Bradford City vs Exeter City match day thread

[The Proper Chap]

With regards to Collins, I think he has been a solid player this season.

Archie CollinsCollins

Assists 1

Goals 0

Played 13

Chances created 7

Chances created per 90 min 0.54

Total Passes 654

Passes Completed 510

Incomplete passes 144

Pass Completion 78%

Those stats show just how important to us he is and how he keeps us ticking over.

Josh Key (449 made/309 completed) and Jake Taylor (441 made/ 284 completed) are miles behind on passes made and completed and they've both played an extra game. No one else comes even close to Collins' stats... apart from Nicky Law.

Lots of sideways passes in there.

One assist all season and defensively we have been very suspect, of all the midfielders in the side it is Collins job to the protect the back line, he isn't doing it well enough.

He lacks any kind of physical presence and he is ponderous on the ball in dangerous areas.

Do you have the stats for Jake Taylor this season ?

Talk of Collins playing in the championship any time soon is laughable.

 

[antman]

Agree that MT is not going to drop Collins but disagree that he is one of our best players. He is OK but not a star. Taylor, Law, Key, Sweeney, Randall and Jay are all contributing more. He would not be in my best City 11 if all the squad were fit.

IMO the fact that he is "one of our own" means he gets too much of a free pass from City fans. He gets disposessed too often, passes the ball backwards too much, and is often out of position. A decent L2 midfielder but no more. He's a fixture for now but if (and I accept its a big if) Atangana can get and remain fit he should displace Collins, as he is more robust, better positionally, protects the defence better, and makes fewer mistakes. Won't happen, of course.

Archie has been identified by opponents as a key player in terms of our creativity. As soon as he gets the ball he has someone on top of him and yesterday he wasn't allowed space by their midfield to find a pass. There were also times yesterday when he was looking for a pass forward and others weren't showing for him so he had to turn back rather than give the ball away. He made a mistake at a key moment down the left first half but he has a lot of responsibility in his position and has a lot of possession, you are going to see the odd mistake. Technically he is superb, playing below his level in League Two and one of our few players yesterday who didn't waste the ball when we regained possession, which happened way too often in the second half. For me, he is doing a superb job and has a great football brain. I don't think he's as good defensively as he is creatively, but I don't agree at all that he's often out of position which for me was more of a fault of other players recently occupying the position of deep mid. Personally I would like it if we got a more defensive player in his position and moved him forward a bit, but for now he is our best choice in deep midfield, and Jake Taylor complements him well when the other team have the ball and there is defensive midfield work to be done. I would like to see Atangana return as well but not sure where he fits in at present.

We needed more composure on the ball second half when counter attacking. Too often there were spaces opening up in front of us but the ball went long instead of a more simple pass that would have started a counter attack. There was one instance where Archie did this when he tried to set Joel Randall away but the pass wasn't quite good enough, but I did think the ball was on and it would have put Randall away down the left.

The story of our season has been that we have allowed opponents chances they shouldn't have had and they have taken them, whereas we have not taken enough of ours to win the game. I think stability in the defence is the key here, and yesterday it was up to Jack Sparkes to cover as centre back after a great throw out from their keeper and superb pass from the midfielder put the striker through behind Jack for the first goal. However, compared to last season we are committing more men in forward positions and this is also the reason. When we are turned over, as for the first goal, there's a lot of space behind us for opponents to play into. We can't have it both ways. Myself, I'm loving watching Williams, Randall, Jay and Bowman all get forward a lot and we are getting the chances in the box. Some of the matches this year, like Salford away and yesterday, have seen us go on thrilling spells of attacking football. I'm not going to cry myself to sleep because we didn't win after watching the football we played in the first half yesterday, which was glorious to watch.

 

[The Proper Chap]

Archie has been identified by opponents as a key player in terms of our creativity.

He hasn't, you make it up as you go.

He often has acres of space however his quality of pass often lets him down.

 

[arthur]

In a 4 2 3 1 we have:
seven proven back four players to choose from: Caprice, Sweeney, McArdle, Parkes, Sparkes, Page, Hartridge

four good central midfielders: Collins Law Antagana Taylor

four good attacking midfielders: Key Williams Randall Jay

(plus a number of fringe players).

All of which puts us in a strong position, whichever way you look at it

 

[hillview red]

Lots of sideways passes in there.

One assist all season and defensively we have been very suspect, of all the midfielders in the side it is Collins job to the protect the back line, he isn't doing it well enough.

He lacks any kind of physical presence and he is ponderous on the ball in dangerous areas.

Do you have the stats for Jake Taylor this season ?

Talk of Collins playing in the championship any time soon is laughable.

DMC’s come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are there to break up and protect the back line (e.g Makelele, Kante) others are there to build the play (e.g Jorginho, Pirlo). Collins doesn’t perfectly fit into either category so ends up getting criticised by some for when he doesn’t protect and when he loses possession or doesn’t get enough assists - tough gig! Not sure anyone else in our team is judged on both sides of their game...

Of course at times he gets out-muscled, of course at times he loses possession and sometimes in dangerous areas but he is brave enough to ask for it in the first place and the stats show his willingness to get involved and not shirk.

Out of interest... Who in your opinion has played this role well for City in the past 20 years? It looks like you’re asking for someone who has a physical presence, is good on the ball, rarely passes sideways, gets lots of assists... I can’t think of many... Grimes possibly?

Matt Taylor often refers to Archie’s ability in the final 3rd but for the benefit of the team he is playing a deeper role. We saw yesterday what he can do but doesn't currently have the license to get forward as much. This will come in time I think.

Time will tell where he ends up but personally I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the Championship.

 

[The Proper Chap]

DMC’s come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are there to break up and protect the back line (e.g Makelele, Kante) others are there to build the play (e.g Jorginho, Pirlo). Collins doesn’t perfectly fit into either category so ends up getting criticised by some for when he doesn’t protect and when he loses possession or doesn’t get enough assists - tough gig! Not sure anyone else in our team is judged on both sides of their game...

Of course at times he gets out-muscled, of course at times he loses possession and sometimes in dangerous areas but he is brave enough to ask for it in the first place and the stats show his willingness to get involved and not shirk.

Out of interest... Who in your opinion has played this role well for City in the past 20 years? It looks like you’re asking for someone who has a physical presence, is good on the ball, rarely passes sideways, gets lots of assists... I can’t think of many... Grimes possibly?

Matt Taylor often refers to Archie’s ability in the final 3rd but for the benefit of the team he is playing a deeper role. We saw yesterday what he can do but doesn't currently have the license to get forward as much. This will come in time I think.

Time will tell where he ends up but personally I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the Championship.

I'd play Law in the deeper cm role, he's far better than Collins in possession and I don't think we would miss what Collins brings defensively as he doesn't bringing a great deal in that aspect of the game.

I'm not expecting anyone to tick all the boxes, where have I said I was ?? I just don't think Collins is good enough at any aspect to warrant so much game time.

Also I have never said Collins is a crap footballer, what I have said is that he doesn't stand out at this level, someone like Josh Key stands out as he has the attributes to play much higher. The attributes Collins has are littered throughout league 1 and the championship and many of the players he will be competing against are bigger, stronger and much quicker. His range of passing isn't good enough to make up for his other limitations.

He may get lucky and get a move to a higher level based on the appearances he is racking up however I believe he would get found out very quickly in league 1, never mind the championship.

 

[STURTZ]

Archie Collins has just turned 21 and has plenty of time to improve his game....as long as he stays in the first team.

Problem with our midfield is that too many of them are better offensively than defensively, Collins is one. There is talk of Law playing deeper but we have to see if that will be effective, it would certainly give the chance of seeing Jay and Law on the same pitch. Apart from that the only defensive midfielder we have is Atagana who has been injured and not that inspiring when he has been fit, Dean is another player that could be tried in that role. Taylor is good defensively but as his recent scoring spree indicates he is also a player that is better further up the field. Too many players pushing up (including our wing backs mean we are prone to getting caught at the back, especially with no real pace defensively.

It's a problem for Matt as he must weigh up not just putting out a winning team but also one that will benefit City in the long term. If we can find success by playing our youth products then that would be ideal.

 

[sidney]

The bottom line is that three key players from last season: Williams, Law ands Bowman, have all been struggling. The good news is that they appear to be returning to form. The same might also be said of Sparkes, although we have to take into account his serious injury. We are also playing with a very inexperienced keeper, and have had other significant injuries. So, I think we should be pleased to be so far up the table, and confident of improving our performances. Jay and Taylor are playing well, and Randall and Key are hugely promising. There are signs that if we remain relatively free of injuries we could go on a very strong run.

 

[STURTZ]

Any news on Key's injury?

 

[IndoMike]

Just watched the goals again. A couple of other things to note. I read at least one or two try and lay the blame of the first goal down to poor marking (Jack Sparkes??)......... garbage. That's just bloody good forward movement by Billy Clark has created that goal.
Second, Matt Jay's goal..... Ryan Bowman is making those sort of flick ons week in, week out. Jake Taylor only just makes it running from midfield. Imagine how much more effective those flick ons would be and how many more chances at goal we would get, and probably score, if Bowman had a partner running off of him that isn't so far away as Jake was...... just a thought.

So you mean Ajose should play. The other day in DL Matt Taylor said the conditions are not right for Ajose. Jake Taylor has said that Ajose has no attitude problem and fits in well. So the question is what conditions does Matt think are suitable for Ajose?