Home Match Day Thread 03/10/2023 L1: OUFC v Shrewsbury

[Malc]

Another 3 points today? I think so, 2-0 to the mighty Yellows.

 

[Eaststanding]

A professional, controlled performance against a team struggling for form; let’s not disrespect Shrewsbury though, they improved after the subs came on and started to stretch us. We’ll face tougher tests but a ‘training session’ it wasn’t.
How anyone though can demand more ‘entertainment’ from a team that has just won again, and 3-0, is f*****g ridiculous.

 

[werthersoriginal]

It's not either/or though. Putting 5 past Shrewsbury rather than 3 doesn't make it less likely we'll be promoted, it's a bit of an odd argument. 3-0 is emphatic but it could have been more at no cost to us.

I said previously this is a world away from the complaints we had last season but I went away from last night feeling pleased but also a little flat, to be honest I found much of the last 10-15 minutes really boring.

Yes I agree, obviously it's mad to complain but I didn't feel exultant at the end, just pleased with the result, and my mate left early. I didn't like seeing us killing the game and pretty much declaring at 2-0 against a crap team with ten men. As I say, it's mad to moan, but football is part of the entertainment industry after all. Newcastle got 8 the other day, they didn't go to the corners at 2-0. Our caution may in this case have been prompted by Shrews bringing on four subs and looking a bit more dangerous, but it's part of our usual approach too.

 

[RgYellows]

If we wanted to conserve energy and get minutes into certain players we could have made some subs, best of both worlds. It was a new style but in tougher games we wouldn't play with that lack of intensity, if you're practising something you should do it with purpose. I don't put much truck in the getting hurt because you're embarrassing teams, you don't need to turn into the Harlem Globetrotters or start doing keep ups but you can still attack. And do you really think that we were missing out on a chance to get 3 points and add 3 to the goal difference?

I'm not disappointed, I've already said I was pleased but that doesn't mean you have to be completely satisfied. By that logic you're pleased Harris missed his 1 on 1 in the first half? You don't think having a go and GOD getting off the mark for the season for example would have been a positive, or that a 5-0 win would be even better for morale?

None of this is an outright criticism but things don't have to be so black and white. People (and I'm not saying you, I can't remember your opinion) wanted to keep Robinson for a long time because we scored goals. "I suppose you'd want Ainsworth here, or go back to the Atkins days to get results" was often the argument and it was ridiculous. Manning has shown you can have your team be good going forwards and still have a good defence. I think you can be pleased at winning 3-0 and be a bit dissatisfied that it wasn't more as the opportunity was perfectly presented. I doubt we'll play many teams as listless as Shrewsbury were last night, down to 10 men to boot. I don't see any negatives to upping the intensity last night, if you're worried about fitness for Saturday then we still had a couple of subs we could have made.

You said you “agreed 100%” with a post that began “I was disappointed”?

It’s ridiculous to suggest I’m pleased Harris missed, because I can see value in things other than going all out to score a goal that will probably be meaningless, especially in a post that says “things don’t have to be black and white”.

By all means, don’t be completely satisfied, I’m just saying that I’m not sure you ever will be if you aren’t now.

 

[TailsWeWin]

Re: GOD. I agree he doesn’t seem to have a striker’s “instinct”. I’ve said this for a while. He never seems to ANTICIPATE or read the game intelligently. He wants to wait for the right ball to come to him, rather than guessing where it might be going. Can this “instinct” be taught/coached??

 

[akilham]

Re: GOD. I agree he doesn’t seem to have a striker’s “instinct”. I’ve said this for a while. He never seems to ANTICIPATE or read the game intelligently. He wants to wait for the right ball to come to him, rather than guessing where it might be going. Can this “instinct” be taught/coached??

Agree. This has been worrying me for a little while. Hopefully we are giving him the coaching he needs to improve - otherwise he'll be playing for Oxford City before long.

 

[battman]

I was disappointed by our approach in the second half last night.

I get all the comfortable, in control, secure the win, it's three points etc etc, and in the bigger picture it was a win, three points, +3 goal difference, etc, etc

I also get that when one or two goals up, then it is sometimes sensible to strangle the game against plucky sides who are still trying to make something happen, and I appreciate that we are fortunate to be in a position to be able to do that when required.

But....last night wasn't or shouldn't have been one of those games. They had given up and when they gave up, we gave up. I'm not advocating going hell for leather for goals but we should not have eight players behind the ball for a free kick two yards outside the corner of the box.

After our second sub, we appeared to descend into a robbo-esque lack of structure and were almost more likely to give away a silly chance or get an injury trying to retrieve a sloppy pass than we would have just continuing as we were.

As I say, not really a moan, more just disappointment that we chose not to kick on against a side seemingly more dispirited than we were at the worst of last season, in front of 7000 people who can earnestly discuss the merits of our approach all they like, but would in truth have much preferred putting 5 or 6 past them.

The question is though, why would we need to do more? At that point it’s 2-0, so why would we need to push for the third at the risk of letting Shrewsbury back into it? Goals can sometimes come out of nowhere, so by being sensible we restricted them from carving out chances.

Not point tiring ourselves out when the Shrews already looked spent, especially considering it was broadly the same XI that started on Saturday, and we’ll have a similar XI I’d imagine on Saturday lunchtime.

Can’t really believe there are people complaining about a ‘boring win’ to go four points clear in the promotion places, when months ago we were begging for a win to save our League One status.

 

[Joey]

A professional, controlled performance against a team struggling for form; let’s not disrespect Shrewsbury though, they improved after the subs came on and started to stretch us. We’ll face tougher tests but a ‘training session’ it wasn’t.
How anyone though can demand more ‘entertainment’ from a team that has just won again, and 3-0, is f*****g ridiculous.

Using the phrase "demand more entertainment" makes it seems an extreme view, and I'm sure you are aware of that.

I'm very pleased we won 3-0 and I'd certainly call the performance professional. That doesn't mean we couldn't do a little more, give some of the player who haven't played much a rest, play with a bit of urgency and attack a bit more. It would also have kept them away from our goal if they had anything to worry about at the other end.

Not every gentle criticism needs to be taken as the view that nothing is ever right. It's not unreasonable to ask a bit more and have some higher standards and that is something that has improved tenfold since Manning has been here. Plenty of people thought it was "f*****g ridiculous" as you say to criticise Eastwood last season, now suddenly we've got a really good keeper and it's completely changed the team. Plenty of people even last season didn't want Robinson gone because we had previously played some nice football and achieved nothing, now we play nice football but look an absolute threat for the automatic spots. Wanting a bit more, as long as it's within reason, isn't a bad thing or even a criticism in some cases. As good as we've been it can always be better, despite the result.

 

[Older Shotts]

Whether we could've done better, or not, myself and the kids left with big smiles on our faces due to Greg Leighs goal. Everything before that was forgotten. Happy days. Onwards and upwards.

 

[MJB]

I'd much rather our squad conserved energy and reduced their risk of injury when winning comfortably against 10 men, given that we've got three games in (slightly less) than a week.

 

[werthersoriginal]

I'd much rather our squad conserved energy and reduced their risk of injury when winning comfortably against 10 men, given that we've got three games in (slightly less) than a week.

I think you're probably right in this case, given that it was sandwiched between two tough games. But I hope in general that we try to finish on a high rather than shutting up shop routinely.

 

[MJB]

I think you're probably right in this case, given that it was sandwiched between two tough games. But I hope in general that we try to finish on a high rather than shutting up shop routinely.

Yep, if it weren't during a congested fixture period (ie: if we had a week off after) I'd have wanted us show a bit more intent. But I think we'll have benefited come Saturday as a result of just knocking the ball around calmly for 20 odd minutes.

 

[uptheus]

After 2-0 and the sending off, LM's thinking about the 12.30 KO match against Rovers on Saturday

Would have liked to have given Mills & Murphy a run out, so was surprised neither of these substitutions happened

 

[Yellowecky]

After a couple of attacks in the first few minutes, Shrewsbury arranged eleven men behind the ball and appeared to have settled for a point. They made no attempt to press us, which was understandable given their recent form. What baffled me was the lack of press once they had gone a goal down! How did they think they would ever score playing like that. I enjoyed the whole game. I would happily have settled for 2-0 given the upcoming game against the Gas.

My only criticism was with the substitutions. We used all three slots on three players and I believe(?) there were still at least ten minutes of normal time to go.

 

[Joey]

You said you “agreed 100%” with a post that began “I was disappointed”?

It’s ridiculous to suggest I’m pleased Harris missed, because I can see value in things other than going all out to score a goal that will probably be meaningless, especially in a post that says “things don’t have to be black and white”.

By all means, don’t be completely satisfied, I’m just saying that I’m not sure you ever will be if you aren’t now.

We're well into semantics now, but the original poster was disappointed with how we approached the final part of the game. So was I, but I wasn't disappointed that we won 3-0. I don't think we're even that far apart on this, I'm not tearing a strip out of the team at all but think we could have done more at no cost. I'm absolutely delighted with how thing are going generally.

The question is though, why would we need to do more? At that point it’s 2-0, so why would we need to push for the third at the risk of letting Shrewsbury back into it? Goals can sometimes come out of nowhere, so by being sensible we restricted them from carving out chances.

Not point tiring ourselves out when the Shrews already looked spent, especially considering it was broadly the same XI that started on Saturday, and we’ll have a similar XI I’d imagine on Saturday lunchtime.

Can’t really believe there are people complaining about a ‘boring win’ to go four points clear in the promotion places, when months ago we were begging for a win to save our League One status.

The complaints aren't exactly ferocious to be fair. Goals can come from anywhere but did you really think 10 man Shrewsbury, goalless in 6 I think before today and looking utterly dejected were going to get back into the game if we attacked a little bit? We attacked in the first half and were far better than them and they'd spent most the game chasing shadows, there was no chance of letting a result slip yesterday and a goal for the likes of O'Donkor could have done wonders for his confidence. If we're worried about getting tired then why were McGuane and Leigh sprinting for all they were worth to close the keeper and full back down having already played 90 minutes+.

I'd much rather our squad conserved energy and reduced their risk of injury when winning comfortably against 10 men, given that we've got three games in (slightly less) than a week.

Then we can make some subs. Also the way we played we still ran, it wouldn't be a massive extra spending of effort to be more positive with it.

I'm going to leave it here as this is already well into the realms of another circular discussion with no new detail being added but I would say that I'm delighted with how we've started and the direction the club is going and am expecting even more good news in the near future. I'm also very happy to have won last night, but I doubt I'll change my mind that it was very low risk/high reward strategy to try and get another goal or two against a team who were begging for the final whistle, or get some more minutes into Mills or Murphy and rest Brannagan or McGuane for a bit if we were concerned about fatigue. The best arguments against it was wanting to work on the new formation which I can absolutely see, but if working on something I always think it's best to mimic the real thing as closely as possible and against Pompey or Bolton we would need to be much more urgent than we were for the tail end last night. Also we'll beat Bristol Rovers on Saturday and be top of the league by the time everyone else kicks off, up the yellows.

 

[m]

Well done everybody on finding such an utterly remarkable thing to argue about.

 

[MJB]

Well done everybody on finding such an utterly remarkable thing to argue about.

This is what happens when we win #ManningOut

 

[RgYellows]

 

[Joey]

Re: GOD. I agree he doesn’t seem to have a striker’s “instinct”. I’ve said this for a while. He never seems to ANTICIPATE or read the game intelligently. He wants to wait for the right ball to come to him, rather than guessing where it might be going. Can this “instinct” be taught/coached??

I think it can, it would just be a learned behaviour. I'm no coach so this will be a complete laymans plan but in training setting up attacking situations and drilling it into him to gamble every time regardless of how likely the ball is to reach him and pulling him up when he doesn't go for it might have some sort of effect. He's a very strong guy even discounting the fact he's only a teenager so I suspect a lot of the time he's got through via brute force or played a target man role, neither of which necessarily lend themselves to poaching. What I'd say in support was during the Carlisle game Harris went through twice and both time failed to get a shot off, he mentioned this himself in the post match interview and the next game against Derby took two shots early and scored. It's just getting into the mindset of doing it and I think confidence would play a big part in it which is part of the reason I wanted us to go for it a bit more yesterday, if we'd managed to get him a goal I think it would have done him the world of good.

 

[tonyw]

Special mention to Greg Leigh too - if you could bottle what he brings to the club on AND off the pitch . . . fabulous player and character and STILL can't understand how he was the 3rd best left back at Ipswich (scanning their squad for R Carlos or P Maldini) - thank f**k they saw it that way!

The wacky thing is, he probably was the 3rd best left back at Ipswich.

Leif Davis might have been the best player in the whole of League One last year, and then they signed Brandon Williams, who has played all of his career in the Premier League.

I know Leigh had injury problems, but it's pretty mad that Ipswich had both him and Kyle Edwards for the whole of their promotion campaign, and they got three starts each in the league all season. I guess the quality of their squad is reflected in the fact that they're now top of the Championship. We should just be happy that we've got a good enough relationship with them that we could take those two off their hands!

Tons of similarities between Manning and Kieran McKenna. Both in their late 30s, neither had much of a playing career, both meticulous, intelligent and knowledgeable. It's a new breed of football manager, and I'm just glad we've jumped on that bus early.....

 

[Eaststanding]

Using the phrase "demand more entertainment" makes it seems an extreme view, and I'm sure you are aware of that.

I'm very pleased we won 3-0 and I'd certainly call the performance professional. That doesn't mean we couldn't do a little more, give some of the player who haven't played much a rest, play with a bit of urgency and attack a bit more. It would also have kept them away from our goal if they had anything to worry about at the other end.

Not every gentle criticism needs to be taken as the view that nothing is ever right. It's not unreasonable to ask a bit more and have some higher standards and that is something that has improved tenfold since Manning has been here. Plenty of people thought it was "f*****g ridiculous" as you say to criticise Eastwood last season, now suddenly we've got a really good keeper and it's completely changed the team. Plenty of people even last season didn't want Robinson gone because we had previously played some nice football and achieved nothing, now we play nice football but look an absolute threat for the automatic spots. Wanting a bit more, as long as it's within reason, isn't a bad thing or even a criticism in some cases. As good as we've been it can always be better, despite the result.

Why should Manning put Mills and Murphy on, just because the fans want to see them? Why should we play at 100% when we don’t need to? The game was won at 2-0, arguably before that. Job done. I’m happy, even if you’re not. Move onto Saturday.
The players will be looking at how they, individually, could have played better and the manager at how the team could have played better and good on them for doing that, but the posts criticising them for not pulling out the stops and going at them 100% is just, well, ridiculous. It’s a long season.
Trust the manager, from what we’ve seen so far, he knows what he’s doing..