v Bradford City (h) - 12/8/25 - Carabao Cup

[RoverCanada]

Re: a yearly Academy minutes target...: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart's_law And who counts in that regard? Surely Carter, Travis, Wharton, Buckley, etc still count as the Academy paying off (to mixed effect).

The worth/output of the Academy needs to be assessed over 5-10 year windows. Decent players like Travis, Nyambe, JRC, etc should emerge every 2-3 years, while you hope unicorns like A. Wharton or Jones emerge every 5-7 years. (Just pulling those numbers out of my ass, but would be interesting to see how our output compares to other Cat 1 academies, on a per pupil basis of course!)

Expecting/financially imposing that 1-2 Academy lads will break through every year is insane.

[rigger]

5 hours ago, alexanders said:

What I find most worrying after yesterdays game and saturdays game is our inability to create goalscoring chances. 
we don’t seem to have a good plan and look very easy to defend against. 
 

With that said we have absolutely made it super difficult for us by going down in the first minutes. This makes it even easier to defend against, because the teams can just with a low block and we don’t get the space required to create chances. 

We had five guilt edged chances four in the first half, one in the second, we scored one of them. They had four, two in each half and scored two of them.

[M_B]

53 minutes ago, DuffsLeftPeg said:

We only played 3 youngsters, 2 of which got minutes in the Championship last season. The rest of the team are seasoned professionals and/or recent first team signings. There are no excuses for losing, especially with a bench full of our very best players (if you can call them that!).

I’m hoping the new look team can kick on, starting with a win on Saturday which would change everything. But so far the signs aren’t looking good!

After the disastrous start, I thought we actually started playing some good stuff, in a rusty kind of way, and created plenty of chances.

I know subs have to be made, particularly so early in the season, but we definitely got worse after the changes. 

Edited 7 hours ago by M_B

[...]

1 hour ago, DuffsLeftPeg said:

We only played 3 youngsters, 2 of which got minutes in the Championship last season. The rest of the team are seasoned professionals and/or recent first team signings. There are no excuses for losing, especially with a bench full of our very best players (if you can call them that!).

I’m hoping the new look team can kick on, starting with a win on Saturday which would change everything. But so far the signs aren’t looking good!

I think with adage of new players it would seem like youngsters my eyes were darting about trying to figure out who was who! Yea but you are right

✋️✋️

[chaddyrovers]

Nowhere near good enough. A shambles of 4 minutes at the start cost us the game. First goal comes from Henriksson not tracking and marking his man in fact he wanders up from his defensive position. Michalski messed up there, felt for him after signing his new long term contract here. Gutted for him. 

After that we have a few chances and finally took once. Gueye should have scored at least once. 

Second half, I expected us putting more and more pressure on them but until the final 10 mins we didn't. That was disappointed. Ohashi with an excellent chance to score. Good save by keeper. 

Tavares was my man of the match and he looks very good. Wasn't impressed with Henriksson to be fair, passing when he should shot. the lack of quality right winger was very telling last night. Miller look a good signing and I was pleased for Scott Wharton getting there his first competitive 90 minutes. 

8 hours ago, Ricky said:

Take it Chaddy doesn’t post when even he can’t manage to put a positive spin on something. 

was there any spin in my post again Ricky Pal? 

Edited 3 hours ago by chaddyrovers

[DeeCee]

How many more signings do we need Chaddy? How many do you think we will get?

[wilsdenrover]

10 hours ago, Mike Graham said:

We were told it was linked to bonus payments.

Just to come back to this (I’ve a bee in my bonnet!)

In my opinion, the head coach’s bonuses (and KPIs) should be linked only to results on the pitch.

Was any explanation offered as to why the club believes otherwise?

[DeeCee]

4 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

Just to come back to this (I’ve a bee in my bonnet!)

In my opinion, the head coach’s bonuses (and KPIs) should be linked only to results on the pitch.

Was any explanation offered as to why the club believes otherwise?

We're they actually questioned?

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, DeeCee said:

How many more signings do we need Chaddy?

Deffo another right sided attacking midfielder. Should have been sorted by now. 

Would like another forward, Travis and Pears replacements if they leave. 

Ismael has said we can replace anyone who leaves. We just 1 space for right sided attacking player. 

 

1 hour ago, DeeCee said:

How many do you think we will get?

Can't predict the future Dee. If I could I won the Euro millions by now

 

Edited 1 hour ago by chaddyrovers

[DeeCee]

Chrystal meth?

How many do we need, not what you would like?

You've watched the games I guess?

(Chaddy edited his post to make my attempt at a joke meaningless).

Think meaningless might be my word of the season 🥴

Edited 1 hour ago by DeeCee

[SpaceBarSlam]

Burnley getting drawn against Derby in the second round. I laughed out loud. 

[KentExile]

13 minutes ago, DeeCee said:

Chrystal meth?