Pre-match thoughts from the Gaffer
United head for Capital One Cup heroes Bradford on Saturday knowing they face the side that everyone has been talking about this week. The Bantams enjoyed a superb 3-1 semi-final win over Aston Villa on Tuesday night and Yellow Player asked United manager Chris Wilder whether that result made it a good or bad time to be travelling to face Phil Parkinson’s side.
“Who knows what to expect really” Chris said at the training ground. “They are flying at the moment, their crowd will be behind them but for sure it takes it out of you physically and mentally when you are playing a Premier League side. You are going to have to concentrate all of the way through and physically you are going to have to put a real shift in. They are on a high and are buzzing and certainly deserve all the recognition and praise because they have a lot of very good players. I’m delighted for Phil and Steve Parkin and the players because it’s a good club and they have worked very hard to put themselves in that position. It has been a fantastic achievement.”
United can call on loan signing Lewis Montrose for the first time. The Gillingham midfielder has been cup tied for the last two fixtures but is in the squad for the first time at Valley Parade on Saturday.
“Lewis has not disappointed us” Chris told Yellow Player. “He has a great attitude and is a good talker and I’m looking forward to him playing on Saturday. Our team looks a lot stronger than it was on Tuesday night. I’d have loved to play a stronger side against Southend but circumstances dictated that I couldn’t, even though we gave it a great effort. Now we have to concentrate on the league campaign.“
That league campaign sees a tough run of games coming up against sides at the top of the table, but the manager believes that may not be such a bad thing:
“We have a tough set of fixtures coming up but I have to say that I’d rather play these fixtures because Bradford aren’t going to do what they did against Villa and Arsenal where they sat everyone behind the ball because you have to have a real good shape about you against Premier League sides. Maybe the onus is on them to come out and come at us, and maybe the same with the teams coming up because they have got to go for wins and we’re not bad when teams open up. We have players that can hurt them. So I am sure it will be a positive game and it can go either way.”
See the full video interview plus a fifteen minute preview show in Yellow Player.