Home Match Day Thread 28/10/2023 L1: OUFC v Wycombe Wanderers

[Northstandboy]

Come on, let's beat the Chairboys!

 

[ZeroTheHero]

I won't bother to go on about the ref's performance yesterday - I think it has all been said - except that having seen the 'highlights', all three penalties were decidedly questionable, and inconsistently awarded in that similar incidents were punished in various different ways! I didn't realise it was Stockbridge until after the game, but as soon as the holding offence on McGuane about five yards away from him early on wasn't punished, we knew what we were in for. Terrible, terrible performance.

As for the actual game, I wasn't terribly impressed with either team. Wycombe seem to have moved on a little bit (but not much) from Ainsworth's 'style' of play. As for us, we have fallen into the trap of treating ball possession and passing as an end in itself rather than as a means to an end (i.e. effort on goal) - our first goal was our first real threat on their goal (25 minutes). We (again) looked very slow-paced, with no Mills or Edwards on the pitch and if you haven't got that quick acceleration then it can all look very ponderous. But if we are going to play that passing at all costs game, then we have to do it a *lot* better than yesterday - the amount of mis-placed passes was high, and many of the little tricks and flicks just looked a bit silly as they went way off beam.

Harris is an odd one. There is a lot to like - his movement, speed, willingness, ball control - but I think it has become very obvious that he is absolutely not suited to a lone striker role. McGuane has gone backwards a bit with some of the forward drive evaporating, Goodrham and GoD need a loan out to see if they can develop further - currently I just can't see them as top of L1 first teamers. We did miss a couple of excellent chances - if we aren't going to create a load of good chances we have simply got to take the ones that come along, plus of course the one Mr Incompetent failed to play the advantage for. Nice to see Brannagan back, whether it was because of him or because of the game situation it's hard to say, but we did look quite a bit better once he was on.

I think this week is quite important - if we are seriously going to compete at the top of this league we need to be getting more than 2 points from 3 games, so a win at Lincoln plus a win in the FA Cup are probably needed to steady the nerves and give us a bit of confidence.

 

[tonyw]

I think McGuane is our best player (have thought this for most of his time here) but Rodrigues is a very close second (with Leigh) in my book and another that is not benefiting from the change in shape as there is nobody in wide areas taking the focus away from him. He’s getting kicked around quite a bit and operating in tiny pockets as we take too long to get going on the attack. Really difficult task.

Not going to disagree with this - but I think McGuane and Rodrigues have the opposite downsides to their games that are holding them back from being absolute league dominators.....

McGuane has terrific close control, strength, drive and acceleration and a good passing range. He's just really conservative in his decision making. He seems to want to control possession at all costs, so he won't try the tough through ball if there's a simpler pass on. Big reason why yesterday was his first assist of the season.

Rodrigues, by contrast, never saw a difficult through ball between multiple defenders that he didn't want to try. Which means that every now and again he plays an absolute worldie of a pass but he does give the ball away more often than is optimum.

If the two of them could just learn from eachother and meet somewhere in the middle, we'd have the two (maybe even three!) best midfielders in the division!

 

[Followtheox1]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1718375796715278536

Pretty shocked by this. So incredibly disrespectful.

This wasn't the minutes silence. They all came together for that and he stood apart. He didn't do anything else and did not disrespect it. I have no issue with him not wanting to take part in that with his team mates if he didn't want too. He is Irish. While we all get taught all the great things about our 'empire' and our armed forces, people need to remember that for a lot of the world a lot of bad things happened to them regarding the 'empire'. The idea that for many Irish people, given not just the history of the troubles from their view but the long history prior to that of what Britain did in Ireland, that they feel uncomfortable with moments like this is perfectly understandable. I'm sure many people on here would feel the same if brought up in the same situation.

 

[OX14]

Agree, we need a right back. I thought Negru (who was outstanding) mainly played as a left centre back when he came in as cover for JT. Brown was playing left back at the time. Moore was right centre back.

I think he can play either position, I know he covered LCB when Thorniley was injured and done a great job. He is naturally right footed so that's why I assume he would be better on the right.

 

[Followtheox1]

I think he can play either position, I know he covered LCB when Thorniley was injured and done a great job. He is naturally right footed so that's why I assume he would be better on the right.

Yes, I'm sure he can. I thought you said Long looked better with Negru there.

 

[OX14]

Yes, I'm sure he can. I thought you said Long looked better with Negru there.

I was thinking Moore and Negru swapped over when Thorniley was injured but I'm unsure if I just dreamt that lol.

Moore with his lack of pace means we need a right back who has pace to burn and sadly Long isn't that.

 

[Joey]

Surprised to see a few negative comments and ratings re McEachran. He is the only player who wants to pass the ball forwards and play through the lines. Whether it’s a 5/10 yard pass or a 20/30 yard pass he moves the ball up the pitch in a positive manner, while basically everyone else knocks it sideways and doesn’t have the nerve or ability to play it through gaps.

The problem is that Bodin and Rodrigues both have no pace, so when he gets the ball to them and takes two players out of the game with a single pass they don’t have the speed to turn and drive; they either have to hold it or lay the ball off quickly because they can’t get on their bikes.

There was a ball he played to Bodin who in turn put Harris through that no one else would have even seen, yet alone played yesterday. My issue with McEachran is that while he's an excellent passer he's not really that good at much else. He's a bit slow and weak, he's decent enough defensively without getting close to excelling and has no goal threat or drive to him, he needs a partner there to do it for him and struggles to play 90 minutes. He's very neat and tidy and like you say plays forwards passes no one else would but he needs some dynamism next to him.

 

[Cass63]

I think after watching yesterday’s game I definitely prefer to see us playing 4-2-3-1. We looked very poor down the right hand side yesterday with the wing back formation, Long and Stevens didn’t click at all, either defensively or in an attacking sense. A quality right back to compliment Leigh at left back would make a huge difference.

Harris clearly isn’t a number 9, it’s not his natural position. I actually think if he played wide right or wide left then we’d get the best out of him and possibly more goals as well, when the expectation and pressure of playing as the main focal point attacker isn’t on him.

Bodin had a poor game yesterday and I thought we took too long to make our substitutions. Tyler seems out of form as well at the moment, he barely touched the ball after coming on, and didn’t have any impact on the game. Not sure how much longer Browne and Edwards are out for but we are starting to really miss the extra bit of quality they bring to the side.

Heard last night that Browne and Edward’s are about 4 weeks away from playing.

 

[Tobytrotters]

The lad at the end of the line with the bandage around his right hand?

It irked me somewhat

And me.

I’d say his demeanor (if that’s the one) was very different to every other player.

yes he did, probably because he’s a misguided Irish man.

Why’s everyone talking about the defence like we didn’t defend well today the two goals wasn’t even the defence fault

Both penalties came from very bad defensive errors.

 

[Oldman159]

Another irritation yesterday was the increasingly popular ‘tactic’ of feigning a head injury (no matter what, if any, part of the body is touched) so that the ref, be he/she incompetent or not, has to stop play. Wycombe have perfected this relatively new ‘con’ already. It’s what they do. Theatrically it’s a step up from rolling around clutching an ankle, for sure.

Somehow, this has to be nipped in the bud, pdq.

 

[Followtheox1]

Another irritation yesterday was the increasingly popular ‘tactic’ of feigning a head injury (no matter what, if any, part of the body is touched) so that the ref, be he/she incompetent or not, has to stop play. Wycombe have perfected this relatively new ‘con’ already. It’s what they do. Theatrically it’s a step up from rolling around clutching an ankle, for sure.

Somehow, this has to be nipped in the bud, pdq.

Yes agree. Wycombe were bad for it. Have to say Harris seems to like doing it too.

 

[Manorlounger]

yes he did, probably because he’s a misguided Irish man.

Being of Irish descent, on my Mother's side, I might take offence at that statement. If you meant that he was misguided in his actions, then fair enough. If you meant a slur on the Irish per se, then a retraction and apology is due.

I'm not going to defend his actions, that is a matter for his own conscience. I would say that he would have been better advised to have respected the moment and kept his own feelings to himself.

 

[Mad Dog]

Surprised to see a few negative comments and ratings re McEachran. He is the only player who wants to pass the ball forwards and play through the lines. Whether it’s a 5/10 yard pass or a 20/30 yard pass he moves the ball up the pitch in a positive manner, while basically everyone else knocks it sideways and doesn’t have the nerve or ability to play it through gaps.

The problem is that Bodin and Rodrigues both have no pace, so when he gets the ball to them and takes two players out of the game with a single pass they don’t have the speed to turn and drive; they either have to hold it or lay the ball off quickly because they can’t get on their bikes.

McEachran did play a number of very good forward passes yesterday, and you're right, maybe if players with a better first touch had got on the end of those passes, it might've led to something.

But he's too slow and ponderous in my opinion, and needs someone with more intensity playing alongside him, as with him and McGuane alongside each other, we lacked any impetus, bite, intensity and drive, they both need to be playing alongside Brannagan, otherwise it ends up a bit slow, safe, sideways and backwards, and flat.

Josh reminds me of Paul Scholes in the last season of his career, when Scholes could still pick out lovely passes, but was by then so slow and ponderous, that he actually slowed down the tempo of the whole side, and I feel Josh needs to operate in the centre circle, with a compensating box to box midfield partner like Brannagan providing the intensity, drive and dynamism.

Have we actually won a game when McEachran has started?

 

[Joey]

Somehow, this has to be nipped in the bud, pdq.

If you go down with a head injury and the physio comes on, or even if the game is stopped, then you have to wait a minute or two to come back on rather than being waved on straight away. Unfortunately punishes genuine cases but would cut out the fakery. The only issue is people trying to play on with a genuine head injury rather than taking a minute out but I'd have thought if it was serious then you wouldn't be able to play on anyway.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

McEachran has scored a grand total of 1 goal in over 325 senior club appearances.
McGuane has scored a grand total of 2 goals in over 145 senior club appearances.

They have almost *no* goal threat between them. When they are both on the pitch, I'd say that was a problem.

In contrast, Brannagan scores once every 6 games for us (yes, I know he takes the pens - but only because he is likely to score them!)

 

[Oxford1983]

This wasn't the minutes silence. They all came together for that and he stood apart. He didn't do anything else and did not disrespect it. I have no issue with him not wanting to take part in that with his team mates if he didn't want too. He is Irish. While we all get taught all the great things about our 'empire' and our armed forces, people need to remember that for a lot of the world a lot of bad things happened to them regarding the 'empire'. The idea that for many Irish people, given not just the history of the troubles from their view but the long history prior to that of what Britain did in Ireland, that they feel uncomfortable with moments like this is perfectly understandable. I'm sure many people on here would feel the same if brought up in the same situation.

That still shot was not during the minutes silence and as you say, he did stand apart from the rest of players and didn't link arms but he DID continue to do stretches, jogging on the spot etc during the silence itself, I commented on it immediately after the silence to people around me as I'd watched him doing it!

Not something that offended me particularly and not one to make judgement when you don't know other peoples situations and/or background so he's perfectly entitled not to partake with everyone else but it's not much to ask a grown man to stand still for 60 seconds whilst others do pay their respects

Anyhow, not the place or time to debate the why's and wherefore's, quite frankly none of my business but just wanted to point out that he was 'pratting around' during the silence!

 

[The mighty Aldo]

Regarding Harris

He reminds me of Andy Scott for those of you who can rewind 20 plus years.
When we signed him we had high hopes and I remember watching his first game for us I think v Walsall.
He had a couple of chances and fluffed them and I thought then he’s no natural goal scorer however he did manage 1 goal every four games for us which is poor and if Harris could do that it would get him ten a season which is also not good enough.

In 87 appearances for Cardiff he scored 9 goals and he hasn’t been much better when out on loan.

So if he isn’t the answer in terms of a goal threat he has to create chances for others and I don’t see him doing that either.

To say I am totally underwhelmed by him would be an understatement. As a third striker in the squad maybe but we must get two more decent strikers in January. As others have mentioned on here the difference between Automatic promotion and hoping for the playoffs is a decent striker and we have none at our club

 

[Northernyellow]

Regarding Harris

He reminds me of Andy Scott for those of you who can rewind 20 plus years.
When we signed him we had high hopes and I remember watching his first game for us I think v Walsall.
He had a couple of chances and fluffed them and I thought then he’s no natural goal scorer however he did manage 1 goal every four games for us which is poor and if Harris could do that it would get him ten a season which is also not good enough.

In 87 appearances for Cardiff he scored 9 goals and he hasn’t been much better when out on loan.

So if he isn’t the answer in terms of a goal threat he has to create chances for others and I don’t see him doing that either.

To say I am totally underwhelmed by him would be an understatement. As a third striker in the squad maybe but we must get two more decent strikers in January. As others have mentioned on here the difference between Automatic promotion and hoping for the playoffs is a decent striker and we have none at our club

Ha! Yes, he is quite similar to Andy Scott. Both sort of ok players without being particularly good. Harris obviously isn't a natural goalscorer. Seems to panic when he gets a chance, which is the clue. Matty Taylor (a couple of years ago) would be on track for 25+ goals with this team. If we don't address the striker situation that may cost us top six, let alone top two.

 

[tonyw]

Have we actually won a game when McEachran has started?

Just the Carlisle game.

Agree with the notion that he's a decent player - he just doesn't work alongside McGuane, as they both want to be occupying many of the same spaces (none of which are the opposition's penalty area). And he's not as dynamic as McGuane.

Cam and MM is our best pairing, with McEachran being very good backup for McGuane. We need to find someone who can cover for Cam in January.

 

[Tobytrotters]

This wasn't the minutes silence. They all came together for that and he stood apart. He didn't do anything else and did not disrespect it. I have no issue with him not wanting to take part in that with his team mates if he didn't want too. He is Irish. While we all get taught all the great things about our 'empire' and our armed forces, people need to remember that for a lot of the world a lot of bad things happened to them regarding the 'empire'. The idea that for many Irish people, given not just the history of the troubles from their view but the long history prior to that of what Britain did in Ireland, that they feel uncomfortable with moments like this is perfectly understandable. I'm sure many people on here would feel the same if brought up in the same situation.

He did disrespect the minutes silence, no one else was stretching. If for whatever reason he didn’t want to take part, than he should of been respectful of those who do. You assumption about ‘he is Irish’ is ridiculous, and insulting to many Irish citizens including myself. Close to 300,000 Irish nationals both north and south fought in the world wars, my father was one of them.