The Voice - Match preview Most liked posts in thread: Newport County vs Bradford City Saturday 23rd September 3:00pm

That has to rank as Walkers best game of the season so far, and without doubt Cook looked his old self, hustle bustle with their CD bitching to the referee that's more likely the old Andy Cook, and bagging 3 goals will do his confidence a world of good.

 

Hopefully not a flash in the pan.
Need to back it up on Saturday against Walsall.
Boro is free hit.

 

No.
Today showed how important he is and a cup game against Boro doesn’t compare with keeping him fit for the league campaign.

 

As long as he doesn't insist on his Mark Hughes poster above the bed, it's fine by me.

 

Totally agree. However I reckon there’s no chance Cook will easily let Hughes bench him after scoring a hatrick and playing against a North East club

 

I heard he went to prison. But he didn’t finish his sentence

 

Eh!! If you think Hughes took any notice of the fans to make a change or go in a different direction you're sadly deluded.
Tbf he always said from the start of the season that the 3 at the back wasn't set in stone and he just wanted the players to be able to adapt to different formations.
It was as plain as day that the 3 or more often than not 5, at the back wasn't getting the desired effect, so as manager he had to change it. Absolutely nothing to do with fan reaction or social media/forums etc.
If he was that influenced by fans, surely he would have started with Bobby Pointon today but no the analysis done on Newport would have determined which way he was gonna go today as well as adressing our lack of goals.
Too early for fans to slap themselves on the back after some over the top knee-jerk reactions.

 

It doesn’t matter what the formation is it’s about intent. It’s about getting forward winning individual battles and playing positively. Rather than sitting back and letting the opposition dominate you. Messing about in your own box is totally negative football

 

The drop of the shoulder, then the absolute peach of a pass from McDonald for Tulloch’s goal was way above anything we’ve seen for quite some time. He showed in that one passage of play why he should start every week, (if we/he can keep him fit)?! Once he’s up to speed with match fitness, he could be become a real asset for us.

 

Three times season I've been out the pop on a Saturday afternoon. Three times we've won ! Might have to do it again next Saturday for a bit of continuity

 

Detestation? That’s a bit strong. Where have I said I detest him?
I’m generally one to give players a decent chance before criticising them. I previously posted that I thought he did pretty well against Stockport. But, apart from that game, from what I’ve seen this season he’s been very ineffective, bordering on hopeless.
He is clearly an athlete with a good engine, who puts himself about. But he appears to fancy himself as a skilful ball player. When he came on yesterday virtually everything he did was ineffective and several times risked putting us under pressure. He had two or three passes that failed to find a City player. Three or four times he tried to turn and beat a man but lost the ball every time. Whenever he gets the ball he always seems to be struggling to keep it under control. When we’re two goals up away from home and trying to ensure that the home team don’t fight back, the last thing we need is a sub coming on and continually coughing up possession, as Osedebe did yesterday.

 

I said in another post, this is the first away league game I’m voluntarily missing since Covid restrictions were lifted.
The same will apply with Wimbledon and Sutton. Just cant justify giving them a whole day of my weekend with zero return.

 

I think it's appalling he's going to risk long term damage to the club by playing the negative tactics that he plays.

 

There's no way he would be rushing back players unless he knew he's done with a defeat. If he gets sacked here, that's his career done, surely? Went all those years out of work, had the time to build something and not only did it not work, but he's now gotten to the point where the "Hughes shine" has well and truly faded away.

Think I saw it was 3 wins in our last 12 league games going back into last season? Saw an OPTA stat since Saturday showing that we are 21st in the league at 'direct speed' which is basically how quickly it takes you receiving the ball to attack. Nothing seems to add up to equal job security for Leslie.

 

Leslie is Hughes' actual first name.

 

To be accurate I’m not sure we had 11 players unavailable due to injury or had a forward playing right back. Anyone defending, our happy to just get a point from any of our last 3 performances needs to find a way to raise their own bar before they are sat at VP with many more empty seats than occupied one’s.

 

We had Cook and Pattison out that would have been certain starters? Who else?
Also, we started the season at Crawley with both of those players in the team so you could argue we were full strength against a team put together in a week from non league.
We fortuitously beat Colchester and Crewe whilst also struggling to beat Accy Stanley’s reserves.
Don’t kid yourself that when Cook and Pattison return that it will be any better. It won’t

 

Actually Pattison has been a breath of fresh air and is a big miss in midfield. Cook is never going to replicate his freak season last year however fit he is. Am I the only one not expecting him to make a difference?

 

Hughes said that Pattison pulled his hamstring. Said he felt it at HT in the Wrexham game, thought he'd take him off as it wasn't too bad but it got worse by Wednesday and he'd be 2 or 3 weeks all being well.

So should be back anytime now, as long as it was just a standard pull.

 

Got a bad feeling about this one, I feel like we are the perfect team for Newport to get a result from. I was looking over the OPTA stats for the season so far and in the "Control Zones" only Morecambe, Newport, MK Dons and Walsall have graphs like this. The zones in Blue are the zones of the pitch that their team controls the ball, in red its the opposition. They are very happy to not have the ball and just counter with pace up top, and their 16 league goals is only bettered so far by 3 teams so it's working. As said, they look to have a similar tactic to Morecambe, and we all know how that turned out. Although it seems Newport attack down the right and forget the ball can go on the left.



Our zones so far this season for anyone interested is below. We control the pitch apart from anything central in the oppos half. Teams with a similar control to us are Mansfield, Notts Co, Salford, Stockport and Swindon. Although all those teams have more blue and contain teams deeper than we do.


The aim for Hughes' control the ball and build up tactic is probably to have an output like the below. The execution is far from it.......