Home Match Day Thread 02-03-2021 L1 OUFC v Peterborough United

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A good draw, that considering our recent form, I would've taken before the game.


Atkinson was excellent, used the ball well, and defended brilliantly.

Moore was solid and composed, again.

Forde was very good, and needs to start more games, he puts in good crosses and set pieces, and we look more solid and assured with him on the pitch.

Stevens made some great saves, but his kicking still needs a bit of work.

Brannagan looks a lot better when he plays further forward, and looked more like his old self tonight.

Sykes did a lot of good work, with some nice little passes and link up play, although there were a few moments when he was a bit too casual, with some flicks and tricks that went wrong, but overall, I thought he looked good.

Gorrin does the dirty work so well, but needs to be more forward thinking with his passing, too many times he passed it sideways or backwards, when he had time and space to look up, and bring the ball forward, or play a forward pass. And he needs to stop with the silly bookings, it's getting ridiculous now.

Long was playing well, solid as always, but seemed to pull up pretty badly with his hamstring, hope to god it's not a bad one, as he is pretty irreplaceable.

Hanson did ok, and can get stuck in and tackle, but offers virtually nothing going forwards, so hopefully Long returns quickly.

Ruffels had a tough night, and was stretched a few times, but did some good work with the ball.

Taylor is a quality striker at this level, but looks like he needs a rest, to recharge the batteries.

Agyei looked hungry, and did some good work, he simply has to be given a run of games now as a striker, starting Saturday.

Lee was looking good, and was putting in a real shift until he had to go off, after which we clearly missed his energy, hopefully it's not a serious injury.

Barker was poor, lost the ball virtually every time he had it, with a number of moves breaking down once he got the ball, and some bad decision making.

Shodipo did absolutely nothing, in the short amount of time he was on the pitch, I don't think he touched the ball.


We certainly looked better tonight, with more aggression, urgency and desire, and were pretty sound defensively, and with a bit more composure in the final third, coupled with Robbo making the substitutions earlier, and getting Agyei in particular on sooner, we could've won the game.

Still, a good point, on to Saturday

Decent sum up.

Lost count of the number of times I was shouting at Gorrin for passing back the second he received the ball without looking at options. Seemed to have an element of negativity instilled in him last night in this respect.

But very happy with that display against a very decent and well organised team who always looked like a threat.

I think the Posh will get their wish this season and go straight up.
 
Agree with most of these comments, but personally I think Brannagan isn’t playing as well as he initially did after returning from his eye issue.

Also, re; Gorrin, I just think at times he needs to put his foot on the ball for an extra second or so rather than either just playing it straight back from where it’s just come from or holding onto for too long, thus risking losing the ball in vulnerable areas.
I think in his first game back, Brannagan was excellent, but since then, he has been below par, and has struggled, playing in a much deeper lying midfield role, where he's done nothing more than really just ticking over in games, but I actually think he was a lot better last night, as he was able to play with the shackles off a bit more, and influence the game higher up the pitch, which is more his natural game.

You've pretty much echoed what I said about Gorrin's performance last night, but it's a bit of a catch 22 really, as if he's not on the pitch, then the burden of sitting deep, and just keeping things ticking over would've probably fallen on Brannagan.

Due to all his silly bookings, Gorrin will definitely be suspended soon, and once that happens, I'd like to see Forde used in the Gorrin role, for a game or two, as he looked very comfortable there earlier in the season, and can break up play well, close down and tackle, and has good composure on the ball.
 
Keeping the ball actually stops Peterborough having it,every time we forced a ball forward we lost it.
Yes, that's true. But it's a very negative way to play football if you are simply keeping the ball to stop your opponents having it - surely the *real* point of having the ball is to try and do something positive with it? But (as you correctly say) we had huge difficulty in keeping hold of it any time it went further forward than our back line. That is actually where one of our main problems is at the moment - retaining the ball in forward positions.
 
Gorrin
Agree with most of these comments, but personally I think Brannagan isn’t playing as well as he initially did after returning from his eye issue.

Also, re; Gorrin, I just think at times he needs to put his foot on the ball for an extra second or so rather than either just playing it straight back from where it’s just come from or holding onto for too long, thus risking losing the ball in vulnerable areas.
I would say as important as Gorrin is to us, his poor passing range and lack of offensive thinking when has the ball means L1 is probably his level.
 
Gorrin

I would say as important as Gorrin is to us, his poor passing range and lack of offensive thinking when has the ball means L1 is probably his level.

Gorrin should adopt John Trewick's nickname as "the Crab". Mind you if we are as successful with JT as a team then I'm very happy. Whilst Gorrin laying it off to others simply has worked well for us, do it at a faster tempo and sometimes forward as when he is at his best that is what he does. He was doing this in our good run not so long ago and he was the link that tied it together. But this tempo has slowed down, at a guess, due to many factors such as the team's loss of form and therefore the mindset, poor pitches, and the opposition are definitely closing us down quicker.

All of the team are at fault for this slow down in tempo though not specifically Gorrin, defenders, the other midfielders and forwards. Barker and Sykes for instance yesterday could have put themselves in better positions and been moving to make it harder to be blocked off when we were building from the back.

Gorrin has been a key player for us since joining and I'm sure he will bounce back but I think he needs the other central midfielders to step up and take some of the pressure off of him. Hopefully Cam Bran can get back to his best as that would ease the pressure. And I agree with whoever said on RadOx after the game that CB needs a goal as that will give him a massive boost.
 
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Dembele is a talent and always made something happen for them. Apart from the occasional lapse we managed to negate his threat. It was a fascinating game and had me engaged throughout. I think we have found ourselves again. The loss of Long couldn't have come at a worse time. 6 points in the next 2 games is what we deserve.
 
Dembele is a talent and always made something happen for them. Apart from the occasional lapse we managed to negate his threat. It was a fascinating game and had me engaged throughout. I think we have found ourselves again. The loss of Long couldn't have come at a worse time. 6 points in the next 2 games is what we deserve.
Dembele is always a threat.
Yesterday you could kind of see why he doesn't play at a much higher level though.
He should have scored when he had the one on one with Stevens (Stevens pushed him wide bug he still should have scored).
I must have seen him against us 4 or 5 times and he always looks a real handful but his final ball/ finishing looks a bit average (I know that he has scorer a few against us)

Our central defenders did really well against Clarke Harris. 21 goals in 31 games and he was pretty much snuffed out most of the time
 
Having skimmed through the highlights, I think it is fair to say that our defence equipped themselves very well for the most part against a bang in form potent attack force. It was also good to see just how up for it we seemed and the fact that we played with a real determination and energy where we were looking to create. It was refershing to see.

The overall impression of our attacking efforts is that it's our decision making in the final 3rd which is letting us down a bit. We know in someone like Barker, we have a player who will run at and skin defence when he can, but I just don't think his decision making is all that great when he needs to find that final ball. Case in point yesterday was when he got away down our left in the second half and had acres of space to run into. Had he looked up and assessed the options to his right, he would've seen a clear goalscoring opportunity for at least one of his team mates, but he chose to try and take on another player in the box and the attack fizzled out.

Another example was Sykes' long shot late on. On one hand he can be commended for having a go, but on the other, he had a fairly simple pass to play us in to his left which would've been a much better option to a player in space with a relatively free path to goal.

Another, when Taylor shot in the 2nd half from outside the box and the keeper parried at his near post. Watching the replay back, absolutely nobody was following up. Cam Bran had played the ball to Taylor and was closest for the follow up...but didn't. Now I understand he was probably Fotally Tucked by that point, but it is those fine margins that make the difference in tight games like last night.

I recent weeks, I have found myself asking "why did he do that??" and "why didn't he see the pass inside/outside/anticipate the follow up?" I really don't like to single players out but more often than not it has been directed at Barker, Sykes, Shodipo and Lee. Our goals for column in recent weeks kind of tells it's own story. We are creating some chances but more often than not it's the wrong options that mean they come to nothing....it's almost like were trying to force it too much as we're getting desperate to make stuff happen. If we want to regain our good form and for me it all revolves around decision making in the final third and we need to be a little more intelligent and composed in our approach play.
 
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Would I be outrageous to suggest we recall Sean Clare? With McGuane gone, Kelly AWOL, Lee a tad crocked and Henry with a nagging injury, we have a right-side midfield problem (I don't think Sykes can carry every game in that position - he is solid but not always effective). Clare has demonstrated both in the few minutes KR allowed him to play there and since he has been at Burton that he is a creative midfielder who can open up defences. I say this in part because I sponsor his kit home and away and having lost Shandon who I sponsored last season half way through, I'd like to see some value for money! Actually I don't care about that but I do worry that we have prematurely discarded a pretty decent player.
 
Would I be outrageous to suggest we recall Sean Clare? With McGuane gone, Kelly AWOL, Lee a tad crocked and Henry with a nagging injury, we have a right-side midfield problem (I don't think Sykes can carry every game in that position - he is solid but not always effective). Clare has demonstrated both in the few minutes KR allowed him to play there and since he has been at Burton that he is a creative midfielder who can open up defences. I say this in part because I sponsor his kit home and away and having lost Shandon who I sponsored last season half way through, I'd like to see some value for money! Actually I don't care about that but I do worry that we have prematurely discarded a pretty decent player.
I’m not sure we can recall him outside the window?
 
It’s becoming pretty clear the lack of cutting edge down the middle requires us to move heaven and earth to get McGuane.
 
Thought we played well last night, matched them for the most part. Could have gone either way. Lets not forget they are top of the league and bang in form (unlike us). Our final third could do with some fine tuning but overall, for me anyway, its hard to criticise that performance. It would be nice to beat a team that are above us sometime soon though.
 
He wouldn't be able to play for us if we did from my understanding.
He could if he was allowed to be recalled as you can only play for to teams but thinking of it did he play for his Scottish club this season before he came to us, anyway we can’t recall
 
It’s becoming pretty clear the lack of cutting edge down the middle requires us to move heaven and earth to get McGuane.
I agree. If he can get fully fit before next season...which might be a big if...who knows.

That said, Brannagan showed glimpses that he is capable when played further forward, but needs to be at his best consistently to do what McGuane was capable of.
 
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I agree. If he can get fully fit before next season...which might be a big if...which knows.

That said, Brannagan showed glimpses that he is capable when played further forward, but needs to be at his best consistently to do what McGuane was capable of.

Or sign a similar type midfielder to McGuane. I would hope we are already looking at this.
 
Clare can't be recalled, only players with non league teams, etc Woking, which is why the club are keen to lend to Woking.
Has anyone seen the youngsters recently to know if any are ready to make the step up in the coming weeks. Or of an out of contract player, that can step straight up, and is match fit, like Josh McEachran who has just signed for MK Dons.
 
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