Home Match Build Up 16/4/24 Oxford United v Lincoln City

What will the outcome be?

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Foley

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Can we do it again?
For Lincoln- they have to win, so will have to go for it.
I like the idea that we have some tough games coming up. If we make the play offs , we will hopefully go in with some form against sine very good teams. Suddenly teams in the play offs won't be so keen on playing us.
If fully fit, I would play Cam and JM seems to struggle fitness wise playing full games.
A win and we are nearly there. Hopefully another near on 10k crowd. What an end to the season this could be.
 
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tonyw said:
Just out of curiosity - what if we were to lose to Lincoln tomorrow night (hopefully this is just a random hypothetical)?

Then we would have to beat Stevenage, otherwise the playoffs would be out of our hands. So would you play our strongest side three games running (injuries permitting) then? Or would you still make changes to keep things fresh? Still 3 games in 6 and a half days. Still a heightened injury risk.

If so.....well I'm not sure I really see the difference. For me it's pedal to the metal until we're over the line, then rest up. Don't play a weakened team because we only need a point, and don't rely on getting favours from anyone else.
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Well… yeah, in the same way that you yourself said if we win against Lincoln and then again at Stevenage, you’d rest players against Exeter. Are you saying you’d still rest them for that game if we needed a win?

If we lose against Lincoln and look tired and leggy then yes, I’d consider rotating those players out and giving them a rest. But if we win and look fine, I’d still rotate certain players, because I think there’s a high risk of injury making players do two games in a row with only two days rest, twice, as well as a risk of a poor performance. As I said, win against Lincoln and we’re pretty much in the playoffs, and so it’s very important that we don’t have our best players injured.

Anyway, it’s all irrelevant as Des and the team will do what they will, and all we can do as fans is see what happens in terms of looking tired / players getting injured!
 
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IsleofWightYellow said:
Well… yeah, in the same way that you yourself said if we win against Lincoln and then again at Stevenage, you’d rest players against Exeter. Are you saying you’d still rest them for that game if we needed a win?

If we lose against Lincoln and look tired and leggy then yes, I’d consider rotating those players out and giving them a rest. But if we win and look fine, I’d still rotate certain players, because I think there’s a high risk of injury making players do two games in a row with only two days rest, twice, as well as a risk of a poor performance. As I said, win against Lincoln and we’re pretty much in the playoffs, and so it’s very important that we don’t have our best players injured.

Anyway, it’s all irrelevant as Des and the team will do what they will, and all we can do as fans is see what happens in terms of looking tired / players getting injured!
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At this point in the season, I'm not 'resting' anyone - other than on doctor's orders - unless and until we reach the playoffs. I may make a couple of horses for courses changes if I think it will help our team in certain games (most likely being Cam or Moore coming back in)

Football - particularly when we get towards the end of the season - is too random for us to be able to let up even an inch with just a couple of games to go.

If we won on Tuesday and then rested, say, Harris and Murphy for the Stevenage game only to get turned over (and you know the fat crook would love that).....then it would only take Blackpool beating a slumping Barnsley the following day by a couple of goals and all of a sudden we're going to an Exeter side that hasn't lost in eight, needing something on the final day.

Nope. You'd like more depth up front, but we don't have it. So it's all hands to the pumps this week to try and get the four points we need.
 
Also worth recognising that we've played just 4 games since the 17th of March - so hardly a relentless schedule.

And only 3 players have played 75+ minutes in at least 3 of those 4 games (Brown and Long - machines in terms of fitness, and Murphy - who was very sensibly hooked very early on Saturday - no doubt with tomorrow in mind).

I'd say it's better to put your best foot forward and continue to manage players and their minutes 'in game' - i.e. with the use of subs. The perfect example is Rodrigues. He's started all 4 of those games - but his total minutes is just 277 - pretty much the equivalent of 3 full matches. All the Ruben, none of the fatigue.

We have options off the bench that have been used excellently in recent weeks (Bodin, Henry) - and I expect that to continue tomorrow and on Friday.
 
Scotchegg said:
Did we? I felt like the substitutions and the fact that we were 4 nil up meant that we just eased off a little.

Even then we still created several chances, Marcus Browne one on one, Greg Leigh hitting the post, Billy Bodin scoring plus 2 or 3 other opportunities.

I'm not sure that CV fitness is much of an issue. It is more about getting knocks at this stage, but these hurt a lot less when you're winning.

I'm sure everyone will be biting at the chomp (to quote Cam I think?!) to play tomorrow night and we just need to give them the freedom to play.
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Yeah, there were a few players who looked fatigued e.g. Rodrigues, Harris, Goodrham Long (stretching/cramp etc), Dale and Murphy to name but a few. To be honest, I was surprised we didn’t make some substitutions a bit earlier e.g. Harris, especially as we were winning quite comfortably and him really being our only recognised striker, plus the game against Lincoln and Stevenage all being within days of one another etc.

Anyway, all I’m saying is, I just hope they’ve recovered and biting at the chomp as you (or Cam) say!!
 
IsleofWightYellow said:
I know you caveated it a bit but I just don’t understand this view at all.

Peterborough have shown us what happens when you expect the same 11 players to play three games in seven days. As much as we played brilliantly, if you have a read of the Peterborough forum they’re all saying how their players looked absolutely shot, mentally as much as physically, and it looked that way to me as well. Are we not going to learn any lessons from that?

We have a lack of depth in certain positions, and players who’ve played a hell of a lot of minutes. Mark Harris must be in the ‘red zone’ as Karl would put it, and we only have Browne who can replace him. Josh Murphy is apparently managing a chronic hamstring problem. McEachran isn’t getting any younger. The list goes on.

The season isn’t over once we get into the playoffs and there’s no point in getting there and then going out with a whimper in the semi finals because we don’t have Murphy, Harris or McEachran available, for example.

IF we win on Tuesday then we’re so close to the playoffs that it would be mad to expect the same 11 to have just two days rest and then go yet again, in a game where a draw would be enough. Not only does it massively increase injury risk, but we’ll have a better chance of beating Stevenage with fresh, rested players than we will half-knackered ones…
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I think the mental fatigued/pressure our players have been on over the last 4 or 5 games has been hard for them too, so I’m sure that can have an impact physically in the latter stages of games, especially if the players have gone for it early on in the game etc.
 
OX14 said:
Ferguson even said in his interview he wasn't having the players were tired excuse. They couldn't handle our pressing and fast counter attack.
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To be honest, that’s the sort of comment he would make. I also think he made a bad mistake in making 4 substitutions at half-time. What a right kick in the teeth that must have been, and could potentially back-fire over the next 6 games they have e.g. players pissed off!
 
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