Home Match Day Thread +++ 07/04/2018 OUFC v Oldham Athletic Match Day Thread +++

Pretty much as you were after today's results. One point closer to safety, one game less to play.
Thats not really "as you were" though. Same gap but 15% less games so the set of results were hugely positive for us. Our goal difference is worth a point and I dont think that Northampton, Wimbledon or MK Dons have it in them even to get to 47. Another 0-0 on Tuesday and we can all relax
 
Other than Dickie, am struggling to see the plaudits that so many are giving so many of our players. Versus a fellow relegation candidate at home we shared possession 50/50 and had three shots on target. That is truly pathetic, no?
They really must do better against Fleetwood, who have better players than Oldham and will take all three points if we put on such an impoverished display. A home side that carries no threat is there for the taking.
On paper we have wonderkids in our midfield but didnt boss it so I think they would all struggle to be consistently high performers in the Championship. The problem is lack of pace. We have to pick Henry but he is incredibly slow and so holes get created. Add to that a headless chicken performance for IBR and any team would be chasing shadows, so we desperately need some pace as we arent winning second ball. They are so slow at times that it draws accusations of not trying but I dont think thats it. Maybe the premiership clubs realise that pace is 90% (Bolt to Mam Utd!) and so the technically gifted youngsters are allowed to leave just because they are limited by their pace (maybe to no better than L1).
I think that is the difference between the team now and the ruthlessly quick attacking Mapp team. The forwards dont look fit and KR prefers one up top, so its a big ask if only 75%. They play a game and are then injured for another so something is wrong. KR really has inherited a crock of s**t. Absolute carnage required in the summer.
 
Lets not get too hung up over the possession stat. Agreed three shots on target isn't great but sometimes games are like that. It was important we didn't lose yesterday, a point (given our position) meant it was a better result for us than Oldham. Win one of our next two or draw the next three and we will be almost there.

We all know where we are right now, confidence is a big factor, we need to take the positives from performances like yesterday and back the team 100%, there were others on the field as well as Dickie that played well. Who cares whether its home or away, it wouldn't bother me if we had 10% possession, zero shots/attempts at Wigan or Blackburn if we go there and manage to pick up a point (or 2...).
 
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I actually thought that Obika got his head to quite a lot, and wasn't bad at holding it up (for a while). The main problem was that no one was anywhere near where the ball went after he headed it. Well none of our players were. Not really surprising if there's just the one up top who ends it further on.

You’re easily pleased!

He couldn’t hold it up, his passes were too short leaving the next player having to make a tackle. He couldn’t even head it against their number 3 who was half his size and about a foot shorter.
 
Did we only have 3 shots ? Rob dickie had three in one goal mouth scramble.
 
Thats not really "as you were" though. Same gap but 15% less games so the set of results were hugely positive for us. Our goal difference is worth a point and I dont think that Northampton, Wimbledon or MK Dons have it in them even to get to 47. Another 0-0 on Tuesday and we can all relax

Really?
 
Did we only have 3 shots ? Rob dickie had three in one goal mouth scramble.

Dave, no matter how you put it it was a poor performance against a very poor team, and you can read that either way!
 
Did we only have 3 shots ? Rob dickie had three in one goal mouth scramble.

Dave, no matter how you put it it was a poor performance against a very poor team, and you can read that either way!

Sean, no mater how u twist it I’ve never said it wasn’t. Merely a question. I saw rob Dickie shoot 3 times in that one move. Was that our 3 shots on goal? Cos I’m sure I remember a few others. Albeit very tame ones, from Henry in the first 5 mins, obika in the first half, Ledson I think from distance second half and a couple of others
 
Thats not really "as you were" though. Same gap but 15% less games so the set of results were hugely positive for us. Our goal difference is worth a point and I dont think that Northampton, Wimbledon or MK Dons have it in them even to get to 47. Another 0-0 on Tuesday and we can all relax

I think I’ll relax more with a win ?
 
Obika will never be a striker who scores a lot from crosses because he's just so passive in an attacking sense. He never gets in the box to attack the ball, he always wants it into feet which is a much harder pass to play. For such a big bloke he doesn't use it, he could be a real bully at this level if he was a bit nasty.

Thomas isn't very good either. We've got some really, really crap strikers.
They’re all crap
 
I think that KR is trying simply to pragmatically get us to 50-52 points.
He appreciates that the squad is very limited for pace and lack of wide men (Buckley Ricketts has hardly helped).
A poor performance? Yes but a loss would have been a disaster. Based on where we are a draw was OK.
Positives? The players generally gave everything amd Rothwell, Richardinho hadnt played 90 minutes for some time.
The crowd were excellent throughout as well.
 
Sean, no mater how u twist it I’ve never said it wasn’t. Merely a question. I saw rob Dickie shoot 3 times in that one move. Was that our 3 shots on goal? Cos I’m sure I remember a few others. Albeit very tame ones, from Henry in the first 5 mins, obika in the first half, Ledson I think from distance second half and a couple of others

That may be classed as one shot in that same moment, I certainly wouldn’t class it as 3 shots, more like one with 3 ricochets!
 
You’re easily pleased!

He couldn’t hold it up, his passes were too short leaving the next player having to make a tackle. He couldn’t even head it against their number 3 who was half his size and about a foot shorter.
TBF for the first time in I can’t remember Obika didnwin anfew headers but no one to receive them....oh yes there was but they all wore blue shirts. But still crap though
 
We are clueless at the moment. Klopp would still be winless! Who cares though? I think we have already done enough and we might lose all the next games heavily, but it doesn't tell me anything I dont already know. I had a feeling that this year would be a write off when Apples left, and it has been painful to watch both on and off the field. As KR says though, its not about winning and looking great, rather all getting out and pushing the banger (not hotdog) across the line. He said he didnt care if we didnt win for the rest of the season (teeing yourself up there nicely Karl for what is more than likely :) ) He has adopted a team where even the most able football manager would struggle to win with.

He is in an odd position that even once we are safe, he cannot really learn anything from the rest of the season because we will see a completely different squad next year. I dont think he has more than 5 who he thinks fit his DNA, and if he is going to keep any of them I think they will need to buy into his dreams and promises and re-sign with us for longer, or at least give us an option for another year. We are still vulnerable to being raided every January, and when the carrot is dangled by a bigger club, and the agent sees a deal, we cannot end up losing them 6 months later for nothing (L1 player of the month Dunks). In order to win promotion and then stay in the Championship, we need to have a team who have played a couple of seasons together and can compete and grind out a result when needed. He needs to start with his core - all commited - and then build around them. Even if players like Curtis dont commit to 3 years I would reluctantly put them up for sale and bring in a completely new squad on longer term contracts. (assuming the budget is there). In KR we trust! We need to be clever now in identifying the players we want and getting them early and give a clear message to the manager and other clubs that once we sign someone they are not for sale. KR then has a 3 year window to get us up and keep us up and if he achieves that more budget needs to be released to repeat the process with better players. Thats if Tiger has the financial appetite for us to be even more competitive. Really crucial time for us that we get this right. We dont want a Chairman losing interest after 3 years of middling, with millions tied up.

Between now and next year KR will be selling his dreams and making assurances of better players coming in to the players he wants to keep. I hope they re-sign as there is some good potential there, but whether we go up or not we will see widespread changes again, and again, and again. We cannot expect much "loyalty" from footballers these days other than enjoying their time here and performing 110% every week. We are a stepping stone to better things for them, as they are for us.

I would keep Eastwood, Dickie, Curtis, Lego, Rothwell, and Napa - Brannigan?. and look to build around that. The rest of the players still in contract would be eventually be surplus to requirements so I would put them all as for sale/available. KR is ruthless - just you wait and see.

For me we are going to have to spend cash to get competitive rather than find them in loaness. We do not really know what is going on or the resources available to KR and so it may be difficult to attract players wanted by several clubs. I think the premiership teams have got wise to clubs like us taking their international youngsters and cashing in - didnt the guts of our whole scouting team go to Leeds?! - lower leagues may get offered the marginal players with no pace or be expected to develop a player who isnt ready (IBR) - if they do let their academy stars move away permanently, I think we may start to see 70% sell on clauses so Tiger really will need to get his hand in his pocket and increase either transfer budget or playing budget and then we need to develop players who are our own. We will see a much smaller squad but I think packed with quality. Maybe 18-19 tops but they all have to be players who stay fit. Most of ours cannot do that and so will be released. We wont have to watch this drivel next year.
 
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Although it wasn’t the best game yesterday, the majority of the team showed great commitment and passion. The same can also be said of the manager and fans and probably a couple of weeks ago we would have lost this sort of game.
It’s another point towards safety and if we show the same fight and determination in the next couple of games we will be ok
 
We are unlikely to look good and beat sides comfortably, we don’t have the players and those we do have don’t fit into a coherent 11, so we will have to get to the 51 points I reckon will keep us safe by scrapping. When was the last time we beat a side comfortably? Plymouth away when we got a penalty and they had a man sent off very early which massively changed the game by my reckoning.

Robinson admitted yesterday after the game that he didn’t know his best formation, which is fair enough as I don’t think we have one, just a mess of a squad caused by a couple of bad transfer windows. It’s all about scrapping to get as high a points total as possible to keep our noses just out of it, whether that’s one win and a draw or 3 or 4 draws doesn’t really matter I suppose, it’s going to be nail biting and it’s not going to be pretty, but at least the players seem to have realised the situation at last.

We have a poor team, we won’t be blowing anyone away so if you expect that you will be disappointed, but I reckon we just about have enough to stay up.
 
I thought Robinson got the lineup spot on yesterday and it went pear shaped when Ruffels had to come off and Ricardinho had to drop into left back. Totally inept display from Buckley-Ricketts, someone should tell him that he's never getting a game at Man City so he really ought to be putting a shift in on loan to get himself a contract somewhere else. Then Thomas came on and didn't do much, is he actually fit? He looks like a player who doesn't want to properly compete through fear of injury.
 
I thought Robinson got the lineup spot on yesterday and it went pear shaped when Ruffels had to come off and Ricardinho had to drop into left back. Totally inept display from Buckley-Ricketts, someone should tell him that he's never getting a game at Man City so he really ought to be putting a shift in on loan to get himself a contract somewhere else. Then Thomas came on and didn't do much, is he actually fit? He looks like a player who doesn't want to properly compete through fear of injury.
Just a little unfair? Did you see Thomas go in for that ball at the end of the game where he was almost certainly going to get injured (which he duly did?)
 
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