Away Match Day Thread 18/03/23 L1: Morecambe v OUFC

[MC Yellow]

Sorry you are absolutely right. Manning got his tactics and subs absolutely spot on today. Apologies.

He has been in the job since Monday and learning about a squad that is not of his making.

You, Sir, are deluded in your criticism.

 

[Jaxon]

I have no issue with Long, he’s pretty average but a good leader. I’d personally opt for only one of him or Brown if we’re going to persist with this dreadful formation. Both of them is absolute murder to our attack. We’re the most blunt side in the division.

Anderson is not actually a bad defender and his pace/trickery and confidence is extremely useful. He just vacates a lot of space which needs planning for. Long would be perfect behind him.

Great so you want to play a defender protecting another defender
Great tactics
Why not play 10 men behind the ball
Or play 352

 

[greatunclekip]

He has been in the job since Monday and learning about a squad that is not of his making.

You, Sir, are deluded in your criticism.

But surely even after a week you can spot a couple of knackered players who need replacing?

 

[Swaby39]

Great so you want to play a defender protecting another defender
Great tactics
Why not play 10 men behind the ball
Or play 352

Yes. A right centre back, in a 3, behind a wing back.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

Also on a separate note, we have some very embarrassing fans that go to games.
What the hell is with this latest thing of calling everyone a peado?! First the mascot then the keeper.

 

[christenedinjericho]

100 miles from home and I can't help but think of all of the away teams in this league who would of shut up shop being one nil up at the K*ssam especially in the 87th minute of a game and then went on to win the game with ultimate ease.The management team has to find a way for us to be more and more streetwise in the next few games or else we are finished. It is that simple. We have the same group of players for the next nine games with no exceptions so LM/Hogg will have to instill some chunkier balls than what they have right now and fast.

COYY'S

 

[Theox07]

Everyone’s saying change formation when we played Fleming and Anderson as wingbacks it still didn’t work

 

[uptheus]

Feeling a tad more nervous now, with five of our last nine games being against 'top 10' teams in the division.

Our last win was against Ipswich!! You know Oxford, play shite against the shite teams, but turn up against the better teams!!

Jesus I’m sounding like Scotchegg!!

 

[Swaby39]

Everyone’s saying change formation when we played Fleming and Anderson as wingbacks it still didn’t work

Suggest you go and look at the team we put out when we last won a game, not to mention the opponent!

 

[MC Yellow]

But surely even after a week you can spot a couple of knackered players who need replacing?

I think the issues go a bit deeper than a couple of players, and will take more than a week to resolve.

The board are the problem here, not Manning. Too much procrastination whilst we were spiralling into a relegation crisis.

As I say, give the man a break.

 

[oufc1991]

I don't like 5-3-2 but it's the only option we've got of getting this team moving with the players we've got
So against Peterborough I'd go
Eastwood
Anderson long Moore brown Flemming
Bate Smyth brannagan
Joseph Browne

 

[greatunclekip]

Our last win was against Ipswich!! You know Oxford, play shite against the shite teams, but turn up against the better teams!!

Jesus I’m sounding like Scotchegg!!

We played shite against Ipswich. We are shite.

I can count the times we've "turned up" this season on one hand.

We are gone. It's time to start looking at the best League 2 players and getting ahead of the curve.

 

[greatunclekip]

I think the issues go a bit deeper than a couple of players, and will take more than a week to resolve.

The board are the problem here, not Manning. Too much procrastination whilst we were spiralling into a relegation crisis.

As I say, give the man a break.

I have absolutely said the board are 75 percent to blame. An utterly embarrassing season from them, yet I'm not convinced it even registers. Cut costs in January in a relegation battle FFS.

Robbo 20 percent. Sacked it off entirely til paid off, but was allowed to get away with it. Assembled the worst squad since 2005. He even said himself he needed a "change of scenery". What the hell were we doing?!

Manning 5 percent for not subbing off knackered players. That part is in his control.

 

[Jaxon]

Long has had a truly dreadful season. How did he get a new extended contract?

Just in the past two weeks he‘s kicked the Lincoln attacker up in the air in his own penalty box giving away a needless pen.
Allowed the Derby winger far too much time and space to deliver the low ball in for their first and he and Moore were both at fault for Derby’s third.
He was at fault for goals in the Plymouth and Barnsley home defeats.

He and Brown also watched on at Wycombe as Vokes tapped into an empty net. Sounds today like the Morecambe sub has jinked inside him and got a shot off
for the Shrimps’ late equaliser.

I could go on. Long has not been anywhere near good enough but in mitigation he is not a right back. Brown is also not a left back. Two massive issues
that need sorting.

Brown does a job but he is a CB
Far better than what we play at the moment

 

[Mad Dog]

I think people need to get a bit of perspective.

Manning has had less than a week working with this shambles of a squad, an incomplete squad of ageing players, injured players, injury prone players, crocks and inexperienced kids, a squad who are on an awful run of form, and whose confidence is shot to bits.

He wasn't going to be able to change things drastically in less than a week, but he has managed to at least get a draw out of them, which is more than the previous moron we had in charge was able to do, so it's a start.

He now has two weeks to work with the squad, to make the necessary changes, and try to implement his ideas, style of play and philosophy, and to get them ready for the run in.

He's got lot's of work to do, but lets give him a chance to actually get his teeth into it first, before getting on his back and slagging him off.

 

[Yellow There!]

Tough one to take. Don’t know where the points come from now. This is a huge two weeks for Manning.

Positives. Err. I suppose you could say our goal looked like a goal from last years Oxford. Out of defence, fullback, winger, whipped across on the deck and finish. Sweet as a nut. Notice the ball didn’t leave the ground. If Manning can stop our hopeless punting then we may have half a chance.
Smyth was good for a player who’s had no chance for 18 months.

Other than that hugely disappointing. You don’t concede like we do and stay up. Teams know how to beat us. Eastwood, as many good saves as he pulls off, is so easy to beat, watching Derby and now Morecambe they’re taking pot shots on the chance that he ballses one up.

Nine games to save the season. Make it work, Manning.

 

[Yellow There!]

This simply isn’t true. Not at all. That’s a poor excuse. The squad is full of gaps, I appreciate that, but it isn’t so narrow that the system is dictated to any manager that comes in. There’s a smattering of very good players but they’re all in weird places, untried or on the bench. If anything, our players are least suited to the system we insist on playing under 3 different coaches now. Look at our bench today - all of them can play in more than one position so there isn’t just one system available.

Anderson & Long are both trying to play right back when actually both are suited to something else. Exactly the same can be said of Fleming and Brown. Rather than play one or, better yet, all of these players in their best positions, we play them where we know they are hopeless!! This is one glaring area where we can completely transform the look of the team.

Today, we’ve chucked Smyth in to a second striker role when we’re crying out for physicality in front of the back 4. Brannagan is the most likely midfielder to score a goal and yet he’s playing the furthest from goal… There’s another change.

Up front is probably the area that lacks any real flexibility. Our strikers just don’t have anything clever about them but I think it looks worse as the 7 or 8 players behind them give them nothing. The service is so awful. Our full backs can’t find a pass down the line, our midfielders can’t see a ball over the top and it’s just a vicious cycle.

Browne, on form, is good enough to score the goals we need. He has to play. Goodrham or Murphy on the other side and get the wing backs overlapping putting crosses in over and over again. Keep the back 3 at home with Smyth covering whichever wing back has gone forward. This is basic, basic stuff that other teams are doing.

I don’t agree at all that there isn’t another way to play, we’ve avoided the most obvious way for this group of players to line up all season long. Yes, Anderson is a risk. But we need wins! Today especially - we needed to win. So why pick a team without an ounce of creativity? It was a cowardly selection. Anderson is unpredictable, a risk, but he might create you something. So get him on the pitch and have a plan when he goes forward. Fleming likewise. At least play one full back who has something about them on the ball…. Have we ever had an overload down either wing this year? We’re a dream to play against.

This really is not as difficult as we’re making it look. Does it guarantee results? No. But what we’re doing now is recycling the same XI in the same system over and over again hoping one day the ball will just fall for us. I’m pretty pissed off with what I saw today, not because it was especially bad, just because of how little was changed in a team that’s got 1 point in 10 games, 12 clean sheets in 80+… It was a weak attempt to get us going. I think he will use this 2 weeks to do more. He has to.

Brilliant post. Persisting with this hopeless hopeless approach is madness

 

[Followtheox1]

Also on a separate note, we have some very embarrassing fans that go to games.
What the hell is with this latest thing of calling everyone a peado?! First the mascot then the keeper.

Unfortunately this isn't a latest thing, I've heard this for years.

 

[Yellow There!]

What the hell is with this latest thing of calling everyone a peado?! First the mascot then the keeper.

Only the Green Giant is one of them

 

[Wandering Yellow]

Head says this team goes down heart says it stays up.