Sonny Bradley

[Anag Ram]

9 hours ago, 8Leeds said:

Keogh was quality, he had the occasional c*** up but overall was a very solid championship defender. Was brilliant at driving the ball out of defence, just not very good at turning down lifts from people driving under the influence.

See what I did

In many ways, he was our Diana.

[8Leeds]

1 minute ago, Anag Ram said:

In many ways, he was our Diana.

Did the royal family and MI5 have involvement in Joiners Gate?

[Gerry Daly]

To compare Bradley to Keogh is just ridiculous. Keogh had some faults but he was a top championship defender. Played 300 odd games for us at that level. Bradley isn’t good enough for league 1 at the moment. Craig Forsyth was preferred to him yesterday to start alongside Nelson to replace Cashin. That says it all doesn’t it? A 35 year old left back preferred to him. Then when we had no option but to bring him on he produces another howler. He may improve but he’s 32 so I think that’s unlikely. We have dropped a clanger

Edited September 3, 2023 by Gerry Daly

[DRBee]

12 hours ago, duncanjwitham said:

Keogh was great at pretty much everything 99% of the time, and terrible at it the other 1%, which makes him a very difficult player to evaluate.
 

Bradley is completely different though - he probably is a good defender (even if we haven’t really seen it much yet), but he’s always going to be slow and ropey on the ball.

But is it to do with speed? He looks as though clearing the ball whether into to touch or up front has been coached out of him. Brain speed  deficient?

[duncanjwitham]

12 minutes ago, DRBee said:

But is it to do with speed? He looks as though clearing the ball whether into to touch or up front has been coached out of him. Brain speed  deficient?

I think they're separate issues.  His lack of pace gets exposed because we spread the back 3 wide, leaving big gaps between the centre halves, and he struggles to get across to pick up people running into those gaps.  That's why we keep seeing other teams run straight through our backline like it's not there.

The thing that's mostly caused the other issues (like yesterday, and the Wigan goal) is his first touch letting him down.  He's not controlled the ball well enough, so he's scrabbling to adjust his body shape. And because he's isolated and being closed down, he can't do it quickly enough and either gets dispossessed or hurried into a mistake.  That's what I mean by being ropey on the ball.

[RoyMac5]

14 minutes ago, duncanjwitham said:

I think they're separate issues.  His lack of pace gets exposed because we spread the back 3 wide, leaving big gaps between the centre halves, and he struggles to get across to pick up people running into those gaps.  That's why we keep seeing other teams run straight through our backline like it's not there.

The thing that's mostly caused the other issues (like yesterday, and the Wigan goal) is his first touch letting him down.  He's not controlled the ball well enough, so he's scrabbling to adjust his body shape. And because he's isolated and being closed down, he can't do it quickly enough and either gets dispossessed or hurried into a mistake.  That's what I mean by being ropey on the ball.

His decision-making process is too slow, either because of playing an unfamiliar role or a role that he doesn't now have/never had the skills to execute. There was another piece of play were he was nearly caught on the ball because he wasn't sure he had the pace/skill? to deal with the situation by playing it rather than booting it as he ended up doing.

[Ellafella]

5 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

His decision-making process is too slow, either because of playing an unfamiliar role or a role that he doesn't now have/never had the skills to execute. There was another piece of play were he was nearly caught on the ball because he wasn't sure he had the pace/skill? to deal with the situation by playing it rather than booting it as he ended up doing.

When a player makes regular mistakes like this it’s invariably because his mind set isn’t clear. When a player from the opposing team is close by and the ball is at Bradley’s feet, he fluffs it. I suspect he goes into a mild panic which interrupts his thinking - split second stuff but sufficiently long to lose control & the rest is history. If I was managing Bradley he wouldn’t play at all again until this was addressed through 1-1 coaching. It’s akin to a batsman constantly being caught out playing the wrong shot. In cricket that would result in hours of net time eradicating the error. Why oh why did Warne bring Bradley on instead of Cashin? 
Bradley has done this 3 times now - it’s habitual & cost us the goal each time. It’s not random error that befalls all players - it’s part of Bradley’s football behaviour pattern. 

[duncanjwitham]

7 minutes ago, Ellafella said:

When a player makes regular mistakes like this it’s invariably because his mind set isn’t clear. When a player from the opposing team is close by and the ball is at Bradley’s feet, he fluffs it. I suspect he goes into a mild panic which interrupts his thinking - split second stuff but sufficiently long to lose control & the rest is history. If I was managing Bradley he wouldn’t play at all again until this was addressed through 1-1 coaching. It’s akin to a batsman constantly being caught out playing the wrong shot. In cricket that would result in hours of net time eradicating the error. Why oh why did Warne bring Bradley on instead of Cashin? 
Bradley has done this 3 times now - it’s habitual & cost us the goal each time. It’s not random error that befalls all players - it’s part of Bradley’s football behaviour pattern. 

It's all basically what I was saying though - his basic technique (first touch in these cases) isn't good enough to be a ball-player (as opposed to a kick it and head it type defender).   What you want is for a player under pressure to just fall back on their basic technical ability, let muscle memory take over etc.  They shouldn't even be thinking about it at all, it should be automatic.  And I'm not sure you can address that through coaching at this stage in his career, he's not going to unlearn 15+ years of ingrained stuff in a few months.

For what it's worth, I think Curtis Davies was the same (see the mistake against Sheff Wed last season), although not to the same extent, and I suspect he's had far better coaching, at a far higher level, than Bradley has ever had.  I think some players just have better or worse technique than other players and there's only so much you can improve with coaching.  So the onus is on the manager to, you know, manage that.

[EraniosSocks]

Makes Te Wierek look like a Ballon D’or winner 

[Ellafella]

7 minutes ago, duncanjwitham said:

It's all basically what I was saying though - his basic technique (first touch in these cases) isn't good enough to be a ball-player (as opposed to a kick it and head it type defender).   What you want is for a player under pressure to just fall back on their basic technical ability, let muscle memory take over etc.  They shouldn't even be thinking about it at all, it should be automatic.  And I'm not sure you can address that through coaching at this stage in his career, he's not going to unlearn 15+ years of ingrained stuff in a few months.

For what it's worth, I think Curtis Davies was the same (see the mistake against Sheff Wed last season), although not to the same extent, and I suspect he's had far better coaching, at a far higher level, than Bradley has ever had.  I think some players just have better or worse technique than other players and there's only so much you can improve with coaching.  So the onus is on the manager to, you know, manage that.

Agree up to a point but doubt he’d have made a living out of football if this has been career-long. 

[duncanjwitham]

3 minutes ago, Ellafella said:

Agree up to a point but doubt he’d have made a living out of football if this has been career-long. 

That's where my last line comes in though.  I suspect at Luton he very rarely had to deal with these types of situations because of how they were setting up.  From what I remember they were a lot more compact and solid, so he would have had other defenders around him, midfielders tracking the guys closing him down and whatever.  So in that setup, you've got a defender who wins all his tackles and headers and very, very occasionally gets caught in possession or something, and you can work with that as a manager - every defender is going to cost you a goal or 2 per season, in some way or other.

[Foreveram]

17 hours ago, SK47 said:

Don't care how he played in spells, he is the WORST donkey I've ever seen at Derby in the last 10 years atleast. It's like Keoghs last minute Wembley howler everytime he plays. Stick him in the reserves until he's match fit/focused because right now, his blunders are costing us dearly.  I'm not 1 for singling players out because we are all human, but JESUS CHRIST, send him back to Blackpool beach.

That’s pretty much the definition of singling someone out 🙄

[Jimbo Ram]

1 hour ago, Gerry Daly said:

To compare Bradley to Keogh is just ridiculous. Keogh had some faults but he was a top championship defender. Played 300 odd games for us at that level. Bradley isn’t good enough for league 1 at the moment. Craig Forsyth was preferred to him yesterday to start alongside Nelson to replace Cashin. That says it all doesn’t it? A 35 year old left back preferred to him. Then when we had no option but to bring him on he produces another howler. He may improve but he’s 32 so I think that’s unlikely. We have dropped a clanger

Not sure he should have come on before Cashin 🤔

[Keepyuppy]

Bradley has one job - clear the ball at every opportunity - I don’t card if he puts it in the stand or hoofs it up front. 
 

As I said,,,,,, ONE BLOODY JOB !!!! 

[brady1993]

1 hour ago, duncanjwitham said:

That's where my last line comes in though.  I suspect at Luton he very rarely had to deal with these types of situations because of how they were setting up.  From what I remember they were a lot more compact and solid, so he would have had other defenders around him, midfielders tracking the guys closing him down and whatever.  So in that setup, you've got a defender who wins all his tackles and headers and very, very occasionally gets caught in possession or something, and you can work with that as a manager - every defender is going to cost you a goal or 2 per season, in some way or other.

Its possible as well that before when he was little sharper across the ground that he could make up for bad technique enough of the time that it had less consequences.

[MaltRam]

2 hours ago, EraniosSocks said:

Makes Te Wierek look like a Ballon D’or winner 

No, he does not.

[InstaRam]

Keogh fairly often got his teammates out of problems they created (on the field that is just to be clear) while Bradley so far often gets his teammates into problems which he's created. Thats a big difference.

Hope he can turn it around because there is a player in him. I am fearing that this start may however be to much for him to come back from. 

[EraniosSocks]

13 minutes ago, MaltRam said:

No, he does not.

Bet your a giggle at parties 

[MaltRam]

1 hour ago, EraniosSocks said:

Bet your a giggle at parties 

I'm normally shitfaced in the kitchen, so no idea, tbh.

Edited September 3, 2023 by MaltRam

[Millenniumram]

28 minutes ago, MaltRam said:

I'm normally shitfaced in the kitchen, so no idea, tbh.

You ever played football when that shitfaced? That’s what Sonny Bradley looks like