Match Thread Most liked posts in thread: Home v Oldham Athletic 3pm Saturday 20th March

Hi everyone, Cambridge Sean back again (btw you can always tell me to feck off if need be but as I've said before I've always had a soft spot for Bradford because of personal history so thought I'd post)

We played Oldham last Sat and decided to give them a 2 goal lead after 11 minutes! Some of the craziest football I've seen in a long time. One thing we do have though is firepower and Mullin got one back before Iredale (he's a wing back...in my terms a full back who goes forward a lot) scored two to make it 3-2 at HT. Another goal from us in the second half made it 4-2.

Oldham actually aren't a bad side and Curle is concentrating on toughening up their defence. Understandably. In the second half though, when Bahamboula came on he completely shifted the dynamic and looked very dangerous. An earlier poster on here (see I've read through them again!) said Bahamboula doesn't always know what's going to happen next and neither do his team mates....that's spot on and quite exciting.

Finally a word about T&S. I don't know much about them other than what I've picked up on here. If I give you our manager. Mark Bonner, as an example then perhaps it might help (or hinder) your judgement. Bonner had never been a professional footballer and supported Cambridge as a kid. He got a youth job as a coach when he was 20 (?) and then, apart from 12 months at Southend, was in every academy and coaching position there was. In 2018 he became Asst coach to a whole load of underperforming ex professional managers (Shaun Derry, Colin Calderwood etc). So when he was appointed as manager after Calderwood's sacking it was greeted with a collective shrug of the shoulders and complete apathy.

Since then he has created a brilliant , free playing attacking team (you haven't seen it....sorry!) that is just fun to watch. The first half against FGR today was some of the best football I've seen us play in....well about 30 years. But he's been able to create this because he's a fan, he cares and he's been allowed to make mistakes. He gets lots of things wrong too but he's got enough credit that by and large fans forgive him for that. Don't get me started on late substitutions...!

I won't bore you with our season to date but I really believe we're going to get promoted this year...automatically. And that's down to him.

So onto T&S. They strike me as two who care about the club, have already achieved a fair degree of success and want the best for Bradford. That's not a bad starting point. Please give me that over journeyman ex=pro managers doing the rounds. Anyway what I want to say is that if they want to be as good as you want them to be they will....but let them make mistakes too!

Sending love to Bradford .....Cambridge Sean

 

Interesting that Hornby has been dropped and POC not captain.

Has Hornby really been at fault recently? Harsh.

 

We're not back in December. We're safe, show some balls and go for it, especially at home.

 

Important not to lose says Mark, whats that suppose to mean when we have nothing to lose, we aren't going down lets have a go, poor poor entertainment.

 

I'm more concerned about how these recent performances bode for next season. We won't go up or down this season so its a perfect time for us to let the shackles off and go into next season with some momentum. We've still got the "do not lose" mentality of a side in a relegation battle when we're in anything but. Performances like this next season will not see us in the top 3 and will not be tolerated by the fans, especially when we're back in VP.

Its time for T&S to demonstrate their ability at coaching a side in an attacking sense. Because right now, I'm yet to see anything in that regard.

 

When Cooke gets the ball in the opposition half he looks for the forward option whenever possible. He is able to make the space to create a forward run or dangerous forward pass. Without him we either turn backwards when there are good options ahead or else hit misplaced passes that gift possession away. Our chance creation is minimal.

 

Worst defence in the league and we serve up that shite? It is yet another clueless attacking performance that is becoming a concerning trend. We create absolutely nothing.

 

I'd give Scales a start, looked bright and we need some fresh legs

 

Of course they are learning but Rowe off for Cook was a little disappointing wouldn't you say, Evans offered little for the full 90 minutes yet stayed on, I've posted before a young kid like Crawshaw is a little raw he will either give his full back nightmares or an easy shift, having said that if you don't give the lad the ball he can do either.
We are safe from relegation and I would not have been disappointed had they made several changes introducing more kids but his opening comment " it was about not losing after two defeats" is not what I want to hear.
I'm usually classed along side @Park bantam as a happy clapper I can assure you I'm far from happy with today's performance

 

But it's not just 'a couple of bad games' though, is it? We haven't played well since the Cheltenham match - eight games ago. We scraped one one goal wins against Orient, Walsall and Mansfield largely through a combination of opposition defensive errors and our own defensive solidity.
Since Cooke has been out we have looked inept going forward - very little vision or movement, a plethora of misplaced passes and very few chances created. Rowe looks lost up front on his own and isn't quick or industrious enough to play the Cooke role. The wide players are creating next to nothing. The XG stats predicted we would run out of luck, and we have.
We are suffering from failing to recruit another creative CM in January. Without Cooke the 4231 system keeps us solid but creates little going forward. I'm not one of those on here who is wedded to 442, but it seems to me that we have to find a way to get Rowe and Cooke up front together, either in a 442 or 433 with either Crankshaw or Vernam on one side. Otherwise the season is just going to peter out.

 

He has played well in a 2. He was very effective when he came on at Carlisle and it helped us create a number of chances with Rowe floating about and Cook as the focal point.

Imo, that's exactly what we need to see more of.

 

I find Hornby much more reassuring under the high ball than RO'D. Can't see that Hornby deserves to be dropped TBH.

 

Starting to get a little concerned by the manner of our performances now. They're certainly not improving. There's very little cohesion with the ball, everything is a bit too slow, we go side to side and then eventually one of the CBs or Watt tries to hit a long or cross field ball. In fact, dare I say it, its a bit like Bowyerball....

And these are in as bad a form as Carlisle were. Its not good enough. Amd we can't blame fatigue, we've had a clear week.

 

Some drama queens on here today.

Looks like a typical, average league two game to me.

Some folk thinking we were going to win all the next 15 games and go up as champions! Was never going to happen!

 

Imagine the sh!te McCall would have got replacing our only forward with another forward, were safe ffs T&S not good enough, nothing to lose by being more ambitious.

 

If they are to continue with this ponderous football it will mean fewer season tickets being sold. A lot fans will not want to trail to VP to watch that type of football being served up. Playing away the set up is fine but for the majority of home games it's a no no.

 

I don't think I've been over critical, I try and tell it as I see it, I was saying at half time we needed changes and making suggestions that I thought would change the pattern of game https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?threads/home-v-oldham-athletic-3pm-saturday-20th-march.4841/page-10#post-477189, I didn't expect it to change at half time but certainly after 70 minutes we were labouring football wise, I thought T&S subs were pointless Rowe off Cook on, and waited until the 82 minute to make his second sub which again was like for like.
When you have seen a poor display like today and one of the first comments from your manager is it was Important not to lose, I think fans have a right to question that ?.

 

I think it's coming to the point where we stick with one of Cook or Rowe as the main striker. The constant changing of the two, who are completely opposite to each other in styles, does not lend itself to familiarity with the other midfielders. Rowe coming deep and not being found leaves us with nothing upfront. The opposition then push one or two up from defence and overload in midfield. We're then left chasing shadows and dropping deeper to the edge of our box to defend. My choice would be stick with Cook and get further up the pitch. I'm beginning to see why Kewell decided to offload Rowe, because he really is a luxury player who unfortunately still has the non league mentality of drifting all over the pitch and not being disciplined enough to hold position. When you play one up top, you need one up top otherwise the defenders are going to lump balls out to the wing and there's no one in the middle to aim for.

It's a shame Novak is injured because he plays that striker role so well.

 

Jesus, didn't take long for all the negativity to come surging back out did it?