BfB

Following his team’s 2-1 defeat to Bradford City, Blackpool boss Ian Evatt felt able to state that the Bantams were not a remarkable football team except in one concern, namely in how effectively they were able to carry out the basics of football.

Evatt said “They do the basics really well, there is nothing fancy about how they play, it’s just the basics, and they are Third.” and while this is a reductive view of the Bradford City team which sits two points behind Lincoln City who are in the second promotion spot with a game in hand, it is on a basic level the best summary of the Bantams that anyone has offered, and perhaps explains 2025, the best calendar year to be a fan of this club.

What Evatt says City manager Graham Alexander would not doubt agree with. Alexander talks about how his team support each other on the field, but avoids mentioning what they support each other doing.

The secret is that there is no secret, just hard work and commitment, and while there is a limit to how far that will take a team, Alexander – and seemingly Evatt – believe that limit might be higher than third place in League One.

Eye

City recorded nine points from four games in ten days over Christmas and Alexander declared himself happy with that return, the chastening experience at Mansfield three days ago having been put squarely behind the squad with the win at the Seaside.

Alexander is bullish about his team, as well he might be, and about his ability to steward that team. For a man who retired late as a player, when he talks about the players as friends one gets a sense that following his early successes at Fleetwood and Salford the manager might have tried “A bit distance from The Boys”, but found that debilitating.

When he talks about players, he uses their language, with the suggestion that in being on a level them he is able to better manage them. Antoni Sarcevic is left out, Curtis Tilt sidelined, Stephen Humphrys excluded and the manager talks about the experiences last season having taught City about when to rest members of the squad. Nobody is “dropped”, and one doubts that in ten years time anyone will be coming on a Podcast to talk about how “the Gaffer would not look me in the eye.”

Which must make the conversations which Alexander has to have in the next few weeks easier.

Super-Position

Having beaten Port Vale and Wigan Athletic over the Christmas to New Year break, City were ebullient going to Field Mill, Mansfield only to be on the wrong end of a comprehensive 3-0 scoreline. A football team is often as good as its capacity to recover from defeat, and the result at Blackpool made a statement about that.

More worrying was the sense that the team which faced Mansfield might have shown the stamp of its lowly origin. If City were struggling twelve months ago, then six of that team started here, and so the Bantams ended in a super-position.

City had too many of the League Two team in the League One team. Various players had been moved past – most obviously the two defenders of Niall Byrne and Ciarán Kelly – and so there was a need to recognise that, but also to return Andy Cook to the team.

Because every conversation eventually gets to Andy Cook.

Bye

To preface, for all who need it, Andy Cook has been a superb player for Bradford City and should he carry on at the club now he would carry on giving everything he can. He arrived without fanfare and while it is rare to say goodbye in the beautiful game, the beautiful goal at St James’ Park is as good a send-off as anyone could want.

However, Cook’s ability to play a role in Graham Alexander’s Bradford City is obviously limited, and there is no benefit to ignoring that. The basics which Ian Evatt talks about are things which, on the whole, Cook struggles with. His pressing is wholehearted but often results in a defensive free kick, his movement is willing but often restricted to the centre, and his creative play is a lesser concern than his goal scoring.

“When he gets the ball, he scores a goal”, but if the past twelve months compared to the twelve months before told us anything, it is that City do not get the ball to a central forward with enough regularity that even an expert one can profit to the extent that we win enough games. The switch to a more mobile forward who can press and create, and in doing so support other players, has seen an unprecedented twelve months of success.

With Cook, Alexander is in the position of both being told that he has too many of the players who were not doing well in League Two in the team, and that the solution is to put a player who was in the team that was not doing well in League Two into the team.

Bang

Not that one suspects Alexander will be interested in those conversations. He cuts the figure of a man who believes that there is no greater insight into the squad Bradford City has than his. He may be right. The reason why people like me bang on about keeping a manager is so one can end up in this position, and Alexander knows his squad better than anyone.

When it comes to sitting down with Andy Cook to tell him that a bid has been received, and it is the right thing for him to do to move on, Alexander will win few friends in the stands while being certain that he has no further use for the talismanic forward. Alexander talks about the players being mates, and real friends tell the truth.

So a replacement for Cook will no doubt be in the offing who, along with Crystal Palace’s Hindolo Mustapha and Louie Sibley, would seem to be the three loan signings the manager is discussing.

Sibley has arrived on loan from Oxford, probably to allow Alex Pattison to leave, given that the pair share a similar statistical tendency to be involved in interceptions and tackles in the midfield. Pattison seems ready to sign for Carlisle United, and he should excel there.

Collaborative

As for the rest of the squad one can only imagine. Tommy Leigh’s experience in deep midfield seems to have come to an end, but one could imagine him returning given his adaptability. Likewise, George Lapslie seems to be an ill-fit but one would not rule out him standing out over the next four months. Like a man reaching into what is left of his tub of Celebrations and never getting a Bounty or a Snickers, Alexander seems to have a sense of what success feels like even when it is difficult to see.

Navigating this period of games and emerging so strongly gives the manager more options than he needs. Who at Doncaster Rovers or Port Vale who finished above City in League Two last season might fancy a switch to the other end of League One? Who at Wigan who experienced Valley Parade on Boxing Day might want that for the next four months?

Whoever does might heed the words of Evatt and what City do best. There is glory here, but it is collaborative, and better for it.