Away Match Day Thread +++ 24/08/2019 L1: Bristol Rovers FC v OUFC +++

[werthersoriginal]

Give this squad to Appleton and its a whole new ball game.

Oh. Mo Eisa seems to be doing ok also, having been ruled out as useless by some of our more cranially vacant fans....

Appleton? Maybe. Took him a while to get going and some of our more cranially vacant fans wanted him out.

 

[ubermeistervonmeat]

If today wasn’t a good enough reason to keep Sykes I don’t know what is.

Team still lacks pace and fitness.

And how Robinson thought that was a good performance is beyond me. Yes, protect the players, but don’t cheat the fans.

Rovers were awful. When we played football we out played them, but when we turned to their style of football (crash, bang, wallop, as Dickie put it!) there was only one winner.

Also, at the minute I’m still unsure of some of signings over the summer.

Queue Scotchegg!

Have to say I had assumed he was saying we were the better team etc to protect the players - we certainly were not the better team - we have far better individuals but they were simply bullied out of it today - mid-table at best on that showing

 

[LowerSouth]

Crap day all round....u's lose, 3rd test not looking all that positive at all with a huge chase....and i got a damn parking ticket in brighton

Shouldn’t have spent so much time practising back drops on the beach !

 

[Scotchegg]

Give this squad to Appleton and its a whole new ball game.

Oh. Mo Eisa seems to be doing ok also, having been ruled out as useless by some of our more cranially vacant fans....

So Robinson gets no credit for bringing this squad together? How about credit for the way be outplayed Sunderland, Peterborough, Blackpool and looked a class above Bristol Rovers until Taylor went off? Obviously you wouldn't know any of this as you only get the results off ceefax but pop along to a game or two and you might start making a bit more sense!!!

 

[ubermeistervonmeat]

Give this squad to Appleton and its a whole new ball game.

Oh. Mo Eisa seems to be doing ok also, having been ruled out as useless by some of our more cranially vacant fans....

Are you seriously suggesting getting rid of KR already ?

Granted we were poor for the last hour and 3 losses in a row ain't clever but we are only 5 games in

 

[battman]

So Robinson gets no credit for bringing this squad together? How about credit for the way be outplayed Sunderland, Peterborough, Blackpool and looked a class above Bristol Rovers until Taylor went off? Obviously you wouldn't know any of this as you only get the results off ceefax but pop along to a game or two and you might start making a bit more sense!!!

KR has always had a knack of playing well against the bigger sides, but falling flat when there are games we should be winning. Also you mention Blackpool, but surely playing well against them is irrelevant, because we lost.

 

[Scotchegg]

KR has always had a knack of playing well against the bigger sides, but falling flat when there are games we should be winning. Also you mention Blackpool, but surely playing well against them is irrelevant, because we lost.

Of course playing well and losing gets you nothing, but we battered Blackpool and most were saying last week that we only needed a proven striker to be a great side. We added Taylor and are apparently now rubbish!

The point being that we've had some good performances this season, including a good 30 odd minutes today and a spell against Burton when we looked like we'd take them apart. None of that distracts from the fact that we've won the last 3 or conceded 7 in our last 2 games, but those show that now is not the time to write this season off.

 

[Yellows1]

Give it time to gel, as per every season we are playing catch up as our new team hasn’t been put together until late in the day

 

[beyondthefourth]

Give it time to gel, as per every season we are playing catch up as our new team hasn’t been put together until late in the day

Even the players we had weren't playing in the same roles!

Dickie was on the left of defence, was the 'second' centre back.

Ruffels was a very conservative left back, wasn't bombing up and down the flanks as much.

Brannagan was playing deeper in midfield.

Hanson wasn't deployed as a midfielder again until the very end of last season.

Henry was playing the number 10 role, now he's an inside forward.

That only leaves Eastwood and Mackie doing the same sort of jobs as they were before.

 

[uptheus]

Of course playing well and losing gets you nothing, but we battered Blackpool and most were saying last week that we only needed a proven striker to be a great side. We added Taylor and are apparently now rubbish!

The point being that we've had some good performances this season, including a good 30 odd minutes today and a spell against Burton when we looked like we'd take them apart. None of that distracts from the fact that we've won the last 3 or conceded 7 in our last 2 games, but those show that now is not the time to write this season off.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. It was an okay performance at Sunderland, but not great. Peterborough at home was great in the first half, but not so great in the second. Okish against Peterborough in the cup, but lucky to win, and good against Burton for 35mins, but poor after that. Didn’t go to Blackpool, but by all accounts we battered them.

Today was ok/good first 30mins, but again was fairly average after that.

I said we should have started Mackie and Mous in the middle (Hanson just hasn’t got a football brain), but you make some kind of comment re; well I’m glad KR is picking the team and not those on here, well, well..

Taylor hadn’t played enough games, so after Tuesday we needed to start with Mackie. It wound have worked for so many reasons e.g. quell their fans, Taylor would have added a bit more zest to the team on 65-70mins, reduce risk of injury e.g. not match fit yet etc etc.

We have no real outlet players with pace, but we’re letting one of our fittest, mobile, young and passionate players go out on loan, really.

We’ve got to change this rot now before it becomes the norm.

 

[uptheus]

An

Why would playing Long be giving up?

Because he’s not as good as Cadden.

 

[uptheus]

What made today’s result even worse was they were shite.

 

[Tenbury Yellow]

I'm not getting worried just yet. Woken up the day after feeling like we're going to need to be patient. I've been to Blackpool and Bristol Rovers so far this season and see reasons to be optimistic. Not saying there aren't issues, there are but time is on our side. Saying that, I too am very keen to see Baptiste and Agyei on the pitch sometime very soon.

 

[Twiggy85]

Having been to the game yesterday - we were the better team when we had the ball, however without the ball we looked very soft and a ‘nice’ team to play against. We failed so many times to even challenge for the second balls.

 

[West Oxon U’s]

 

[West Oxon U’s]

 

[Paul Cannell]

Because he’s not as good as Cadden.

Long may not be as pretty running forward and misplacing crosses as Cadden, but he knows how to defend. Cadden defends very narrow and leaves masses of space - defensively he's part of the problem.

And, Hanson hasn't the nous to play in front of the defence, use Gorrin or Mous.

 

[uptheus]

Long may not be as pretty running forward and misplacing crosses as Cadden, but he knows how to defend. Cadden defends very narrow and leaves masses of space - defensively he's part of the problem.

And, Hanson hasn't the nous to play in front of the defence, use Gorrin or Mous.

I don’t think Henry helps.

 

[Common Villager]

We need to revert to 3 in midfield and play with more width. Cadden is being asked to do too much and as a result the defence looks too exposed at times. Something along the lines of:

Eastwood
Cadden Dickie Moore Ruffels
Baptiste Gorrin Brannagan
Fosu Taylor Woodburn

We can't take as long as we did last season to work out how to stop leaking goals. 9 goals in 3 matches is just terrible.

 

[beyondthefourth]

We need to revert to 3 in midfield and play with more width. Cadden is being asked to do too much and as a result the defence looks too exposed at times. Something along the lines of:

Eastwood
Cadden Dickie Moore Ruffels
Baptiste Gorrin Brannagan
Fosu Taylor Woodburn

We can't take as long as we did last season to work out how to stop leaking goals. 9 goals in 3 matches is just terrible.

It's the exact same tactical change we made last term that led to our unbeaten run in the final third of the season.