Home Match Day Thread 01/02/25: Championship - OUFC v Bristol City

 
This might be an unpopular opinion, but while I do think he's a very good addition to the squad, and a definite boost to our defensive reinforcements, I haven't been as impressed with Helik as everyone else seems to have been.

He's good, but from what I've seen so far, he's slow, immobile, can't jump, so doesn't win headers, and is no way an upgrade on Moore, either defensively, or with the ball at his feet. If Moore leaves in the summer, as some have suggested is on the cards, then we need to bring in a replacement who is a definite upgrade.

And we've clearly not solved our right back conundrum yet either. It's better, I like Kioso, he defends well, but he offers zero support going forwards. Whether that's a tactical decision or not, who knows, but I'm sure when he arrived at the club, I remember him saying he loved to get forward and provide crosses, but we've seen little evidence of that yet.

Speaking of defenders, once again, we've had to rely on one of our defenders scoring the goals that gets us anything from the game. It's getting beyond a joke now.

Call me old fashioned, but I'd like to see our attackers start providing a genuine goal threat in games, and if it's not too much trouble, actually scoring some bloody goals, instead of leaving it to our defenders to not only keep the goals out at one end, but score the bloody goals at the other end as well!

A goal scoring striker brought in before the end of the window is an absolute MU
 
Before yesterday's games, we were 9 points off the relegation places. After yesterday's games, we are 10 points off the relegation places. So ,although I think it was 2 points dropped yesterday, every single point is going to make difference.
Yep I agree with that view. We’ve exceeded expectations so far this year and doubly exceeded them compared to where we were in November.

I can see Swansea & Stoke (Robins will get it right at some point) finishing above us but Preston are no better based on what I saw of them on Friday.

Vaulks is back in form, Moore & Long will be back soon. New signings are settling in ok. I feel we’ll be ok this season but I worry more about ‘second season syndrome’ and us replacing TG and Cumming who are bound to attract interest in the summer.

Don’t mean to finish on a negative note but to only get a draw, at home, against 9 men yesterday is a big cOck-up, no matter what team you are in any division, that is 2 points dropped.
 
Goal scoring strikers are like goal dust. It is not happening. They come at a premium price. What is it you do not understand? As for Helik's numerous faults....well, no comment necessary.
 
Vaulks is back in form, Moore & Long will be back soon. New signings are settling in ok. I feel we’ll be ok this season but I worry more about ‘second season syndrome’ and us replacing TG and Cumming who are bound to attract interest in the
Blimey, that really is getting ahead of the game, worrying about next season already! I’m cautiously optimistic but there’s a lot of this season to be played out yet!
 
Goal scoring strikers are like goal dust. It is not happening. They come at a premium price. What is it you do not understand? As for Helik's numerous faults....well, no comment necessary.
Odd isn’t it? There seems to be a thought in some quarters here that nobody at the club has realised we need some quality up front!
 
This might be an unpopular opinion, but while I do think he's a very good addition to the squad, and a definite boost to our defensive reinforcements, I haven't been as impressed with Helik as everyone else seems to have been.

He's good, but from what I've seen so far, he's slow, immobile, can't jump, so doesn't win headers, and is no way an upgrade on Moore, either defensively, or with the ball at his feet. If Moore leaves in the summer, as some have suggested is on the cards, then we need to bring in a replacement who is a definite upgrade.

And we've clearly not solved our right back conundrum yet either. It's better, I like Kioso, he defends well, but he offers zero support going forwards. Whether that's a tactical decision or not, who knows, but I'm sure when he arrived at the club, I remember him saying he loved to get forward and provide crosses, but we've seen little evidence of that yet.

Speaking of defenders, once again, we've had to rely on one of our defenders scoring the goals that gets us anything from the game. It's getting beyond a joke now.

Call me old fashioned, but I'd like to see our attackers start providing a genuine goal threat in games, and if it's not too much trouble, actually scoring some bloody goals, instead of leaving it to our defenders to not only keep the goals out at one end, but score the bloody goals at the other end as well!

A goal scoring striker brought in before the end of the window is an absolute MUST, in my opinion.
I think he is a step up from Moore, and think that Moore will struggle to get back into the team at the moment.

He does win headers, is strong, makes good tackles, reads the game well and more of a threat on corners for us etc. The only liability is his pace or lack of it. He’s been booked twice now when he fears he’s going to be beaten for pace. Not sure if Brown etc spoke to him to let him know that they had covered him, but if they didn’t then I can understand why he fouled their player.
 
Just watched the highlights and confirms my comment from earlier
City had 2 players on the 18 yard line Cam was sort of near the nearest but Sykes was totally on his own, they had 4 players in the box marked by 10 (minus Cam) at least one of us should have been nearer Sykes
We tend to leave players on the edge of the box unmarked on corners/set-pieces etc, and notice a lot of teams defend like this which I always find to be odd, but what do I know!
 
Yep I agree with that view. We’ve exceeded expectations so far this year and doubly exceeded them compared to where we were in November.

I can see Swansea & Stoke (Robins will get it right at some point) finishing above us but Preston are no better based on what I saw of them on Friday.

Vaulks is back in form, Moore & Long will be back soon. New signings are settling in ok. I feel we’ll be ok this season but I worry more about ‘second season syndrome’ and us replacing TG and Cumming who are bound to attract interest in the summer.

Don’t mean to finish on a negative note but to only get a draw, at home, against 9 men yesterday is a big cOck-up, no matter what team you are in any division, that is 2 points dropped.
Yeah, but we’ve got two away games now, one of them (Burnley) could price very difficult, and even Derby will be hard, especially as we’ve not been great shakes away from home, so I think dropping 2 points at home yesterday when it was very winnable was very frustrating and could cost us over the next few weeks. Then we’ve got WBA away after the next home game against Pompey which again will be a very tough game too!
 
Kioso puts in a really good cross at times, but agree he could ideally get forward more, a la Sam Long.
I would choose Long over the other two options (Kioso & ter Avest) as I think he’s better defensively and offensively which is saying something when I believed Long wasn’t good enough at League 2 level, never mind Championship!
 
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Yeah, but we’ve got two away games now, one of them (Burnley) could price very difficult, and even Derby will be hard, especially as we’ve not been great shakes away from home, so I think dropping 2 points at home yesterday when it was very winnable was very frustrating and could cost us over the next few weeks. Then we’ve got WBA away after the next home game against Pompey which again will be a very tough game too!
I feel we will get 4-5 points in February. At least a draw v Derby. Think we’ll match WBA at least and beat Pompey. Then the hard work starts in the final couple of months of the season. We’ve gotta hope Harris hits a bit of form also, otherwise don’t include him in the squad again for the rest of the season and blend Rom & Brad into the side.
 
yet the 'fearsome ' Burnley are not runaway leaders of the Championship, they're not even sat in second place in the Championship, and they managed an away draw at Pompey yesterday - Burnley are just another Championship side, same as we are- difference is they're a handful or so places above us in current league placings. Werent the matches against high flying Championship sides you mentioned under DB tenure, and toward the end of a non winning run?

as you say, runs come to an end, so why not Burnley's home run on Tuesday evening?

Or should Oxford just not bother travelling and hand them 3points by default? And while were at it we could hand Leeds, Sheff Utd, Sunderland, Boro, Blackburn and WBA* the respective 3 points instead of playing our scheduled games against them too

* WBA lost to bottom placed Plymouth yesterday btw !!

To reiterate, on recent (last 6) form, Oxford match Burnley in all aspects bar goals scored, Why cant we get an away win?

We are a Championship side on merit

Holdsteady has said most of what needs to be said.

But while I'm not throwing in the towel on Tuesday - we have to accept that winning this game is unlikely.

Burnley's defense isn't just good. It's the best in the country (relative to its level) by an absolute mile. They've conceded 9 goals in 30 games (!?). The next best in the top six tiers is Birmingham's 19.

It's what's put them into this four team league of clubs at the top of the division (along with Leeds, Sheffield Utd & Sunderland) who are, and have been a level above everyone else this season. Our away games at the other three have not been pretty. I suspect this one will not be as one-sided because we're a much more solid team under Rowett, and Burnley are not the attacking force that the other three are. But it's clear that an away win is a long shot (and if we do, it will likely be a 1-0 smash and grab)

A '0-0' though? Very possible. Burnley have had 0-0 draws against plenty of worse sides than us this season.....
 
Holdsteady has said most of what needs to be said.

But while I'm not throwing in the towel on Tuesday - we have to accept that winning this game is unlikely.

Burnley's defense isn't just good. It's the best in the country (relative to its level) by an absolute mile. They've conceded 9 goals in 30 games (!?). The next best in the top six tiers is Birmingham's 19.

It's what's put them into this four team league of clubs at the top of the division (along with Leeds, Sheffield Utd & Sunderland) who are, and have been a level above everyone else this season. Our away games at the other three have not been pretty. I suspect this one will not be as one-sided because we're a much more solid team under Rowett, and Burnley are not the attacking force that the other three are. But it's clear that an away win is a long shot (and if we do, it will likely be a 1-0 smash and grab)

A '0-0' though? Very possible. Burnley have had 0-0 draws against plenty of worse sides than us this season.....
For balance, though, we go in to this game as the 6th best side in the division over ten games. When a side in that form goes anywhere, they should do so with some belief that they can win even if it has to be done slightly differently. Any fans there should also believe we can. Burnley have fired blanks a number of times - in over a third of their games, actually, despite being 3rd. A well organised rear guard should stand a really good chance of staying in the game as they haven’t demonstrated themselves to be a devastating attacking side.

If people thought we were pragmatic on Saturday, Tuesday could be a shock. Don’t be surprised if we commit to frustrating Burnley and condense the game to the last 10-15 minutes. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to win, but it would be one way to go about it.
 
For balance, though, we go in to this game as the 6th best side in the division over ten games. When a side in that form goes anywhere, they should do so with some belief that they can win even if it has to be done slightly differently. Any fans there should also believe we can. Burnley have fired blanks a number of times - in over a third of their games, actually, despite being 3rd. A well organised rear guard should stand a really good chance of staying in the game as they haven’t demonstrated themselves to be a devastating attacking side.

If people thought we were pragmatic on Saturday, Tuesday could be a shock. Don’t be surprised if we commit to frustrating Burnley and condense the game to the last 10-15 minutes. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to win, but it would be one way to go about it.

Oh agree, nowhere am I suggesting that we're going to get curb stomped on Tuesday.

I do think it will be tight, and that we'll stay in it.
(And I would also play Matos instead of RR in the #10 role to make sure that we at the very least grind out a stalemate in the middle of the park).

Just, y'know, I hope people recognize that if we score a goal on Tuesday, we're doing really well because more than two thirds of teams don't against Burnley.
And if we score more than one goal, we're doing something that no-one has done against them in the league all season!
 
Interesting to see the negative pile on towards Harris from an a section of the fan base, ( I deliberately didn’t call it ‘support base’ ) but not surprising.

Collectively the team had a pretty frustrating afternoon, in particular from a creative point of view, especially when you consider we were playing against 10 players for over half the game and subsequently 9 players for the last 10 mins. Not a lot of creativity, perhaps we can blame Harris for the lack of chances created by his teammates.

Despite being a niggly, whinging bunch perhaps we need to give Bristol City some credit. I’ll put my tin hat on now and say I thought Manning got his tactics bang on after going down to 10 men, they scored an excellent goal and his players put in a real shift. Our ex players, Dickie, McNally and Sykes all had good games too.
 
Interesting to see the negative pile on towards Harris from an a section of the fan base, ( I deliberately didn’t call it ‘support base’ ) but not surprising.

Collectively the team had a pretty frustrating afternoon, in particular from a creative point of view, especially when you consider we were playing against 10 players for over half the game and subsequently 9 players for the last 10 mins. Not a lot of creativity, perhaps we can blame Harris for the lack of chances created by his teammates.

Despite being a niggly, whinging bunch perhaps we need to give Bristol City some credit. I’ll put my tin hat on now and say I thought Manning got his tactics bang on after going down to 10 men, they scored an excellent goal and his players put in a real shift. Our ex players, Dickie, McNally and Sykes all had good games too.
Hello Liam.
 
Holdsteady has said most of what needs to be said.

But while I'm not throwing in the towel on Tuesday - we have to accept that winning this game is unlikely.

Burnley's defense isn't just good. It's the best in the country (relative to its level) by an absolute mile. They've conceded 9 goals in 30 games (!?). The next best in the top six tiers is Birmingham's 19.

It's what's put them into this four team league of clubs at the top of the division (along with Leeds, Sheffield Utd & Sunderland) who are, and have been a level above everyone else this season. Our away games at the other three have not been pretty. I suspect this one will not be as one-sided because we're a much more solid team under Rowett, and Burnley are not the attacking force that the other three are. But it's clear that an away win is a long shot (and if we do, it will likely be a 1-0 smash and grab)

A '0-0' though? Very possible. Burnley have had 0-0 draws against plenty of worse sides than us this season.....
10 0-0s this season so far.
 
Had a look at what Burnley fans are saying online and they are growing increasingly tired at the amount of 0-0 draws especially against some lower teams which could ultimately haunt them at the end. As said above, their defence is the best in the football league but they seem very lackluster in front of goal aside from the drubbing away at Plymouth. Another 0-0 draw against them would be a fantastic result and I think this defence could achieve a clean sheet on Tuesday. The real challenge would be to score against them but after Saturday, I think it'll be another incredibly hard team to break down. When we played them at home, I think we only had one opportunity and that was in the last 5 minutes and aside from that, they were impossible to breach.
 
Had a look at what Burnley fans are saying online and they are growing increasingly tired at the amount of 0-0 draws especially against some lower teams which could ultimately haunt them at the end. As said above, their defence is the best in the football league but they seem very lackluster in front of goal aside from the drubbing away at Plymouth. Another 0-0 draw against them would be a fantastic result and I think this defence could achieve a clean sheet on Tuesday. The real challenge would be to score against them but after Saturday, I think it'll be another incredibly hard yesteam to break down. When we played them at home, I think we only had one opportunity and that was in the last 5 minutes and aside from that, they were impossible to breach.
Yes I agree but when you have a opposition that have no threat up front us you can see why
Hopefully with dembale and Placheta now fit swop Harris and Rodrigues with Bradshaw Tyler or matos Romney we may have a surprise for them
 
Holdsteady has said most of what needs to be said.

But while I'm not throwing in the towel on Tuesday - we have to accept that winning this game is unlikely.

Burnley's defense isn't just good. It's the best in the country (relative to its level) by an absolute mile. They've conceded 9 goals in 30 games (!?). The next best in the top six tiers is Birmingham's 19.

It's what's put them into this four team league of clubs at the top of the division (along with Leeds, Sheffield Utd & Sunderland) who are, and have been a level above everyone else this season. Our away games at the other three have not been pretty. I suspect this one will not be as one-sided because we're a much more solid team under Rowett, and Burnley are not the attacking force that the other three are. But it's clear that an away win is a long shot (and if we do, it will likely be a 1-0 smash and grab)

A '0-0' though? Very possible. Burnley have had 0-0 draws against plenty of worse sides than us this season.....
we'll find out tuesday night
 
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