The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Colchester United Saturday 12th August 2023 @ 3:00pm

£2 bet returns £17 today. Well done The Voice, long may it continue.

 

Liked the look of Tyler Smith, we looked far more dangerous when he came on. He had a bit of Nahki Wells about him with his movement.

Good performances from 2 of the other new boys in Oduor and Pattison.

Lewis worries me with his messing about at the back, good save late on though.

I thought we looked more threatening on the break than many home performances of last season.

Colchester only ever remotely looked like scoring from a mistake or maybe from one of the many corners they had.

Hope Walker is okay, but we did look more balanced when Smith came on to replace him.

Not sure we can fit Oduor, Pattison and Walker together.

 

Decent enough performance and certainly something to build on. Oduor is getting better with each game and Pattison is proving to be the player we all hoped we were getting.

One gripe, why are we still sitting back on a one goal lead? Have we learnt nothing from last season?

 

6-2 and 14 stone would say highly likely . There was a lot of force in that tackle, if you don’t think so , you need glasses.

 

Credit to the lads after a poor start giving Colchester a goal start we got more into the game coming up to half time and scored at a crucial time,
Please Sparkie stop this nonsense playing out from the back, I'm not sure any of the back line feel comfortable playing it , I'm all for possession with the ball but it has to be in a positive way, having said that you can only beat what's in front of you so well done lads a good start to our home campaign.

 

Weird game, weird atmosphere. You can tell the players still aren't exactly sure of their roles, and you can tell thr fans still aren't exactly sure what to think.

Barely remember many chants in either the kop or NWC. Bright moments, we seemed to have a solid 15 or so at the start of the second half but we aren't convincing in the transitions. Oyegoke was nice and braver, played much further forward, think we need that left wing back who can do the same. Smith looked bright, Pattison and Odour too.

 

He won’t .

 

Game of two halves as the pun goes. First half all over the place with no real shape, second looked way better after the impressive Smith had come on to replace Walker. That also allowing Pattison more space upfront and was also pretty impressive. Ogeyeke looked far better in the wing back role and Clark Oduor my man of the match for being a constant threat throughout, no coincidence we lost our shape to a large extent when he was replaced by Osadebe.
The negatives, that back line is all over the place. We badly miss Crichlow for his pace and movement, Matty Platt had a decent game but at times it looks a disaster waiting to happen. Lewis looks off his game bar the good save that kept us the three points. In all a welcome three points with lots still to work on.

 

Don't like doing it but, big shout out to AG who I thought played the LWB really well.

 

I'm not sure we've recruited to a system but one's evolving, almost by default. And it seems to mean we can only play two of Pattison, Oduor and Walker, and at the moment the latter would be the one left out. I wonder if Hughes sees this because it was obvious today.

 

When Walker was on Pattison was back in his own half, with him off it allowed Pattison to occupy the space Walker was in. I like Walker buy we looked far more balanced when he went off.

 

I agree there was. Worst tackle of game deserved a yellow card and he gave nothing. Joke when he's giving out yellow cards for slight shirt pull then gave nothing for that.

Glass comment was about number of games he's missed and injuries he constantly seems to have.

 

Personally I still think we need a proper LWB. In the first half especially, that left side was causing us all sorts of problems. Kelly was out of position a lot an Gilliead had too much ground to cover

 

It's league two. Footballing intelligence is a rare commodity down here!

 

There's a reason we have a league system and we're in the bottom one and as such have players aligned to that level. And there's a reason Crichlow is in a team that has won their first two in league one playing a back four. Stubbs is by some distance the best centre back we have but is slower than a cart horse. If youre playing the three CBs you need that movement amongst them and these three don't have it

 

Yes. Taylor on his own caused us a lot of problems before he went off. Thought Kelly was OK today but Platt is the weak link. His distribution was awful and his lack of pace will cost us if we don't get better before the window closes. Fine as a backup to Stubbs though.

 

Does anyone know why we kicked off 10 minutes late? It was bad enough having around 20 minutes of extra time to contend with without adding to it.
I am glad my little grandson was out with his other grandma and we didn't bring him today. He would never have been able to sit still for that length of time.

 

Seem to remember reading about a Hearts fan saying a good player but he’s a sick note?

 

As I was wondering on pre-season... playing Walker and Pattison in the same team is tricky. I would guess they both want to play in the same parts of the pitch, doing similar things.

 

Gonna be tricky for people trying to gauge things like train times and the like. It doesn't personally affect me but I'm don't think we'll see another 4.45 finish ever again.