Bradford City boss not about Barrow revenge at Valley Parade
GARHAM Alexander maintains that he is not out to get revenge this afternoon, given that Bradford City’s first matchup pits him against the opponents he faced in his last league.
The 52-year-old takes the field for the first time with his team against Barrow at Valley Parade, barely four weeks after his team’s failure to hang on to a 2-0 lead in injury time to draw 2-2 with the Cumbrians at MK Dons was the last straw.
Two days later, the Buckinghamshire outfit fired him.
However, given how football operates, that is possible.
“There are many heartbreaking tales from the almost 1,500 games I’ve overseen and participated in.
“I would be carrying a huge bag on my shoulder if I were to carry that around with me.
“I go into every game and every competition with a fresh mind, wanting to beat everybody.
“There’s no one I’ve got a soft spot for; I want to beat the next team in front of me, and that mentality has been with me since I was 10 years old.”
And Alexander admits he is fired up by his first city game taking place at Valley Parade.
Asked how excited he was to be starting out at home, he said, “It’s a major draw for the job, the fact you’re trying to produce in front of 18,000+ fans.
“If you can get it going, especially against the big teams, that’s special.
“You want to show those supporters what you’ve got as a manager and what your team’s got.
“It’ll take more than one game, (assistant manager) Chris (Lucketti), and I know that, but we’ve been reasonably good at picking up the pace quite quickly coming into teams in mid-season in the past, because we know how fast you have to work in football.
“There’s a lot to work with here; it’s not like we’re picking a dead body up off the street and trying to revive it.
“It’s kicking, it’s got a beating heart, and it’s ready to go.
“We’re trying to enhance that, trigger that, and take the positives we’ve already seen.
“We’ve also got to improve the bits that need improving, because we’re not stupid, nor are the players; they know 16th isn’t good enough for a club of Bradford City’s size.”
Alexander gave little away about how he would set his side up against Barrow, insisting it all depends on what he sees in front of him.The former Scotland international said, “I’ve always adapted my style and tactics to the personnel I’ve got.
“I’ve had my teams be really possession-based, or some quite direct, like at Motherwell, because that was the way we felt we had to go there to win games.
“If you’re going to be guaranteed three years to produce exactly what you want at a club, great, but I don’t think that’s the reality of football.
“You need to get the best out of the group of players you’ve got right in front of you.
“If you go in in January and you’re bottom of the league with 18 games to go, which was the case for us at Motherwell, there’s no philosophy to put in place or chance to wait until the next window because you might be relegated by then.
“We had to form a team to win enough games to survive, which we did, and then we took it on from there.
“It was the same principle when Chris and I went to Salford.
“They’d just won the league the season before, so there was a lot of positive stuff already there.
“That meant we softened our message a bit and kept that because the players had been winning a lot, so they were thinking, ‘why would we change it?’
“I think it’s about having that emotional, football intelligence to say, ‘This is what this team needs’.
“I believe my versatility is what allows me to assess our squad and create a winning team from what we have.”
“It’s great if you have the time to work through it and shape it into what you want in the end, but you have to try and get started as soon as possible.”
“As a player, it was the same for me; I played in many different positions and across the divisions,” he continued.
“As a player, you have to adapt; I believe that’s a quality I’ve brought to coaching.”
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