Sonny Bradley

[Steve Buckley’s Dog]

14 minutes ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

The new Dave Walton

I had forgotten all about him. The new Mo Konjic for me. God we haven’t half signed a load of crap over the years. 

[May Contain Nuts]

1 hour ago, duncanjwitham said:

Curtis Davies last year was a player who's legs had gone.  You could see he still had the mental side of it, he could still read the game, sense danger, organise players around him etc, he just struggled to react quickly enough to it at times.  Sonny Bradley seems to have none of that.  He doesn't seem to read the game at all, attackers wander off him, he lets them go, they get the ball and we're in massive trouble.  Rinse and repeat.

I think the problem is he's basically just been dumped right in at the deep end in an already non-performing team.

His legs may well have gone, but we've done everything possible to highlight that by exposing him to a situation where it's utterly impossible for him to build up any understanding with the rest of his defenders, as they're all off doing their own thing and he has literally no midfield protection in front of him.

His return for Luton post-injury saw him play the full 90 in their final 5 league games before the play-offs. 5 games, 3 victories, just 3 goals conceded. I refuse to believe he looked anything like as bad as he has done here in those games.

I imagine coming straight back in after injury to play that many consecutive minutes also wasn't really ideal but it was made easier by familiarity. He still hasn't had any sort of structured return since recovering.

That's why he needed gradually introducing into the system here, preferably one which suits him, but we've handled it so badly that he looks overwhelmed to the point where he's not even capable of doing the things which should come naturally to him because of the overload of things he's being asked to do which don't.

I think pretty much ANY player would be looking a bit s*** in these circumstances, "legs gone" or not

Edited August 16, 2023 by Kokosnuss

[i-Ram]

I understand he talks well. Not all bad news.

[Chris_Martin]

11 hours ago, Ambitious said:

Yeah, no doubt he’s been s****, and has been hooked two times in four games at half time which is unheard of for a centre back. I do feel the system does him no favours, as for the rest of our side, perhaps with a change of formation we might be better for it and so would Bradley. 

i actually think he'd look even worse in a back 4 with the extra ground to cover. and just imagine if we actually pressed a bit and got players in the opponents half, he'd be completely exposed

[Chris_Martin]

10 hours ago, sage said:

His legs have gone. There was one incident just before he came off, the ball dropped into space about 5 yards from him and 10 from Cashin. He frantically started gesturing at Cashin to deal with it.

Warne has dropped a massive clanger. 

[Chris_Martin]

11 hours ago, Jourdan said:

He looked like the weakest link v Wigan and that seems to be a continuing trend in the games that have followed.

The system doesn’t play to his strengths, but equally we don’t have the players in the squad to cancel out his shortcomings. We don’t even know if a new system will completely remedy his issues.

What I struggle with is that he was our big summer signing and with that, he probably came with certain expectations and certain guarantees. How can he start at the moment?

Personally, Cashin and Forsyth would be my starting centre backs. Given we have signed several new ones whom were playing at a higher level previously, it doesn’t reflect well on the recruitment team whatsoever.

what's worrying is the system as it is should suit him. playing in a back 5 with nearly the whole team compressed in your own half. Going to a back 4 or pressing other teams at all will surely just leave him even more exposed

[Chris_Martin]

9 hours ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

I disagree with Hourihane.  I'd lose Smith or Bird to accommodate the fact he's the only midfielder who's getting 7 or 8 goals,  We did it with Idiakez in the past.  The trick is having the right players in midfield to do the other jobs on a consistent basis. 

you can't drop Bird he's probably our best player, although with the injury might have to now anyway☹️

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

3 minutes ago, Chris_Martin said:

you can't drop Bird he's probably our best player, although with the injury might have to now anyway☹️

I'm not of that opinion myself.  

[Chris_Martin]

Just now, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

I'm not of that opinion myself.  

what can hourihane do that bird can't, apart from free kicks

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

5 minutes ago, Chris_Martin said:

what can hourihane do that bird can't, apart from free kicks

Score 8-10 goals.

[ollycutts1982]

5 minutes ago, Chris_Martin said:

what can hourihane do that bird can't, apart from free kicks

Basically, score goals and create. Let’s face it in this team we are going to need goals from all over the pitch. 

[alram]

he has been a league one standard player his entire career, people get blinded by appearences at higher levels it doesnt mean you are a player of the standard of that division

 

it is why i was majorly concerned about recruitment this year compared to last year

 

last year we signed championship players on the decline, this year we have signed league one players on the decline

[oodledoodle]

9 minutes ago, Chris_Martin said:

what can hourihane do that bird can't, apart from free kicks

Get a new part time job at Villa.

[May Contain Nuts]

23 minutes ago, Chris_Martin said:

 playing in a back 5 with nearly the whole team compressed in your own half.

49 minutes ago, Chris_Martin said:

i actually think he'd look even worse in a back 4 with the extra ground to cover. and just imagine if we actually pressed a bit and got players in the opponents half, he'd be completely exposed

Sorry if this comes across as a bit rude, but I'm baffled by your comments, and I can't understand what matches  you've been watching to lead you to think we're camped in our own half with a solid back 5, not being exposed and with the defenders having little ground to cover?

The problem is that we're playing a high line, asking players to commit forward whenever they can, and  keep ending up in a situation where with nobody is in position to provide cover when we lose the ball, with the defenders miles apart and having to cover loads of ground!

This is a slightly exaggerated and simplistic view of it, I'll admit, but there are times it's looked a bit like this:

The blue box is (roughly) the amount of space Bradley is being asked to cover in our current set up. Sometimes it's a shared duty with one of the CBs staying in position or a midfielder dropping deep, but he's often being left isolated.

In a back 4 with a DM & some actua  wingers allowing the full-backs to maintain their defensive duties a bit, it looks more like this:

I'm really not sure how you can conclude that he'll be more exposed in a back 4.

Edited August 16, 2023 by Kokosnuss

[duncanjwitham]

Who is "click to edit", and can we sign him before Saturday?

[oodledoodle]

10 minutes ago, Kokosnuss said:

Sorry if this comes across as a bit rude, but I'm baffled by your comments, and I can't understand what matches  you've been watching to lead you to think we're camped in our own half with a solid back 5, not being exposed and with the defenders having little ground to cover?

The problem is that we're playing a high line, asking players to commit forward whenever they can, and  keep ending up in a situation where with nobody is in position to provide cover when we lose the ball, with the defenders miles apart and having to cover loads of ground!

This is a slightly exaggerated and simplistic view of it, I'll admit, but there are times it's looked a bit like this:

The blue box is (roughly) the amount of space Bradley is being asked to cover in our current set up. Sometimes it's a shared duty with one of the CBs staying in position or a midfielder dropping deep, but he's often being left isolated.

In a back 4 with a DM & some actua  wingers allowing the full-backs to maintain their defensive duties a bit, it looks more like this:

I'm really not sure how you can conclude that he'll be more exposed in a back 4.

You know you can move the players higher and lower on the pitch, right? Do you want a back 4 stood on the edge of their box all game?

[alram]

11 minutes ago, Kokosnuss said:

Sorry if this comes across as a bit rude, but I'm baffled by your comments, and I can't understand what matches  you've been watching to lead you to think we're camped in our own half with a solid back 5, not being exposed and with the defenders having little ground to cover?

The problem is that we're playing a high line, asking players to commit forward whenever they can, and  keep ending up in a situation where with nobody is in position to provide cover when we lose the ball, with the defenders miles apart and having to cover loads of ground!

This is a slightly exaggerated and simplistic view of it, I'll admit, but there are times it's looked a bit like this:

The blue box is (roughly) the amount of space Bradley is being asked to cover in our current set up. Sometimes it's a shared duty with one of the CBs staying in position or a midfielder dropping deep, but he's often being left isolated.

In a back 4 with a DM & some actua  wingers allowing the full-backs to maintain their defensive duties a bit, it looks more like this:

I'm really not sure how you can conclude that he'll be more exposed in a back 4.

From a simplistic view he isnt getting protection because every time we attack it takes 5 minutes for any player to get back to help any of our defenders because there is no legs in this team

 

we need to move to a more compact system, we are an open side that cant score goals or outrun teams. our recruitment really has been so so bad, i dont even think a system change will make a drastic difference because the same issues will occur in that we are too slow to get up and down the pitch

[May Contain Nuts]

29 minutes ago, oodledoodle said:

You know you can move the players higher and lower on the pitch, right? Do you want a back 4 stood on the edge of their box all game?

'tis merely a snapshot in time!

You can move the players forward and back, even side to side a little if you so wish, but if they operate as a unit then the amount of space they're each covering doesn't massively alter.

Unfortunately what we are is the opposite of a unit, and the players' starting positions already lead to larger gaps between them than in the back 4.

In the back 5 (as we play it) we have no width without significantly decreasing the defensive cover. With the back 4 we maintain some width from the wingers and a higher level of defensive cover from the fullbacks.

 

35 minutes ago, duncanjwitham said:

Who is "click to edit", and can we sign him before Saturday?

Plays for Rotherham! Or is it Barnsley. Maybe Cheltenham?

Edited August 16, 2023 by Kokosnuss

[gccrowdpleaser]

Bradley is not the problem at the back at all. Cashin seems untouchable to Rams fans but was absolutely woeful last night. Slow. Ponderous on the ball. Repeatedly dragged out of position.

In experience us part of it because there was very little talking but if somebody offered 500k I'd snap their hand off. 

[jimtastic56]

1 hour ago, Kokosnuss said:

I think the problem is he's basically just been dumped right in at the deep end in an already non-performing team.

His legs may well have gone, but we've done everything possible to highlight that by exposing him to a situation where it's utterly impossible for him to build up any understanding with the rest of his defenders, as they're all off doing their own thing and he has literally no midfield protection in front of him.

His return for Luton post-injury saw him play the full 90 in their final 5 league games before the play-offs. 5 games, 3 victories, just 3 goals conceded. I refuse to believe he looked anything like as bad as he has done here in those games.

I imagine coming straight back in after injury to play that many consecutive minutes also wasn't really ideal but it was made easier by familiarity. He still hasn't had any sort of structured return since recovering.

That's why he needed gradually introducing into the system here, preferably one which suits him, but we've handled it so badly that he looks overwhelmed to the point where he's not even capable of doing the things which should come naturally to him because of the overload of things he's being asked to do which don't.

I think pretty much ANY player would be looking a bit s*** in these circumstances, "legs gone" or not

I don’t know what’s happened to Cashin this season . He can certainly tackle but he seems to be getting slower by the week .There was talk last night of Sonny B having long covid which would explain him not lasting out games.