The Voice - Match preview Morecambe vs Bradford City Saturday 19th August 2023 3:00pm

There you go - I'd have bought a left midfield player not a donkey of a right back we didn't need.

Lewis
Halliday Platt Stubbs Ridehalgh
Smallwood East
Odour Pattison A left Winger
Cook

 

Don’t really understand the stick he gets on here, he may have one absolute stinker in 10 but that’s still far less than most of the squad. Behind only Cook and Lewis last season in terms of consistency for me and now he’s lost his place to a kid who he’s had to replace mid way through the game twice? Already. Far worse right backs around, put it this way he could be involved in a promotion starting 11, he’s far from being the issue.

 

I wasn't giving him stick, just saying he's very defensive and that's what Hughes tried to move away from.

I have nothing against Halliday, but I can see why Hughes tried to change it, under pressure from some short-sighted criticism about us not being 'entertaining' enough.

I put quotation marks around 'entertaining' as the only thing people actually seem to find entertaining is success.

The rest of it is window dressing and doesn't matter at all, but makes for a convenient criticism when we're not massively successful.

 

Not aimed at you Jon or any post on this thread, a general comment about how much stick he got last season despite being one of the more consistent players.

 

So you wouldnt have replaced Crichlow and you think Ridehlagh is good enough?
And didnt you say the back 4 needed 'tweaking' because we concede a lot of set pieces? Why keep the same back four?

East is at non league Rochdale for a reason. A team aiming for promotion needs better.

Odour, Pattison, and a new left winger is a completely new forward line supporting Cook - thats more than a tweak. Not saying I disagree but its a bit contradictory!!!

 

Tiredness already ???? Or players who are simply sick to death of playing systems that simply don't work ?????

 

So we stick.with this and run the risk of losing a hell of a lot of fans .........5 games in and I'm already losing the will to live ........I mean I can except bad starts if there are signs that things will turn around but there is simply nothing there .............He hasn't learned a thing from last season playing players out of there natural positions ........playing formations that the players look lost in ..............trying to play out time when the game has well over half an hour to go .............honestly I want it to work he comes across as a nice guy buy honestly I simply ain't gonna continue to sit through months of it for the sake of it .................that performance should have had me at boiling point but I just simply fooked off not caring and I bet there are a hell of a lot more out there with my mindset

 

7 assists is a very good return for a so called defensive RB. No problem with his contribution last season at all and as is fast becoming obvious, he is a far better option this season than the lad who is now ahead of him in the pecking order.

 

When you say 'lose fans' - how?

We've had 1 home game. Tickets have been bought. How can we possibly lose any fans over the next few games?

 

I've somewhat calmed down after being witness to that shitshow at the weekend.

In summary, it is clear that the players have no idea what the hell they are supposed to be doing in this formation. Morecambe let us have the ball for large period and we had no idea what to do with it. Forever sidewards and backwards with a lump up field out of frustration.

I have no idea what Lewis was doing for the free kick, thats twice already he's been beaten this season.

Smallwood, picked every game but is offering nothing.

Cook isolated and alone up front. zero width to work with.

Wing backs who won't get forward. Wing backs who when they do get space are ignored.

A clueless dinosaur tactician sat on the bench making Adams look like Pep.

The only positive I can take from Saturday was the fact the sun stayed out with nice weather till 8pm so we could sit on the beach afterward with the missus and daughter who appeared to have a good day.

i won't be going to Wrexham due to work, but I doubt I'll want to put myself through what looks like a freescoring Mansfield having a go at our team in this formation.

 

The sheer fact that ST holders don’t want to come to home matches and others saying they will not come should be wringing alarm bells for the board. They will be missing out on sales revenue, never mind the extra 2,000 who she’ll out for day match tickets.

 

And there's a few on here think all that's perfectly acceptable

 

We've had one home game.

I doubt anyone is buying a season ticket then refusing to go after one game.

They'd need their heads testing.

 

I'm one.

 

But this isn’t only one game. This is a very narrow interpretation of our situation. The one home game this husband of mine who has been going for 65 years said although we won the tactics and execution was poor. Any of that ring any bells? That is like action reply from the Carlisle away match. We can’t set off like this again thinking that we have plenty of time to sort this out. Hughes has had all summer to sort this out and yet here we are again.

 

4 games isn’t enough though had we won on Saturday it would have been regarded as a good start to the season especially having played so many away games. We have three out of the next four at home so then or after 10 games is the best time to decide not a knee jerk reaction to admittedly a rotten result

 

What's that got to do with going to games?

We don't buy tickets because we're expecting world class football and 6-0 wins.

We know we're buying tickets for League Two dross. If you don't want to watch, don't buy, but buying a season ticket then not going after a game?

What are these people thinking?

 

Maybe they are simply wanting to support the club financially without having to waste a Saturday afternoon of pissing
around at the back with it or going a goal up and trying to see the last half hour out ............... and if you don't think we will lose fans the longer it goes on then sorry your deluded ............... if the club actually showed the correct attendance rather than ticket sales then you would see a true reflection ............ I will wager what crowd they do put up will be thousands off the real attendance

 

I think because season tickets are so cheap it doesn’t give people much of an excuse not to attend home games when weather is shite and the football is worse.
We saw that last season most notably for the midweek games where there were more empty seats than fans.

 

It's also holiday season so at the minute crowds are usually hit and miss.

I can't go on Saturday, but it's not a protest - got a stag do. I hope we win, and things are a little more positive next time.