Away Match Thread Huddersfield Town v Oxford United · League One · Tue 1 Sep, 19:45

[Northstandboy]

 

[Symp59]

Thought Brown was poor

He misses Helik

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

 

[m]

No! Our defence was awful! Just because 2 happy clappy said it wasn’t means nothing! Some pointless stat. A lot of teams could have put more goals past us, if they wanted. Most just wanted 3 points with minimal effort. And still not sure what point your making.

Oh right, most teams cold have scored more but decided not to - that sounds a lot like football and the way it works.

I believe you when you say that you don't understand, but I'm not sure I'm the person to help you with that. Sorry.

 

[Davox]

My assessment of tonight was as follows;
1) Our key players were poor and Brannagan was a shadow of himself allowing their midfield to overpower us
2) Our academy players emerged with huge credit
3) Our appetite for getting stuck in and fight is very healthy which bodes well
4) Huddersfield were quality in attacking areas and the result could have been worse. Their inside right forward and CF are top tier for this level so it’s understandable we were well beaten.
5) Ramsey showed his naivety in allowing too many men forward just after we equalised. He’ll quickly learn.
6) Dembele is quality in getting into attacking areas and a bag of s**t in picking a final pass or getting a shot away. Sadly though our attacking options on the wing were completely exposed now Mills is gone and Emakhu wasn’t there to provide width.
7) O’Donkor performed again and now needs to start ahead of Harris

Overall performance 4/10
Reasons for optimism 8/10

 

[dickwalton1964]

How the f*** is Long starting and Helik on the bench ? And I can only assume Harris is training at a level way, way above what he’s showing on the pitch, how else can his continual selection over O’Donkor be explained ? Questioning Ramsey for the first time really, he got it all wrong tonight.

 

[Symp59]

Agree with most of this. Midfield fell apart when McDonnell went off - he was doing 90% of the covering. Brannagan is miles off his best physically & mentally. We need a fit BDK
Unless Andrews is something special we don't have a worthwhile attacking midfielder: Goodrham is gossamer, doesn't look where he's passing and thinks he deserves better, Dembele always slows things down then either just gives it away, passes back or shoots at the player making the block - I hate watching him play.
I don't like watching Harris play 'up front' much either.

Ah well, kids got some time. O'Donkor looks like a striker. Ket's get through this season and I hope we'll have some recruitment nous in place.

Could be worse, we could be Preston.

Preston aren't on the precipice, they have a ground alot of players worth money iam worried we won't be in any league next year ,I hope our luck changes soon ,that was pretty poor.

 

[Mateo Corbo's Tackle]

Eastwood MOTM, kept us in it multiple times, nothing he could do for the goals much. Legend.

Thought GOD looked great as always this season. He has to start. I thought Snowden looked good, there's an intelligent player in there, picked off some clever passes and moved it quickly and I thought his movement was good. Also thought Andrews looked tidy- physical, good touch.

Goodrham is trash. What the hell has happened?! Ditto Branagan tonight. And Long. And Currie. And Harris. All our senior players, as people have outlined. Really bad.

Missanga a mixture of brilliant and terrifyingly sloppy.

Start GOD and Helik, bring Emakhu back in and it'll look a hell of a lot better

I think many of us, me included, are coming to the conclusion that the players you have listed are just really limited technically. A team playing the Ramsey brand hasn’t got time for those with neither a ropey first touch, nor a lack of bite. We lose the ball, we can’t win it back. Ad nauseum.

I suspect we will see a lot of Andrews, Snowden, Missanga, Roosken (when fit) and O’Donkor this season, and less of the above.

The wind of change has started to blow, pretty hard.

 

[Manorlounger]

Bit late to the post match comments, probably good to have taken a deep breath before hitting the keyboard. So disappointed with the overall performance. Individually, we had some good, some mediocre and some, way below expectations. I think they have all been named already. However, some of the team are going to be thankful that they still have a role to play in this squad. That is primarily down to the embargo because some individuals are just not maintaining standards.
Impressed with Andrews, good debut and showed some nice touches. Missanga has a future when he builds enough confidence. O'Donkor deserves to start over Harris, even more so when the midfield goes walkabout. What has happened to Cam Bran?! Wayward passing, poor tackling and, apparently, little energy to move around. Not seen him that below par for a long time. And a final word for Snowden, another with promise and prospects.

Overall though, we lacked enough finish and tried to be a little too clever at times. We can improve and Ramsay certainly isn't one for boring defensive football.

 

[Bicester Yellow]

Bit late to the post match comments, probably good to have taken a deep breath before hitting the keyboard. So disappointed with the overall performance. Individually, we had some good, some mediocre and some, way below expectations. I think they have all been named already. However, some of the team are going to be thankful that they still have a role to play in this squad. That is primarily down to the embargo because some individuals are just not maintaining standards.
Impressed with Andrews, good debut and showed some nice touches. Missanga has a future when he builds enough confidence. O'Donkor deserves to start over Harris, even more so when the midfield goes walkabout. What has happened to Cam Bran?! Wayward passing, poor tackling and, apparently, little energy to move around. Not seen him that below par for a long time. And a final word for Snowden, another with promise and prospects.

Overall though, we lacked enough finish and tried to be a little too clever at times. We can improve and Ramsay certainly isn't one for boring defensive football.

Cam has looked like that for a little while but sadly it’s a conversation some fans don’t want to have.

Snowden looked good when he came on, I thought Missanga did okay but he’s still young & thought he looked slightly lost on the right wing, inside left is definitely his best position.

Like you I thought Andrews showed so nice touches and played some really nice balls around.

Sadly think Harris has a thankless task & Odonkor is doing well when coming off the bench but Harris put himself about but very little service or way of threat, but we’ve seen it all before.

Whole back 4 well off it & Brown has completely gone to pot, not the player he was.

Some positives but it’s going to be a long run of struggle & inconsistency until January I would imagine.

 

[Dubai Yellow]

I don’t mind this team at all. We hung in there, no lack of effort. Lessons learnt tonight hopefully. On to the weekend (let’s be realistic, no shame in losing to Leicester either). Not in terrible shape all things considered. Playoffs a realistic target.

 

[tomoufc]

Bit late to the post match comments, probably good to have taken a deep breath before hitting the keyboard. So disappointed with the overall performance. Individually, we had some good, some mediocre and some, way below expectations. I think they have all been named already. However, some of the team are going to be thankful that they still have a role to play in this squad. That is primarily down to the embargo because some individuals are just not maintaining standards.
Impressed with Andrews, good debut and showed some nice touches. Missanga has a future when he builds enough confidence. O'Donkor deserves to start over Harris, even more so when the midfield goes walkabout. What has happened to Cam Bran?! Wayward passing, poor tackling and, apparently, little energy to move around. Not seen him that below par for a long time. And a final word for Snowden, another with promise and prospects.

Overall though, we lacked enough finish and tried to be a little too clever at times. We can improve and Ramsay certainly isn't one for boring defensive football.

Feel that CamBran always has 3-4 truly dogshit performances in him per season. Let’s hope that’s one out the way. Without him performing well consistently, we’re screwed.

 

[tomoufc]

We hung in there, no lack of effort. Lessons learnt tonight hopefully. On to the weekend (let’s be realistic, no shame in losing to Leicester either). Not in terrible shape all things considered. Playoffs a realistic target.

I’d be happy to get to January mid-table, the embargo lifted and with the new stadium confirmed.

 

[Mintyshoe]

Imagine if someone told you last season that we’d have O’Donkor, Eastwood, Snowdon and Missanga as the top four players in a match rating…and not in a reserves match.

 

[uptheus]

9 of our 11 starting players tonight played in the Championship!

You wouldn’t have guessed that!

 

[Ricey]

Watching us at the moment reminds me of when Appleton came in. We are trying to play possession football but not have the players to do it. Have lots of the ball do nothing with it then make a mistake and let the other team in.

It took 2 windows to sort that out… I like the idea but we need to step towards this, let’s still defend first, let’s not over play but do it when it’s on.

 

[90syeIlow]

9 of our 11 starting players tonight played in the Championship!

You wouldn’t have guessed that!

I blame them more than Ramsay for tonight to be honest.

 

[Ricey]

How the f*** is Long starting and Helik on the bench ? And I can only assume Harris is training at a level way, way above what he’s showing on the pitch, how else can his continual selection over O’Donkor be explained ? Questioning Ramsey for the first time really, he got it all wrong tonight.

Because he wants to play out from the back and Longy is better at this, but still not that great at it. I’d play Heilik as he’s a better defender and over time evolve the team into playing out from the back with transfers. Right now we can’t do it!!

 

[QR]

9 of our 11 starting players tonight played in the Championship!

You wouldn’t have guessed that!

You would. We were relegated. Convincingly.

 

[Mr Perfect]

GOD goal gave us a glimmer of hope, as up to that point hardly created a chance. The possession stat was just knocking the ball around at the back. Huddersfield were far more decisive and dangerous in attack. They will be promotion contenders without a doubt. Eastwood did well, defence less so bar Spencer. Helik in for me, offers more aerial presence. Cam tried hard but was poor, McDonnell battled. Dembele not the best game, Missanga one or two touches but far off the finished product. Harris looked isolated and Goodrham awful again. GOD looks more of a striker as impact player , but whether he would maintain that as starter still to be proved .
Unlucky draw to get Leicester away next which will be hard. With the transfer embargo very tough for the fans and manager
, I feel for both.

 

[Finlandia]

Surprised that Helik didn’t start ahead of Long, especially when they used the long throw as a tactic.

Long shouldn’t be starting based on last night. Brown and Helik is a very solid defensive pairing.

 

[Village-Yellow]

That was really depressing.

And fans who think the academy players are a positive, well, I’d say they are well off it. Not physical enough for this league, so when you add the likes of Dembele, Goodrham etc, it’s really a weak squad!

 

[ECYellow]

The best team won on the night. that said, for 75 minutes we were very much in the game.

Mo Missanga grew into the game, and by the time he was substituted he looked a real threat.

Snowden played a lovely ball in for Gats to score (again!) and Andrews looked bright when he came on, I think he will prove to be an excellent loan signing for us.

Dembele was Dembele, but I did think he offered a good outlet down our left.

Eastwood was excellent! My MOTM for us by a distance.

That is probably where the good ends IMO…

Brannagan was awful. He must have played 5 or 6 big diagonals straight out of play, meanwhile he doesn’t look like he can get close enough to his man anymore. It may just be an early season thing, but for me he doesn’t look quite right.

Neither CB was/is good enough to play out the way we were trying to last night, I appreciate Ramsey may want us to play that way but it needs to be horses for courses and until we are able to sign players to fit that criteria, I’d like to see less f*****g about at the back. I lost count of the number of times we gave the ball away in our defensive third.

Spencer lacked sharpness and Currie was ok.

Excellent support for a long journey on a Tuesday night. The players deserve the backing of the fans, the hierarchy do not.

 

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

Have they f**k

Chances created show they were in charge where it counts.
We had more possession percentage but so what? They were happy with us playing it around at the back as they suspected we’d **** up eventually. Look at Lincoln last season - minimal possession, but got promoted.
We were the sum of our parts last night. Obviously we are light due to the embargo, losing key players and injuries.

 

[dickwalton1964]

Because he wants to play out from the back and Longy is better at this, but still not that great at it. I’d play Heilik as he’s a better defender and over time evolve the team into playing out from the back with transfers. Right now we can’t do it!!

I really hope we haven’t got ourselves a manager whose head is still at Arsenal or Juventus. Helik and Brown did well at Stevenage and we deservedly won a typical L1 fixture. Why change ? Sam Long is hardly a Dickie, McNally or Atkinson in bringing the ball out and he’s nowhere near the physical presence of Helik. Ramsey needs to quickly realise where he is and what works at this level - I don’t think there was a whole lot of difference on the ball last night but there was a world of difference in the speed and physicality of the two sides and that’s where games at this level are going to be won and lost.

 

[ExclusiveOxnews]

I could see the theory behind playing Long - I actually thought it was a decent call against their counter attacking pace(Taylor will score 20+ this season). But how wrong I was! He had a pretty dreadful game, only matched by Cam who was even worse. Like others said there are some green shoots in that performance, and Huddersfield away is about as tough as it will get this season, but we were well beaten.

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

I could see the theory behind playing Long - I actually thought it was a decent call against their counter attacking pace(Taylor will score 20+ this season). But how wrong I was! He had a pretty dreadful game, only matched by Cam who was even worse. Like others said there are some green shoots in that performance, and Huddersfield away is about as tough as it will get this season, but we were well beaten.

I fear we both Long's and Brannagan's best years are behind them now. Hope I'm wrong.

 

[Essexyellows]

Possession is great if you do something with it....... putting the ball in the onion bag wins games not possession stats.

Playing out from the back is fine but needs some pace as the ball goes forward rather than letting the defending team get back and mark up.

A stern early season test failed but not through lack of effort.

 

[38yearsofpain]

Cam has looked like that for a little while but sadly it’s a conversation some fans don’t want to have.

Snowden looked good when he came on, I thought Missanga did okay but he’s still young & thought he looked slightly lost on the right wing, inside left is definitely his best position.

Like you I thought Andrews showed so nice touches and played some really nice balls around.

Sadly think Harris has a thankless task & Odonkor is doing well when coming off the bench but Harris put himself about but very little service or way of threat, but we’ve seen it all before.

Whole back 4 well off it & Brown has completely gone to pot, not the player he was.

Some positives but it’s going to be a long run of struggle & inconsistency until January I would imagine.

No team can win a football match if 5 or 6 players are playing well below par. The whole back four, Brannagan and Dembele were just awful. Only Mo and Eastwood were good from the starting eleven, the rest were ok at best. O'donkor looks like he is a real handful to play against and Andrews looks useful. Snowden did well for the goal but overall his first touch is currently not quite good enough. If we are allowed to sign Lynch, it might enable Harris to play 10 and rotate O'donkor and Lynch up top.
Overall we matched Huddersfield but the longer the game went on their physicality and our basic errors simply destroyed us. We had much more of the ball 62% but really looked like we had no idea what to do with it. We only really looked threatening on the break. A sobering experience in deepest Yorkshire.

 

[dickwalton1964]

I fear we both Long's and Brannagan's best years are behind them now. Hope I'm wrong.

I have to admit last night backed up that view. Brannagan is obviously falling from a higher ceiling than Long and he’s beginning to look a bit leggy and sloppy in possession, careless rather than error strewn. Long’s performance was more mistake ridden though and it’s a while since I’ve seen a decent display from him.

 

[Yellowmania]

I have to admit last night backed up that view. Brannagan is obviously falling from a higher ceiling than Long and he’s beginning to look a bit leggy and sloppy in possession, careless rather than error strewn. Long’s performance was more mistake ridden though and it’s a while since I’ve seen a decent display from him.

Very strange performance from Cam last night especially the 2 identical uncontested short passes to Spencer that went about 5 yards behind him!