The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Barrow Saturday 11th November 2023 3:00pm

Yesterday showed again how poorly we recruited in the summer, some would argue that Wild would fit in at City but I am not so sure, yesterday simply showed that if you recruit the correct players to play a certain way it will yield results.
My concern with this squad is that the balance is not good, can we wait for January to address the summer recruitment problem? Do we have enough players in the squad to play the way GA would like to? Bearing in mind that some have not played and will not be match fit.

 

Not much point in dipping into the free transfer, out of contract, market as it will take six weeks to get anyone fit.
You know It's bad when we can't wait for Oliver to return.

 

Look the squad isn’t good enough and we have far too many players that are lacking in quality. I honestly don’t know what Sparks was thinking offer 2-3 year contracts to some of the shite we have.

GA already knows we have too many players but we have have to give him time now. However, with Sparks in charge I don’t know if any manager can address our problems

We are club hoping like Liverpool for example but the difference with Liverpool they got one of the best football managers in the world to carry them forward and the owners had a plan. So their net spend is low but the manager is great. Rupp has no plan, he doesn’t care and all is left to Sparks who is clueless when it comes to footballing matters.

No manager will turn us around unless GA turns in to Parky and gets lucky - has a plan and find players of quality that have desire and leadership qualities.

Bradford City is a complete mess!

 

Ideally he would have needed a DOF/Experienced man (pick your own title) alongside him to guide and pass on wisdom but hey that's all gone now and we have to look forward with what we have
I reckon yesterday's team/formation had a lot of input from Trueman (you could tell) it would have been impossible for GA to form opinions on players etc in such a short space of time
Next Saturday will tell us more, but with the players at his disposal he's certainly got his work cut out especially given the fact he has no one in the hierarchy to consult with
Good Luck to GA he's certainly going to need it !!!!

 

I fear those hoping for quality reinforcements in January will be disappointed. The standard of loans and permanents brought in this summer stinks of no money in the budget. I’d imagine a good chunk has been spent on Cook and Pattison, with the remaining budget spread thinly across 6 or 7 players. It’ll need investment (if allowed) from Rupp if GA wants to offload and bring in new players.

 

In terms of Ridehalgh, yes we probably should have moved him on but with Richards injured it is the sensible pick. Although admittedly, Gillead played well there yesterday.

As for Taylor, we actually have another 3 centre halves fit and ready to play with 2 of them better than Taylor and the other one in his brief appearances also looking better than Taylor.

I'm hoping Alexander just wanted to more or less give the lads in the XI the first chance and now he's seen him that he'll replace him immediately.

 

I too think he wanted to keep them onside, so dropping those who’d been starting would’ve been counter productive. That said, he/we can’t afford to wait 3 games before he makes the changes needed. The new management team say they’ve watched a few games before joining so must know who and who isn’t up to the task. Whether those waiting in the wings are good enough is yet to be seen.

 

I thought Canavan's partner in central defence, George Ray, was very impressive.

 

And we have the centre half equivalent of Adil Ray.

 

Is Richards still injured? I've always defended Ridehalgh but think Richards is a no-brainer if fit.

 

The problem is, that we recruited so many players - who would have to fight for a first team place, we've no idea if the squad is good enough, because a lot of them got a game played well, didn't in the next and got dropped.

For instance I'm perplexed as to why Wilson isn't starting as he is a direct runner at defences with pace and also seems to have some nerve - something too many don't have.

In defence play Tompkinson, or go back to Platt, instead of the terrible ball controller that is Taylor. Richards must come in at LB. That would give the defence more pace.

Even though I was largely unimpressed, I'll give Smith another chance as in fairness he produced a super shot, that was a bit of worldly save and of course scored. Cook though, needs dropping now. You then put Walker and Wilson (or Pattinson/Chapman when fit) in a front three with Smith and get Smallwood pinging those balls forward to these players with pace.

Alternatively, Pointon is one of the front three and Wilson (or whoever) goes wide left, just in front of Smallwood and Gilly.

There's almost no choice. Cook just doesn't look motivated and yesterday we just had long balls bombed up to him, which unless they were within an inch of him, he had no interest in attacking. Canavan and his partner must have thought it was Christmas - has to be the easiest afternoon they've had marking such a player.

It could be that Alexander rightly gave some of the tried and tested, who played OK against Wycombe a chance. I get it - any manager that goes in and then starts dropping three or four, could end up in the same situation that Hopkin eventually found himself. But now he needs to carry out some urgent surgery.

 

I don't think defence is that bad. Just lacking confidence (which giving a goal after two seconds didn't help!!) The second was a classic case as what happens when you either have the left back caught out in an attacking position of you have a player who isn't naturally a full back - could happen to any team and as we were trying to attack ourselves I'll let that go.

Taylor is a decent defender in the air, but his ball skills make him a liability and so needs dropping. Richards needs to come in as that gives us the same kind of pace Halliday gives us and so we can push up more quickly.

 

Bloody hell folks, turned on the phone after our latest defeat against Bristol Rovers to find City have got beat to those inbred, drug taking, filthy Southerners. Just kind of topped the day off after turning up half sozzled (we sunk a few after the game), to meet my Wife and Daughter for a meal (she wasn't too impressed, LOL)
Anyway the way our results (and yours) are going, we'll be meeting again, sooner than anyone expected.

 

Totally agree Taylor and Stubbs look okay defensively but not skilfully good. Improvement needed.

 

What sums it up for me is that GA could ship out 5 players in January and our squad would still be big and would still have players who aren’t good enough. So many below average players it’s laughable. I do think that we are only 1 or 2 good quality signings away from having a reasonable team thought (if everyone is fit). So all is not lost just yet in my view.

 

According to Jason McKeown, he heard rumours that Pete Wild applied for the City job. Personally, I think that unlikely, if so, did the Barrow owners know about that?

 

It would be irrelevant if the Barrow owners knew or not, they ain't going to sack him. They're surely fully aware, that Wild - if Barrow get another top half finish, will be off to another club.

 

I would hope rather than getting either Trueman or McDonald involved from the off Alexander and Lucketti would have spent any spare time they had watching our last 5/6 games then possibly asking Trueman or McDonald their opinions, but I believe we saw the team improve second half but Notts County will be a challenge next Saturday.

 

Barrow were so bad to watch.

We're better off without Wild.

People complained about Hughes, but Wild is another level of dull football.

 

I didn't like the time wasting that went on from Barrow. As you say, dull.