By Jason McKeown
The stop-start nature of this time of year definitely doesn’t help. Neither does the weather. Bradford City had only one home league match scheduled for the month of November, but on Saturday Storm Bert put pay to Accrington’s visit. By the time the Bantams welcome Barrow to Valley Parade on Tuesday 3 December, 38 days will have passed since their last home league match, when they were beaten 2-1 by Doncaster. Ahead of kick off that day, City were fifth and could have gone joint second. They’re now 10th and could fall as low as 11th before Barrow come to town.
The biting West Yorkshire weather is one reason for the loss of momentum, but results of late haven’t helped either. Since that Doncaster defeat, City have lost to Fleetwood in the league and Rotherham in the EFL Trophy. They drew 1-1 at Colchester in League Two – conceding a 99th minute equaliser, which made it feel like a loss. City have won just once – against non-league Aldershot in the FA Cup. In total, it’s one victory in the last six games – just after they were threatening to really push on.
Should we be worried? Graham Alexander doesn’t think so. Confidently stating ahead of the Accrington postponement, “We know where we need to improve and the wins will come.” His track record over the past year offers him good reasons to be so bullish. City have certainly been in trickier spots and then come good. And when you throw in the mitigating factor of a crippling injury list that is showing some signs of easing, you can see why Alexander would adopt an optimistic outlook. “We had a really good period and now we’re in a sticky patch. But I look at the team and the squad and think we can have a similar positive run again.”
The problem for Alexander is his Bradford public has started to become more sceptical. There’s a clear mood change in the air, as the tally of disappointing results and performances has grown. Without a recent unifying occasion of us all coming together for a home league match, social media noise has become a bit more relevant and darker in tone. If you cup your ear, you can just about make out the noise of knives starting to be sharpened again, towards those running the club. It feels way too premature to talk about another wasted season, but you can see the direction that the conversation is starting to go.
That’s why Alexander needs to be proven right and quickly. This club is never far from a crisis. Never far away from the dam bursting, and negativity truly taking over. The big disappointment of the Accrington postponement is that Bradford City’s season ideally needed the calm, soothing effects of a decent home win to steady the ship. Instead, we wait longer for the recent build up of frustration to go away. And up next, it’s the high calamity stakes FA Cup encounter away to Derek Adams’ Morecambe. That is not a game to lose right now, Graham.
At the moment, the outlook for City’s season is coloured in greyness by recent showings, which suggest there are a number of issues in the team that can’t fully be cured by a quieter treatment room. Has the club built a squad good enough to compete for promotion this season? Did the promised extra summer investment from Stefan Rupp actually take place? And of course, have they got the right man in Alexander to deliver success? We are getting to the point where each result is judged in those terms. And that’s why there’s a lot riding on Alexander’s buoyancy.
Was too much weight placed on last season’s late run of form?
It’s widely agreed that 2023/24 was a bad season for Bradford City, yet they only missed on the play offs by a single point. The late burst of six wins in seven games took them from wilderness to the brink of the top seven. But in doing so, it might have papered over some of the cracks and led Alexander and the club into underestimating the level of rebuild needed.
For the match report of the 2023/24 final day thumping over Newport, I talked about the dangers of giving too much currency to the end of season flurry, citing the excellent Netflix series Drive to Survive. In one episode, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolf conceded that a strong end to a difficult 2022 season had given the team misguided belief going into the following year, which proved hugely disappointing. “Sticking to the concept from last year, holding onto it, because of the encouraging results at the end, it’s the biggest failure.”
We’re a long way from making a similar conclusion over City, but it is definitely a worry that what worked so well for seven end-of-season games was too influential in the summer activity. You could equally argue it’s the opposite though, and that the level of close season changes was too high, after a winning formula had been found. Only four of the starting XI against Newport that day can still be classed as guaranteed first team starters (Sam Walker, Richie Smallwood, Jamie Walker and Andy Cook). So far this season, the dual number 8s of Walker and Bobby Pointon have only rarely been paired together in the same way.
The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Alexander unearthed a winning formula at the back end of last season, with the 3-5-2 that had one holding midfielder. It looked a really good approach to continue with this campaign. But recruitment to maintain and build on this strategy maybe hasn’t quite gone to plan.
Which leads us onto talk about goalscoring.
Have City got a good enough second striker to play with Andy Cook?
Okay, lots have been said about this already. But worth rewinding to the start of the season and what the plan was here. Namely, that City had six strikers on the books, and good reasons to be optimistic.
Because on paper, it looked a good plan. Calum Kavanagh had arrived mid-season, scoring five goals and providing two assists from 10 starts. He was backed up by Tyler Smith, who got 12 goals in all competitions, plus Jake Young – with his prolific Swindon loan still fresh in everyone’s minds. Olly Sanderson arrived on loan with a decent reputation. Vadaine Oliver was also back – hoping to recapture the form that saw him win the League One golden boot award in 2021/22.
In short, lots of good options to play alongside – and share the goal burden with – Andy Cook. And yet, it hasn’t happened. Kavanagh is undoubtedly the big source of disappointment here. To get to December without a league goal is a real surprise. Kavanagh is clearly suffering from confidence and his form may well come good. He is a young player with real potential. But in the meantime, it leaves a big problem.
No one else has taken advantage of Kavanagh’s struggles. Smith came into the season with plenty of doubts, and has shown nothing to disprove them. So much more is expected of Oliver – it just feels like we’re running down the clock now on the ill-judged three-year deal we gave him. Sanderson has shown flashes, and at least managed to score a couple of league goals – but consistency has been an issue.
Should Alexander have kept Young? Maybe, maybe not. Playing in League One for Stevenage, Young hasn’t repeated his Swindon impact, with only one goal himself. Given what’s happened at Valley Parade, had Young stayed he certainly would have got a chance. He may have grasped it better than his former striker rivals.
For now, Alexander seems to be struck waiting for someone to find form alongside Cook. Some supporters have urged him to try a different approach rather than two up front, but it seems unlikely to happen. When taking over as manager last November, Alexander said, “I’ve been a manager for 10 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever played just one striker at any of my teams. I’ve always had two or three lads up front, because I want my teams to score goals.”
Given he is pragmatist, Alexander might yet find he has to break his own rule here (or go more radical and try Bobby Pointon or promising youth team forward Harry Ibbitson). Because there’s no getting away from the fact City are not scoring nearly enough goals outside of the still-brilliant Andy Cook.
Was the left wing back position under-thought in the summer?
This is probably one area where the recency bias of last season’s late resurgence might have hindered the club’s thinking over the summer. Tyreik Wright slotted in as left wing back over those final seven games, where he acquitted himself well. A second loan spell, that up until then had been underwhelming, suddenly had a happy ending. And over the summer, Wright’s loan deal was made permanent.
So…a handful of games fielding a winger as left wing back, leading to us going into this season with a plan of fielding a winger as left wing back. It looked, well, risky. And it’s proved that way. The opening day win over MK Dons offering a worrying preview of what was to come. Wright looked good going forward and provided an assist. But defensively he struggled badly. It’s not a role he knows well. He is learning it in front of our eyes.
Since then, Wright has been slightly better off the ball but also less effective on it. It’s just not quite working as well as we hoped. Wright got injured against Doncaster and is now out until the new year. Lewis Richards – a conventional left back, with some limitations as left wing back – has filled in pretty well. But now he’s injured too.
The upshot is that City are using a system that relies heavily on wing backs, and yet haven’t recruited specialists for these roles. It’s cost City on the right to a lesser extent, with Brad Halliday finding it tough going, but bringing in a proper right-sided wing back in Jay Benn has minimised the impact. The left side? It remains a problem. So much so that, last time out, Halliday was operating as an inverted left wing back. Two weeks before that, Pointon was deployed in this position.
In hindsight, City should have found themselves a specialist left wing back in the summer. January is a chance to rectify that.
Everyone was worried about City’s defence this season, but it’s struggled for other reasons
It was a big blow to lose Matty Platt in the summer. He wasn’t always widely appreciated by fans, but he made a considerable difference to City whenever he played. Platt moved to Notts County, where he is thriving. With Daniel Oyegoke choosing to move elsewhere after his promising loan at City ended, there were big gaps to fill to a part of the team that generally performed well all season.
We worried about those summer replacements – Aden Baldwin, Neill Byrne and Callum Johnson – and whether they would leave us with a weaker backline. Byrne aside, it’s fair to say that the moves haven’t worked out yet – but not for the reasons we might have expected. Baldwin and Johnson haven’t been poor, they’ve just not been present. Injured on the sidelines. We are still yet to see a Johnson debut, and there is no indication he will be fit any time soon. Baldwin hasn’t played since August.
With Byrne also experiencing injury problems – plus Cairan Kelly suffering a bad injury that has seen him out of action since September – others have had to come in. Jack Shepherd has been very good. Cheick Diabete has experienced mixed fortunes. Paul Huntington has surprisingly found opportunities hard to come by. The extent of injuries at one stage saw Alexander go 4-4-2, which was largely unsuccessful. You want your central defence to be settled, so relationships can be built. It’s been anything but so far.
City have kept just one clean sheet in their last 11 league and cup games, and achieved four shut outs all season. They haven’t conceded more than two goals in any game, so are certainly not hapless. But there is clearly room for improvement. Hopefully, this will prove the case when central defenders return – providing they are able to stay injury-free.
Some of the best performers from last season are not hitting the same heights
Sam Walker was an inspired January signing in the wake of Harry Lewis’ departure, producing a series of brilliant displays. Over 20 appearances he conceded just 24 (from an expected goals conceded of 25.4). This means he was slightly over-performing his numbers.
This season, Walker has been decent but not infallible. The odd howler, and more than a few surely-he-should-have-saved-that goals conceded. 16 games and 17 goals conceded (from an expected goals conceded of 15.13). This means he is slightly under-performing his numbers. City don’t have proper competition for Walker beyond his goalkeeping coach Colin Doyle. So they are very reliant on Walker’s form not sliding any further.
Beyond Walker, Brad Halliday has endured a surprising dip in form after two years of such solid consistency. Bobby Pointon has struggled for game time and not always excelled when he has played. He still looks a great prospect and is clearly learning all the time. But he’s not quite kicked on to the level he threatened to at the back end of last season. Hopefully, it will come very soon.
Pointon has just two league goals so far. While Jamie Walker only has one to his name, after 18 appearances. Last season, Walker played exactly double the amount of games (36), and scored nine goals. Breaking it down to league only, in 2023/24 Walker played 2,232 minutes and scored eight, averaging one goal every 279 minutes (1 in 3). So far this campaign, it’s one goal from 980 minutes.
Walker’s performances have largely been good. He’s got three assists (compared to five overall last time) and he has been a vital part of the high press approach Alexander wants to instil. But with the struggles of Cook strike partners, we need a few more goals Jamie, please.
During 2023/24’s end of season resurgence, you’d have put both Walkers, Pointon and Halliday in your top five performers. This time around, none of them are playing appallingly bad – it’s just we know they are capable of contributing more when they are absolutely on top of their game.
At least Richie Smallwood can say his performances are better than 2023/24. And Clarke Oduor has shown a lot of promising indications he can step to first team regular. They join Cook and Benn in the positive column.
And beyond the defenders hopefully returning to fitness soon, City will hope to soon have the services of Antoni Sarcevic and Alex Pattison again. There’s also Corry Evans pushing for a bigger role. Greater options – and competition for places – can only improve overall standards.
Much for Alexander to ponder then, as supporters begin to ponder his capability to deliver success
When looking at each of these issues, Alexander clearly believes nothing is hopeless, and that it’s only small margins stopping everything from clicking. It is not a bad squad, and there is clear depth when everyone is fit. With the January window beginning to come into view, recruitment should be about quality over quantity.
But it’s undeniable that supporter disgruntlement with Alexander is beginning to grow. Doubts are starting to get louder, and his performance as manager of late hasn’t been great. From being tactically outdone by Grant McCann, the bizarre team selection at Fleetwood, the negative, time-wasting approach at Colchester, to the inverted full backs against Rotherham. City have only won three of their last 11 league games. That is a slide.
So talk is brewing that Alexander is not the man. And that will only increase if they don’t start winning. It’s a well-worn path this isn’t it? Just in case you’re losing track, here’s how it regularly seems to work for managers at Valley Parade.
- August: We like the City manager
- September: Not sure about all of the manager’s signings
- October: Hmmmm
- November: What is that team selection? He’s so stubborn!
- December: First online calls for sacking, with an end of month away game featuring chants of “xxxx, your football is s**t!”
- January: Transfer panic
- February: Sack the manager
Yep, very much on track here. I may as well start getting the Alexander leaves article prepped for mid-February…
Or maybe this time it will be different. Because the club’s recent, unsuccessful history of routinely swapping managers should guard us against rushing to drive the latest incumbent away. Wouldn’t it be nice to try and break that cycle, given its dismal results? What’s different to before now is David Sharpe has joined as head of football operations. When at Mansfield, Sharpe will have paid a role in the patience Nigel Clough was afforded for several seasons – patience that has proved to be well rewarded. Sharpe has spoken very positively of Alexander, and might be the one who protects him.
As a club we’ve invested too much in the cult of manager in recent years, from Adams to Mark Hughes. Right now, we’ve got a decent manager. I think we can all see he’s not the greatest in the world. That he makes mistakes and gets things wrong. That he’s probably limited in how far he could take us long-term. But equally, he has a plan. When it works, it works well. And you can see it is a plan capable of delivering promotion. Having got this far into letting him build it, we should not make any hasty decisions undoing it.
For me, Alexander deserves the season at least to prove he can deliver long overdue success to BD8. But the cycle above is there for all to see. His popularity is chipping away, and we’re not long off supporter dissent becoming vocal.
The next few games are crucial in making sure history doesn’t repeat itself. Otherwise the other part of the cycle comes in.
- March: Doesn’t the new manager talk well? So much better than the last guy!
- April: Okay, we’re still not doing very well – but it’s not his team! Let’s get to the summer.
- May: End of season burst of form – hey, everything’s going to work out just fine next season! Don’t forget to renew your season ticket.
- August: We like the City manager.
A big few weeks then…
This bitty period is about to come to an end. Saturday heralds the start of a period of 11 games in six weeks. Fair to say, then, that we’re going to learn an awful lot more about City’s prospects over the next few weeks.
Whatever happens at Morecambe in the cup on Saturday, a return of regular League Two fixtures the Tuesday after needs to herald a period of positive momentum. But it won’t be easy. They’ve got some tricky games coming up, with fixtures against Crewe, Notts County, Port Vale and Chesterfield before the end of the year.
So there’s no better time for Alexander’s optimism to be proven justified.
Categories: Opinion
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widthofapost.com 
Unfortunately Alexander talks the talk but that’s where it ends. The whole management structure right up to and including the owner haven’t got any ideas whatsoever on how to run a football club let alone be able to give the long suffering fans what they deserve. With the exception of half a dozen players, our squad would struggle in most leagues below league two. I’m shocked and dismayed at the state of the club and it’s outlook, honestly I could weep. We’ve had some bad owners in the past, even dodgy owners but the current ownership and management is deplorable.
Interesting and thoughtful comments as always Jason.
One point I want to pick up however, is the suggestion that weaknesses in some of Alexander’s transfer decisions are only clear in hindsight. A lot of us this summer – me included, in the comments of this blog – said we desperately needed a new left wing back. We ended the season strongly with Wright at left wing back but the results were inspite of his role there, not because of them. He was a hold until a better, natural player for that position could be found. We also said we needed a central midfielder (which has been belatedly found in Evans), cared more about losing Platt than the club seemed to, and could see that we needed a proper second striker to compete with Cook (naively I thought we might keep Young given Rupp’s comments at the end of last season, and I personally had too much faith in Oliver to then provide this).
Which brings us full circle back to the top of your post; I think the bright end to the season did provide overconfidence in the quality of the squad and, something which may prove our undoing for the season, meant Alexander et al tinkered with the bits of the team that were working (a rebuild of the defence) at the expense of the bits that did require his attention (creativity and goals from the top half of the pitch). The injuries to Sarcevic and Pattison haven’t helped in this regard (although by now the default should be to assume Pattison is injured) but we have a clear lack of pace and directness in those who would traditionally wear the shirts 7 – 11. We need a left sided Jay Benn, but attention in January also needs to be spent bringing genuine quality in at the top of the pitch – one, maybe two players – but good attacking players are rare and they usually cost. January will be a test of our ambition as much as anything else.
One thing leapt out at me from reading the interview with Manchester United’s new manager in the Times on Saturday. He said he’s only got a plan A. If it doesn’t succeed just work harder to make it better. Given a regular criticism of managers by all our keyboard tacticians has been “no plan B” I wonder how long Mr Amorin will be given. Personally I think GA should settle on his system and stick to it. Injury issues should hopefully now be in our past for the season.
Groundhog Day.. sorry season at Valley Parade. Yet another management change and you can cut and paste this article again next year and the year after.
While Ryan Sparks is in charge and telling Rupp everything is fine on his weekly Zoom call to Germany then nothing changes. David Sharp asked at the pre-season fans forum “judge us in May”. Well, the loyal supporters of Bradford City have seen this film many times and we don’t like the ending.
Nothing changes until the changes are in the boardroom and not just in the dugout.
An excellent summation. Jason, the only area you didn’t cover was Rupp and Sparks. Leadership at the top is poor and that is where change is required.
In light of the injuries and City’s poor track record of replacing managers I have no issue with allowing GA the opportunity of finishing this season. Will that happen, probably not because come March season tickets need to be sold and Sparks will be searching for a new marketing ploy.
City love repeating the same mistakes and recruitment focused on the present rather than the future is in my opinion the biggest mistake of all.
Seeing is Believing
Next year’s season ticket campaign will highlight that Rupp & Sparks are “history makers” overseeing City’s longest ever stay in the 4th Division…
The footie leadership is now led by Sharpe, who according to Nigel Clough was a big factor in their promotion last season.
I’m always baffled what more than fans want. We have a squad that costs money and has a few winners in it, so we’re now using the same model that Parkinson did.
As Man City and Arsenal have discovered you only need an injury to one key player and it can curtail all best laid plans.
I’ll judge the team when we have 90% fully fit in all departments as opposed to the 60% we’ve had so far.
i agree with Alexander that we will come good again and have a good run of form, in his previous jobs his clubs used to always have great runs where they went undefeated but then when they hit a slump he’s always seemed to have trouble getting them out of that slump quickly.
We could really do with winning that fa cup tie against Morecambe and pulling a big third round draw just to give us a bit of money to play with in the January window. Plus would give the fans something to look forward to. The only way I can see is us increasing the budget with Rupp in charge is by generating ourselves in player sales or cup runs.
I would definitely give Alexander till the end of the season, if anyone should go before then it’s sparks this time in my opinion.
If we can strengthen on January then would definitely like a new striker of two, possibly a keeper to push and challenge Walker and maybe a wing back or two. To create space it would be nice to off load a striker or two even if it’s just on loan to save on wages and hopefully they can get a a few goals and pick up a bit of confidence/form.
I’m happy to keep GA certainly till the end of the season, but I really don’t think he’s a good manager.
On Kav, I think GA hasn’t helped him. He finally scores a goal that might help his confidence, gets played as a 8/10 in a baffling team the next game and then gets dropped. Had an opportunity to help him build his form and confidence and GA tanked it
He’s tried big man/big man on several occasions without success, but still persists in rolling it out every few games as well, what is he seeing that noone else is?
I like Wright as a winger, but it was clear that a full season as a LWB would not be getting the best out of him, imagine a left footed Benn, we’d be in a much better position.
The Huntington signing is looking pointless. We bring in a CB as cover and instead of using him we play people out of position. This has got to have been a GA decision to bring him in and you have to question why.
That said, despite his failings, I’m still confident we finish in the playoffs.
A great report on width of a post, the article touched on all aspects of the club from top to bottom. Ian fairly sure that G A will come good,with players returning from injury starting at Morecambe.T one slight problem I have with G A is his tactics and players being played out of position ie pointing at full back against Feetwood .Square pegs in round holes spring to mind, in January a goal scorer is must signing ,a left wing back also and also an out and out fast pacey winger is a must so that we have a plan B to implement. I for one still support G A he must be given Time ie 2-3 seasons let’s build a team we can get behind and support because we supporters are the best starting at Morecambe on Saturday.
A good and well balanced article which I think highlights how much of a tightrope our managers end up walking when they come to this Club. So little room for error.
To all those who ‘don’t think GA is a good manager’, I’d ask them to look at his managerial record over the last 10 years and then define what believe makes someone a ‘good’ manager and why GA doesn’t fit into that definition.
We had only got 3 days into October when fans were demanding the sacking of Hughes at Tranmere and we’ve already had fans calling for GA’s sacking via the T&A site after the result at Fleetwood.
Sparks, with the support of Rupp, needs to back managers that have shown they can provide a promotion winning Teams at Bradford because they have been doing it elsewhere. And they should also back a manager who has come close to building a promotion Team/Squad at City. Sacking Hughes was far too early in the season, especially after his previous season’s achievement, it was lunacy. And sacking Adams before him, so early into his 3 year contract, resulting in us looking for our 8th ‘PERMENENT’ manager in 4 years, was also lunacy.
Rupp said, when he first took over the Club,that running a medium sized business where the life-cycle of the manager was only 10 months was ‘madness’. And that they – he and Rahic – were different. He was referring to League 1 managers at the time. But since then he’s owned a medium-sized business that has gone through 12 managers that were employed on permananet managerial contracts or were employed as manager for a period of time that would could a significant impact on the successfulness, or otherwise, of the Team’s season.
GA has a deep understanding of the value of persistence and incremental progress for achieving long-term goals. When we force our managers into short-cutting the process by reducing the time-scale for achieving a goal, and then punish them for being unable to achieve the agreed targets then we shouldn’t be at all surprised as to why we can’t get out of League 2. It is so obvious to me and has been for some years. But maybe there isn’t a correlation and I am completely wrong and that sacking managers before they can complete 1 full season has nothing to do with our failure to get into play-off positions – let alone an automatic promotion spot. But we will never know until we give them a complete season in charge. The only ‘evidence’ I have to support my hypothesis of giving managers AT LEAST one full/complete season in charge, before we start writing them off, is the achievements of Stuart McCall in the 2016/17 season and Mark Hughes 2022/23 season, and also the evidence of how very unlikely a change in manager part-way through a season will end in promotion.
The fans and those in charge at VP need to accept that it is long before time for us to back the manager and allow him time to implement his plans for achieving a promotion. For us, it has proved to be counter productive to sack managers, part-way through a season, and especially at the average of around 1 every 10 months! I’ll repeat: only Stuart McCall was allowed the privilege of seeing out a full season in charge (August – May) way back in the 2016/17 season and Mark Hughes in 2022/23 and on both occasions they were succesful when compared to all the other managers we have had since Rupp took over ownership.
The impatiance and then inevitable sacking of managers, especially those that I would define as ‘GOOD’ managers because they have a record of promotions and have had us just a few points outside of a play-off place MUST stop. GA has the promotions and play-off finishes on his CV plus a 40% win ratio and yet, once again, here we are questioning if this manager has what it takes to eventually get us promoted! Seriously?
Great post.
Of course the likes of you and me get told we are ‘Happy Clappers’ when pointing out GA’s credentials.
However, those knocking him need to remember that Fleetwood and Scunthorpe fans, particularly the latter still think it was a big mistake to sack him.
As does one Gary Neville who sacked him when they were 5th in L2.
Fortunately, Sharpe has already indicated that he sees our progress in the long term and he has form in backing a manager who got even more abuse than GA us now – one Nigel Clough, who is now one of the longest serving managers.
I quote your comment:
‘Sparks, with the support of Rupp, needs to back managers’
Sparks is on record on the BBC Radio L***s fans forum as saying that when he saw mediocrity at the club he’s acted on it. Sparks is scared whitless that fans will turn upon him, on social media (which he is only fit to manage IMOH!) and Stefan will notice and get rid of him, so he takes the easy option and sacks the manager!! It is purely down to Sparks trigger finger that we have had so many managers. Let’s not forget him giving McCall a new 2 year contract then sacking him months later after the transfer window had ended….
Remember his interview on ITV Calendar last year – Jan / Feb I think – it was all about him, not the plight of the club and the near empty stadium that he sat in!!
Sparks is only in this for himself!! Narcissist.
Its now gathering pace.
Why did Rupp assure us of investment (Most thought that meant in the quality of the squad, assure us he would be more interested, and communicative,???????
Was it coincidental with the fact that season ticket sales needed a boost and also that the natives were restless and a protest was planned by the effective Independent Supporters Club???
If these promises were made, and it seems not acted upon, then what can be said and done this Spring to get supporters to have faith for next season.
The old adage `you can fool some of the fans some of the time, but not most of them all of the time` was never more true.
The frustration is that even a modest push this season would take us to where we want to be such is the poor quality of the division.
Will a fall of in the numbers of season ticket renewals happen, but in a larger percentage than last term, as a realisation of the poor leadership at the top is further exposed?
Changing managers will do nothing. We have proved that. If changing managers was the answer we would now be top of the Premier League.
Good last line.
The squad would have been good enough, if it wasn’t for the worst injury season I can remember in a long time.
I had no interest in Rupp putting his hand in his pocket for the sake of it, to appease a few fans who think the Salford / Watford methods are the best.
Let’s see what the January window brings as I always thought we could make significant signings then.
Let’s see what the January window brings as I always thought we could make significant signings then.
Why wait half a season…..nonsense!! It shows your summer recruitment wasn’t good enough…..
I had no interest in Rupp putting his hand in his pocket for the sake of it, to appease a few fans who think the Salford / Watford methods are the best.
So you really are a Happy Clapper with no ambition whatsoever!!
Whatabout Stockport and numerous other clubs with ambition…….
The one thing that stands out for me is that City almost never dominate the opposition. It doesn’t matter whether we play a team at the top of the league or a team at the bottom. The pattern of play is wearily familiar.
We always appear vulnerable to pace (Doncaster ran us ragged). Apart from Benn I am struggling to think of any City player with real pace. It always feels like we will concede a goal, which would be fine if we looked like scoring 2 or 3. However we all know that our over reliance on Andy Cook means we have limited options up front.
How can we solve our problems? This article highlights the lack of a genuine left wing back. (With pace). If Graham Alexander is determined to play 2 Strikers, he needs to find support for Andy Cook asap. There are a lot of games to play until the January transfer window. In the meantime given the poor form of all the support strikers would it be worth trying Bobby Pointon or even Jamie Walker, who both perform better further up the pitch. Bobby in particular can work in tight spaces and has a great left footed shot.
The returning options of Sarcevic and Pattison (Hopefully) plus the promising performances of Evan’s should bolster the midfield. The defence is far from perfect but should be good enough for League 2 if the other departments of the team raise their game.
Patience is running out. How can it be so difficult to get out of League 2?
Alexander influenced by Sharpe was responsible for the pre-season signings. All imo were beyond their sell by date. This proved to be the case when all were injured early in the season. Out for 3 months. I imagine that GA will treat them like cotton wool for fear of them getting injured again. Morecombe will be a challenge. Fresh from a good victory at Swindon. I believe that nothing but a victory will do Saturday. The fans will turn really against him if City does not appear in the bag for the 3rd round draw. I think the abandonment of Saturday’s match gave GA a breather. Accrington performed well on their last away game. Had it gone ahead Saturday, City would have to play well to get a result the manager needs. I hope we get through in the cup. We cannot keep changing managers.
We may “come good” this season, but it will only be by default, due to the poorest quality League Two in years. Based on the games I’ve seen, we’ll even then have to go some because our team selection, tactics and fayre presented on the pitch have been non league standard.
Such is our reputation for sacking managers that only the desperate can be enticed. Indeed, the delay in appointing Hughes’ replacement appears to substantiate the rumours that Alexander was way down the list, and eventually happened due to the number of rebuttals.
The problem, therefore, lies deeper. Poor recruitment, including ridiculously long contracts offered to players who can’t make the starting line up, and the Rupp/Sparks combo which is steeped in failure.
I’ve been watching City for long enough to know that League Two is our level and that is reinforced by the current set up. Until we get a new broom, who dismantles the stagnation and revolutionises the club, it’s going to be very much “business as usual”.
let’s hope GA is correct as the games in December look difficult Port Vale, Crewe, Chesterfield to name but 3. Hopefully we go on a run otherwise we will be midtable looking for a new manager. The timing of the new season ticket offer will be timed accordingly. GA is an average league two manager who has seems to have an excuse and blames everyone apart for himself for his shortcomings. His transfer business has been poor at best bringing in journeymen who play on average 25 games a season for their previous clubs whilst letting players like Platt and Gilly leave which isas wrong. This next month is paramount for City’s season and GA’s future.
I always said, I’d judge us on where we are in January and if we’re within a few points of the Top 3, then that’s not a problem.
The division has no real consistency. Vale tonight is a good example.
More importantly I’d argue that every big club manager in this division ,who was in situ at the start of the season, i.e. those at Vale, Doncaster, Gillingham and us are literally three bad games away from been talked about been sacked.
Nobody has any patience any more.
It’s astonishing to remember that Clough at Mansfield was not only given backing when they were lower mid-table at this time three seasons ago – but backed further when the failed to make the play-off when we did. That seems like some bygone age.
Significantly, the one who was doing the backing was Sharpe and as long as he’s happy with Alexander, so am I.
Same old for me. Win some lose some. Average squad with a good goalscorer. Sadly unless some massive investment in January it’s 9th/10th place finish
I’d be even more astonished if you ever managed to make a comment without mentioning this bizarre obsession you have of Mansfield Town.
All valid points but when you actually look at our team selections this season it absolutely baffles me why we haven’t given a run of games to the exact midfield and forward set up that finished last season so well.
And then supporters wonder why we aren’t playing as well as we were then.
Jason did a piece a while back trying to value the impact of a manager. From memory the conclusion was that they don’t make too much difference. Teams generally perform to the level of the squad, with a tiny percentage of managers able to get more from them and a rogue few that drag the team down.
In GA i’d say we have a manager that will basically get out of the squad what they’ve got, probably no more no less. If we changed manager, we’d incur cost, disrupt the season and more likely than not end up with a different version of the same manager.
He’s not in direct charge of recruitment and the style of football is in the OK column, not exciting but not boring either.
With better luck on the injury front the squad this year is probably a play off squad, perhaps the window could bring us someone to push the needle a bit but generally I’d say we’ve put together a play off squad and we’ll probably end up there unless the injuries continue to hold us back.
We don’t have a second strong striker – not one winger in the club and no ball winning strength in midfield. We sign players who spend months on the treatment table. We have strong opposition in December and if it goes the wrong way we’ll be below mid table and looking for a new Manager. Does this sound familiar?