Just How Bad Is This Squad?

Mate,it's an extremely poor squad. We let Doyle and Vaughan go to end up with one of the worst strike force the club has seen.

I think your ratings are fair.

I would rate Sutton 5 (he's shite)
French is a 2

When I read this post then see a squad with an extremely poor manager that can go down to the non league.

 

Anthony O'Conner has looked pretty good going forward on that right side of the 3. Him and Hosanna down the right are pretty much the only thing that seems to be working.

 

Probably a fair assessment.

For me, this squad is worse than the one that got relegated from L1. At least we had some talented attackers in that group, even if they weren't capable of playing together. The attacking element of the current squad is pathetic and is national league north level at best.

In terms of the squad Parky inherited from Jacko and finished 18th with, this squad is worse. There were some absolute shockers in that squad but at least it had the likes of Davies, Oliver, Ravenhill, Reid, Hanson and Wells in it. It was a solid spine to build off. And all of the above were better than the current players in their positions.

 

This squad is horrific.

What are its defining characteristics? We don't have a solid defence to rely on. We don't have pace to counter teams. We don't have physicality to bully teams and outfight them. We don't have a 20+ goal a season striker to rely on. We have nothing. I couldn't tell you what the USP of the squad is.

It's rudderless and without direction. It has a few reasonable individuals within it. But as a squad it is rancid.

 

The squad Parkinson inherited from Jacko did not have Davies, Reid, Ravenhill in it ,Parkinson had to bring them in as well as Matt Duke. As for Wells he was just in the development squad as Jacko didn’t rate him. Jacko squad was the likes of Stewart, Hannah, Compton, Mitchell, Threllfall and two dreadful goalies on loan.

 

I remember 3 or 4 years ago reaching the L1 play offs for the second consecutive season, laughing about how terrible our first squad under McCall was in League 2, confidently yet in hindsight naively thinking things would never be that bad again.

How wrong I was. I hold no doubt that this is the worst Bradford City squad I’ve seen in almost 29 years of life.

 

Let’s face it, right now based on what we’ve seen in a city shirt we have 1-2 players of relatively decent quality that would be of interest to other clubs, and that’s Wood and Watt.

Then you have a few decent enough around them in Novak, Clarke and Cooke. Ismail has ability but fitness is an issue and is one of those who can be really impactful or frustrating as hell. Evans comes with a good career so far but we will have to wait to see if we experience that. A O’Conner is only good enough with quality around him. Personally I like Pritchard but not seen enough to convince me yet.

I won’t include Hosannah as he’s not ours and Staunton is still too early to judge despite a good start.

1-2 players to build a team around is incredibly alarming. As far more experienced professionals than I, I’d really like to understand what McCall and Black were looking at and planned at the beginning of the season when looking at the squad? Where did they see our strengths and opportunities? What element of our squad did they believe stood us in a stronger place than out competition? I ask, because despite as been optimistic as possible - I can’t see it?!?!

 

Taken from Bradford Football Stats www.whoscored.com

 

Me neither but listening to Stuart's post match yesterday he has every confidence of at least a play off place (can't remember his exact words I was dumbfounded) Doeis he know something we don't or is he delusional
January is the telling month hopefully by then we have a new CEO with plans for progression in place which should filter down to the team and coupled with a few incoming players we should finish mid table at best building for next season, without this I fear we could well end up a non league team
Over to you Mr Rupp and Mr Rhodes make some big decisions or the club will suffer irreparable damage

 

Probably the wrong choice of phrase from me. You're right that Parky had to sign a few of those when he came in. Although the point remains that the squad that season who finished 18th was better than this one.

 

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are still a few good players in this team to build next years squad around. I'd keep Cooke, Watt, Wood and even Billy Clarke and Lee Novak.

 

Yes certainly the squad that finished the season that Parkinson changed was significantly better than this lot. However I have no faith that McCall will have the contacts and transfer nous in January to improve this squad.

 

Its clear to anyone who knows football that there were glaring omission in terms of certain positions yet nothing was done by McCall to strengthen those positions, priority being a dominant centre back, a striker to replace the outgoing Vaughan and not still not replaced Eoin Doyle and a central midfielder, effectively trying to create a strong spine for the team to build around.

Don't get me wrong, McCall was hampered somewhat by having three average centre backs already on the books and it wasn't his fault that Ismail and Donaldson had contract extensions in their favour. Neither was he helped by the previous January transfer window shambles. The problem though was further enhanced by bringing in players like Sutton and Evans, both who have attributes but its hard to work out why they were signed when the pressing need was for players in different positions to where Sutton and Evans play.

This club hasn't had a cohesive plan for over three years now, probably even back to the Parkinson days. We will continue to digress further until this problem is dealt with. Meanwhile, Rome burns and we look increasingly more likely to be in a relegation battle than a fight for the playoffs.

Remember, these cheap giveaway season tickets ain't gonna sell themselves on the back of this shitshow next season.

 

May be an unpopular opinion but I don't rate Novak one bit. A couple of early season goals masked over what were some pretty dreadful performances by him.

 

Building for next season should start now
You should have a spine in the team capable of playing and sustaining L1 football none of the players you mention are anywhere near capable of that
Throwing the baby out with the bath water has got to start at the top and work down

 

I assume they're percentages?

 

With a defence who can't defend and a strike force who can't score there is only 1 way we getting out of this division and it could see the death of our club unless there are major changes in the club very soon