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

I just don't think that MH is committed to the task in hand, there are certainly no signs that he is, changes in tactics and personnel must be made now ...

 

Disagree. Frustrating as we are at times I don’t believe for a minute he is not committed.
I don’t agree with all of his decisions use /timing of subs etc but he is screaming and shouting from the side. Remember he disconnect with Adams who was totally uninterested in anything outside of his own bubble. Hughes is engaging.

 

The most annoying moment for me was when Smallwood stopped playing to wave his arms at Halliday first half.

Ball still in play.

Not only unprofessional, but from a captain?

 

Just like Hartlepool did to us on Saturday.

 

Agreed, both moments were infuriating.

 

This isn't a match for wholesale change.
We have 10 days off after this match.
A draw isn't a bad result.
The 10 days gives the whole squad a good rest, recently injured players coming back might get a game behind closed doors.
If Derbyshire is fit then that for me, replacing Costelloe, should be the only change.
Experience of big matches will be key.
This is the biggest match of the season.
Matt Derbyshire getting those chances Costelloe missed on Saturday then we win by 3 or 4.
We would have battered Hartlepool on Saturday with an experienced player next to Cook.
A tight 1-1 or a City win if Derbyshire plays.

 

A draw after 3 draws on the bounce is 2 points dropped. Had we have won against Hartlepool then a draw tomorrow wouldn't have been the end of the world, but we didn't.

 

You'd play Smallwood on the left of a diamond again? I'm amazed tbh.

The personnel isn't so much the issue for me as the shape. With the diamond we look incredibly open and for me it will just invite Carlisle into us, especially in the wide areas and if they play with wing backs we'll be doubled up on time and time again down our left.

 

I think he is committed. If you watch him on the touch line he is just as frustrated as the rest of us. It is the decision making that finds most difficult to comprehend but that is lg2 for you. What I do like about him is his refusal to criticise players publicly. He is cautious over cautious in May respects. He makes a plan and sticks with it even if it clearly isn’t working. I think that is why we see such late subs when he realises the plan is not going to work. I just hope he learns that in this league if the plan is going pear shaped it will continue. Mind you if we had a dynamic leader on the pitch they would change it. He needs a captain who will challenge him if things are not going well. I would have thought that MH has the ability to take advise from wherever it comes from.

 

Costelloe does it everytime he loses the ball.

 

Sutton was poor, I don’t look at him any differently He didn’t get a regular slot for a reason ! He runs quick in a straight line anything else?

Note he’s been selected for Harrogate only three times since January. Doesn’t that tell you something?

 

Yes he wasn’t good enough. The point is he made the right type of deep runs from midfield beyond the front men. Stretching play. Offering a different problem to the opposition. Do you not see this when watching? Someone with this type of attribute but with the ability to trap a bag of cement and pass the ball accurately is something we’re missing. Again we don’t have that athleticism in the team. It’s all too one paced. Perreira might offer this if he was fit.

 

We definitely need some athletes mixed into the side. We're painfully slow at times and covering the ground quickly, especially in midfield and centre half is often an issue.

 

Carlisle play five across the middle and if we are true to form we will play everything in front of them. We really need a change of attitude as well as a change of personnel. Hughes however is set in his ways and I doubt there will be much change in either. Here’s hoping however probably our most important match of the season so far

 

And subbed off.

 

All this chat about what Derbyshire would do, he's played just over 1 and a half game since he came in early new year!
A signing that smacks of Hughes and his old boys network, but lets just hope he is fit again to make a contribution as it nuts the lack of support Cookie has had on the goals front - particularly when you look at who our manager is!

 

Carlisle have sold over 1100 tickets so far for tomorrow’s game. Bloody outstanding support for a Tuesday evening fixture, over 200 mile round trip

 

When is Cook getting his new deal? Surely we have sounded his agent out.

Think he stays id we go up but can see a L1 side taking a punt if we don't.

 

We created more than enough chances on Saturday.
Cook scored the two hardest chances he had out of 4.
Banks messed up 2 and Costelloe fluffed 2.
We should have romped that match.
1 defeat in 12 with this team.
You want to make changes and potentially have a 8 point gap to Carlisle??
I would as a worse case scenario, get a point and go into a 10 day rest knowing that teams around us will drop points in the next few weeks as they all play eachother.
Go into a sequence of Grimsby, Crawley , Sutton and Rochdale fresh, and knowing what we need to do.

 

I have sympathy with the club's position, because we do not know which league we'll be playing in, and that will be key to setting the terms of any contract. I don't think Andy will be in any rush to sign a deal at present anyway because, if we go up, he could rightly expect much improved terms.