Is The Manager Getting Set Up For A Big McFall?

I really can’t say anything different with this match review than what has been said in the past month or so. But I will say there is something seriously bad behind the scenes at City, the current weekend is pretty standard, City against a team in the relegation zone and getting out played and beaten yet again. Many will know already I don’t rate McCall and I saw his second coming as a big mistake as I have followed his managerial career post City in the hope that 1 day he will make a name for himself after the initial debacle of his first City spell. Stats can show you what you like to see, but they are more than just results that you need to look at when comes to managers.

Looking at the squad, we really don’t have bad players, granted, the squad is a step back from the days of Parkinson, but this set of players should be able to compete with the bottom teams of the division easily. Half time the latics boasted 58% possession with double the shots that the Bantams have managed and once again City has failed to register a single shot on target during a match half. I have been asking myself the question, how long can we go on like this until there is a change in ownership of the club OR management.

We are now on a run of 6 straight losses, most of which to bottom teams, we’ve now lost 8 times in our past 10 games, that’s a loss record of 80% since just before Xmas, a month and a half ago. This is bad, even for McCall, or is it? This isn’t the first time he has had a run like this. Before getting released at Motherwell, he managed only 2 wins in the opening 15 games of the season at a club that is so used to finishing towards the top end of the SPL, that run also saw 11 losses. This is starting to look all too familiar.

Is this run part of the bigger picture?
I am starting to think there is more to an incompetent manager at the helm as what would initially appear in black and white Is this all down to the manager? Will the message from the Chairmen come at the season end be solemn, as if someone has died after announcing McCall is gone, and in doing so, getting their own man in, a certain German manager perhaps? Rosler was far from a popular choice when the rumour mill went around before Parkinson unceremoniously left the club which in itself was a bit obtuse and that McCall was signed as a ‘get the fans on side’ marquee. Now the chairmen have failed in running the club how we want them to, so will it be a case of letting them run it how they want to. There is no truth in this assumption, this is all it is, an assumption, but it does make you think, and right now, how many City fans would take Rosler over McCall? A lot more than last year, that I am certain. I didn’t want Rosler last year, but now I would actually give him a try. It is very very hard to back any manager when every single game results in a loss and we can’t compete against the ‘uncompetable’. Maybe it got to a stage that the Chairmen realised under McCall we had a chance of promotion and deep down know of the financial reality of competing in a division higher and think we or they are not ready for the 2nd tier of English football. The squad would need serious investment, and it would be difficult to keep season tickets as affordable as they are.

The less said about this latest game, the better. All I will say is this, Cameron Dummigan scored his 3rd career goal early in the first half, only his 2nd of the season and Aaron Holloway notched in his 4th of the season in the 2nd half. In 7 years, Holloway averages a league goal in just over every 14 games. Of late, players that have traditionally been unable to score find themselves against the Bantams on the score sheet, every single game. Coincidence? Or just a random pattern? It isn’t the dangermen of bottom teams we need to fear, we seem to be keeping them out. Wonder what odds the actual scorers are getting in every single City game of late especially over more prolific scorers. Will it be the same in the next game? Young Jordan Gibson scored a consolation, his first professional goal with minutes to go, in doing so, denied Oldham dishing out a 3rd consecutive blank to the Bantams.

Result
Half time Latics 1-0 City
Dummigan (12)
Full Time Latics 2-1 City
Holloway (86), Gibson (88)

Card watch
Matty Lund (56) – Season total – 3 yellows
Adam Chicksen (80) – Season total – 3 yellows 1 red
Timothee Dieng (85) – Season total – 4 yellows

Ref watch
Anthony Blackhouse has already officiated 2 City games this season, both wins for the Bantams, unfortunately Blackhouse wasn’t going to make it a hat trick. Anthony booked Latics’ player Dummigan in the first half and Byrne in the 2nd, which means both players are 1 away from an automatic suspension. Dieng for City received his 4th yellow of 2017/18 very late on in the game which means he is 1 away from an automatic suspension. 5 yellows in total, 2 for the latics, 3 Bantams. In 26 games this season, Blackhouse has handed out 82 yellows 7 reds.

Attendance
5526

Line ups
Oldham Athletic 4-3-1-2
Johny Placide, Cameron Dummigan, Wilfried Moimbe, Anthony Gerrard, Kean Bryan, Dan Gardner (67 Ryan McLaughlin), Ben Pringle, Ousmane Fane, Jack Byrne (73 Temitope Ayoluwa Obadeyi), Craig Davies, Duckens Nazon (62 Aaron Amadi Holloway)
Subs not used: Zeus de la Paz, Brian Wilson, Kundai Benyu, Gevaro Nepomuceno

Bradford City 3-5-2
Colin Doyle, Ryan McGowan, Matt Kilgallon, Stephen Warnock, Adam Chicksen, Romain Vincelot (73 Dominic Poleon), Callum Guy, Anthony McMahon, Matthew Lund (62 Timothee Dieng), Charlie Wyke, Shay McCartan (80 Jordan Gibson)
Subs not used: Lukas Raeder, Kai Bruenker, Nat Knight-Percival, Joel Grodowski

2017/18 City Scorers
13 – Charlie Wyke
6 – Dominic Poleon, Paul Taylor
5 – Alex Jones, Romain Vincelot
3 – Patrick Omari, Nathaniel Knight-Percival, Matt Kilgallon, Shay McCartan
2 – Tyrell Robinson, Alex Gilliead
1 – Jacob Hanson, Tony McMahon, Adam Thompson, Timothee Dieng, Jordan Gibson
1 – Own goals, Aristote Nsiala (Shrewsbury Town)

Upcoming fixtures
Bury (H) Sat 10th Feb
Charlton Athletic (A) Tues 13th Feb
Wigan Athletic (H) Sat 17th Feb
Plymouth Argyle (A) Sat 24th Feb
Portsmouth (H) Sat 3rd Mar