last year, at the end of October
When signing Tom Clarke McCall sends the squad the wrong message
Tom Clarke - who joined from Huddersfield Town on loan for a month - is most probably a good player. The Town Academy system at the freezing cold Studentville that is Sthores Hall has a good reputation for a reason and the number of player filtering into the rank and file of professional football is that reason.
Clarke will add a full back option and put pressure on Matthew Clarke who has had his form drop recently. Realistically man mountain Clarke (M) was always going to have a downturn. He is speedy, he is good in the air and he can tackle. There had to be a reason why he was knocking around League Two on free transfers and perhaps consistency is it.
Nevertheless Clarke pressures Clarke and hopefully performances improve but by delving into the loan market to bring in a player who with only a handful of games under his belt and no real track record McCall has added to - rather than adding on top of - the quality of the squad.
The quality of City is under question. The six bad games have concluded with the Bantams dubbed dire following the 2-1 defeat at Darlington on Monday night. What that says about the rest of the league is interesting. But for the late goal flurry the Bantams would have ended level with Darlington and while you might argue that City would not have deserved the point for a lack of attacking endeavour - if you do argue that point then you must often come away from Valley Parade convinced that City deserved the win because often when at home we are the only side attacking - but a point we would have had in a not dissimilar way to how Luton Town took one from us a few weeks ago.
All of which raises two interesting questions. Firstly if the Bantams are dire for trying to do what Luton did to us were they then not dire against Luton - consider at will - and secondly if one is edged out of games at the death when playing “that badly” then perhaps the calibration of the division has it that the League is won by the team that plays “very poorly” rather than “dire”.
I recall thinking just before the first goal at Darlington that City need only have snuck in one of the two chances that edged past Barry Conlon’s foot to have turned the game on Monday into a win. The performance would hardly have been better but the result could have been and City - oddly as it sounds in the current debate climate - could have gone top.
Perhaps then with the idea that playing dire is only one step away from winning games McCall would - I believe - have been better working within the squad and addressing the issues that have arisen within the last six games that differed from the first six to try return to previous form.
The Bantams - with Tom Clarke - play a Grimsby team that have not won all season in the league hoping to do what Chesterfield have when they claimed a first win in seven last night and put a marker down that the bad times have ended.
By bringing in loan players for squad places McCall risks that marker suggesting that the slump in results is more permanent than can be fixed by returning to the basics of providing quality supply to dangerous forwards alleviating defensive problems by virtue of having the ball in the oppositions net more.
The players - and lest we forget the maxim about players winning you games - need to get back to the first six game mindset and know that should they - the current squad - do that then the wins will return.
October 23rd, 2008 at 15:09
Lose at Grimsby and the questons and voices will grow louder - it seems bizarre that a team 7th in the table should be affected in this way - BUT 4 losses from 12 played plus the hammering at Huddersfield and the narrowish defat at L666s in cup games means the record this season is not 100% positive.
Apparently TClarke is depserate for 1st team football after a lengthy period out with a serious injury - so i doubt he has come here to sit on the bench - Man Mountain or not, Matt needs a reminder that his place is not secure and a place on the bench should be his reward for playing so poorly on Monday.
October 24th, 2008 at 10:03
“I recall thinking just before the first goal at Darlington that City need only have snuck in one of the two chances that edged past Barry Conlon’s foot to have turned the game on Monday into a win.”
I think you’re being a little myopic there - yes it might have been different had Baz snuck in one of those crosses, but equally if we had converted so many as a third of the chances that we created throughout the game the final scoreline would have been three or four nil (or maybe one), a much fairer reflection of the balance of play.
If I was a Bradford fan I’d have been mighty happy to come away having only been beaten 2-1.
October 24th, 2008 at 11:51
You miss the point of the article Stefan. It is a supposition. If Conlon had scored and Darlington had not then the result might have been “unfair” - and how often are we all left scratching our heads about how many chances our team missed but how few the other had who won - but it would nevertheless be the result.
The supposition is that had Conlon scored and as a result we went on to win the game - and you must have seen that happen more than once watching football - then same we would have been top. It illustrates the line between success and failure rather than commenting on the flow of the game.
Having watching Darlington who - and I don’t mean this to seem rude - have been in the losing end of the league for some time you must have seen games were a team plays poorly and ends up winning. Had that happened on Monday and we go top (more or less) then the reaction would not have been that we were dire. The performance would have been forgotten and the result all.
Had Barry knocked one of those chances in the would we have played any better in retrospect? Had we not scored the own goal at the end would we be thinking of it as a better performance. Had Darlington scored the half dozen or more City’s got all those years ago in the League Cup would the performance bet any different or just the assessment of the performance.
You think we should be happy with 2-1 so you are suggesting it could have been more. Had it been 5-1 would City have played worse than at 2-1? If it had been 1-1 would we have played worse? If Darlington had not had the last minute goal then would they have played worse?
As I say it is a supposition and not a comment on the game but rather on how the game is analysed after the event. I’m looking at a number of possibilities and asking the question had the result have been different but the flow of play been the same would it have made a better performance?
If you think that is myopia then all I can do is disagree.