The Voice - Match preview #26: Bradford City vs Walsall Saturday 25th January 12:30pm

In my honest opinion the reason we are seeing a team transformed is multi faceted and completely coincidental to Andy Cooks injury NOT because of .

It’s a long list

GA, “tinker man” has had to stop tinkering thus seeing a settled 11 and formation and NOT changing 3, 4, 5 players between games

Why ?

Return from injury and illness, both major and niggling and crucially a return to FULL match fitness of a number of what has turned out to be KEY players all within a 4-5 week period.

Richards
Kelly
Baldwin
Sarcevic
Pattison

That’s more or less 50% of the 11!

What has the above done to the remaining stalwarts?

Bobby has an effective outlet in Richards, and crucially midfield.
Smallwood a player utterly transformed rather being a Captain with all the world on his shoulders.
Halliday regaining confidence, let’s face it it was shot.
Shepherd , all though still a mistake in him, is now trusting his other two at the back and visa versa ie a stable back three. .

Could we play as of late with Cook up top instead of Kav therefore becomes the vital question?

Yes of course but with minor recognised limitations
He couldn’t harry the backside off of defenders with the press to the extent Kav does and would probably only last 45-60 minutes if he tried.

What benefits would we have over Kav if Cook was fit?
True C/F experience , knowing where to be at the right time, ie anticipation
More goals from the ‘9’
Defensive abilities at opponent set pieces.

In conclusion.
Cooks absence and the improvement in results ….pure coincidence imho.

In reality it’s a bit of a pointless debate anyway , because like it or not, we won’t see him on the field of play until next season.

A poster on the Walsall forum earlier this week

“ If we can nullify Cook” we will batter them………Really

 

Eh? I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else. I’m pretty certain I’ve never been ‘against’ everything? I’m not one of the Rupp out brigade.

 

I did notice the plastics were back. There were fewer empty seats

 

Give it a rest FFS.

 

Not really the fooking loons who have seen near 7 years of failure are still here ............we MAY get promotion but the big issue remains doesnt it ????
Or you think Uncle Rupp is gonna throw millions at a league 1 title challenge.

 

Think we really have to keep Patto fit. We really need his legs in midfield. Sarcs is brilliant at finding space and the outlet that their partnership gives has helped Smallwood find his form.

 

In contrast to the earlier Walsall posting.

“The way I saw that game today was a very good performance from Bradford , baring the first 15 minutes we were completely overpowered in midfield by Bradford you can criticise the defence and attack but we had zero control in the midfield were the game is usually won or lost .once Jamma got injured and left the game we have no alternative game plan .it was indeed a day when our free kicks corners even throw ins were really poor .but a lot of credit must go to the opposition today who were excellent and just didn’t allow us any ball at all .my biggest concern is we are to one dimensional rely to much on Jamma type player .”


A honest away fan , rather than some of the buffoons you normally read ….Apparently the ref gave us everything yesterday according to some . Edit , another classic, our pitch is too big and we exploited it!

 

They simply think that Cook was holding back a team that in a nutshell couldnt score anyhow ............Pattison was out the majority of last season so who was ever gonna do his job anyhow ????
The play off season when Cook went off the boil so they got there wish he was dropped and guess what ????
We still didnt do anything without him in the side.

I mean how the hell can a non goalscorer be a better option than a goalscorer ?????
Do folk really believe that Cook couldnt adapt to this set up ?????
No goalscoring midfielders no other strikers that get goals during the majority of Cooks time here and yet magically we would start scoring goals

 

Literally all of the goals have a lump forward in the highlights. The major improvement and for me the big reason for the success is that with the box midfield we're now getting bodies around the centre forward and picking up second balls.

Both the Sarcevic goal and Pattisons first were similar to the Kav goal at Carlisle in the intensity within 30 yards of their goal that sees us recover balls consistently and start attacks higher up the pitch.

Staying fairly direct when deeper has also prevented too much over playing at the back back, reduced the risk of mistakes and I think it benefited us hugely yesterday as the pressing of Walsall very rarely managed to turn it over too high up. Good work from all the back three lately.

 

Id have a read of the Walsall forum, you are quite popular on there…for the wrong reasons

 

I would ripp your arm off but my god if folk think that all of a sudden all is forgiven then they need to look at the bigger picture rather than a good run of form.

 

100% Karl. Pattison returning and the wingbacks form are playing a huge part in the recent upturn.

I think Pointon deserves a mention though. The way he retains possession in tight spaces and usually finds a forward pass to start an attack is excellent at the minute. He's really been flourishing for the last month or two.

 

At Carlisle we created virtually nothing. It was pretty dour for the most part.

 

Which I alluded to in my post, without his goals we would be well down the table.

 

First and foremost we stopped a team doing what they do well. Matt was his usual handful and Adomah had some nice touches but once Matt went off anyone who understands football knows that was game over. Not a criticism of Walsall, they've been fantastic this season. According to the special bloke a few rows behind me 'how the f*ck are Walsall top , they're shit', a team that had taken 40 points from a possible 48. These absolute halfwits live amongst us, usually sat in the kop...

 

But we won!

 

You've missed his point completely.

 

They sit amongst us!

I think Walsall , within a week , may have lost their reason for their success thus far. Losing Matt and Lowe , that’s 27 goals so far between them. Matt looked liked hamstring to me and he was wearing hamstring supports under his shorts! Lowe won’t return .

The lads they brought on latterly , ie Johnson and Wheatley , oh dear. They may have to “ transfer “ one of their multi team ownership players for a £1…
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/jan/25/walsall-league-two-football-bradford-multi-club-ownership?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other