The Voice - Match preview Stockport County vs Bradford City Tuesday 15th August 2023 7:45pm

He looks like he's carrying a knock to me. Absolutely nothing to do with his weight.

 

In the 59 competitive games we've played since the start of last season, we've held a two goal lead at any point in only 13 of those games.

Three of those 13 were cup games.

Two of those 13 were games that ended 3-1 having been 1-1 at one stage.

Considering that one game (the 3-1 victory against Wednesday) falls into both of those categories, only nine league games since Hughes took over have we been 2-0 to the good.

 

Explains why there was no food at half time.

 

Spot on that. Exact areas I feel Hughes needs to address

 

We seem to have good players that our managers are clueless on how best to use them.

 

me too. Is Kelly left footed? He put in a cross at one point. Its the remaining straw im clutching at to try understand Hughes’ thinking.

He was so bad tonight. If Timi can’t start ahead of him next week there is zero hope for his career here

 

Think the criticism of Cook is a bit OTT. Cook is very much a confidence player. I wonder if he’s slightly on the spectrum. He’s an eccentric character.

He needs to be told he’s the man and have his confidence boosted like he did when coming back from being dropped last year. He was heavily involved against Colchester and, again tonight, contributed yet another assist.

yes, he should have scored his pen. We expect him to. When he’s on it he’d have converted that 1 on 1 easily, too.

he’s contributing, though, so I'm not concerned.

Its up to Hughes to take him to one side and put him at ease. Goals will be like London buses for him when they arrive. He didn’t look bad when netting a hattrick vs Boro a few weeks ago did he?

Our Cooky. Come on big man.

 

7/10 tonight from me.

Stockport look a very good league 2 side. We also looked very handy going forward.

The main issue that seems to be getting aired is our management of being ahead in the game. Sitting back is fine if you're going to frustrate the opposition and if you have the tools to see out the game. Unfortunately we don't. Tonight they should have scored at least 3 or 4 after we went ahead. We look like conceding whenever we revert to being deeper. This will cost us this year unless we either play as we do when we are level or unless we find a way to not be so easily exploited. Even on Saturday after taking the lead we looked fragile. This is my only issue but it will be are undoing this year.

 

Right, I only witnessed the second half, but my takes on todays game , bare in mind, my judgements aren't reactionairy, there is a consistent pattern emerging in some cases

Lewis - Beginning to lose faith. Made some good stops, but he's beginning to introduce an element into his game where he makes at least one clanger, the cross which he fumbled whilst we were 1 up coming to mind

Kelly - Dont rate him. Okay in some parts, not very good in others. I want Odusina to be given a shot, but im fairly certain Hughes is gonna show him the door

Stubbs & Platt - Decent League 2 CBs, they do the business, the formation an the players deployed in the positions around them expose their weaknesses, that being pace

Oyegoke - Young, energetic, Has good attributes but his inexperience does show at times with his positioning an decision making, needs a solid run in the team an a few experienced pros around him

Smallwood - Imo he put in a shift today, set up our goal with a good pass to Cook

Pattison - No complaints

Smith - Ditto

Cook - Personally im at a loss for words on todays showing, didnt have any confidence in him burying that 1 v 1 based on everything that happened prior to it. I have confidence in him turning it around as he is a confidence player, but on the same hand, I dont think he'd of dropped a performance like that if he knew that Oliver could replace him in the starting lineup at any given minute

Osadebe - Ive given this guy the benefit of the doubt on many an occasion, due to his injury, his lack of first team minutes, the formations not suiting him etc, but ive had enough. feck me, he was bad tonight. Like having bambi on ice. theres no point having someone with strength, pace an power if they cant control a ball or pass it. An no, I am not scapegoating him for the result tonight, I just no longer see a place for him in this team. He doesn't justify a spot in this team over others in the squad

 

I still think the foundation is there for this to be a good season and I still think the 3 at the back will come good. I thought we looked much better when we moved Odour more central and had Smith as a strike partner for Cook (more of a 352).

I’m hoping we stick with it and hopefully a couple of additions on the loan market (LWB in particular) then I think we’ll be there or there abouts this season.

 

No it’s not. The system is designed for oyegoke to be up and down the line. That’s the point of a wing back. Not to be constantly out of position meaning platt has to move out of the back 3 leaving gaps.

 

Did they look a very decent team last night when we went after them ????
Any team can look half decent if you allow them the ball for 40 odd minutes ........... in the long run them may be up there but let's look at the here and now ........... they've list there opening two league games ......... there team is full of injuries so in a nutshell there probably low on confidence and any team who would have gone after them end have beat them ...............sadly we ain't got a manager who thinks that way

 

I switched to the away commentary last night because legend that Jones is, I don't particularly like him as a pundit and it was interesting to hear their take on Stockport at times. A lot of the things they were saying were exactly the same kinds of things that we say about city, for example, 'why do we always have to go a goal down before we start playing', 'why isn't there any urgency' etc. There were times last night when Stockport looked a very good team but equally, there were times when we did, but neither side looked the business for the full 90+minutes. That's league 2 football for you, and you'd think we'd be used to it by now but we still seem shell-shocked when we don't play like Man City.

 

It's like bloody ground hog day with his injuries.

 

Yeah you were continually saying he was one of our best players last season! Why didn't you post this after last Saturdays game if this was your feeling? As usual totally embarrassing how some fans just jump on the bandwagon to beat the club with a stick

 

Whilst I agree with most of your posts I have to say how much I hate the sitting back we seem to do in just about every second half. I don’t think it’s about tactics it’s more about attitude keep what we have got. In my opinion it cost us the tie with Carlisle in the play offs and on several occasions before. I could understand if we were trying to catch teams on the break but the whole team sits in its negative and counter productive.[/QUOTE]

We're 3rd in the table for shots on target. 20 in three matches. That average topped the table for the last three seasons. So clearly something's changed.

https://fbref.com/en/comps/16/shooting/League-Two-Stats

The team are playing totally different to last season, but there will always be spells when we will 'sit back'. Fact is on Saturday, we should have gone 3 or 4-1 up. Didn't. And then inevitably your opponents, at this level, will always get a physical second wind.

I think we're too quick to condemn. It's L2 and it's the usual rubbish.

Yes. We need to get better, but that's why the likes of Walker and Chapman can be a miss, because they're very good at retaining the ball in forward areas (although Chapman does often make wrong decisions!!)

 

Just looking through some of the posts from last night, and the inevitable over the top reactions!
So for what its worth here's my take on the game...
We were away from home against one of the best teams in this league, regardless of the current league position. 1st half they edged it but we were well in the game. 2nd half we scored an excellent early goal and after that they came at us hard. Exactly as you would expect them to, being a goal down at home! I really don't subscribe to the view that we 'sat back'! We were put under pressure by a very good side at this level and had to dig in!
After the equaliser we obviously had chances to win it. Cook looks low on confidence unfortunately and last night wont help. His pens all go in the same place, so if a keeper does his homework the pen has to be perfect to go in- this one wasnt! I was right behind the goal and thought he looked nervy beforehand-I was actually willing him to blast it down the middle!!
I would have taken a point beforehand and IF we win on Sat, that will turn out to be an excellent point and an overall acceptable start to the season.
We do need 2 or 3 in before the end of the month. Totally agree with the comments about our defence. Id like to see Odusina before writing him off purely because I havent seen him in this set up. He was obviously shocking in a back 4. If MH doesnt trust him though a new pacy centre half is a must.

 

The 2 teams that beat them absolutely did not go after them, though.

Both ended up defending far more than we did.

We're actually the first team to take it to Stockport, outside of Sheffield Wednesday of course.

So doesn't that suggest we should have sat back, since Wednesday also didn't beat them?

Stockport are frenetic and miss the target constantly. Maybe digging in even deeper was the real answer.

Wouldn't that put the cat among the pigeons?

 

You really need to stop with all the "????????????" in your posts. It is not required for extra emphasis of your points, and makes you sound a lot angrier than you probably are

Who cares that they have lost 2 games. If being in this awful league has taught me anything over the miserable years, it is that form counts largely for feck all. As I said in the post you replied to, they battered Walsall on Saturday and should have won it

If you don't think Stockport were a decent team then i'd suggest you find solace watching Prem & Championship teams instead! And when they are at full strength, expect to see them power up the league. Anyone who says that Stockport weren't a well organised team who were constantly pressing us and looked dangerous must be in denial

And for the record, I don't know why you feel it necessary to have a dig at MH. I don't think he could have set us up any better than he did last night. On another day we could have run out 3-1 winners or 3-1 losers, so yes I am happy with that point on the balance of play