The Voice - Match preview Most liked posts in thread: MK Dons vs Bradford City Tuesday 24th October 2023 19:45

I think I understand what you mean Jon.

Everything these days is all about the 'immediacy' of things, it has to be now, can't be bothered waiting, everything has to happen now..... That's today's society I believe, a lack of patience. In simple terms 'binge watch' rather than wait for next weeks episode.....

With Bowyer, Adams and Hughes there were promising early signs, a reconnection of fans, an uptake in performances and some optimism. Fans believing and fans expecting. Best team, fantastic, gonna storm the league etc. etc.

Fast forward a few weeks and poor games, poor results, worst team ever, relegation, fan unrest at games, social media etc. etc.

I've seen it in microcosm within games at home......fans singing 'we're by the far greatest team', 'we are going up' only to be followed by serious booing 20 minutes later, or vice versa....I ask you....seriously is that a proper take on things?

What does the CEO do, listens to all the unrest on socials and fires the bullet....AGAIN!! Back to square one, fallen down the snake again....

Parkinson wouldn't have lasted in these last few years with his winless run back in the day and current CEO....
We are not far off | News | Bradford City (bradfordcityafc.com) Comments sound familiar?

So I think I understand.

I'm not a happy clapper at all but our record of 9 permanent managers in 5 years shows the constant change isn't working.....examples in numerous other clubs around the league also.....weren't we laughing at other clubs who did exactly what we've been doing.... patience is a virtue.....well it used to be anyway....


Simon Grayson England 11 February 2018 8 May 2018
Michael Collins Republic of Ireland 18 June 2018 3 September 2018
David Hopkin Scotland 4 September 2018 25 February 2019
Martin Drury England 25 February 2019 4 March 2019
Gary Bowyer England 4 March 2019 3 February 2020
Stuart McCall Scotland 4 February 2020 13 December 2020
Mark Trueman / Conor Sellars England 13 December 2020 10 May 2021
Derek Adams Scotland 4 June 2021 15 February 2022
Mark Hughes Wales 24 February 2022 4 October 2023

 

Bet placed at 17/2.

 

Not for me. Pointon is a natural 10 I think. A possibility that Chapman might make the bench tonight. He took part in the warm up on Saturday. I'd give Oyegoke a go too at some point, he looked lively when he came on against Swindon.

 

Chapman makes the bench - great to see him back.

 

There player kicked out at Stubbs ref did nothing

 

Yes.

Platt on.
Chapman for Osadebe.
Smith for Wilson.
Go 4-3-3.
Gilliead, Macdonald, Pointon
Smith, Cook, Chapman

Have Gilliead protecting the right and Pointon the left.
Right now Osadebe isn't tracking back and neither is Wilson.
We need legs around Kev.
Right now only Gilliead in there with him.

 

Why are you gesturing to your fellow defenders you made a right arse of it Stubbs.

 

fecking woeful display. I’m honestly lost for words. Stubbs worst cb display I’ve seen for a long time, Lewis back to his worst

long drive home ahead

 

We were poor but sometimes you’ve got to give credit to the opposition too. MK Dons played some lovely stuff.

 

I think Stubbs looked poor because hes got Taylor along side him. Shocking player and we give him a 2 year deal.cant possibily play these 2 together again.

 

Can't believe people saying if it wasn't for him we'd have conceded 8. He's had a stinker and not for the first time this season! got saved by his post and crossbar a couple of times when he was nowhere near and saved a shot that was blasted straight at him. Didn't look interested at all tonight but sadly not by himself in that regard.

 

Try not to let it get you down. A glass of warm milk and off to bed with you, and no story for you tonight

 

Well, I mean you have to account for the fact that some players are going to be squad players in a promotion set up.

Let's not forget that players like Zavon Hines, Will Atkinson, Ricky Ravenhill and Michael Nelson played a reasonable part of our promotion side under PP. None of them are good players.

Remember Andy Gray, Ritchie Jones and Ross Hannah?

We also had a ton of loan players that weren't good enough that season, too.

A squad isn't filled with promotion-calibre players, but the first XI needs to have at least 5 or 6 players of very good quality: Andrew Davies, Nahki Wells, James Hanson, Rory McArdle, Gary Jones, Kyel Reid and Nathan Doyle were all good enough for promotion, but didn't always play.

At the minute, too many of our 'promotion calibre' players are injured or bang off form: Andy Cook, Alex Pattison, Richie Smallwood, Sam Stubbs, even Harry Lewis if last season was anything to go by: these players should be good enough, yet Brad Halliday and Alex Gilliead are our best players on current form.

 

Macdonald should've tightened things up when we got back into the game. We were too open and left glaring holes in midfield and defence. His lack of experience told there, added to sticking with the same 11 for the start of the second half. He's done well so far so won't slaughter him, but there's a weakness in the mentality of this squad. Will he make changes at the back on Saturday? You could realistically drop Ridealgh, Stubbs and Taylor, but I don't think he will. He'll probably go with the same back four in the hope they get back on track. As for Osadebe, I don't think he'll ever be more than an impact sub. Certainly offers very little along with Wilson.

 

Not felt as helpess watching a match since Swansea embarrassed us at Wembley in the League Cup Final tbh

 

I think in fairness to McDonald, last night showed why a player manager doesnt work in the modern game. He was bang in the middle of that sh*t show, and to be honest needed his assistants to see what was blatantly going wrong and make the changes mid match. We'll never know for sure whether KM would have done anything differently had he been on the touchline, but I believe he would have.

 

We definitely need another competitive keeper capable of replacing Lewis because the standard he's set this season is nowhere near good enough and if he didn't have the grace of last year to fall back on I suspect there'd even be calls to give Doyle the gloves again in the short term.

 

We had 5 in the wall and he still left an open space to aim at. All Payne had to do was get it on target. Poor keeping again unfortunately. He appears to be a good shot stopper but poor and vulnerable in other areas. Surely the new manager will recruit a backup keeper in January. Id even consider putting Doyle in goal right now.

 

Just one last note Jon, how long in your opinion should Hughes have been given? This season? Or longer if we hit the play offs but ultimately failed again?

For me he'd had 19 months and I saw no improvement in performances on the pitch during that time.

I was also bored by the football his team played, a view seemingly shared by plenty of this forum. That obviously played a big factor in my opinion but if you enjoyed the possession based style then perhaps that explains why you're not as happy with the change as me.

 

Indeed its is superb support we are blessed with brilliant fans !