Forest Green Rovers v Bradford City: Mark Hughes is on the ball when it comes to Bantams’ potential

In 35 league games this season, the Bantams have averaged a 47 per cent share of possession and Hughes is keen to improve that.

The former Manchester City and Blackburn Rovers manager is still awaiting his first win as Bradford chief, after losing his first two games in charge at the club. The Bantams have lost their last five games on the spin and visit league leaders Forest Green Rovers this afternoon.

“I have been pleased with the amount of technical ability in the group, and want us to play with more possession and passing than we are at the moment,” said Hughes.

“Going down the road of more possession and asking more questions of other teams by keeping the ball will help us in the long term. It is about quickly recognising what the group is best served to accomplish. We have just been assessing the squad over the last couple of weeks.

“We have had another productive week on the grass, and done further work today which will lend itself to the weekend’s game. Obviously, we want a result at the end of it, to quantify that.”

Forest Green have lost just four games this campaign and are eight points clear at the top of the League Two table.

Hughes is confident his side can cause them problems and added: “They are a threat, we understand that, but we have things we can do that they will be concerned about. We will set a different type of problem for them, different to what they might have thought three or four weeks ago.”