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

Again and again... ?

 

Yup I did say in a previous reply to Wilsden that this wasn't the worst example, but it is a recurring weakness

 

Well, if you want to support City...

 

It wasn't an example fill stop, not just "not the worst".

It's like blaming Cook for someone else missing a chance just because Cook missed one earlier.

By all means highlight his faults when it's genuinely his mistake but it comes across as an agenda when you're trying to attach errors from others to Hallidays game.

 

Feel free to call it an agenda...and tbh I do probably need to let go of it!. If I have an agenda it's not against Halliday in person, it's against this obsession that its more important for full backs for to get forward and put in crosses than it is for them to stop attackers and defend their side and their post. Guess I'm just old fashioned. But I still stand by that we have conceded far too many free headers at the far post.

 

Absolutely Jon. And for clarity I usually would be pissing and moaning about not seeing a game out yet again, but there were more than enough positives against Mansfield to negate that

I just hope that my blind faith makes my journey to Stevenage worth it!!

 

It works for some managers though - Fergie, mourinho, evans

 

Your right but even though we miss one or two chances just as most teams do we don’t miss loads of chances we don’t create enough we don’t get bodies in the box and we never or rarely score from corners or free kicks. I wish Hughes would set the players free ditch the safety first except when there is a proven need take a risk trust the forwards and blxxdy go for it

 

BUT. IT. WASN'T. HIS. MAN.

I think that's the part that you're conveniently ignoring.

Your overall point is correct though and if this had been in a separate thread and not singled out Halliday I'd have agreed. We absolutely do concede too many from crosses, dead balls and in open play but I'm happy to credit most of them with the dreadful zonal marking we use rather than individual positional errors.

Take Saturday for example, the lad that hits the bar is a centre half and completely unmarked as he makes his run. Right up until he entered our "zone" where Gillead ducks out after half heartedly engaging him.

That's not a slight on Gillead either, he shouldn't be in that position marking big hairy arsed centre halves, we've got our own and a big hairy arsed striker to do that job and if we stopped letting players have a free run to attack the ball I'm absolutely certain we'd be less fragile in these situations.

 

I don't know whose man it was, but the entire defence being on the left side of the pitch, relative to our goal, is just wrong.

Nevers is absolutely nowhere near the area, and it's probably his fault we got overloaded like that - but again, the entire defence is very poorly positioned.

 

You're right I should stop picking on him.....I call out Kev for his Sutton obsession and I'm heading down that road .
Let's forget the H word and look at principles. Whose responsibility is it to defend the far post?

 

I think the primary focus should be to stop the ball getting into the box in the first place

 

yes that as well.....like I say, call me a dinosaur but I want my full backs to be defenders first and any attacking prowess is a bonus

 

If one of the central midfielders had dropped back (which they didn't have time to) then it would have been Halliday's, by my estimation.

Given that didn't happen, the defence needed support from the wide man, which was Nevers.

I know Nevers came on as an attacker, but we were defending a lead in the final minute of the game. He should have been digging in, for me, but he was positioned to counter.

 

Agreed. I was watching Kane during yesterday’s mstch, and the last five or ten minutes he was practically a centre back, defunding corners and staying in a defensive role. The whole team should work as one during those last five minutes and see the game out.

 

Same as when you're chasing a game and a big lump of a centre back becomes a forward!

 

As someone who grew up as a full back and was well coached in the role, because I was too crap to play anywhere else mainly, I feel I’m in a good position to answer this.

I think you’re too focused on the back post, that would indicate zonal play, which is bad enough from set pieces let alone in open play! It’s a full backs duty to cover the man on his side, if he moves inside when in the box so be it, then the winger has to be the extra man when the opposition full back gets forward. I’m not saying the Mansfield scorer was a full back, but it works in the same way that Halliday kept with his man and the other guy behind them should have been tracked by our winger.

We had a similar incident against Hartlepool early in the season, people on here that day blamed Halliday but he was marking the winger and the fullback scored that day and despite what people said on here Scott Banks who should have tracked the man behind rightfully apologised after the game.

That is why back post crosses are so effective it’s not just us that concede them regularly, they’re a very effective means of scoring unfortunately we can’t cross a road let alone a ball most of the time so it only ever looks like we are the ones who concede!

Effectively to stop crosses it has to be a team effort, especially late on when you need all hands too the pump, and as above the best way to stop a goal from a cross it to stop it as the source. But that’s a bit like saying the best way to not concede from a corner is not give away a corner, it’s unlikely to happen over the course of a full game.

I hope that rambling made some sense!

 

So let me get this right, it's the full backs job to defend the far post so if his man runs off off him towards the centre of the goal and nods in a free header it's the centre halves fault? Even if they're each marking a striker?

Are we really going with this ridiculously simplistic explanation?

 

Can't disagree with that with regards to last Saturday

Alright hands up - Saturday was a bad example. Doesn't alter the fact we have conceded too many uncontested headers in that area.