Fan's View Fan's View - No.15 20/21 - Crewe at home

There has to be some sort of collective mindset that stops the rapid forward movement of the ball, 10 yards sideways ,10 yards forward and the ball will then go backwards even if the receiver has time to do have a touch and look up , what happens in training, I can’t see all the team doing the rightful thing in training and as soon as they get on the pitch having a total brain fart
 
Thank you for the report Paul. In the light of other current events a footie match should be a welcome distraction but last night’s game certainly wasn’t and I was hugely disappointed by the performance. For me it was on a par with the drubbing at Cambridge (away) after which Appleton was determined to make changes (which he did) and that at home versus Wigan which was the beginning of the end for Clotet. If Crewe had been better finishers the result could easily have been 0-5.

Yeah, okay, sorry to bring up previous nightmares but if KR can’t get a reaction from his squad over say the next five games then IMO the writing must be on the wall for him. I’m therefore waiting for his team selection for Saturday with keen anticipation. We lack a leader on the pitch so I’d like to see Moush play in the game if he is actually fit and surely it’s time to stop the ‘experiment’ with Clare as RB. He has some ability but not in that role. My son watched the second half with me and noted that players were consistently getting well out of position and our shape was all over the place.

My continuing worries are partly based on my memory of reading the Charlton fans comments when KR came to Oxford. These mentioned his stubbornness with persisting with his preferred formation playing one up front etc etc and his habit of blaming everyone but himself for poor performances, taking responsibility yes but deflecting blame. Our success last season was mainly based on good counter attacking since we weren’t good at set pieces. This season we just don’t seem to have the quality of player to achieve this again.

And breathe ...
 
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@horseman

That's very reasonable - but I think *especially* given your comments, a manager at L1 level needs to show flexibility and to be creative in what they do.

As you rightly say, you cannot tell how every signing will turn out. But there are two things there.

Firstly, especially with the limit on the number of senior players, was signing Winnall a good idea given his injury record? Many on here DID point to that at the time he signed. As was already pointed out by another poster we do also have among that 'senior' grouping others who seem to be on the treatment table an awful lot (Hanson, Hall, Obita), a player/coach who might be on the subs list but doesn't even get changed, a youngster (Atkinson) who apparently failed a medical elsewhere, etc. All of these things have been said on here for months.

Secondly, if a signing does not work out then sticking to the same plan despite that seems obstinate. You know what I am going to say! Nobody who has watched us would claim that Clare is a right back, even though he was signed as one. That hasn't worked. So surely the manager has to admit that and play someone else in that position and then use Clare in another role?

I do agree that after a performance like that players who didn't play suddenly seem better! Someone has mentioned Kelly - personally I'd have him nowhere near the squad if he plays as he has been doing.

I'm not sure how anyone could have watched last night's debacle and be confident that relegation is not, at the very least, a possibility.
This though is part of the wider picture and my initial comment of a "Realistic" list of players not being here for whatever reason..Appleton and IL had a similar thought process with using sports science and taking a punt on players with a current / history of injuries. Winnall to date has not worked but if other identified players did not wish to sign then a punt was taken as the alternative was some likely Premiership rookie as a Loanee and the current position would not have changed much if at all.

Here i assume you refer to Clare? an alternative was Forde who was also out with injury, Long who has had to cover other positions due to both Atkinson and Ruffs injuries and even when Sam was at right back he was critizised

Even now Mous is given as suddenly needed yet he too has been subject to comments of past it, too slow etc..it's fine people throwing names as a solution but you can virtual Guarantee that had certain players been used / experimented with the flak would still exist as that's the nature of fans when football matches are lost.

We have seen past derogatory comments about our manager that very quickly changed (and apparently forgotten about) when we went on a winning run and almost got promotion and Tiger was given much praise for giving him a new contract yet now despite factual evidence of how difficult things have been some want him out the door.

I hadn't seen much of where you mention Rob Atkinson failing medicals but more he is too young raw, only played in the conference etc Yet this is exactly the type of player we go after to try and develop with us before selling on. I have gone on record as stating the lad could achieve more than Matt Elliott.

Whilst we are all aware that a team can be selected based on type of opposition etc i still come back to my original question of a few weeks back

How many times have we been able to name a settled back 5-6 ? why is this dismissed as though not relevant.
 
How many times have we been able to name a settled back 5-6 ? why is this dismissed as though not relevant.


You can put that down to KR thinking we have enough defenders! If we had signed an experienced CB and proper LB (not Obita who im not sure where he exactly is meant to play), as pretty much everyone on here thought we should have done, then we would have been far more able to play a settled back line

Instead we are over loaded with players who can play LW: Cooper, Agyei, Shodipo, Obita. So overloaded, that they can't all get in a match day squad.
 
Instead we are over loaded with players who can play LW: Cooper, Agyei, Shodipo, Obita. So overloaded, that they can't all get in a match day squad.
And he still wants to sign Browne in January!
 
I must admit to being nervous seeing any combination of these players in our back five this season- Eastwood, Claire, Long, Mousinho and Ruffels.

Would any of these players make it into a l1 top six side?
 
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This though is part of the wider picture and my initial comment of a "Realistic" list of players not being here for whatever reason..Appleton and IL had a similar thought process with using sports science and taking a punt on players with a current / history of injuries. Winnall to date has not worked but if other identified players did not wish to sign then a punt was taken as the alternative was some likely Premiership rookie as a Loanee and the current position would not have changed much if at all.

Here i assume you refer to Clare? an alternative was Forde who was also out with injury, Long who has had to cover other positions due to both Atkinson and Ruffs injuries and even when Sam was at right back he was critizised

Even now Mous is given as suddenly needed yet he too has been subject to comments of past it, too slow etc..it's fine people throwing names as a solution but you can virtual Guarantee that had certain players been used / experimented with the flak would still exist as that's the nature of fans when football matches are lost.

We have seen past derogatory comments about our manager that very quickly changed (and apparently forgotten about) when we went on a winning run and almost got promotion and Tiger was given much praise for giving him a new contract yet now despite factual evidence of how difficult things have been some want him out the door.

I hadn't seen much of where you mention Rob Atkinson failing medicals but more he is too young raw, only played in the conference etc Yet this is exactly the type of player we go after to try and develop with us before selling on. I have gone on record as stating the lad could achieve more than Matt Elliott.

Whilst we are all aware that a team can be selected based on type of opposition etc i still come back to my original question of a few weeks back

How many times have we been able to name a settled back 5-6 ? why is this dismissed as though not relevant.
Clare was signed as a right back. Nothing to do with who was injured. He was supposedly/hopefully a 'Cadden' type, to replace Long who was going to be the 'utility' player who could cover a number of the defensive positions (as he has done, to reasonable effect). It hasn't worked out, so the manager has to do something different with both the player and the team selection. I don't think that's a contentious point surely?

Mous was obviously seen as a player/coach. Even now he doesn't get changed into his playing kit when named on the subs bench! I personally think he ought to have been replaced as a player, but if he is a player then he has to be ready to play. I don't think he is a solution long-term, but if he was kept on as some one who can do a job if needed - well that time has come.

I too think Atkinson is a great prospect (if he can keep fit). But he IS very raw. You need an experienced player somewhere at the back to organise the defence, tell young players what they should be doing and where they should be, and we do not have anyone experienced enough and vocal enough to do that job. Is he the kind of player we should be signing? Yes he is. Should he suddenly and immediately be the mainstay of our defence with no league experience? No, I don't think it's fair to the player, apart from anything else.

I also agree that naming a settled and secure defence has been a problem. But that's a consequence of not signing a left back early enough, not signing an experienced central defender at all and having a right back who is slowly learning the job as the games and points tick by.
 
You can put that down to KR thinking we have enough defenders! If we had signed an experienced CB and proper LB (not Obita who im not sure where he exactly is meant to play), as pretty much everyone on here thought we should have done, then we would have been far more able to play a settled back line

Instead we are over loaded with players who can play LW: Cooper, Agyei, Shodipo, Obita. So overloaded, that they can't all get in a match day squad.
At various times we have had invidual or permutation of players out through injury across the back...Clare? Atkinson Mous Ruffs Forde Gorrin...These would be likely first team starters who you would expect to have brought back into the team after recovery and you cannot legistate for this happening virtual around the same period.
it's all very well saying we should have got x y z at the start of the season but instead of whom? and perhaps this was looked into but the player/s did not want to come.
Whatever answer given it's an opinion/s instead of the management team, in the summer some would want defenders,others strikers and others a combination of.
Would love to know who these mythical players were, that they would want to come and instead of whom?

You cannot put the for sale sign up think of the £££££ keep disrupting a squad every summer and expect the conveyor belt to keep churning them out and be expected to foresee and legislate for a combination of injuries.there are going to be difficult times to follow on occasions just like now.
 
At various times we have had invidual or permutation of players out through injury across the back...Clare? Atkinson Mous Ruffs Forde Gorrin...These would be likely first team starters who you would expect to have brought back into the team after recovery and you cannot legistate for this happening virtual around the same period.
it's all very well saying we should have got x y z at the start of the season but instead of whom? and perhaps this was looked into but the player/s did not want to come.
Whatever answer given it's an opinion/s instead of the management team, in the summer some would want defenders,others strikers and others a combination of.
Would love to know who these mythical players were, that they would want to come and instead of whom?


Its obvious if you have more 'proper' defenders that you have a better chance of playing the same four more often.

Instead of whom? Well a CB and proper LB instead of Hanson and Hall. Or, instead of Shodipo and Obita if you want to limit it to new signings, as, no matter what KR says, already having two players who can play LW well in Agyei and Cooper is enough.

I cant tell you who the two defenders should have been, but other clubs seem to sign defenders perfectly well.
 
Wow Paul what can I say? Don’t excuse my language but your report is so f*****g accurate and a first for no positivity.
 
The players are not good enough. The injury prone players without a club given a contract. Spend the season injured ,happens every season you would have thought the club would have abandoned this idea. Taylor is not good enough Bristol offloaded him. Ok if he wants a tap in work rate ?
. Henry since the miss against Wycombe has been poor. Eastwood and Claire give a goal away every game. Long has been the only player who gives his all. We do not have a leader on the pitch who can drive this team on. Better off to give the younger fringe players regular games. The aim this season is to survive in this division I have watched every game and we are a poor side possibly the worst. Our inability to create chances and score is laughable.
 
I must admit to being nervous seeing any combination of these players in our back five this season- Eastwood, Claire, Long, Mousinho and Ruffels.

Would any of these players make it into a l1 top six side?

Well 3 of them did last season...
 
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A fair assessment, if somewhat depressing in its accuracy. For what it’s worth I agree with you about Clare. Mainly because he’s played his entire career in midfield before this season.

IMO: Robinson would do well to just sign round pegs to go in round holes a bit more often. Not every player needs to be “retrained” to play a different role, or a different position entirely. Either sign the players to fit the system, or change the system to fit the players. It’s one or the other. What you don’t do is smash the two things together like they’re a couple of children’s action figures. Watching Clare have no idea how to be a full back is one thing, but seeing Matty Taylor run around on his own, trying to play like a target man and hold the ball up, is heartbreaking. He’s one of the best out and out six yard box poachers outside of the Championship, and he’s being asked to spend his time fighting two blokes half a foot bigger than him while none of his team mates get within 20 or 30 yards. We’ve gone back to witnessing this absolute obsession that Robinson has with the 4-2-3-1, which is exactly what happened at the beginning of the last two seasons when we started poorly, and because of it we’re no longer getting people up alongside the striker, nor do we have wide men running at the defenders and slipping passes through / putting balls across. Other teams don’t have to defend or keep their wits about them anymore, because we have one isolated striker trying to be something he isn’t and that’s our lot. Press outlets can present the lineup however they want on the social media diagrams - you can see the team shape on camera and you can watch the way they lineup from goal kicks. If this is going to happen every season then at what point are we going to at least sign players who fit into that system? As it stands the ‘recruitment team’ seem to collect a bunch of players that they like the look of in isolation, and then Robinson tries to cram a bunch of them into a pre-determined shape come hell or high water. It’s all a bit, “I want to play this shape, in this way, and I want to get these specific players on the pitch no matter what.” He usually drops it eventually and we immediately improve, so let’s see.

Frustrating, but already I’m looking ahead to Saturday and thinking, “Surely this is winnable... right?!”
YES - but won't that temporarily paper over the cracks and allow KR to continue his experimenting and say he was correct about Clare coming good at right back. I feel for the bloke - clearly good going forward, if only he could without the shackles of full-time full back.
 
A settled side? Having a settled side / back four helps but only if they are good enough collectively and individually. Do we think they are?
Also, Covid and international call up postponements aside, its a busy schedule, Tues / Sat / Tues / Sat etc. so part of being successful is about rotation and giving knackered players a well earned rest. There's a bit more to it than just being a settled side. Settled squad?
 
The League Table says Wigan are even worse than we are. Let's hope it remains that way by 5 o'clock tomorrow.
 
I must admit to being nervous seeing any combination of these players in our back five this season- Eastwood, Claire, Long, Mousinho and Ruffels.

Would any of these players make it into a l1 top six side?

Perhaps controversial...and to be honest it looks daft given our league position, but if the goal is automatic promotion, Championship football and then staying there then none of those five would be in my starting XI.

As it is, we should be thanking our lucky stars that we have players like Ruffels and Long, given we are down to an out-of-sorts Moore, a repeatedly injured Atkinson and a Mous who's leg is about to drop off in the middle.

Long, Moore, Atkinson, Ruffels and hope for no injuries from now till Christmas for me.
 
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