The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Harrogate Town Saturday 16th September 3:00pm

I'm not used to what amounts to reasonably good news.

This is the part of the week where they tell us Lewis has done his tendon, Halliday is out for six weeks, and Oduor missed his flight.

 

Poor against Grimsby (not by himself) I thought he was great against Crewe where he made a big difference in midfield and organised well

 

Everyone was crap in that first half against Grimsby.

Like, we achieved absolutely nothing in pretty much any sense.

 

Tulloch was better than Afoka against Grimsby for me. He’d be the one of the pair pressing for a start.

had some nice runs where the ball stuck.

 

Have to disagree Afoka gave us the movement upfront we had been badly missing. However you are probably right he will go for Tulloch for his greater experience

 

From the press conference he’s back in training, but didn’t do the full session. Reading between the lines he might be on the bench.

 

Just watched the full press conference. Hughes was a bit prickly with a couple of questions Jamie asked that got his back up, but ultimately Hughes didn’t say anything that any of us aren’t thinking. He was fully agreed that it was a game of two halves and that the formation change helped us. Let’s see what he starts with on Satdi!

 

Going to be fun online when he stays 5 at the back and drops Pointon for Oduor!

 

Willing to give him a lot of benefit of the doubt at the moment given lack of pre season / injury but every time I've seen McDonald so far he's played like a tired Smallwood

 

I'm gonna go with this and say Afoka should start on Saturday. I think he has the ability to be a real handful.

 

Harrogate haven't scored in open play for over 11 hours of football..........

 

1st minute goal incoming .........

 

This is giving me Hartlepool vibes from the Adams season

 

They haven't played against our back 7 yet. Throw their shortest player into the box and cross it in, would solve that issue for them

 

Hughes gets a little bit touchy with regards answering a couple of question, saying its more about players doing their job rather than system, no sh1t Mark.

 

Cook hasn't looked the player he was last season (not that I thought he would repeat last seasons goal scoring feat) and at times has struggled during games looking like he was carrying a knock.
I can't see Cook needing surgery as Hughes says in that pre Harrogate interview he's back on the grass but not training with the other lads in the squad.

 

Sounds like a stubborn manager trying to still defend his formation to me, knowing there is a lot of dissent in the stands about it.

Good for Jamie asking the questions. I think Jamie has mellowed with his post match questions since Hughes was appointed, its as though he was in awe of him.

Hopefully more searching questions when it is called for going forward

 

I've never really got this idea of fans calling managers stubborn as they don't change what the fans want changing. He was accused of being stubborn last season when not changing from 4231 yet fans want that back now. If a manager has a way of playing that they think is right then they should keep with it. Changing every 2 minutes will not go down well with the changing room. If he was so stubborn he wouldn't have changed at half time against Grimsby and he would never have left 4231 from last season.

 

Yep,he gave Adams tough questions and Adams gave some laughable answers

 

Fair point. TBF to Hughes he answers well IMO and referencing players also been responsible to doing their jobs are fair. I was the first to call him out on the weekend but in his defence he did something about it and we improved.

That said this weekend whether it’s players or management, we simply cannot have a half the same as the first of the Grimsby game (and others). I’ll be fine with the 3 as long as we press and bloody move!