielders had 100 international caps between them! (Hull I mean)

We beat them fair and square. They didn't want to lose.

 

TBF they took off Greaves and Tufan at half time to rest them for Saturday.
They both started v Norwich.

 

Good shout Hudders.

 

I'd say taking those two off was hardly an admission of as Fordy says "We beat a Hill team that you have to question if they took the match seriously" they looked well up for it after scoring.