Match Thread Bradford City V Wycombe Wanderers Saturday 2nd August 2024 3.00pm (Now with The Voice review)

I think Wright was the pick of the bunch. Class performance. Calm, composed, won most of his battles

Neufville, quality wing back. I only hope this isn’t a scenario where he doesn’t maintain these level of performances over the season as he was quality today

Tourey provided decent deliveries into the box. Was good defensively. Only worry is that him and Tilt need to work on communication better. Their goal came from them both doubling on the same man and leaving space in behind

Tilt. Like a bull in a china shop. I see the redeeming qualities he provides. Aggressive, strong, decent bit of pace, strong in the air. But lacks composure at times, needs to be less causal with the ball when getting chased down, and needs to stop flying into challenges. Also isn’t comfortable on his right foot and it shows

Pennington did well. did show his lack of pace but made up for it with his experience and know how

power, always talking throughout, class choice in captain. Stuck into challenges, great range of passing

Leigh, I see his qualities, composed on the ball; can pick a pass, but the Leigh - Power combo worries me; we looked very open through the middle at times. Requires more steel

Humphries held the ball up well, brought team mates into play, still think he suits the left side better than up front

all in all, great performance and a good start to the season, onwards and upwards

 

Enjoy

 

Heck, glad we don’t have VAR!

 

100%

2 minutes into stoppage time he tracked there lad nearly 40 meters before winning it after he'd been slowed up by Neufviĺle.

Don't get me wrong, I was thinking he should have been subbed 15 minutes before but if Sarcevic is lacking anything, it's definitely not desire, effort or workrate.

 

I think we can count ourselves lucky to not concede a penalty for handball, in real time I thought Wright's arm was tucked into his body but it wasn't. We've probably got away with that as it's the wrong side for the ref to see and there are probably players blocking the assistant referee's view.

 

Reverse that and we'd be absolutely fuming.

 

At the time, I thought Tilt got away with one aswell....

 

Great game, Neufville and Humphrys definitely standouts (original opinion, I know).

Pleasantly surprised with how Sarce and Pointon made the step up, great stuff from the two of them.

Felt we lacked a little bit of control in MF, found ourselves winning the ball back and giving it away quite quick at times, looking a little scrappy and also a bit loose off the ball.

That said I thought Power looked good, leadership was visible for the full 90, as well as Leigh who played some tidy passes (who’d have thought that the midfielder we signed was better in midfield than up front?) but looked a little bit off it physically.

Humphrys again I was worried about playing as a striker, but did a lot of physical work off the ball, his hold-up play was fantastic and also looks to have very tidy feet.

Only one game in but little to moan about and leaves me confident for the next test against Northampton, expect it will be a big boost mentally that we won and they seemingly got battered.

 

Really need to put these performances in away from home. Appreciate its a new season but we were poor last term.

Northampton is a game we should be looking to take 3pts from, if we have a desire to improve our away form this season.

 

It wasn't two assists. Or if we're taking Pointon's goal as an assist then we'll have to run through the entire history of football to re-assess assists. He received the ball, touched it once to the side then the defender tackled him and knocked the ball to Pointon. He didn't pass it to Pointon. He was aiming to shoot on the turn.

 

It shouldn't matter anyway. Watching the game gives you a real time opportunity to assess the contribution of a player. There is only one question that needs asking? To what extent did Humphrys contributions lead to goals for the team. In this case he deserves credit. Firstly for the superb way he made room for the shot which was well executed and lead to the first goal. On the second one, his nice bit of skill forced the defender into a muddled clearance which fell nicely for Pointon. He deserves the credit for both goals imo. Like I've said before, if he replicates that performance over the season, he'll be a huge asset, regardless of goals and assists. I keep hearing that a striker's job is to score goals. It's not - it's to win games.

 

It's a really good reality check for us next week in terms of gauging where we are. They are hotly tipped to be down there so a draw would be slightly underwhelming.

 

I thought Joe Wright did his job today - but can see how he splits opinion. He’s the exact big hairy arsed no nonsense centre back we’ve been missing for ages. BUT, twice I saw him running through treacle once their forward had turned him. I suppose if he had pace too, he wouldn’t be playing L1 football. He’s gonna do a lot of good for us, but I think he’ll also get caught out too.

 

I think we'll struggle with pacey forwards too but I also feel that's negated by having three at the back. They can play narrow which means we can suffocate teams that rely on pacey forwards. Less space to run between centre backs especially if we play deep. Luton will be a huge test of whether this theory plays out. Even more encouraging is the abilities of Touray and Neufville to supress pace on the flanks. Onyedinma being constantly blocked off and run out is a recurring theme I hope we'll see replicated with other similar players time and time again this season.

 

No nonsense defenders that do their job accordingly - and also have pace dont play L1 level.

We could have signed a very pacey CB called Magloire. But seems like his defending wasnt up to much.

1 or the other at this level.

 

More critics confounded

 

Yes the second half petered out for us and we conceded space too easily. What we can’t expect is that level of intense pressing for the full 75/90 just yet . It should come as fitness levels increase. Let’s be honest a top level L 1 side could not handle us in the first half.

 

Great summary but can’t agree re Power / Leigh combo at this stage. Compare them to their midfield in the first half….Wycombe were non existent . Strength and stamina will improve , so not such a worry on that showing. The beauty is we have options behind them in the wings .

 

When ? When their right winger did a triple salco on the right of the box ?