Most liked posts in thread: Away vs Crawley Jan11th

Without doubt you felt for both Doyle and Vaughan today, over the game Vaughan was more involved in midfield because there was no supply from that area, Connolly did nothing and Taylor was equally as poor the other side, as stronger team (on paper) that Bowyer has had at his disposal recently and they looked as if they'd never seen each other before never mine played with each other.
When I was down at training on Thursday they had a practice session where they had those plastic cut outs, two rows of three and Connolly and Palmer and a couple of others crossing into the box with players running in between the plastic cut out and trying to beat the keeper and to be honest for pro footballers it was embarrassing to see how they performed with regards finishing, and that was against static cut outs.

 

I feel for you mate along with all the rest that made the trip. Sounded dreadful. Safe journey. Xx

 

The main criticism of the tactics today is playing one winger.

Taylor is not a winger, not at his age, and Connolly as the sole winger is not exactly king of the assists.

He's just fast.

 

459 passes.

I would like a breakdown on how many went forward, how many were from Reeves while he stood still moaning at everyone else, and how many were from our sole winger into an attacking area.

 

Yep.

Doyle being here is a waste of everyone's time and money.

He isn't nearly good enough at what Bowyer asks a striker to do, and we aren't nearly good enough at doing what Doyle might ask of us.

 

@Tolly856

Can you explain your comment below, just before Bowyer signed and your contradictory stance now? I'm off to get some wine and popcorn and I look forward to you talking your way out of this one

From March 2nd 2019
"I'm not even convinced that the current squad is as good as the one that finished 18th in league 2 under PP. There are some better individual players but they just aren't up to it and have zero fight whatsoever. Assuming we get relegated, next seasons target is to survive relegation into non-league"

 

I'm all for consistency and giving managers time if you can see what the manager is trying to do and believe in it.

I don't. I dont like his football and I see little evidence of coaching, certainly in terms of what we do when we have the ball.

Our performances are getting worse and even more disjointed.

 

My fear though is that the league position is a false one at present. That's oof course only my opinion and I'm only basing it solely on what I see with my own eyes and not taking into account all the statistical data others use to prove we deserve to bre where we are.

If there isn't a sudden or even gradual slide then fine, maybe I'm over reacting but at the moment I don't see the sort of quality and the odd dominant performance that you'd expect from a side so well placed in the league.

 

Rupp told us we’ll be going for automatic promotion after the Wembley defeat only for us to slash the wage budget. Rupp told us he’s financially committed to Bradford City even though he’s not put a penny into the club. Not only are his words not to be taken seriously but it also contradicted what were told from Julian Rhodes which suggested pretty much the exact opposite. If you can’t see how a £3M windfall, 14000 season tickets, an official confirmation of our top 3 budget revealing exact figures etc, getting rid of last years no hopers , the signings of Vaughan, Donaldson etc can increase expectations from one of our lowest points last season then I don’t know what to say to you.

 

There is no way the objective was to steady the ship, nor should that be an acceptable result come may. @wetherbywhaler already confirmed Rupp expects promotion and we have a top 3 budget for that very reason.

And if Rhodes wants 20k STs next season (lol) we need not only promotion but some entertainment.

 

Another issue is not being able to have a settled midfield. It seems every week that one or more are unavailable. Too many changes lead to unfamiliarity, but it’s hard to blame him for that when we’ve had so many injuries.

When you look at the stats it easy to see that the better players have been missing for a fair proportion of the season.

https://www.soccerbase.com/teams/team.sd?team_id=234&teamTabs=stats

 

I think we will see Vaughan and Doyle up top but I don’t think we will be playing 442.

I can see Bowyer playing 532/352 depending if we are attacking or defending. I hope I’m wrong

 

Doyle scored a hat-trick at Crawley for Swindon, lets hope he can repeat that on Saturday

 

Yep.

Fans might have a fit, but I wonder if we'll revert to the diamond with Devitt at the top, Cooke and Palmer in the middle, and Reeves deep - of course Bowyer himself is likely to change that if opposition are particularly dangerous from the wide areas.

 

It depends on " Mr defensive " , i would start with both Doyle and Vaughan , not sure i go with the crosses into the box theory,play the ball into the box in dangerous on the floor areas . Midfield will be key to make sure we create more goal scoring openings .

 

Easy, Connolly plays wide to run at the full backs and keep the defence stretched, and Vaughan and Doyle utilise their vast experience to move around pulling the centre backs out of position/ running into the gaps made by the other.

 

This is the time of season we needs to push on if we are real promotion contenders. This devision is poor, good goal scorers is key, hopefully with the right tactics we should have goals in the team. Is today a turning point?

sat in the Jubilee Oak Crawley - smattering of usual City fans. Long journey. Today bumped into Ramesh Ranganathan. He’s not a City fan

 

He'll be knackered come 3.00 o'clock then................

 

There are many different 4-3-3 systems. For instance you could have two at the top and one behind. Or you could have all three in fairly straight line with two of them closer together and one wide slightly behind and then you'd have the other side of the three in midfield slightly further forward

We have the best range of multi-faceted players in this league. Pritchard can play wide, centre or behind a front two. Connolly can play wide or centre. Cooke can play centre or further forward in midfield. Wood is comfortable as a LB/LWB or (left)CDM player. Mellor is probably a better wing back than full back

Hence, all formations should be considered, with non assumed to be impossible, negative etc

Fortunately, thanks to Bowyer they are now comfortable with whatever system they play and adds to my sense of optimism for the rest of the season