Home Match Day Thread 10/02/2026 - MDT: Oxford United v Norwich City

[Carpy]

 

[BicesterU]

Long had a bit of a kick off towards the bench following instructions from Bloomfield last night. It may well have been just after we conceded. Obviously, Brannagan wasn't happy with being subbed either (although it was probably warranted).

I don't think it'll be too long before we start hearing about players not being happy. It'll depend on how quickly he stops tinkering and plays players in their correct positions. If he doesn't, I suspect the vast majority of the squad (now made up of short-term players) will lose faith.

The conspiracy theories have already started on here.

 

[tatabanya]

I suspect Rowett would have been quite happy with McDonnell or Konak. The Campbell situation looked like a manager desperate for the club to sign another CM/DM and was basically saying “look, I know you’ve turned the taps off. This one is free”.

Rowett turned Konak down in the summer

 

[Oxymoron]

Think it's bad on here after last night, have a gander at Foxestalk forum.....

 

[holdsteady]

Think it's bad on here after last night, have a gander at Foxestalk forum.....

View attachment 33518

Stevenage and Wycombe are good away days? If his bar is that low they should have demoted them to the national league as a punishment, bloke would have loved it.

 

[Essexyellows]

On a positive note....................... Festa done worse.

 

[The Mighty Aldo]

I have to say I’ve seen better displays from us in the Conference days and L2.
Last night was like seeing us lose to Marlow.
They had no real energy or purpose. Nobody at the races. To think Norwich had key injuries.
We lose creativity without BDK, and I’ll be surprised if we see him play for us again.
The forward position wasn’t in place. Relying on Harris, and of course no Donley.
I can’t see us staying up, with our fixture schedule that’s coming up.
The atmosphere was almost toxic at times and of course that filters through. Plenty of gaps in the crowd and I reckon a good number of season ticket holders staying away.
Only fourteen games left. I’m usually positive but I’m starting to wonder if I can stomach much more of this.
Probably need five more victories and hope we can suck more clubs in.

Regarding season ticket holders, we have had a hard core of just under 5000 for several seasons up until Wembley and promotion.
We now have 7500/8000?
My bet is those who wanted to see us in the Championship last season renewed again this season.
Last season when they were possibly not bothering to come to games, in comes Rowett over the Xmas games and kick starts our season again. Those new ST holders renewed but we have lost so many games and are failing to score at home, so they must think why bother.
Even if we do stay up I feel ST’s will be lower next season, and if we go down we’ll be back to 5000

 

[Ox4Eva]

They bought their way to the premiership go t fines for it but still there earning all that money and having players they can sell for 65 million, if they didn’t cheat they would be where we are or where we are going.

We can say that for most of the plastic premiershit!

And many of our "fair weather" followers will be going back to supporting their "real" team on the telly again

---

 

[AbsoluteZero]

In the interests of balance and fairness a positive word about Bloomfield.

No matter how terrible the start to his managerial tenure has been and how dreadful his selection is proving to be, he will not end up with a worse managerial record than Waddock.

Can't think of anything else....

 

[RBNO]

what worries me is .... that s**t selection last night...total madness ...where were the backroom staff? did no one say wtf you doing? if they didnt then we really up s**t creek from top to bottom

 

[bicesterox]

It's been a long while since I've felt as disapointed , angry, confused, etc during and after a game as I did last night.
One of those who stayed to the bitter end and the 1 good thing about the entire night was that thanks to the 2000 odd who didn't turn up, and the 1000s who left early, was that I was home by 10 past 10.
But then me and my lad just sat there discussing what we'd seen, and heard from Bloomfield, I don't think he's got a clue based on that interview but we're stuck with him, it may possibly turn out OK in the end but I can't see that far ahead.
Then after a night of not sleeping properly as kept thinking about it all over again, the first thing we spoke about at work was the game, there's half a dozen of us who go to games. So I still felt crap until I finally concentrated on my job.
There's still hope but when the so called pro's make such a cock up of every opportunity to put things right I sometimes dispare.

Sorry for such a long whinge but this club gets under the skin and last night hurt, a lot.

Just play players in there proper positions, don't spring a new formation on them 24 hours before a game, get quicker in both thought and action, and stop giving the ball away so cheaply, oh, a goal or two might be an idea as well, is that too much to ask for!

Still feeling depressed, and worried.

 

[SamLongSlidingTackle]

what worries me is .... that s**t selection last night...total madness ...where were the backroom staff? did no one say wtf you doing? if they didnt then we really up s**t creek from top to bottom

I see two sides. Agreed he has to find a good formation - puzzled with Sam long position but maybe he wanted him on the pitch but also wouldn’t the idea of ideal formation come up in the interview process? Wouldn’t he have known from before he came here during his homework of the club?

What worries me is the timing of trying out stuff like this for the players and their confidence, a bit of a new manager bounce and some well played games and we flush it all down the loo with last night. But then maybe he also sat with the players and explained we’ll try something new and see how it goes. However I don’t think there was a change at half time or after 0-2 down?!

 

[werthersoriginal]

I’ll try a charitable view. It’s early days, and MB may have overestimated our players, and thought they’d be able to deal with a new formation better. (I’m not really convincing myself).

 

[Chippy]

Rowett turned Konak down in the summer

Interesting if true. However it seems Bloomfield doesn’t fancy playing him either. It begs the question why was he signed as a loanee if we aren’t going to play him. Any loanee should be signed because we believe they are good enough to make our starting 11, not signed in the hope they may be, especially given the situation we are in. He looked ok on his cameo against Sheff Utd, less so on debut and in another sub appearance. So why on earth did we sign him if he’s not considered good enough or what we need right now?

Yet another recruitment team error (or total f*ck up) it seems. We need quality to make an impact on the team to improve us, not sit on the bench or even make the squad. Ed/the whole recruitment teams record since we got into the Champ has shown by and large they ain’t got a clue and are out of their depth.

 

[billyturleyscurlywurly]

Interesting if true. However it seems Bloomfield doesn’t fancy playing him either. It begs the question why was he signed as a loanee if we aren’t going to play him. Any loanee should be signed because we believe they are good enough to make our starting 11, not signed in the hope they may be, especially given the situation we are in. He looked ok on his cameo against Sheff Utd, less so on debut and in another sub appearance. So why on earth did we sign him if he’s not considered good enough or what we need right now?

Yet another recruitment team error (or total f*ck up) it seems. We need quality to make an impact on the team to improve us, not sit on the bench or even make the squad. Ed/the whole recruitment teams record since we got into the Champ has shown by and large they ain’t got a clue and are out of their depth.

In 4 transfer windows,
we’ve had 3 decent loan signings:

Ben Nelson (1,373 minutes of Championship football), Alex Matos (932 minutes of Championship football) & Will Lankshear

I’m pretty sure we’ve made 13/14 loan signings in that time.

That is shocking.

 

[WE Yellow]

Interesting if true. However it seems Bloomfield doesn’t fancy playing him either. It begs the question why was he signed as a loanee if we aren’t going to play him. Any loanee should be signed because we believe they are good enough to make our starting 11, not signed in the hope they may be, especially given the situation we are in. He looked ok on his cameo against Sheff Utd, less so on debut and in another sub appearance. So why on earth did we sign him if he’s not considered good enough or what we need right now?

Yet another recruitment team error (or total f*ck up) it seems. We need quality to make an impact on the team to improve us, not sit on the bench or even make the squad. Ed/the whole recruitment teams record since we got into the Champ has shown by and large they ain’t got a clue and are out of their depth.

To me he is in a similar mould to McDonnell, who was signed as a Vaulks replacement. We doubled up on defensive midfielders when we should have gone for a natural BDK/Goodrham creative replacement. Our midfield is incredibly unbalanced. Vaulks is still preferred now over Konak, which is absurd.

 

[Chrisox]

Can’t imagine Placheta ever turning in a performance as terrible as that opinion.

He should never wear the shirt again he didn't put any effort in last night the minimum we should expect is 100% effort he's not interested.

 

[billyturleyscurlywurly]

He should never wear the shirt again he didn't put any effort in last night the minimum we should expect is 100% effort he's not interested.

Not a surprise considering he obviously wanted out in January

 

[outsidethebox]

Can someone point me to the high(low)lights please. I've had a reasonably good day and need a reality check to restore my usual state of mind.

 

[SamLongSlidingTackle]

Not a surprise considering he obviously wanted out in January

I can see what he wants to achieve on the pitch but champ players are savvy and very good (stating the obvious). For me he’ll have better luck in league 1 and 2 but with heavier pitches also, he might struggle at times.

 

[SamLongSlidingTackle]

Can someone point me to the high(low)lights please. I've had a reasonably good day and need a reality check to restore my usual state of mind.

Jeon woo looked good and says something that he’s rated higher than everyone else considering his time on the pitch

 

[tatabanya]

Interesting if true. However it seems Bloomfield doesn’t fancy playing him either. It begs the question why was he signed as a loanee if we aren’t going to play him. Any loanee should be signed because we believe they are good enough to make our starting 11, not signed in the hope they may be, especially given the situation we are in. He looked ok on his cameo against Sheff Utd, less so on debut and in another sub appearance. So why on earth did we sign him if he’s not considered good enough or what we need right now?

Yet another recruitment team error (or total f*ck up) it seems. We need quality to make an impact on the team to improve us, not sit on the bench or even make the squad. Ed/the whole recruitment teams record since we got into the Champ has shown by and large they ain’t got a clue and are out of their depth.

I guess until we see him play more it’s hard to say whether it’s a recruitment team error or the manager’s for not picking him. I’d much rather see him come on than Vaulks

 

[uptheus]

He should never wear the shirt again he didn't put any effort in last night the minimum we should expect is 100% effort he's not interested.

I actually thought he did try harder, but he’s so one dimensional that other players teams have sussed him out.

FFS play him on the left and get him to do the basics rather than this inverted bollox!

 

[uptheus]

Rowett turned Konak down in the summer

That’s not surprising from what I’ve seen of him so far.

 

[Morris Oxford]

Rowett turned Konak down in the summer

Personally I think he’s got a lot of potential, and I can see him having a decent career but he’s still very inexperienced and it was probably telling that he didn’t get a loan in the summer either to Oxford or anyone else for that matter. Perhaps Brentford didn’t want him dropping below Championship level?

 

[Osei Yaw]

But Rowett wanted to sign Allan Campbell, so maybe he wasn't the best judge either.

 

[outsidethebox]

Jeon woo looked good and says something that he’s rated higher than everyone else considering his time on the pitch

Sorry, I meant video highlights

 

[uptheus]

Personally I think he’s got a lot of potential, and I can see him having a decent career but he’s still very inexperienced and it was probably telling that he didn’t get a loan in the summer either to Oxford or anyone else for that matter. Perhaps Brentford didn’t want him dropping below Championship level?

The probably is, we need players who can hit the ground running now, so don’t really have that luxury/time to allow an in-experienced player to bed in/see how they’ll be.

 

[Eric Blair]

Oh really? I just can't see this. Our midfield has been the main problem for years. We hardly ever put through a defence-splitting pass or get the ball to our wingers in a decent position. And if they do get the ball the wingers generally don't cross well. Only if they're getting good service and missing their chances are the strikers the issue.

Yep. I agree. I know they don’t grow on trees but a Championship Ruben Rodrigues is what we need.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Yep. I agree. I know they don’t grow on trees but a Championship Ruben Rodrigues is what we need.

I wasn't really a fan of his - he lost the ball too much. We need someone like McClean for Norwich, who lurked at the back to take the ball from the defence and set up attacks. We just don't pass the ball in midfield, it's all long balls.

 

[oufcbenjyp]

Yep. I agree. I know they don’t grow on trees but a Championship Ruben Rodrigues is what we need.

Jamie Donley enters the chat….