Home Match Day Thread 23/11/2024 - Championship: Oxford United vs Middlesbrough

[Northstandboy]

Rate The Players

 

[derek]

It could be argued that 1 win in 11 isn’t a knee jerk reaction.

I do think some people need to get away from this feeling of just being happy to be in the league, mentality. We are here on merit and we done bloody well to earn that right, under Des’s leadership.

We must grasp the opportunity to stay at the level and shipping 6 goals at home, will do nothing to aid our cause.

On a side note, talk of O’Donkor or Negru coming back in during the window, to add squad depth is laughable. Neither were at the level consistently to start games in League 1 and those that were are now finding it increasingly difficult to be good enough to get points on the board.

Regardless of whether you think it's a knee jerk reaction or not, the executives will not be thinking of replacing the manager, for the reasons I outlined.

 

[billyturleyscurlywurly]

Just watched the goals back.

1st goal: Elliott Moore, brain dead decision.

2nd goal: Sam Long commits and leaves a huge gap and really Cumming should save the shot as it’s not right in the corner.

3rd goal: Poor by Brannagan. Completely misses a tackle and positioning of back 3 all over the place.

4th goal: Poor by Sam Long again missing a 50/50 tackle.

5th goal: Poor by Greg Leigh.

 

[Followtheox1]

Just watched the goals back.

1st goal: Elliott Moore, brain dead decision.

2nd goal: Sam Long commits and leaves a huge gap and really Cumming should save the shot as it’s not right in the corner.

3rd goal: Poor by Brannagan. Completely misses a tackle and positioning of back 3 all over the place.

4th goal: Poor by Sam Long again missing a 50/50 tackle.

5th goal: Poor by Greg Leigh.

Clinton Baptiste would say: 'I'm getting the word...poor'.

 

[OnlyOneUnited]

Not sure if anyone's mentioned it in this thread yet, I've only just had the stomach to watch the highlights and catch up here, but the commentator for the third goal says "....but the replay shows that it was the right decision" about the offside, but when they pause the image to show his run, the Middlesbrough player hasn't actually played the pass! The split second later when he actually does play the ball, he is offside (though it is much closer than I thought it was yesterday).

 

[Golden Dr Otto]

slight change of pace, anyone know who the American bloke at half time was? Seemed like a character.

Some fan who came all the way from Texas to see the game.

It wasn’t me

I’ll be there for Cardiff and Plymouth though

 

[TailsWeWin]

Yes we would but we might spend in January on a fit and ready to striker who might score enough goals to keep us in the championship

Are you REALLY still clinging on to that hope, Bazzer?!!

 

[Bigdwoolly]

I've said elsewhere we've been one of the most successful clubs over the last 15 years and part of that might be because we don't sack managers all the time. I think only Clotet and Robinson have been sacked . A lot of the other managers could have been sacked early (Appleton I definitely wanted rid of) but weren't. Most on this forum wanted Buckingham gone after Bolton, which was a reasonable point of view.

Buckingham has shown over his career the ability to develop and improve, unless the club think that the league one play-off win was his absolute ceiling then they should stick with him. On a strategic level, getting a new manager in a month before the January window and then throwing a lot of money at new players might work, but I think that's a bigger risk than going with the Waldron/Buckingham strategy.

Everyone accepted there'd be tough times this season, so as fans we need to keep our big boy pants on and not panic at the first bad run of form.

As others have said, that back 3 is too slow. Our defensive pace as such is in the full backs but as wing backs they were often too far forward to help out. I hope we return (think we'll have to without Moore for Sheff Utd at least) to a back 4 from here on in. There's some pace with Leigh/Kioso/Ter Aveest which provides cover.

 

[bazzer9461]

Are you REALLY still clinging on to that hope, Bazzer?!!

Yes I am and so are a lot of others

 

[Bigdwoolly]

Yes I am and so are a lot of others

Our strikers have between them (we only play 1 striker) have got 8 goals in 16 games. If we're going to spend big, I'd go for some wide forwards/wingers as they've not made the contributions we'd hope (mainly because they're all injured).

 

[Niconamur]

Just watched the goals back.

1st goal: Elliott Moore, brain dead decision.

2nd goal: Sam Long commits and leaves a huge gap and really Cumming should save the shot as it’s not right in the corner.

3rd goal: Poor by Brannagan. Completely misses a tackle and positioning of back 3 all over the place.

4th goal: Poor by Sam Long again missing a 50/50 tackle.

5th goal: Poor by Greg Leigh.

And don't forget that Long cancelled the offside...So the striker was well onside....

He has not the level for the Championship ( a lot of bad passes, losts the majority of his duels,..).

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

I watched the Plymouth Watford game and Watford were miles better but Plymouth took the two half chances (barely even that) because Andre Gray was clinical on both occasion.

Yeap, Andre Gray's stats are excellent - Goals per Shots on Target, Goals vs xG. He's right up there amongst the most ruthless Championship centre forwards this season - the likes of Tommy Conway, Tyrese Campbell, Nahki Wells - and only just behind *checks notes* Dane Scarlett... (yeap).

Granted, some of you don't like 'stats' - so just look again at all four of Scarlett's goals. All instinctive, all tricky, all classy. Now imagine if we gave him 90 minutes every week and even, when possible, gave him a bit more freedom to get into advanced positions...

We might already have the clinical finisher we need to keep us up?

 

[Marked Ox]

It wasn’t me

I’ll be there for Cardiff and Plymouth though

I assume you have your walk around the pitch getting applause all planned out?

 

[Mad Dog]

People need to chill out and get a bit of perspective!

We always knew we’d get the occasional tonking this season, and Saturday was just one of those days, when we got a slap from one of the big boys!

But all this talk of Des being sacked is utterly ludicrous!

He’s done an amazing job getting us to this point, and we’ve been very unlucky with so many injuries to so many key players all at once.

But Des is doing a good job, in bloody tough conditions, and in one of the toughest leagues in football.

How the hell would sacking him now benefit us in any way, it would just derail everything. This is his first full season, and he needs continued support from everyone and backing in the windows.

We’re only at the start of our journey with Des, and like I’ve said it before, Rome wasn’t built in a day, it’s gonna take time to build an entire squad capable of really competing at this level, that much is becoming clearer and clearer as we get further into the season. It’s a seriously tough league.

We did what we could over the summer, and will look to strengthen again in January, with a view to staying up this season, and then strengthening again over the summer.

In the meantime, we’re gonna have to accept there will be days like Saturday, when we’ll have to dust ourselves off and go again.

I’m already looking forward to tomorrow, even though we could end up with another bloody nose, but we know these types of games would happen, just a shame they had to come along back to back so quickly!

We’ll have to take these kinds of games on the chin, stand up, dust ourselves off and keep going.

As for some of the unpleasantness that’s been going around on here, this isn’t twitter or Facebook, get a grip yeah?

 

[Basham Wonderland]

People need to chill out and get a bit of perspective!

We always knew we’d get the occasional tonking this season, and Saturday was just one of those days, when we got a slap from one of the big boys!

But all this talk of Des being sacked is utterly ludicrous!

He’s done an amazing job getting us to this point, and we’ve been very unlucky with so many injuries to so many key players all at once.

But Des is doing a good job, in bloody tough conditions, and in one of the toughest leagues in football.

How the hell would sacking him now benefit us in any way, it would just derail everything. This is his first full season, and he needs continued support from everyone and backing in the windows.

We’re only at the start of our journey with Des, and like I’ve said it before, Rome wasn’t built in a day, it’s gonna take time to build an entire squad capable of really competing at this level, that much is becoming clearer and clearer as we get further into the season. It’s a seriously tough league.

We did what we could over the summer, and will look to strengthen again in January, with a view to staying up this season, and then strengthening again over the summer.

In the meantime, we’re gonna have to accept there will be days like Saturday, when we’ll have to dust ourselves off and go again.

I’m already looking forward to tomorrow, even though we could end up with another bloody nose, but we know these types of games would happen, just a shame they had to come along back to back so quickly!

We’ll have to take these kinds of games on the chin, stand up, dust ourselves off and keep going.

As for some of the unpleasantness that’s been going around on here, this isn’t twitter or Facebook, get a grip yeah?

And just to add to this, if we get a new manager and they suddenly propel us up the league against all odds, they'll just disappear before the end of the season to join a competitor. It would be Manning 2.0.

Des had a rocky start last season but he's working well with the tools he has. Players now coming back from injury. If he can rotate Harris out of the team, and put the focus on Scarlett, I think we'll be picking up points again soon.

What did people actually expect this season?

 

[Morris Oxford]

I’m a fully paid up member of the Des fan club, I think the vast majority of other supporters are too. We all desperately want him to succeed.

However this is a forum where ideas and opinions are expressed. To suggest Des could be under pressure due to poor results from the people or person who writes the cheques might be true, it might not be true, but when you look at the way the football world works and the length of time managers are in position for, it’s not an outrageous opinion to hold.

Personally I’d stick with him, he’s got a lot of credit in the bank.

 

[werthersoriginal]

And just to add to this, if we get a new manager and they suddenly propel us up the league against all odds, they'll just disappear before the end of the season to join a competitor. It would be Manning 2.0.

Des had a rocky start last season but he's working well with the tools he has. Players now coming back from injury. If he can rotate Harris out of the team, and put the focus on Scarlett, I think we'll be picking up points again soon.

What did people actually expect this season?

We're where I expected us to be, it maybe feels a bit underwhelming because we've started to struggle after a decent start, and Des suddenly looks less sure-footed.

 

[Isle of Wight Yellow]

A lot of people on here (apart from the fantasists who thought we could finish in the playoffs) said that if Oxford finished just outside of the relegation places on goal difference this season, then they’d be happy. I was one of them.

Well I hate to break it to you, but if you finish just outside of the relegation positions, 20th or 21st, then you’re going to lose a lot of games over the course of the season. A hell of a lot. Plymouth and Blackburn lost 21 last season. Sheffield Wednesday lost 23. We’re going to lose games.

Don’t get me wrong, if we’d had a start like
QPR this season, only winning once, then it would be a different conversation. Or if we’d lost all the 7 games that we have done so far 6-0, rather than being in all but two of them, like we have done. Or if we go on to lose the next 5, 10 games heavily then eventually there would have to be a conversation about Des’ future.

But we’ve got the same or better points than 8 other sides, we’ve arguably deserved to be 1-6 points better off than we are, and we’ve put in some very good, battling performances. The players clearly back Des and are putting in a shift. He’s in no way lost the dressing room. We’ve had a lot of injuries to key players. We’ve got an easier run of fixtures on paper coming up. The January window will allow us to refresh the squad. In 2-3 months time the picture could look much more rosy than it does now.

I can’t say that if we keep losing heavily then at some point we might have to look at changing the manager. That’s the same for literally every team on the planet. But it certainly isn’t the time now, and I personally think that come say March we won’t be in the relegation places, and Des will still be our manager.

 

[Niconamur]

I follow the majority of posts here. There's no need to sack Des because of the results. We've played already some big guns...The next games ( apart Shef Utd ) are really points to take ( Millwall, Plymouth, Cardiff, QPR )

The only aim is to be safe on 3rd May ! And for us, fans, enjoying the most possible the games at that level.

 

[BicesterU]

The bottom two thirds of the league has been so tight so far this season that I think we've actually been in a relegation scrap for a few weeks, we just didn't really notice. Even when we were 10th after 9 games we were actually joint 18th, if you see what I mean.

When it's so tight like that, teams getting on good runs can rocket up the table (Millwall were 3 points behind us after 9 games, and are 7 ahead of us now), and conversely teams hitting a bad run can soon find themselves falling down the table quite quickly.

While a bit of early form at home was very, very welcome it's been similar to last season's start for me in that rather than being in indication of what the next 38 games might bring, it was more a case of giving us a little bit more margin for error when we hit the inevitable rough patches.

I'd expect the league table will have a little more shape to it come Christmas as it becomes clearer which sides are battling for promotion, which are scrapping for relegation, and which aren't really looking up or down.

As such, the games against Plymouth, QPR, Wednesday, Cardiff and Plymouth again will give us a much better idea of which group we are in.

As most of us expected at the start of the season, I expect us to be one of the sides who will be involved at the bottom end of the table but I've also seen enough to convince me that we've got what it takes to stay up if we can win most of our games against the teams who will be around us, or at least not lose too many.

 

[Basham Wonderland]

We're where I expected us to be, it maybe feels a bit underwhelming because we've started to struggle after a decent start, and Des suddenly looks less sure-footed.

Fair enough, I still remember being completely amazed by the opener against Norwich. I thought we'd still be on single digit points at this stage.

Those first few weeks it was just "get the points in the bag because we'll need them". They're looking like a helpful cushion at the moment.

As another poster has mentioned, if we can dig out a few wins from upcoming games against the teams around us we'll be flying again.

 

[Mad Dog]

I’m a fully paid up member of the Des fan club, I think the vast majority of other supporters are too. We all desperately want him to succeed.

However this is a forum where ideas and opinions are expressed. To suggest Des could be under pressure due to poor results from the people or person who writes the cheques might be true, it might not be true, but when you look at the way the football world works and the length of time managers are in position for, it’s not an outrageous opinion to hold.

Personally I’d stick with him, he’s got a lot of credit in the bank.

The players are clearly still trying their hardest for Des, so he’s definitely not lost the dressing room.

And the fans are clearly still fully behind Des as well, as was evident at the end of Saturday’s drubbing.

The board will have seen this, and I would be amazed if they were thinking of doing anything other than backing Des in the January window and beyond

 

[holdsteady]

We were always going to get our points in batches then have lean runs, on one at the moment, thats how relegation battles go. We just have to dig in, get through the rough times and hope that we can scrape enough points together to stay up.

 

[unification]

Some common sense replies above. Get beaten heavily and a thread will always have more replies than cruising to a 2-0 win over weak opposition. I don't think there are any serious 'Des out' posts as of yet - just some panicky sorts who get reactive to a couple of beatings and start to predict what the board may do.

I should add to the above, we as a fanbase and a club shouldn't feel too bad if we just fall short of 21st either. Some percentages for you.

Since 2009-10, of the 42 Championship relegation spots in those 14 seasons, ten were taken up by newly promoted League 1 sides (23.8%) and five by those in their second season in the second tier after promotion (11.9%). Essentially, over a third (35.7%) of all sides promoted from League 1 to the Championship will find themselves back in League 1 again in two seasons. If we stay up this season, we may well go down next.

That's not a surprise when you consider some of those sides promoted and relegated in that time. Serial yo-yo teams like Wigan and Rotherham, of course, but also some sides that have reached that height for the very first time or after a very long time away - MK Dons, Yeovil, Burton, Doncaster Rovers and Wycombe. We should maybe class ourselves in that bracket since it's been so long since we graced the second tier and it takes time to adjust from being a third tier side to establishing yourself as a second tier side. The gulf is a big one to attempt to narrow.

The good news for those relegated from the Championship is that you increase your chance of being promoted from League 1 pretty quickly. From 2009-10 onwards, 12 of the 39 promotion place slots from League 1 to the Championship went to sides who had been relegated the season before. 30.7% of teams relegated have bounced back at the first attempt (in fact, in 2017-18, all three sides relegated the season before went straight back up). Four teams bounced back at the second attempt (10.2%). 41% of teams that experienced relegation from the Championship are back in it again within two seasons.

I should note that none of MK Dons, Yeovil, Burton, Doncaster and Wycombe ever went back up but I would argue that we are probably better resourced and better supported than all of those clubs to make a return should our owners hang around (perhaps an argument for MK Dons having more resources could be made but they're a curious club at the best of times). Perhaps we're more in the Blackpool and Peterborough bracket who are generally challenging in most seasons to get out of League 1 again.

So, there is plenty to suggest that relegation happens to over a third of newly promoted League 1 sides to the Championship. Plenty more to say that your brief spell there can be a catalyst to get you back there again quite quickly too. Relegation is not always the disaster it needs to be viewed as.

 

[Isle of Wight Yellow]

Plenty more to say that your brief spell there can be a catalyst to get you back there again quite quickly too. Relegation is not always the disaster it needs to be viewed as.

I think that’s where strong, talented young permanent signings can be key. If we’ve got a League One team including the likes of Kioso, Cumming, Jack Currie and El-Mizouni then we’ll probably do pretty well.

 

[JOHN BOY]

Not saying he shouldn’t start, but I think he should have done better with their 2nd, 4th and 5th goals, especially the 2nd. That shot wasn’t overly powerful or in the bottom corner, and I felt he had enough time to get a good hand to the ball, but didn’t.

Anyway, not saying he should be dropped in

People need to chill out and get a bit of perspective!

We always knew we’d get the occasional tonking this season, and Saturday was just one of those days, when we got a slap from one of the big boys!

But all this talk of Des being sacked is utterly ludicrous!

He’s done an amazing job getting us to this point, and we’ve been very unlucky with so many injuries to so many key players all at once.

But Des is doing a good job, in bloody tough conditions, and in one of the toughest leagues in football.

How the hell would sacking him now benefit us in any way, it would just derail everything. This is his first full season, and he needs continued support from everyone and backing in the windows.

We’re only at the start of our journey with Des, and like I’ve said it before, Rome wasn’t built in a day, it’s gonna take time to build an entire squad capable of really competing at this level, that much is becoming clearer and clearer as we get further into the season. It’s a seriously tough league.

We did what we could over the summer, and will look to strengthen again in January, with a view to staying up this season, and then strengthening again over the summer.

In the meantime, we’re gonna have to accept there will be days like Saturday, when we’ll have to dust ourselves off and go again.

I’m already looking forward to tomorrow, even though we could end up with another bloody nose, but we know these types of games would happen, just a shame they had to come along back to back so quickly!

We’ll have to take these kinds of games on the chin, stand up, dust ourselves off and keep going.

As for some of the unpleasantness that’s been going around on here, this isn’t twitter or Facebook, get a grip yeah?

Very sensible post.

 

[mariokempes]

At the end of the season if we finish 4th from bottom we've hit our target
Any higher we have over performed.
I hope Des doesn't become the victim of a board with itchy trigger fingers.
He's a project manager, always learning and developing, and coaching the players to do the same.
It's like a game of snakes and ladders, just hope we avoid any of the long snakes.

 

[Ewes]

People need to chill out and get a bit of perspective!

But all this talk of Des being sacked is utterly ludicrous!

How the hell would sacking him now benefit us in any way, it would just derail everything. This is his first full season, and he needs continued support from everyone and backing in the windows.

Generally agree with what you say and I’m 90% in favour of retaining Des even if results continue to be poor.

In terms of ‘perspective’, we all need to remember there is no perspective or normal business rules in football. It’s a results driven business and sentiment counts for little. Look at how Coventry ditched Mark Robins after all he achieved for them. If the choice is staying in the division under a new manager* or getting relegated under Des (with the financial impact these decisions would have, and the importance of being in the Championship in the new stadium, I know what I’d do if I was the owner). So there’s the potential benefits: income and league status, but like everyone else I know it’s not guaranteed if we change the manager.

* on this, I said it before under Manning and under Robbo, I think we need a better assistant manager than Craig Short. Manning eventually got Hogg. I think when you’ve got a younger manager, having a Faz-type older head as assistant is key.

Performances, bar 2 maybe 3 league games plus the early Cup exit have been ok. A couple were very good. Results though have been very poor lately. No wins in 11 tells us all that something’s not right. Every club in every season moans about injuries, I don’t feel ours is any different. We’ve got our preferred GK and striker fit, plus most of the defence bar Bennett available. In the summer we were awash with midfielders so there should be quality to fill the forced gaps.

For me, the truth is our squad is a combination of League 1 standard and injured or out of form Championship lads. There’s only 3 players in the current squad who I think are up to playing well regularly at this level.

Something has to change and soon. I hope it’s our form rather than any personnel.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Generally agree with what you say and I’m 90% in favour of retaining Des even if results continue to be poor.

In terms of ‘perspective’, we all need to remember there is no perspective or normal business rules in football. It’s a results driven business and sentiment counts for little. Look at how Coventry ditched Mark Robins after all he achieved for them. If the choice is staying in the division under a new manager* or getting relegated under Des (with the financial impact these decisions would have, and the importance of being in the Championship in the new stadium, I know what I’d do if I was the owner). So there’s the potential benefits: income and league status, but like everyone else I know it’s not guaranteed if we change the manager.

* on this, I said it before under Manning and under Robbo, I think we need a better assistant manager than Craig Short. Manning eventually got Hogg. I think when you’ve got a younger manager, having a Faz-type older head as assistant is key.

Performances, bar 2 maybe 3 league games plus the early Cup exit have been ok. A couple were very good. Results though have been very poor lately. No wins in 11 tells us all that something’s not right. Every club in every season moans about injuries, I don’t feel ours is any different. We’ve got our preferred GK and striker fit, plus most of the defence bar Bennett available. In the summer we were awash with midfielders so there should be quality to fill the forced gaps.

For me, the truth is our squad is a combination of League 1 standard and injured or out of form Championship lads. There’s only 3 players in the current squad who I think are up to playing well regularly at this level.

Something has to change and soon. I hope it’s our form rather than any personnel.

Results have been poor lately but what did you expect? We have a lot of midfielders but most of them seem below the required standard.

 

[JOHN BOY]

So far up until Saturday we have exceeded expectations. Will all new how difficult the championship was going to be.January transfer window is critical to us staying up.I must admit the quality in the championship is better than I thought.

 

[Essexyellows]

A brief interlude from "house stuff" and an equally rare Saturday 3pm kick off................. journey down, awful. Standard of driving has dropped off a cliff, add in some rough weather and it was like Wacky Races on the M40.
Handy having residents visitor parking though...... quick trot to the ground, saw someone I`ve not seen for nearly 30 years and ended up in the *shudders* right side.
Game started well, that second goes in and who knows.......... after that the bromide in their tea kicked in and we got handed a life lesson.
8 goals, decent entertainment, seeing old friends and having a natter. Bliss.

Yep, we got found lacking but its a marathon not a sprint, January transfer window to shore things up we`ll be alright.

Journey home ........ abysmal.

Mrs EY(Mk2) got to play with the multi-fuel burner .... never knew they had to be "seasoned" like a wok.... 3 kindling only burns, then 40 hours of logs only before any solid fuel goes in.