Most liked posts in thread: When do we start to question Hopkin?

Funny how when things were going bad it was Hopkin - all his fault. Now things look like things are turning round we have a long list of people to thank. Rahic for leaving, Julian Rhodes, the new super fitness coach, John Dewhirst now getting a mention....

Will all you apologists stop this begrudging nonsense and just recognise we may well have a very good manager on our hands.

 

Completely agree.

I like Hopkin. I’m fully behind him - he’s inherited a shit show and he needs time and money to sort is us. We have major surgery needed on this team and we won’t be able to do it all this month. But..... he’s making it harder for himself that he needs to be.

Decembers form was built around 3 things

1. A settled defence
2. Having Payne and Ball playing close to each other and keeping the ball on the deck
3. A high press, supported by a mobile midfield.

We’ve changed all 3. Unnecessary changes to the defence. Payne and Ball playing miles from each other, and a completely immobile Akpan in midfield.

Not keeping JOB was a mistake. Not strengthening the team has been a mistake and it’s one we can’t afford to not rectify.

 

No manager or coach in tge world could get this team sorted.
No point continually sacking the coach if the playing staff are not good enough.

 

If we were a professionally run club, who'd had a professionally run pre-season to condition the players to the right level, we wouldn't have that problem.

 

You really do seem to struggle to understand how the real world works.
4/5 wins back to back is promotion, if not L1 winner, form. Expecting anyone to take this dog's breakfast of a squad to those levels is delusional nonsense. We have no wingers, little creativity and a bunch of inadequate and/or out of form strikers.
The best we can hope for is to keep it tight and hope to grind out draws and some wins until the end of the year. Compare the results of October and November and you'll see that we've started to do that.
We've no chance of putting a consistent 4 or 5 game winning run together with the squad as it currently is. Get to January without being cut adrift and improve the squad and we might then have a chance of stringing a few wins together.

Let's not forget that you predicted relegation problems in every season that PP was taking us higher up the league, so what on earth do you know?
What you call ''ambition' is actually fantasy.

 

Keeping Payne, O'Brien and Ball is more crucial than bringing in new players in my opinion

 

Will give you a bit of background on Davie Hopkin (or 'Hoppy' as is known back home!)

He broke through as a skinny teenager at Morton... and he wasn't up to much! He picked up an injury and was out for quite a while. During his time out he got himself exceptionally fit and must have hit the gym hard, as he came back an absolute tank! Basically he transformed himself as a player by working really hard on strength and conditioning...

He got the managers job at Livingston and transformed the team in terms of fitness/work-rate... hardly brought in any new players, but improved the squad enough to get them back to back promotions. Seems like he is doing the same with your club... it doesn't happen over-night, but he knows what he's doing.

 

The fact he got us on a good run playing attractive attacking football has become a rod for his own back. Fans aren’t daft, they know this squad has limitations in what formations HopkinS can get out of it. But to go away from a strategy that got the best of its limitations and revert to the absolute rubbish we witnessed early in the season is bewildering.

Today was as bad as football gets, reverting to tactics that make footballers look worse than they are is unforgivable. After the shite served up at Barnsley, i was hoping it was a blip but it seems like the renaissnance is over. I said anymore performances like the Barnsley one would see us a nailed on relegation candidate and thats what i saw today.

We desperately need new blood before the Burton game, that team as it stands looked beat.

 

Unbelievable!! Ok you bright know it all sparks; we have had 4 managers since the start of the year, and we continue to lose and your solution is to sack our current manager without a thought as to which superman is going to come to our rescue!!

Here is another stat, not one of those managers has chosen our current team! Now I wonder is that the problem? C’mn don’t be shy, let’s here it, you know how this is done, the manager has a plan, he then recruits accordingly and within the budget.

We have for better or worse need to stick with Hopkin mistakes and all. I actually think he is getting it right with the players available. I think ppl have forgotten at exactly how poor we are! There is no magic wands or any other supernatural way of getting out of this, it is going to be slow. I am just as frustrated as everyone else, I am sick of being beaten. Even if somebody is prepared to come here, it would be seriously disruptive to the squad.

 

I’d have preferred McCall to be backed.

 

Fordy, you seem to be spectacularly missing the point.
Yes we have had a very poor start to the season and are where we deserve to be currently. However there are well documented reasons as to what had happened that have now been largely fixed.
You must surely be able to recognise that we have turned a corner and are now a far different team in this post-Rahic era. We are one of the in-form teams currently and are blitzing most which stand in front of us. If we carry on with the performances we are CURRENTLY producing we will comfortably finish mid-table.
Whilst I do think every team always needs to be looking to improve and strengthen, retaining the aforementioned players will be the most valuable signings any club in this division does in January.

 

We've had four permanent and another as caretaker in the last 10 months, which of them have turned this sh1t storm around?

The evidence is there for all to see, but if the managers get the blame then it deflects blame from the real problem.

 

Wrong question, wrong candidate.

The man responsible HAS ALREADY BEEN sacked.

The puppet he put in charge for a few weeks and who was supposedly on the transfer committee has ALSO been sacked.

The guy actually responsible for signings as head of recruitment, guess what?

SACKED.

The shambles of a possible relegation season has already been accounted for with sweeping change.

Punishing Hopkin, who walked into this mess will not make anything better.

 

He needs to be given at least 2 transfer windows to sort out this shambles. These are not his players and in my opinion direct, physical football is the way to get results in this league. He needs the opportunity to get these types of players in and the soft twats out

 

Let’s sack another manager even though we’ve signed 3 players he wanted and just given him his own backroom team.

Some fans. Clueless. Boooo. Get rid of him. Sack another. Booo

 

You really are a stuck record.

We ARE improving.
In October our record (in all competitions) was:
P7 W1 D0 L6 GF6 GA19
In November our record was:
P7 W1 D3 L3 GF8 GA12

Which means we scored more, conceded considerably fewer, lost fewer games and got more points. By any yardstick that is improvement, and if you can't see that then there's no hope for you.

EVERYONE understands that this still isn't good enough. The difference is that, unlike you, most sensible fans don't expect Hopkin to have turned this bunch of misfits into world beaters overnight. Most people realise that it takes time to turn such a poor, mismatched squad into a functioning team. The signs are that this is happening (eg we are making fewer individual errors, conceding fewer goals and showing more fight if we go behind).
The fact that most people aren't slagging Hopkin doesn't mean they 'lack ambition' (your favourite trite mantra) - it means they recognise that Hopkin has a difficult job on his hands and is starting to turn things around. Most people can recognise improvement when they see it, unlike you.

 

Agree, though I’d start Wood over Chicksen as well, personally.

 

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/17309676.bradford-city-hopkin-calls-for-focus-as-mccall-returns/

Sensible and rounded comments from Hopkin in the lead up to Saturday, I like his realistic approach to the occasion. Really hope the players are tuned in to the same hymn sheet. From what i can see on here, most are clear that Stuart will receive a deserved ovation, but it should finish at that.

I hope there are no “Stuart McCalls Bradford Army” chants. This is Hopkins time now. I really hope for him and us, he gets the result for Bradford City, that we all need.

 

Can we close this thread now. The simple answer is wedont question him, we just support him and let him get on with the job. Respect!

 

Oxford, Walsall, Scunthorpe and Rochdale.

Four must win games and the aggregate score is 14-0. From where we were, that is nothing short of miraculous.

I think we be confident that David Hopkin knows what he is doing and is finding his feet in this league now.

Hopefully, this run will continue through January and we can get clear of the bottom four.