Most liked posts in thread: Out of contract players

Who's top of everyone's exit list this summer, and why is it Richie Smallwood....?

 

Pretty much agree with that Serg.

I don’t mind Stubbs but he’s fallen out of favour under GA and it would give us scope to bring in a more mobile replacement if he and Taylor are moved on.

the key position in all of this is CM. We have to breakup the partnerships we have and find a new replacement for Smallwood or Gillead.

 

I wasn’t initially convinced. He looked a little careless and wasn’t clear where his strengths were.

Since returning agree he’s improved. Looks to have shown a temperament when on the ball much more, as well as being much more effective defensively. I’d be happy if he returned - the key part is a proper leader in the middle of midfield if we aren’t to see much change in defence vs current squad. Smallwood isn’t that person week in, week out.

On Smallwood, there were some shocking comments on social media in reply to the post he hit 100 games yesterday - criticism gone too far.

 

I watched the extended highlights today, 9 minutes of chances. Most chances seemed to start from him and it looked a direct contrast to what I was reading on here. I think one weakness, which shouldn’t even be exploited as he shouldn’t be on set pieces, can blind people.

 

Yes , it’s gone flat and “ The list” is all that remains. Not really interested in any thoughts of play offs etc…too many missing, out of form, jaded and frankly poor players on our books. Even getting there would end up us in a far worse embarrassing situation than at Carlilse second leg! So no thank you.

We shall see if Rupp means business…?

 

I'd say multiple promotions in 3 or 4 years is a pretty good sign of being well run, yes.

 

I think there's a lot more to come from Oduor if he's played in the right position and given a run of games. The Oduor v Wycombe and the previous game won him man of the match accolades. He was full of confidence. Next game he finds himself partnering Macdonald in centre midfield and looked completely out of place before being subbed. That's on Alexander. He doesn't have the discipline for that position.
With Pattison, Young, Cook, Kavanagh, Walker, Pointon, Oduor and Wilson, with potentially Wright, we have good attacking options but how do we get a system that gets goals on a regular basis. With 6 and 7 defensive players every time there's going to be a lot of disappointed players in the squad and we haven't even started recruitment.

 

Any cynical fans could possibly look at this and think it was just the usual hot air from RS & SR to get a few more season ticket sales.

 

Maybe they don’t want to sing from the roof tops that they’ve a massive budget, which would then bump the price up on every player we enquire about. I don’t have any complaints about bringing Oyegoke back. He certainly improved in the second half of the season compared to before the injury. He’s quick, strong and with a run of games could be useful. The problem is, where to play him because Brad had that spot nailed on this season. Tomkinson is a better centre half but can be sloppy, maybe that position would be available.

We’ve got to be realistic here. The defence for the large part wasn’t the issue, it’s primarily midfield and a mobile goal scorer that needs significant investment.

 

If we go into next season with Kelly and Oggy as first choice I will be very disappointed - and so will you come May 2025.

 

Loved Vince. Deployed at CB for a spell, despite been about 5'9 and kept Rory out for half a season.

Great little player.

 

All in the mind from what i've been told about Chapman from someone who knows him well. Was only talking to a scout the other day who said Man City looked at him early on in his career as he was scouting for them at the time. Problem for any club looking at him they are getting a player on the decline and its hard to stop that decline when its been over a few years.

 

Wow
That’s 29 players currently contracted to Bradford city
Looking through that list if I was the manager I would only want to keep 6 or 7 based on the performance of the season. How on earth do we manage to sign so many poor and under performing injury prone players?

 

It's a bantam thing ...

 

It was the car crash interview he did with Sparks on Radio Leeds that did it for me. His signings have - on the whole - been atrocious. Listening to him speak...well what can I say without swearing

 

A very stats based post, but we need an approach change, that much is clear when the clear out happens and the new squad takes shape.

We are 20th in the table for goals and assists at 74 with Harrogate, Sutton, FGR & Gillingham below us. Our 468 shots on goal leaves us 16th in the table. In fact, with most shooting metrics like shots, shots on target, shots per 90, we are between 14th - 16th in the table, just an underwhelming unit all-round. The telling one is shots on targets to goals ratio, which is 0.27 and is the 4th worst in the league with only Accrington, FGR & Gillingham worse at converting an on target chance, than us. We weren't performing much better under Hughes in pretty much any stat either. Defensively, it's way better but there are issues.

We have had 412 shots against us so far in the league, which puts us 3rd in the table behind Barrow and Stockport for least shots against. However, we are joint second worst in the table in shots on targets to goals ratio, with every 0.34 shots on target going in, only beaten by Salford at 0.38. So we are good at limiting teams, but when they do get a shot off its going in more frequently than the rest of the league bar one team. Bad goalkeeping? Bad coaching? Or have we solved it?

The teams save percentage is 64.4% which is the 4th worst in the league with Salford, Grimsby and Sutton having a worst save percentage than us. This has improved massively with Walker in goal. Lewis had a save percentage of 58.4% whereas Walkers is 75.6% which is the 9th best in the league. But the improvement in goals hasn't really pushed the team on as we still struggle to move it on at the other end.

Has too much chopping and changing hurt us? Hallidays 87% of minutes played in the league is our highest and he ranks 53rd in the league for minutes played. Andy Cook has featured in 85% so far and Alex Gillieads 82% rounds out the list of City players who have featured in over 80% of the minutes so far. Could be something said in why the attacking output is so low? When we have a carousel of supporting wide players/attacking mids who are in and out of form and minutes more than the hokey cokey.

 

Richards has tailed off alarmingly that’s for sure

 

Over rated, over paid and constantly injured shite.

 

I wouldn't trust Gent to go fetch me a sandwich - flecking plick.

 

Jamie Walker is class and as soon as he got injured we dropped off a cliff. Important part of the team, great attitude and puts everything on the line.