30/07/2022 - L1: Derby County v OUFC

[Oxford1996]

Positives - McGuane looks a different player. Findlay/Moore has the making of a very good partnership. Flashes of Browne/Brannagan. Bodin unplayable at times, why was he subbed?

Negatives - Taylor didn’t work as a lone striker. Seddon still can’t defend. A left back should be priority. Long offered nothing going forward. Gorrin looks way off it.

Summary - For 70 minutes we was fine. The double sub by KR was mindblowing. Completely swung the game. Unbelievable away support. On to Cambridge..

 

[CCYellow]

McGuane man of the match?
Was I at a different game?

 

[Dubai Yellow]

For me we deserved a point. As others have mentioned though, I don’t think the 2nd half changes helped us at all. Possibly the reason for us not getting anything from the game as it seemed to disrupt our flow/rhythm and players (not just Findlay) started making silly passes in our own half and giving the ball away. Squad depth issues are very apparent which have already set us back, its is a shame because we obviously have a budget that will allow us to compete this year. Let’s see who we manage to bring in. Still think we will have a good season but definitely points dropped today.

 

[CCYellow]

Not a single shot on target.

If that's true I definitely was at the wrong game!

 

[OX14]

McGuane man of the match?
Was I at a different game?

Must of been or been watching with beer goggles. No other Oxford player was close to him.

 

[Oxymoron]

hamstring tears run on a scale of 1-3. We'd discussed this earlier, but it has to be a Grade 3 because that's the only way he'd need an operation and be out for longer than six weeks.......

Tears do indeed run from 1-3 in severity; this sound like a hamstring rupture, especially as tendons were mentioned and that is a long recovery even with top rehabilitative care.

 

[Swaby39]

Positives - McGuane looks a different player. Findlay/Moore has the making of a very good partnership. Flashes of Browne/Brannagan. Bodin unplayable at times, why was he subbed?

Negatives - Taylor didn’t work as a lone striker. Seddon still can’t defend. A left back should be priority. Long offered nothing going forward. Gorrin looks way off it.

Summary - For 70 minutes we was fine. The double sub by KR was mindblowing. Completely swung the game. Unbelievable away support. On to Cambridge..

These things are so easy to say with hindsight so that’s rubbish, sorry. Brannagan and McGuane were doing well in possession but we were getting stretched so another body in there was a good call - we had something to protect at 0-0. If he didn’t make that sub and we conceded from the edge of the box like we did, you’d say ‘why the hell didn’t he bring Gorrin on to sure things up’. This one was the right call but Gorrin failed to contribute anything.

FWIW I’d have taken Taylor off rather than Bodin. Taylor is simply too easy to play against on his own. Never seems to be where the ball drops and we didn’t get the ball in the box enough for him to do what he’s good for.

 

[Oxford1996]

These things are so easy to say with hindsight so that’s rubbish, sorry. Brannagan and McGuane were doing well in possession but we were getting stretched so another body in there was a good call - we had something to protect at 0-0. If he didn’t make that sub and we conceded from the edge of the box like we did, you’d say ‘why the hell didn’t he bring Gorrin on to sure things up’. This one was the right call but Gorrin failed to contribute anything.

FWIW I’d have taken Taylor off rather than Bodin. Taylor is simply too easy to play against on his own. Never seems to be where the ball drops and we didn’t get the ball in the box enough for him to do what he’s good for.

Think it was pretty obvious to see Gorrin wasn’t even close to match fit. If he wanted an extra body in there he should’ve put on Smyth.

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

Player ratings:

Eastwood: 6 - One good save in the first half, but will be disappointed to have been beaten from so far out from a shot which wasn’t exactly a worldie.

Long: 6.5 - Solid but unspectacular. Ok getting forwards, but only ok.

Moore: 7 - Decent without being amazing.

Findlay: 7.5 - hard to score as he was brilliant until he made the error which lost us the point, and then he fell apart somewhat. On first viewing looks better than Moore but not quite on a Dickie or Atkinson level.

Seddon: 5.5 - He’s decent going forwards without being brilliant. Still poor defensively. Still lacks confidence at times. Still positionally all over the place.

Brannagan: 7 - Not at his best but one great goalline clearance, worked hard as ever. Anonymous when moved further forwards, behind the striker is just not the role for him

McGuane: 8 - Made a few mistakes but overall was immense, strong, defended well - my MOTM

Henry: 6.5 - Pretty quiet, drifted in and out of the game, didn’t do too much, tried his best though

Browne: 7 - Showed flashes of his quality but not given much protection from the ref, I’m worried he will get fouled out of this league. Fitness levels seemed good

Bodin: 8 - Involved, clever, tricky. Should never have come off unless tired/injured

Taylor: 6.5 - Isolated and looked absolutely knackered towards the end yet somehow stayed on

Subs:

Gorrin: 4 - Made mistakes and gave less protection than we had before

Murphy: 5 - Anonymous, one good run and that was about it.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

On the train back to north wales.
Thoughts are:
Draw would of been a fair result. Both teams were sloppy and poor in possession.
Findlay looks a great signing but did give away sloppy passes in the 2nd half.
Seddon was the weak link in defence.
McGuane I thought was excellent.
Brannagan was poor by his standards.
Taylor didn’t get much, if any service up front.
Didn’t get the ball out to Murphy enough once he came on.
Derby crowd, considering they had just been taken over, were very very quiet until they scored.

 

[werthersoriginal]

What was Pride Park like? Good snacking options?

 

[GreenMachine]

What was Pride Park like? Good snacking options?

11quid for 2 Carling did not pay attention to the rest.

Was good atmosphere Oxford fans were great.

 

[Sarge]

What was Pride Park like? Good snacking options?

 

[bazzer9461]

Didn't think Seddon was the root of all our problems. Think Mendez-Laing's power and pace will bother a lot of full backs this season, even if his end product shows why he's in League One. Think after a ropey start, Seddon actually got a lot better and kept him largely in check. Our full backs really lacked support from the wide players and to be honest we struggled massively to come out from the right-hand side. Long and Henry barely had a kick.

Don't think Brannagan and McGuane offer enough defensively in midfield so we always look short when teams come at us. Adding Gorrin to a team blowing out of their a**e and with no outlet was always liable to put us further on the back foot.

Just shows we're still short in a few areas, desperately so if Robbo won't trust the kids. We'll never be dynamic enough with Henry in a wide position and with Taylor our only option. Would have taken him off and pushed Browne further forward.

But yeah, run of games against some of the weaker on paper sides coming up, so will be interested to see how we approach them.

He did well today and so far on here he is and quite rightly so leading the MOM vote.

 

[bazzer9461]

McGuane man of the match?
Was I at a different game?

You must have been he was superb tosay

 

[ChamonixOx]

Interesting Eastwood selection. Good save in the first half, but the game I feel has changed and passed him by as a consequence. Derby had 11 players comfortable on the ball, whereas we had 10, and the time they therefore had at the back compared to us was for all to see.

 

[bazzer9461]

Think it was pretty obvious to see Gorrin wasn’t even close to match fit. If he wanted an extra body in there he should’ve put on Smyth.

Was t in the match day squad and that was spoken about I. Radox especially as Karl said he was looking for another CDM

 

[OX14]

Interesting Eastwood selection. Good save in the first half, but the game I feel has changed and passed him by as a consequence. Derby had 11 outfield players, whereas we had 10, and the time they therefore had at the back compared to us was for all to see.

Yes agree, their keeper was very good.

 

[bazzer9461]

Player ratings:

Eastwood: 6 - One good save in the first half, but will be disappointed to have been beaten from so far out from a shot which wasn’t exactly a worldie.

Long: 6.5 - Solid but unspectacular. Ok getting forwards, but only ok.

Moore: 7 - Decent without being amazing.

Findlay: 7.5 - hard to score as he was brilliant until he made the error which lost us the point, and then he fell apart somewhat. On first viewing looks better than Moore but not quite on a Dickie or Atkinson level.

Seddon: 5.5 - He’s decent going forwards without being brilliant. Still poor defensively. Still lacks confidence at times. Still positionally all over the place.

Brannagan: 7 - Not at his best but one great goalline clearance, worked hard as ever. Anonymous when moved further forwards, behind the striker is just not the role for him

McGuane: 8 - Made a few mistakes but overall was immense, strong, defended well - my MOTM

Henry: 6.5 - Pretty quiet, drifted in and out of the game, didn’t do too much, tried his best though

Browne: 7 - Showed flashes of his quality but not given much protection from the ref, I’m worried he will get fouled out of this league. Fitness levels seemed good

Bodin: 8 - Involved, clever, tricky. Should never have come off unless tired/injured

Taylor: 6.5 - Isolated and looked absolutely knackered towards the end yet somehow stayed on

Subs:

Gorrin: 4 - Made mistakes and gave less protection than we had before

Murphy: 5 - Anonymous, one good run and that was about it.

Tbf he was hardly played in as the ball Wes always going out to the left

 

[Foley]

McGuane man of the match?
Was I at a different game?

Definitely MoM I reckon