Away Match Day Thread 12/12/2023 L1: Reading v OUFC

[Bath Yellow]

84. First game.
Headington United v Chelmsford City,
Southern League ( Now Conference ) Won 2-0.
Boxing Day 1949. 75yrs ago

The last 6 games v Reading:

W: 1
L: 6

07 Nov 1999	Reading v Oxford United	W	1-2	League Division 2
07 Mar 2000	Oxford United v Reading	L	1-3	League Division 2
28 Oct 2000	Reading v Oxford United	L	4-3	League Division 2
17 Apr 2001	Oxford United v Reading	L	0-2	League Division 2
24 Sep 2003	Oxford United v Reading	L	1-3	League Cup
25 Aug 2004	Oxford United v Reading	L	0-2	League Cup

 

[uptheus]

We’re just too slow through the thirds when in transition and I don’t think a combination of Moore, Thorniley and McEachran lend well to this set-up, all too slow and ponderous on the ball, so by the time they find a pass the opposition have got back into shape etc. It’s a shame we rested Negru when we did as he was one who would bring the ball out from defence, but when he returned he’d lost that confidence unfortunately (still think he’s a great player though). I also don’t think McGuane is carrying the ball forward like he did at the beginning of the season, but has now taken on the role as ‘side show Bob’ By the way, these changes started when Manning was here (latter part), so I felt we’d started to regress then and continued dropping.

I also listened to Radio Oxford post match on BBC Sounds this morning and think I must have been at a different game because I certainly didn’t feel there was passion out there last night (Brannagan aside) or a great deal of desire. It certainly didn’t feel like a derby match against a team that we hadn’t played against in 20 years. And Rosie saying it was an improvement on Saturday, as well as that might have been it was against a very poor Reading team in my eyes so don’t think you can really compare. Put it this way, if we’d have lost 3-0 against Reading I’d be very concerned.

Let’s see what happens against Burton, but to be honest I’m not all that hopeful that we’ll play well or sort out the issues (injuries aside) which seem to have appeared e.g. no urgency/tempo through the thirds/in transition and no real threat in the final third. Just hoping we can find some kind of form again and create real chances

 

[Osleroad]

THORNLEY AND McEACHRAN

Hopefully, we've seen the last of the Thornley experiment. Brown in the middle makes a massive difference. I think Thornley is a top bloke (and player) but for what ever reason, it's not going for him at present. (Confidence maybe?)

Mcguane has been brilliant this season at the base of our midfield so why the change? I'm assuming it was to get his movement and passing further up the field while using McEachran at the back. Sadly, didn't work. If anything, we lost Mcguane for most of the match and McEachran wasn't a good enough replacement. In my opinion, McEachran is a squad player.

We're these 'experiments' Des Buckingham learning about his team and the improvement will come in due course? Strange to tinker with your teams 'strengths' before the weaknesses

I'd argue that a bit far from an experiment as Bennett is not still completely match fit but getting there so there doesn't seem an obvious alternative set up unless we recall Seddon and Findlay heaven forbid

 

[Golden Dr Otto]

On the one hand, sitting in 5th place after 20 games is much higher than I expected when last season ended. As many have pointed out, you can’t turn around the unbalanced squad KR built in just one transfer window. It’s not Des’s fault that we don’t have a striker worthy of the name. It’s also not Des’s fault that almost all our dynamic and speedy players are injured.

On the other hand, that was a truly awful match to watch this afternoon.

It’s so frustrating that no one other than Murphy and perhaps Goodrham was willing to take on a defender.

It’s so frustrating to see free kick after free kick taken short and inevitably end up being passed around our back four within a few seconds rather than pumped into their box.

It’s so disappointing to see the lack of urgency to get the ball back into play at every set piece in the second half when Reading were there for the taking.

Other than Murphy in the second half, it’s so frustrating to watch our team drive the ball deep down the sides into the opposing wings and then watch one of two things generally happen. We win a throw and work the ball back to our centre halves. Or, instead of trying to beat a defender or whip a ball in, the winger or Harris plays a safe 10 yard pass backwards and it inevitably ends up with our centre backs who pass it amongst the defenders for a while before Stevens or Brown clips a ball forwards that we have, at best, a 50-50 chance of winning. It seems lost on our team and coaching staff that we just had the ball in a promising position and instead of trying to create something, we choose again and again to take the “safe” option to keep and recycle the ball for a minute in order to, what, give ourselves a 50-50 chance of one of our players gathering the clipped ball forward from our defender and then being able to take the ball back to the same promising position that we declined to take advantage of a minute earlier.

Our movement of the ball is so slow that it’s so easy to defend against. The passing along the back line is only effective to create space if it is done at pace and if those receiving the ball in midfield can find space and then can turn or play a first time ball onto someone else. It seems 7 times out of 10 our midfielder just passes it straight back to the defender from whom he received it. It’s possession for possession’s sake, it’s incredibly dull to watch and 1 goal in 4 games (and one shot on target tonight) suggests it’s completely ineffective.

Despite all these criticisms, I have lots of patience for Des for the reasons outlined in the first paragraph but I just think some of these points are so basic and some simple changes could be made to increase our chances of scoring.

I would be fascinated to be a fly on the wall and hear the coaching staff break down that game tomorrow morning as to what they liked and didn’t like and then hear what, if anything, the players are instructed to do differently on Saturday.

Please keep posting. This perfectly sums up my feelings so you’ve saved me a long post. The lack of risk taking and optionality / : movement in the center of their half was really incredibly disappointing. Playing with that level of conservatism won’t even get us into the playoffs.

Also we saw the good and the bad of Harris. His work rate and ball recovery is superb. See Danny Hylton. His anticipation for key moments is lagging significantly for a lone striker. He simply doesn’t have the finishers instinct sadly much as I’m an advocate.

January window is clear:

A new forward and loan o donks out with a recall clause
Sign Edwards on a perm deal.
A new right back and send stevens home
Another attacking center mid and move henry on
Time to drop mills too for a bit. He refuses to take on his full back and is playing way too safe, he’s had the positivity drilled out of him somehow

 

[uptheus]

Does the squad really have no depth to it? How many more players can we expect?

I won’t go on to list all of the players for every position, and it’s clear to see we need a striker. We have a lot of injuries but I would say we have 2 players for each position?

We need a few new faces in January and move some of the deadwood on/ out on loan.

We lacked tenacity and bite, especially in the final third. It all just seemed a but tepid. Our attacking options have taken a hit with the loss of Rodrigues, Browne and Edwards but we looked so feeble once Mills came off.

Positives: Cam, Murphy, Beadle, Mills
Negatives: McEachran (embarrassing- slow, unfit, didn’t stop attacks), Thorniley

Agree with most of this, but have given up on Browne as he tends not to be available more than he is, he’s another one I’d offload, along with Henry. Two players who are probably our higher earners who produce very little return. I just hope we can get Edwards fit and keep him.

 

[uptheus]

I'd argue that a bit far from an experiment as Bennett is not still completely match fit but getting there so there doesn't seem an obvious alternative set up unless we recall Seddon and Findlay heaven forbid

God no!

 

[uptheus]

And Brown isn’t a left back, he’s a left centre half full stop!

 

[Golden Dr Otto]

Des said it wasn’t offside post match and he also identified that he doesn’t want us passing it sideways with no intent.

I was quite heartened by his post match comments, no excuses and called out the mind numbing sideways passes.

I blame Mac mcg and bran for lack of optionality and movement and willingness to drive. Mills for going back every time.

Defenders didn’t have good clean options . It was awful and they were also partly to blame for the insipid stuff

 

[Ox4Eva]

Too much tippy tappy stuff, not saying it's always got to be direct, but we make it easier for the opposition to press us.

 

[Wallop]

I listened to the Reading commentary on ifollow and it puts a very different perspective on the game. They were spot on about several things including saying their goal was offside and they were waiting for the flag.
They were amazed at how slow our build up was and how easy it was to defend against.
They remarked how all our forwards were lightweight and one dimensional “their front 5 are small and similar”.
With15 minutes to go we kept the ball at the back and it looked like we’d settled for a point.
The best thing they said was that Oxford have a good 5 a side team and pass it nicely without any goal threat.

Except it wasn’t offside as the stills published since the game have shown. when our defenders complained to the Lino, he correctly pointed at Brown as the man playing Smith onside.

 

[Followtheox1]

The fans I spoke to at the match / afterwards have been pretty consistent in their views of where we are at.

As far as the game is concerned:-

** Despite missing a few key players (for me RR and Leigh) we should have had enough to beat that poor Reading team.

** Whilst tidy enough McEachran slowed the game too muchh, and Thorniley looks a little off the pace.

** Murphy had theiir full back on toast in the 2nd half. We didn't get the ball too him enough. He was unlucky with that shot late on and you can't blame him for us not winnng last night, there was no one to finish off the chances he created.

** Our best back 4 at present is Stevens - Moore - Brown - Bennett.

** Cam Bran was outstanding, but RR is more suted to that role behind the striker. We mssed RR's cute passes to open things up

As far as more generally:-

** The injuries are killing us - put RR and Leigh in that side last night and we win. Edwards and Browne would also make a huge difference but we can't include them in our thinking, I'm really concerned about how many times they will be available for the remaining part of the season.

** We need a window to continue the rebuild, there should be players we can move on permanently / loan and that needs to happen as we need to increase the quality of our squad depth. That's entirely natural, we've only had one window to sort an almighty mess out.

** We'd be feeling more positive if the dropped points had happened more gradually over the season. The long unbeaten run has helped raise our expectations massively.

** It's far too early to criticise Des. If you want an arm waving / sweary manager then you are never going to like him. I liked the thinking behind his change of formation yesterday, he got it right re the off-side / meaningless sideways passing post match.

Despite trying to look on the positive / put a relaistic spin on things I can't remember leaving a ground so gutted as I felt last night. Reading were terrible, although Sam Smith would have been a good signing for us (never going to happen now). The upcoming games look OK on paper, we really haave got to grind out results until January; I hope the recruitment team have got some early January window signing lined up because we do need to freshen it up.

I thought our fans were decent last night, anyone expecting atmosphere of the 80s / 90s is going to be permanently disapointed from now on as football has changed. We need to continue to back the team because despite a wobble we are still in this. We've put a great run together already ths season, with a couple of new faces and a couple returning from injury there is no reason why we can't do the same again.

Agree Edwards, Browne and Leigh missing is a big issue for us. We currently only have Murphy who can beat a player out wide. Goodrham and Mills just don't seem to be able to go past people and instead cut back all of the time (yes it worked once for the goal). Mills looked better at doing this when coming on later in games earlier in the season. I know it is early days but I just can't see Goodrham as a winger, he just isn't quick enough. I think he will be a no 10.

 

[OX14]

Except it wasn’t offside as the stills published since the game have shown. when our defenders complained to the Lino, he correctly pointed at Brown as the man playing Smith onside.

What annoyed me was Moore and Thorniley just had a leisurely stroll back and let Smith score under no pressure. Didn't we have an incident at Cheltenham where the players stopped after the linesman raised his flag and then canceled it out straight away? Why have they not learnt since?

Like the Simpsons, players should of been made to write "Play to the Whistle" on a black board.

 

[Brahma]

I am struggling to really identify our style of play and philosophy.

I agree, last night, we were slow and ponderous. Reading were truly awful and as bad as we've seen this season; sadly we had one or two efforts on target and a Murphy rasper that missed the post late on. Other than that, we utterly dominated them and controlled the tempo and game (particularly the second half).

Yet.............I kept glancing at Des who was reacting to the away crowds groans and displeasure as Moore decided to play safe again to his keeper or his CB partner, whilst Des was telling them to speed up and get the ball to Tyler G (who actually was just a support player in our build ups). Tyler had one (maybe two) go's at his full back and was happy to sit on the touchline and keep possession moving sideways or back.

Maybe we just don't have the type of players needed - Murphy looks a revelation - but the rest, well summed up when Harris was hooked and we had nothing up top to run or press.

 

[yellowyellow]

There's a massive difference between depth and strength in depth, the latter gets you promoted, the former sees you doing what we are doing now.

Totally agree that it may not the as strong as we would like but we have 2 players in every position.
I just think any team towards the top would struggle if they missed their equivalent of players that we have out. We are still fielding a decent side, and have a few options on the bench (albeit didn’t get much from Goodrham, Bodin put himself about and Bennett looked pretty good)

We are utilising what we have at the moment and I think when those core players are back fit and we upgrade a few in January, we will hopefully be in pretty good shape.

Middle of the park and up front need the reinforcement’s. We cannot rely on McEachran and we all see our striker issues!

Plenty of games to go and hopefully this is our blip!

 

[PottersRightBoot]

When you’ve arguably got four of our best players out through injury . (Leigh, Rodrigues, Edwards , and yes Negru) , Long out, the perennial sick note that is Marcus Browne out, you’re going to be up against it.

It was hardly the end of the world last night.

Big picture is we would have all settled on being 5th by mid December, plus still in 2 of the cups.

3 very beatable opponents now. Come on
Des, points on the board time.

COYY.

 

[dickwalton1964]

McEacheran has such little attacking instinct in him, I really couldn't see why we needed him last night. He (I think it was him ?) had that moment in the second half when he side stepped two or three Reading players and found himself in space and moving forward but you could almost see the panic set in that he was out of his comfort zone and sure enough he either surrendered possession or made the wrong pass.

 

[maidenheadox]

To be fair to Mills he put in the cross in for the goal, and Harris should have buried another quality ball he put across the box, and he had a pretty decent penalty shout. I'd actually like to see him pop up in the box a bit more, maybe even score a few goals. He rarely gets very far from the touchline.

 

[pistonbroke]

Hoping for buckingham to fail, or waiting for Oxford to succeed?

Should have moved for former Birmingham City manager .

 

[pistonbroke]

Totally agree. Did not feel like a derby in any respect at all.
No urgency or passion from the team. Only Murphy looking to run at them or create anything.
Reading are VERY poor. We are mediocre at best. Mid table finish for us this season. We weren't great under Manning and looked like we had one way to play and were being found out when he jumped. Seen nothing since to change my mind on that.

We need to play Brown at CB, Thorniley isnt the player he was. He looks like a massive weakness at the back.
McEachran needs to go. Hes crap. Too slow to think and produce anything and always goes backwards. The number of times he couldve set Murphy off last night and just dawdled and took too long and the opportunity was gone.
Harris can leave too. Absolute donkey.

We were so boring to watch. Was no surprise we started booing our own team, in a supposed derby, as we just kept passing backwards. It was crap.

Chris boring Williams said in the interview with Buckingham it was a proper derby. B*****s. It was a damp squib of a game.

Very very disappointed. They were there for the taking, but it was them who really should've won with the chances they created (certainly in the first half down in front of us).

Lets get 2 strikers in, so we have someone to get on the end of Murphys bloody superb balls into the box.

On a positive:
What a revelation Super Murph is. Thats what 5 games in a row now where he's been MOTM or at least best outfield player by a country mile. And was very close to nicking it for us at the end last night.echran

Josh McEachran down at Ox City is a far better player .

 

[Joey]

A very poor performance against a pretty shocking Reading team. Most on here have pretty much nailed it but the lack of goalscorers in the team means we're always going to struggle. The signs have been there all season and plenty of people have mentioned it, for all the pointing at our goal tally we carry next to no threat and there are only a couple of players I'd back to get to double figures across a season in the whole squad.

I was really pleased when we got Des but he hasn't impressed so far. However he was dealt a pretty poor hand in that he took over a team I'd say was in a bit of a false position and had started to revert to a more realistic goal output. For all the good work done sorting Robinson's mess out in the summer there isn't much depth to the squad and Leigh and Rodrigues are absolutely massive misses in the current squad as well as Edwards/Browne (included as one player as I don't know how often they'll both be fit at the same time). Des said in his post match he wasn't happy about us passing the ball around for the sake of it but when you play Brown at left back and McEachran and McGuane in the middle and Brannagan out of position in the 10 you're always going to struggle.

I thought despite the goal Brown struggled first half defensively and most their chances came down there. Both he and us looked so much better when he moved to centre back, that's our best centre back partnership by far and I'd rather we kept them together as much as we could. Bennett also provided a fair bit more attacking impetus which we need. It's been done to death but Harris reminds me of Seddon last year, he desperately needs to be taken out of the firing line for his own good as well as the team. I saw someone mention his pass that lead to our goal last night as if that justifies his performance, that's always a sign that a player isn't up to it if you have to pick out a particular moment that he should be capable of doing and trying to say he's done well. If Mills hadn't put a good ball in and Brown not made a brilliant header no one would mention his 20 yard pass. What I would say about our lack of threat and our xG is it would look a lot better if we had a proper striker there. Last night Mills put a great ball over early on that he didn't read when he would have had a tap in (similar position to Bolton when he didn't read it), and early in the second half Stevens put a decent ball across that he completely missed with a header and McEachran played him through over the top, again he didn't seem sure what to do and tamely headed it back to the keeper when he could have gone round him, waited for it to come down or even try and head it across to Murphy. That's three occasions that would have an xG of zero but Matty Taylor of 2-4 years ago has at least one goal. I'm certain there are plenty of players who would have had something last night.

We absolutely have to start Bennett on Saturday to allow us to build attacks a bit better. Hopefully Rodrigues is back and we can play Brannagan in his proper position. Hopefully Murphy is ready to go again as he was excellent in the second half last night. That was the player I hoped we had signed and he's been our best attacker since Des has been here by a distance.

 

[Brahma]

Fully accepting we are missing Leigh, Browne, Reuben and Edwards but we do have players who should be creating more chances than the two/three we did last night, ESPECIALLY, when you have so much of the ball and dominance.

Reading look certain relegation candidates (although number 11 might keep them up on his own) and looked pathetic.