Bradford v Swansea Capital One Cup Final Preview & Analysis

                         

                   

Bradford City vs Swansea City

Capital One Cup Final

Sunday 24/02/13

16:00pm K.O.

Wembley

Referee: Kevin Friend

Match Preview, Statistics & Analysis

Bradford's cup hero James Hanson - does he have one
last display of heroics in him?

Bradford come into this game looking to continue a remarkable run of results which has seen them remove Arsenal, Wigan, and most recently Aston Villa from this competition. Their league form has suffered, however, and they've slid down the league since Christmas and currently occupy 11th position in League Two, although they have at least a game in hand over all of the clubs positioned above them. They seemed to turn a corner at Wycombe just before Valentine's Day, where they triumphed 3-0, but a 2-1 reverse at AFC Wimbledon followed leaving Bradford with the unwanted statistic of only winning once in 2013 thus far.

Swansea's results have been a bit all over the shop recently. A couple of impressive performances have been blurred by the mauling at the hands of Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool, however given the fact that the team humbled was far from a full strength XI, that one game alone is unlikely to have damaged Swansea's confidence. One note for concern (possibly) is that if you look at the Swans' results over the last few months, we have failed to score in 6 of the last 8 games. No cause for concern just yet, but others are going to have to weigh in with more goals otherwise these missed opportunities will cost us easy points.

Prior Form

League Two Wimbledon  2-1 Bradford                  Sat 16 Feb
League Two Wycombe    0-3 Bradford                 Tue 12 Feb
League Two Bradford    0-1 Gillingham                 Sat 9  Feb
League Two Fleetwood   2-2 Bradford                 Sat 2  Feb
League Cup             Aston Villa   2-1 Bradford (agg 3-4) Tue 22 Jan



Premier League       Liverpool     5-0 Swansea               Sun 17 Feb
Premier League       Swansea     4-1 QPR                       Sat 9 Feb
Premier League       West Ham   1-0 Swansea                 Sat 2 Feb
Premier League       Sunderland   0-0 Swansea               Tue 29 Jan
League Cup              Swansea     0-0 Chelsea (agg 2-0) Wed 23 Jan



Odds: Bradford 15-2, Swansea 4-11, Draw 7-2

Team News

Bradford should have Rory McArdle back after a spell out with an ankle injury, but he'll be competing against Michael Nelson, Carl McHugh and Andrew Davies, who has also just returned to the team following an injury. Andy Gray is ineligible, but in Hanson & Nahki Wells Bradford have the clichéd "little and large" strikeforce which, while one of the oldest tactics in the game, when deployed successfully is a very effective tactic.

Jonathan De Guzman: Will he miss out?

Swansea, who of course confirmed that Chico Flores will miss the cup final through injury (check out the photos here of his ankle! Ouch!), so it's up to Laudrup to decide who will fill the crazy-Spaniard-shaped hole in the Swans defence. Monk & Bartley will both be hoping they get the nod, but who does remains to be seen. Aside from the still-recovering Neil Taylor, the Swans squad have a clean bill of health and other than the defensive dilemma, Laudrup's biggest headache will be who to leave out of midfield. Ki, Leon, De Guzman, Pablo, Routledge & Dyer can all legitimately claim they deserve a place in the side, however unless Laudrup does something drastic tactically (please no) then one of the six is likely to miss out.

Trivia - "Courtesy" of Opta, the BBC and various other sites:

• This will be the first match between Bradford and Swansea in a major cup competition.
• The Swans are unbeaten in their last four league encounters with the Bantams, all of which came in League One. However, three of those matches were drawn.
• Swansea have only won two of their last eight games in all competitions (D3 L3) and have failed to score in six of those games.
• Bradford's last win against Swansea was a 5-1 victory at Valley Parade in the third tier on 30 March 1996.

• The Bantams are the second side from the fourth tier of English football to reach the League Cup final. Rochdale also managed it in 1962, losing to Division Two Norwich over two legs, although that many top clubs declined to enter the League Cup at that time.
• Victory would see Bradford become the sixth club from outside the top flight to win the competition.
• Bradford have kept clean sheets in only two of their last 15 League Cup ties.
• Bradford have only won two of their last 11 games in all competitions, drawing two and losing seven.
• They have won nine consecutive penalty shootouts - an English record.

• The Swans have reached the final of the League Cup for the first time in their history. Prior to this season they had never gone beyond the fourth round of the competition.
• Michael Laudrup's men have won twice in eight league and cup games since booking their place in the final.
• Swansea's most recent defeat against League Two opposition was a 3-1 loss to Shrewsbury in the second round of the League Cup last season.
• They have kept clean sheets in their last three League Cup matches. They have gone 284 minutes since they last conceded in the competition.

Completely guessed lineups

Bradford City

 Duke

Darby             Nelson          McArdle         McHugh 

Hines                   G Jones(C)              Doyle               Reid

Wells                Hanson 

      Michu

Hernandez              Routledge               Dyer

Britton             Ki S-Y

Davies            Williams(C)   Monk        Rangel

   Vorm

   Swansea City

Analysis

The game is finally here. Well, almost. Fans of both Bradford & Swansea alike must be counting the hours now to what is undoubtedly the biggest game, in terms of grandeur at least, of their lifetimes. We've heard all the usual stories cup stories of how "that striker used to stack shelves until a year or two ago" but it's unheralded for that striker, and his team, to make it all the way to the final of one of the major trophies. The only other time a side plying it's trade in the fourth tier of league football managed to reach the League Cup final was in 1962, where Rochdale managed it but lost to Norwich over two legs.

The main talking point for Swansea, as mentioned earlier, is who should partner Ashley Williams at centre-back, with Laudrup admitting he's still undecided on the issue as I type this (Friday afternoon). Garry Monk has a wealth of experience, literally playing through the pain barrier for the Swans on countless occasions. Last time out at Wembley he openly admits the first emotion he felt when Scott Sinclair hit the fourth goal was relief, as he was losing feeling in his foot and didn't think he'd manage to play through extra-time. Monk deserves to start for so many reasons, but you can't discount the argument posed by those in the Kyle Bartley camp.

Bigger, stronger, and more mobile - Bartley possesses all the qualities you'd look for in someone who needs to oppose a 6'4" centre-forward (James Hanson - he of supermarket-shelf-stacking fame), and despite my predicted lineup I do think Bartley is the more sensible choice - but hey, I'm a romantic. I was gutted to hear Alan Tate has joined  Huddersfield on loan as I would have liked him to get off the bench and have a run around at some point, but that's one of many reasons I'm not a football manager. Nahki Wells, too, will likely find Kyle Bartley a tougher prospect than Garry Monk, but I think the elder of the two could still contain Bradford's threat up top.

Nahki Wells. 

In midfield whoever lines up for the Swans will be up against Gary Jones and Nathan Doyle. Depending on whether the Swans go with the "three wingers" option, or if Laudrup decides to name a more conservative midfield, will have a lot to do with how much pressure Bradford's engine room is put under. Out wide Zavon Hines and Kyle Reid both have the potential to create problems for Ben Davies and Angel Rangel, who will no doubt be looking to get forward at every opportunity to aid their teams quest for goals.

Up front for the Swans will surely be Michu - and he'll likely have Michael Nelson & Rory McArdle to deal with. Bradford seem a bit spoiled for choice at centre-back, so it should be interesting to see how they fare with one of the Premier League's leading scorers. It's impossible to predict but one thing is for sure, Michu will know exactly how strong the fourth division of league football is come the 90th minute.

Swansea need to take the sting out of this game early on. I'd like to see us play with Pablo Hernandez, Wayne Routldge and Nathan Dyer rotating behind Michu, but for the first 15 or 20 minutes I think we should retain as much possession as possible and try to drag Bradford out of position. They've played a lot of games this season already, and the Swansea players will be comparatively fresh when compared to their Yorkshire-based counterparts. The Swans should get the opportunity to showcase their neat passing on the expansive Wembley pitch, and unless Bradford can get some momentum early on it's likely they could spend large portions of the game chasing shadows.

For Bradford to have any chance they need to disrupt Swansea's rythym, as much of a cliché as that is. Set pieces and loose balls in the box have long been a problem for the Swans, and Bradford will know, and try to capitalise on, this. Hanson scored a dramatic late goal against Aston Villa so the Bradford players will have the belief necessary to carry them over the line if they have even the faintest whiff of victory - it is up to the Swansea players to extinguish any flicker of Bradford hope before it becomes a war of attrition.

It's a tough game to call, and due to popular request I'm no longer going to do predictions because I've got bad juju when it comes to these things, so I'll end by saying I think this will be a fantastic advert for the strength of British football - showing that traditionally unfashionable clubs can still derive successes from both the league and the cup. It's not all doom and gloom, and the more days like this, the better for football in general.

Oh, and the Swans could have qualified for Europe by Monday.

Iechyd Da.