Graham Alexander doesn’t hold back when reacting to Bradford’s comeback win against Newcastle U21s in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday night.
The Bantams boss wasn’t happy with his side’s performance for the first hour of the game, with Matheos Ferreira putting the Magpies ahead on just before half time.
But after making three subs on the 57th minute, Nick Powell came off the bench to turn the scoreline around, scoring in the 59th and 71st minute.
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Talking with BBC Sport West Yorkshire, he said: “I think it’s an important lesson for certain individuals tonight that your preparation for a game is not just ‘I’ve had the right drinks and I’ve got my shin pads on’, it’s a mental preparation that you are going to be absolutely top notch and this is the most important game you’re ever going to play until the next one.
“That’s it. That’s all we want from players. I said to the players all the time, all I want from my players is for them to go home feeling good about themselves.
“So I asked them who felt good at half time. You could guess what the answer was.
“So I think now, see the changing room, they’re feeling good about themselves but they have to understand why and I think the three swords that came on showed why.”
“The three players that came on, that is us. That. Is. Us.”
Graham Alexander didn’t hold back in his assessment of Bradford City’s EFL Trophy win against Newcastle’s u21s, bemoaning a lack of intensity from his starting XI.
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Interviewer: “What did they do then? What injection did they bring to this team to, well, get the scoreline back in your favour, but also inject that pace and energy that you’ve spoken about?”
Graham: “Well, there you go, pace and energy and they look like they love playing football. It’s really simple.
“We keep the game really simple for players and we talk about a base level, just enjoying your job, enjoying being a footballer.
“Every time you get an opportunity to go out on that grass and play football, what more do you want? What more do you want? You want to go out and play football and then go and just express yourself.
“We give them such a license to go pass forward, run forward, have a shot, cross, one-twos, everything. All the stuff that I would expect footballers to enjoy doing.
“And then we just play too slow and don’t take risks and we pass backwards and we’re getting players in good positions and I don’t think they, I don’t know, there’s a carelessness about some of our play.
“And I said it on Saturday, but that’s in an ultra intense environment away from home against a really top club.
“We should be better than that in the first half especially, or the first hour. And it’s not just on the three players that came off, it’s other players on there.
“I said to… you know because Chris said about some change at half time, said no, because this is their game. I’m not taking away from them. If they want to take it away from them, then that’s up to them.
“But yeah, don’t want to get into a rant, we’ve won a game of football and I’m delighted we have, you know what mean?
‘But I think you could just see the three players that came on. That is us. That is us in real simple terms.”
Talking to the club’s media, he said: “Not the greatest performance from us, certainly in first hour. We were a little bit slow, little bit non-committal in certain areas.
“I thought we didn’t play at the pace that we play in other games, which is sort of underpins our way of playing and the pressure we put on the opponents.
“So Newcastle took the lead. thought they probably, do they deserve it? I don’t know, but I think they had better quality in those sort of moments. I said, I can see it coming sort of thing.
“So that’s at this point, moment of it, because I want players to just want the best for themselves and feel good about themselves when they go home.
“And the only way you do that is if you empty a lot into it and commit to games.
“I just didn’t think we did that in the first half and I thought the contrast when three subs come on, Bobby, Nick and Harry, you could just see the energy, the desire, the quality in the final third and two fantastic finishes from Nick.
“We were reasonably comfortable defensively in that but I think we have to learn from the first half and there was a little bit that bled into today from yesterday’s training that suggested that performance might be on the cards.
“So that’s a lesson for us as a group that if we drop our level even the day before game, it’s going to seep into our performance and then we become a bang average team and we’re better than that. And I think we showed that in the last half.”
Graham Alexander doesn’t hold back in reacting to Bradford’s comeback win against Newcastle U21s, here’s the social media reaction…
@SwissBantam: Alexander sounds like a City fan…. One of us. Love it
@cockney_bantam: I fucking love this gaffer. Complete lack of bullshit. #bcafc
@Harrybcafc__: Can’t see swan and Humphrys getting back in the squad now didn’t look arsed one bit
@allmoshnopit: He personifies everything this club should have been when we were rotting away in League 2 for all those years. What a man
@BantamsUnfiltrd: Pretty brutal, but that’s what I like about him! City father figure to the players #bcafc
@JamieRaynor: A far from impressed Graham Alexander #bcafc
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