Graham Alexander feels Brad Haillday brought new dimensions at both ends of the field as an emergency centre-back for Bradford City.
The Bantams have been so depleted that they recently signed Paul Huntington to help fill up their roster. However, when Neill Byrne became ill before of Saturday’s game at Tranmere Rovers, and Huntington was sick earlier in the week, right-back Halliday was forced into the back three.
His defensive instincts helped Bradford keep their first clean sheet away from home in League Two this season, and he also contributed going forward.
“They’ve got a really mobile front three,” said Bantams manager Alexander, who used to play right back.
“We have good players, and when we get consistent with how we want to play, the message is sent to each person, who can take it on board.
“We just modified it at the end to bring Corry (Evans) and Hunty on and give us a little more assurance and composure for a tense 10 minutes.
“Brad is a tremendous example to the rest of us that if you train properly and take use of your opportunities, you can play as good as anyone.
“He’s not played there in pre-season or any other games but he understands the game and how we want to play.”
Back threes function best when flexible and willing to attack, as Sheffield United demonstrated in a style Stuart McCall briefly attempted to emulate while managing the Bantams.
“We were encouraging Brad to come into the game,” Alexander explained. “He wanted to bomb forward, but I believe he was confused whether we wanted him to.
“Hopefully we get some centre-halves back – or at least keep the ones we’ve got.”
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