Home Match Day Thread 16/02/2021 Papa John's Trophy SF - OUFC v Tranmere

[Junior_1]

The difference between Aygei and Taylor is that Taylor had a very poor night among many great ones whereas Aygei is consistent in his profligacy.

Still, give me Dan over Hall every time.

Would Agyei get 7 games in his favoured position to score?

The actual position he was signed to play..

Very doubtful!

 

[Victor1986]

Generally agree captainox - as long as it's not the match we look back on and say .."that's where it all went pear shaped!"
Matty missing the target completely from the spot will take him a while to get over.

 

[Concretebob]

Generally agree captainox - as long as it's not the match we look back on and say .."that's where it all went pear shaped!"
Matty missing the target completely from the spot will take him a while to get over.

He bags a goal Saturday and we win, it will all be forgotten about.

 

[Coffin dodger]

I think Grayson should be cut some slack it was his first start plus he also had an under-performing often absent Ruffels alongside him leading to him having to pick up two players

 

[Sheik djibouti]

We're at a crucial juncture right now.
We are stuttering a bit but still managing to continue our run (last night and Donny aside).

KR seems to have pretty much got what he wanted in the window and this is where I have a slight concern. As good a calibre of players as we have, I don't think KR knows his best line up and will be tinkering here and there to the extent that it may undo a lot of what he has managed to build going into our impressive run.
We had almost got to the point where the starting 11 was picking itself and the consistency showed....now though....not so sure.

I do hope I am wrong, but I think we need to work out/re-discover our best team, set up and impactful replacements pdq, otherwise I think we're in for a frustrating few weeks.

I am slightly concerned by Taylor's form too, but hopefully just a blip and hopefully we've got plenty of options weighing in with goals too. No doubt he is class at this level and I'm sure will come through.

I said at the close of the window, the team will take time to settle (again) and injuries to nailed on starters like Long and niggles to quality additions like Lee will make that a more drawn out process.
I will settle for winning ugly for a bit, but we need to find our stride again, which will rely on a bit of luck with injuries and a manager who resists the temptation to constantly tinker.

No doubt we have the talent in this squad to be right up there if we use it well.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Trying to look on the bright side, it certainly helped to clarify who ought not to be rotated into the team except in dire emergency - and quite possibly those we must replace before next season, whichever division we are in. I think we also have to consider that in what was largely an abysmal performance, we missed a pen, hit the post (and the bar?) and scorned a host of other chances - so we *could* have got away with it. Yet another slow start was concerning - and it lasted about an hour!

 

[Sheik djibouti]

Trying to look on the bright side, it certainly helped to clarify who ought not to be rotated into the team except in dire emergency - and quite possibly those we must replace before next season, whichever division we are in. I think we also have to consider that in what was largely an abysmal performance, we missed a pen, hit the post (and the bar?) and scorned a host of other chances - so we *could* have got away with it. Yet another slow start was concerning - and it lasted about an hour!

And if Osei Yaw was still with us, he'd be nailed on for a PJT goal[emoji6]

 

[Yellow There!]

Lots of ‘Agyei would have scored seven’ this morning and ‘why can’t we give him a run of games?’

The answer is, and I know this is an unpopular opinion, that he’s just not quite there yet. He’s already behind Taylor and now we’ve got an ex-championship striker in the mix who is improving. And then when he does get on, he tends to fluff his lines. If you look in the (coincidentally televised) Newcastle game we could have won it if he’d laid it off to Sykes for, not a tap in but not far off.

Maybe two in ten matches he does something genuinely game changing. With those odds, if it were up to Eaststanding he’d be scoring every game....

 

[Malc]

Lets not forget that Grayson was bought in as one for the future, not for now. But the injuries and the schedule of games has probably forced KR to bring him in.

 

[brassmonkey]

I think the time we were attacking, the ball came to Henry, he mis-controlled it straight to a Tranmere player, then chased the Tranmere player and put it out for a corner signaled the end of Henry's time here.

Re Taylor, he needs to work on his heading skills. I think Winnall would have put away some of the heading chances Taylor had yesterday.

 

[Oufcad30]

Lets not forget that Grayson was bought in as one for the future, not for now. But the injuries and the schedule of games has probably forced KR to bring him in.

I thought McNally was one for the future?

 

[Junior_1]

Lets not forget that Grayson was bought in as one for the future, not for now. But the injuries and the schedule of games has probably forced KR to bring him in.

He’s on a half season loan to cover across the back line. He’s needed every game hence why he’s on the bench as that cover. His performance last night and against Wigan was worrying.

 

[Malc]

I thought McNally was one for the future?

Yes he is. But Grayson is also a work in progress. Hopefully he will have learned from last night. I hope so as we are going to use him occasionally in the rest of the season.

 

[ttg17]

We're at a crucial juncture right now.
We are stuttering a bit but still managing to continue our run (last night and Donny aside).

KR seems to have pretty much got what he wanted in the window and this is where I have a slight concern. As good a calibre of players as we have, I don't think KR knows his best line up and will be tinkering here and there to the extent that it may undo a lot of what he has managed to build going into our impressive run.
We had almost got to the point where the starting 11 was picking itself and the consistency showed....now though....not so sure.

I do hope I am wrong, but I think we need to work out/re-discover our best team, set up and impactful replacements pdq, otherwise I think we're in for a frustrating few weeks.

I am slightly concerned by Taylor's form too, but hopefully just a blip and hopefully we've got plenty of options weighing in with goals too. No doubt he is class at this level and I'm sure will come through.

I said at the close of the window, the team will take time to settle (again) and injuries to nailed on starters like Long and niggles to quality additions like Lee will make that a more drawn out process.
I will settle for winning ugly for a bit, but we need to find our stride again, which will rely on a bit of luck with injuries and a manager who resists the temptation to constantly tinker.

No doubt we have the talent in this squad to be right up there if we use it well.

There's a difference between 'tinkering' and sensibly rotating, though. In this of all seasons, especially in the next few weeks, we simply won't be able to start with the same starting XI each week. I agree that we probably don't know our best XI, especially given we haven't seen how a midfield of CB and MM together works, but, even if we did, we would rarely be able to realistically start with it.

And also, again, this of all seasons with the five subs, it's very much a squad game. One of my favourite things about KR is his ability to identify where we're having issues and bring on players / change shape to rectify it. The five subs gives him so much scope to do this - if you look at the Wigan game, for example, he made two attacking subs (bringing on Shodipo and Lee for Gorrin and Kelly) and then, after we went ahead, was able to make two defensive subs to shore us up (Grayson and Hanson for Sykes and Barker). In usual circumstances, doing the first would be absolute suicide - abandoning the midfield with a quarter of the game still to go would leave you hopelessly exposed. But because of current conditions, it gives him a bit more freedom to 'tinker'.

I guess the point I'm making is that it almost doesn't matter that we don't know what our specific strongest XI is. What is important is that we have a squad and a manager that are capable of adapting to the situation if needs be.

 

[unification]

Lets not forget that Grayson was bought in as one for the future, not for now. But the injuries and the schedule of games has probably forced KR to bring him in.

As the poster says above, McNally is the youngster. He needs bringing up to speed and then loaning out as KR has said.

Grayson has been brought in to cover a few positions so was a logical loan choice. The downside is that he hasn’t had much senior football and it is showing. I thought he was outfoxed a few times last night and could have given away a penalty. Ruffels, the senior partner, had a stinking first half too which didn’t make his task any easier.

No one should be writing Grayson off yet. I hope he learns from his 45 minutes though that this is a step up from U23s football for Blackburn.

 

[Oufcad30]

Yes he is. But Grayson is also a work in progress. Hopefully he will have learned from last night. I hope so as we are going to use him occasionally in the rest of the season.

I only had Rad Ox last night(finished work at ko) i am not writing him off yet.
As you say hopefully he learns from it

 

[Berliner]

And if Osei Yaw was still with us, he'd be nailed on for a PJT goal[emoji6]

No joke, but I firmly believe Osei would have been like a pig in sh*t yesterday. The Hanson chance and the cutback where Hall was jogging into the box are exactly the situations he thrives on. Maybe he would have put one of Taylor's six chances away too, you'd certainly hope that from a striker.

 

[OxfordYankee]

Would Agyei get 7 games in his favoured position to score?

The actual position he was signed to play..

Very doubtful!

No. Because he shown that that is the norm, Whereas Taylor has shown that it isn’t.

 

[m]

There's a difference between 'tinkering' and sensibly rotating, though. In this of all seasons, especially in the next few weeks, we simply won't be able to start with the same starting XI each week. I agree that we probably don't know our best XI, especially given we haven't seen how a midfield of CB and MM together works, but, even if we did, we would rarely be able to realistically start with it.

And also, again, this of all seasons with the five subs, it's very much a squad game. One of my favourite things about KR is his ability to identify where we're having issues and bring on players / change shape to rectify it. The five subs gives him so much scope to do this - if you look at the Wigan game, for example, he made two attacking subs (bringing on Shodipo and Lee for Gorrin and Kelly) and then, after we went ahead, was able to make two defensive subs to shore us up (Grayson and Hanson for Sykes and Barker). In usual circumstances, doing the first would be absolute suicide - abandoning the midfield with a quarter of the game still to go would leave you hopelessly exposed. But because of current conditions, it gives him a bit more freedom to 'tinker'.

I guess the point I'm making is that it almost doesn't matter that we don't know what our specific strongest XI is. What is important is that we have a squad and a manager that are capable of adapting to the situation if needs be.

Agreed.

I'd maybe even go as far as to say that we don't necessarily have a strongest XI as such. Barker, Shodipo and even Agyei can almost win you games by themselves at times. But you probably wouldn't want to start with all 3. And you know each will be a bit off the pace from time to time.

 

[Sheik djibouti]

Agreed.

I'd maybe even go as far as to say that we don't necessarily have a strongest XI as such. Barker, Shodipo and even Agyei can almost win you games by themselves at times. But you probably wouldn't want to start with all 3. And you know each will be a bit off the pace from time to time.

Yep.. fair points and I do agree about the uniqueness of this season in terms of games coming thick and fast and having 5 subs each game. It is more than ever a squad game. I just got the feeling that we were at our best when the team was almost picking itself. That said, players can't last at that intensity twice a week.

There are examples where KR has used the 5 wisely to change our approach, but there's also a couple of examples of triple substitutions that have completely taken the wind out of our sails.

I guess all told, we are in a much stronger position to cope with playing twice a week and using 5 subs effectively, than we were about 3 weeks ago!