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

Fortunately I’m in sunny Cyprus. MH says in today’s Y Post this is not a must win game!! Handbrake on up to last notch me fears

 

Agreed. I grew up watching us attack the opposition, wave after wave at home. Probably one of the main reasons I stuck with them from the late 70’s. If I’d have started following City over the last 5/6 years, I doubt I’d have the same commitment. Get some risk takers in the starting 11 and go for it. Too many scared to try something different for fear of the man in the dugout. Maybe why Elliot Watt chose to leave and join Salford.

 

I've done that before.

 

Hughes is a bigger threat to us than Harrogate this afternoon

 

No !!!!

 

I wonder if he says that to the players or he's just playing it down to the media. 'Don't worry lads, it's only the 8th game of the season, no rush to take the brakes off yet, still plenty of time.' If so, what a completely stupid approach. When is the penny going to drop with him that the more points we accumulate now, the less likely there are going to be 'must win' games and all the pressure that comes with that further down the line?

 

I think the starting lineup will be more like the team that Finished the Grimsby game ,So don’t expect to go home. Then again I am couple of thousand miles away from Bradford. Enjoy

 

Agree, there is definitely no easy fix, and we rarely put teams under sustained pressure under MH (That Odour was subbed by Kenya for playing with the brakes on seems hilariously lost on MH).
However, if we show the intent we had against Grimsby in 2nd half, with a flat back 4 and the right personnel I think most fans will be a lot happier.
On the other hand, if we effectively play 5 at the back and Pointon and Gilliad don't start the atmosphere could start tetchy and get worse.

 

There's being stubborn and being stupid I think with regards the Grimsby game at half time he made the right call don't you, even a stubborn manager could see and hear the frustration from the City fans, if he had not changed it and Grimsby had gone on to win the game that would have benefited no one, then IMO Hughes would fail and would fall into the category of being stupid.
He says in his interview above he believes if we had scored earlier we would have gone on to win the game pure conjecture on his part, so I'd respond with if Mark Hughes had made the changes earlier we quite possibly could have won the game but he chose not to for some reason, again pure conjecture on my part.
Today will be interesting IMO he will not start with the same formation or players as he did against Grimsby, he has to start Gilly if for nothing more than his attacking capabilities, I liked both Afoka and Tulloch for the way they were prepared to attack the Grimsby defenders, we await 2pm for the team news.

 

Just make sure you are in a pub close to the ground at 2pm
Saves all the uncertainty
Win Win

 

I've posted before I feel Hughes should allow the players to express themselves more, I do believe its his system/formation that they either can't play or do not feel comfortable trying to play it.
For me as you say take the hand break off and I do believe we will play with more confidence and the displays/results will come.
Although our above comments is not unique to this season, who many time last season did we dominate the opposition, very few if any where we had two halves of being on top and better than the opposition.

 

The “if we score earlier we win the game” is such a lame argument.
It’s easily countered with
“If you don’t play a back 5 which everyone can see we don’t have the personnel for”
“If you don’t play a not fully fit midfielder (McDonald) alongside a pedestrian Smallwood”
“If you don’t play an over the hill 37 year old striker up front on his own”
Then we actually might look like scoring in the first half.


All these “ifs” resulted in us barely getting the ball in to their box in the first half.
No shots on target
No corners
Their keeper only touching the ball a handful of times.

Yes,the second half was better,but the totally inept first half could have been changed quicker “if” you were a little bit braver.

 

Bobby will start today

 

I'd start Gillead too today but reading that I thought I'd been transported to a parallel universe!

 

Also a minute silence before the game, this time for Syria…think they meant Libya???

 

He’s joint top scorer of the fit and available players.

 

I think we will win comfortably today which will take the pressure of Hughes for a few days at least.

 

I hope you're right and I hope the reason for that is because we are set up to go for it from the off with a back 4, one of the loan lads up front instead of Derbyshire and either/or Smallwood or McDonald but not both. If we do that and win convincingly I'll be very happy come 5pm. However, I think I'm more likely to be feeling disappointed at 2pm when I see the actual team sheet.

 

Who proof reads this before it goes out into the public domain. Embarrassing