Home Match Day Thread +++ 20/08/2019 L1: OUFC vs Burton Albion+++

[Gary Baldi]

And finally. How did the Ref miss the shove on Taylor in the box? He was looking right at it.

 

[DavidB]

Flyweight v heavyweights

 

[Mellowyellow]

And.. We really need some pace in that team. We looked really slow at times today

Reading are looking to loan out a pacy winger, I believe.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Were we a bit nervy, overthinking? Burton looked relaxed and confident and knew where to find each other while our little passing moves didn’t quite come off - not surprisingly with lots of new players. We’ll come good. Forde looked useful and Woodburn will be a player.

 

[greatunclekip]

Doesn’t take long for these types to creep out does it?

Was he not completely tactically outfoxed tonight then?

 

[beyondthefourth]

The thing is, Burton have just set the template for how to play against us. We need to find a way to play around the hard pressing game, and neutralise the long ball threats to wingers on counter attacks.

 

[Yellow River]

Main difference as I saw it was that Burton worked harder as a team than us when the opposition had the ball.

We looked dangerous when we had a chance to break and moved the ball quickly, but that just didn’t happen enough tonight.

Credit to Burton’s No.8, that was a quality 2nd half display.

 

[holdsteady]

Mousinho and Ruffles on the left hand side of our defence looked exposed tonight, especially in the second half. I reckon that’s the last we will see of Mousinho for a while if the new centre back does well on Saturday.

 

[Teddydee1980]

I thought they played us well. They were intense in pressing Gorrin and Bran from the start and they couldn't dictate play. Add to that their front line cause us issues all night.

A big reality check and lessons learned. Too many didn't show up tonight and need to have other ideas and generally think and move faster.

Think Mous shot his bolt tonight, would like Moore given a go. We lack a physical aerial presence. Gorrin was picked off and outplayed. Forde didn't turn up till second half, Cadden needs to find both his crossing boots and someone other than Henry to pass too and Dickie simply HAS to be on it 100% for this whole play it out approach to work, and he wasnt on occasion tonight.

Agree about needing a pacey outlet. Compare our options this year to last and it's not in the same ballpark. That we went for Thorne ahead of G Mac is bizarre to me. With Hall still way off the pace, we are lacking in options there.

I'd like to know why Hall makes the bench ahead of Sykes, who is, I assume fitter.

Frustrating night.

 

[bazzer9461]

We've not even been that bad.

Really? We’re you there?

 

[Mad Dog]

An almighty reality check.

Poor defending, too much sideways and backwards passing, no urgency or intensity to our play, burton closed us down too easily, and we couldn’t handle them when they hit us on the break.

It’s clear the 4-2-3-1 formation with Taylor as the lone striker will not work, he’s a goal scorer, and not suited to playing in between two centre backs with his back to goal, feeding off long balls, got to switch to a 4-3-3, to allow a more expansive game, so we can create the chances for him to finish.

I thought Brannagan was very good, and Cadden and Henry also played well in parts, but unfortunately, the rest of the team was well below par.

Need to take it as a big wake up call, and move on to Saturday, and with a couple of tweaks here and there with formation and personnel, we can get ourselves going again.

 

[moomooland]

Why are we repeating the mistakes of last season and playing Mousinho at the back?
Put him in midfield and get rid of Gorrin, who did nothing tonight.

 

[uptheus]

Big wake up call for both fans and club.

Thought Mous and Gorrin had a poor game. It was obvious that Gorrin was carry an injury. He tends to give the ball away once to often. Mous went back to dicking around with the ball, also making poor clearances/decisions leading to two of their goals.

We lacked outlets out wide with pace, lucky we had Cadden otherwise we almost had no outlets. Having said that he needs to get the ball into the box, and beat the first man.

Thought we missed Skyes on the bench, not sure why he wasn’t unless he’s injured.

Rob Hall needs to do the basics, especially as he’s not match fit or has the strength to hold off the player if he does his trickery. Still needs time, but he needs to improve quickly to stay in the squad.

Woodburn needs to improve too. Had a good 15-20 mins today, but needs to do more.

It’s appears to me that we’ve got a number of players who are not match fit, so here’s hoping they are very soon.

 

[Grumpy Git]

Burton weren’t a great team but did a job on us. Moose looked lost.
They played a lot of long balls to the player they left up (27), he them brought others into play.
Something we don’t do. Thought the subs killed the game.
Moore in on Saturday

 

[ThatSlopesATwelfthMan]

Strange, entertaining, infuriating game.
Burton looked a very good (and honest) team, strong work ethic, organised and flexible
Our move in the first half which ref pulled back was sublime and Taylor clear through, would have been a minor classic
Despite that fail, ref, overall, was better than average. Decent decision making but off the pace too often and needs to shed some pounds
All the goals tonight had something to admire about them
Suspect our relentless press chasing game against Blackpool had an effect on energy levels
KR on radox said he regretted double substitution - he's right about that I think - we were already struggling to hold the ball and suddenly went from second-best to swamped
We won't face many teams this year with a combo as threatening as Burton's 8,9,17 &10
For every expansive 40 yard diagonal pass we hit directly to feet we played three stupid and predictable ones inviting pressure
Took far too long to get ball into danger area over and over and over again - at our level a cardinal sin
Branagan was at another level again
Robbie Hall is not ready to be in the first team
Taylor was lively but clear we do need to get used to having a trad #9 at last
Against better teams we need fullbacks to be more restrained - it was like a 2-3-5 at times
No need to panic, there was real quality evident and would much rather be in this place than same stage last year
Looking forward to visiting the mem on Saturday, it's been a long time for me.
Coyy

 

[uptheus]

Burton weren’t a great team but did a job on us. Moose looked lost.
They played a lot of long balls to the player they left up (27), he them brought others into play.
Something we don’t do. Thought the subs killed the game.
Moore in on Saturday

I thought they were a strong well organised team, but we probably played into their hands and made them look better than they were.

I still think they will be on the verge of the play offs though.

 

[bazzer9461]

They said on radox at the weekend that we hadn’t conceded from open play but tonight we had 4 against from open play.... how things change.

 

[West Oxon U’s]

I thought Gorrin was shocking too - he’ll quickly lose his spot on that display.

He gives the ball away in dangerous areas and he missed tackles because he
collected yet another yellow card. He did not give much protection to the two central defenders.

Despite his goal which was well taken, Forde didn’t get into the game - McCleary would have been a better
capture but we have got no room to accommodate him in the budget. Forde is nowhere need fit enough yet.

All in all a disappointing night with the crowd 500 down on what I thought it would be.

I do think Robinson should not escape blame for that performance either - he was too slow
to change things and the game just slipped away from us. We were too passive.

Robinson needs to get his selection bang on for Saturday.

 

[bazzer9461]

Don't see why....Burton played really well, I thought, and absolutely deserved to win.

But they are the games we should be winning, and yes Burton played well so why didn’t we?

 

[Big Ronaldo]

Yes, we can slag off individual players who failed to find the heights of last week, but that would be at the expense of realising that Burton to a man worked their f*****g nuts off to stop us from playing and imposed their game on us.
They were physically stronger and sharper than us for large parts of that game, and scrapped for everything.

We often had no free outlet such was their hard marking and our possession was quickly lost if you dwelled on it too long.
We weren’t crap, but we weren’t great either and bang average just didn’t cut it tonight.
Sometimes you just have to acknowledge that you were not quite ‘on it’ and this was one of those nights.

We have to rest, recover and look to Saturday where we have the chance to shine again.