+++ 18/12/2019 OUFC v Manchester City +++

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I honestly don't know what Sam Long has to do to get credit from some on here. He was defensively very strong and linked up brilliantly with Sykes going forward, and put in some great crosses too. Prior to Sykes coming on he was having to cover for Ageyi who was a little erratic and less defensively disciplined than Hall, if that is possible!

I'm struggling to think of a time where he's had a bad game?

They were poor crosses. All to near the keeper.

You cannot question his effort, but you can see he’s clearly not at the next level which you can see in others. If you watch, you will see that we tend to lose possession or the momentum goes when either Long or Ruffels get the ball.

Don’t get me wrong, they’re great guys and in my eyes good cover and do what it says on the tin, but you must be able to see the difference between Cadden and Long?
 
so, so proud of the club tonight. Absolutely made up!

I was very critical of Sykes after the Shrews game (and rightly so), but hats off to the lad, he was fantastic tonight when he came on. Definitely a wide player!

On another note, did anyone notice how good the ground felt/looked with the electronic boards round the pitch and a full house? Felt like a proper stadium for a change. Might be just me [emoji1787]

Yeah, loved the electric boards. Does anyone know if they’re here to stay or just for TV?
 
City overloaded to the wings and left a man out wide. Long was too often left 2 against 1 because Agyei didn’t track his man tightly.
Long couldn’t go out to the guy hugging the touch line because he would have left a huge gap between him and his CB ( Dickie).
I thought his positioning last night was excellent. Going forward, he was less effective but give credit where it is due, against world class players, he defended brilliantly (as did everyone).

FWIW, I thought Ruffels struggled more than Long.
 
Yeah, loved the electric boards. Does anyone know if they’re here to stay or just for TV?
They will just be for the game last night.

I did like the OUFC related adverts, especially advertising Wycombe, Lincoln and half price ST's
 
Was happily fishing the stream last night and immensely proud of the team.
At 0-1 and 1-2 it could have gone either way but we gave them a game and played some cracking football that was on a par with theirs.
Biggest difference was their ability to turn a half chance into a goal, kind of helps when you have the likes of Sterling on the pitch.

Mackie chopping matey boy down off the ball made me laugh......... got to love the bloke!
 
Just for the records. Man City starting 11 minimum transfer value (fees paid ) £290,500,000 ,playing subs £47,000,000. Congratulations Karl building a team to compete so well against that.

Man City
1​
(G)C Bravo 15,400,000
11​
(D)O Zinchenko unsisclosed
12​
(D)Angelino (62) 5,300,000
27​
(D)Joao Cancelo 60,000,000
50​
(D)E Garcia Youth
78​
(D)T Harwood-Bellis Youth
16​
(M)Rodri (59) 62,800,000
20​
(M)B Silva 43,000,000
47​
(M)P Foden Youth
7​
(F)R Sterling (76) 44,000,000
26​
(F)R Mahrez 60,000,000
290,500,000
8​
(M)I Gundogan (59) 20,000,000
82​
(M)A Bernabe (76) Youth
9​
(F)Gabriel Jesus (62) 27,000,000
47,000,000
 
Having slept on it, yesterday was both a very good performance, but equally a good reminder to the coaches and players where we need to get to if we desire to play higher up - not an intended criticism of anyone, but more of a highlight to why you can wait for the ball to come to you in L1, but can't higher up.

Very pleased for the club, glad we we did our thing and made their lives hard. Arsenal worked significantly less hard last Sunday and if they had worked harder, etc, their would have been closer.

Over to the players to do this again on Saturday!
 
I honestly don't know what Sam Long has to do to get credit from some on here. He was defensively very strong and linked up brilliantly with Sykes going forward, and put in some great crosses too. Prior to Sykes coming on he was having to cover for Ageyi who was a little erratic and less defensively disciplined than Hall, if that is possible!

I'm struggling to think of a time where he's had a bad game?

There is a difference. I think Long is a very good player - defensively very good, a threat in the air and can get forwards. What let’s him down, as KR said in the week is what he does in the final 3rd. With Cadden we have reliable delivery - that’s not the case with long.

That’s not me writing long off, simply acknowledging they have different strengths.
To take it a step further, KE clearly relies on attacking full backs for our chance creation.

As an aside, our defence could see some upheaval in January with Cadden going plus dickie likely off also.

Thats aside, last night was remarkable - that will hopefully give belief that a performance like that in the league consistently will see us up.
 
Amazing how people see different things. I thought that Ageyi was our poorest player by a mile and his cover was poor.

Agyei’s strength is playing the ball to his feet. Our game plan in the first half was to knock it behind the full backs and chase - neither Agyei or Fosu are that type. Out of possession though he needs to put himself about more...but that all depends on where he plays!
 
Had a good game, but again his distribution / composure on the ball is poor.

I’d definitely keep Cadden over Long if given the choice.

I personally think Long and Ruffels are our weak links in terms of technical ability/ distribution, but are good covers from a defensive perspective.
Don’t agree with any of that, Long as I’ve said was ok and would be happy if he played Ruffs is Mr dependable
 
Just for the records. Man City starting 11 minimum transfer value (fees paid ) £290,500,000 ,playing subs £47,000,000. Congratulations Karl building a team to compete so well against that.

Man City
1​
(G)C Bravo 15,400,000
11​
(D)O Zinchenkounsisclosed
12​
(D)Angelino (62) 5,300,000
27​
(D)Joao Cancelo 60,000,000
50​
(D)E Garcia Youth
78​
(D)T Harwood-Bellis Youth
16​
(M)Rodri (59) 62,800,000
20​
(M)B Silva 43,000,000
47​
(M)P Foden Youth
7​
(F)R Sterling (76) 44,000,000
26​
(F)R Mahrez 60,000,000
290,500,000
8​
(M)I Gundogan (59) 20,000,000
82​
(M)A Bernabe (76) Youth
9​
(F)Gabriel Jesus (62) 27,000,000
47,000,000

The fee paid for Man City’s second choice ‘keeper would buy the Kassam Stadium. Jeez.

I didn’t realise that Cancelo cost them so much as well. He’s only mustered six League appearances for them though. That’s three players costing £60m+ on the pitch for them last night.

Anyone think that we could be cosying up to Man City for future loanees? KR has nothing but nice words to say about PG and we play in a way that would benefit a few of their youngsters. If so, let’s hope we get a Phil Foden rather than an Ashley Smith-Brown!
 
I honestly don't know what Sam Long has to do to get credit from some on here. He was defensively very strong and linked up brilliantly with Sykes going forward, and put in some great crosses too. Prior to Sykes coming on he was having to cover for Ageyi who was a little erratic and less defensively disciplined than Hall, if that is possible!

I'm struggling to think of a time where he's had a bad game?
I think that he had a good game and defensively is almost always sound.
Last night his weakness was his crossing. There were a few times when he just put crosses in that were easily dealt with by the Man City defence.
KR was spot on when talking about Sam earlier this week
 
I thought Long had a very good game. He is a better defender than Cadden, not so good going forward.

Thinking about the game, I was immensely proud of the team last night. Not happy with losing - I never am! - and a bit irritated that we didn't get another goal. 2-3 (or even 3-3) would have been a fairer reflection of the match. But I honestly cannot think of a player on our side who wasn't pretty damn excellent, facing a Man City who (even with a couple of youngsters in there) cost a fortune and whose skills were evident. Some of their football was beautiful to watch, but I am glad we have our defence rather than theirs!

Not quite sure why people were booing some of their players? Sterling (for example) can be a bit of a twonk, but no more than many other Prem luvvies and far less than some!

Was great to see the ground full. Can't say I thought much of the mural, but better than nothing. If we play like that for the rest of the season we are in for an exciting time...
 
The fee paid for Man City’s second choice ‘keeper would buy the Kassam Stadium. Jeez.

I didn’t realise that Cancelo cost them so much as well. He’s only mustered six League appearances for them though. That’s three players costing £60m+ on the pitch for them last night.

Anyone think that we could be cosying up to Man City for future loanees? KR has nothing but nice words to say about PG and we play in a way that would benefit a few of their youngsters. If so, let’s hope we get a Phil Foden rather than an Ashley Smith-Brown!
Extraordinary numbers.
How football has changed since Jim Smith's time.
 
We matched them. What a performance. Our weak links were Long & Ruffels defensively. If we go up this season you’d think a pair of new fullbacks would be top of Robbo’s shopping list.
Obviously you don’t go that often Ruffs has been immense and Long does his job, last night they played against the premier league champions, although I agree with @ljs they played a bit to narrow, but would am comfortable with both players.
 
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