The Voice - Match preview #15: Bradford City vs Burton Albion Saturday 8th November 2025 3:00pm

is he ever happy?.. saw him grin once in the barnsley game tho.

 

Who ever made that decision was spot on. Humps had lost all confidence. Bobby loves kicking a pen at the kop end and unlikely to miss.

 

The biggest advantage they had was confidence. They won their last game 6-0 and we lost at a lower division team. Maybe we learn lessons from that and start fielding the fecking first XI in every game except the Vertu.
If we’d beaten Cheltenham and scored a few goals in certain we’d have won yesterday.
Confidence and momentum is everything.

 

We've been sussed out tactically, even by the much derided Bowyer. Has GA put all his eggs in one basket, tactically wise? We seem to have reverted to a league 2 style of play, going long time and time again. This isn't what we did earlier in the season. The quick interchange of passes has gone because teams are happy to sit deep and we don't know how to counter that. Have we recruited to play one style and don't have enough quality to play any other way. This season is about staying in the division until we can clear the decks, of the obvious league 2 carry over of players. At least we haven't dished out ridiculous 3 year deals as in the past.

 

It's clear we play better against the more technical adept teams who come to have a go. We aren't the most technically gifted side, over 63% possession yesterday but very little threat with it, we much prefer sides who come on to us. Hard to go from one style to another and expect it to have the same effect but it's something Alexander is going to have to counter as teams see what's effective against us.

 

I'm not sure it's a case of teams have found us out. Burton, Stevenage and Lincoln played the same against us that they would have done on day 1 of the season. What we got lucky with in the fixtures early on in the season was playing teams like Wycombe, Luton, Huddersfield who will always press high and leave the gaps. There will have been some tweaks to tactics but in the last 3 league games the opposition played exactly how i think most people thought they would. I think we have to accept and acknowledge that Bowyer has got Burton playing well away from home and there's a reason they are 3rd on the away table. If they keep playing like that they will go to a lot of top half sides and cause them problems.

 

Agreed. It could therefore work in our favour that Bolton is next up as they are flying and will most certainly come at us. Yes, we could get a hammering but it will be more like a game against the teams where we had our early season successes.
We absolutely need to find an effective alternative way of playing though as our next home game v Exeter is more likely going to be more like yesterdays.

 

Only because it went it but for the team overall it might have created massive problems.

 

I think teams have learnt from recent others and stopped playing from the back, allowing us the ball. Earlier in the season our possession stats were quite low. We don't have any players other than Bobby and possibly Metcalf, who have that ability to turn quickly and create something out of nothing. Both are still very young. Patto next but he's never fit enough for long enough.
Burton are on a bit of a roll as were we, but we need that next win sooner rather than later.

 

Equally he was the first following up as soon as Bobby hit it, grab the ball to get back and congratulate Pointon.

He had a few poor moments yesterday, but equally Humphrys looked one of the only players who was going to make anything happen.

I think at the moment we really are Humphrys, Cook and Swan as our strikers. I don’t want to make Kavanagh a scapegoat, but right now he isn’t showing anywhere enough to be more than a EFL Trophy and Squad player. His movement and positioning off the ball yesterday actually stunted Neufville, meaning our most effective outlet was void - coupled with Burton nullifying Josh well.

 

I wish that Webster lad was ours, he's also young but has an old head on his shoulders.

 

Makes you wonder how Burton could attract him.

 

on a free from Chelsea to boot.. what a tidy bit of business. I understand that there is a hefty sell on clause though.

 

I would get the slight overeaction if we had a full fit squad but there was always gonna be a drop off with our injurty list.
Did he get it wrong in the 1st half yes but i aint gonna pull the man to bits for the odd mistake if he was a tactical genius he wouldnt be managing Bradford City would he.
We sit 2nd thats right 2nd and if we do slide down into midtable then so be it but at least we have a platform to work off going forward.
Maybe a fair few simply got giddy with our start and thats the real issue here thinking that we would piss this league on the back of beating a few out of form promotion contenders.
GA has made the club solid go back 12 months and see how far he has brought rather than banging on about the odd time where he has got it wrong ......... . ..,i would have ripped your hand at 20th place at the start of the season so im more than happy with whats going on ...............rather see the odd poor performance than game after game that we had to put up with over the last 7 or soyears

 

Not sure what Pointon could have done more tbh, he was feeding off Kelly’s awful aimless balls and not a lot else. Webster definitely a class above the field, helped by Burton players getting him onto the ball in good positions at every opportunity. Webster is being courted by Championship clubs and won’t be there next season so not really a surprise that he was a class above.

 

That second goal is a rough watch. The defensive setup looked like there was no communication at all.

This screenshot is when the lad in midfield is about to get the ball. Touray is looking at the wide man who will cross it, Kelly is just off the right of screen and playing deep but he has the central runner and Wright is the man in the top right corner by the goal scorer Webster. Power by the ref, Pennington jogging back to position. But at this point we still have 5 men ahead of the ball in an OK spot.



But by the time the CM passes it wide, Touray didnt go with the runner and Power, Leigh and Pointon are chasing centrally, so the wide man has a free cross in. Kelly still has his man which is good and expected, but Wright rather than sticking either in the right central channel whilst Pennington is running or with the runner Webster, has just gone back to tactic to go to the center of the back line. Which leaves Webster with a huge space whilst Pennington is still trying to get back and still at this point, nobody has checked their spaces to even see Webster.



And then by the time the ball is in, the ball is perfect by the way, but neither Kelly or Wright stuck with the central striker and he just misses the cross fairly unmarked, but Pennington couldnt make up the yards and Wright again stuck centrally rather than marking any man.

Surely when they break and Wright is the only man within 20 yards of Webster and Kelly has their striker marked, someone should be telling Wright to watch Webster rather than him dropping back to position? Touray caught in two minds too to either track the ball carrier or close down the winger and in the end doesn't really do either but he's stuck in no man's land.

It's a great counter attacking goal, something we've done very similarly all season. But by the same hand, it felt like one that we could do better with.

 

not sure what walker is doing for the first goal, after his initial save.. rather than keep his eye on where the ball is, he seems to be looking at the linesman...

 

That’s exactly why Bobby was anonymous in the first half , starved of the ball , probably only touched it 4-5 times so how he could be remotely considered MoM only a few beers could countenance . Decent second half for sure because we belatedly chanced tactics . Not his fault but yes I fully agree he was more effective for 40 mins or so.