Loan Signing: Jonathan Tomkinson

He came from Norwich, so it was intergalactical clearance required

 

EFL are the ultimate arbiters . They check international clearance if it’s required.

 

Some interesting thoughts from Jason on budgets and why he thinks Hughes changed to 3 at the back in his review of yesterday's match. I've snipped an extract below

 

Read that yesterday and i fully agree with the author on the link, that if you are going down the three at the back then your 'wingbacks' are critical to chance creation and creativity. But that also requires your central midfield to be dominant and offering itself up to allow the wingbacks time and space and we simply don't have midfielders who can do that. This in turn simply doesn't allow you to pass out from the back and it all turns into the shitshow we saw yesterday.
No coincidence we looked far better with 9 of the players from the first half in the second 45 just down to a simple change in formation. I agree with McKeown that Hughes did need to change something from last season but that clearly wasn't our back 4 set up, which in the main served us well enough to be mathematically close to the autos. It was his pragmatic approach that created little and a reliance on one player to get the goals needed.

 

Sadly, I'm 99.9% sure Hughes will start with a back three next week and only change it when we go a goal down.

 

Yes saw that piece yesterday and think it's pretty much bang on. The move in formation was clearly done with the intention of increasing the goal output given the over reliance on Cook last season. 352 can work but we've clearly got the recruitment completely wrong.
We now have to somehow work as best we can with what we have and revert to something along the lines of what we had last year.
It's a mess but it can be sorted. However, if MH fails to accept the obvious and blindly continues with his non wing back formation this will only end one way.

 

The galling thing about our current set up is that it's 541 or 343, whichever way you want to look at it, with essentially only two in central midfield. When those two are Smallwood and McDonald then you've no chance of any creativity going forward. Yesterday we were asking our front three to provide all our goal threat on their own and, of course, they couldn't. Meanwhile we were swamped by the opposition midfield who played through us at will. A similar thing happened in the first half against Crewe.
Last year we had a similar problem with 4231 where the 2 were frequently Smallwood and Gilliead, and the front four had to provide all our creativity.
Pattison could have solved this by playing in the two with one of Smallwood, Gilliead or McDonald and linking with Walker and the front three.
Or if we have a back five we need three in central midfield and two up front. But then we don't need all the wingers we've signed.
There's just no rational thinking to be seen anywhere in our formation or recruitment.
We're really quite a shambles.

 

He looked good in his cameo v Grimsby

 

An excellent summary.

 

Agree with you mate, especially the sentences at the end.

Let's hope he realises the error now.

Realistically, all it means is that we've got one too many centre backs but if Stubbs has picked up a knock then having an extra one will be helpful just now.

I think Tomkinson will prove to be a good signing. I can see him playing alongside Stubbs and being better than Crichlow tbh.

 

There is a decent enough team in this squad but it is not and never will be with 3 centre backs lining up next to each other, especially if you line up with Smallwood and MacDonald in front of them. The mechanics of the team simply don't allow you to pass out the back like Hughes wants them to. No matter how stubborn Hughes is he has to play to the strengths of the squad, that being creating chances for the likes Cook and Pattison when fit or whoever else is picked in those positions.
If he chooses to line up again like he did yesterday it will put immense pressure on our CEO when performances continue to frustrate.

 

Well then the club is being negligent. I’m struggling to see which 4 teams have come up/come down who will be spending more than we will on wages. Even if you consider Gillingham who have thrown some money at it, their squad I wouldn’t say is full of “high earners.”
Smallwood and Walker for 2 won’t be on league 2 wages. Then I’d imagine Cook will have got a hefty payrise and then the likes of McDonald, Stubbs and Chapman will be on a decent salary.
For a club with 15,000 season ticket holders and a turnover of £8-9million in league 2 not to have the biggest budget is a joke.

 

That would be funny if the situation wasn't so serious mate.

 

Early days but on his showings so far he's not the signing most Bradford City had hoped he would be.

 

Strange how things change in a week, take Stubbs out and none of our CD were anything like yesterday, Kelly possibly being the worst, I honestly don't see what Hughes saw in the kid, apart from his supposed long throw.

 

Only 7 years, take the few odd promotions and good cup runs out I'd say more like 40 ?

 

Nail on the head, this.

 

As a further observation, you can't play wingers and wingbacks. It just leaves a gaping hole in the middle.

 

I really liked the look of him in his sub appearances towards the back end of last season and thought he looked like he was going to be a decent signing. That was when we were still playing a back 4 though, and I wonder if it is just that he is yet another player that doesn't fit the formation Hughes is wanting to play.