Alex Gilliead

Correct. Unfortunately, he's a player that some fans are quick to jump on because he's associated with that past big failure, the 2018/19 relegation season.

If three creative players, can't help out the loan striker when six clear cut chances are created, on average, each match - I fail to see why the two in central midfield cop for it, whenever anything goes wrong.

It's strange that he was captain and player of the season at an admittedly poor Scunthorpe side. Adams bought him and always played him. Hughes plays him.

What on earth are they playing at? Clearly, there's at least three managers who need to talk to some of the characters on these boards - they'd put em right about Gilly!!

 

At L2 level, there is nothing wrong with having a holding two, IF you're playing with three attacking options in front of them. Frankly, if you don't - you're asking for trouble, defensively.

Both of them often get swamped, when inevitably the opposition come into the game, when we've failed to capitalise on a dominant opening 20 minutes. At least five home matches have followed this trend.

That's because we play with three attacking midfielders with few defensive attributes (although Wright was good at this)

It amuses me on here and other forums how Chapman seems to get let off the hook. I like him as a player and he hasn't been bad. But he's also not been ruthless enough in front of goal, plus his decision making is terrible. Even a slight improvement on those weaknesses would have us, probably 5 points better off. For me he's been far more "disappointing" than our central two.

 

Here he is, banbrotam, defender of the Bradford realm and banisher of criticism.

And how did Scunthorpe do with him in the side? How did Bradford do under Adams with him in the side?

Gilleads stats are there in black and white, on the whole he's been poor and that's undeniable. It's the reason he's been pushed further back, where admittedly he looks slightly more comfortable but is that because his impact is more difficult to define?

I get you like defending those you feel are being made scapegoats but here we are, still in league two and still struggling to even dominate home games. Perhaps that gives you food for thought that perhaps those that do criticise, might actually have a point now and again.

 

I have been a vehement critic of AG, ever since he came back to VP.
His attacking stats are atrocious but, I have to admit his last couple of games have been much improved.

 

Afternoon NM.

Your last paragraph sums up my points perfectly. Basically, because we're still in L2 and not playing at home like Man City (I do jest before you get upset) then that justifies having a scapegoat.

Some of us are simply realistic. Taken as an average since I first started to watching in 1976, frankly there are very few D4 seasons, where, we at some time, didn't struggle to dominate at home.

 

For me it's debatable if it's really two up front. It's more like a 4-1-2-2-1 system to me, with players taking turns at supporting the striker - although they are closer to him than the other system. The point that we could identify about three different shapes during the last two matches, illustrates that the system is largely irrelevant (something Felipe Morais states as well).

I'm unconvinced that the improvement is anything more to do with scoring early, i.e. that's the 'coincidence'.

Was the Salford performance better than the Stevenage one? Nah! We just scored first and got confidence in both. We also played as well against Doncaster as we did Harrogate.

The 4-2-3-1 system (that worked fine for the last few matches of last season, by the way) only works well if your No.10 is comfortable in all areas of the midfield and attack, i.e. can play there as if they've always been there. Walker can do that. Sadly Chapman can't. So yes, it has been at time problematic, but only because we've missed a host of chances in the early part of matches - that we've resolved in the last two matches.

So I never had much of a problem with the old one, other than a failure to take any of our usual six chances on goal.

It's a tweak and Sutton running around like a headless chicken gives us much needed energy - plus of course psychologically it puts 'front foot' play more in the players mind.

In short it wasn't such a disaster before, that we need to consign it to the bin as if we'd got 21 points from those 21 matches.

I'm fine with the new system, but it too has a lot of limitations, i.e. we are far more vulnerable at the back.

 

Afternoon banbrotam.

I've read it on these forums a million times before. Posters, usually the older supporters (I'm 46 so probably somewhere in the middle) happy to accept the status quo because "we've always been crap".

The difference is though that in those days we didn't have a big (for the division) with 18,000 crowds and a supposedly top end budget compared to most.

I get you're on the positive side of the scale but even looking through rise tinted glasses, half of the players who's defence you regularly leap to must at least deserve some of the criticism to come their way otherwise we wouldn't still be knocking around in this good awful division watching sides like Sutton, Harrogate and Barrow outperform us.

 

A 4-3-3-1 equals 11

Rethink needed here

 

I hate this division. The footie is terrible. Recently I've watched the Orient v Stevenage and Salford v Northampton matches and convinced we've absolutely nothing to fear, if we convert more of our chances better. Northampton have created less but convert more.

I just don't see a realistic solution other than some kind of grind. So when we get dominated at home in some, not all, games - it is just a shrug of the shoulders.

 

The Stevenage game was weird, it was never felt like a 3-0 victory and it was clear then that Evans has a very good set up for getting out of league 2.

 

You're right, at times the football is his awful and I get frustrated to hell watching players struggle with the basics at times.

 

In the previous 6 or so games prior to the shift in system though I'm really not sure that we were creating those chances.

Certainly the away games I went to, Orient and Carlisle their keepers had very little to do although we did create one good chance at Carlisle and perhaps should have had an early penalty at Orient.

 

A tweak was needed, if nothing else but to reset the players - who, as is typical at L2 level seem incapable of sorting things out for themselves.

They were fine at Sutton. A bit dozy for the first 30 mins. I think it must have been the sun in their eyes, because as soon as it set they were very good for the last hour.

 

We didn't have a single shot on target at Carlisle. It was atrocious.

some call it a diamond, some call it 4-3-3, but, either way, the recall of Sutton and Oliver starting has led to the improved performances in the tweaked set up. Wright was excellent, too.

Sutton is willing to drive forward, unlike AG and RS, and Oliver has looked a handful in the air. It has been good to seeing us go direct a little more at times and get more crosses in - Oliver had great aerial stats for Gills so makes sense to play to his strengths - Cooky needed a rest and wasn’t involved in games as much as we’d like.

I hope we never see 4-2-3-1 again. It doesn’t work with this set of players.

 

I didn't see much sun against Carlisle. Perhaps it was the driving wind that time and maybe Orient was the big tall flats around the ground blocking the light?

We definitely needed to change it, we were too easy to play against but the changes have certainly made us less solid defensively. Hopefully it's just a settling in period to blood in the new shape though and we can find a nice blend eventually.

 

Wasn’t his biggest fan but credit where it is due. Gillead has had a couple of cracking home games vs Grimsby and Sutton (missed the away game on Friday.).

 

Glad to see him in a midfield role, as it was very, very clear he wasn't a winger in a million years.

He still has the same tendency to bottle it when he gets near the area, Grimsby goal aside, but his pace, enthusiasm, and even tackling have been stand out features of games lately.

Right engine on him. Easily his best feature. Puts in the hard yards, too.

 

Personally think he has been playing well for a few months now.