Home Match Day Thread 09/01/23: FA Cup 3rd Round - OUFC v Arsenal

[headingtonoldboy]

As an aside, I think it showed complete disrespect for Oxford the way Arsenal strolled back to the centre circle after they scored. It smacked of arrogance to me. The ref should never have let that happen.

 

[tatabanya]

It was a very disappointing evening at so many levels. I was really hoping that we wouldn't get the Plucky Little Oxford feel, which was fine 10 years ago when we had just got back into the league and re-established ourselves. But after much progress since and at our level an enormous spend last Summer, what we gave can only be described as the plucky underdog giving it a go. Sadly the disaster that was last Summer's transfer window left us so short in the attacking areas it was all this version of Robinson's Oxford can presently offer. And BBC Radio Oxford the morning after, talk about patronising, didn't they do well, didn't it make you proud, weren't they brilliant. Well actually no, compared to only a couple of years ago were have really regressed despite the spending chucked at it. In a round of cup upsets from lesser clubs putting it up to bigger clubs we barely made a meaningful attacking contribution because the players our manager brought in can't do it. The playing staff at our club presently is nowhere near where it should be. We should lose to Arsenal every time we play them, but we need to be doing better than just turning up and making everyone feel good about themselves with a plucky, heroic failure if we genuinely want to become a top 30 club.

Those pathetic Arsenal shirts that you could not see name or number on should have been banned. They should have been forced to change. There are rules about the shirts and these did not comply. I couldn't care less about any message they are meant to be sending out. To me the message is that they are so arrogant they don't need a name or number because we should know who they are anyway.

We all knew that we would fall into the trap of a Prem ref protecting his mates. But the 2 minutes of added time is an embarrassment, the ref has a duty to maintain proper time keeping. We are all paying guests to see a football match for a set amount of time. The added time should have been 10 minutes. We have all been cheated and short changed by a ref who thought it didn't matter as we weren't going to score 3 goals in added time so rather than risk an injury to one of his Prem players mates decided to call it early. The atmosphere went completely flat when the 2 mins board went up and we have all been cheated by Coote and we should claim 10% of our money back from the referees association for not seeing the whole entertainment. And after high profile cases of Arsenal surrounding the ref recently, Coote had a perfect opportunity to make an example of them when they did it again, but obviously didn't want to disturb his later dinner with them too much by causing controversy and actually booking 5 or 6 of the squealers.

Why is the traffic so bad after a full house game against Arsenal, whereas it is never that bad when there is a full house game against Sunderland or Swindon? And well done to the Council for allowing the A34 north to be closed on the night of the game. Speaking of full house, why is there a missing 1,000 from our stadium capacity? At £25 a time that is £25K lost. No doubt the segregation between Arsenal and Tottenham at the weekend will be a single row of seats and a couple of stewards. Why such a massive block of lost seating. Have to do better. Whether it is here or at a new ground.

Disagree with regards to being the plucky underdog. We didn’t sit back and let them play, we didn’t resort to time wasting or gamesmanship, we didn’t rely on last ditch defending to get us out of trouble. We played a high line on the ball and tried to play through them and we deserve credit for that, even if we didn’t have the quality to break them down

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

As bad as Taylor has been, I just don't think GO'D is/should be the answer.
He's showing a lot more than Taylor, but we should not be relying on a youth team player who has been forced into the first team to save our season.
He also shows well for 15-20 mins, but we have no idea whether he could handle a full 90 mins at a level higher than what he's used t playing.
That's not to say he can't ... Maybe he can ... But we can't count our chickens before they've hatched.

He might not be the answer once we’ve signed someone better, but he’s definitely the better choice to start at the moment when the only choice is him or a sluggish, slow, out of sorts Matty Taylor.

He also doesn’t need to play a full 90 minutes. Nothing wrong with brining Taylor on for the last 15-20 mins.

 

[holdsteady]

Thought I'd sleep on it before posting..

The game went as I expected. We had a good defensive shape, but rarely troubled them going forward. Our lack of threat in a game like this is a marked contrast to previous encounters with Man City etc, we really have gone backwards from a goal threat perspective.

Players that stood out for different reasons: -

* Cam Bran's effort and bite in the tackle is brilliant, love the lad.
* Ciaron Brown again was very solid, I know we wanted to take time out of the game but I wonder if we could have caused them a couple of problems with quick long throws when the opportunity presented itself down the left. I thought they defended our long throws into the box well.
* McGinty looked fine, but he didn't seem to connect well with some of his longer clearances. May be worth persevering with this season as 1st choice, I'm convinced we'll finish mid table.
* Murphy, I didn't see what others did. A couple of airy flicks, and I'd be interested in his running stats. Just doesn't look that interested to me.
* Anderson, still looks a play station player to me. I'm not convinced he is a quality right back or right midfield, but he clearly has something. He just looks like one of those really annoying players who clearly have ability but lack in game intelligence. He seems to prefer running diagonally as opposed to straight down the line! Worth sticking with, but he confuses me.
* Taylor is out of form but was playing a really tough role last night. I think he is starting because at times he does hold the ball up well, whereas GO'D seems to run in behind / use his strength.
* GO'D clearly has something. Love his raw effort and he deserves more game time.
* Wildschut, I think we'll get more from him than we will out of Murphy. Can't wait to see him when he is fully fit. He's happy to take his man on down the line, and then looks to pull the ball back. Looks really strong to me, and direct.

So what next?

I'd like Robinson to try a 3-5-2, we've now got the players. 3 centre backs would be Long, Moore and Brown, both Long and Brown have experience in the wider areas so that helps in a back 3. Anderson and Flemming as full backs. Midfield 3 picks itself with Brannagan the furthest forward, and then Taylor & GO'D could be a good pairing. Then plenty of options to change it. I'd like to see that formation given a go as I think it will bring the best out of certain players like Taylor and GO'D.

It's easy to knock the atmosphere, I thought it was poor from us last night and I think it is probably for a number of reasons. The display was a bit naff, and as we all know the club scored a huge own goal with the original ultras. The stadium is so poor in terms of acoustics. We've also lost most of the traditional chants that bring a bit of humour / atmosphere. I was towards the back of the North Stand near the Arsenal section, could I have done more? Probably, I joined in a couple of chants and tried to get a couple going. It does need a concerted effort from everyone. People take the mick out of Arsenal, and I appreciate it was their 'proper' fans their last night but they had some good Arsenal specific songs and I thought supported their team quite well.

Does Taylor hold the ball up well? it was never a strength when he was in his prime and I can't see how it has been an improvement in his game, he mostly just gives away fouls.

He was a get in behind the defence, poacher, finisher type forward, now his pace has gone he can't do that and there isn't much left to his game that is of any use to us, Robinson seems to feel safer with an older forward up top but it has led us to some years of having to watch some awful performances by the likes of mackie, Winnall and now Taylor, that silly shithouse B*****s which no decent centre back cares about, ask them if they would rather face a fast, physical, fit forward who makes them work hard all game or a faded has been who fouls them all game but asks no genuine questions and they will pick the Mackie type all day long, its an easy days work.

Its sad to see taylor fade away, he has been a good player for us, one of our best forwards for years but he is nearly 33 and the legs are gone, time to accept that and move on. The big worry is Robinsons love for a project and him giving Taylor another contract, he has already saddled us with James Henry and Sam Baldock for next season, can't waste any more money or squad places.

 

[Upthecowboys]

Constant ref crowding, taking 10 minutes to celebrate a goal, players screaming with pain when ankle tapped, there was only 1 team carrying out those antics.

Capped off by the star struck ref adding 2 minutes on at the end.

Bullshit.

I’d rather watch L1 than this palaver, there is far more honesty at our level.

And the paying punter aren’t taken for mugs.

The laws need changing re re-starts after goals..

The way they deliberately walked back slowly, ensuring the centre forward only got close to his own half once the team was back in shape in their half. It was proper big time show pony time wasting; they knew the time would not be added.

Teams should have a set time to celebrate (which is added on) then the conceding team can restart regardless . If the whole of the opposing team is not back in their half within the agreed time, then there should be no offside and the team should be allowed to get in with it.

It should have been addressed by the ref last night.

 

[Marked Ox]

I`ll go with that.

GoD should have been on earlier as he is a menace and the ball "sticks" to him.

KR out thought after an hour and "running late" with the subs - again.

There is some quality in our squad, Brown & Moore were rock solid and Anderson was a joy to watch.

And the NS ball boy should have hidden that towel...........

Do you mean when Arteta can bring on the likes of Zinchenko and Xhaka and KR couldn't?

It wasn't tactics that did for us last night, it was that the opposition had far better players and lots more of them. Their starting players wore us down and then bringing on the likes of Xhaka/Zinchenko etc improved them.

 

[Upthecowboys]

Does Taylor hold the ball up well? it was never a strength when he was in his prime and I can't see how it has been an improvement in his game, he mostly just gives away fouls.

He was a get in behind the defence, poacher, finisher type forward, now his pace has gone he can't do that and there isn't much left to his game that is of any use to us, Robinson seems to feel safer with an older forward up top but it has led us to some years of having to watch some awful performances by the likes of mackie, Winnall and now Taylor, that silly shithouse B*****s which no decent centre back cares about, ask them if they would rather face a fast, physical, fit forward who makes them work hard all game or a faded has been who fouls them all game but asks no genuine questions and they will pick the Mackie type all day long, its an easy days work.

Its sad to see taylor fade away, he has been a good player for us, one of our best forwards for years but he is nearly 33 and the legs are gone, time to accept that and move on. The big worry is Robinsons love for a project and him giving Taylor another contract, he has already saddled us with James Henry and Sam Baldock for next season, can't waste any more money or squad places.

Fair challenge..

I think out of our current options (very limited) he may be the best at it. Its such a difficult thing to do when sometimes you are isolated against 2 centre backs. I would like to see a player come in who is better at that side of the game than Taylor, then let new person / Taylor / GOD fight it out between them, We definitely need strengthening up top. I also think Taylor could still be productive in a front 2, and I'd be really interested to see how GOD and Taylor payed together.

 

[Marked Ox]

As an aside, I think it showed complete disrespect for Oxford the way Arsenal strolled back to the centre circle after they scored. It smacked of arrogance to me. The ref should never have let that happen.

Eddie Nketieh being the worst of the lot for that.

 

[JOHN BOY]

Yes the arrogance of Nketia was so annoying.

 

[dickwalton1964]

It was a very disappointing evening at so many levels. I was really hoping that we wouldn't get the Plucky Little Oxford feel, which was fine 10 years ago when we had just got back into the league and re-established ourselves. But after much progress since and at our level an enormous spend last Summer, what we gave can only be described as the plucky underdog giving it a go. Sadly the disaster that was last Summer's transfer window left us so short in the attacking areas it was all this version of Robinson's Oxford can presently offer. And BBC Radio Oxford the morning after, talk about patronising, didn't they do well, didn't it make you proud, weren't they brilliant. Well actually no, compared to only a couple of years ago were have really regressed despite the spending chucked at it. In a round of cup upsets from lesser clubs putting it up to bigger clubs we barely made a meaningful attacking contribution because the players our manager brought in can't do it. The playing staff at our club presently is nowhere near where it should be. We should lose to Arsenal every time we play them, but we need to be doing better than just turning up and making everyone feel good about themselves with a plucky, heroic failure if we genuinely want to become a top 30 club.

Those pathetic Arsenal shirts that you could not see name or number on should have been banned. They should have been forced to change. There are rules about the shirts and these did not comply. I couldn't care less about any message they are meant to be sending out. To me the message is that they are so arrogant they don't need a name or number because we should know who they are anyway.

We all knew that we would fall into the trap of a Prem ref protecting his mates. But the 2 minutes of added time is an embarrassment, the ref has a duty to maintain proper time keeping. We are all paying guests to see a football match for a set amount of time. The added time should have been 10 minutes. We have all been cheated and short changed by a ref who thought it didn't matter as we weren't going to score 3 goals in added time so rather than risk an injury to one of his Prem players mates decided to call it early. The atmosphere went completely flat when the 2 mins board went up and we have all been cheated by Coote and we should claim 10% of our money back from the referees association for not seeing the whole entertainment. And after high profile cases of Arsenal surrounding the ref recently, Coote had a perfect opportunity to make an example of them when they did it again, but obviously didn't want to disturb his later dinner with them too much by causing controversy and actually booking 5 or 6 of the squealers.

Why is the traffic so bad after a full house game against Arsenal, whereas it is never that bad when there is a full house game against Sunderland or Swindon? And well done to the Council for allowing the A34 north to be closed on the night of the game. Speaking of full house, why is there a missing 1,000 from our stadium capacity? At £25 a time that is £25K lost. No doubt the segregation between Arsenal and Tottenham at the weekend will be a single row of seats and a couple of stewards. Why such a massive block of lost seating. Have to do better. Whether it is here or at a new ground.

I have a feeling Robinson had seen enough and had a word about the stoppage time just before the board went up. He definitely was speaking to the fourth official when he was fiddling about with his board moments before putting 2 minutes up. The game was gone and Arsenal looked like scoring every time they crossed half way, 10 extra minutes could have resulted in 5-0 and I think 2 minutes was a 'result' for us.

 

[uptheus]

Personally I was disappointed last night with our performance. Yes, we did extremely well to contain them, but we didn’t really threaten them at all which was the disappoint for me.

I was hoping Murphy could have replicated some of the traits he showed against Charlton, but apart from that game or should I say for 30 odd minutes, he’s been bang average.

Also, I’m/I’ve been a fan of Taylor, but last night he was woeful. Add to that, Brannagan was anonymous and Bodin offered little too. So key players just didn’t really turn up or go that extra mile which I guess I was hoping for.

Yes, it was Arsenal, but we’ve performed a lot better in the past against opposition who are higher up the pyramid.

Basically, it went how I expected it to, but may be with slightly less goals against than I was expecting.

 

[uptheus]

As an aside, I think it showed complete disrespect for Oxford the way Arsenal strolled back to the centre circle after they scored. It smacked of arrogance to me. The ref should never have let that happen.

The problem was, we were taking our time at 0-0, so I guess it’s swings & roundabouts!

 

[AbsoluteZero]

I have a feeling Robinson had seen enough and had a word about the stoppage time just before the board went up. He definitely was speaking to the fourth official when he was fiddling about with his board moments before putting 2 minutes up. The game was gone and Arsenal looked like scoring every time they crossed half way, 10 extra minutes could have resulted in 5-0 and I think 2 minutes was a 'result' for us.

You may well be right and the reason is understandable. But the ref is meant to be impartial and apply the correct rules of the game. Unfortunately a game of football nowadays goes well beyond the result and the responsibility for keeping proper time is very important, for those punters out there with a 4-0 or 5-0 or 6-0 or even a 3-1 bet slip for the ref to say 2 minutes added time is actually a form of match fixing because he has deliberately and knowingly potentially swayed the final outcome of the match by not adding the correct amount of time to form a conclusion. Whilst the winners were not in doubt in this case there are surrounding issues (essentially gambling) in any sport that requires it to be managed properly to ensure a finger of suspicion can never be wagged to accuse it of being corrupt. Coote failed to do his job properly as a professional referee.

 

[Oufcrealist]

BuT hE’s ThE bEsT PlAyEr In LeAgUe One
I thought that was Sam Winnal

Before that it was Fosu,
Before that it was Browne,
And before that it was Carruthers!!

 

[Oufcrealist]

The laws need changing re re-starts after goals..

The way they deliberately walked back slowly, ensuring the centre forward only got close to his own half once the team was back in shape in their half. It was proper big time show pony time wasting; they knew the time would not be added.

Teams should have a set time to celebrate (which is added on) then the conceding team can restart regardless . If the whole of the opposing team is not back in their half within the agreed time, then there should be no offside and the team should be allowed to get in with it.

It should have been addressed by the ref last night.

I was saying the same to my son. I have never seen a team so slow to get back and it was deliberate.
There should be a law that allows a maximum amount of time to get back in their own half then the ref can restart regardless. If they get caught out, tough!! But then someone would probably feign an injury to get around it.

 

[West Oxon U’s]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1612790610993242114

 

[Yellow Mustard]

I thought our midfield 3 were excellent. I knew that would be our best area given the talent of those 3- I genuinely think they'd comfortably be a competitive midfield in the Championship (we'd need reinforcements for strength in depth of course). Unfortunately the rest of the team isn't anywhere near that.

Anderson is dynamite and exactly the reason why lower leagues can be fun- can be spectacular but probably won't be. He's a lunatic and a joy to watch.

Bate will be in the PL in years to come.

Murphy is exactly what you don't want in that game or any other. On his heels. Zero going forward and offers nothing in terms of work rate against Martinelli. He should be a bit embarrassed.

Also- having a go at the Arsenal shirts because you can't see the numbers. Get a grip, it's pathetic. Well done Arsenal. Using their profile to promote a vitally important cause.

Thinking about next season already- let's plod along to safety and hopefully and give time to GOD etc.

 

[38yearsofpain]

I thought our midfield 3 were excellent. I knew that would be our best area given the talent of those 3- I genuinely think they'd comfortably be a competitive midfield in the Championship (we'd need reinforcements for strength in depth of course). Unfortunately the rest of the team isn't anywhere near that.

Anderson is dynamite and exactly the reason why lower leagues can be fun- can be spectacular but probably won't be. He's a lunatic and a joy to watch.

Bate will be in the PL in years to come.

Murphy is exactly what you don't want in that game or any other. On his heels. Zero going forward and offers nothing in terms of work rate against Martinelli. He should be a bit embarrassed.

Also- having a go at the Arsenal shirts because you can't see the numbers. Get a grip, it's pathetic. Well done Arsenal. Using their profile to promote a vitally important cause.

Thinking about next season already- let's plod along to safety and hopefully and give time to GOD etc.

The midfield were brilliant first half, and until Arteta brought on Xhaka and Zinchenko. That was literally the game changer. Arsenal midfield was strengthened and ours was starting to slow. Game changer.

 

[Marked Ox]

I thought our midfield 3 were excellent. I knew that would be our best area given the talent of those 3- I genuinely think they'd comfortably be a competitive midfield in the Championship (we'd need reinforcements for strength in depth of course). Unfortunately the rest of the team isn't anywhere near that.

Anderson is dynamite and exactly the reason why lower leagues can be fun- can be spectacular but probably won't be. He's a lunatic and a joy to watch.

Bate will be in the PL in years to come.

Murphy is exactly what you don't want in that game or any other. On his heels. Zero going forward and offers nothing in terms of work rate against Martinelli. He should be a bit embarrassed.

Also- having a go at the Arsenal shirts because you can't see the numbers. Get a grip, it's pathetic. Well done Arsenal. Using their profile to promote a vitally important cause.

Thinking about next season already- let's plod along to safety and hopefully and give time to GOD etc.

Going forward I agree Murphy was on his heels and reactive but defensively I disagree. He put in a couple of excellent tackles on Tierney and a couple on Martinelli after chasing back. Could he have been better, yes, but he did offer workrate and say he should be embarrassed is over the top.

 

[ljs]

Yes, it was Arsenal, but we’ve performed a lot better in the past against opposition who are higher up the pyramid.

Hmmm...