The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Carlisle United Tuesday 21st March @ 7:45pm

Not when he’s up against 2 markers for 90 mins he won’t.

 

Lewis - Nothing to do - 6

Halliday - One of his weaker games although still turned up defensively - 5

Stubbs - Solid as ever - 6

Platt - Solid as ever - 6

Ridehalgh - He’s rubbish. Defensively ok but offers nothing else. Bola needs to start - 5

Clayton - Has disappeared the last 3/4 games. Maybe needs a rest - 5

Smallwood - Had a good game overall. MOTM is a bit of a stretch but he’s been playing well recently aside from his free kicks and corners - 6.5

Gillied - No goals or assists but he works very hard for the team. He was immense yesterday in all the various positions he played with closing down and trying to make things happen - 7

Banks - Started well for 10-15 minutes then faded away. Perked up for about five minutes in the second half but didn’t do much - 6

Chapman - Having his best spell of the game when he got hooked. He looked most likely to make something happen but for the first 50 minutes he was poor - 5


Cook - No service. Crafted two great chances for himself but aside from that, comfortable afternoon for their defenders - 6

Subs


East - Always comes on and instantly matches the pace of the game. Probably our best CM from glances we see but he never starts - 5

Oliver - Useless. I’ll be surprised if he ever scores a goal again for us. He can’t do the basics - 4

Critchlow - Looked very rusty. Played out of position to be fair to him and was used in a three for a short period which probably isn’t used to but he struggled to get up to the pace a little - 5

King Dion - Touched the ball twice but didn’t do much wrong in his cameo - 5

 

Oh and I think I would have bawled my eyes out had Gibsons shot gone in. Lewis should not be getting done on his near post like that, and his distribution was poor again last night

 

Cook has always been a top goalscorer at this level. But what has really surprised me is how much the other aspects of his play have improved in recent weeks.
His control of the ball with back to goal, his awareness of others around him, the weight of his passing, winning headers from long upfield balls, his chasing down, are all streets ahead of what we saw last season and even before his Hughes-enforced mid season break this term. It used to be that if he didn't score he contributed little else that was positive. That is very far from the case now.

 

No me neither. What’s the difference…a foul is a foul. Some tackles are well worthy of a yellow card , but the offender doesn’t get one but the “ injured” player has to go off ! All about opinions I suppose, which adds to complete inconsistency.

 

There's no doubt after not beating Carlisle last night our task is much harder, in our current situation I have more faith in us getting results away from home than fortress Valley Parade.
I still can't accept our first half contribution was anywhere near good enough even though Moria's said otherwise apparently, but what's so annoying is for the second consecutive home game Hughes changes it at half time and we were far the better team second half, we see other teams making formation changes during the game why can't Hughes.
Once again Cook carried our main/only threat going forward and even being closely marked by two Carlisle defender he so nearly got us out of jail, if that effort had gone in where he took it off their defender and dribbled into the box managing to get his shot away which the big lad saved with his legs it would have been some goal, not the first time he's done that this season but your right if we did lose Cook for any amount of time IMO our chances of promotion would take a massive hit.

 

I think the idea of players going off if the trainer comes on is supposed to deter them from faking injury, whereas if a player is injured by a yellow or red card challenge they are regarded as obviously not faking it so there's no need for the deterrent of having to leave the field. That's the only logical reason I can think of for the rule.

 

That's how I saw the game Steve, after the opening spell Carlisle were far the better team first half, we came out second half and the situation was reversed we took the game to Carlisle, overall I though a draw was a fair result but once again our home performances are letting us down.
I'm with you with regards Chapman the lad has ability without doubt but last night he must have given the ball away 4/5 times in the first half, I'm always on the side of a player who is prepared to have a shot on goal but his contribution last night was poor, there's a player in there which Hughes hasn't brought out as yet IMO.

 

Absolutely crackers. So if the ref reinforces the foul by issuing a card then he can nullify the overall rule of a player going off. This rule was brought in to curtail feigning injury. There is no need to differentiate using the card as an excuse.

 

It seems this unbeaten run has become a bit of a troubled spell too for Hughes. It's all well and good Hughes saying we are still unbeaten which is true, but we also have 4 points from 12, which isn't promotion form. I say it's troubled, because i think he doesn't know what system to run with now we have a lot of people fit again but it's like he wants to create other avenues to score from than Cook, but none are working out.

In those 4 draws, we have played the diamond, 4231, 433 and a wing back 3/5 in defence system all across various points in the games. Far too many system changes for one match, when Pereira came on last night and I think most assumed it would be for Banks, the lad started jogging toward the bench, saw it wasn't his number, asked Pereira what system, must not have got a straight answer and Banks then roamed left, then was shouted at by the bench and Banks stood there with his arms out asking what's going on? Last 10 mins last night, Gilly was left back then Critchlow was left back and it just developed into a shapeless blob.

These 10 days off might make Hughes actually sit on a system for the final run in. I think 5 at the back and 2 up top might be the way he sways and have a partner with Cook given we should have Derbyshire, Nevers and Costello back by then. That has seemingly been the first tactic he switches too in the last few, just makes me think thats the one he wants to give a try.

 

I don't know how this compares with other sides in the league but I can't imagine its too favourable; On 4 occassions this season we've failed to register a single effort on target, and on another 4 occasions (including last night) we've only managed a single attempt on target.

 

Each to their own Kev, I’m not too fussed on the commentators as I’ve disagreed with them plenty before. First half was only end to end because both teams kept kicking it up field out of touch for goal kicks, second half was a lot better though I agree.

 

Carlisle fans will say that. It was a good point for them. Nothing for them to complain about.

 

Giving Smallwood a 6.5 is madness. He isn't playing well by his standards. He's poor. Currently offering nothing.

I would play Clayton and Gilliead. We don't need all 3.

 

Surely the wider pitch would make it more difficult to press? The ball moves faster than any man so if the spaces are larger and the passing is quick and accurate that should make any press less effective. They would also tire quicker than last night due to the extra yards they'd be having to cover.

 

I just thought in terms of our play, how narrow we play on all pitches they would box us out and could just press us into smaller spaces, keep their WBs wide and trap on the counter. If we did play them at Wembley, I wouldn't be surprised to see MH try and match them system wise at the start and try play a wider system.

 

That’s the principle , but still does not preclude inconsistency.

 

In the run in we need players consistently getting 7,8 or maybe one or two higher.

 

The views and debates we have based on how we experienced the game are great and make these post game discussions interesting.

Watching on iFollow, Chapman started ok and had all the right intent in the first half, however it came across he was almost trying too hard. This lead to holding onto the ball too long rather than over simplify and get himself back into the flow of the game. The result, a pretty poor half. For the second half he changed this and began to find better positions, simplify what he did and became much more effective - so much so o thought he was unlucky to be subbed.

Similarly I’ve read criticism of Oliver who, from the way I saw it, seemed to be pretty effective in not only winning but keep the ball in our possession and bringing others into play, where I think we struggled against 3 very decent CB’s up until then.

As I say, contrasting POVs…