Manager/Coach Robbo out. Thread number 2

[bazzer9461]

Whatever you do, don't tell Bazza that...!

No his goal scoring has been fine it’s the defence that has been the issue.

 

[bazzer9461]

There were a couple of others from what I read, not just Swindon. And he'll be on a good wage.

Who was talking about Stockton and Norwood other than on here?

That’s the only place we seemed to have heard that about Stockton and Norwood

 

[Mellowyellow]

If promotion was the target this year we'd have forced through a number of deals in January. The money was there but our targets weren't. It was felt that we'd be better waiting until the summer rather than switching targets late in the transfer window.

This has to be read to be believed. Surely not even you believe that. So at the end of the day, promotion clearly wasn't the target this year?
What information do you have to back it up?
If you were to ask the one you which you give god like status, kr, that question to his face, he would laugh you out of the park.

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

Short was s**t.

A CB of his quality, in Mous’s era, would be league 2 standard, at best

Neil Warnock said on TalkSPORT last week that Short was one of his best ever signings. He also moved to Derby for 2.5 million 30 years ago which suggests that he wasn’t s**t at all. Also Mousinho has pretty much spent his entire career playing in the lower leagues so your argument doesn’t really stack up does it.

 

[Mad Dog]

Neil Warnock said on TalkSPORT last week that Short was one of his best ever signings. He also moved to Derby for 2.5 million 30 years ago which suggests that he wasn’t s**t at all. Also Mousinho has pretty much spent his entire career playing in the lower leagues so your argument doesn’t really stack up does it.

Yeah but Warnock’s s**t as well…

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

Yeah but Warnock’s s**t as well…

Oh is he, ok then.

 

[Mad Dog]

Oh is he, ok then.

That’s settled that.

 

[Jonny G]

Short was s**t.

A CB of his quality, in Mous’s era, would be league 2 standard, at best

That's utter B*****s. He played 20 games for a team that was promoted from Championship as late as 2005/06. If regular PL centre back of late 90s / early 00s would be "League 2 standard at best" these days, does that mean that Adams, Keown, Stam, Pallister, Campbell would only be League 1 players these days? Jesus wept.

You can question his coaching ability, as was pointed out earlier defence seemed good under him last season, but as a whole team we've been very poor and extremely naïve defensively all season, that would seem to be a mixture of KR, Mous and Short. Something does need to change there

 

[Smokey’s Chair]

So we are going for an engineered next season promotion after all. Good luck with this.

Unfortunately, your post (boo hoo) has now ruined the dream of what most normal fans cream themselves each and every new season when they enter through the turnstiles. Rochdale included.

Let's hope that the majority of the fans who wanted promotion last/this season will now be happy to shell out their hard earned megila again knowing that next season is now a dead on cert.

I'm orf to the bank on Tuesday so I can secure my engineered seat.

COYY'S

This...

 

[ZeroTheHero]

You can question his coaching ability, as was pointed out earlier defence seemed good under him last season, but as a whole team we've been very poor and extremely naïve defensively all season, that would seem to be a mixture of KR, Mous and Short. Something does need to change there

Exactly. You can question *why* we have become so poor defensively, but nobody could deny that it is a fact. Playing staff, coaching staff, team set up, fitness - it could be any of them or a combination of all of them. I doubt there is one single person who is confident we will keep a clean sheet in any of the remaining games - and the odds are we will ship two per game!

 

[Mad Dog]

That's utter B*****s. He played 20 games for a team that was promoted from Championship as late as 2005/06. If regular PL centre back of late 90s / early 00s would be "League 2 standard at best" these days, does that mean that Adams, Keown, Stam, Pallister, Campbell would only be League 1 players these days? Jesus wept.

You can question his coaching ability, as was pointed out earlier defence seemed good under him last season, but as a whole team we've been very poor and extremely naïve defensively all season, that would seem to be a mixture of KR, Mous and Short. Something does need to change there

Oh stop getting your knickers in a twist!

I’m sat around bored, drinking beer and scoffing Easter eggs, and I’m not really taking the conversation seriously

I didn’t rate Short as a player, but some obviously did, who gives a f*****g s**t?!?

I rate him even less as a coach, others disagree, time will tell on that one I suppose…

Now, another beer I think, and a cadburys cream egg

 

[Osleroad]

Thought Short was Assistant Manager not the be all and end all defensive coach. We may question him as AM ad many have been inc. ML, DF, SD

 

[Paul Cannell]

I was not suggesting that was the case.
I was referring to the comment that Short was a s**t clogger of a CB.
I would also suggest that Atkinson and McNally improved a lot at Oxford.
The fact that we have been poor defensively and that fact in my view are not mutually exclusive

Fair enough, I was making a general point using your post rather than @Mad dog87

I have a suspicion that Atkinson didn't improve that much defensively- he got lots of attention for bringing the ball out well. McNally has come on I think but needs to read the game better, I wonder if that's been helped by playing alongside Long in a three? Moore seems to me to be entirely reactive, still.

Something needs changing, and I don’t necessarily think sacrificing subordinates will be enough.

 

[Scotchegg]

Sam Long, Jack Stevens, Sam Winnal, Steve Seddon and, to a lesser extent, Mark Sykes, Gavin Whyte, Herbie Kane. Some of the shortcomings are down to being played out of position, some are clearly a dip in form. They may all wish to be on top of their game but, some are struggling. The lack of sufficient rotation within the squad has taken it's toll. Even you will have to admit that we do not have a settled and balanced team. Some games it works, others it clearly doesn't. With a resilient squad injuries, loss of form can be covered to an extent. Losing Gorrin was a blow, not having a defensive midfielder has exposed the back four and the wing backs are not used to covering back.

I've been out so didn't get the chance to reply in detail before, so sorry for the essay now!

Let's look through the first four players that you've listed as not performing to standard.

Sam Long missed the start of the season following covid and picking up a calf injury. Long has repeatedly been one of the fittest players in the club, but after catching covid his stats were well below those of people starting preseason. We all know the impact that covid can have on the respiratory system, and Sam effectively had to start preseason again in September. He's had it again since, and I don't know the stats as it stands, but I'd guess that he's pretty much running on fumes right now.

Jack Stevens was exceptional last season but seems to have lost that edge this year, even before catching gradualar fever. He'd barely played in front of a big crowd before, and that may be an impact, or he may just have lost a little confidence. But his footwork is a little slow, and he appears to be a yard or so out of position each time meaning that he gets beat by shots across him. This seems to have got worse since his illness but there could be a number of reasons why his form has dropped. Personally I'd have stuck with Eastwood until the end of the season and don't know why we brought Stevens back in.

Sam Winnall has, in my opinion, looked a little sharper when playing. But he's rarely played and I'm not sure that he would have made any difference this season.

Steve Seddon played as a wing back when in a flat back four and was dropped when we played with wing backs. A strange player in that he was right at the top of league assists when playing regularly, and our defence hasn't looked much better since he was dropped. A bit of an easy target for fan abuse and its undoubtedly hit his confidence. But I wouldn't be against him playing at left wing back next season, especially if we had a more specialist left back too.

Of the rest, Sykes, Whyte and Kane, they have had bad spells but I thinknthe positives far out weight the negatives. Sykes was excellent for the first half of the season, and I think that playing as a wing back had more of an impact on his performance than any perceived attitude issues. Whyte can't score for s**t, but his general game has been good and he's right up there with league assists. And Kane has looked a class above at times. Alongside Brannagan he's been brilliant, and makes Cam a better player. Without Cam he has looked a bit ordinary, but some of the criticism has been unfair in my view.

I'll fully accept that the lack of rotation has contributed to the issues we've had, and that does come down to squad depth. Robinson is entirely responsible for this and needs to balance the squad in the summer. But equally there are some issues that you can't predict and I think covid and issues away from football have had a greater impact than many would have expected. I won't go into any details as even implying something has happened gets some screaming confidentiality, but things haven't always been what they appear on the surface.

Do other teams have injuries? Has covid been the same for everyone? Can personal issues impact every team? Of course they can and I don't think that we've had any worse luck than other teams. But a little rub of the green could have made a huge difference between us pushing for the autos and desperately hoping that others fail to give us a sniff at the playoffs.

I do however think that we'll see a very different Oxford United next year, and luck shouldn't come into it. The club isn't far away, and Robinson is capable of taking us up. But that will only happen if we improve in every area, and I don't exclude Robinson from that.

 

[Gregortheox]

It's been a very difficult few yrs what with covid etc and I'm quite proud of what we stand for as a club, and really excited about where we are going.

However, away from the positive PR, the chat about the new stadium 🏟 and our community work, this team is almost there in my opinion. I say almost because there are some vital ingredients missing from the pot that have been widely discussed and are glaringly obvious.

KR may disagree but I bet anyone on this board 100.00 gbp that if he fails to address this then OUFC will not be going to the championship under his tenure.

 

[The mighty Aldo]

It's been a very difficult few yrs what with covid etc and I'm quite proud of what we stand for as a club, and really excited about where we are going.

However, away from the positive PR, the chat about the new stadium 🏟 and our community work, this team is almost there in my opinion. I say almost because there are some vital ingredients missing from the pot that have been widely discussed and are glaringly obvious.

KR may disagree but I bet anyone on this board 100.00 gbp that if he fails to address this then OUFC will not be going to the championship under his tenure.

But surely this was said last after the Blackpool game, dont get me wrong I like KR and the style of football we play but we all knew what was needed defensively last year and it didn’t happen
Wingers are great but you need the Gorrins of this world

 

[Mitcham Exile]

Seeing a lot of talk about whether or not we should stick with Robinson, but not a lot of talk about who we would get that would be better than him...

Surely we'd have to give a new manager time to build a squad according to his/her vision. I'd say Robinson should get at least one more season, assuming we do not go up this year.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

Seeing a lot of talk about whether or not we should stick with Robinson, but not a lot of talk about who we would get that would be better than him...

Surely we'd have to give a new manager time to build a squad according to his/her vision.

Which is why one more season of Robinson might actually mean no serious chance of promotion until 2025, if that was indeed the case. That is the sort of scenario that the board will be pondering if the top six is indeed missed this year, and while people can argue about promotion being the target or not (of course it was), the bare minimum expected after so much spending in both windows, not to mention all the offers turned down for players to boot, was to at least hold on to a playoff spot like last season. Miss out on sixth place and it’s a fail versus the target set by the powers that be. Do the board think he’s got it in him to use the next wave of investment in the correct manner, or do they think that a change saves time moving forward? There’s no point driving faster if you’re driving the wrong way, after all. That’s one of many questions the board will be asking themselves. Business people at their level are proactive, not reactive. The conversation will be had even if the decision is swift and unanimous.

That said, Plymouth and MK have managers in their first seasons at present - in fact neither of them even started the season in charge, so haven’t had a pre-season of planning or a proper summer transfer window since they’ve been in their jobs - so not all managers / head coaches need 12-18 months to get their feet under the desk. Managers aren’t that much different from players. You back yourself and your judgement / research when you sign them, and while some take a while to adjust others slot in straight away. The club has never been more stable or had as solid a foundation as it has in 2022, so that makes certain decisions a little easier than they would have been previously. Time will tell.

I personally suspect Robinson is here for the start of next season, in fact I would be stunned if not, but I do think that unless he has the team right up there from the off and firmly embedded in the top six in the run up to Christmas, he will be gone. If he has another start like 18/19, 19/20 or 20/21 (this season has very much been the exception rather than the rule), I doubt he’ll even make it to October.

 

[The mighty Aldo]

Which is why one more season of Robinson might actually mean no serious chance of promotion until 2025, if that was indeed the case. That is the sort of scenario that the board will be pondering if the top six is indeed missed this year, and while people can argue about promotion being the target or not (of course it was), the bare minimum expected after so much spending in both windows, not to mention all the offers turned down for players to boot, was to at least hold on to a playoff spot like last season. Miss out on sixth place and it’s a fail versus the target set by the powers that be. Do the board think he’s got it in him to use the next wave of investment in the correct manner, or do they think that a change saves time moving forward? There’s no point driving faster if you’re driving the wrong way, after all. That’s one of many questions the board will be asking themselves. Business people at their level are proactive, not reactive. The conversation will be had even if the decision is swift and unanimous.

That said, Plymouth and MK have managers in their first seasons at present - in fact neither of them even started the season in charge, so haven’t had a pre-season of planning or a proper summer transfer window since they’ve been in their jobs - so not all managers / head coaches need 12-18 months to get their feet under the desk. Managers aren’t that much different from players. You back yourself and your judgement / research when you sign them, and while some take a while to adjust others slot in straight away. The club has never been more stable or had as solid a foundation as it has in 2022, so that makes certain decisions a little easier than they would have been previously. Time will tell.

I personally suspect Robinson is here for the start of next season, in fact I would be stunned if not, but I do think that unless he has the team right up there from the off and firmly embedded in the top six in the run up to Christmas, he will be gone. If he has another start like 18/19, 19/20 or 20/21 (this season has very much been the exception rather than the rule), I doubt he’ll even make it to October.

Sunderland sacked their manager when they were third in the league. Mind you they had been beaten 6-0 and that had come after leaking 5 on two previous occasions. That may have been a master stroke we will find out in a few games time. But nevertheless it was a bold move.

I do get the impression that until Mr Bacrie is running the show and Tiger has moved on we will drift through next season.
I don't have any evidence to back this up but it’s just a feeling that until the green light is given for the stadium we are in limbo. Yes the money will be there for players but who is actually in charge at the moment and making the decision about the manager. What is an acceptable position at the turn of the year and what is not. Plus they have given KR a four year contract so this makes me think Birdio maybe right and we may be looking at 2025 for promotion

 

[Manorlounger]

I do get the impression that until Mr Bacrie is running the show and Tiger has moved on we will drift through next season.
I don't have any evidence to back this up but it’s just a feeling that until the green light is given for the stadium we are in limbo. Yes the money will be there for players but who is actually in charge at the moment and making the decision about the manager. What is an acceptable position at the turn of the year and what is not. Plus they have given KR a four year contract so this makes me think Birdio maybe right and we may be looking at 2025 for promotion

Tiger is no more than a figurehead, the real control lies firmly with the majority shareholders. They have the finance, they pull the strings. Bakrie wants promotion, if he doesn't get it, strings will be pulled.