Jack Payne badly missed

[The mighty Aldo]

The lack of chances being made is down to Jack Payne leaving. Charlton apart we have struggled to find bit of creativity.

I don't remember the stat exactly but he was near the top of the assists in league 1

Until someone steps up we are going to struggle ,and if yesterday is anything to go by I am becoming seriously worried.

If by this time next week we have no more points (Plymouth and Rotherham are flying at the moment) we are in a dogfight with only puppies to get us out of it

 

[OxfordBoy]

Jack Payne of the opening 10 games maybe

Creating chances isn't close to being our biggest problem at the moment

 

[The mighty Aldo]

No. Really

Who else will create the goals we need?

And if scoring goals is not our number one priority what is

 

[werthersoriginal]

I think creating chances is a big problem at the moment. How many did we have yesterday? Payne was crucial to the way we played early in the season but teams realised they only had to man mark him. We haven’t replaced his creativity and I agree it’s a concern. Along with the midfield and the defence , and up front

 

[Leysboy]

Defence is the number one issue. It has been all season. Curtis Nelson is badly missed, and it shows how good he is, with the goals we continue to concede. I suspect if he wasn’t injured we would never of signed Mousinho, or if we had both fit I don’t think Mousinho would be in the starting eleven.

If you don’t concede goals you don’t lose games!

 

[LondonRoader]

The lack of chances being made is down to Jack Payne leaving. Charlton apart we have struggled to find bit of creativity.

I don't remember the stat exactly but he was near the top of the assists in league 1

Until someone steps up we are going to struggle ,and if yesterday is anything to go by I am becoming seriously worried.

If by this time next week we have no more points (Plymouth and Rotherham are flying at the moment) we are in a dogfight with only puppies to get us out of it

No

 

[OxfordBoy]

And if scoring goals is not our number one priority what is

Getting hold of the ball

Keeping hold of the ball

Keeping the ball out of our net

 

[OxfordBoy]

Also we're still picking up a point a game, as we have been for the last 20 or so games

Until that changes all this talk of relegation battles is pointless scaremongering

 

[eraser]

I think creating chances is a big problem at the moment. How many did we have yesterday? Payne was crucial to the way we played early in the season but teams realised they only had to man mark him. We haven’t replaced his creativity and I agree it’s a concern. Along with the midfield and the defence , and up front

Last week we were world beaters this week it's "sack em all" - that's football. Our problem isn't the players it's the tactics and how they're being instructed to play.

 

[eraser]

Defence is the number one issue. It has been all season. Curtis Nelson is badly missed, and it shows how good he is, with the goals we continue to concede. I suspect if he wasn’t injured we would never of signed Mousinho, or if we had both fit I don’t think Mousinho would be in the starting eleven.

If you don’t concede goals you don’t lose games!

If you score the same as or more than your opponent you also don;t lose games. 46 goalless draws will see you relegated.

 

[The mighty Aldo]

Also we're still picking up a point a game, as we have been for the last 20 or so games

Until that changes all this talk of relegation battles is pointless scaremongering

Not scaremongering we are sleepwalking into dangerous territory here

 

[Thehorse777]

Is it the tactics or is it the players?

Tactics don’t make you switch off at free kicks as at Walsall or unable to defend a long throw v Bury and that’s not to mention Mousinho making exactly the same mistake for goals at Walsall and again at home recently.

Yes the tactics could have been better and we could have instructed the players to play in a different way but tactics do not cause individual mistakes which are what have really cost us points

 

[werthersoriginal]

ITs not an individual thing. We didn’t have any sort of command of the game yesterday. We lost the game due to being outplayed in midfield, not because of mistakes in defence. With the freedom Rovers had it was only a matter of time before they scored.

 

[Thehorse777]

Yesterday maybe that was the issue but this about the season as a whole, not just yesterday and generally we’ve conceded goals through individual errors

Off the top of my head:

Walsall away x 2
Bury (Tiendalli back pass that led to the long throw)
Mousinho error at home (may have been Bury)
Ricardinho at Charlton in the cup
Obika missing a simple 1 on 1 at Walsall
Thomas did the same at home when he tried to lift it over the keeper (may have been Bury)

It’s not very often we’ve been dominated in the midfield, and let’s be honest, we all knew what Bristol Rovers are about.

They’ve been the same for years and we’ve often struggled to cope with their “up and at em” style of play, just as we did against the likes of Wimbledon and Stevenage on occasion, it just happens that Rovers do it more effectively than these sides so we’ve not found a way to deal with it effectively.

To me, it suggests that maybe the players should take some responsibility, blaming it on the manager (let’s not forget this has now changed and things are still as inconsistent as ever) is an easy way out for them.

As I said, the way the players were asked to play was probably not the most suitable for this group, however to blame that solely for bad performances would be a myth.

Until we (fans, players, management) accept that it is a combination of both things wont move forward.

That said, I don’t think we are doing as badly as some, based on the frequency of the errors mentioned above and the injuries etc we are about where I expect them to be. I don’t think many managers would have the current group of players in a much better position

 

[OxfordBoy]

Not scaremongering we are sleepwalking into dangerous territory here

Except we're really not, at no point have we been taking less than a point a game on average over any length of time, as long as we keep that up, which we did under Pep at his worst, and which we've done recently, so keep that up and that would see us to 56 points minimum and clearly above the relegation zone


But don't let facts and statistics get in the way of scaremongering

 

[werthersoriginal]

Yes, the thing is we don’t draw much, so a dodgy 1 0 win and two crap defeats is a point a game

 

[Village-Yellow]

Not scaremongering we are sleepwalking into dangerous territory here

And after an excellent result last week, “Oxford were back”. Now we’re sleepwalking into relegation.

As eraser says above, this is football. We will lose plenty more this season but we will also pick up points, probably when we least expect it.

At this rate we will end up mid to lower table and be glad the season is over. But as for relegation, I can’t see it.

Just look at the points per game tally of many of the teams below us... what is it about those stats that says to you all the teams below us will suddenly find excellent form and dig themselves out?

 

[OxfordBoy]

the only team in the relegation zone who has picked up more points than us over the last 5 games are bottom and 16 points behind us, and only 3 of the bottom 10 managed it too, the rest have made no ground on us, most infact have slipped further behind us in that time, similar story if you stretch 5 games to 10

We're s**t but we're not going down

 

[Deleted member 462]

No one expected us to go and win at Charlton. Would be typical oxford after sat to go get a result on Tuesday. We need 3 wins, 4 to be extra sure from 15 games. The only place we are sleep walking to is a mid table finish.

 

[eraser]

No one expected us to go and win at Charlton. Would be typical oxford after sat to go get a result on Tuesday. We need 3 wins, 4 to be extra sure from 15 games. The only place we are sleep walking to is a mid table finish.

We'll get those 3 wins at Wigan, Blackburn and Shrewsbury I expect!