What we learned from Carlisle United's loss to Bradford City

1 FALSE STARTS

Through pre-season and into the early competitive stuff, a concern appeared to be Carlisle’s habit for conceding goals early in the second half of games.

Now things have shifted. They’re doing the same, but at the start of the first half instead.

The new pattern is one of United having to haul themselves back into games almost immediately and the record shows it is, more often than not, proving too much for the Blues.

Andy Cook punished his former club inside the first two minutes - adding to a recent pattern of early goals United have conceded (Image: Martyn Haworth)

Andy Cook scored for Bradford inside the second minute at Valley Parade. That was a mere four minutes quicker than Omari Patrick’s opener for Tranmere Rovers a week earlier.

Before that, MK Dons had lasted a relatively patient 18 minutes before opening the scoring and Carlisle’s league defeat before that, at Gillingham, was launched with a second-minute goal for the opposition.

The only league game this season when United haven’t followed this habit, they’ve won (1-0 against Barrow). On two of the other occasions, they’ve equalised (Tranmere, Bradford) but only held that position for 30 and 12 minutes respectively. Barrow is the only game when they've led.

When those cursed “individual errors” are happening so early, it does not speak well of United’s readiness or robustness under pressure, and sets the stage for a game straight away to be played on different terms than they’d initially like.

At the other end, meanwhile, there is no law against Carlisle scoring early themselves yet, not for the first time, were not ruthless enough when one of their own chances came along straight away on Saturday.

Charlie Wyke could have scored even before Cook put Bradford in front. At MK Dons, they had a promising attack soon after kick-off which Dan Adu-Adjei couldn’t convert.

Vive le difference.

2 CENTRAL PROBLEM

When was the last time a Carlisle United centre-forward scored in a competitive game away from home?

That we can pose this question and not instantly be able to answer it highlights another concern about the Blues right now.

The answer is: March 9. On that day, Luke Armstrong put Carlisle in front against Charlton Athletic.

Charlie Wyke missed good chances on Saturday and is still waiting for the first goal of his second Blues spell (Image: Martyn Haworth)

That means United have played eight games on the road since then without any of their frontmen troubling the scorers.

Three of those matches have come since their “step change” summer of recruitment for League Two football, placing extra stress on their efforts to lift spirits with goals and results after relegation.

Both at home and away they’ve had only one goal from a striker (Daniel Adu-Adjei) in their last 15 or 17 games (depending on whether you class Dan Butterworth as a striker, regarding his goals against Stevenage in March).

These are light returns indeed from the men paid to achieve the point of the game. United are not showing any teeth when their supposed finishers are getting the ball close to goal and Charlie Wyke’s struggles in this respect went on at Bradford.

In the first minute he was off-target with a more than reasonable chance, then early in the second half failed to take the kind of chance you’d have expected him to convert blindfolded.

It goes to show that even strikers with Wyke’s pedigree suffer these moments, sometimes in succession. One imagines the goal will come before too long and confidence hopefully with it.

That it is coinciding with Carlisle’s other struggles, though, make this an awkward feature of things right now. It means United are having to tease goals out of other departments – which they did, with a huge piece of fortune on Saturday – and being able to do so is never a bad thing.

But the value of a striker with his eye in was starkly underlined by the opposition on Saturday. Someone with Andy Cook's finishing reliability us what Carlisle assumed they’d recruited in Wyke in the summer (and Armstrong further back) and these well-regarded forwards really can’t keep us waiting much longer for some tangible returns.

3 COMING TO PASS

To the naked eye there was a clear difference in United’s passing approach on Saturday.

It was evident that Carlisle’s caretakers had introduced a different method, in line with owner Tom Piatak’s insistence that a certain style of play needs to take hold after Paul Simpson's removal.

The statistics very much bear out the change too, considering the Blues officially passed the ball more than in any other league game this season.

According to WhoScored.com data, Carlisle made 440 passes at Valley Parade.

That is more than against Tranmere, MK Dons, Barrow and Gillingham in Simpson’s final league games in charge.

Carlisle's leaning to a more passing style cost them early on but the new approach looks here to stay (Image: Martyn Haworth)

Granted, the difference to the Tranmere game was marginal (431 passes) but it was clearer compared with the others (333 at MK Dons, 283 against Barrow, 404 at Gillingham).

All in all it was the most United have passed the ball in league football since April 1’s 3-1 home defeat to Lincoln City, and is all the more striking that Carlisle attempted this in an away game against a side with a sturdy recent record at their own ground.

Some 77 per cent of Carlisle’s passes were deemed “short” and, in general, it looks like this is the style we and they are going to become accustomed to, given the leanings of those at the top of the Blues and the preferences too, it seems, of their caretakers.

The desire for a change to how United played under Simpson latterly is understandable and needs little argument to justify it considering how bad Carlisle’s results were for too long under their previous ways.

There is still a tightrope to be walked, though, in that United are trying this costume change in the middle of some bad form and with any jarring in the adjustment at risk of what we saw when Jon Mellish miscontrolled Harry Lewis's pass and Bradford scored their first goal.

Honing this new style, in the teeth of poor results and after a summer of recruiting for a different system, is unlikely to be a straight road. Let us hope whoever will be preaching the new ways in the longer term, and the players themselves, are good enough to make it work – and stay the right side of the line between principle and productivity.