The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Mansfield Town Saturday 4 February 2023 @ 3:00pm

Yesterday followed the pattern of so many games we are involved in. A good first half with strong pressing and often taking the lead followed by a second half where we step of the gas allowing the pressure to build until eventually we crack.
Wether this is caused by attitude and instructions to hold what we have or are we not fit enough to press for 90 minutes. Where is the strategy to relieve the prssure we seen unable to ride it out. Why don’t we leave a player up at opposing corners.
I saw Mansfield keeper yesterday launch the ball three times from hands and I think it was their left sided midfielder charge into open space without looking up with the ball coming to him obviously a rehearsed move..
We played some lovely football yesterday first half just as we did against Salford but this time we didn’t get away with it. I like Hughes as a bloke but I am losing a bit of faith in him as a manager although I am not calling for change we have to stick with him and hope he adapts to this level

 

None of these personal preferences and aesthetics are that important, to be honest.

What's more important is finishing our chances.

We didn't need to leave men up front from corners to carve out a one-on-one for Eisa, nor did we need to for Chapman to get a great opportunity to square a ball for an easy finish. We didn't need to change our approach for Cook to force a couple more saves from their keeper.

I get it's frustrating when the team doesn't play the way people want, prefer, or even believe is better, but that isn't why we drew yesterday.

I wish we could fast forward to being able to field Cook/Banks with Walker in behind, and have the option of Smallwood/East coming off the bench when we lose our momentum in midfield, but alas... not yet.

Not yet.

 

Jon, we can't expect a league two striker to convert every chance they get - that's why they're playing in league two! If they scored with every chance then they'd be in the championship!!

All forwards will miss chances and that's why we have to create more of them. We can't blame Eisa because he missed his only chance. That will happen in league two.

 

If Cook passes the ball for a simple tap in we win the game.

Extremely poor decision making is unacceptable at any level.

 

And 9 times out of 10 it's on Hallidays side.
I'm sure the opposition target our right.

 

Have to say I thought Walker played really well, particularly first half. You could see he was knackered though, hopefully he’ll keep improving.

 

Mark Hughes woud disagree with you. He says that the only real difference between PL and Lg2 players is decisions they make under pressure.

 

Links play up well. He put a lot into that 60 odd minutes, gonna take a while for him to get match fit

 

Similar to Esia first half one on one, just a tap in .

 

Hughes and the players should be totally embarrassed by that result and display - weak in so many aspects.
To be honest if you take this game out i would say results have been roughly where I think this team is. They, and Hughes, are not quite as good as I think they should be

 

Apart from the obvious disappointment of the Mansfield equaliser and not taking our chances, I wasn't as annoyed dropping 2 points as I thought I would be. Some of our fans forget that Mansfield are a decent team, we have no real edge over them. We have been much improved by Clayton, who I thought was fantastic. His corner was on the money for Cook, pisses all over Smallwoods contributions this season. Just what we have been missing!

I thought Bola was much improved, and earned his start for that goal-line clearance alone. Although if he stays on throw-ins then he seriously needs to work on his upper body strength. Eisa I find extremely frustrating, as he is very capable but I don't think I have ever seen a weaker player on the ball. It seems a gust of wind would blow him over. And anyone saying Critchlow isn't vocal enough and is not a leader - deluded IMO. The guy is a natural and we'd be bottom half by now if he was still injured or got recalled in January. I think some of our fans don't realise how worse we'd be without him

 

Agree with all this, also even though the disappointment of the late goal the players in the main were actually clapped off by most fans which is a first when we haven’t won this season. So the performance obviously resonated with the fans, just need better fitness to get us over the line. But there were more positives than negatives, which hasn’t been the case with a fair few games, even in some wins.

 

What I don't get about corners is why we persist in in swingers, I've read so many times forwards saying they prefer out swingers as the ball is played away from the keeper and gives the forward more momentum if he gets his head on it cleanly. Back in the day, it was the same with "proper" wingers, always got to the bye line and swung the ball back into the middle of the box rather than crossing from 15 yards out and into the keeper's hands.

Don Hutchins was by far the best at this, always head down and ran the ball almost out of play before putting his cross in, and Mega was the same, resulting in a lot of headed goals for Big Bob. Gary Jones was a good exponent of the out swinging corner, taking them from the right with his right foot.

 

Eisa is very weak on the ball,easily toppled over and then you get Hughes running after the 4th official every time to complain that he was fouled. Mind you Hughes has always been a serial moaner about refs all through his management career.

 

I hadn't looked at the goals for column, but 31 in 27 games is appalling for a promotion chasing team, especially with a former international striker as manager. Have we got Isaiah Rankin as "offensive" coach, because he could go one on with a dustbin and miss.

 

Except it wasn't the full backs man. Halliday was actually marking his own player so you're miles out with this one.

 

I think better fitness would bring more goals, you can’t just rely on scoring in the first 60 minutes. How many times have we scored last 15 or so this season? Not many, so yes fitness it the main issue for me and that will help with defensive and offensive issues later on in games.

 

Very true, and it's League Two, so naturally the players will miss chances.

However we created enough to win on Saturday. We wasted maybe four good opportunities, and two of them were easy work for a confident team.

I just don't see how tactical preferences played any part whatsoever to be honest.

 

Top post, Steve.

I think this was a positive performance, and sometimes you just have to take disappointment on the chin.