Why We Are 23rd (a key reason)

[Mintyshoe]

There's no hiding from the league table after 9 games, that's enough of a sample size to predict a tough season ahead.

I'm not a KR fan. I haven't seen evidence of any tactical nous, discipline or vision that we had under MAPP, at best he's a good man manager. Having said that the seeds of our current position were sown during the 2017 summer transfer window:



This was both around the time MAPP left, Eales decided he wanted to sell and Pep came onto the scene.

Just by looking at the Ins and Outs it hammers home what an absolute catastrophe the transfer activity was around that time; when taken as a whole you can see the lasting damage this has had. Some of it was misfortune (Ribeiro) and you could argue we were a victim of our own success, but had the leadership shown more ambition we may have hung on to these names. More damning, we have never replaced them with anything like the quality (Henry aside).

Added to this we since lost Ledson, Rothwell and Ricardinho came and went. It would be tough to argue any of the incomings have been of a similar ilk.

Taking all of this into account it's no surprise we're struggling. Looking at our teamsheet on wikipedia it's concerning how much of the current squad aren't our players.

There are some positives - namely Eastwood, Nelson, Henry, Whyte and the emergence of Baptiste. The team should be built around this core of young talented Oxford United players.

 

[Berliner]

Our current captain not worthy of a star then?

 

[Millman]

There is a fine line in our policy developing youth then selling them on to finance the club. It only really works if you can maintain the quality in the production line and pad out the rest of the team with a good solid balance of talent and experience. Even then sell too much talent and at best you just stand still.

At a guess I would say that this policy is part of why we lost MApp. to loose so many key players each year and expect improvement in results is a big ask. Plus losing players you have developed and having to start again time after time is demoralising for a manager.

Having said that the Pep disaster of 2017 where we clearly abandoned our quest for youth has largely been undone with the addition of Brannagan , Dickie, Whyte and the development of Baptiste. However you could say our policy is working a little too well with players stepping up far quicker than we hoped and so we loose too many each year and never get the true benefit from them.

What we have done really badly since 2017 (summer 2018 was equally as big disaster maybe worse given the time the recruitment took)) is replace the the remaining squad members with like talent. We have had the odd hit like Henry but also a lot of misses. This has hit us hardest in terms of strikers which you could argue we have lacked since Roofe.

I like the development of youth model. However the club needs to get smarter with its contracts so that they dictate the pace of replacement and less so the players. We also need to see much smarter recruitment outside of young players. The club needs to consider injury history much more and maximum age needs to be reviewed. Maybe a few less supposed wow signings like Mackie and more concentration on solid players to this level to bulk out the squad is what is needed. Maybe our current budget does not spring to top signings but we should be putting more emphasis on strikers. Above all though what is key is that if we genuinely want success we need more stability season on season.

 

[yellowbow]

What frustrates me is Robinson is now talking about the club needing to bring in ‘Houdini’ if they thought about replacing him and that he has several top notch strikers lined up to come in January while desperately trying to convince Tiger to give his old buddy Maynard a contract when there’s very little evidence he worth one. We’re in a desperate situation with the striker situation and unless he can reveal evidence to the contrary, it’s all of his own making. He had all summer, with a couple of months prior to that to assess and prepare the ground, and he failed miserably. He has to take the responsibility for that.

 

[Mintyshoe]

Our current captain not worthy of a star then?

No.

Over the last few years our best CB partnerships have seen a combination of Mullins, Wright, Nelson and Dunkley.

Mousinho at his best is no where near these four.

 

[Shropshire U]

Thanks, Mintyshoe, for an illuminating analysis. And as you say, summer 2018 was perhaps even worse.
Whyte is the only success story to date. Carruthers is likely to break down on a regular basis; Holmes has a dodgy back and gives off a general air of "only here for a few months"; Browne has lots of ability but is too easily muscled out of games; then there's a list of blokes who have shown very little as yet - Mackie, Smith, McMahon, Garbutt, Hanson.

 

[Marked Ox]

No.

Over the last few years our best CB partnerships have seen a combination of Mullins, Wright, Nelson and Dunkley.

Mousinho at his best is no where near these four.

Mousinho is easily on a par with Mullins, as good a player as he was for us in L2.

 

[Essexyellows]

There is a fine line in our policy developing youth then selling them on to finance the club. It only really works if you can maintain the quality in the production line and pad out the rest of the team with a good solid balance of talent and experience. Even then sell too much talent and at best you just stand still.

I like the development of youth model. However the club needs to get smarter with its contracts so that they dictate the pace of replacement and less so the players. We also need to see much smarter recruitment outside of young players. The club needs to consider injury history much more and maximum age needs to be reviewed. Maybe a few less supposed wow signings like Mackie and more concentration on solid players to this level to bulk out the squad is what is needed. Maybe our current budget does not spring to top signings but we should be putting more emphasis on strikers. Above all though what is key is that if we genuinely want success we need more stability season on season.

This.

Aside from that .........................you can`t legally discriminate on the grounds of age.

 

[westyorkshireexile]

This.

Aside from that .........................you can`t legally discriminate on the grounds of age.

How can that be discrimination. Surely that would only apply if an older player applied to join the club and was subsequently turned down.

 

[Mystery Yellow]

Mousinho is easily on a par with Mullins, as good a player as he was for us in L2.

Mullins never made the basic mistakes that Mousinho does ever game, mousinho gets away with a lot on here without anyone mentioning, the first goal against Walsall his positioning was more questionable than Norman playing the player onside, second half he got away with a player taking the ball off him around his penalty area for the strikers header hits the bar

Mousinho is useless imo can’t defend properly & cost us goals

 

[pooshooter]

we are 23rd because we score too few goals and we concede too many goals - any similarity with a labour party slogan purely coincidental

 

[Mystery Yellow]

3 main issues or problems have been defensive mistakes - scoring goals & formation,

all 4 home league games we should of got some out of them both Coventry & Fleetwood were bang average/poor as were we on the day, Accrington we through away 3 points & Walsall who I thought were quite decent to be fair but 2 mistakes cost us a point minimum out of that game add those points up we could quite easily be sat on 15 points with win against Sunderland & Wycombe had we look our chances on the day

As we know we got 3 strikers with no goals in them & no real goal threat either but have they had aload of chances to live off & should of put away imo no - this formation has never worked well we tried it under Appleton with no real success & now it looks even worse under KR 4-3-1-2, 5-3-2, 4-4-2, 4-3-3 are 4 different formations we could play with the players we have in this squad but still stick to 4-2-3-1 which makes our forwards ineffective

We are not as bad as the league table says but these things have been a factor on where we are, October could be make or break for Robinson as many now are feed up listening to the same excuses time & time again

 

[ljs]

All these players who keep making mistakes that cost us games we should have won. Maybe they make mistakes because they are not good enough players, so we got exactly what we deserved...

 

[Oldham]

Our current captain not worthy of a star then?

Which particular current captain do you mean ?

 

[Marked Ox]

Mullins never made the basic mistakes that Mousinho does ever game, mousinho gets away with a lot on here without anyone mentioning, the first goal against Walsall his positioning was more questionable than Norman playing the player onside, second half he got away with a player taking the ball off him around his penalty area for the strikers header hits the bar

Mousinho is useless imo can’t defend properly & cost us goals

Mullins played at a lower level. Mousinho is playing at a higher level.

 

[Mystery Yellow]

Mullins played at a lower level. Mousinho is playing at a higher level.

Mousinho would make the same mistakes whether that be in league 1-2 or non league it’s just in his game

 

[Marked Ox]

Mousinho would make the same mistakes whether that be in league 1-2 or non league it’s just in his game

And yet he did a good job for Burton in this division and the Championship. Must have been a hell of a lot of luck for Burton in their rise through the divisions.

Plus Mullins made plenty of mistakes himself at a lower league.