Power Rankings
Power still leads as Wright joins Tier 1 in Bradford’s rolling rankings
Max Power remains Bradford City’s top-rated player, but Joe Wright’s Exeter winner lifts him into Tier 1 alongside his captain, while Tyreik Wright and Aden Baldwin surge up the rankings and Neill Byrne, Antoni Sarcevic and Alexander Pattison slide.
Max Power stays where he was a week ago: first, in Tier 1, and still the reference point for everything Bradford do. The context around him has changed. Barnsley’s 2–2 draw has dropped out of the five-game window.
Within that block, Power has played 457 minutes with an average rating of 7.39, made 12 tackles, seven key passes and completed 197 of 256 passes at just under 77 per cent. His Total score of 75.33 is slightly down on last week (–0.72), but still built on the same foundations: a performance score of 24.90 and a much heavier contribution score of 47.57, underlining how much of Bradford’s structure runs through his positioning and distribution rather than eye-catching moments.
Exeter is a neat example. On the numbers it adds a single assist – the set-piece cross Joe Wright finishes – and another seven-plus rating. In reality it’s 90 minutes of orchestration in a game where City have to play long stretches without the ball and lean on their captain to push them up the pitch when they do regain it.
Max Power
MIDSummary
This five-game spell began with the 1–1 draw at Stevenage and ended with the 1–0 win over Exeter City at Valley Parade, and across it Max Power increasingly looked like the player Graham Alexander has built his side around. Exeter was the clearest reminder: he supplied the assist for Joe Wright’s 20th-minute winner with a pinpoint cross after a set-piece situation, then spent the rest of the afternoon organising a midfield that had to live without the ball for long spells in a game where City saw less possession and faced a higher shot count. His composure and game-management were a key part of getting Bradford over the line.
Stevenage demanded something different from him: Power operated in a more defensive role, focused on breaking up play and recycling possession in a second-ball-heavy contest rather than taking creative risks. Lincoln posed the hardest test. Michael Skubala dropped James Collins deeper to create an extra midfielder, crowding Power and Jenson Metcalfe in central areas. Power kept demanding the ball despite being outnumbered but struggled to unlock the compact block in front of him. At Burton, the pattern was familiar. His positioning became part of the problem – too deep to hurt Burton, and unable to move the ball cleanly through a packed midfield.
Bolton showed both sides of his game. Out of possession he sat in front of the back three, made tackles, and helped City absorb long spells of pressure; with the ball, he was the one stepping onto set pieces and almost nicked it with a second-half free-kick that flew just over. A late booking underlined how much defensive work he had to get through. The bottom line is that one assist across these five appearances only tells part of the story about his importance, but it does show how quickly League One managers have learned they need a plan to limit his influence.
Tiers over time
Season Stats
The gap, though, is no longer comfortable. A week ago Power sat 14.91 points clear of second place. Now his lead over the new runner-up is down to 1.90. The captain is still out in front, but he’s no longer on his own.
Wright’s Exeter goal completes his climb into Tier 1
That shrinking margin is down to Joe Wright, who jumps from fifth to second and moves from Tier 2 into Tier 1 for the first time. His Total score climbs by 16.16 points to 73.43, the biggest gain among the established starters.
Across the same five-game window he has 439 minutes, a 7.35 average rating, five tackles, one key pass, two shots on target and one goal – the match-winner against Exeter. That finish from Power’s delivery is the single most valuable attacking action in the sample, but it sits on top of the defensive work that has defined his month.
The change from Barnsley to Exeter in the rolling window suits him. Barnsley was frantic and open; Exeter is exactly the kind of game that flatters Wright’s strengths. Bradford spend long spells defending their box and attacking on the break, and Wright deals with crosses, wins first contacts and clears danger. That performance drops into a window that already included strong showings at Stevenage, Lincoln and Bolton.
Recency weighting does the rest. Exeter is now the newest game in the model and carries the highest multiplier. When your most recent contribution is a clean sheet and a winning goal, it doesn’t take many calculations to push you into Tier 1.
Touray and Neufville stay in Tier 2 as Byrne slips back
Behind the new top two, the next tier is built around players we already knew Alexander trusted.
Ibou Touray drops one place to third but stays in Tier 2, his Total score easing back to 58.27 (–2.86). Over the window he has 428 minutes, a 6.80 average rating, nine tackles and two recorded key passes. Barnsley’s assist has gone from the calculation; in its place is Exeter, where he spends the afternoon on the left of a back three, helping defend a stream of crosses and giving Bradford a platform to protect their lead. It’s steady, unspectacular work, which is why his performance score (15.30) is dwarfed by a contribution score of 40.54.
Alongside him, Josh Neufville holds fourth and remains Tier 2 with a Total of 57.26 (–2.27). He plays 424 minutes at 6.95, with six tackles, eight key passes and three shots on target. The profile hasn’t changed much: still one of the side’s main ball-carriers and creative outlets, but with Exeter adding a match where he spends more time running City out of trouble than piling up shots and dribbles.
The player who feels the full force of the new window is Neill Byrne. He drops from third to sixth, sliding from Tier 2 to Tier 3, as his Total falls by 9.48 points to 50.87. The explanation is simple: involvement. Byrne’s 201 minutes are heavily weighted toward the start of the window – full games at Stevenage and Lincoln – followed by short appearances against Burton and Exeter and no minutes at all at Bolton. He still has the third-minute volley at Stevenage, six tackles and a key pass in the bank, but a defender who is sometimes rotated out is always going to struggle to keep pace with one who scores the winner and plays every minute.
Ciaran Kelly rounds out the Tier 3 defenders at the top end, dipping one place to eighth with a Total of 46.66 (–1.14). His 268 minutes, 6.79 average rating, five tackles and contribution score of 29.68 mark him out as a reliable part of the rotation rather than a headline act.
Tyreik’s surge and Baldwin’s leap reshape the lower tiers
The most eye-catching forward movement belongs to Tyreik Wright and Aden Baldwin, even if only one of them breaks into the top 10.
Tyreik jumps from 12th to seventh, climbing from Tier 4 into Tier 3 with a +21.77 swing to 46.81. Across the window he logs 291 minutes, a 7.23 average rating, six key passes, three tackles and one shot on target. The numbers reflect what the eye has seen: a player increasingly central to how Bradford progress the ball on the left, winning the free-kick that leads to Joe Wright’s Exeter goal and repeatedly giving City an outlet when they break pressure.
Just outside the top 10, Aden Baldwin records the biggest single score gain in the squad. He climbs from 20th to 11th, remaining in Tier 4 but adding +22.43 to reach 24.94. His 128 minutes and 6.90 average rating include important defensive work off the bench and a growing share of the trust Alexander shows when he reshapes his back line mid-game.
Aden Baldwin
DEFAt the same time, Stephen Humphrys and Bobby Pointon now anchor the attacking end of Tier 4. Humphrys slips one place to ninth (Total 33.17, –8.67) despite his minutes climbing to 211 at a 6.92 average, with two shots on target and one key pass. He’s still taking up good positions at Bolton and Exeter; the rankings simply reflect that those half-chances have yet to turn into goals in this window.
Pointon drops to 10th (Total 25.46, –6.89) but keeps his spot in the top 10. His 266 minutes, 6.64 average rating, two key passes, two tackles and the penalty against Burton tell the story of a young attacker doing more of his work between the lines than on the scoresheet.
Sarcevic and Pattison still trapped by availability
Further down, the names that slipped last week continue to feel the consequences of disrupted months.
Antoni Sarcevic falls three places to 13th, his Total down 8.55 to 23.38. In the current window he has 232 minutes – against Lincoln, Bolton and Exeter – at a 6.60 average. The Barnsley goal that previously anchored his score has fallen out of the sample; without it, he looks like a useful link player whose impact is spread thinly across the pitch rather than concentrated in decisive contributions.
Alexander Pattison drops one place to 14th, though his score barely moves (–0.04 to 22.80). He plays 160 minutes at just over 6.7, but stays in Tier 4. Like Sarcevic, he has been stuck in a loop of niggles, short appearances and rhythm that never quite returns. Until the minutes increase, the rankings are unlikely to shift much.
What next?
With Exeter replacing Barnsley, the five-game window now contains a win at last: one victory, three draws, one defeat, with three goals scored and three conceded. The next update will push Stevenage (A) out and bring Plymouth (A) in, sliding the focus further into December and giving this recalibrated defence another stern examination.
For now, Power still sits at the top of the pile, but Wright is close enough to see him clearly. Touray and Neufville remain the benchmarks in Tier 2; Walker, with three clean sheets and 15 saves in the window, is quietly strengthening his case as one of Bradford’s most dependable performers.
Lower down, the story remains the same. Tyreik Wright’s surge and Baldwin’s leap hint at more change to come, but for Sarcevic and Pattison the path out of Tier 4 still runs through something that isn’t captured by any model: being fully fit often enough for their numbers to matter.
