Steve Obika

[Jimmy Ike]

Went to Barnsley today with anticipation and excitement - pre-season complete, a bevy of new players joined and a bit of confidence that we might kick off the season well and recreate some of the memorable performances of classic sides of years gone by. And boy did we get that.

Unfortunately it was reminiscent of a performance from 1999-2000, with extra points for Jon Obika doing a superb impression of Steve Anthrobus in his pomp. Now don't get me wrong, I bloody loved that DOMINO kit, but any chance we can get Obika shipped out somewhere pronto?

 

[TailsWeWin]

I was there too. Absolute waste of space. Can I shout please? CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT HE ACTUALLY DOES THAT’S USEFUL?

 

[Ricey]

I went also, he wasn’t very good but neither was anyone else, with the exception of Eastwood (Brannagan did ok)...

 

[Osleroad]

I went also, he wasn’t very good but neither was anyone else, with the exception of Eastwood (Brannagan did ok)...

And Easty had his moments

 

[Whingit]

Yeah, what about everyone else? Who will the scapegoat be if he does go?

 

[TailsWeWin]

Yeah, what about everyone else? Who will the scapegoat be if he does go?

Define “scapegoat”. He was appalling.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

Define “scapegoat”. He was appalling.

He was. But so was basically every other player on our side.

 

[Victor1986]

All of us could see last season that he was bloody useless! How can our manager not see this?

 

[Oufcrealist]

All of us could see last season that he was bloody useless! How can our manager not see this?

He can. Smith will start next week.

 

[Victor1986]

And then we can off-load him to ...er Oxford City? More worryingly is Irish Gavin going to be able to cut the mustard?

 

[Marked Ox]

And then we can off-load him to ...er Oxford City? More worryingly is Irish Gavin going to be able to cut the mustard?

Bloody hell, give Whyte a chance to settle first!

 

[beyondthefourth]

If the rest of the team is playing well, and Obika is terrible, then I'll call for his head. However, when the team played well in preseason, he got goals.

I'll reserve judgement when we get our midfield sorted out so not being swamped, and he's being supplied by Holmes (hopefully) and Hall next couple of matches.

 

[McXal]

To be fair - Whyte looked a long way out of his depth. His contributions were getting roundly muscled off the ball multiple times, then running into blind alleys and losing it in silly areas a few times.

Too early to judge him of course. But he’s definitely a long-term project rather than someone to make an instant impact. His stature reminded me of pre-L2 promotion season O’Dowda

 

[Oufc28]

Agree with most that has been said..obika has been scapegoated after one game!!! We signed Sam smith to score, why didn't he hit the back of the net. How many chances to did out other quality players create for obika..Bradshaw and moore didn't net for barnsley today..waste of spaces..put a different record on people. The bloke has had one game where most of the game he played by himself against two very good cbs.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

I don't really like the guy - I think he's been pretty dire ever since he turned up - but for now he is what we have and he wasn't any worse than most of the team today. He's clearly mentally fragile, his body language and frequent trips to a London based mind coach can tell you that, so he isn't going to get any better being the scapegoat. Yes, he needs to stand up and be counted and criticism when you don't perform is to be expected, there's no debating that. But it isn't going to help if he's the one getting screamed at for doing things that other people would receive groans for. That's the issue with scapegoating - it's the fact that someone can be shot for doing something that would result in a slap on the wrist were it anyone else. That's far different to taking fair and reasonable criticism, and it's really unhealthy and unhelpful.

 

[Oufc28]

What is annoying me the most is he is coming in for the most abuse when there were clearly much worse players out there..nelson had a shocker, ruffels (he's oxford own won't get touched) had a shocker, both full backs did pretty much nothing yet the striker with the exception of a 1-v-1 had nothing to feed off is the worst player to ever have played for the club. Some fans are so narrow sighted it's scary. Reminds me when it was Henry last season. If I recall rightly after blackpool away last season despite scoring had a poor game and then there was the whole thing where he maDe a gesture to our fans, however would we be playing barnsley without him. I think not.

 

[uptheus]

I went also, he wasn’t very good but neither was anyone else, with the exception of Eastwood (Brannagan did ok)...

Brannagan was shite, and just threw his arms in the air in frustration rather than actually doing something about it.

The ONLY player that came of the pitch from Oxford with any credit was Hall, the rest were absolute dog shite.

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

Despite all the over reaction re Obika the reality is that he is just average, just a hardworking player that can do a job. He has never scored a lot of goals throughout his career so relying on him to be your main front player is probably misguided. I am sure they would probably unload him if they could but I suspect he is on a good contract so there wouldn’t be many takers.
I know everyone says it but to really challenge you need to spend big and bring in someone proven who can take a half chance. If you don’t then you just take chances on players and hope they come off, like Smith.

 

[Emilio]

I don't really like the guy - I think he's been pretty dire ever since he turned up - but for now he is what we have and he wasn't any worse than most of the team today. He's clearly mentally fragile, his body language and frequent trips to a London based mind coach can tell you that, so he isn't going to get any better being the scapegoat. Yes, he needs to stand up and be counted and criticism when you don't perform is to be expected, there's no debating that. But it isn't going to help if he's the one getting screamed at for doing things that other people would receive groans for. That's the issue with scapegoating - it's the fact that someone can be shot for doing something that would result in a slap on the wrist were it anyone else. That's far different to taking fair and reasonable criticism, and it's really unhealthy and unhelpful.

This

 

[The Hawk]

I don't really like the guy - I think he's been pretty dire ever since he turned up - but for now he is what we have and he wasn't any worse than most of the team today. He's clearly mentally fragile, his body language and frequent trips to a London based mind coach can tell you that, so he isn't going to get any better being the scapegoat. Yes, he needs to stand up and be counted and criticism when you don't perform is to be expected, there's no debating that. But it isn't going to help if he's the one getting screamed at for doing things that other people would receive groans for. That's the issue with scapegoating - it's the fact that someone can be shot for doing something that would result in a slap on the wrist were it anyone else. That's far different to taking fair and reasonable criticism, and it's really unhealthy and unhelpful.

The mind coach must be awful