Home Match Day Thread 17/09/2022 - L1: OUFC v MK Dons

[Jaboysmith]

Bate looked promising when he came on at least

 

[yellowbow]

kr's ramblings and diatribe for today

cant keep missing all the chances we are creating
players gave everything running around in both halves
I don't know...…..
Complains about the referee walking too slow
I have to stand here as a shield as a manager
Am I nervous....no
I know what we need to do
A lot of good things going on
Asked if he was a fan how would he feel? "I would feel unlucky, when players come back, bla bla"
Players have done everything asked of them
These players are playing well
MK are rejoicing being on the same points as us, shows how expectations are different
We play a system that we didn't recruit for.
I could tell you about missing players what we could do....but I am here to protect my players
I want to talk to you, but we are in pain
Players came in with injuries, but hindsight is a great thing
The next two weeks are going to hurt.
if we had a game on Tuesday I would be speaking to you on the front foot.
The situation isn't hard, being a manager is being hard.
(We will be a different side when the players come back, repeated countless times)

Asked if he was going to have to report back to the board - "We have an open relationship with each other."

God I wish there was a f***ing ignore button for Karl Robinson

 

[OX14]

So did I !!

At least what I was doing was far less frustrating and annoying !

I've actually have been to all the home games this season, but I'm contemplating not going to the Wycombe game. Don't know if can take our slow, boring play combined with Wycombe's time wasting and play acting. I'm sure I can find a wall in the house to paint instead.

 

[Horse]

The Eastwood situation needs looking at as it whiffs. He’s a business partner in a goalkeeper academy with Wayne Brown. It wouldn’t be good for that business if Eastwood wasn’t playing so Brown has a vested interest.

 

[Daviddidcotexile]

I have just watched the extended highlights. If those were the best moments then I am so glad to have missed the game. It was so bad they even had to resort to showing us committing a foul when MK tried to walk the ball from the back. What has become of us. We are doomed! Very bleak. Joseph looked totally out of his depth.

 

[Cotswolds Cowboy]

Well said
Let’s not forget three years of wonderful attacking football that brought the fans in
I think things started to go wrong after the Blackpool game.
KR alluded to the sort of players we needed but didn’t bring them in. We got a bit lucky because we manage to win because we were still scoring goals but it was obvious we needed to improve defensively
We were top 5 in January and just two good defenders would have seen us comfortably into the playoffs but our goals deserted us and we were always going to concede
We ran out of steam and looked pretty average. I don’t know why but the last two transfer windows have been shocking. It’s as if the players we were after don’t want to come here and after hearing we have an improved budget
Something has gone badly wrong this callender year and I would love to know is it all KR’s fault or is he the one having to face the music

Lower league football is a small world
The first thing a player does if he's approached about a transfer is to check with old mates who are already with or have recently played for the club in question to ask 'what's it like?'

 

[Yellowmania]

In two weeks time the excuses disappear. With players back from injury he has nowhere to go - if performances don’t improve folk will be increasingly restless.

I think we’ve all had enough of ‘I have clarity’, ‘I only have kids on the bench’, ‘the players run around and care’ and yesterday, incredibly ‘we had to play a different way because Moore adds so much on the ball’ when we spent 90mins moving it in a horseshoe across the back 4/5 (whatever it was!).

I hope there’s some pressure coming from above, he needs to be answerable to someone. Even from a pure coaching perspective, there’s no progress from last season. No team identity, I don’t have a clue what we are trying…we are seemingly coasting to until others return. Additionally, no players have progressed aside from McGuane (even he just shuttled the ball wide yesterday).

With regard to the first point I think he’ll stretch that out somewhat longer with “we need to get those players back to match fitness, they’ve been out for xx months”. Think we’ll hear that quite often….

 

[WuTang]

With regard to the first point I think he’ll stretch that out somewhat longer with “we need to get those players back to match fitness, they’ve been out for xx months”. Think we’ll hear that quite often….

And you just know, through desperation, they will be rushed back before they are ready (if he's still in the job).

He did it Browne last season (Pompey), he's already done it with Murphy this season (Derby). I have no doubt he'll rush these players back before they're fully fit because he's under so much pressure.

 

[OX14]

And you just know, through desperation, they will be rushed back before they are ready (if he's still in the job).

He did it Browne last season (Pompey), he's already done it with Murphy this season (Derby). I have no doubt he'll rush these players back before they're fully fit because he's under so much pressure.

This is a worry. Not for Karl but whoever replaces him as manager!

 

[PottersRightBoot]

Said on Tuesday that it was far too early to draw conclusions.

However yesterday was abysmal.

I’d say on that showing - against very ropey opponents - that Robbo’s lost the dressing room. No wonder he’s defending them so stoutly in public.

He’s done a lot for Oxford United, given us some great moments and he’s still got a lot of credit with right thinking supporters - no real booing was there ?

But it’s beginning to feel end of days. Very sad.

Question remains, who’s making the big calls at the club, (suspect it’s Robbo so don’t expect sudden action) ; does anyone really care from 8000 miles away?

Bottom line is we’ve not replaced the excellent Sykes, Williams, McNally Kane and Whyte.

Plus the wrong keeper has gone out on loan. I don’t want Eastwood starting games any more. He’s not good enough.

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

In most of the games that I’ve seen this season we’ve tend to get over run in midfield so I can’t believe that Gorrin isn’t getting a game. Surely you would bring him in to sit in front of the back four with McGuane stepping forward.

 

[Patch1262]

Would do what ever it takes to get Darren Ferguson! He would take us to the next level!

 

[windmill]

Glad I didn't stay up to 2am to watch it. Robinson certainly looks out of ideas. He has no idea what formation to use. His last excuse will be put to the test once our injured plays come back. Unfortunately however the games ahead only get tougher.

To get only 10 points with the fixtures we had to start the season is nothing more than diabolical. To add insult to injury, is continually seeing him pick Eastwood between the sticks. Might be one of the worst transfer decisions he has made letting Stevens go ahead of him.

Stevens was nothing special last season. Got beaten so many times from long range. What did Easty do wrong yesterday? Continually brought into play by our negative tactics. Look elsewhere if you want to blame someone.

 

[The mighty Aldo]

Lower league football is a small world
The first thing a player does if he's approached about a transfer is to check with old mates who are already with or have recently played for the club in question to ask 'what's it like?'

Must have all been on the phone to Sykes then
In all honesty players do speak well of the club in general whilst here and when they leave

 

[Osei Yaw]

Said on Tuesday that it was far too early to draw conclusions.

However yesterday was abysmal.

I’d say on that showing - against very ropey opponents - that Robbo’s lost the dressing room. No wonder he’s defending them so stoutly in public.

He’s done a lot for Oxford United, given us some great moments and he’s still got a lot of credit with right thinking supporters - no real booing was there ?

But it’s beginning to feel end of days. Very sad.

Question remains, who’s making the big calls at the club, (suspect it’s Robbo so don’t expect sudden action) ; does anyone really care from 8000 miles away?

Bottom line is we’ve not replaced the excellent Sykes, Williams, McNally Kane and Whyte.

Plus the wrong keeper has gone out on loan. I don’t want Eastwood starting games any more. He’s not good enough.

Problem is that Stevens wasn't good enough last season either, and at the stage he is in in his career, Eastwood was never going to go on loan. If Stevens was here and playing then I don't think we're going to be any better off than we are with Eastwood because the rest of the side is still a shambles. We recruited a new keeper but don't want to play him, which just sums up the nonsense of our summer transfer window.

 

[Twiggy85]

After the game yesterday Karl said that we are playing a formation we didn’t recruit for but due to the circumstance we are playing.
Normally this makes sense - but i don’t understand how playing that formation gets the best out of the xi put on the pitch. It doesn’t suit any of the players available either, so why are we playing it.
Let’s not question why we didn’t recruit for a system we were using effectively at the end of last season!

 

[horseman]

Modern Day Footballers eh

We have at least 2 players (i wont mention names) whose thought process is to throw themselves to the floor. Yesterday one of them glided past a player and with acres ahead of him just threw himself over buying a free kick.

Mark Sykes got slated by many on here but at least in similar circumstances he continued to run into the space to try create something.

Likewise another modern bugbear of mine is over doing ball retention, now i'm all for keeping the ball at the right moments, but why oh why 10-15 sideways / backwards passes before lumping itforward anyway. !!!

One other thing regarding 2 of our defenders, I think people need to put the Dickie,Atkinson,Mcnally style of play out of their heads, Findlay and Brown are not ball players they are Defenders like the old school no nonsense type.

Brown is a centre Half and arguably not far behind Mcguane in performance this season but because we are so unbalanced as a squad, in order to drop Seddon he (Brown) was moved to Wing Back and our Goalkeeper bollocked and then told to start kicking it skywards his way for him to try to head it forward.

Also did anyone else notice at Plymouth that despite being in space in their final 3rd, nobody was passing to him (Seddon).

 

[Yellow River]

Said on Tuesday that it was far too early to draw conclusions.

However yesterday was abysmal.

I’d say on that showing - against very ropey opponents - that Robbo’s lost the dressing room. No wonder he’s defending them so stoutly in public.

He’s done a lot for Oxford United, given us some great moments and he’s still got a lot of credit with right thinking supporters - no real booing was there ?

But it’s beginning to feel end of days. Very sad.

Question remains, who’s making the big calls at the club, (suspect it’s Robbo so don’t expect sudden action) ; does anyone really care from 8000 miles away?

Bottom line is we’ve not replaced the excellent Sykes, Williams, McNally Kane and Whyte.

Plus the wrong keeper has gone out on loan. I don’t want Eastwood starting games any more. He’s not good enough.

Good, honest fair post.

MK were ropey opponents as were Burton. Cambridge and Lincoln won’t be challenging for promotion either come the end of the season. Our performances at home matches alone so far this season have been worryingly poor.

I don’t know if he’s lost the dressing room or not, but the players must be very frustrated to be playing in a side with wingbacks who are completely ill suited to the role, that impacts the whole team and other individual performances.

I’ve enjoyed the football played under Robinson, we’ve seen some talented footballers and it’s been entertaining. So thank you for that Robbo, but recruitment and team selection and performance since January has been all over the place.

Whether it’s the departures from the academy, mis- promotion of season tickets, scrabbling around for a shirt sponsor, player recruitment, etc, etc, the structure, responsibilities, and chain of command at the football is clearly not right at the football club.

Sykes, Williams, McNally Kane and Whyte would have made a huge difference to yesterday’s side and performance, as well as all the other early season fixtures.

Stevens and McGinty are the future, sadly Eastwood is not. He looks extremely uncomfortable playing the sweeper role. If we’re asking our keeper to play a sweeping role then Stevens is much better suited to it than Eastwood.
Robinson made a similar mistake at MK, believe or not he had a surplus of rightback and deemed that George Baldock was the weakest of the bunch, Appleton brought him to Oxford and the rest is history…

 

[Upthecowboys]

In most of the games that I’ve seen this season we’ve tend to get over run in midfield so I can’t believe that Gorrin isn’t getting a game. Surely you would bring him in to sit in front of the back four with McGuane stepping forward.

Only explanation for Gorrin is that he is not fit to play.

Despite McGuane having a great season to date, a fit Gorrin would walk into the team in our current situation.

Many on this forum said a new signing of a defensive midfielder should have been a priority, it was blatantly obvious.

McGuane playing 20 yards forward would make a difference.

Gorrin signed a 1 year deal, why was that? Probably because there were doubts around his return from injury, and probably because no other club offered anything better. He’s been a good player for us, but much like Eastwood he should have moved on.

 

[PottersRightBoot]

Stevens was nothing special last season. Got beaten so many times from long range. What did Easty do wrong yesterday? Continually brought into play by our negative tactics. Look elsewhere if you want to blame someone.

Ask Vale supporters what they think about Stevens. It’s good that we only loaned him out at least.