Home Match Day Thread 19/09/20 L1 - OUFC v Sunderland

I suppose, theoretically speaking, it could be a record "attendance"?
Nothing to stop 15k Sunderland fans watching plus 7k of us..........

1-1 written all over it.
 
I've got a feeling that there will be a bit of a change in formation and tempo that will just click today. Football is a confidence game, and an early goal should help us settle and dictate how we want to play.

3-0. Taylor, Henry, McGuane
 
Mous, ruffs, gorrin, Hansen out; Taylor, Sykes, Clare struggling - gonna be a young bench....
...but I reckon they're going to play a big part this season.......and play it well
 
Eastwood
Clare Moore Atkinson Long
Mcguane Kelly Brannagan
Henry Taylor Sykes​

Or if the struggling player don’t make it....

Eastwood
Forde Moore Atkinson Long
Kelly Brannagan
Henry Hall Agyei
Osei​
 
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Eastwood
Forde long Moore Atkinson cooper
Brannagan Kelly McGuane
Agyei taylor
It will all click and we win 1-0
 
Going to be tough today with all the injuries, the defence looks fragile to me. I'd be more than happy with the usual 1-1 but think they'll be too strong for us unfortunately. Let's hope I'm wrong.

On a separate note, I'd love to know the viewing figures for the streams.
 
With Sunderland playing 3 centre backs and a fairly slow midfield, I can a 4-2-3-1 system working well.

Henry can hopefully develop a relationship on the right with Clare like he had with Cadden, using the full back to push their wing back/wide player back and giving Henry space to come inside.

On the left, Long and Cooper played well on Tuesday and we've seen every time we've played Sunderland that they just don't cope well with pace.

I suspect that Brannagan and McGuane will have more than enough to hold our midfield, but McGuane in particular needs to look to move the ball quicker and with more purpose.

Taylor will start up front, and we should then have someone able to play off him. Hall was great on Tuesday, but I'm not sure he's ready for another full game. Sykes can play there too, as can Agyei, but I'd be tempted to go with Osei Yaw as a wildcard. He's raw, but that unpredictability will make him a nightmare to play against and, as we saw with Watford, even a miss hit can sometimes create a clear opening for someone else.
 
With Sunderland playing 3 centre backs and a fairly slow midfield, I can a 4-2-3-1 system working well.

Henry can hopefully develop a relationship on the right with Clare like he had with Cadden, using the full back to push their wing back/wide player back and giving Henry space to come inside.

On the left, Long and Cooper played well on Tuesday and we've seen every time we've played Sunderland that they just don't cope well with pace.

I suspect that Brannagan and McGuane will have more than enough to hold our midfield, but McGuane in particular needs to look to move the ball quicker and with more purpose.

Taylor will start up front, and we should then have someone able to play off him. Hall was great on Tuesday, but I'm not sure he's ready for another full game. Sykes can play there too, as can Agyei, but I'd be tempted to go with Osei Yaw as a wildcard. He's raw, but that unpredictability will make him a nightmare to play against and, as we saw with Watford, even a miss hit can sometimes create a clear opening for someone else.

Pity Clare is another one who wont be available for this match.

Not very hopeful at all on this one. Just hope that a miracle will happen.
 
Not feeling particularly confident about this one. I'm not convinced that back four is experienced enough to keep out the wily old heads of the likes of Grigg, Graham and Maguire, especially without the shielding presence of Gorrin. Given Sunderland are almost guaranteed to score at least one, then, do we have the firepower to out-score them? I think, again due to the absence of Gorrin, we miss an element going forward when Bran can't push forward and dictate play a bit. He's going to have to play a bit deeper to shield the defence, so that, coupled with our well-documented lack of ruthlessness in front of goal so far from our attacking players, I think rather puts paid to the idea of us winning a straight shootout.

3-1 Sunderland
 
Not feeling particularly confident about this one. I'm not convinced that back four is experienced enough to keep out the wily old heads of the likes of Grigg, Graham and Maguire, especially without the shielding presence of Gorrin. Given Sunderland are almost guaranteed to score at least one, then, do we have the firepower to out-score them? I think, again due to the absence of Gorrin, we miss an element going forward when Bran can't push forward and dictate play a bit. He's going to have to play a bit deeper to shield the defence, so that, coupled with our well-documented lack of ruthlessness in front of goal so far from our attacking players, I think rather puts paid to the idea of us winning a straight shootout.

3-1 Sunderland

Have to agree, usually I go into games at least a little hopeful but with the current crop of injuries, obvious holes in our squad and the team not firing on all cylinders I'm not too expectant today.
 
With it being bare bones at the back, bare bones up front one game into the league season, like last week we will be up against it.
Sunderland would have been tough opponents with a full squad.
Oxford Utd 0 Sunderland 3
The state the squad is in will continue to be our achilles heal until new blood comes in. We don't have strength in depth, something that has to be sorted sooner rather than later.
 
Head says 0-2, heart says 2-1.
Like others, I am fearful that with our injuries and Sunderland’s Experienced team, this game has come at the wrong time for us.
 
There are photos on Twitter from Thursday training that had Taylor and Sykes in, I have no idea how likely to play but they were definitely there.
 
Of course, Sunderland could just not turn up as usual.
I predict a 0-2, we are still a work in progress combined with some injuries already.

Nonetheless COYY!
 
This injury malarkey every season is becoming a bloody nuisance especially this early into our season and unless things improve and players are back pronto it could define our season
 
Could be a lot worse though. Two players out for a month. The rest just seem like they won't be able to play 90mins. Not including Mous as that could be long term or Hanson as he wouldn't be in the squad.
 
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