By Tim Penfold
It’s a tale as old as time for Bradford City – should the manager change his tactics? Graham Alexander’s squad was built around the 3-5-2 system that he used successfully at times last season, but a series of injuries to centre backs have led him to change to a 4-4-2. While that has led to one good performance in the EFL Trophy against Mansfield, it was in a competition that is not always taken seriously by teams, and the league results have not been anywhere near as good.
Alexander does, however, have options available to him. Aside from the standard strategy of many Bradford City managers in the past – ignore what’s going wrong and change nothing – this squad does still have some tactical flexibility in it despite the injuries.
So what are Alexander’s options?
Keep the 4-4-2, but tweak things
The main weaknesses in the 4-4-2 are that the two-man central midfield can get outnumbered and overrun, and that means the four attacking options get isolated. This is compounded by the fact that we only have one out and out winger in the squad in Tyriek Wright, and he’s struggled for form.
Jamie Walker was a fish out of water on the right hand side, and Bobby Pointon similarly struggled on the left. They aren’t really wingers – they like to drift in, link the play and create from more central areas. Switching these two, with Walker on the left and Pointon on the right, would mean that they would naturally come inside on their stronger foot into the areas where they can link up and create. It would also bulk up the middle of the park, which would help the deeper midfielders.
However, it would also put a lot of pressure on the full backs to provide the attacking width and stretch the play, which could leave us vulnerable on the counter.
Keep the back four, but change the system
Graham Alexander likes playing two out and out strikers, and switching to a diamond midfield would allow him to retain two up front. It would also put the midfield in roles that suit them – Richie Smallwood holding, Walker at the tip of the diamond and Alex Pattison and Clarke Oduor on the sides. You could also fit Pointon either on the left or at the tip of the diamond.
There’s no risk of this system being overrun in midfield, but as we can remember from the Phil Parkinson era, a diamond has its drawbacks. It can be very narrow and over-reliant on the full backs to provide width, and most of the attack flows through the player at the tip of the diamond – shut them down, and you shut most of the attacking threat down.
The other back four option is a return to the Mark Hughes era and the 4-2-3-1. This is not a favourite system of Graham Alexander, as it sacrifices a striker for extra midfield control and creativity.
Walker would be an obvious choice at number 10, while either Pointon or Oduor would go on the right. The left hand side has a few options – Wright as the out and out winger, Oduor as a slightly narrower, trickier option or Calum Kavanagh cutting in and providing an extra goal threat.
This does come with some drawbacks. If Kavanagh isn’t picked then Andy Cook is the only real goal threat in the side, and while he can definitely play that role it can leave him isolated and frustrated, particularly against sides that play three centre backs. Without Wright it can, like most other options, make us very narrow and over-reliant on the full backs to provide width.
Go back to the back three
This is the most likely long-term option, as the squad has been built around the 3-5-2 system. However, the lack of fit centre backs means this has been something of a non-starter for the past few weeks.
There are options for going back to a three, but they aren’t ideal. Rushing back Aden Baldwin or Niall Byrne risks losing them for a longer period, while promoting a youth team centre back such as George Goodman comes with its own risks if he’s not ready. The other option is to put one of the full backs – Lewis Richards or Brad Halliday – into the wide centre back role. This would most likely be Richards on the left of a three, as he’s played there before, with Jack Shepherd centrally and Cheick Diabate on the right.
The risk is that any further injuries would involve changing the system back to a four again, which will cause more in-game disruption. It also means shifting defenders into positions where they may be uncomfortable. However, it gets two of Pointon, Walker, Pattison and Oduor into positions where they can do damage ,while also keeping width from the wing backs and Alexander’s preferred option of a strike partnership.
This is a key time for Alexander’s time in charge – there is some understandable grumbling after Harrogate and a poor result against Derek Adams’ Morecambe started the countdown on Mark Hughes’ tenure last season. Getting this tactical call right could stop this wobble and get the season back on track.
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Unless the players attitudes and instructions change the formation we play is irrelevant. I’m still not convinced Alexander has the coaching ability and tactical nous to get the best out of these players. Or it could be that our problems go beyond the manager and no amount of the above will change our fortunes until we have a change at the very top. Quite frankly I’m apathetic these days. I’m not regretting not renewing my ST after 20 plus years. Nothing has changed and won’t be back at VP until it does.
A most interesting breakdown of the possible formations that might suit our available personnel. These days football tacticians at a high level increasingly talk about hybrid systems and the buzzword is rotating positions. Alec Ferguson noted the tendency years ago of Barcelona to operate like a carousel, their midfield players circling and circulating so it was impossible to mark them. Managers at our level like notably Williamson and Lindsay try to play a possession-based game with lots of interplay and movement in midfield. To do this you really need to have players like Kelly, Kemp and Crowley at your disposal. We don’t have such a player though in time Pointon might develop into the role. Even the back three or back four positions admit of variations as Conte showed with his sliding backline that could become 3, 4 or 5 depending on whether one or both wingback dropped back or one or both advanced. I think Alexander has more tactical flexibility than many give him credit for. On Saturday at times we played a back three with Smallwood, Marcus Sas-style, operating between the two centre backs. Interestingly in Morecambe’s last match Adams employed 6 full backs or former fullbacks in his team to curb Notts County’s attacking threat. Tactically managers are far more switched on than they used to be, even so-called dinosaurs!
• Marco not Marcus Sas. My apologies to our former player.
Something else that I think city really miss on the pitch is a inspirational captain to give us some leadership on the pitch. After Saturday’s game Alexander alluded that once the players cross the line and start like that it can be hard to change it from the sides, this is where a proper captain is worth his weight in gold in my opinion.
In my opinion Everytime that we’ve been successful as a club we’ve always had a great captain like Eddie Youds, Stuart McCall and Gary Jones. I know that it’s really hard to find great leaders like those players mentioned because no club wants to let one go, but it’s something I think we’ve missed for a long time.
Smallwood…oh, hang on, erm, Nah!
The problem we have is that we do not have decent options available because we don’t have the quality in key areas. You are only as strong as your weakest link. With so many defenders with long term injuries we are struggling. Opposition managers are not stupid. Using players that are unfamilar with their new position will be exposed by the opposition. Morecombe on Tuesday will be a test for City. They are still waiting for their first win and were close to achieving it on Saturday. It is GA is biggest test. If he wins, it will be a boost for him. Maybe a draw would be OK. Defeat will be a severe set back on GA’s long term tenancy with the club.
Totally agree with Wyke Bantam re a real captain/ leader on the field. To be successful in league 2 you need an inspirational leader, team spirit, pace and strength/physicality all of which we seem to be lacking at the moment unfortunately.
The fact that you know what the problem is and how to resolve it but our manager doesn’t, tells us all about our current situation. Obviously the problems go way beyond the manager and it is only a matter of time before he gets the boot, however to move forward productively we must own our own ground so that serious investment could come out way.
First thing i would do is get rid of head of scouting / recruitment Stephen Gent. Looking at the players he’s reccomended you might aswell appoint Stevie Wonder as head of scouting.
You can list the many formations available but i honeslty believe it runs deeper than that. Alexander has to get the players playing to their strengths.
Tyreik Wright isn’t a wing back, He needs to be playing as an attacking forward. Reading the Plymouth fans comments after he left them in summer, one consistent message put forward many times reads….
“Before coming here he was playing as a wide attacker for Bradford, he was doing well and scoring goals, so I did feel a bit sorry for him when he arrived and we then tried to shoehorn him into being a wing back”
The fans can see it, so it baffles me why Alexander continues to play him in a position where he’s struggling.
Andy Cook and Vadaine Oliver, Two dangerous players in the air, Yet at Harrogate we don’t cross the ball to them. We pass it around like a hot potato, It needs to change.
Alex Pattison has a brilliant strike off the ball yet he’s now playing deeper and isn’t getting into those areas where he can test the keeper from distance.
Alexanders last two jobs have seen him sacked at both Motherwell and Mk Dons. He’s had previous success no doubt but the game has evolved and Alexander for me is someone who hasn’t evolved as a manager over the last few years. I don’t see the progression on the pitch, We don’t seem to have a Plan B and recruitment has yet again failed and for that reason i don’t believe we’ll get out of this league with him at the helm.
Personally I would set us up in a 4-1-4-1, it leaves Cook, Oliver, Sanderson, Kav and Smith all fighting for one position which is obviously wasteful but it keeps the 4 at the back which is our only option right now, leaves Smallwood to do what he does best in front of that 4 and then gives us Pointon/Wright – Pattison – Walker – Odour playing in what is probably their best positions, you’d expect that 4 could really provide some attacking quality without us being too open on the counter.
No doubt a formation and way of playing can get better / weaker performances out of players by establishing a baseline of expectations in their particular roles. But I’m not convinced the formation is even the problem right now.
For me the first problem is attitude and application. The body language of some of our players is woeful – yes, I’m looking at you Tyreik, but there are others – and the will to win just seems lacking. This was confirmed in my mind at least by Jamie Walker’s bizarre interview in the T&A this week where he said other teams work really hard against us because they really want to beat us. Come on, that’s pathetic! Of course they do – so match them in effort at least!
The second problem, which stems from the first, is that we have too many players who are quite similar in how they approach the game. Steady away. Be honest, who in the team offers us something different to a fairly pedestrian pass-it-around type of football? OK, Oliver has a bit extra height and muscle, and Pointon that bit extra flair and dedication – but there’s no pace and no power.
In my view, we struggle at this level, and against Harrogate year on year especially, because: i) teams that play a low block and just sit in can soak up all the tippy-tappy sideways stuff for 90 mins, and ii) when we play a team with energy and a high press (like Harrogate) there’s no pace anywhere to knock it over and around them into space.
We change managers. We change formation. But within those structures we play a relatively pedestrian passing game that struggles to unlock teams at this level. More power (to speak to the point about Captain’s and mentality made above), as I haven’t seen us bully a team since Jones and Doyle were in the middle of the park. And far, far more pace. Being able to mix up the pace of our game – fast to slow to fast – would not only make it more entertaining, but it would give us a genuine ‘Plan B’ when things aren’t going well.
Playing a slow passing game in a 3-5-2 isn’t going to strike fear into other teams at this level if we suddenly switch to a slow passing game in a 4-4-2 or a 4-1-4-1.
the problem with all the formations shown above is the lack of quality players in almost every position on the park