The Voice - Match preview Mansfield Town vs Bradford City Saturday 2nd September 2023 3:00pm

I thought he played well but he's massively limited in the attacking third of the pitch and probably at least partly to blame for our wastefulness going forward.

 

You are missing the important point, you criticise but have zero idea. “ With the exception of Pattison, the players brought in wouldn’t be my choice” ………..Without actually saying who would be.
Thanks for confirming ….

 

It’s not his job to say who.

The signings mostly we have made this summer are not that great. However, let’s see how they get on but the DIV 2 won’t be scared. It’s not going to be look at Bradford City what statement signings that club is making.

 

How is it I was absolutely, positively sure you couldn’t offer reasonable solutions…….. Debate around those solutions but to be critical and offer nothing as an alternative is meaningless. Some would call it drivel , me I just laugh.

 

That didn’t take long.

 

Wow.

Prostatic massaging while simultaneously typing crap, at this ungodly hour

You really are amazing Kevin1954

 

And there lies the problem. He would n’t score 5 out of 10. His plus was he made himself available. His passing/crossing and final ball was terrible. He is n’t a wingback and my god Ridehalgh is less so. The coach is not getting the best out of his players.

 

Yep, defensively he is ok. Going forward he is absolutely clueless. His off the ball running and his gormless standing on the touch line waiting for the ball during an attack is so frustrating. He had a couple of opportunities in the second half - 1 he managed to pull of a shot which was blocked and the other instead of driving the ball across goal he tried to flick back to Walker and messed it all up.

He has very little urgency - he almost slows down when the ball is given to him during an attack.

 

You were lauding Mansfield last summer as a team we should be looking at as a benchmark. Youve probably sang their praises this summer too as a way to stick the knife into City.

The point is not a bad result by any stretch. Not against someone who is 100% at home anyway. And without 2 key players in Cook and Pattison.

 

I would have tore your hands for a point so more than happy to achieve that

 

Agree. Same for me when I saw the teams although them missing Quinn and Oates affected them as well.

At HT though we should have realised there was a win for us if we adapted the team and tactics and that makes the result disappointing. Whether we think they're good or not, we had attackong players who had just arrived with pace and Hughes failed to use them in a way that created more threat and opportunities.

Some people see results in a very binary way e.g. "they've won all their games, a draw is good" but those views fail to take into account how changes during the match changes the point of view. A different example, if we play Doncaster, everyone will expect a win but a red card and a goal down in 5 minutes changes the calculation. Its disappointing that we have some fans who can't factor in, in-gane match activities to the desired final result.

Sorry Gaz, not a response aimed at you! Was just building from your point.

 

How many times have City set off on a good start to the season and been in the top 6 and then just slumped to a mid table finish? Going back we have started off just like we have now and the fans were calling for the manager to be sacked ie: Paul Jewell , Chris Kamara and Phil Parkinson only for the team to start gelling and playing some good football and eventually gaining promotion. Teams don't win titles or promotion in the first 6 games and even up to Xmas nothings set in stone as we have seen with teams coming from nowhere and getting automatic promotion. Let's all take a breather and let's just see where we are and how we're playing in a couple of months before we start shouting for change at the top.

 

I don't agree it is a squad Hughes alone has assessembled. I would say more than possibly any manager in league 2, Hughes is extremely reliant on his recruitment guy because his knowledge of players at this level is still extremely limited. He will have conversations with Gent about the kind of players he wants and Gent will identify them and whilst it is then down to Hughes to say yay or nay, he is still having to put a lot of trust in Gent to have identified the right players. I'm not trying to absolve Hughes of responsibility, I just think the squad we have assembled isn't down to him alone.

 

They were spot on then.....

 

How do you know there was a win for us if we adapted tactics. Perhaps there was a loss waiting. I have and am critical of nagative tactics Hughes favours but in these circumstances with a severely weakened team against a promotion rival who have started the season very well you have to be happy withbaxpoint

 

I know but compared to that mickey mouse effort at Morecambe it was a marked improvement considering the players we have out .............. now don't get me wrong we don't look nothing like a team that will challenge but the last 3 games have brought us in 4 league points and through to the next round of the EFL cup so it's not all bad is it ????

 

It's fine to mention we had players who were unavailable but at no point do we seem to address the fact that those 11 that started for Mansfield were the only, fully fit senior player they had with TEN of the squad out injured.

Make no mistake, they were absolutely down to the bare bones.

 

Nobody and I mean nobody is happy at this level but seriously what can be done?????
A magical millionaire to come out a pay Rupp his asking price ?????
Mass protests against a owner who really isn't that bothered ???,
As for Sparks now don't get me wrong he's got a lot of things wrong but you simply cannot blame him for what's going on at pitch level unless he's telling Hughes how to set up

 

Absolutely, that’s why both teams nullified each other. A few short days ago, away from home, against a fancied side , who won three on the spin at home, scoring for fun, would see us hoping for a point.
The fact we were missing several of our “ go to “ players just levelled the playing field up somewhat.

Being pragmatic a draw was a decent result especially with their recent record, coupled with, both sides long injury list.

Contrary to what some say, it was an entertaining game, however lacking in much skill.
Osadebe, contrary to some, had a decent first half, and the more I see of Pointon, it won’t be long before he’s a go to team member.
Three points isn’t always the outcome, despite what some argue . Could our start have been better, yes for sure? But no denying yesterday was a reasonable result both sides were probably happy with.

 

Mansfield had several first choice players missing too. We should be aiming to win every game we play.