Home Match Day Thread 1/1/2022 L1: OUFC v Cheltenham Town

[tonyw]

Alfie May looked good - he was the only one on their side that stood out- but somebody mentioned his poor stats on here so not sure if yesterday was a usual or unusual performance for him!?

May did look good - but people on here have been comparing him to Matty T, because he's got the same build and his build-up play was of similar quality.

Well, that's true - but his finishing and/or positioning in the box clearly is not, because he's never scored 10 league goals in a season at any level above the Isthmian League Division One South!

Plus, he's 28, so not one for the future.

The way we play, I think it's important that our #9 is a genuine goal threat, and Alfie May's career stats would lead you to believe he's not that.

So I think he's filed under "Good player, but not one for us"

 

[Northernyellow]

I thought we looked very leggy. Could be Covid-related and two games in three days. Cheltenham weren't at all bad. Really well organised and 2-3 classy players at this level. Really not sure about McGuane. You can see why he played for huge clubs and you can also see why he was released. Doesn't work hard enough imo. He also doesn't run a game. Kane had an off day yesterday, but he's still been the standout player on the pitch in half a dozen or so of his matches for us. If McGuane needs reminding that talent alone isn't enough, he just needed to look at the Cheltenham bench. Dan Cowley. What a waste of talent.

 

[werthersoriginal]

I thought we looked very leggy. Could be Covid-related and two games in three days. Cheltenham weren't at all bad. Really well organised and 2-3 classy players at this level. Really not sure about McGuane. You can see why he played for huge clubs and you can also see why he was released. Doesn't work hard enough imo. He also doesn't run a game. Kane had an off day yesterday, but he's still been the standout player on the pitch in half a dozen or so of his matches for us. If McGuane needs reminding that talent alone isn't enough, he just needed to look at the Cheltenham bench. Dan Cowley. What a waste of talent.

Dan Crowley has now been let go! Mcguane looks great but hasn’t yet done a whole lot of meaningful stuff. He’s not first choice yet but I bet he does come good

 

[MC Yellow]

It’s hell I tell ya. View attachment 7705
Remoteness is relative. When we lived in Dundee people said “how can you live so far away?”. Pre covid I could get on a plane on a Friday evening and get off at LHR at 6, pick up a car and be in Kidlington by 7:30 am. Would be a bit expensive round trip for the footy though.

Boy oh boy do I miss my winter sunshine. Usually get away to sunnier climes for a few weeks during either November/December, but Covid has put a stop to all that.

I do though like a beautifully cold/frosty sunshine day in the winter.

But one thing I would never be able to get my head around is sunshine, 35 degrees and a Christmas tree being up

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Re McGuane.

I have to admit I find him quite frustrating to watch. He quite obviously has considerable ability - some of his passes are wonderful. But at other times he seems very lackadaisical and the passes go to nobody. In an almost Agyei-like way, he looks as if he should be more difficult to knock off the ball than he is - and he is certainly not the quickest over the ground. While not in any way laying any blame solely on him for yesterdays performance, it *was* noticeable how much sharper we looked with some pace out wide (Whyte) and in the middle (Sykes) once he went off. He wasn't helped by below par performances by both Kane and Branagan yesterday however.

I am sure there is more to come from McGuane, but I don't think he's quite there yet.

 

[MC Yellow]

Hopefully we can keep this trend up in 2022

 

[oufc1991]

So I'm watching Brentford Vs villa and a stat came up regarding goals when scored ( 1st ,2nd half percentage) Everton have scored 76% of there goals in the second half and I was wondering if we score more 1st half or more second half goals
Brentford match isn't great lol

 

[DevilsAvocado]

So I'm watching Brentford Vs villa and a stat came up regarding goals when scored ( 1st ,2nd half percentage) Everton have scored 76% of there goals in the second half and I was wondering if we score more 1st half or more second half goals
Brentford match isn't great lol

We have scored 23 1st half goals and conceded 10 not quite so good in the the 2nd half with 17 goals for and 15 against.

 

[oufc1991]

We have scored 23 1st half goals and conceded 10 not quite so good in the the 2nd half with 17 goals for and 15 against.

So it's seems we are a.better team in the first halfnot to shabby in the second half lol
Thanks for the info

 

[HerbieKaneDontGo]

Hey all - not sure if this is the right feed. But has anyone been to Lincoln away before? Is it suitable to take my 6 year old? In terms of seated or standing etc.

 

[Oxford1996]

Ft - Sheffield Wednesday just lost 1-0 to Shrewsbury!

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

So it's seems we are a.better team in the first half

I could have told you that!

 

[Golden Dr Otto]

Hey all - not sure if this is the right feed. But has anyone been to Lincoln away before? Is it suitable to take my 6 year old? In terms of seated or standing etc.

There used to be a bit of edge between oxford and Lincoln back in our league two days 15 years ago. Not sure if it’s still there though

 

[mooro]

Re McGuane.

I have to admit I find him quite frustrating to watch. He quite obviously has considerable ability - some of his passes are wonderful. But at other times he seems very lackadaisical and the passes go to nobody. In an almost Agyei-like way, he looks as if he should be more difficult to knock off the ball than he is - and he is certainly not the quickest over the ground. While not in any way laying any blame solely on him for yesterdays performance, it *was* noticeable how much sharper we looked with some pace out wide (Whyte) and in the middle (Sykes) once he went off. He wasn't helped by below par performances by both Kane and Branagan yesterday however.

I am sure there is more to come from McGuane, but I don't think he's quite there yet.

I think the Agyei reference is interesting.

When MM had the ball he did some really good things and was behind a number of our better moves/chances in the first half.

However, he does have Dan's tendancy to ball watch at times and/or be in the wrong place and/or be incredibly slow to move.

I think he's doing better now than he was when he first came back from injury, and he wouldn't have been the first player I would have replaced on Saturday, but I'm still not completely sold on him yet

 

[dickwalton1964]

I thought McGuane was comfortably our best player in the first half against Cheltenham. Two or three through balls were exceptional and the sort of passes you generally see more of a level up from L1. When Robbie said the other day that Kane will cost us a goal every now and then, I don’t particularly see that with him but I do see it with McGuane. He collects the ball deep and will often attempt to take on his opponent with very little cover behind. In full flow he looks an outstanding footballer and one who I feel we should persevere with, he’s undoubtedly a different sort of player to Kane and Brannagan.

 

[OxfordYankee]

McGuane is a talent, but he needs to learn to ride challenges. He hits the deck so easily and it lessens his effectiveness at breaking through defensive lines. Baptiste used to be the same, but his breakthrough year coincided with more physicality and his ability to roll players and challenges.

If MM can do the same, he may well become a vital cog in the OUFC machine.

 

[AbsoluteZero]

There is definitely a player in McGuane, but quite where he fits into our team model I have no clue. If Henry, Gorrin, Holland or Whyte are fit McGuane doesn't go above any of them into the first 11 so he is a long way down the pecking order. Midfield is definitely not his position either as he doesn't compete in challenges, doesn't track back, positionally is all over the place and takes too many risks in a dangerous area of the pitch, and even though his strength is as an attacking midfielder he doesn't exactly bust a gut to join the forwards when we counter attack. Unless he can get himself into a Marcus Browne style of player who can play off the wing and also centrally up front when required he is some way off what we need at the moment, but he needs to bulk up and learn how to play that role to be a success. It's down to him, despite a couple of cute passes per game he must realise he hasn't been doing enough in the games he's played and him and the coaches need to sit down and decide what he needs to be doing next as there is an underlying talent in the lad, just how to extract it to the best effect on a match day.

 

[QR]

One of McGuane's strengths is his ability to turn a player. This is never going to be a skill that comes into its own with a ref that wants to 'allow play to flow' by waving away blatant tackles from behind. Just saying.

 

[McXal]

I actually think McGuane’s best two appearances thus far this season have come when there is less of an onus on him to ‘create’. In the final third of the 0-0 game at Ipswich his pace, drive and ability to push players back with his running made a real difference to us in seeing out that game when Ipswich had spent the first part of that second half bossing us.

I also thought his performance against Wigan - when he was forced to play the deeper midfield role at late notice because of Henry’s warm-up injury - was very good. He received the ball well and smartly distributed it. Not a perfect performance and not at the levels Kane had been at - but I thought it was impressive.

Against Cheltenham he was a step off. I don’t think he had a nightmare performance - and all of our best stuff in the first half went through him. But he was wasteful, as others have said he was quite a way off the levels of physicality required to get the better of Cheltenham’s well-drilled midfield line, and he didn’t work hard enough when out of possession.

I rate him though. I hope if Browne does materialise it’s to play in a more advanced role (ie one of the wide/attacking midfield roles in our 4-3-3 rather than the three CM births) so as not to limit McGuane’s opportunities. I really think he is a player worth investing in/sticking with.

(And FWIW I do think you need to credit Cheltenham’s shape/discipline/work-rate/quality in the press and through their midfield too. Both of Kane’s worst games for us have come against them as well. The way they set up is incredibly challenging for ball-playing central midfield players because there simply isn’t much space or time on the football)

 

[RyanioBirdio]

McGuane is a talent, but he needs to learn to ride challenges. He hits the deck so easily and it lessens his effectiveness at breaking through defensive lines.

Arsenal and Barcelona will have both trained him to win fouls and keep the ball. This is why for much of his time on the pitch last season he had an infuriating tendency to spin around like a bottle top and make nothing five and ten yard passes that didn’t move the ball forward, because he was too concerned with keeping possession. The sort of play that keeps your stats high as your pass percentage and lack of losing possession will look good on a spreadsheet, but in reality it does nothing. This is why he’s got around 100 appearances - across league and cup games at club level, plus a bunch of internationals at various age groups for England and Ireland - and has two goals to his name. He’s got the scoring record of a holding midfield player like Gorrin.

I haven’t seen him much this season, I’ve only been to maybe eight or so games and he’s made the odd cameo off the bench in a couple of those, so perhaps he’s improving this season and evolving his game somewhat. I can only comment on what I’ve seen, but I think he has the potential to do a lot more than he usually does. I’ve seen him have rare moments in the past when he charged past a couple of players at pace and picked a pass, so he’s clearly got the tools, but I’ve always felt he holds back. I’ve been wary of Browne’s temperament and concentration levels when he’s been here on loan previously, but what he does do far more by comparison is drive forward through the middle, and while he gets fouled a lot he also has a desire where possible to stay on his feet and get into the box. If you want to stop Browne you have to really take his legs away. As you rightly said also, Baptiste developed a similar trait and it turned him from a tidy midfield player into a box-to-box dynamo. McGuane has often looked more likely to look to go down at the first touch or play the ball sideways to begin with.

It might sound harsher than I intend it to when it’s written down - I do really think he has all the tools that he needs to be a very good player. He just needs to show more intent, and a desire to impact games in a meaningful way. Sykes is probably the best example of a player doing this of late. Eight goals in his last 19 games after just three goals in 2.5 seasons previously, including zero last season. That is an enormous improvement and is hopefully one that McGuane can use for his own motivation in the future. He’s young and has had a bad injury, so there needs to be a bit of leeway there, but hopefully he can start to kick on. The next 12 months are massive for him.