Home Match Day Thread 09/03/2024 L1: OUFC v Cheltenham Town

Who was your MOTM?

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holdsteady said:
I wouldn’t drop McGuane away from home to Bolton and go with a midfield of Brannagan, Matete and Rodrigues, I think you are looking at letting in more than our customary 1 or 2 a game if we leave the middle of the pitch that open.

Personally would put Rodrigues on the bench and go with McGuane holding with Brannagan and Matete in front of him.
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Matete is a holding midfielder.
 
tonyw said:
See I don't think I've ever been back to the town (well, village) that I was born in since I was two days old and leaving the hospital.

I always think of myself as being "from" Oxford, but we didn't move there until I was 4 years old. But maybe I'm really not?
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Where you were born, where you are from and where you live could all be different places. I haven’t lived in Oxford for 6 years, but much to my missus annoyance, I still say I am going home when I go there.
 
Wandering Yellow said:
Quite an interesting philosophical question that. Does being born somewhere make you "from" there. One for plato and aritstotle.

If you were born in London but moved to Glasgow aged one month are you a Londoner?
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You’re a cockney
 
East Stand Fan said:
Seems like a Perkins 2.0 situation. He was excellent against Reading but I don’t think he’s had a sniff since even getting on the bench. Real shame because he would be ideal going into the final quarter but if he’s throwing this opportunity then it’ll be unfortunate for him because if he ain’t careful, he’ll end up at the likes of Bromley or Sutton.
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I have AFCW ST mates. Burey was there until 16-17 when he was poached by Millwall. They weren't sorry to see him go. Constant stories that he was very difficult to 'manage' in training etc. Shame, as he's obviously got ability.
 
Northernyellow said:
I have AFCW ST mates. Burey was there until 16-17 when he was poached by Millwall. They weren't sorry to see him go. Constant stories that he was very difficult to 'manage' in training etc. Shame, as he's obviously got ability.
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Ability or not, we are not a home for waifs and strays with an attitude problem...two and a bit more months and Burey will be free to enjoy all the Smörrebröd he likes for the rest of his career.
 
tonyw said:
See I don't think I've ever been back to the town (well, village) that I was born in since I was two days old and leaving the hospital.

I always think of myself as being "from" Oxford, but we didn't move there until I was 4 years old. But maybe I'm really not?
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Now this is the type of discussion a match day thread is made for.
 
Matete might well be a holding midfielder but he is rubbish at it, for arguments sake stick with McGuane and be done with it.

Leave Matete at home for the game, Smith can hold.
 
BigAlan said:
Matete might well be a holding midfielder but he is rubbish at it, for arguments sake stick with McGuane and be done with it.

Leave Matete at home for the game, Smith can hold.
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As we have seen with Dale, let’s not write players off too soon. Especially since Matete is proven at this level.
 
Barbadosyellow said:
Cheltenham are actually above Oxford in the form table for the last 25 games even after our win yesterday. Might provide a crumb of comfort to some.
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If we're dishing out tiny crumbs of comfort:

For years we've been saying 'we need to find a way to beat teams who play this way'.

We just did.





(Not to say I didn't think yesterday was ropey as f**k - it plainly was)
 
Shocking defensive marking in the build up to their goal. This pic shows their goalscorer a few seconds before he gets the ball... how often do we give players acres of space on the edge of our box.
 

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Wandering Yellow said:
Is the "Luke Southwood is from Oxford" thing definitely true?

He was born in Oxford but the fact he was at Ding suggests he may have grown up in Berks?
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Unless he was from the most north or west of the county then hed only be about 30 minutes away from Reading so he wouldnt need to actually live in Reading.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
You must be the only one seeing any sort of emergence of a system. It’s too simplistic to just say we play into midfield, out to the wings and cross it in. I see as many balls played down the sides as I do into midfield and I also continually see Brannagan hitting 45 yard diagonals from deep - completely bypassing the midfield. I agree we move the ball too slowly but it’s not so much the pace when defenders have it, it’s that their instinct has become to use Cumming rather than progressing the ball through midfield.

There were a few times yesterday when our defenders had it and you could see their comfort pass was back to the keeper but the crowd urged a forward pass and they turned around and played a ball forward but it was obvious it wasn’t what they were instinctively wanting to do.

I suppose there is a system of sorts, sadly I’m not seeing the same one that you are though. I see you say you know Des, that explains an awful lot of what you post.
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I understand the desire, to get the ball wide to create space but we do not have the players to play that style. We are regularly overrun in midfield and because we cannot move the ball quickly, we have to rely on a 40 yards wonder pass or breaking the press. Nobody moves to fill the midfield hole so we regularly look unbalanced.
Whenever we have dominated, we have broken the press and moved it quickly but we have also conceded as many goals as we have scored by getting caught trying to break the press.
Personally, the weakness of this management is not recognising that weakness and playing to the current squads strength, Manningese if you like.. I understand the desire to want to play a certain way but you do when you have the necessary players. To not adapt is insanity, you forget your desires and play a style that suits your squad. It can never be the other way round, not if you want to survive.
 
38yearsofpain said:
I understand the desire, to get the ball wide to create space but we do not have the players to play that style. We are regularly overrun in midfield and because we cannot move the ball quickly, we have to rely on a 40 yards wonder pass or breaking the press. Nobody moves to fill the midfield hole so we regularly look unbalanced.
Whenever we have dominated, we have broken the press and moved it quickly but we have also conceded as many goals as we have scored by getting caught trying to break the press.
Personally, the weakness of this management is not recognising that weakness and playing to the current squads strength, Manningese if you like.. I understand the desire to want to play a certain way but you do when you have the necessary players. To not adapt is insanity, you forget your desires and play a style that suits your squad. It can never be the other way round, not if you want to survive.
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This.
I think that is why Des has held back from implementing his style completely as I don’t think he feels he has the players to truly carry it out.
An example of this is Rodders, he doesn’t use number 10’s in the same way as what Ruben is used to which limits not just Ruben’s game but also the way we play.
We were keeping the ball at the back yesterday as Cheltenham just sat back and by playing it around at the back you try and bring the other team out which creates spaces behind. We actually did this a few times by Ruben dropping deep to get the ball then playing it out wide.
 
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