Home Match Day Thread 11/9/2021 L1: OUFC V Wycombe Wanderers

[Wandering Yellow]

I want to be on ScotchEgg's positivity bus, I really do, but I cant help but have a few concerns.

I think as a fanbase when a player goes and gets replaced we like to lead ourselves to believe we have definitely got a better player.
Elliott Lee, Barker, Shodipo were all very good players at this level. Whyte isn't necessarily improvement and perhaps his confidence has taken a knock since he left us to join the sheep botherers.
Id like to see more of Bodin.
Taylor's performances get a free pass from many because he occasionally gets stuck in, which is the minimum you need from a lone striker. His movement was sub-par yesterday. If he made more runs i think a player like Brannagan could find him. He seems to always want it on a plate at the moment.
Thorniley isn't necessarily as good as Atkinson.
We don't have a star centre back such as a Nelson, Atkinson or Dickie we have had in recent seasons.
We have a player who would be exciting to watch through the middle, but Karl refuses to do so even when taylor is badly out of sorts. Give him a chance Karl, for the love of God.

Positives:
CamBran was a class above yesterday. His tenaciousness and attitude it spot on. Was even shooting from range desperate to make something happen. We need more players like Cam, don't wait for something to happen - be the spark yourself.
Stevens - distribution has improved.
Sam Long to come back.

I don't necessarily think this is a better squad than last season and I'm really not sure we will make the play-offs. I'm not sure where the self-assuredness about our team from some of our fans come from.

 

[Wandering Yellow]

And can I just add one more negative (sorry) we are absolutely ZERO threat from our attacking set pieces. I am emotionless when we get a corner.

Maybe we have a smaller than average team but our delivery into the box was appalling yesterday. Not even beating the first man, a good free kick opportunity smashed into the London Road end by Henry.

We might as well play all corners short now.

So many teams at this level turn every set piece into an "event" and look dangerous from them. We are about as much use as a glass hammer from them.

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

A point away at Wycombe would be fine, but at home is worrying (although a clean sheet was nice).

Robinson clearly doesn’t fully know his best team. A front three of Whyte on the left, Taylor and Sykes on the right doesn’t really work.

I don’t actually think the defence is a problem really (apart from set pieces) as long as we don’t get any more injures - McNally is looking like a great CB, and Forde is doing really well at RB. But the midfield balance isn’t quite right still, and it might be good to get Kane into the team somehow, and up front we need someone who is comfortable playing on the left, and to either reinvigorate Matty Taylor, or give Dan Agyei a chance to start up front.

 

[windmill]

And can I just add one more negative (sorry) we are absolutely ZERO threat from our attacking set pieces. I am emotionless when we get a corner.

Maybe we have a smaller than average team but our delivery into the box was appalling yesterday. Not even beating the first man, a good free kick opportunity smashed into the London Road end by Henry.

We might as well play all corners short now.

So many teams at this level turn every set piece into an "event" and look dangerous from them. We are about as much use as a glass hammer from them.

Another Matt Elliott at the near post?

 

[UTM]

It's expensive, the facilities aren't great, no 4th stand for the away fans so the whole of the North stand could be our family stand, the location is rubbish unless you're coming from Sandford or Blackbird leys, it normally smells of sewerage, the match day experience is crap, no decent boozers around the stadium, car park is a nightmare to get out of so need to add an extra 45 minutes to get home, can't park in the side streets around the ground as its permit holders
, busses from the city centre taking over half an hour to get to the ground,

Do you need anymore of why we aren't hitting over 10k home fans?

Just to say spot on with this .
But also .
Yes we had our day in the mid 80s with bigger crowds . But in truth i recall games in the early 80s of 4'500 and even in the 90s of 6'500 crowds .

 

[bazzer9461]

Well done Bazza, challenging and reporting it. Bravo!

It wasn’t me who reported the incident it was a Wycombe fan reporting another Wycombe fan of racism. That’s of their forum.

 

[Bigfella72]

I want to be on ScotchEgg's positivity bus, I really do, but I cant help but have a few concerns.

I think as a fanbase when a player goes and gets replaced we like to lead ourselves to believe we have definitely got a better player.
Elliott Lee, Barker, Shodipo were all very good players at this level. Whyte isn't necessarily improvement and perhaps his confidence has taken a knock since he left us to join the sheep botherers.
Id like to see more of Bodin.
Taylor's performances get a free pass from many because he occasionally gets stuck in, which is the minimum you need from a lone striker. His movement was sub-par yesterday. If he made more runs i think a player like Brannagan could find him. He seems to always want it on a plate at the moment.
Thorniley isn't necessarily as good as Atkinson.
We don't have a star centre back such as a Nelson, Atkinson or Dickie we have had in recent seasons.
We have a player who would be exciting to watch through the middle, but Karl refuses to do so even when taylor is badly out of sorts. Give him a chance Karl, for the love of God.

Positives:
CamBran was a class above yesterday. His tenaciousness and attitude it spot on. Was even shooting from range desperate to make something happen. We need more players like Cam, don't wait for something to happen - be the spark yourself.
Stevens - distribution has improved.
Sam Long to come back.

I don't necessarily think this is a better squad than last season and I'm really not sure we will make the play-offs. I'm not sure where the self-assuredness about our team from some of our fans come from.

I’m always more of a glass half full than empty and I don’t get carried away but from what I’ve seen at home this season and at QPR I think we are a better team than the last two seasons and am more confident of play offs than in the past.
I was one before today’s game calling for McNally over Moore as I think he wins more headers in both boxes and he started the season brilliantly and was unlucky to be dropped. Love Thorniley on the left but his lack of height is a worry at set pieces and it wasn’t his best game for us yesterday.

 

[pidge]

One thing that annoys me with Stevens is he takes so long with his distribution, 3 or 4 times yesterday we had Whyte or Sykes in space outwide with a counter attack on. Whyte is one of the quickest in the league just kick or throw it and let them chase it. When Whyte gets on the ball your not going to catch him and for whatever reason there wasn't much of that yesterday.

 

[oufc1991]

I would actually like to see Whyte run at a FB abit more with his pace not many will stop him he’s always looking for a pass inside

 

[Scotchegg]

I want to be on ScotchEgg's positivity bus, I really do, but I cant help but have a few concerns.

I think as a fanbase when a player goes and gets replaced we like to lead ourselves to believe we have definitely got a better player.
Elliott Lee, Barker, Shodipo were all very good players at this level. Whyte isn't necessarily improvement and perhaps his confidence has taken a knock since he left us to join the sheep botherers.
Id like to see more of Bodin.
Taylor's performances get a free pass from many because he occasionally gets stuck in, which is the minimum you need from a lone striker. His movement was sub-par yesterday. If he made more runs i think a player like Brannagan could find him. He seems to always want it on a plate at the moment.
Thorniley isn't necessarily as good as Atkinson.
We don't have a star centre back such as a Nelson, Atkinson or Dickie we have had in recent seasons.
We have a player who would be exciting to watch through the middle, but Karl refuses to do so even when taylor is badly out of sorts. Give him a chance Karl, for the love of God.

Positives:
CamBran was a class above yesterday. His tenaciousness and attitude it spot on. Was even shooting from range desperate to make something happen. We need more players like Cam, don't wait for something to happen - be the spark yourself.
Stevens - distribution has improved.
Sam Long to come back.

I don't necessarily think this is a better squad than last season and I'm really not sure we will make the play-offs. I'm not sure where the self-assuredness about our team from some of our fans come from.

Shodipo had barely played a game before coming to us, and Barker was frustratingly inconsistent. I think it's a little unfair to dismiss Whyte, Holland, Bodin and Williams as being worse than the options we had last season.

I also think that Thorniley didn't have the greatest of games yesterday but is far better than the Rob Atkinson who started last season. Atkinson improved and was part of a much stronger defence once we had a settled side. Long, Moore, Thorniley and Seddon look incredibly strong for this level and arguably stronger than last season.

Taylor is struggling, but he also struggled at the beginning of last season until we found some consistency and rhythm throughout the side. If it wasn't for some very good blocks, then Taylor scores a couple of tap in yesterday and all is forgiven. He will come good.

So there are positives there, and our league position shows that we're heading in the right direction. Sykes shoots instead of passing, or the ball getting turned in by Taylor and we finish the day in 3rd!

 

[Victor1986]

Agree Scotchers - real shame we don't have Oxford boy Stuart Mcleary in our squad!

 

[southwarkox]

I was the angriest I've been in many years at that game, the complete lack of control from the ref wound me up so much. When the opposition are blatantly time-wasting, shirt-pulling and generally cheating you need a strong ref to clamp down early, but sadly he was the opposite.

Having said that... yet again, if plan A doesn't work we don't have a plan B. Taylor is so isolated up top. Whyte is way too deep, and when he gets the ball he doesn't seem to have the confidence to run at defenders. We also are great at getting players into good crossing/passing positions and then the final ball rarely hits the striker.

We can get width from full backs so I'd ditch the wingers and push Whyte up front to play off the shoulder of the defender - this would spread the defence so much more effectively.

One final point - just watched Quest and saw the Oxford fan getting Ainsworth's autograph. What on earth is that about?

 

[bazzer9461]

I was the angriest I've been in many years at that game, the complete lack of control from the ref wound me up so much. When the opposition are blatantly time-wasting, shirt-pulling and generally cheating you need a strong ref to clamp down early, but sadly he was the opposite.

Having said that... yet again, if plan A doesn't work we don't have a plan B. Taylor is so isolated up top. Whyte is way too deep, and when he gets the ball he doesn't seem to have the confidence to run at defenders. We also are great at getting players into good crossing/passing positions and then the final ball rarely hits the striker.

We can get width from full backs so I'd ditch the wingers and push Whyte up front to play off the shoulder of the defender - this would spread the defence so much more effectively.

One final point - just watched Quest and saw the Oxford fan getting Ainsworth's autograph. What on earth is that about?

She is there every game maybe it’s just for her collection

 

[Paul Cannell]

Ey?

Just thought you were sailing a bit close to the wind in respect of the positivity police. Carry on

 

[curransleftboot]

I'd rather watch paint dry than Wycombe play their 'dark art' (manager promoted cheating) football. It was crying out for someone like Agyei to be put on with half hour to go to shake things up in their defence with his power and pace and give a target for our midfield (just like Akinfenwa for them). We are still woefully lacking in the final third and perhaps if the Portsmouth target man had been acquired it could have been a different story. Still not happy with our defence - looks susceptible at every corner conceded. On the bright side there are good players in the squad who will be shortly available who could make a big difference IF KR can get his tactics and selection right.

 

[Swaby39]

Robinson clearly doesn’t fully know his best team. A front three of Whyte on the left, Taylor and Sykes on the right doesn’t really work.

Very few do - we’re 6 or 7 games in. Anybody that has (or thinks they have) can probably put it down as much to luck as judgement because friendlies are really not a very good gauge. Very difficult to know which teams you should be beating or approach with caution until the table takes shape. There is always a lot of rotation for that reason, particularly those with genuine competition for places as we do.

I also think KR is a little surprised by the slow starts from the likes of Taylor, Holland and others so it’s forcing his hand slightly that those players are not performing like they were.

It will all settle down before long so I don’t think that’s a fair criticism just yet - maybe in another 10 games if things stay the same. But I personally don’t think 10th place, unbeaten at home etc is a bad start and a point vs Wycombe anywhere is not a bad result because they are simply not interested in playing the game which doesn’t suit us.

 

[southwarkox]

Our fixtures have been very generous so far, we're definitely 4-5 points short versus where we should be. As we've shown in previous years, we're unlikely to recoup these points against the better teams.

 

[Mellowyellow]

The Ultras were all needlessly harrassed by a busy senior steward jobsworth who made bringing colour and noise to games hell, so they had to give it up and the atmospheres been pretty rubbish since.

Was his name Ian Mixter or something? That's the guy you want to blame.

Also generally, even with the ultras the ground is near a sewage works, miles out of town, with a stand missing where the atmos simply drains out. The home atmoses are a bit depressing really, I've considered giving it up totally and just going to away games.

There was that one match in particular, where they upped and left, later posting that could be doing better things on a Saturday, or similar. Did they stop coming to games completely?

 

[ljs]

Stevens - distribution has improved.

I think his distribution is not as good or as quick as last season.
Yesterday, for example, he often didn't give the ball out quickly when there were players shouting for it, and the times he did it was quite wayward and at least once actually threw it out to a Wycombe player.
Granted he didn't kick the ball directly out of play yesterday, but has done so quite often in other games this season.

He did make a couple of very good saves though.

 

[SteMerritt]

I think his distribution is not as good orcas quick as last season.

Stop your whaling.