Home Match Day Thread 03/10/2023 L1: OUFC v Shrewsbury

[Malc]

Another 3 points today? I think so, 2-0 to the mighty Yellows.

 

[Chippy]

I was disappointed by our approach in the second half last night.

I get all the comfortable, in control, secure the win, it's three points etc etc, and in the bigger picture it was a win, three points, +3 goal difference, etc, etc

I also get that when one or two goals up, then it is sometimes sensible to strangle the game against plucky sides who are still trying to make something happen, and I appreciate that we are fortunate to be in a position to be able to do that when required.

But....last night wasn't or shouldn't have been one of those games. They had given up and when they gave up, we gave up. I'm not advocating going hell for leather for goals but we should not have eight players behind the ball for a free kick two yards outside the corner of the box.

After our second sub, we appeared to descend into a robbo-esque lack of structure and were almost more likely to give away a silly chance or get an injury trying to retrieve a sloppy pass than we would have just continuing as we were.

As I say, not really a moan, more just disappointment that we chose not to kick on against a side seemingly more dispirited than we were at the worst of last season, in front of 7000 people who can earnestly discuss the merits of our approach, but would in truth have much preferred putting 5 or 6 past them.

I tend agree with much of this. I’d have loved Murphy and/or Mills to have been brought on to have a real run at the 10 men for the last 25 mins or so. It could have given JM especially a real confidence boost, unless maybe he wasn’t fully fit or being saved for Sat?

I think we could have done quite a bit more to entertain the crowd and have a real run at them for the last 25 mins, without anyone necessarily needing to risk injury or anything like that.

Overall an easy, comfortable and great win, the third goal right at the end helped lift the mood, but I was left a little underwhelmed at the final whistle. Albeit job done and I’d obviously take 3-0 all day long.

 

[NorthWestOx]

I can’t get anything on YouTube to watch the goals again. does anyone have a link?

iFollow extended highlights or even full match replay for free.

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[Osei Yaw]

Fair enough if those are the stats but like you said a lot of simple passes in those stats which I don't have an issue with at all. The ones later in the game he gave away were real hospital passes which is why they probably stood out.

A lot of the good stuff he did was near the start of the game, it just gave us the impetus. Then when we got ahead I think it cooled off and then the end of the match was basically like a training exercise.

If you have access to iFollow you can see the full match replay. There's a good example of the sort of stuff I'm talking about between 08:44 and 09:00 minutes and I think it really shows the attention to detail and how well drilled the team are.

At 08:44, Moore gets the ball. He has a safe option either side of him (Long and Brown), and a third safe one (McGuane):



He opts for the more risky option of Rodrigues and that pass temporarily takes 2 Shrews players out the game:



Rodrigues keeps the ball and gives it back to McGuane, then it goes to Long and back to Moore. As soon as Moore gets it back, Rodrigues drops deep again to offer an option and this is the bit I really enjoyed - Dunkley sees Rodrigues and goes with him, making the space and Harris is in. If you watch it back on iFollow, at 08:57 you see Rodrigues gives a little gesture to Moore, who clips a nice one over the top to Harris:



It doesn't quite drop for Harris but it's a great little move and shows how we're so well set up to drag teams around the pitch and make openings. I thought Moore made a difference in that last night as, although he spend a lot of time just moving the ball on, he was happy to take the initiative when the opportunity was there. It was clearly something we had worked on as well.

 

[Peterdev]

iFollow extended highlights or even full match replay for free.

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Thank you

 

[RgYellows]

He obviously comes across better in interviews than I think any other player we've had at OUFC in my supporting lifetime, but also worth highlighting how, after his wondergoal yesterday, he went straight to GOD and was gesturing to the crowd that the plaudits should be directed at him for his pressing. Hugely impressive that, after scoring something of a wondergoal, his first thought is to give a boost to a youngster who's just starting out on his first season as a bona fide squad player, rather than lap up the praise for himself.

God I love him.

Messi also stopped celebrating goals as much when he was banging in more than one a game like Greg Leigh tbf.

As I say, not really a moan, more just disappointment that we chose not to kick on against a side seemingly more dispirited than we were at the worst of last season, in front of 7000 people who can earnestly discuss the merits of our approach all they like, but would in truth have much preferred putting 5 or 6 past them.

I want us to get promoted more than I want us to smash bad teams.

And I wonder what the hell has happened when a 3-0 win isn’t considered emphatic.

 

[Joey]

I was disappointed by our approach in the second half last night.

I get all the comfortable, in control, secure the win, it's three points etc etc, and in the bigger picture it was a win, three points, +3 goal difference, etc, etc

I also get that when one or two goals up, then it is sometimes sensible to strangle the game against plucky sides who are still trying to make something happen, and I appreciate that we are fortunate to be in a position to be able to do that when required.

But....last night wasn't or shouldn't have been one of those games. They had given up and when they gave up, we gave up. I'm not advocating going hell for leather for goals but we should not have eight players behind the ball for a free kick two yards outside the corner of the box.

After our second sub, we appeared to descend into a robbo-esque lack of structure and were almost more likely to give away a silly chance or get an injury trying to retrieve a sloppy pass than we would have just continuing as we were.

As I say, not really a moan, more just disappointment that we chose not to kick on against a side seemingly more dispirited than we were at the worst of last season, in front of 7000 people who can earnestly discuss the merits of our approach all they like, but would in truth have much preferred putting 5 or 6 past them.

Agree with this 100%. It feels churlish to complain after a 3-0 home win and it's a mile away from the crap of the 18 months or so prior but you can always do more. Yu don't need to go mental chasing another go but we had next to no interest in doing so against a team who couldn't be bothered and wanted the final whistle half an hour early. I'd have liked to have seen us put a marker down and stick a few more past them or use the opportunity to get 25 minutes into Murphy or Mills who would have had a go. They also had some decent possession and territory in this spell, I never felt we'd concede but we gave them nothing to think about going the other way. We can all say how professional it was and we've saved energy for Saturday but we could also have done that by making more subs and we'd all rather we scored another goal or two. It's not like there was a risk we were going to throw the game away by being more attacking.

 

[Joey]

I want us to get promoted more than I want us to smash bad teams.

And I wonder what the hell has happened when a 3-0 win isn’t considered emphatic.

It's not either/or though. Putting 5 past Shrewsbury rather than 3 doesn't make it less likely we'll be promoted, it's a bit of an odd argument. 3-0 is emphatic but it could have been more at no cost to us.

I said previously this is a world away from the complaints we had last season but I went away from last night feeling pleased but also a little flat, to be honest I found much of the last 10-15 minutes really boring.

 

[Big Ron]

I don't think I've ever been more relaxed at a game than I was last night, even at 0-0 I felt calm that we'd get at least one goal. I was surprised to see the same formation as Saturday but I do wonder if Manning knew Shrewsbury would come with a back 5, and going man for man with them would have been the best option as we are comfortably better individually, again this probably shows why he's a manager and I am not .

It was evident from the start that they would sit 30 yards outside their box and not press, Moore and Long were essentially playing as central midfielders in the first 20 minutes, I think when teams come here and press they have more joy, so not quite sure whether Matt Taylor has watched us for the past 5 seasons if he can't notice that.

Harris' movement was absolutely superb and he sacrificed a lot for the team, there were a couple of times he got the better of Dunkley (who was by far their best player) and he was really important to our play. He should have scored the 1v1 but honestly I don't care when the movement to get into those positions is so good in the first place. Also a special mention to Rodrigues for the pass to set him free, the crowd were screaming for it to be played first time but he took his time and waited for Harris to advance beyond their last man, it's the small things the crowd don't notice but it's so so good. I've noticed that a lot with Rodrigues actually, he will always wait until the last opportunity to play the pass and make sure it's right - also some of his touches in the opening 25 last night were ridiculous, it made me feel ways that I'm sure only @RyanioBirdio knows.

Stevens' finish was brilliant with little time to react and on the charge, it was his best performance tonight and I really like him as a player. He suits the RWB role perfectly and I don't see many weaknesses to his game, he reminds me of Jonjoe Kenny when he came in that he's quite small but he's a tenacious little f***er and will go full pelt for the 90. Not quite sure what Anderson (?) was thinking wiping him out like he did when on a yellow but oh well, we got a goal straight after and wrapped it up.

Enjoyed Marosi getting so bored that he tried to play outfield at the end, he's a relatively decent keeper at this level but was shocking last night, I'm not sure his dour manager's tactics helped and he just decided he'd had enough, it was hilarious that he just bypassed GOD and was seemingly happy to pass it to Leigh instead. Mind you, some finish .

All in all a very solid professional performance, I don't think we will face many sides worse than Shrewsbury, and if there are 4 teams worse than them in the divison I'd be amazed. Didn't even have to get out of second gear and I am expecting a much more frantic game on Saturday.

RATINGS

Beadle - 8 - So assured and some of his passes are absurd. 19 years old for goodness sake, future England GK.

Stevens - 8 - Cracking finish and a non stop performance
Long - 6 - Probably the worst of our starters tonight, lot of loose passes and got dragged out of position a lot
Moore - 8.5 - Rolls royce, didn't break a sweat, didn't need to either to be honest.
Brown - 7.5 - Solid and reliable and a poachers goal from OUFC's best gambler
Leigh - 9 - Goal and an assist and just another mentally good performance, surely Ipswich don't have 2 left backs better than him?

Mcguane - 7 - Played within himself a bit I thought compared to other games, maybe down to the oppositions park the bus tactics but assured nonetheless
Brannagan - 7 - Non stop as ever and never looked troubled, set piece delivery poor though

Bodin - 6.5 - Didn't have too much of an impact but some neat touches and good movement, earned a rest (i hope it's just that?)
Rodrigues - 9 - Personally my MOTM. Really coming into his own now, some crazy touches and flicks and played 3 steps ahead of everyone else.

Harris - 7 - Selfless movement which really benefited us in the first half, quieter second half and should have scored the 1v1

Goodrham - 5.5 - Quality of our play significantly dropped off when he came on, hopefully just an off night but couldn't get into it.
Maceachran - 6.5 - Kept things ticking over well but I fear he is made of paper as was struggling late on.
GOD - 5.5 - Done alright for the 3rd goal but he looked off again, there was a wonder ball across the box from Leigh which was an easy tap in and he just didn't move?? Reacted eventually but it was by the corner flag then.

Agreed on the substitutions - Goodrham didn't really get going. McEachran was just given a run-out to keep the ball moving around and GOD was the usual mixed bag. Great job chasing the keeper down for the 3rd but yes, where was he for that cross - he should have been busting a gut to get there. I know he's still young but I'm wondering if he has predator's instinct. We'll see I guess.

 

[Joey]

If you have access to iFollow full match replay it's worth looking at the Moore pass mentioned by @Osei Yaw and also Beadle's ball at just after 25 minutes that sets McGuane through. Both times Rodrigues has a look over his shoulder, sees what could happen and makes a quick run to create space. Very clever player who we're lucky to have.

 

[Followtheox1]

A lot of the good stuff he did was near the start of the game, it just gave us the impetus. Then when we got ahead I think it cooled off and then the end of the match was basically like a training exercise.

If you have access to iFollow you can see the full match replay. There's a good example of the sort of stuff I'm talking about between 08:44 and 09:00 minutes and I think it really shows the attention to detail and how well drilled the team are.

At 08:44, Moore gets the ball. He has a safe option either side of him (Long and Brown), and a third safe one (McGuane):

View attachment 16004

He opts for the more risky option of Rodrigues and that pass temporarily takes 2 Shrews players out the game:

View attachment 16005

Rodrigues keeps the ball and gives it back to McGuane, then it goes to Long and back to Moore. As soon as Moore gets it back, Rodrigues drops deep again to offer an option and this is the bit I really enjoyed - Dunkley sees Rodrigues and goes with him, making the space and Harris is in. If you watch it back on iFollow, at 08:57 you see Rodrigues gives a little gesture to Moore, who clips a nice one over the top to Harris:

View attachment 16006

It doesn't quite drop for Harris but it's a great little move and shows how we're so well set up to drag teams around the pitch and make openings. I thought Moore made a difference in that last night as, although he spend a lot of time just moving the ball on, he was happy to take the initiative when the opportunity was there. It was clearly something we had worked on as well.

Thanks.

 

[isibuko]

The press that Harris leads is so aggressive as well. Their keeper had a shocker generally but can't have been helped by having Harris and others bearing down on him with pace almost every time he got the ball. Our press from the front has been so organised and effective this season.

 

[RgYellows]

It's not either/or though. Putting 5 past Shrewsbury rather than 3 doesn't make it less likely we'll be promoted, it's a bit of an odd argument. 3-0 is emphatic but it could have been more at no cost to us.

It’s not really an odd argument. The “cost to us” would be missing out on a chance to:

• Conserve energy
• Get more minutes in certain players legs
• Practice a different style of play that will be needed in tougher games
• Practice a new system
• Give upcoming opponents less to analyse about how we’ll look to beat them
• Avoid embarrassing teams so they feel they ‘owe you one’ or go flying in to challenges
• Still add three points and +3 goal difference

All of this ignores that 3-0 is still a thumping victory, and makes me feel like I’m taking crazy pills. If you’re not completely satisfied with a 3-0, 3-0, 3-1, 3-0 run of games, I question whether the team is the problem.

 

[Followtheox1]

It’s not really an odd argument:

• Conserve energy
• Get more minutes in certain players legs
• Practice a different style of play that will be needed in tougher games
• Practice a new system
• Give upcoming opponents less to analyse about how we’ll look to beat them
• Avoid embarrassing teams so they feel they ‘owe you one’ or go flying in to challenges
• Still add three points and +3 goal difference

If you’re not completely satisfied with a 3-0, 3-0, 3-1, 3-0 run of games, I question whether the team is the problem.

I agree with most of what you have said. However, I think it is healthy not to be completely satisfied. Do you think Manning will be completely satisfied? I don't.

 

[chromeyellow]

I think Manning will let the team know the way he is dissatisfied. I think he used a game that looked won by half time (and certainly there was no way back for Shrewsbury after the red card) to find out a bit more about his players. Goodrham was given 45 minutes, O'Donkor had a cameo as a striker. I think it's important for his philosophy of not getting too excited and treating playing football as a job which you do with the whole squad over a season not to destroy other teams for the sake of it.

 

[RgYellows]

I agree with most of what you have said. However, I think it is healthy not to be completely satisfied. Do you think Manning will be completely satisfied? I don't.

I think Manning and I have very different roles at the club!

But in all seriousness, if Manning didn’t want us to kill this game at 2-0 then something went wrong because it looked so very intentional and we have done similar in other games. So I don’t think he’d criticise that at all.

 

[NorthWestOx]

If you have access to iFollow full match replay it's worth looking at the Moore pass mentioned by @Osei Yaw and also Beadle's ball at just after 25 minutes that sets McGuane through. Both times Rodrigues has a look over his shoulder, sees what could happen and makes a quick run to create space. Very clever player who we're lucky to have.

Couple of highlights for me
RR flick on 10:00 and also McGuane's flick on 93:10.

 

[maidenheadox]

I was very impressed by Beadle last night, he is calm under pressure and seems to have all the tools. I think he more than anything might be the biggest difference from last season. It would be a problem if he was out for a period, but goalie injuries are pretty rare. McGuane or Brannigan being out for an extended period might also be difficult to manage, but we seem to have multiple good options just about everywhere else on the pitch.

At 2-0 and 10 men Shrewsbury pretty much gave up and moved to damage limitation. We then lost interest and got a bit sloppy, but had half an eye on Saturday at that point. I'm all for boring 3-0 victories.

 

[Joey]

It’s not really an odd argument. The “cost to us” would be missing out on a chance to:

• Conserve energy
• Get more minutes in certain players legs
• Practice a different style of play that will be needed in tougher games
• Practice a new system
• Give upcoming opponents less to analyse about how we’ll look to beat them
• Avoid embarrassing teams so they feel they ‘owe you one’ or go flying in to challenges
• Still add three points and +3 goal difference

All of this ignores that 3-0 is still a thumping victory, and makes me feel like I’m taking crazy pills. If you’re not completely satisfied with a 3-0, 3-0, 3-1, 3-0 run of games, I question whether the team is the problem.

If we wanted to conserve energy and get minutes into certain players we could have made some subs, best of both worlds. It was a new style but in tougher games we wouldn't play with that lack of intensity, if you're practising something you should do it with purpose. I don't put much truck in the getting hurt because you're embarrassing teams, you don't need to turn into the Harlem Globetrotters or start doing keep ups but you can still attack. And do you really think that we were missing out on a chance to get 3 points and add 3 to the goal difference?

I'm not disappointed, I've already said I was pleased but that doesn't mean you have to be completely satisfied. By that logic you're pleased Harris missed his 1 on 1 in the first half? You don't think having a go and GOD getting off the mark for the season for example would have been a positive, or that a 5-0 win would be even better for morale?

None of this is an outright criticism but things don't have to be so black and white. People (and I'm not saying you, I can't remember your opinion) wanted to keep Robinson for a long time because we scored goals. "I suppose you'd want Ainsworth here, or go back to the Atkins days to get results" was often the argument and it was ridiculous. Manning has shown you can have your team be good going forwards and still have a good defence. I think you can be pleased at winning 3-0 and be a bit dissatisfied that it wasn't more as the opportunity was perfectly presented. I doubt we'll play many teams as listless as Shrewsbury were last night, down to 10 men to boot. I don't see any negatives to upping the intensity last night, if you're worried about fitness for Saturday then we still had a couple of subs we could have made.

 

[NorthWestOx]

How many yards out was Leigh’s goal?

I reckon he was around 21 yards out from the goal line, but also 32 yards out wide from the centre of the pitch.
(18 yard box, plus 10 yards more plus 4 yards to the centre of goal)

So, using a bit of Pythagoras, around 38 yards.
Give or take.

Some finish anyway.

 

[Marked Ox]

I reckon he was around 21 yards out from the goal line, but also 32 yards out wide from the centre of the pitch.
(18 yard box, plus 10 yards more plus 4 yards to the centre of goal)

So, using a bit of Pythagoras, around 38 yards.
Give or take.

Some finish anyway.

As an aside, Pythagoras nicked the credit for that theory. The Babylonians were using it a 1000 years before as demonstrated by a number of instructional clay* tablets.


iirc they were clay.