It always comes off as a propaganda video for why what you just watched was not as crap as you think.
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Not a surprise at all really.
Never thought Dodds would’ve had the time to gel all the new signings together and suddenly figure out a way to create chances. I have some delusional hope that he will figure that out, but not yet.
And, not sure how accurate this is, but in my mind we’ve bottled up against big crowds recently. Bradford have a great home record and drew a fervent crowd for their return to the league, with all that the result ain’t a surprise
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I’d have to rewatch that video for the exact line, but am sure it was something like how we “carved them apart”.
Having the ball a lot doesn’t mean you’ve either controlled the game, or carved anyone apart necessarily. Always worries me when a coach thinks it does.
Someone said it well earlier that we’ve turned almost totally round from the Ainsworth low possession but high chance creation / effectiveness, to the opposite now.
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He was talking about one specific attack i believe.
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I felt his post match was fairly balanced & reasonable summation of the game that I watched.
We were pish in the first 20 minutes and then started to get our heads & act together. Second half was much better, but lacked any real cutting edge. I think there were sufficient signs that we will get better as the team gets used to each other & the way MD wants them to play.
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Bit concerned he told them “at half time” that the first 20 minutes were key.
Top work from big Mike.
Also, the idea we carved them apartis just blatantly not true.
We scored a goal that 99 times out of a hundred runs out of play of Udoh’s thigh before the shot. We then had one - admittedly fantastic - chance one half chance and a decent shout for a penalty.
Across 90 minutes.
If that’s carving them apart then what did they do to us? They could easily have been 4 up at half time with greater composure.
Still, it was significantly better than anything else we’ve seen under Dodds so maybe it’s the start of the big improvement he’s been promising.
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We can point out the Westy open goal, but then they had a chance from point blank range too, which if we’re generous can say it was a good save, but if we’re honest it was straight at him.
It felt a little makeshift in defence like game 1 last season. Let’s hope we stumble across such a superb partnership as we had last season at some point soon.
Really intrigued how it’ll pan out as we definitely seem to be targeting another centre back, yet we’ve already brought in Casey and Allen, and have made no attempt to play a back 3 in pre season.
Are Harvey and Allen therefore competing for left back? Or was today just easing Harvey in after so long out? And will be Allen be as effective in a 2 as it sounds like he was in a 3 last season?
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He’s really got the post match defeat interview at the intensity we need.
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I just checked the stats to see if our defence was actually as bullied as it appeared to me, and, yes. It was.
50% headed duels won by casey and 42% hy Anders is abysmal. I really fear for we’ll be lacking strength there and boring as it is to listen to, to go from Low and Taylor to these two are the biggest downgrades in the squad.
And it could cost us a lot of goals this season, especially with a young keeper learning his trade. Really poor work from the recruitment team in that area.
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People keep mentioning those 2 who were very aerially strong, but Bradley was a tier beyond both aerially, and he feels the absolutely huge miss.
Anders probably isn’t much shorter than Bradley but the difference in aggression is huge.
Assuming he wasn’t asking outrageous money, and would have been open to a move here, it feels like he would have been someone to ignore the 22-27 age rule we seem to have applied everywhere else.
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It’s not about height as much as strength, desire and positional smarts.
Bradley was obviously also a monster but I preferred Low’s all round gane, personally.
But deciding which of the three awesome, dominant centre halves we no longer have isn’t making me feel better about the ones we have now that are anything but that!
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Good luck for the season. We are slow starters but that is no excuse, you put us to the sword first half. Enjoy League 1 - it’s a rollercoaster!!
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He wanted to stay up north from what I understand.
No it is slightly upsetting. We can argue about better pairs possibly, but we surely can’t have had a better 3 at one time.
However, we’ll see what ends up as the regular starting combo.
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That makes it feel less upsetting.
I am almost certain Bloomfield told his team the exact same thing at Wrexham . What do you reckon ?
just got baco from a very long road trip to Bradford.
My assessment
Liked the style of play , technically really strong .
Lowry and Mullins were standout, Anders did well , Grimmer and Leahy were incredibly poor, hopefully dodds brings some players in
Fink had claaa about it ….he will score bag loads
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Comparing Dodds to Bloomfield is going to get (even) more and more embarrassing as the season goes on. You may need a new excuse bingo.
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Well, he’s matched Bloomy’s poor 6months and mirrored the poor start last year… it’s just the small matter of 6months of incredible form, champagne football and high goal scoring.
Am sure that’ll come soon.
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Slightly concerning that as per Dodds post match interview they’re only now seeing that the team requires some ‘steel’. Most of the Gasroom could have told them that 6 weeks ago. There’s a huge backroom team in place and no one thought to mention/address that you need some physicality in League 1….
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