Home Match Day Thread 12/02/2022 L1: OUFC v Bolton Wanderers

[windmill]

For all the analysis on here, one point is being overlooked. Bolton were a very good side, probably the best side to play at the Kassam since Plymouth beat us. They defended well as a team, with sometimes 7 dropping back in line, and attacked at pace with numbers. They were very well drilled and organised and I'd be amazed if they don't sneak into the playoffs themselves. Having said that, we restricted them to what, 4 maybe 5 chances? The three goals, a tame shout at Stevens in the second half, and one dragged wide? On the other hand, in a fairly equal first half we had the 2 goals, a couple of chances for Taylor and the one-on-one with Whyte where he should have scored. Second half we had a dozen chances, several really decent ones too. We certainly didn't play poorly, and on a good day we win that. But we can't keep conceding the goals that we do. Stevens seems a bit slower to get down than he was before his illness, and the defence is too slow to react to balls dropping in the box or on the edge. Moore seems to be caught on his heels a lot and the second yesterday was another example of a ball dropping to an opposition player in the box who can take a touch and shoot completely unchallenged. Kane wasn't great, but Gorrin doesn't stop any of their goals yesterday so I'm not sure that criticism is valid. And Taylor, Brannagan and others had chances that should have killed the game. Disappointing, work needed at both ends of the pitch, but hardly season ending or reason for the usual worry merchant's to be out in force!!

If you think Bolton were the best side to visit this season, then you clearly missed the Rotherham fixture.

 

[OX14]

If you think Bolton were the best side to visit this season, then you clearly missed the Rotherham fixture.

And the Wigan, Plymouth fixtures.

 

[OxfordYankee]

I see the ‘merchants’ merchants are out in force.

 

[Shosho]

Watching some of it back this morning I thought we played pretty well. Taylor with a few attempts dragged wide, the Whyte 1on1…there was plenty in there. The first half was frantic with neither team able to control the midfield.

Kane getting some stick, but worth noting he is a box to box 8. That was his best and most productive position at Doncaster, his passing quality making him the candidate as the ‘quarterback’. When he has played in the final third both yesterday and vs Portsmouth he has a load of quality (ball round the corner for Brannagan vs Portsmouth & again yesterday), but in Kane and Brannagan you have two players that want to play in a similar way. Fwiw, I think Kane does his share of defensive work, steps into the back four when McNally/Moore move out, but he doesn’t cover the width behind the full backs like Gorrin does.

A load of teams are in for a 6 this summer - players like Gorrin are rare. Players like Gorrin that can also have quality on the ball are even tougher to find. A young defensive midfielder and lb cover would have been ideal in January - Joe Tomlinson would have been ideal in the summer.

Anyway, we have what we have and it’s now down to the coaching to improve the situation. Prior to the season I was told ‘Oxford have a hell of a budget’ and that ‘KR would have failed if he doesn’t get you up’. Next season is when the pressure poles on to KR. The owners want championship football and have clearly backed him like nothing we’ve seen before (and tried to seemingly back him further). That said, there will be a hefty squad turn over looking at those OOC in the summer, plus the possibility of Brannagan leaving.

See how many points we can collect in the run in, still a way to go!

 

[werthersoriginal]

And if we only conceded one goal per game (a few clean sheets wouldn’t go amiss but let’s start small) instead of two or three as has been the case of late, the forwards would be able to afford to miss the odd chance rather than having to operate at 100% all the time. It goes both ways. You can’t just say “well if we had scored four then it wouldn’t have mattered that they scored three.” Top teams in any league shouldn’t be losing (or even failing to win) games that they score twice in, especially at home.

You can’t try to win every game 3-2. It is unsustainable over the course of a season.

Especially if it’s against a team like Bolton yesterday who weren’t world beaters and didn’t have a load of pressure or chances

 

[werthersoriginal]

No, it's not a daft suggestion. I was thinking just the same thing this morning.

I feel we should use him more. Presumably the idea has been considered and maybe tried in training though.

 

[christenedinjericho]

For all the analysis on here, one point is being overlooked. Bolton were a very good side, probably the best side to play at the Kassam since Plymouth beat us. They defended well as a team, with sometimes 7 dropping back in line, and attacked at pace with numbers. They were very well drilled and organised and I'd be amazed if they don't sneak into the playoffs themselves. Having said that, we restricted them to what, 4 maybe 5 chances? The three goals, a tame shout at Stevens in the second half, and one dragged wide? On the other hand, in a fairly equal first half we had the 2 goals, a couple of chances for Taylor and the one-on-one with Whyte where he should have scored. Second half we had a dozen chances, several really decent ones too. We certainly didn't play poorly, and on a good day we win that. But we can't keep conceding the goals that we do. Stevens seems a bit slower to get down than he was before his illness, and the defence is too slow to react to balls dropping in the box or on the edge. Moore seems to be caught on his heels a lot and the second yesterday was another example of a ball dropping to an opposition player in the box who can take a touch and shoot completely unchallenged. Kane wasn't great, but Gorrin doesn't stop any of their goals yesterday so I'm not sure that criticism is valid. And Taylor, Brannagan and others had chances that should have killed the game. Disappointing, work needed at both ends of the pitch, but hardly season ending or reason for the usual worry merchant's to be out in force!!

Without trying to put the boot into Gorrin who is unfortunately injured but who is to say that a fully fit Gorrin would have stayed on the pitch for more than an hour yesterday if he played. Gorrin would have probably with the game fully gung ho at 2-2 would have already been on a yellow at that time with a second yellow delivered by the 60th minute. We would have then probably gone on to lose this game by 4 goals to 2 lol. As fans when we lose we all look for answers and to me personally Gorrin yesterday wouldn't have been the answer in this all action game. So, what is the answer then? In hindsight to me it's a simple one, and that is to simply stay focused immediately after we either take the lead or draw level in any game and this when even I played football was drummed into me even when I was at under 11 level. In all probabilities we get this right KR and we stay in the game. Simples.

As for the game I'm still disappointed with the result this morning but any new young fan for the first 45 couldn't have been disappointed in the speed, skill and entertainment given and hopefully their appetite wasn't taken away too much by the trotter's winning goal.

Let's get to the Valley next Saturday and get a big result.

COYY'S

 

[ZeroTheHero]

I thought the game was pretty even. Both teams looked quite good going forward, both defences looked shaky and neither team actually seemed to want to hang on to the ball in midfield for very long! Any of the three possible results would probably have been fair enough.

The obvious points from our point of view are the conceding of multiple goals (again), the inability to hold onto a lead for very long (again), the lack of form for some of our players (Kane was very ineffective and needs to stop silly little flick passes - they never seem to go where they are supposed to, McGuane looks more and more like a 'luxury' player, Whyte was decent in the first half but I can see why he was taken off in the second, Long looking like a shadow of the player he was etc), the carbon copy goals against (down our left, shot across the goal into the far corner - is Steven's positioning correct?), Seddon's positioning (surely he is being *told* to be so high up the pitch?) leaving a gap at the back you could drive a bus through, missing chances, generally playing too slowly, daft cross field passes that get cut out. Many of the things that have become all a bit to common in recent games - even those we have won!

The next two away games are unarguably important (although I am sure someone will give it a go!) - given that clubs above us have games in hand, is 4 points now the minimum we need?

 

[PottersRightBoot]

And the Wigan, Plymouth fixtures.

And Sheff Wed.

 

[Joey]

If you go up the leagues there’s a fair few teams that have been successful conceding, shall we say, too many goals. Peterborough, for example, have got promoted a few times over the years playing some basketball style football. Ideally, you have German style efficiency and win every game 2-0 - grow into the game, score after half hour, take control, get a second on the hour and see out the last half hour. If only it was a perfect world.

I've not seen if anyone has replied to this but this isn't the case. They played an attacking style and missed the playoffs every season, the season before that got stopped early they scored more goals than anyone but still missed out. They finally went up last season when they only conceded 46 goals, we're already on 41 with 14 games still to play. They didn't get promoted until they sorted the defence out.

The key is that it isn't either/or. Under Appleton we played brilliant football but we could mix it as well. No one is talking about revolution, just a few tweaks to add a bit of size/know how amongst the squad and have some different options rather than almost completely neglecting the defence and having 3 versions of the same striker.

 

[BigAlan]

In our little SSU group after 75 mins we all thought we were tired, Bolton ran quicker and looked fitter.

After 80 mins there was only going to be one winner, we were proved correct unfortunately .

 

[AbsoluteZero]

Yet another good watch, although the feeling going home was not so good for once.

The keeper situation is a strange one. I was early calling for Stevens to come back in just to see if it did stem some of the goals conceded by trying something different. It clearly hasn't. We have 2 keepers who are very much on an equal footing, both as good, or maybe as bad, as each other. With both you feel more confident of them saving a shot when they have to make a reactionary save from 10 yards than a 20-25 yard shot.

It's probably too late in the season to change formation now. Going to a 352 may mean we concede goal a game less but it probably means we create and score less ourselves with more likelihood of 0-0s and 1-0s. I think we need to stick with it after all it is better over 4 games to win 2 and lose 2 than win 1 draw 2 and lose 1. Sam Long this season is starting to look like a better player as a CB in a back 3 than a full back though. So if we could find the wing backs in the squad we have then it could work. Sykes on the right, Williams on the left? I know Seddon is probably better suited to wing back than full back but even his contribution going forward is getting worse now following some defensive blunders.

Bolton seemed to be a fairly average side but in a rich vein of form, I certainly wouldn't put them in the top 5 teams we have played at home this season. At times they were ripped open. And they actually created very little. Their expensive new signing Charles barely had a kick. But they are good enough to be able to capitalise on errors and they were ruthless with how they did it, but over the course of a season everything they hit is not going to hit the back of the net so good on them to keep it going for as long as they have in the last few weeks because it will not last like this.

The other thing that was clearly evident was, taking out our 2 CBs, we are a very small side. The trade off with that is the skilful players we have and the good value entertainment we get as a result. But history shows this is not how you win promotion out of league 1.

Play offs could need a higher than usual number of points this season, we need to get another run going soon and we can't wait for Browne to contribute later in the season when he becomes fit because we could be well behind when this happens. Some key games coming up, if we struggle against Crewe and Cambridge it will not be looking too good, we have lost the luxury of points on the board and getting to the stage of some must win games to keep the season alive.

 

[Londox]

In our little SSU group after 75 mins we all thought we were tired, Bolton ran quicker and looked fitter.

After 80 mins there was only going to be one winner, we were proved correct unfortunately .

We were poor throughout large parts of the second half. Seddon should have just hauled their man down and taken a yellow or red for their third.

 

[windmill]

In our little SSU group after 75 mins we all thought we were tired, Bolton ran quicker and looked fitter.

After 80 mins there was only going to be one winner, we were proved correct unfortunately .

If our style of football puts more bottoms on seats, then let's go with it. The first 45 minutes was great entertainment. Not many grumbles around me walking back along Knights Road. Very fine margins yesterday.

 

[Yellow There!]

I believe he’s good. Just not excellent and we need someone exceptional to get us promoted in a competitive league. ‘Good’ gets you into the top half and into the playoffs, tops. ‘Excellent’ gets you autos.

He’s had a pretty much unbroken spell of management roles since 2010. Five playoffs campaigns shows he’s good. One promotion shows he’s not excellent.

The worry is that he constantly tries to do things perfectly that he misses the essentials. We can play some stunning stuff at times and blitz teams when we’re in the mood but equally overlook the defence and any defensive minded midfielder options in January.

I like the bloke but it’s day like this that I question whether he has it in him to get us promoted.

Bit late but this is bang on

 

[werthersoriginal]

If our style of football puts more bottoms on seats, then let's go with it. The first 45 minutes was great entertainment. Not many grumbles around me walking back along Knights Road. Very fine margins yesterday.

I certainly hear a lot fewer grumbles at the actual game than on here. People seem more philosophical. That game was annoying to me though, it wasn’t like the Wigan one where we were clearly up against a formidable team.

 

[nick68]

Didn't hear too many grumbles about our style of play with the previous two home games, let's not over react to one result that could easily have gone our way.

 

[Manorlounger]

Talking of keepers and which is better made me think of asking whether anyone else had noticed that Stevens is morphing into Eastwood. Previously Stevens looked early to distribute, he bowled the ball out short, playing out from the back was his thing now, we see more and more balls being hoofed forward to only be turned back and returned by defenders head and shoulders above Taylor or the ball is just straight into touch. Surely our strength is on the deck? We often look magnificent in a passing game with quick touches and runs.

 

[Paul Moody's Left Boot]

I believe he’s good. Just not excellent and we need someone exceptional to get us promoted in a competitive league. ‘Good’ gets you into the top half and into the playoffs, tops. ‘Excellent’ gets you autos.

He’s had a pretty much unbroken spell of management roles since 2010. Five playoffs campaigns shows he’s good. One promotion shows he’s not excellent.

The worry is that he constantly tries to do things perfectly that he misses the essentials. We can play some stunning stuff at times and blitz teams when we’re in the mood but equally overlook the defence and any defensive minded midfielder options in January.

I like the bloke but it’s day like this that I question whether he has it in him to get us promoted.

But we are not an 'excellent' team in terms of finances in league one, so why would we be able to get an excellent manager? If you are judging excellent managers by those that get teams promoted, then those managers are in the minority (considering most teams do not get promoted in a given season). We could take a chance on an excellent manager that has done well in the lower leagues, but that does not mean they will do well with us (like the Cowleys for example).

We are not privy to our wage budget, but that would be the best indicator of what we should expect from Karl Robinson, and I imagine we have a good wage budget for league one, and we are in a good league position (hmm, I'm arguing against my own point, but maybe that means we have an average manager then?)

 

[Yellow There!]

Think 3-5-2 or 3-4-2-1 is just a sensible idea at this point:

Stevens
Long Moore McNally
Williams Bran McGuane Kane Seddon
Bodin/Baldock Taylor

Stevens
Long Moore McNally
Williams Bran McGuane Seddon
Whyte Bodin
Taylor

 

[pidge]

Think 3-5-2 or 3-4-2-1 is just a sensible idea at this point:

Stevens
Long Moore McNally
Williams Bran McGuane Kane Seddon
Bodin/Baldock Taylor

Stevens
Long Moore McNally
Williams Bran McGuane Seddon
Whyte Bodin
Taylor

i think 3 at the back is the way to go. 5 of 6 teams above us all use a similar system to that, the only team that doesn't play with 3 centre halves is Sunderland and they've hit a bit of a slump recently. We need to sure up the defence.

 

[Mad Dog]

He's no Chris Cadden or George Baldock. I know they play the other side but you get the idea.

I'd be happy if he was simply more Joe Skarz to be honest, Skarz wasn't an attacking full back, but he was defensively sound.

It's useless having an attacking full back or even a wing back, who can't defend.

 

[Mad Dog]

Watching some of it back this morning I thought we played pretty well.

We did play well, with the ball, going forwards, but our finishing, and decision making in the final third was poor, and our defending was of it's usual poor, naive standard.

Improve those two aspects of our game, and we're laughing.

 

[The Mighty Aldo]

I think we can perform defensively when we know we need to
I’m thinking the games v Rotherham at home and Wigan away
We defended like our lives depended on it players throwing themselves at the ball and essential blocks,that sort of defending just hasn’t been there against other teams.
Not sure if it’s because we feel we can outplay them and score more but I feel KR should get the players to watch those games sgain

 

[NorthWestOx]

Just seen the free extended highligts on iFollow.

That 3rd goal, what a mess.

It starts with a crap corner by Kane, no power, no speed, no whip, nothing, just floated into the keeper who takes an easy catch.
Everyone sprints back to take their positions, apart from Taylor who doesn't press the keeper and allows an easy roll out.
Why is Taylor even still on the pitch at 86 mins, when he played 90+ on Tuesday and Baldock is waiting to come on?

Their left back advances to the half way line, McGuane should press but is busy marking the centre circle, instead Kane stops getting back into position and turns to challenge.
As soon as he gets within 6 yards, they pass to the player in the area where Kane should be covering, who turns infield.

Now Brannagan, puts in a weak challenge, but the Bolton player just skips past him and McGuane again, and he plays it to their right back.

Sykes is now caught in 2 minds, does he go to press or cover their right wing?
By the time he has made his mind up, the ball has been played inside him for their winger to run on to.
Good ball to be fair.

Seddon who was covering their forward, now has to make up ground to press the winger, who would have been offside, had Moore, Long and McNally been looking along the line and pushed up. Before he can get there, their winger puts in a quality cross to the 6 yard box.

Could Stevens have caught it? Punched it out? Possibly, it wasn't that far away from him.
Should McNally have made up the ground to put it out? Again, maybe.
Should Moore bust a gut to get in front of their forward and clear it? He has just ran back from the corner.
He doesn't and they have a tap in, to finish of a good team move, even if we did help them along the way.

I'm not blaming one individual player, but I will say that Seddon is one of the least culpable for that goal.

I've highlighted the players to illustrate how they all contributed to a poor goal against from our point of view.

 

[werthersoriginal]

But we are not an 'excellent' team in terms of finances in league one, so why would we be able to get an excellent manager? If you are judging excellent managers by those that get teams promoted, then those managers are in the minority (considering most teams do not get promoted in a given season). We could take a chance on an excellent manager that has done well in the lower leagues, but that does not mean they will do well with us (like the Cowleys for example).

We are not privy to our wage budget, but that would be the best indicator of what we should expect from Karl Robinson, and I imagine we have a good wage budget for league one, and we are in a good league position (hmm, I'm arguing against my own point, but maybe that means we have an average manager then?)

I think ‘excellent’ managers that we could afford would be guys with little track record who turn out to be brilliant - like Nathan Jones at Luton. If you hired someone who was an unknown quantity they might turn out brilliant or they might not, it’s a risk. Even Ainsworth took a few years to get into his swing.

 

[dickwalton1964]

For all the analysis on here, one point is being overlooked. Bolton were a very good side, probably the best side to play at the Kassam since Plymouth beat us. They defended well as a team, with sometimes 7 dropping back in line, and attacked at pace with numbers. They were very well drilled and organised and I'd be amazed if they don't sneak into the playoffs themselves. Having said that, we restricted them to what, 4 maybe 5 chances? The three goals, a tame shout at Stevens in the second half, and one dragged wide? On the other hand, in a fairly equal first half we had the 2 goals, a couple of chances for Taylor and the one-on-one with Whyte where he should have scored. Second half we had a dozen chances, several really decent ones too. We certainly didn't play poorly, and on a good day we win that. But we can't keep conceding the goals that we do. Stevens seems a bit slower to get down than he was before his illness, and the defence is too slow to react to balls dropping in the box or on the edge. Moore seems to be caught on his heels a lot and the second yesterday was another example of a ball dropping to an opposition player in the box who can take a touch and shoot completely unchallenged. Kane wasn't great, but Gorrin doesn't stop any of their goals yesterday so I'm not sure that criticism is valid. And Taylor, Brannagan and others had chances that should have killed the game. Disappointing, work needed at both ends of the pitch, but hardly season ending or reason for the usual worry merchant's to be out in force!!

You‘re massively over hyping Bolton. Rotherham were miles better, Wigan looked better too, as did Sheffield Wednesday and perhaps even 10 man Portsmouth. Wycombe look much better than Bolton too. And these are all teams we’ve played relatively recently. I even thought Accrington, on i player, looked a match for Bolton. They, Bolton, will be wondering how the hell they‘ve got away with three points.

 

[CaptainOx]

Just seen the free extended highligts on iFollow.

That 3rd goal, what a mess.

It starts with a crap corner by Kane, no power, no speed, no whip, nothing, just floated into the keeper who takes an easy catch.
Everyone sprints back to take their positions, apart from Taylor who doesn't press the keeper and allows an easy roll out.
Why is Taylor even still on the pitch at 86 mins, when he played 90+ on Tuesday and Baldock is waiting to come on?

Their left back advances to the half way line, McGuane should press but is busy marking the centre circle, instead Kane stops getting back into position and turns to challenge.
As soon as he gets within 6 yards, they pass to the player in the area where Kane should be covering, who turns infield.

Now Brannagan, puts in a weak challenge, but the Bolton player just skips past him and McGuane again, and he plays it to their right back.

Sykes is now caught in 2 minds, does he go to press or cover their right wing?
By the time he has made his mind up, the ball has been played inside him for their winger to run on to.
Good ball to be fair.

Seddon who was covering their forward, now has to make up ground to press the winger, who would have been offside, had Moore, Long and McNally been looking along the line and pushed up. Before he can get there, their winger puts in a quality cross to the 6 yard box.

Could Stevens have caught it? Punched it out? Possibly, it wasn't that far away from him.
Should McNally have made up the ground to put it out? Again, maybe.
Should Moore bust a gut to get in front of their forward and clear it? He has just ran back from the corner.
He doesn't and they have a tap in, to finish of a good team move, even if we did help them along the way.

I'm not blaming one individual player, but I will say that Seddon is one of the least culpable for that goal.

I've highlighted the players to illustrate how they all contributed to a poor goal against from our point of view.

Great piece of analysis and a much more detailed version of what I touched on earlier.

We have so many attacking minded players, especially in midfield, that when the opposition side move the ball fairly quickly, our entire midfield is often bypassed, mainly due to the fact, they aren't in any form of defensive shape.

 

[BrockBuster]

Definitely looked leggy yesterday. Thought Kane had a bit of a stinker by his standards.

Was surprised how much we bypassed the midfield, Bolton pressed fairly well but not to the level where we had to go direct so often. Think the last few Taylor has really been feeding off scraps.

Saying that a couple of great goals from Bodin and another really entertaining game. Would rather have a side who entertain on the front foot and have a shot at the play-offs than a grinding 'functional' side pushing for automatic promotion.

 

[Oufcrealist]

Problem is Seddon, going forward he is great, once caught out up field he is exposed down that side, its not rocket science for KR to see this, leaving so much room for a quick break. Answer, Seddon goes forward some one drops back as cover, just not happening, this is where we are conceding goals.

This is where Gorrin was so good. He would drop into any of the defensive positions if any of them went forward, just instinct really but crucial to the way we play.