Current Staff Matt Bloomfield

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Matt Bloomfield

Position: Head Coach
Nationality: England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
Signed: 9th Jan 2026
Departed: DATE
Previous Clubs: Colchester United, Wycombe Wanderers & Luton
 
Identifying out best front four ( not too difficult) however coaching them as a unit to make the best of their abilities has been crucial. It was noted on RadOx last night how young they all are which brings athleticism and daring do. Something we were trying to recruit for but you don't always get what you want at the right time. Contrast with Bradshaw and Phillips who are now contributing well to Lg 1 sides. Their experience and know how prob. helped off the field but we didn't have all the luxury of swapping in talented youngsters who had the nous to adapt.
 
Steve Gilbert said:
I’m not sure now is the time to have an ‘identity’ but more about getting the best out of the team to get the required results. In the last 3 games he has done that. We still don’t have much of the ball but he has created a style that suits that and used it to our advantage.
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Not having the ball doesn’t bother me one bit. See my post elsewhere where I mentioned that at one point last night - roughly latter past of first half - Blackburn had 68% possession with one touch in our box. At the same point, with 32% possession, we’d had 18 touches in their box. Possession stats are the most useless, boring and meaningless stat ever produced !!!
 
I thought we were exceptional tonight. Just hope we can do Charlton on Saturday.
It’s incredible that we were still second bottom before that crucial Southampton goal.
We’re now playing with a settled team with little weakness. Harris will get opportunities still but will not be a regular starter for us again
 
Peterdev said:
I thought we were exceptional tonight. Just hope we can do Charlton on Saturday.
It’s incredible that we were still second bottom before that crucial Southampton goal.
We’re now playing with a settled team with little weakness. Harris will get opportunities still but will not be a regular starter for us again
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I know Harris was on briefly but when he came on his work rate was superb and he won a couple of crucial fouls. Obviously not a starter for us but such a useful option when we are looking to run the game out.
 
Eric Blair said:
I know Harris was on briefly but when he came on his work rate was superb and he won a couple of crucial fouls. Obviously not a starter for us but such a useful option when we are looking to run the game out.
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Be surprised if we are champ if he's here next season and I'd be disappointed! Nothing against him just think we've moved on! And will need to move on if we want to be a top 30 club
 
I think a large part is confidence to try things and make mistakes.

In darker times this season the ball was a hot potato but now we see our players bringing it under control and looking for someone with a much better ball. Consequently so much more of our possession is dangerous possession as opposed to useless possession such as Blackburn had all game last night
 
It took a little while but MB has appeared to settle on a style and a team which is welcome, plus it's a method that doesn't change much home or away which I think simplifies things a lot.

The additional physicality/mobility of MPH, Donley and Konak has made a big difference (Rowett often said we needed more physicality), we're quite direct and not shy of keeping the ball alive around the penalty area rather than recycling it back to our defenders.

I do think our big error over the summer was attempting to change our style to try and have more of the ball and more control, rather than build on our more solid/set-piece focused method that was successful at the end of last season. I wonder whether that came from Rowett or from the club.
 
Interesting his comments last night re Liking to continue to play a winning team, however for sat he may need to look at it. Wonder what players may need to be rested
 
Steve Gilbert said:
I’m not sure now is the time to have an ‘identity’ but more about getting the best out of the team to get the required results.
Click to expand...

Yeap. All this 'identity' stuff is a nonsense.

We tried imposing a 'Bloomfield identity' and ended up with Matt Phillips at left wing-back and signing the likes of Roosken (who is now completely surplus to requirements).

We're turning it around by going back to basics, playing to the squads strengths. By being more robust through the spine. By being more direct and 'playing the percentages'.

It's literally the opposite of trying to impose a linkedin style football management identity purely for the ego of the incumbent.

Do the best with what you've got and coach them, and motivate them, effectively. That's the job - not trying to develop yourself into some sort of brand.

We've given ourselves every chance.
 
Happy to admit that I thought Bloomfield was hopeless, and wanted him out after the Norwich farce. I'm still not convinced that he's doing anything more than playing our better players in their correct positions. But there has been huge improvement in the last couple of weeks. 50/50 chance of staying up imo. I still do not understand why Rowett was sacked for asking for better players- and we then gave those better players to Bloomfield. The January signings all look pretty good, and are a big upgrade on the December squad Rowett had. Oh well...
 
Every time we fielded the same side it was a disaster beforehand so there was a huge consistency problem which all of us could have identified. Playing to their strengths AND developing must be key and adding that edge of competition to the squad. If you look at who isn't getting near the starting 11 it's revealing let alone the bench. You do need additional players who can step up if needed thru injury or tactics as well. You are also taking a risk on Prem loan players as we know but it is a calculated one that is working out atm - those are our financial strictures.
 
SirAndyOfCrosby said:
Yeap. All this 'identity' stuff is a nonsense.

We tried imposing a 'Bloomfield identity' and ended up with Matt Phillips at left wing-back and signing the likes of Roosken (who is now completely surplus to requirements).

We're turning it around by going back to basics, playing to the squads strengths. By being more robust through the spine. By being more direct and 'playing the percentages'.

It's literally the opposite of trying to impose a linkedin style football management identity purely for the ego of the incumbent.

Do the best with what you've got and coach them, and motivate them, effectively. That's the job - not trying to develop yourself into some sort of brand.

We've given ourselves every chance.
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Exactly, better first team coaching, something that has been required for a long time.
 
Northernyellow said:
Happy to admit that I thought Bloomfield was hopeless, and wanted him out after the Norwich farce. I'm still not convinced that he's doing anything more than playing our better players in their correct positions. But there has been huge improvement in the last couple of weeks. 50/50 chance of staying up imo. I still do not understand why Rowett was sacked for asking for better players- and we then gave those better players to Bloomfield. The January signings all look pretty good, and are a big upgrade on the December squad Rowett had. Oh well...
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If Rowett had been our manager and got what he wanted the window would have looked very different
 
Eric Blair said:
I know Harris was on briefly but when he came on his work rate was superb and he won a couple of crucial fouls. Obviously not a starter for us but such a useful option when we are looking to run the game out.
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He was even better in that role against Preston imo. Helped kill the game, slow it down, got losing opposition players frustrated, bought some free kicks when the ball was at his feet.
SirAndyOfCrosby said:
Yeap. All this 'identity' stuff is a nonsense.

We tried imposing a 'Bloomfield identity' and ended up with Matt Phillips at left wing-back and signing the likes of Roosken (who is now completely surplus to requirements).

We're turning it around by going back to basics, playing to the squads strengths. By being more robust through the spine. By being more direct and 'playing the percentages'.

It's literally the opposite of trying to impose a linkedin style football management identity purely for the ego of the incumbent.

Do the best with what you've got and coach them, and motivate them, effectively. That's the job - not trying to develop yourself into some sort of brand.

We've given ourselves every chance.
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Sorry because I agree with what you’re seeing, but that is our identity. An identity is just a clear plan and/or way of playing, it doesn’t need to be a culture war.

Maybe Bloomfield tried to play what he considers his default or best style, and credit to him for changing it and finding something that worked better. But we are strong, physical, hard working, comfortable out of possession and direct. We control a game when we subject a team to a barrage of set pieces which we do not rush. If we haven’t had an identity in this winning run then I don’t know which way is up.
 
Eric Blair said:
I know Harris was on briefly but when he came on his work rate was superb and he won a couple of crucial fouls. Obviously not a starter for us but such a useful option when we are looking to run the game out.
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He also stood on the ball giving them a throw in before kneeing the it into touch while trying to break, killing our attack and giving them another chance to get it in the box. I don't think he was particularly helpful last night at all, although he did do a good job at Preston to be fair to him. Neither him nor Prelec did much to help the cause last night which lead to us being under the cosh a bit for the last 10 or so.
 
Some managers have success due to their tactical astuteness - coming up with something new for every opponent that gives them fits. Manning had a bit of this, and so did Des (see 2024 Playoff Final).

From what we've seen, I think Bloomfield may be older school. A man manager who's good at giving his players confidence and getting them to buy fully into the team ethos and run through walls for the cause. When he was trying to out-think opponents early in his reign, he mostly just out-thought himself. Now he's just playing the most obvious team in their most obvious positions, but he's got them singing a tune like they haven't all season.

And nothing wrong with that - football doesn't have to be complicated.
 
Joey said:
He also stood on the ball giving them a throw in before kneeing the it into touch while trying to break, killing our attack and giving them another chance to get it in the box. I don't think he was particularly helpful last night at all, although he did do a good job at Preston to be fair to him. Neither him nor Prelec did much to help the cause last night which lead to us being under the cosh a bit for the last 10 or so.
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They definitely had most of the ball for the last ten minutes but isn’t that almost inevitable in a game like that? Not sure I would describe it as under the cosh though. Apart from the goal mouth scramble when Cumming didn’t claim the ball properly I didn’t feel we were hugely threatened. I still think Harris can do a job for us (as long as that job isn’t scoring lots of goals)
 
tonyw said:
Some managers have success due to their tactical astuteness - coming up with something new for every opponent that gives them fits. Manning had a bit of this, and so did Des (see 2024 Playoff Final).

From what we've seen, I think Bloomfield may be older school. A man manager who's good at giving his players confidence and getting them to buy fully into the team ethos and run through walls for the cause. When he was trying to out-think opponents early in his reign, he mostly just out-thought himself. Now he's just playing the most obvious team in their most obvious positions, but he's got them singing a tune like they haven't all season.

And nothing wrong with that - football doesn't have to be complicated.
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Agree. There was a lot of talk about patterns and inverted full backs before he arrived but all we've seen since Norwich is plenty of confidence, stemming largely from round pegs in round holes. We play as a unit, defend for our lives all over the pitch and get it wide very early.
Last night we started to find more overloads and I still think this will be the key to us staying up. Lankshear needs to hold it for longer to give Currie a chance to drift outside MPH. On the other side Mills needs to back himself and play more early balls in. He is starting to do quite a good impression of a right footed Josh Murphy!
 
The Voice Of Reason said:
Interesting his comments last night re Liking to continue to play a winning team, however for sat he may need to look at it. Wonder what players may need to be rested
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Players in the higher Octane positions I suspect. So wingers I suspect and possibly Lankshear given the amount of running he has done. A lot will depend on how they are this week. I can't see lots of changes..
 
Eric Blair said:
They definitely had most of the ball for the last ten minutes but isn’t that almost inevitable in a game like that? Not sure I would describe it as under the cosh though. Apart from the goal mouth scramble when Cumming didn’t claim the ball properly I didn’t feel we were hugely threatened. I still think Harris can do a job for us (as long as that job isn’t scoring lots of goals)
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Sure, that's often how it goes but it doesn't excuse some basic mistakes that put us under a bit of pressure when we could have relieved it. Blackburn were crap so it didn't cost us but I thought it was a pretty poor cameo from Harris last night and I'm reluctant to give too much praise for just doing what he should, like allowing contact to win a foul that you could see coming a mile away as he did on the touchline last night. I'm a bigger fan of Prelec but also thought he didn't give us much, I don't expect him to blindly run after things he's got no chance of getting and end up out the game like Mackie used to but the ball didn't stick and he didn't make himself as available as he should have.
 
Joey said:
Sure, that's often how it goes but it doesn't excuse some basic mistakes that put us under a bit of pressure when we could have relieved it. Blackburn were crap so it didn't cost us but I thought it was a pretty poor cameo from Harris last night and I'm reluctant to give too much praise for just doing what he should, like allowing contact to win a foul that you could see coming a mile away as he did on the touchline last night. I'm a bigger fan of Prelec but also thought he didn't give us much, I don't expect him to blindly run after things he's got no chance of getting and end up out the game like Mackie used to but the ball didn't stick and he didn't make himself as available as he should have.
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Prelec seemed to be following some instructions that he didn’t fully understand , and doing it very literally- like don’t get out of position, and dont go running around after the ball.
 
I thought we looked so much better out if possession last night. Pressing as a unit, closing down space, shutting off lasing lanes, and constantly forcing them back to their back four, and then dealing with the long balls.

The best part is how instinctive it all looked. Players knew their role, and knew their mates would be doing theirs too. Such a difference from chasing back towards our own goal, players not thinking it acting as a unit. To my untrained eye, it looks like the result of a) a hell of a lot of work and b) the benefit of finding a settled side.
 
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