The Voice - Match preview Most liked posts in thread: Bradford City vs Grimsby Town Saturday 9th September 12:30pm - sky sports

Think a lot of our fans agree with you on Hurst .

You were there for the taking today , but he reverts to type - not sure him and Hughes are that different are they ?

 

Thoughts on that strike from Gillead, @NorthernMonkey!?

we need to see more of that from him but what a strike - Rodri would have been proud.

Pointon was great. stubbs was a rock at the back. Macdonald slows us down and isnt the answer alongside Smallwood, nor is this awful five at the back.

Tulloch showed nice feet when he came on.

harry lewis’ goalkicks to our full backs stood on touchline. Plain awful.

poor result, average display. Hughes needs to go asap.

 

Nowhere near good enough from start to finish. Of course, the second half was an improvement but it could not have gotten any worse from that first half which was an utter disgrace.

Playing a rigid 5-4-1 at home with a midfield of Smallwood and McDonald and a grandad up front was totally unacceptable and bordering on laughable. We are at home, on TV and in front of 18k yet he's setting up for a 0-0. That was enough to take away my last little bit of confidence in him.

Second half was thanks in part to Mark Hughes Jr getting his side to park the bus and allowing us onto them. I would be absolutely livid if I was a grimsby fan having watched how bad we were and how they simply gave up attacking.

Change in shape obviously helped. Replacing Derbyshire definitely helped because he is utterly useless and retirement is long overdue. Pointon excellent, Afoka looked lively, Tulloch did ok and Osadebe was Osadebe.

No shots on target until the 89th minute and only a single one at that in a home game will never be close to being acceptable. And that isn't the first time we've had such stats under Hughes. He just doesn't get it.

 

The first half genuinely didn't resemble a professional football side.

 

You've been told once
10 games is the minimum 15 because of the injuries 20 to start seeing the best of Pointon
Then give him January window then time for players to settle in oops perhaps with a good pre season

 

There is only one thing that needs to change to improve this team?




The Manager

 

I'm not disagreeing but not many Strikers would have done anything with the service in that first half.

For 90% of it he never had a player within 20 yards and everything was head height.

 

Er, one guy you mentioned hasn't scored one solitary goal this season, lets not let facts get in the way eh Park? So we didn't really miss him did we?

 

Think if I were a Mariners fan I would be asking how we’ve managed to loose 9 points from winning positions this season

 

He sounded like he was saying it was a one off that it didn't work today. Blamed the lack of pressing instead. A promotion winning side is there on a plate for him if only he'll make the right decisions.

 

I also have been wondering this and that's why I wonder if Jason's view in yesterday's WOAP article has some merit - with more clubs having a higher budget than us this year then he felt we needed a different set up and tactics to get ahead because he believed if he stayed the same as last year then we'd end up where we were again.

I think what others would say though is that that kind of approach was over engineering things and going too far. Actually, with some small changes to last year's set up he could actually get more out of the team. Rather than ripping up and re-inventing he just needed to to tweak his mindset and be more attacking at times. Let's hope he realises that a bit now and changes things up again.

 

Its becoming a theme with him isn't it!? I genuinely think he decided early on that a good leader is someone who sets out his principles and sticks to them in the face of criticism. I think he'd see a change of tack as a sign of weakness in himself. Ultimately it'll be his undoing.

 

But both you and I know that wont be the case, 'llI repeat why did it take until half time to make the changes not necessarily the players but the system, not for the first time this season I may add.

 

I remember when we played Wolves when we both in League One. We went 1-0 up. Kenny Jackett, the manager of Wolves at the time, realised he fecked up with the tactics, and made a substitution 25 mins in. That Sub allowed him to change formation an tactics an from that point onwards, Wolves dominated the game an ultimately won 2-1. Thats the sign of a good manager, someone who is prepared to take risks an make changes the moment they realise they have messed up.

Hughes on the other hand waits till half time. In his entire tenure at City, one thing has always been evident for me. We always lose the midfield battle. Why is that? its because we always play with 2 men in the middle whereas practically everyone else plays with 3. We get overrun an we struggle to do anything with the ball. its why we always play backwards.

I don't rate Kelly at all, an im beginning to lose my patience with Platt. The formation doesn't suit them. Maybe Tomlinson coming in might change that, but irrespective, we don't look comfortable on the ball, which is pretty fecking stupid seeing as Hughes considers us as a possesion based side.

Hughes can't get the best out of Walker, its pretty evident why. Because everyone around him is so slow an lethargic with the ball, the moment it comes to Walker, he's usually got 3 men on him as he's one of our few attacking outlets. its why that responsibility should be shared, but we struggle because we don't spend enough time trying try to get the ball out on the wings, we persist with hoofing it up through the middle of the pitch, an hope the likes of Walker or Pattison can pick up the knock downs an make something out of nothing.

That brings me to my next topic. We're playing with Derbyshire up front. Granted he played shit, but how can you expect him to get into the game if your gonna hoof the ball up to him every 2 mins, he's being man marked by 2 6ft+ CBs.

You see with successful sides, players want to come an get the ball, you see with City that players shy away from the responsibility, they want to get rid of it as quick as possible an pass on the buck. Theres no off field movement, theres no willingness to recieve the ball. Thats either down to shit tactics or a loss of faith by the players, but either way that falls down to the manager an his tactics

All in all, I think its pretty evident where the blame lies for our shit form

 

I think most who watched the game realised the better second half was all about formation change rather than the introduction of Gilly and Tulloch and that's not dissing the guys, Pointon and Halliday were a threat down the right our movement was 100% better, the lad Afoka ran at the Grimsby defenders something we saw nothing of from Derbyshire, Richards looked more comfortable getting forward, not total domination but compared with the first half it felt that way.

 

Have Wrexham or Notts County drastically changed their style of play after promotion? I would say not-so keeping the same formation and building a solid team around that seems to work.

Us on the other hand completely change our formation and severely weaken us as an attacking force. Tactical suicide in my book.

It wasn't broke and didn't need fixing-just needed refining.

Crikey this club does my head in at times.

MH should suck it up, admit he has royally messed up and get us to a flat back and use the talent we briefly saw on Saturday to strike the fear of god into the opposition instead of meekly lying down in front of them like we did first half yesterday. That had to be the biggest bore fest served up for years.

The senior pro's have to get into his ear and say boss this isn't working.

 

Not upset just really frustrated.
Hate the way Hughes seems to have the attitude that we are lucky to have him and cannot question him.

 

I'm another one whose appetite has gone, not been yet this season, though will be there on Saturday, if only for a couple of beers pre-match and a kip between 12.30 & 2.15pm

 

Slim.

The irony.