Home Match Day Thread 02/11/2024 - Championship: Oxford United vs Swansea City

Who was your MOTM?


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No someone who can glide through the midfield but better ,A Ray Houghton would do nicely at the minute .
Get John Aldridge up front too, if we're in time-travel mode.

The front 5 had a very league one feel to it - in fact it was very similar to our league one side, but without the outstanding player at the time (Murphy) and the best attacking player (Goodrham) not in his best position, so it's no surprise we struggled.

Under Buckingham we have struggled if we don't have fit and fast wingers. Not necessarily a criticism of Buckingham as most managers would struggle in this situation, if he could find a way to get us playing in a more aggressive way that would be a significant achievement. Against Sunderland we were too passive, it made some sense in that game but I thought against Swansea the same was true - the difference being that when we did put them under pressure, we created chances. We just didn't put them under pressure anywhere near enough.
 
In the games I’ve seen I would say Harris chases down players more than Scarlett
I would say neither of them are the the sort of player who can hold the ball up and bring others into the game which is what we need when we are under the cosh
The ball does seem to stick to Scarlett more than Harris, but they’re no Kieffer Moore when it comes to holding the ball up and getting the team up the pitch. You’d think Goodwin had the size to do that but we haven’t seen enough of him to know that yet.
 
Took a couple of days to process my thoughts before posting as wanted to try to be as balanced as possible.

The current run of form has gone from a bit of a blip to highly concerning. It's not just the lack of wins, but we have started to look like the team many predicted we would be. Having looked like we deserved to be here at the start of the season, we now look very much like a League One team that just doesn't have the class to compete at this level.

I don't think it can be overstated how much we miss Brannagan. We are losing the midfield battle week in, week out at the moment and I don't think that would be the case were he available. Add to that list of injured wingers and it's not really a surprise we are struggling.

That said, Des has been disappointingly rigid at times. He's shown loyalty to the players that got us to this level, which is commendable, but if they're not performing they shouldn't be starting every match. Ruben Rodrigues just looks completely off the pace at the moment, and Harris is going through one of his 'couldn't hit a barn door' spells - his misses are costing us points. That both started on Saturday is difficult to fathom.

I know many have been calling for a change in formation, but in Des' defence I can understand why he has been reluctant to do so. At the start of the season it was obvious how well each player knew their role in the 433 system and how well coached it was, so to change the system would've been a big adjustment. It's not as straightforward as just telling players where they're playing and sending them out there to work it out for themselves, particularly at this level where the opposition is always so well coached. That said, once the injuries to the wingers really started to mount up the argument that the players we had available were better suited to a 352 system has become much stronger, particularly as Goodrham is wasted out wide and neither Dale nor Ebiowei are performing to the required standard. It will be interesting to see what he does against Hull.

All that said, I think it's important we remain positive and behind the team. No matter which way you look at it, this season was always going to be tough. We started the season with an us against the world mentality on and off the pitch, but the feelgood factor from promotion has been lost somewhat. The atmosphere in the stands on Saturday was really, really bad, and I don't think it has helped performances on the pitch. The loudest the home end got on Saturday was when people were booing the opposition goalkeeper.

I think now is the time to get back behind the team and collectively do everything we can to help them grind out some points before the international break, when hopefully some of our key players start to return and we see an upturn in form again.
 
Took a couple of days to process my thoughts before posting as wanted to try to be as balanced as possible.

The current run of form has gone from a bit of a blip to highly concerning. It's not just the lack of wins, but we have started to look like the team many predicted we would be. Having looked like we deserved to be here at the start of the season, we now look very much like a League One team that just doesn't have the class to compete at this level.

I don't think it can be overstated how much we miss Brannagan. We are losing the midfield battle week in, week out at the moment and I don't think that would be the case were he available. Add to that list of injured wingers and it's not really a surprise we are struggling.

That said, Des has been disappointingly rigid at times. He's shown loyalty to the players that got us to this level, which is commendable, but if they're not performing they shouldn't be starting every match. Ruben Rodrigues just looks completely off the pace at the moment, and Harris is going through one of his 'couldn't hit a barn door' spells - his misses are costing us points. That both started on Saturday is difficult to fathom.

I know many have been calling for a change in formation, but in Des' defence I can understand why he has been reluctant to do so. At the start of the season it was obvious how well each player knew their role in the 433 system and how well coached it was, so to change the system would've been a big adjustment. It's not as straightforward as just telling players where they're playing and sending them out there to work it out for themselves, particularly at this level where the opposition is always so well coached. That said, once the injuries to the wingers really started to mount up the argument that the players we had available were better suited to a 352 system has become much stronger, particularly as Goodrham is wasted out wide and neither Dale nor Ebiowei are performing to the required standard. It will be interesting to see what he does against Hull.

All that said, I think it's important we remain positive and behind the team. No matter which way you look at it, this season was always going to be tough. We started the season with an us against the world mentality on and off the pitch, but the feelgood factor from promotion has been lost somewhat. The atmosphere in the stands on Saturday was really, really bad, and I don't think it has helped performances on the pitch. The loudest the home end got on Saturday was when people were booing the opposition goalkeeper.

I think now is the time to get back behind the team and collectively do everything we can to help them grind out some points before the international break, when hopefully some of our key players start to return and we see an upturn in form again.

Which in itself is absolutely f*****g mental
 
Agree with most of the sentiments on here. Our defence is decent but exposed, midfield is toothless and being overrun, we need Cam back, struggling to play out against the high press but just giving the ball away when we go long, Sparky ineffective up top at the moment, Goodrham needs to be more central, injuries to wide players a real problem etc. etc.

The only good thing I took away was that despite being very much 2nd best for the whole game we actually had some pretty decent chances. Sparky's miss was unforgivable (get's worse every time I watch it) and you'd usually back Leigh to nail that header at the end. Plus the miss from Ebiowei and I think there was another chance for Scarlett apart from the goal. Although I will concede that they could probably have had a couple more.

I thought Scarlett's goal was pretty impressive. Received the ball to his feet in the box with not that much on and three touches later it was nestling in the bottom corner. He is a proper striker, can't see how he doesn't start going forward.

Can't make my mind up on Ebiowei. He seems a bit lost, but he does also appear to give the opposition something to think about. If there's good footballer in there I trust Des to find him.

Anyway there were always going to be spells like this over the course of the season (although we do need to end it), and I do remind myself that less than 2 years ago we went 16 games without a win in League 1.

If we can push up towards mid table again then I think we'll have the chance to strengthen in January. If we're bottom 3 then I think it might be a hard sell.
 
McGuane has played the grand total of 2 games for Bristol City. Are you really saying we are missing him?!

I think we are.

When he was 'on it', which admittedly wasn't often enough, he had the ability to drive forward and break the lines with the ball.

Josh Mac & Vaulks can be neat and tidy on the ball and screen our back 4 better, but neither have the dynamism that MM had/has to carry us up the pitch which we have badly needed in recent weeks.
 
I think we are.

When he was 'on it', which admittedly wasn't often enough, he had the ability to drive forward and break the lines with the ball.

Josh Mac & Vaulks can be neat and tidy on the ball and screen our back 4 better, but neither have the dynamism that MM had/has to carry us up the pitch which we have badly needed in recent weeks.
Exactly this, he couldn't do it consistently and therefore I am not sure we are missing a player that is inconsistent.

What we are missing is Cam Brannagan or a player of his quality that can run a game and make things happen from the middle of the pitch.
 
If Marcus Mcguane couldn't perform consistently enough at League One, why would he be the answer in the championship?

Not sure Will Vaulks or McEachran have been the model of consistency.

Couldn't have legislated for Brannagan's injury, however I feel like we are short of a 6 anyway as Brannagan is deployed more further forwards under Des' system.
 
Not sure Will Vaulks or McEachran have been the model of consistency.

Couldn't have legislated for Brannagan's injury, however I feel like we are short of a 6 anyway as Brannagan is deployed more further forwards under Des' system.

Vaulks I agree with. Josh Mceachran has been pretty consistent apart from the Swansea game. Mcguane is definitely not the answer though
 
I think we have been found out. Not by tactics but by other teams learning our players names properly when we struggle with this ourselves.
It's Cumming not Cummings
Kioso and not Kisoo or Kosio or Kiosk
Brown not Browne
Goodrham not Goodhram
Phillips not Philips
Placheta not Placenta (although my fav from another fan watching pre-season was Polish Pete)
Moore not More
Brannagan not Branagan
Vaulks not Valks
Scarlett not Scarlet
Ebiowei not Ebeowei
And don't even start me on McEachran.
 
I think we have been found out. Not by tactics but by other teams learning our players names properly when we struggle with this ourselves.
It's Cumming not Cummings
Kioso and not Kisoo or Kosio or Kiosk
Brown not Browne
Goodrham not Goodhram
Phillips not Philips
Placheta not Placenta (although my fav from another fan watching pre-season was Polish Pete)
Moore not More
Brannagan not Branagan
Vaulks not Valks
Scarlett not Scarlet
Ebiowei not Ebeowei
And don't even start me on McEachran.
I miss McGuane, largely because McGunae was my favourite forum typo
 
Swansea hadn’t scored in 5 games, and are a below average Championship team, our 8th game without a win, with some truly abject performances in that span, we’re also consistently seeing teams outwork us

Yes we’re a small team with a small budget at this level, but we’ve spent money and surely we have to have some expectation about the level of performance we’re giving?
Below average Championship team Swansea beat Watford tonight.
 
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