General Next Season

[Foley]

It is interesting to see that we have scored more goals than the top 2.
As have Bolton, Peterborough and Barnsley.

They have however conceded far fewer than everybody else. So we need to be far more tough to beat and resilient next season to have any chance if being in.the Top 2. No conceding 3 at Peterborough, 5 at Bolton, 5 at Bristol City and 6 at Coventry. Pompey have been pretty unexciting, but have been incredibly resilient- losing 4 games before Saturday is unbelievable. Constantly coming down from being behind to win games shows their mental strength.

Also is there any chance we can be FAR better on dead ball situations? I know that Mous was involved, but Brannagan scored what 3 goals from free kicks when somebody pushed it to him to hit it from round the wall last season.
What happened to that routine? Pompey and Derby are both very good at dead ball situations. I have seen little innovation in these areas.

Thoughts?

 

[dabigfella]

It is interesting to see that we have scored more goals than the top 2.
As have Bolton, Peterborough and Barnsley.

They have however conceded far fewer than everybody else. So we need to be far more tough to beat and resilient next season to have any chance if being in.the Top 2. No conceding 3 at Peterborough, 5 at Bolton, 5 at Bristol City and 6 at Coventry. Pompey have been pretty unexciting, but have been incredibly resilient- losing 4 games before Saturday is unbelievable. Constantly coming down from being behind to win games shows their mental strength.

Also is there any chance we can be FAR better on dead ball situations? I know that Mous was involved, but Brannagan scored what 3 goals from free kicks when somebody pushed it to him to hit it from round the wall last season.
What happened to that routine? Pompey and Derby are both very good at dead ball situations. I have seen little innovation in these areas.

Thoughts?

Depends which league we are in. One thing at a time for me.

 

[holdsteady]

It is interesting to see that we have scored more goals than the top 2.
As have Bolton, Peterborough and Barnsley.

They have however conceded far fewer than everybody else. So we need to be far more tough to beat and resilient next season to have any chance if being in.the Top 2. No conceding 3 at Peterborough, 5 at Bolton, 5 at Bristol City and 6 at Coventry. Pompey have been pretty unexciting, but have been incredibly resilient- losing 4 games before Saturday is unbelievable. Constantly coming down from being behind to win games shows their mental strength.

Also is there any chance we can be FAR better on dead ball situations? I know that Mous was involved, but Brannagan scored what 3 goals from free kicks when somebody pushed it to him to hit it from round the wall last season.
What happened to that routine? Pompey and Derby are both very good at dead ball situations. I have seen little innovation in these areas.

Thoughts?

We give away to many silly/easy goals, you always will at this level, it is the third division but it’s the sheer number that has done us harm. If you can reduce that by ten you can maybe get up in the automatics.

It’s not the glamorous option to tighten up at the back but it’s probably more achievable than scoring even more goals.

Having some more options at centre forward however would complement a tighter defence, help you win more of these tighter games. The goal difference doesn’t have to swing that much to get a decent amount of extra points, tighten up and take a few more chances.

 

[Scotchegg]

It is interesting to see that we have scored more goals than the top 2.
As have Bolton, Peterborough and Barnsley.

They have however conceded far fewer than everybody else. So we need to be far more tough to beat and resilient next season to have any chance if being in.the Top 2. No conceding 3 at Peterborough, 5 at Bolton, 5 at Bristol City and 6 at Coventry. Pompey have been pretty unexciting, but have been incredibly resilient- losing 4 games before Saturday is unbelievable. Constantly coming down from being behind to win games shows their mental strength.

Also is there any chance we can be FAR better on dead ball situations? I know that Mous was involved, but Brannagan scored what 3 goals from free kicks when somebody pushed it to him to hit it from round the wall last season.
What happened to that routine? Pompey and Derby are both very good at dead ball situations. I have seen little innovation in these areas.

Thoughts?

I would like to see us far more innovative in our coaching approach in order to make marginal gains across all areas.

Set pieces are definitely something I would like to see specialist coaching, both attacking and defending. I don't think that we've ever been particularly good, even when Mous was involved. If you look at the women's game and lower league football, you often see far more imaginative free kick routines. We generally loop the ball to the far post or Cam has a shot with limited success.

We also see a proper warm up before games whilst most subs come on after jogging down the line for a few seconds and doing a few basic stretches by the corner flag. I'd like to see our strength and conditioning team putting players through their paces at the fence end of the south stand that mirrors what we do before a game so that our subs are ready to make a real impact.

We also need to look at ways to strengthen the minds of our players. You only have to look at the difference between when we score first or concede. A confident free-flowing Oxford United are a joy to watch. A team devoid of confidence suddenly look like they've never played together. We need to develop leaders throughout the team but also work on ways to build winning mentalities.

We've seen this year that an unbalanced squad, with an awful run of injuries and the disruption of changing managers, could still find ourselves in the playoffs and promoted. A few little tweaks across every area could make a huge difference.

 

[Mike_H]

Is Matty Elliott still available to flick on corners at the near post?

 

[Scotchegg]

Is Matty Elliott still available to flick on corners at the near post?

It's definitely a routine that we should through in every now and again. One of the problems is that were not a particularly big side so we have to look to change the angle and got a bit of success from going deep and having the ball headed back across the goal.

But to be honest, I'd be happy to just see us clear the front post and not give catching practice to the keeper.

 

[Bath Yellow]

Why do we bother with corners. Never score from them

 

[m]

Dunno.

I'll get a season ticket whatever division we're in.

#partoftheproblem

 

[Left Wing Cross]

Why do we bother with corners. Never score from them

Goals from corners are not that common.

 

[OX14]

Why do we bother with corners. Never score from them

Brannagan's corners are rubbish to be fair. They are very rarely whipped in with pace.

 

[Carpy]

Brannagan's corners are rubbish to be fair. They are very rarely whipped in with pace.

Rubbish would be an improvement, they're utter shite, which is extrememly annoying when Murphy can take a decent dead ball and Brannagan is much more dangerous on the edge of the area.

We can't be the only ones to see it either so I can only assume that 3 different managers have all chosen to avoid the argument with CB around him no longer taking them

 

[Osleroad]

Why do we bother with corners. Never score from them

Most teams don't - Arsenal particularly profitable this year though

 

[MarkG]

I think corners into the box were identified as a becoming less common in recent years, along with booted goal kicks. As always the reason is that being in possession is better than not being in possession, so potentially giving the opposition a 50/50 chance to get the ball is sub optimal.

 

[Gregortheox]

My thoughts - we concede too softly and we don't convert at the rate we should.

Regarding set pieces, I don't get us in all honesty. We prepare for the perfect eventuality, rather than the countless variables that are most likely to occur in L1.
Eg. Attacking Corners are always floated towards a tight cluster of aerially sufficient OUFC players who if they don't win the ball, sees the attack become immediately futile. Never have I seen us put someone on the front post to restrict the view of the defence, someone employed to solely antagonise the keeper, and key aerial threats (Moore/Brown for eg) act as a decoy towards the back post (dragging the oppositions best natural defenders out of the mix), whilst Cam Bran fizzes a surprise ball to the front post, where it is shielded by an OUFC player and perhaps directed in a slightly different direction by that man, as Ruben gets across his marker towards the middle of six yard box. He then proceeds to scruffily smash the ball in to the net off the backside of a confused Mark Harris who is just in the melee along with countless others.

Perhaps I don't have the data to hand and I'm being naïve, but from my experience of watching us in lower league football, we need to mix things up, and be harder to predict.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Rubbish would be an improvement, they're utter shite, which is extrememly annoying when Murphy can take a decent dead ball and Brannagan is much more dangerous on the edge of the area.

We can't be the only ones to see it either so I can only assume that 3 different managers have all chosen to avoid the argument with CB around him no longer taking them

Henry, Bodin, and Murphy all take better corners than Cam. However they'll probably all leave so we need to sign someone who's good from dead balls.

 

[Big Ronaldo]

Been surprised that Sheffield Wednesday fans have been largely underwhelmed with Beadle.
I thought he was as really good here.
Might be another loan possibility there for us but season long would be a must. No floating off with the job half done this time.

 

[holdsteady]

Been surprised that Sheffield Wednesday fans have been largely underwhelmed with Beadle.
I thought he was as really good here.
Might be another loan possibility there for us but season long would be a must. No floating off with the job half done this time.

It was a season long loan, they just all have a break clause in the transfer window. So in reality there is no such thing as a season long loan, it’s a half season loan with an option to extend if both parties are happy to.

 

[Big Ronaldo]

It was a season long loan, they just all have a break clause in the transfer window. So in reality there is no such thing as a season long loan, it’s a half season loan with an option to extend if both parties are happy to.

Fair enough. Just hated the way we were derailed so cruelly.

 

[christenedinjericho]

Henry, Bodin, and Murphy all take better corners than Cam. However they'll probably all leave so we need to sign someone who's good from dead balls.

Not fussed if Henry and Bodin leave although I can see Henry angling for a comfy coaching role. Murphy however, he's probably got another season or two in him before he de- accelerates and then he becomes a midfielder with a quite a lot to learn if he wants to stay in the game.

Irrespective of tomorrow's result several of tomorrows team will be absent from July's first registrar.

I'm touching wood that we get the results we need to get a foot into the playoffs and then it'll again be in our own hands.

I'm sure the football club know that in football you can never engineer promotion and if we have a smidgen of hope then let's take a decent shot at it.

COYY'S

 

[dickwalton1964]

Brannagan's corners are rubbish to be fair. They are very rarely whipped in with pace.

He takes a corner the same way he pings a 50 yard diagonal to the wing. He undeniably is a fantastic striker of a football but when you’re delivering a ball into a crowded box you are looking for one of many things - a thumping contact, the merest of flicks, a deflection etc. Having pace and in-swing on the delivery, I think, is vital. One thing I find frustrating is that virtually every team we play - from Fleetwood to Pompey - seem to deliver fantastic dead balls, especially corners. Those pinged corners from Brannagan seem to have back spin, bit like the slice on a tennis ball or fade of a golf ball. An in-swinging corner is going to have more top spin - like a forehand in tennis or draw in golf - meaning that lesser fuller contact even is just as likely to cause havoc or a goal. Full contact and there’s a hell of a chance of finding the net. Also the way Brannagan delivers them (corners) the ball is in the air a long time and easier for defenders to get a run on the ball and clear it.