Away Match Day Thread 04/10/2025 - MDT: Watford v Oxford United

[Carpy]

 

[battman]

We had a choice to make to grab the bull by the horns and control the game today by starting LHarris in the centre and starting only one of Lankshear or Prelec.

However, we’ve seen the same issue as against QPR, we just can’t make the ball stick when getting it up to the attackers

 

[Oufccraig45]

The equalizer was so lucky but the 2nd was a total muck up

Cumming has been poor as of late and to get beaten from that corner just sums this shite up

 

[Johnf]

I know the conditions aren’t great but that’s shocking defending for both the goals we conceded.
Need to wake up in the second half.

 

[uptheus]

Thought he’s having a poor game, hardly noticed him out there.

 

[Teddydee1980]

All three players who came in showing exactly why they shouldn't be coming in

 

[90syeIlow]

It’s all well and good putting Leigh in the side for the occasional goal, but he proves time and time again that he is a poor and ponderous defender, where defending is his main responsibility.

We should start Currie every game and only change him if he’s having a bad game or playing with fatigue.

 

[Carpy]

Prelec has offered very little.

 

[uptheus]

The worry for me is that Watford aren’t actually very good and we’ve still barely had a kick.

We just go into defensive mode after going ahead rather than going at teams.

 

[EastStandKieran]

Second half has to be better

 

[bazzer9461]

Looking at the stats it looks like they’re slaughtering us

 

[Jaboysmith]

Prelec has offered very little.

And still more than Lankshear

 

[MG]

Oxford only have themselves to blame. Having gone 1-0 up early on, they then decided that they would sit back and defend. The fact that they only conceded in the final minute and then in the last minute of injury time was down to luck. Watford were ripping the wings apart and only their crap finishing prevented Oxford from being found out a lot earlier. They need to find a way of asserting themselves in midfield and my feeling is neither Dembele nor Mills are the answer to that. If we don’t come back in this game, we are sliding back into the bottom three (Blackburn have a game in hand). So Gary Rowett really needs to come up with some tactical innovation - cos’ at the moment we are heading for a convincing defeat.

 

[Symp59]

3-5-2 Davies on ,Currie on ,Mills off ,Leigh off

 

[McXal]

All three players who came in showing exactly why they shouldn't be coming in

Harsh on Dembele who has looked dangerous and done some good work defensively too.

Agree on Mills in particular though. Dreadful from him. Surprised he hasn’t been hooked.

 

[Mad Dog]

f*****g TITBAGS!!!

SORT IT OUT!!!

 

[uptheus]

It’s all well and good putting Leigh in the side for the occasional goal, but he proves time and time again that he is a poor and ponderous defender, where defending is his main responsibility.

We should start Currie every game and only change him if he’s having a bad game or playing with fatigue.

It’s not Leigh, the migdfiekd were being overrun, so defence didn’t know who to pick up as they had 2 or 3 players to pick up. Happened so many times, but we got away with it initially m, but it was only a matter of time.

 

[90syeIlow]

We just go into defensive mode after going ahead rather than going at teams.

Exactly this, it’s weird.

It reminds me of England under Southgate where we could rarely hold onto a lead. You only have to look at Bristol C away as a great example of how we can kill a game off.

 

[Pgyellow]

Looking at the stats it looks like they’re slaughtering us

They are!

 

[uptheus]

Harsh on Dembele who has looked dangerous and done some good work defensively too.

Agree on Mills in particular though. Dreadful from him. Surprised he hasn’t been hooked.

He’s got to work harder off of the ball

 

[BrockBuster]

Prelec has offered very little.

He'd have more chance of seeing the ball if we dropped him from a plane with a parachute given the sorts of passes he's had in his direction. A Cumming punt in his vague direction doesn't strike me as an effective way to use him.

 

[bazzer9461]

Now COME ON YOU YELLOWS

 

[Sarge]

Second half has to be better

we only tend to play well for one half of a game- heres hoping the 2nd half is ours, with a couple of goals too

 

[McXal]

He’s got to work harder off of the ball

Perhaps - but I still felt he was almost incomparably better than Mills.

 

[Sarge]

COME ON YOU U'S

 

[bazzer9461]

January transfer window might be interesting

 

[90syeIlow]

It’s not Leigh, the migdfiekd were being overrun, so defence didn’t know who to pick up as they had 2 or 3 players to pick up. Happened so many times, but we got away with it initially m, but it was only a matter of time.

I’m sorry but Leigh has had a shocker.

You can’t blame the midfield for being weak defensively. For example, a slow ball came into the box and he sliced a header back to their attacker when he had loads of time.

 

[sonofivan]

Oxford only have themselves to blame. Having gone 1-0 up early on, they then decided that they would sit back and defend. The fact that they only conceded in the final minute and then in the last minute of injury time was down to luck. Watford were ripping the wings apart and only their crap finishing prevented Oxford from being found out a lot earlier. They need to find a way of asserting themselves in midfield and my feeling is neither Dembele nor Mills are the answer to that. If we don’t come back in this game, we are sliding back into the bottom three (Blackburn have a game in hand). So Gary Rowett really needs to come up with some tactical innovation - cos’ at the moment we are heading for a convincing defeat.

They? Who are you then?

 

[greatunclekip]

So who are the teams worse than us in this league who we should be beating please?

Build a league 1 squad, guess where we are going to be next season…..

 

[Twiggy85]

Should Gary have changed things earlier to go to 3 at the back - since then scoring was inevitable in that first half,

 

[Victor1986]

This could be very embarrassing!