Home Match Day Thread 23/01/2024 L1: OUFC vs Barnsley

[Carpy]

Should be our toughest test of recent times this evening if the form table is to be believed

 

[werthersoriginal]

Touch philosophical about last night. Fine margins etc.

It feels a bit done to death to say what the problems are but we are lacking pace and our paciest players are made of glass. First half Barnsley had levels they could go to, whilst we were chasing shadows.
Second half, we figured out how to make more of what we have, but ultimately got the result we deserved.

Defensively I don't think we're too bad, the frustration is how we build attacks. Ciaron Brown is a solid CB, he is not an Andrea Pirlo quarterback. Asking him to start every attack and mix it up creatively seems desperate. There is a lack of options in front of him, and unfortunately we're not in a position to allow many/any players an off day (Ruben, McGuane, Stevens)

In terms of personnel, we could turn to very little on the bench to make a difference. Barnsley could replace two attackers with another two attackers and we'd have been happy to sign any of the 4.

Could we do something about it and bring in something different in the Transfer window - yes

Will we - no.

Our business model isn't to buy players who have had notable success at L1, it's to buy players who have achieved either at a lower level or haven't made the grade at Champs, and in both cases, need development. Big reward if it works, but also big risk and its not working out at the moment so you have to accept your fate a bit.

We started the season with five excellent wingers. Now only one of them isn’t injured, the slowest one. Given that they are our main means of attacking it’s not surprising we’re struggling, Bennett as ‘wing back’ is not going to trouble the opposition.

 

[Followtheox1]

I thought Leigh was shite, sorry. Rose tinted glasses mebtjinks.

Perhaps you were not wearing your glasses at all? In my view Leigh gave us an attacking width and drive we had not seen for a while down the left. He demonstrated an ability to keep the ball in tight situations when others couldn't. Three times in the second half he made space for himself down the left, only for Brannagan not to use him. He was visably annoyed and rightly so as that would have been three times when we would had got behind them in decent attacking positions. I do sit in the North stand. Maybe I get a different view of the game to you? If he had played like that on the other side of the pitch, maybe I would not have seen it as well.

 

[Yellow Submarine]

Brown's worst game of the season I'd say (which has been fantastic otherwise)

I think Barnsley had a clear game plan to cut out the short goal kick in to Moore and force Cumming to play out to Brown,

P**s poor, Des Ball at its worst.

He is clearly a level below Liam. As I have said before, I don’t understand his appointment, a dreadful cv, managing New Zealand and Indian teams ffs. Must have been cheap.

I think it's too easy to say Des is the cheap option. Are the owners doing things on the cheap when they're splashing out £400k on a new striker?

I think they genuinely thought Des was the best man for the job (out of those who were interested) possibly based on how well he presented his ideas to take the club forward - we know he speaks very well - and possibly put too much weight on the local connection.

I want Des to succeed but the jury is definitely still out.

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

Depressing weather followed by a depressing performance. Bran and Moore stood out but everyone else was below par.

 

[ECYellow]

Step back and have a look at the all important chances created , McGuane,Harris should have scored Stevens,Cam , Tyler either were a bit unlucky or just didn't catch it .
If we were Barnsley we would be coming away thinking that was a fortunate 3 points as they had one shot and no other chances .
Complete over reaction as always on here

So are we unlike other football teams then, whereby we have to have multiple half chances to be able to score a goal? What’s wrong with being clinical with the chances we do have?
Half chances created or not, the football in play was a pretty turgid watch. Even the most ardent rose tinted supporter will surely be able to see that? Barnsley were efficient, no more than that, this was not prime Wigan when they done us 7 at home a few years ago.

As for an overreaction, I’m not sure that is fair, is it? It is 1 point from 12 against teams in the top 6 and 14 points from 33 since Des came in - 1.27ppg. Can you hand on heart tell me that across pretty much a quarter of the season, the current trajectory suggests that supporters are overreacting?

Also, i note that a few are suggesting that Barnsley have a bigger squad and more resources than us. It seems a good time to remind everyone that our playing budget this season was quoted recently as being in the top 2 in this division. Are Barnsley 1st? I very very much doubt it. Let that sink in.

As for absentees, Barnsley were missing arguably their two most influential players last night - Styles (going to Sunderland) & Connell (unwell). Injuries and illness are not exclusive to us, and neither are the weather conditions.

 

[holdsteady]

We started the season with five excellent wingers. Now only one of them isn’t injured, the slowest one. Given that they are our main means of attacking it’s not surprising we’re struggling, Bennett as ‘wing back’ is not going to trouble the opposition.

Unfortunately 3 of those 5 wingers have the sort of appearance records where that's not a shock.

 

[Yellowmania]

The other thing that occurred to me was that as we’ve played in a poxy 3 sided stadium for the past 20 or so years we’d have some sort of tactics sorted out by now to help against the wind.
Bit like the slope at the Manor, maybe an advantage to us?

 

[behindthegoal]

Depressing weather followed by a depressing performance. Bran and Moore stood out but everyone else was below par.

I thought Gregly was excellent

 

[Yellow Submarine]

Maybe but I do get tired after every time we lose we suddenly become a mid table team at best. We are in the top 6 on merit due to our performances after 27 games. If we fall short then it will be down to not being good enough for the top 6 but I refuse to throw the towel in when we will still bring players in and have 19 games to play.

I'd say we're in the top 6 due to our first 15-odd games, not the subsequent games under Des. Our current league position is misleading. We're no longer playing like a top 6 side and are on a downward trajectory, I think that's clear to see.

Once we've got a couple more players in, and the injured players have returned, I'll be expecting to see more of a structured plan from Des because currently I don't know what DesBall looks like. But he's got the second half of the season to show what he's about and lay the foundations to kick on next season. We won't be going up this year, which feels like a wasted opportunity based on the start we had and relative poor standard of L1 this season, but we need to see positive signs for a sustained promotion challenge next season.

 

[behindthegoal]

How come it's all doom and gloom when we lose,??? negative negative negative.
Some look to deep into everything.
Derby lost to reading.... READING!!!..... it happens, it what makes football exciting
Last night both teams had their better spell with wind behind them.
We weren't on song, but, we'll win more games.

 

[PottersRightBoot]

Reckon the crowd slumped by c 1,250 because of weather and also of course I Follow. That’s quite a few quid. (Barnsley’s away following reminded me of Morecambe in numbers..)

How much does the club make from I Follow streaming, does anyone know?

 

[Eaststanding]

Maybe but I do get tired after every time we lose we suddenly become a mid table team at best. We are in the top 6 on merit due to our performances after 27 games. If we fall short then it will be down to not being good enough for the top 6 but I refuse to throw the towel in when we will still bring players in and have 19 games to play.

Hmm.. It wasn’t great last night, only Moore and Brannagan came out with any credit and we just didn’t deal with the conditions or Barnsley’s game management, they went to ground at any opportunity and took forever over free kicks and throw ins. The ref let them do it, and we played into it. Continuously. And pinging 40 yard balls to the right wing in the second half wasn’t going to work so why try it again and again?
But it wasn’t the complete s**t show that some on here are portraying. The players that didn’t perform need to take a look at themselves and get their s**t together for Saturday.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

I thought that was a sobering evening.

You have to acknowledge that the conditions were poor, with the wind being especially difficult of course, but...

We are slow, predictable and naive. None of those were down to the conditions. Barnsley started off with the silly passing it about at the back stuff but (after nearly gifting us a goal) thought better of it and gave up doing it. Not us though - oh no. We kept doing it - and some of the passes back to the keeper were appalling. He was constantly being put under pressure by his own players doing this. There was one incident in the first half when one of our players dibbled it backwards from the half way line through both Oxford and Barnsley players before putting in what looked like a cross across our own six yard box!

The marking and closing down outside our own box was terrible. The cross for the goal was made under no pressure at all, and was from a similar position to where they had played a through ball which (but for the striker being offside) would have been a goal - again no pressure applied.

The amount of stupid, naive fouls we gave away when chasing the game was unbelievable.

Players were constantly taking the easy option, passing it sideways or backwards five yards either back to the person who gave it to them in the first place or to someone standing stock still. We never got any sort of head of steam up until (possibly) just before the end.

Their number 7 was left almost completely alone on the right for much of the first half - he had the freedom of the pitch! Was he Long's man or Stevens'? I don't know and more importantly neither did either of them. Why the manager couldn't see that and sort it out I have no idea.

Barnsley were far from brilliant - they were not much better than us TBH. They did adapt their tactics to the conditions rather better but the awful ref should have cracked down on the ridiculous time wasting (he was terrible), and they did press our players quite well.

IMO Leigh was a breath of fresh air (although obviously not totally up to speed), Cumming dealt well with the conditions, Brannagan and Brown were their normal whole hearted selves. The rest were anonymous - Burey made little difference. Two more injuries won't help.

We can beat the teams at the bottom of the table but not those at the the upper end. I think we will end up in mid table, which is a shame.

 

[Brahma]

A very disappointing evening. A woeful performance.

That said, I like @PottersRightBoot don't think I am going to throw any more pelters at the 'team'. I will say this, we're on the 24th JAN and for those who wish to point out the three signings we've made (one was fundamental following Beadle, the other made his debut last night and the third, the big investment, is injured as we all know), this month strengthening the side has been pathetic. I appreciate that if we're in for loans then in KR-esque style, you hang your hats on the #1 targets and then end up with your fourth choice and that means end of the window stuff.

The lack of improvement in the team, with the exception of Cumming, in January, is truly criminal. That's why we're struggling throughout January and why we will continue to struggle until Reading (H). Really poor and I am at a loss to understand it.

 

[Northstandboy]

We must have some closet Barnsley fans to have voted Long as MOTM!!!

 

[ECYellow]

We must have some closet Barnsley fans to have voted Long as MOTM!!!

Either that; or someone of a protein variety

 

[OX14]

How come it's all doom and gloom when we lose,??? negative negative negative.
Some look to deep into everything.
Derby lost to reading.... READING!!!..... it happens, it what makes football exciting
Last night both teams had their better spell with wind behind them.
We weren't on song, but, we'll win more games.

It wasn't that we just lost, the performance was pathetic.

No urgency until the last 20 minutes.

 

[oufc1991]

It wasn't that we just lost, the performance was pathetic.

No urgency until the last 20 minutes.

I agree I can take losing that's not an issue but bloody hell show some fight show some desire actually attack I didn't see much of any of that last night what I saw was a team that didn't know what they were doing. The worrying thing is they had 10 days to work that out

 

[MustardYellow]

I thought that was a sobering evening.

You have to acknowledge that the conditions were poor, with the wind being especially difficult of course, but...

We are slow, predictable and naive. None of those were down to the conditions. Barnsley started off with the silly passing it about at the back stuff but (after nearly gifting us a goal) thought better of it and gave up doing it. Not us though - oh no. We kept doing it - and some of the passes back to the keeper were appalling. He was constantly being put under pressure by his own players doing this. There was one incident in the first half when one of our players dibbled it backwards from the half way line through both Oxford and Barnsley players before putting in what looked like a cross across our own six yard box!

The marking and closing down outside our own box was terrible. The cross for the goal was made under no pressure at all, and was from a similar position to where they had played a through ball which (but for the striker being offside) would have been a goal - again no pressure applied.

The amount of stupid, naive fouls we gave away when chasing the game was unbelievable.

Players were constantly taking the easy option, passing it sideways or backwards five yards either back to the person who gave it to them in the first place or to someone standing stock still. We never got any sort of head of steam up until (possibly) just before the end.

Their number 7 was left almost completely alone on the right for much of the first half - he had the freedom of the pitch! Was he Long's man or Stevens'? I don't know and more importantly neither did either of them. Why the manager couldn't see that and sort it out I have no idea.

Barnsley were far from brilliant - they were not much better than us TBH. They did adapt their tactics to the conditions rather better but the awful ref should have cracked down on the ridiculous time wasting (he was terrible), and they did press our players quite well.

IMO Leigh was a breath of fresh air (although obviously not totally up to speed), Cumming dealt well with the conditions, Brannagan and Brown were their normal whole hearted selves. The rest were anonymous - Burey made little difference. Two more injuries won't help.

We can beat the teams at the bottom of the table but not those at the the upper end. I think we will end up in mid table, which is a shame.

What makes all this worse is it felt like Barnsley didn't even get out of first gear, nevermind second!!!

 

[pommy80]

We must have some closet Barnsley fans to have voted Long as MOTM!!!

He was the only goal scorer to be fair.