General Now or 5 years ago?

Given a straight choice would you prefer today's team or the team that beat Swansea 5 years ago? ?

  • Today's

    Votes: 35 60.3%
  • Five years ago

    Votes: 23 39.7%

  • Total voters
    58
Bit of a side question......

......but comparing the teams, and thinking it through......how many great left backs have we ever had?

Don't get me wrong, we've had a bunch of perfectly decent ones - Skarz, Ruffs & Seddon on this thread for starters.
But I've been going to games since the early 90s, and I'm struggling to think who would play in my personal all time Oxford XI there. Probably Mike Ford (was considering Paul Powell from the 99/00 season.....but if I remember correctly, he played a lot of that season on the left wing [while keeping us up almost single-handed])

Feels like we've had a lot more great fullbacks on the right-hand side.
Ricardinho
 
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How could you forget Matt Robinson :)

I thought Matt Robinson was alright when he first came in. Under Atkins' defense-first five-at-the-back system, he was competent enough, albeit not exactly a terrifying threat going forwards.

By the time Talbot was in charge, his legs had gone and he was an absolute liability in a back four!
 
Bit of a side question......

......but comparing the teams, and thinking it through......how many great left backs have we ever had?

Don't get me wrong, we've had a bunch of perfectly decent ones - Skarz, Ruffs & Seddon on this thread for starters.
But I've been going to games since the early 90s, and I'm struggling to think who would play in my personal all time Oxford XI there. Probably Mike Ford (was considering Paul Powell from the 99/00 season.....but if I remember correctly, he played a lot of that season on the left wing [while keeping us up almost single-handed])

Feels like we've had a lot more great fullbacks on the right-hand side.
It has to be John Shuker for me. Mister reliable.
 
Stevens over Eastwood

Skarz over Seddon

Agree but it depends on which era Eastwood we’re talking about. Eastwood 2016-17 was superb and better than Stevens is presently. Eastwood since 2020 and I’d have to go for the rapidly improving Stevens.
 
Jake Wright being overlooked massively here. Should’ve played in L1 for us and went on to get promoted with Sheffield United.

Underrated defender.

100% this. An absolute crooner of a centre-back.
 
Jake Wright being overlooked massively here. Should’ve played in L1 for us and went on to get promoted with Sheffield United.

Underrated defender.
A fairly rare mistake from MA. The two had a falling out before the JPT final (hence Wright being benched for the game, despite being sent to do most of the pre-match media in the days prior) and that was the beginning of the end. Letting him move on while signing Aaron Martin in the summer was not the best bit of business. Imagine a centre back pairing of Wright and Nelson…

Offering Hylton a one-year deal on about £100 a week more than he had been on previously was another error, all because it was deemed that Wes Thomas was superior and that therefore DH wasn’t a priority. We’ll never know for sure, but I personally think that keeping both him and Wright would have put us into the playoffs in that first season back in L1.
 
A fairly rare mistake from MA. The two had a falling out before the JPT final (hence Wright being benched for the game, despite being sent to do most of the pre-match media in the days prior) and that was the beginning of the end. Letting him move on while signing Aaron Martin in the summer was not the best bit of business. Imagine a centre back pairing of Wright and Nelson…

Offering Hylton a one-year deal on about £100 a week more than he had been on previously was another error, all because it was deemed that Wes Thomas was superior and that therefore DH wasn’t a priority. We’ll never know for sure, but I personally think that keeping both him and Wright would have put us into the playoffs in that first season back in L1.

Although we did have Dunkley and Nelson that season - so Centre Back was hardly an area of weakness. In many ways, you could argue that was a better combo with the pure size and power of Chey alongside Nelson's more nuanced skillset.

Hard to believe that Hylton wouldn't have been an upgrade on Thomas & Hemmings though - and we only missed out on the playoffs by four points in the end.

That was still a damn good side, with the likes of Lundstram, Rothwell, Ledson, Marvin Johnson, peak Chris Maguire and still-able-to-run Robbie Hall......
......it's a shame we then hired Pep to come in and destroy it......
 
Disappointed that I've only just seen this as it will sound like sour grapes but I can't believe the amount of people who would pick Thorniley over Wright and Dunkley, he would be fourth choice at best for me. Wright and Dunkley were both crucial players for the teams who won the league the season after they left us and Thorniley isn't at that level. Maguire would need to be in there as we I think and although he left under a cloud and has wasted his career since O'Dowda would be in there based on talent.
 
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