The Voice - Match preview #1: MK Dons vs Bradford City Saturday 10th August 2024 @ 3:00pm

I agree with all of that. I am also delighted we came away with all 3 points today. Those views are not mutually exclusive so I'm not sure why some are trying to insist that they are.

 

Totally. Halliday got absolutely dusted for pace and we saw it coming a mile off as the scorer charged towards the away end

 

None..

That's the point.. we're shite

 

Good result. Some positives - Pattison especially who was excellent and Wright was decent going forward.

Defence still looks like a disaster waiting to happen, far too many chances conceded today albeit against a very good side. Lots of work to do.

 

Last season we got battered 4-1 at MK Dons and looked like a weak, lost side.
Today we won after weathering plenty of pressure but what the game showed was we have a good keeper now, have a manager not scared to make unexpected changes to personnel and team shape, and players who will battle right to the end.
Positive signs as we won't play a team like that who move the opposition around the pitch as much as they do.
It was a really tough match that we stood up to and won.
Walker and Smallwood men of the match.
Well done lads!

 

Yes @Kevin1954 corrected me, I'll be O/K after 10 games .

 

No your just trying to justify your opinion which you have been giving every day all summer regarding our defence. MK are fancied by many pundits to win this league and on a wide open pitch like that they are going to create chances but they scored once and we scored twice and it should be noted we should have had a couple more ourselves. We defend as a team and if I were to be critical after a great win it would be the way we sit back to early and lose possession to easy

 

It is Kevin and why we needed our wing backs to understand their positioning when we were under the cosh - thought our ginger Kafu was a bit off the pace to begin with but was growing back into last seasons form as things progressed, Wright was good pushing forward but was often all over the place defensively which impacted on the back 3 being really stretched.
But a bloody good result and hoping GA will be allowed to capitalise with a couple of quality additions that he obviously feels we need

 

Evening all, only caught snippets of the game today and just skimmed through this match thread so apologies if my points have already been covered, firstly even though my game time viewing was only small today what I did see was our midfield actually doing midfield things correctly for a change, our defence did enough to keep the opposition at bay but in all honesty I wasn't overly impressed, up front Cook was an absolute beast while Kavanagh meh, but he's young, has ability and tries to do the right things which is the best we can hope for right now. Not sure on the new defenders at all but having said that if I remove my harsh hat for just a minute then perhaps over more games together they'll improve, MK Mongs forwards were above average??? All in all it's a great opening day win whichever way we got there.

 

I'm one of Kelly's main backers, and Halliday had his share of the blame to take, but Kelly would have got the tackle in if first he hadn't hesitated in coming across (I think he assumed Halliday had him) and two if he hadn't gone in with his wrong foot and gone with his right instead of taking an extra step and going with his left allowing them to get the shot away. Good finish though

 

Having watched it back, Kelly should have done better for me! If he goes to stop that with his right foot, he blocks it. He goes with his left and turns his back on it, really strange body shape he gets himself in!

 

Firstly great result. I'll take ugly wins all season. Our defence was ok but let's be honest. The reason MK didn't score more was down to poor finishing rather that great defending. As Andy Kiwomya kept saying, at times they one-twoed us to death. But we dug deep and weathered it. I had hoped with the quality we have in midfield and supposed ball playing defenders we could have kept the ball better in the second half, buy it seemed most time that within 2 passes of winning possession we coughed it up again. All that said I doubt we will play another team as adept in possession as MK, they just couldn't see it out when they got in the box. Would have liked to have seen Young on for Kav but maybe battling to hang on to a result isn't Youngs stength. I think we have a great opportunity to really push on.

Out of interest, did this starting 11 plat together at any point during the pre-season matches?

 

Nah I'm not blaming Kelly for that. He's a left footed, left sided CB who got across to cover on the right after Byrne or Baldwin got done in the middle and Halliday was outpaced. Could have had the same result if he gone in with his right foot.

 

I think the better question is though, how does a couple of simple one twos take out 2/3rds of your back line who went charging in like school kids and completely removed themselves from the game at least 30 yards from goal.

 

Wright left his man all game, he's no wingback!

 

I was actually coming on to post that they were able to get down the side of us faaaar too easily, and the really worrying thing for me is it was really simple stuff, I don't think they were actually doing all that much going forward that any other team in the league couldn't do if they wanted.

Down our right they were just pulling the centre back wide, playing it inside to the CM who was playing it down the line to the runner and it worked every. single. time. On our left they weren't even doing that, they were simply playing it behind Wright. A lot of work to be done

Kelly still should have got a foot in for the goal though

 

It’s a fair point and one I’m sure Alexander will address. Was it a case of just poor defending or the defence been asked to press up further this season?

If it’s the latter, I’m ok with that. We won’t play many teams who can interchange as well as MK did, plus more games should tighten these errors out.

 

You actually think that GA believes we are the finished article on one game ????
You actually think he aint gonna do anything about us defensively going forward in the future ?????

Seriously i though pre game they would batter us but they didnt its a hell of a start so lets at least be positive at that

 

Yes 100%. If there was criticism to be had defensively our two wing backs caused the back three to be pulled out of position too often. Wrights attacking instincts ( made both goals) left him far too far upfield too often, and Halliday looked totally off pace, especially on such a big pitch. It wouldn’t show as much on smaller venues and VP. On that basis I thought our back three did well considering. Kelly was dragged across all too often to cover for Wright being 10 yards out of position . The back three still have a lot to learn about their on field positions in relation to each other, however MkD made it easier with using Hendrie alone up top. Notice how often he had to be found running away from the back three just to touch the ball?

Great result…made my day.

 

They are wing backs they are going to be upfield they provide the width. That space down the sides is the weakness of the system we play.