BfB

It is an old footballing cliché that you should only start paying attention to the table of the division your team is playing in after ten games.

Now, with ten games played in League Two this season, it is fair to say that from Bradford City’s point of view we are at crisis point – one place away from propping up the entire football league.

Today’s game at Valley Parade was absolutely typical of the home games seen so far. Buoyed by an encouraging, and somewhat surprisingly solid display away at Rotherham, City started well. Omar Daley’s cross-cum-shot hit the post and the rebound fell to Lee Hendrie, making his full debut, but he missed an easy chance from 8 yards out.

At the other end, former Bantam loanee Paul Mullin fired a warning shot when he was kept out well by City keeper Jon McLaughlin. But the decisive moment came on 23 when the tricky winger Mark Duffy fired in a dangerous cross that Mullin met at the far post to volley in for 1-0.

City missed a glorious chance to level ten minutes later when a good run by Gareth Evans afforded an excellent headed opportunity for stop-gap striker Luke Oliver, but the lanky defender could only head wide.

The second half was a complete non-event. City manager Peter Taylor brought on Jake Speight to replace Luke Oliver up front, as well as bringing on Chib Chilaka for his league debut, but no City player created any chances or had the chance to miss any. The game petered out at 1-0 to the visitors, and the despairing home fans knew that no matter how long the game went on, City were incapable of scoring once again at home.

Taylor avoided the abuse coming from the fans in the Sunwin Stand by choosing a route away from the pitch to the dressing room which ensured he didn’t have to look any of the furious fans in the eye.

Make no mistake. Taylor’s position as Bradford City manager appears to be extremely shaky. If you asked the vast majority of the 10,000 City fans inside Valley Parade today whether we should sack Taylor, a huge percentage would say “Yes”. Whether this is the correct decision or not is, of course, massively debatable.

One thing that is not debatable is his inability to find his best starting eleven, and stick with them. When we were all expecting the signing of an experience striker in the week after the Rotherham game, we were shocked to hear the signing of two Manchester United defenders. I can understand perhaps needing cover at right back, but another central defender?

And we were even more shocked when the teams were announced this afternoon when we found out that both Manchester United loanees had got starting places, despite a hugely solid defensive performance in midweek at Rotherham.

Luke O’Brien was excellent at left back at the Don Valley, and yet found himself dropped to the bench in favour of Oliver Gill who does not look even remotely like a player comfortable of playing at left back.

Zesh Rehman also put in a good performance in midweek, but found his place taken by Reece Brown this afternoon. What can this do to the confidence of our full time contracted players? What message does it send? Play well and we will get some kids in from Manchester United who have never played a league game to replace you for a month. Did we have to play them to fulfill contractual obligations with Manchester United? I don’t know. I do hope someone knows the reason why the backline was broken up after such a good performance.

We all know that our biggest problem is up front. Taylor continued to play Oliver as a target man this afternoon, and his post match interview reveals that Oliver is actually “doing us a favour” by playing up there. Well I am most grateful to Luke for taking the time out of his Saturday afternoon to wear the Claret and Amber in a position that is uncomfortable for him. We have three strikers on the bench, but none of them apparently can be as effective as playing a big man up front as Taylor reveals it makes it “more comfortable” for the other players; i.e. they have an option to just hoof the ball up to Oliver, hope he flicks it on or it sticks up there.

If Taylor would prefer not to inconvenience Oliver too much and play him in his normal central defensive position (where he would probably drop our best defender, Steve Williams), maybe we could stick a large object like a dust bin up the field to aim at and hope for similar results.

It is not particularly Oliver’s fault of course. He tries hard, but we all know he is incapable of finishing gilt-edged chances as demonstrated today with his one in the first half.

The fault has to lie at the door of the manager. He is accountable for results and the way we play. This season Taylor doesn’t have any idea what his best eleven or best formation is. To be tinkering so much ten games into the season is extremely worrying.

We all knew that Taylor had the reputation of playing some dire football and grinding out results. I would happily accept any way of playing as long as the results are right. At the moment, the results are nowhere near right, and the style of playing makes even the more die-hard City fans question the reason why they come to watch the team.

Under Stuart McCall, we could never be accused of not entertaining the crowd. McCall didn’t get the results and thus paid the price. At the moment, Taylor is doing neither entertaining nor getting results, and when that happens every managerial decision is questioned. Every one of his criticisms of his own players is blasted by the fans. His lack of encouragement from the sidelines is criticised (all you ever see Taylor doing is barking orders and telling his players off).

Something is not right. These players are not playing for this manager. We don’t seem to have a clue how to score a goal. Confidence is at an all time low. The fans want Taylor out. Would anyone be surprised if he left the club by ‘mutual consent’ on Monday?