Away Match Day Thread +++ 13/01/2018 Walsall v OUFC match day thread +++

[West Oxon U’s]

Mousinho made a point of going to one chap ( his photo was posted somewhere) and was in a debate which involved a bit if given get wagging. Then a 2nd bloke called him over and seemed to be hurling an incoherent muddle if words at him.

Was it you ?

 

[sonofivan]

I wasn’t at the game today (Jerome) but I have found it interesting to read the variety of opinions of the team selection, performance, tactics and substitutions.

I understand the frustrations of fans who went (and some of those who didn’t) but I feel that criticising Clotet for not starting or subbing on the new players is foolish. They have been with the squad for a matter of days, hours on the case of the Man City lad and going in unprepared could set them up for a big fall - a potentially headless chicken disaster of a debut.

It does not mean that Pep thinks GvK is Gareth Bale. Have a bit of patience!

 

[Oldman159]

Not sure how either DT and GVK got such a bad press. ?Dwight did well going forward at times (particularly first half) but did sort of dwell on mistakes he made second half. GVK came on with only10 minutes left

 

[Lundinsponytail]

Mmm.

OK so my view is a little more in line with the BBC's view (I agree they are not always right.

We should have won that game convincingly. The BBC start with 'a string of superb saves from keeper Liam Roberts helped Walsall.....' Their fans rightly had him as MoM.

So far as the defence. Really? In my view tiendalli was not great but OK. Canice unfortunately was at fault for the first goal and could have given a couple more away. One of his poorer games.

Little creativity? That was not the problem. The finishing was poor. We had 59% possession, 14 shots of which 7 were on target. Obika should have taken the one on one with 20 minutes left (and I reckon we would have then won). Josh had a good chance and hit it past the post. Mehmeti missed a glorious chance with a minute to go.

In the second half we had a lot of the game and looked like scoring regularly . But the finishing was very poor (even in the first half Henry should have finished a really good chance and their keeper made a great save from Thomas.

What goes around comes around. When we play terribly and get hauled out of jail by Eastwood, many on here refer to it as 'gritty.' But when the opposition goalkeeper plays well, somehow we 'deserved to win the game'.
Eastwood has - from memory - been man of the match in eight games this season. That tells its own story. We are a lower mid-table side being propped up by a championship goalie.
We have just played three tight games against other lower mid-table teams (MKDons, Blackpool and Walsall). All three will be in the bottom 8 or so. And on the balance of play over all three, it's been about even. Take that level of form into the games that we have after Bury and we will suffer.
Here's hoping that the three new youngsters can bring some pace and energy to the side.

 

[Scotchegg]

What goes around comes around. When we play terribly and get hauled out of jail by Eastwood, many on here refer to it as 'gritty.' But when the opposition goalkeeper plays well, somehow we 'deserved to win the game'.
Eastwood has - from memory - been man of the match in eight games this season. That tells its own story. We are a lower mid-table side being propped up by a championship goalie.
We have just played three tight games against other lower mid-table teams (MKDons, Blackpool and Walsall). All three will be in the bottom 8 or so. And on the balance of play over all three, it's been about even. Take that level of form into the games that we have after Bury and we will suffer.
Here's hoping that the three new youngsters can bring some pace and energy to the side.

Same old Charlie!

No one claimed that we were amazing last week, in fact pretty much everyone acknowledged that Eastwood got us out of jail. Nothing wrong then to mention the opposition keeper when they prevent us getting a result. Seems pretty balanced to me.

And we are mid table. Not lower mid table, relegation dog fight or any other panicky description. We win some, we lose some. Nothing new there! We are entirely unpredictable so the last 3 games have no meaning on the next 3. But then why change your doom mongering regardless of the facts?

 

[Peterdev]

Reading most of the reports. We still need to do better and the finishing needs improving.
Looks like we had an awful referee and a very good goalie to come up against.
Positives are that we look better going forward and have new additions coming in next week. Looks like we need to release a couple of players and get one more player, a clinical striker, if such a one is available. I look forward to seeing Oxford trounce Bury next week

 

[Scotchegg]

Precisely. The attitude is sometimes 'agree with me or you're in the wrong'. Errant nonsense. Fortunately, on this new forum the number of shallow thinkers who adopt that thought process seems to have diminished. To be fair to (the new) Charlie, he's posting thoughtful opinions without trying to brow beat others into accepting them.

Give him time!!!!! ?

 

[Concretebob]

Going off on a tangent here, but I thought the whole day felt like a metaphor for all that is wrong about football in this country.

Before the game, as you'll all know, Birmingham city centre also had Derby and Brighton fans in the pubs, who were going to their respective games. The Derby fans we chatted to were very well educated about all football - had a chat to around six of them in the Windsor pub. Contrast that to the Brighton fans in another pub who said 'we don't follow non premier football' talk about entitled - they've been in the premier league football half a season and think they are the dogs B*****s.

Walsall itself - 3,000 or so home fans was absolutely pathetic - but when we spoke to one of their fans after the game you can understand it. Villa just down the road often sell tickets for less than they do when they are not expecting a sell out. They've got no chance with Wolves and West Brom nearby too.

Second season in the row Derby have been at Birmingham the same day we've been at Walsall, they seem like a pretty decent bunch. Some Brighton fans (there some on the train who looked down their noses at us) appear to be new football wankers. I'm sure they've got some good fans, but their representatives we met yesterday summed up all that is wrong with modern football.

 

[witney50]

I bet all the team mates they have been training with and the coaching staff were better than ours...[

Surely a range of views is a good thing, witney50? And expressing a view is better than writing 'lol' for no apparent reason?

He knew why I asked him a question, I wasn't disagreeing with his view as such, but in his review he was quoting a players performance who hadn't played so I asked if he was at the game...so I was being chippy according to him ... and I replied lol...hope that clears that up.

 

[Lundinsponytail]

Same old Charlie!

No one claimed that we were amazing last week, in fact pretty much everyone acknowledged that Eastwood got us out of jail. Nothing wrong then to mention the opposition keeper when they prevent us getting a result. Seems pretty balanced to me.

And we are mid table. Not lower mid table, relegation dog fight or any other panicky description. We win some, we lose some. Nothing new there! We are entirely unpredictable so the last 3 games have no meaning on the next 3. But then why change your doom mongering regardless of the facts?

The point I am making is that our outfield side - the bit that pep has selected and coaches - is a lower midtable outfit. The top class keeper has turned that into a midtable side.
That is not 'doom-mongering'. It is an opinion backed up with some evidence (not all that usual for a goalie to be motm as often as that). Since our first two games of tge season (played against two teams who were in some chaos for different reasons) we have got 32 points from 26 games. Extrapolated over the season that form amounts to 56 points, which is lower mid-table at best, more likely bottom eight.
Let's hope that Brannegan and Dickie bring some youth, quality and enthusiasm. Because this current bunch are a horrible mix of past-its (Williamson, Tiendalli, Henry, Mousinho), never will bes (Gino, Xemi, Martin) and a few up and down the line lower league players (Thomas, Obika, ruffels, hall). The only players we have who could plausibly be something better are Nelson, Eastwood and Ledson. That's not enough. The majority of the better teams we have played have had 6 or 7 players out on the pitch who could plausibly be Championship level. That is why they have been looking so much better than us.

 

[captainox]

Can't believe we lost that yesterday. A lot of people seem to be using the result as a smokescreen for being able to call the performance sh!t.
We actually played quite well, but I think as Oxford fans, we also knew that not taking the lead in the first 30minutes was going to come back to haunt us. Thomas and Henry should have buried their chances. Martin should have done better with his unmarked header.
Woeful goals to concede - a complete lack of concentration by pretty much everyone for the first, and undone by a hoof down the middle for the second (which they had tried numerous times already)

The most frustrating thing was we knew how Walsall would play - they'd done a similar thing at Grenoble Road.
Oztumer is their best player and we allowed him to have so much space right from the first minute. Whereas, they effectively shut Payne off. They played on the counter in the first half and also tried balls in behind Mousinho and Martin - it was obvious they would eventually get a chance from one of these as we didn't look confident in defending them all day.
We also went back to playing the ball across the back four numerous times - the Walsall manager had mentioned it during the week:
"Whitney said: “I think they have changed their style a little.
“I went to watch them at Blackpool and they don’t take as many risks at the back.
“They play in open play but they try and play in the right areas now."

We definitely weren't playing in the right areas yesterday - Mousinho in particular, I lost count of the number of times he almost lost the ball doing some kind of Cruyff turn on the edge of his box.

Subs wise, Gvk for Henry just as Henry was starting to get on top of his man and look incredibly dangerous was bizarre. Napa was very good but very raw as you would expect. I'd also have brought Mehmeti on for Ruffels and just gone for it.
Criminal by Obika to miss that sitter, unforgivable.

Dwight has five minutes looking a world beater then five minutes looking like a park player. Surprise surprise, Mowatt looked a top player in central midfield and Ruffels had a good go at being the Ledson style aggressive bloke. A middle 3 of Ruffels, Brannagan and Mowatt would be interesting.

We move on but that game sums up why we will finish midtable. Defensive rickets and missing sitters.
We will play worse and win.
Surprised by the number of fans who seem so angry at the moment. It really is quite strange. I think there is some really unrealistic expectations of what this season was going to bring. Almighty changes across the club over the summer, Lunny, Maguire, Dunkley, Johnson, McAleny not staying on. I have always been a believer of giving a manager two transfers windows to get the team and style they want. So am really only juding Pep properly from the end of January.

Lets see where we finish - I would expect it to be about where we are now and that would be fairly accurate of our quality as a football team.

 

[Scotchegg]

The point I am making is that our outfield side - the bit that pep has selected and coaches - is a lower midtable outfit. The top class keeper has turned that into a midtable side.
That is not 'doom-mongering'. It is an opinion backed up with some evidence (not all that usual for a goalie to be motm as often as that). Since our first two games of tge season (played against two teams who were in some chaos for different reasons) we have got 32 points from 26 games. Extrapolated over the season that form amounts to 56 points, which is lower mid-table at best, more likely bottom eight.
Let's hope that Brannegan and Dickie bring some youth, quality and enthusiasm. Because this current bunch are a horrible mix of past-its (Williamson, Tiendalli, Henry, Mousinho), never will bes (Gino, Xemi, Martin) and a few up and down the line lower league players (Thomas, Obika, ruffels, hall). The only players we have who could plausibly be something better are Nelson, Eastwood and Ledson. That's not enough. The majority of the better teams we have played have had 6 or 7 players out on the pitch who could plausibly be Championship level. That is why they have been looking so much better than us.

Over the last 3 games we've won 2, lost 1 - over a season that gives us 92 points (champions form). If we are going to pick and choose statistics then we can come to any conclusion we like. The facts are that we are currently mid table and have been since September. Our has beens, won't bes etc have seen us win and lose in equal number. They are as responsible for our successes as our failures.
Its all opinions of course, but then yours do often dwell on the negatives for some reason.

 

[Mellowyellow]

Going off on a tangent here, but I thought the whole day felt like a metaphor for all that is wrong about football in this country.

Before the game, as you'll all know, Birmingham city centre also had Derby and Brighton fans in the pubs, who were going to their respective games. The Derby fans we chatted to were very well educated about all football - had a chat to around six of them in the Windsor pub. Contrast that to the Brighton fans in another pub who said 'we don't follow non premier football' talk about entitled - they've been in the premier league football half a season and think they are the dogs B*****s.

Walsall itself - 3,000 or so home fans was absolutely pathetic - but when we spoke to one of their fans after the game you can understand it. Villa just down the road often sell tickets for less than they do when they are not expecting a sell out. They've got no chance with Wolves and West Brom nearby too.

Second season in the row Derby have been at Birmingham the same day we've been at Walsall, they seem like a pretty decent bunch. Some Brighton fans (there some on the train who looked down their noses at us) appear to be new football wankers. I'm sure they've got some good fans, but their representatives we met yesterday summed up all that is wrong with modern football.

Brighton fans are the new plastics, thinking the world owes them one.
They never once filled the Withdean up to 8000 capacity, yet the following season they end up with around 20,000 season tickets at the Amex.
The typical response I've always got is that, "I said I would never go to the Withdean until we have a proper stadium to play in."

They run the club in the same way. Take the recent Palace game. Around 120 Palace fans with tickets arrived late, understandable as the Amex is more remote than the kasstad.
There was trouble inside the ground with flares, and Palace fans all over the place. The club refuse to let the late comers in, and keep them standing outside for the whole of the first half, before putting them back on a train to London, even those with genuine tickets.
Some did get in though, storming the south gates, passed stewards.
They genuinely believe they are a cut above Palace fans because of their ground. Hate them more than Swindon.

 

[MC Yellow]

Brighton fans are the new plastics, thinking the world owes them one.
They never once filled the Withdean up to 8000 capacity, yet the following season they end up with around 20,000 season tickets at the Amex.
The typical response I've always got is that, "I said I would never go to the Withdean until we have a proper stadium to play in."

But isn’t that the same argument used for our “3 sided breeze block” .. Get a decent stadium, make significant improvement to the match day experience , oh and get a promotion to the premier league, of course the numbers will follow.

Plastic or not, that is how it always is.

 

[Gary Baldi]

Mousinho made a point of going to one chap ( his photo was posted somewhere) and was in a debate which involved a bit if given get wagging. Then a 2nd bloke called him over and seemed to be hurling an incoherent muddle if words at him.

Mousinho seemed to handle it well although why people want to pick on an individual quite like that beggars belief. I guess it's a bit if anger, a bit of frustration, a bit if beer and mainly trying to prove to everyone be how clever they are

I think you are right on the last 2

 

[HeyMcAleny]

I'm not quite sure how we beat MK Dons so convincingly, and I have no idea how we managed to scrape a win against Blackpool. Yet after two home wins all the moaners go away, despite less than convincing performances. Yesterday we put on a good performance yet somehow we lose. That's football.

It amazes me how we seem to judge our team and our players purely on the strength of the last result, not even on the strength of the performance. It's about points for some fans, and only the last result determines their happiness. And if we lose, despite deserving to win, some fans expect PC to come on the radio and slate the players. I just don't get it.

 

[Gary Baldi]

One area we let ourselves is game management. Sadly, we're too honest and don't make a fuss when players are slyly tugged or fouled. We have to better at pressuring the officials

 

[West Oxon U’s]

 

[RATC]

Controversial opinion here. Eastwood should've dealt with the second goal better. He hesitated in coming out which meant that he couldn't get back on his line quick enough he started coming to collect but then backed off.

It's still inexcusable the way Mousinho dealt with a player he has over a foot on when it's a bouncing ball. He let's the man cut across him and get to the ball. Too be fair to Mousinho he shouldn't have been the only defender there to deal with that. Aaron Martin needs to be closer to Mousinho and Sprint back to me it looks like he's jogging.

Far to often a ball over the top has caused us to concede this season.

 

[Dubai Yellow]

Those highlights are not a great reflection on the game. They show a few key moments but we pretty much controlled the game and dominated overall.

I know the finishing was bad yesterday but having thought about things a little more, the players did seem to make better decisions in the final 3rd this week. Payne's pass to Henry, when he could have shot himself and Obika to Mehmeti right at the death were just two examples of making the correct (unselfish) decision when they could have shot themselves.