It’s not the defeats as such. It’s the nature of them. Opposition take the handful of chances they create against a porous defence, we labour to create even half chances and don’t convert the good ones we get. They hold us at bay and canter to victory.
Ruffels is Matt Robinson-ing hard. A good player who has come back and looked dreadful. There’s no replacement for him with the exception of Elechi so we have to get on with it.
That defence that started today is NEVER going to keep a clean sheet. The ‘keeper is in a rut, Clare isn’t a RB, Long isn’t a CB, Moore is hardly a senior partner and Ruffels is in the worst form of his 275 games as an Oxford player. I would demand KR change it and I’m sure he wants to. Mousinho and Atkinson are both injured though.
However, KR has no right to complain at all. He failed to address the defence in favour of flashy wingers. When experience was needed he gambled on Atkinson who looks a good bet when he gets on the pitch but there is a worrying injury in there.
I’ve gone from ‘it should be ok’ to ‘I’m now quite worried’. Our injury list is long, we are desperately short of players and have no takers for Osei nor seem to have made any headway on another option.
Forget the playoffs even now. This is KR’s biggest challenge with us now.
