Home Match Day Thread +++ 7/12/2019 OUFC V Shrewsbury Town +++

[Discoland]

- Awful ref, Trevor Kettle-esque levels today. Spineless.
- Henry at DM was a farce, seriously missed him further up the pitch today.
- Sykes good with his feet but needs to build up some strength ASAP.
- Hall anonymous for huge portions of the game, would have been better with Goodrham on the pitch imo.
- Shrewsbury have become Wycombe 2.0
- Archer played well all things considered, cracking save at his near post in the first half.
- Atmosphere poor until the 65' mark.

What a frustrating, frustrating day compounded by the injuries to Henry and Forde. Special mention to the new agency stewards trying to get people to sit down in the East Stand again and being put in their place by the stand manager. Common sense prevailed at least somewhere today.

On to MK.

 

[Wandering Yellow]

- Awful ref, Trevor Kettle-esque levels today. Spineless.
- Henry at DM was a farce, seriously missed him further up the pitch today.
- Sykes good with his feet but needs to build up some strength ASAP.
- Hall anonymous for huge portions of the game, would have been better with Goodrham on the pitch imo.
- Shrewsbury have become Wycombe 2.0
- Archer played well all things considered, cracking save at his near post in the first half.
- Atmosphere poor until the 65' mark.

What a frustrating, frustrating day compounded by the injuries to Henry and Forde. Special mention to the new agency stewards trying to get people to sit down in the East Stand again and being put in their place by the stand manager. Common sense prevailed at least somewhere today.

On to MK.

Time to introduce more safe standing rails, wanting to stand up at the football isn't a crime.

 

[Discoland]

Time to introduce more safe standing rails, wanting to stand up at the football isn't a crime.

Couldn't hear what was said but considering I see them there every week and judging by the steward scuttling off to the stand manager like the school grass I cant imagine it was too pleasant.

 

[Kiewhite]

Thinking a little deeper than the performance today most of us at half 2 yesterday afternoon would of been happy with a point with the way the midfield is atm. Personally I think it’s a point well gained and as long as we get 3 points next week overall I think it would be deemed a very good point.

 

[bazzer9461]

an even half capable referee would've stopped all Shrewsbury's 'gamesmanship' antics ... including physically stopping any of our players , Sykes included.... a number of our players were far from their best today, and that wasnt all down to a very poor referee failing to make the right decisions

Love a bit of honesty @Sarge

 

[ljs]

if anyone thinks that Sykes is good enough for a promotion chasing League One team, then I am well and truly baffled. Awful performance. Got pushed off the ball 5 times in the second half alone today.

Both Sykes and Hall were far too lightweight to play in a match against a team playing the way Shrewsbury did.

 

[Salaghaf]

Can we stop the ‘pikey’ nonsense? It’s an offensive word and he’s doing a good job

Sounds like you’d be better off on the Wycombe forum with sentiments like that.......

 

[ljs]

I don’t get KR simply refusing to play Mousinho as DM should Gorrin not be available. He did it for a lot of last season and was one of the reasons we looked a lot steadier. He doesn’t have to commit to the idea for long but he seems determined not to go back to it.

We’ll have to start getting creative with team selections in the coming weeks. Just getting through 90 minutes without someone limping off would be something!

And Moore looked good when he came on.

Should definitely have put Moore in from the start with Mous in front.

A bit silly of KR to say previously he won't play Mous in that position.

 

[ljs]

Sounds like you’d be better off on the Wycombe forum with sentiments like that.......

It's racist, isn't it?

 

[The mighty Aldo]

Not sure if anyone else agrees but it all seemed very subdued yesterday. The crowd was lower than I would of thought after six weeks away.
Playing your leading scorer as a defensive midfielder was a mistake and KR should come clean he is a football manager not a politician.
I thought the Shrews were much better than us for 25 minutes but that was down to team selection.
Hall and Sykes were poor and there was no service to Taylor and Fosu hardly had a kick.
I said after 10 mins I would take a point.
On the plus side Archer looked ok and Mackie came on and the crowd came to life.

 

[Topper Haines]

Spot on. The initial tactical set up was ludicrous and it reminded me of Robbo tactics of old.

Just completely beyond comprehension to play Henry at CDM.

Talk about a comment with total hindsight. Ridiculous. The setup was only "ludicrous" because Shrewsbury changed their formation to recent games yet we still adjusted to that after about 20 minutes.
I partly agree about Henry at CDM but that would have been more effective if the Shrews had done what we anticipated. The fact it's beyond your comprehension as to why he was there says a lot about your understanding of football though.

 

[gingerox]

Thought the reason for our lack of attacking threat was Cadden's absence in their half. Can barely remember him getting forward first 45mins, don't know if this was due to tactical instruction or because Henry wasn't there to help out. Made such a difference not having him as an outlet every time. Even when he was moved to right wing, he tried cutting inside more often than not, must have only put 1/2 crosses in all game.

 

[greatunclekip]

Talk about a comment with total hindsight. Ridiculous. The setup was only "ludicrous" because Shrewsbury changed their formation to recent games yet we still adjusted to that after about 20 minutes.
I partly agree about Henry at CDM but that would have been more effective if the Shrews had done what we anticipated. The fact it's beyond your comprehension as to why he was there says a lot about your understanding of football though.

Why should it matter what Shrews do to take the decision to play your top scorer and creator to a position where hes very unlikely to do either?

 

[Topper Haines]

Why should it matter what Shrews do to take the decision to play your top scorer and creator to a position where hes very unlikely to do either?

The key point is the they changed their shape which drastically affected us given our prep.
If they had set up normally then Henry would have had more scope to play - but this is thing where I am partially agreeing with you as he couldn't play his natural game, clearly.

 

[beyondthefourth]

Why should it matter what Shrews do to take the decision to play your top scorer and creator to a position where hes very unlikely to do either?

Seeing as Shrewsbury are typically a low scoring team this season, it is a perfectly legitimate idea to have an extra attacking threat on the pitch, rather than a defensive one. Henry's range of passing and ability to start attacks from deep, it therefore made more sense to have him there than Sykes or Forde. It's true he is our top scorer, but in terms of minutes per goal this season, he is bested by three who started the game further up the pitch: Hall, Fosu, and Taylor. We're not as reliant on Henry's goals as we have been the last two seasons.

The fact that the Shrews set up to nullify our threats and pushed Henry back too deep to be effective in that role, forced our hand into a change. That's fine, but it wasn't a stupid move ahead of the game. I believe it was mentioned before the game that the DM position is where Henry sees himself ending up playing towards the end of his career!

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

if anyone thinks that Sykes is good enough for a promotion chasing League One team, then I am well and truly baffled. Awful performance. Got pushed off the ball 5 times in the second half alone today.

To be fair he wouldn’t be playing if everyone was fit.

 

[yellowbow]

The key point is the they changed their shape which drastically affected us given our prep.
If they had set up normally then Henry would have had more scope to play - but this is thing where I am partially agreeing with you as he couldn't play his natural game, clearly.

So good management from Ricketts? Altered the shape of his team and gave us real problems.

I dont really understand the criticism of Ricketts and also Ainsworth in this thread. At the end of the day its a results business. The tactics might be frustrating for us to watch but they have to tailor the tactics to suit the players theyve got. Shrewsbury did a job on us yesterday although they were fortunate to be playing us with half of our squad missing through injury. They cant expect their players to play like Man City and get results. Mapp was criticised for trying that when he first came here. He soon learnt that a bit more pragmatism was required.

As much as Id hate to watch that style of football every week, Id like to think that ours is a slightly different situation. Without sounding too condescending, I think its fair to say we are lucky enough to have a good squad of technical players with more flair and so dont need to be quite so cautious. I doubt that Wycombe fans are complaining too much when they look at the league table.

 

[Ox4Eva]

Sounds like I never missed much, but to not play well and get a point is fine.

 

[Yellow River]

We were pretty poor for the first quarter of the game, a mixture of a genuine injury crisis at the club and Shrewsbury’s very physical anti football approach. In the end a point apiece was about right.

I can understand Robinson’s decision to keep the back four intact especially with a new goalkeeper between the sticks, but playing our goal scoring midfielder as the holding player didn’t work out. Mousinho should’ve started in front of the back four with Moore at centre half and Henry further forward. Defensive midfield is a specialist position and Mousinho KNOWS how to play there.

Hall simply doesn’t track back enough, the defensive part of his game is way short of what we need it to be, this in turn impacts on the full backs ability to do their job defensively and attacking wise. Both Cadden and Long struggle when Hall is playing in front of them. Keep Hall on the bench for the last 10 - 15 mins.

Sykes is still young and learning. However he needs to beef up a bit, too often knocked off the ball. In fairness he does put a shift in and knows how to keep his shape within the team. Good cover but not a first team starter with a full squad to choose from.

Dickie was excellent and deservedly man of the match. Mousinho was very good too. Long did well when he came on.


As for the MK game, then Man City and beyond. Depending on the injury crisis particularly in midfield I would be looking at a temporary 3 at the back with Cadden & Ruffels pushed slightly forward, 3/5/2 when we have the ball 5/3/2 when we don’t.

The other option assuming Henry and Forde are out for a few weeks, stick to our usual system, but play Moore at centre half , Mousinho and Gorrin in central midfield.

Personally I don’t think we should be rushing back or risking Brannigan or Baptiste, it’s a long season, plenty of games still to be played.

It will be interesting to see how Robinson approaches the next couple of games.

 

[DavidB]

Thought Sam Long did well when he came on. More urgency, Mackie too. The last ten minutes was the only time we seemed to play with any passion.