The Voice - Match preview Leyton Orient vs Bradford City Saturday 3rd December 2022 @ 12:30pm

Agreed. Not a time for overreaction but weve had back to back defeats against teams in the top three where we fallen way short.
Time for a reset and the pre xmas games gives us an opportunity to get back on track. Agree with the concerns about our CMs. Smallwood is more than good enough IMO but hes well out of form. Big games coming up now

 

6 points from the next 2 and things look far better.

 

i'd like to think Hughes and the recruitment team know where we need to strengthen now in January. Critchlow shows we are weak at the back without him and i don't think Hughes sees enough in East to contemplate giving him a starting role, so i expect him to try and bring another central midfielder in. And the front 4 have never really clicked as a unit so i'm hoping the return of Walker gives that the lift it needs.

 

Agree with the front 4. Non of them currently seem in any kind of form. Hopefully they can find some cohesion soon.

 

Agreed and realistically I bet most would have taken where we are pre season at this stage, we know that’s not how football fans work though perspective is a swear word.

a debated first goal and a worldie second on his weaker foot, that would normally balloon into the stands did for us. But I thought we’ve played worse and won, Walsall the easiest example to think about. Football is fine margins between a team been good and crap. Play like that in our next two and I’d expect 6 points.

No doubt we need to improve a few areas in January but even just Critchlow coming back will make a difference.

 

I don't think they're markedly better either. They're just deployed more effectively for the most part.

 

Hughes signed most of these duff players , can he be trusted in january , or will it be like adams last january .

 

On the train back now and for me it's a similar story to last week. After 15 minutes I'm wondering how we're not one up and then at half time I'm wondering how we're two down and at full time I'm wondering how we haven't lost 5-0.

First goal looked offside, second was a belter but no excuse for not marking him. They'd done nothing to that point yet are two up and the game is over.

Our mentality is so poor when we go behind which is why we need to score the first goal every week otherwise the best we can hope for is a 0-0.

I sort of agree with Hughes, Orient weren't that good. They had some luck on their side and we imploded in the second half which meant they didn't really have to do much to see the game out as we were doing it for them. I'd say they were efficient. Made less mistakes than us and capitalised on the ones we made.

I still say our biggest issue is midfield. Smallwood and Gilliead is a terrible combination who don't offer enough in possession to build attacks. It means we're slinging it out to the wing everytime which makes us so predictable as nothing ever goes through the middle.

 

Northampton were streets ahead of us unfortunately

 

I don't think he did.

 

He's part of the collective

 

A great summary and the way i saw the game, A bit unlucky to go in behind at half time but a bit of a shables by the end and could easily have been 5 or 6. Even with Critchlow back that midfield is still a big problem. Yet again did nothing of note, neither really protecting the defence or aiding the front four. It looks slow and ponderous and is becoming counter productive. Chapman ends up dropping deep to get the ball, a bit like Cooke used to do which means it goes out wide but with no real purpose to it.

 

Just back, what a waste of time and money……yet we do it all again next weekend. That’s the definition of loyalty

 

I genuinely don’t understand what Hughes sees during the week that makes him think that the Gilliead/Smallwood combination in midfield is capable of playing his preferred way.
Gilliead will never be a midfielder as long as he’s got a hole in his arse.
He can’t tackle
He doesn’t bring the ball forward with any conviction.
He doesn’t score goals.
Yet Hughes keeps persevering with him.
Smallwood is obviously out of form but his record at his previous clubs shows that that is probably just a blip.
Gilliead doesn’t have that past record and unfortunately what we are seeing now is what we will
see week in week out.

 

So not necessary an assist just to bring another player into play, that suggested to me you were meaning an assist on goal, my mistake.
I don't think anyone would have thought any City player would have 16 goals by now, yes Cook is droppable IF the player who he's being dropped for is capable of doing better and unfortunately as we have seen neither Oliver or Angol can score with any sort of consistency, at this level no player is un-droppable.

 

A few of us spotted it a while back. Moncur showed what we need, a few times today he literally ran through the middle unchallenged. He would walk into our midfield. Hoping that we have a similar type player in mind for January

 

You keep telling us all this week in week out, yet when he is not in the team his replacement does neither, work the defenders or score, so logic would suggest if that's the case which everyone bar the odd few on here can see why would he be left out.
You do understand the main reason a striker plays week in week out is because he's delivering don't you, you see once again you quote things for the sake of it, you say he doesn't work defenders here's a perfect example why you're wrong, did you not see him chase (what should have been a lost cause) at Mansfield when Perch was always favourite to win the ball, yet he took the ball from him and wrong footed two more Mansfield defenders in the box before scoring a great individual goal, he should never have been capable of scoring, open your eyes and stop being so negative with regards OUR LEADING GOAL SCORER.

 

Enjoy you Hughes haters : https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0dlmj89

 

Agree, although we've needed one for years.....