Most liked posts in thread: Blackpool (home)

We didn't!

[/QUOTE] It's the must win games that you realise how good a manager or a team is.

Oxford away was a disgrace by all accounts

Luton at home - We huffed and puffed and created nothing.

Let's see today! Bowyer has no excuses today. He will know about this Blackpool team and it's a MUST WIN for us. Let's see what happens.

I do think we will win today though.[/QUOTE]

Today is the day we either keep ourselves in with a chance of getting out of the bottom 4 or fail to get 3 points and condemn ourselves to league two (I know not mathematically) but we'd need a team of 11 Harry Houdini's to escape, we would have 7 games left and possibly be 10 points behind Southend if results go,against us, so IMO this is a must win game.
And playing Akpan, Butterfield and Anderson wont get us the 3 points we need IMO.

 

Serves you right for forgetting road laws are only voluntary in Bradford

 

Can't wait for the @JonButterfield v @BoingBoing debate tonight. Worth it's own thread?

 

What a gutless, useless team, not fit to wear the shirt, worst team I have seen in 40 years! Beggars belief they can call themselves footballers and make a wage from it!!
Also we have some deluded fans, applauding that team, how & why can they on that performance??

 

Very difficult to answer,but I'l give my thoughts, on paper that squad should be far higher than we are, we started the season with a rookie in charge (that was Rahic's choice no one else's) we start poorly (which was always the gamble with Collins) and he gets sacked.
Dave Hopkin comes in and see's we have a split camp he does what he believes to be correct to make sure the bad influences don't drag others into that camp, we see that the likes of McCartan, Wright, Patrick, Riley, Gibson, frozen out, then we lose Robinson for what ever reason.
We have injuries to Scannel, Reeves, Chicksen, Akpan, Coville, some long term some recurring so with those two situations Hopkin struggles to get a team to perform consistently.
Maybe to some claiming the situation is down to Rachic is making excuses as you allud to, but Lee Duxbury summed it up when he said the club was toxic, I've posted many times that within football circles people knew just what the situation is/was at Valley Parade and unfortunately no matter how hard various managers have tried the players have not shown the quality that some of them obviously possess apart from that 5/6 game sequence in November/December.
Lets hope Stefan keeps financing our club or other parties are interested and purchase our club, there can't be excuses next season, but sorry I do believe Rahic is responsible for a great deal of where we are as a club both on and off the pitch.

 

Exactly.
Add Into that mess the lack of forward options and too many flair players who are being shoe horned into odd formations due to lack of options.
Centre half, centre forward and wide men needed to be signed in Jan.

 

Against my better judgement, I actually found myself feeling sorry for our players towards the end of that shambles. They looked stunned and clueless.
It's as though an infinite number of typewriting monkeys were tasked with assembling the most disjointed, unbalanced squad imaginable and came up with this one.

Every one of those players (even Chicksen) has either played at L1 (or equivalent) or higher for several seasons with other clubs, or has come from a higher league club on loan. With the right teammates they are all capable of playing at this level. But collectively the team is infinitely poorer than the sum of its parts. This is obviously down to Edin's crazy scattergun summer recruitment, exacerbated by the disastrous January window which saw us weaken rather than strengthen the squad in vital, obvious, areas.

Apart from the December blip (when we got a brief run of confidence against several out-of-form teams) we just don't look like scoring. So when we go behind we don't believe we'll be able to recover. Faced with any sort of muscular aerial threat our central defenders collapse like a pack of cards. We have no pace whatsoever, and very little muscle, so we are bullied all over the park by nearly every team we play.

Whatever they may say in public, I don't think these players have any idea how to turn this round, nor any belief that they can be, collectively, any better. I suspect that's also why Hopkin walked - because he couldn't see how he could produce improvements from the squad that he had for the remainder of the season.

None of this is to excuse the lack of effort we've seen from some of them. But I believe many of them are shellshocked. Most of them signed up to what they must have believed was going to be a promotion-challenging club but, instead, found that they had walked into the middle of a shit storm. Some decent players are playing way below the form of which they're capable because they are playing in a team that is short of too many essential ingredients. They had no control over the recruitment of their fellow players and are being made to look like mugs because they are incompatible with each other. In these circumstances it's hardly surprising that morale, resilience and fighting spirit are in short supply.
It will be interesting to see how many of them move on to other clubs and do well in teams that are properly balanced. My guess is most of them.

 

Longest injury i can remember by some distance. Whether a mental problem or not, its one of the list of reasons why no manager has been able to turn this ship around. Add Reeves to the list of Wright, Scannell, Riley, Patrick who have contributed next to nothing this season despite their considerable wages. Then throw into the mix very big earners like Doyle and Payne, no wonder we had no money left in January. I knew what was coming this season very early on, the only tbhing i didn't realise was just how much Rahic had spunked on this imbalanced squad. Only surprising thing is how we have stayed in touch with the rest for so long, it truly ranks up there as the worst put together squad i've seen at City. Other clubs that were on Rahic's radar need to breathe a sigh of relief because if he hadn't chose us it could have easily been them.

 

But little ability over other players we have in the squad, A poor excuse for picking a poor player castigated by his ex managers

 

Realistically I think he has got the points that we expected but not what we hoped for. I thought we'd lose both our home games and beat Oxford. Nobody really gave us a chance in our home games seeing as though we were playing the leaders and Peterborough who we normally struggle against. 'If' we win on Saturday I think when Bowyer took over City fans would have been fairly pleased with 6 points from 12 when you take into consideration who the games were against.

Bit of positivity for a Friday

 

Agree with most of the comments on here, today really is a must win - not just because we obviously need 3 pts but also to maintain a belief (both for players and fans) that we can still escape.

Just been listening to Luton CEO on Talksport, he has got it spot on about his club - they are tight, they question each other as characters, they are determined never to lose easily and most of all they are a team in the truest sense of the word. This is what I want our fantastic club to get back to whatever happens in the next few matches.

I am coaching today but good luck to all the City fans who are going to match, I hope you leave with smiles on your faces at 5pm

 

Crowd leaving in droves, well done Rahic you've killed our club.

 

Didn’t someone get slated for saying it would be 0-4 today? Oops

 

Statement required from our owner to let us know what the plan is if (when) we get relegated. How can they expect to sell season tickets when people have no idea what the future holds?

 

I'd put Rahic as being 100% responsible. Individual players were signed, we never did have a team as such.

 

Confirmed on in Bowyers interview on Radio Leeds via ifollow, it was tactical

Something in that dressing room is not right.

 

I absolutely agree, Edin is fundamentally to blame. The lack of leadership throughout the club and playing team, is what will ultimately take us down this season.

However i can’t help but point the finger at the players since February onwards. How you can go from beating Shrewsbury via a last minute goal or Peterborough 3-1 only 3 games ago to this crap, god only knows?? Hopkin leaving cause he couldn’t see a way out of it says a lot. He knew he couldn’t change these players disgraceful attitude.

These players knew exactly what the challenge ahead of them was. Aside of Shrewsbury and Peterborough they have shown zero desire or pride since Accrington on New Years Day. Edin hasn’t been here since then and as I understand, these are a professional set of players who know what they are paid to do?

I can accept lack of quality if the desire is there. Excluding a couple, these lot don’t have a pinch of it towards Bradford City football club which IMO is there choice.

Problems caused by Edin, executed by the players.

 

I always try and find a positive with city. Not today. Right from the start we were second to every ball and looked listless. It was a spineless defeat

 

S

Yep agree but with the proviso before signing a player as well as having the right ayributes and cjaracter we look at their injury record first. The squad had carried too many of these types this season.