Home Match Day Thread +++ 23/12/2017 OUFC v Wigan Athletic match day thread +++

[West Oxon U’s]

 

[Grumpy Git]

Yes - only good moment of the match - fair play to Cook, raced out of his technical area to tell his players to kick the ball out of play.

Yes, Paul Cook showed great respect for the game. The ref was awful, the Wigan player out jumped the Oxford player and fell in a heap, the ball fell to Wigan player who then kicked it out of play. The ref then decided it was a foul!!! Since when has falling been a foul? For Paul Cook to instruct his players to put the bal out of play was so refreshing. Thank you Paul, a great gesture.

 

[Peterdev]

I say we must get rid of Clotet. How he can turn that around I really don't know.
Wigan were easily the better side, but 7-0 at home.....he has to go

 

[Northstandboy]

Problem is will DE invest in sacking Pep? I think the only way he goes is if we get relevant or he resigns.

 

[Gary Baldi]

I see no point in ripping the players in public. It doesn't work nowadays where it may have in the past and can lose the dressing room. Better dealt with in private when a little calmer and more on point. I can't see any player thinking, cor, I played well today. It will have hurt deeply to lose that badly and be so humiliated. Let the players manage the players on this one.

It may make some fans feel better now with Pep slagging them all off, but longer term, tricky. You've over a week with this squad and 3 games to play. Time to bring them in tomorrow, do a quick debrief and get the place going again.

After all, no one has died nor is anyone badly injured. Just wounded pride.

Nor do I think the manager should be sacked. But he has to deliver in this transfer window.

 

[Northstandboy]

The truth will be how we react on Boxing Day.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

I say we must get rid of Clotet. How he can turn that around I really don't know.
Wigan were easily the better side, but 7-0 at home.....he has to go

If Eales is trying to recoup his 'investment' in the club (and of course he is!), then he won't sack Clotet - either after this result or a run of poor results. To do so would mean paying him a hefty severance fee, effectively out of his own pocket. Far easier and cheaper to let him stay when he becomes the responsibility of any new owner.

If he isn't selling the club, then of course he might do that. And he might hire a new manager. And he might improve the squad substantially in January. But I don't think any of us will be holding our breaths!

 

[Juan Pablo Showpony]

I'm really, really torn on this.

I personally hold the belief that clubs should back their managers more often when things aren't going their way. That said, the managers should show a willing to change etc. etc. With Clotet I don't see that. The often requested plan B doesn't exist. His worrying comments about having a young team (surely this must be a language misunderstanding of some sort). Its often mentioned that he had a short pre season, but he had long enough to get in the players that he wanted. All of the signings you can equate to him have either been injured or are simply not good enough. Maybe that was due to a misunderstanding of the league, which is fair enough, but that highlights the selection process he went through as inadequate as these things should surely have been picked up. It also brings in to question Fazackerley's role in all of this because he does know this league.

I also don't understand why he felt the need to defend them today. He didn't need to give them a dressing down on air, which some seem to think is the other option besides praise, but he did need to acknowledge that it wasn't good enough and state that the players were not good enough. Doesn't need to been shouty or any of that, but he needs to show that he and they understand when its not acceptable. Easy to be knowledgable after the fact, but I think a lot of us could see a hiding coming at some point.

I worry that the problems at the club at the moment are as much on the pitch as off it. At a moment where the club could potentially go on to bigger and better things, we seem to be slowly disintegrating. That for me is more worrying than any 7-0 will ever be.

 

[yellowbow]

I see no point in ripping the players in public. It doesn't work nowadays where it may have in the past and can lose the dressing room. Better dealt with in private when a little calmer and more on point. I can't see any player thinking, cor, I played well today. It will have hurt deeply to lose that badly and be so humiliated. Let the players manage the players on this one.

It may make some fans feel better now with Pep slagging them all off, but longer term, tricky. You've over a week with this squad and 3 games to play. Time to bring them in tomorrow, do a quick debrief and get the place going again.

After all, no one has died nor is anyone badly injured. Just wounded pride.

Nor do I think the manager should be sacked. But he has to deliver in this transfer window.

But will he be allowed to deliver in the transfer window or will DE keep the purse strings tightly closed? We’ll all know a hell of a lot more about where this club is heading in the next few weeks.

 

[Gary Baldi]

But will he be allowed to deliver in the transfer window or will DE keep the purse strings tightly closed? We’ll all know a hell of a lot more about where this club is heading in the next few weeks.

His programme notes hinted at making signings, and I can't think after today that DE will go all Comical Ali on us and not deliver on it. Even a blind man could see our squad is short numbers and quality.

Not to say the usual conspiracy theorists won't make up in the transfer window though.

 

[Peterdev]

Clotet has lost the plot. Will he last to Boxing Day? Garry Monk has just been sacked at Borough after jumping ship from Leeds. He has good experience but whether we could get him is another matter.
The worry for me is we are allowed to decline and whether we can get new players in January. This squad is woeful and woefully inadequate.
Any chance of promotion in my view is gone this season. I'm more worried that we will be playing Bury and Macclesfield next season

 

[PottersRightBoot]

Wigan were superb. Their third goal was tremendous. As was their seventh. I have not seen a more powerful coherent opposition display in years .

But this was compounded by at least four jaw dropping cock ups.

The first goal resulted from an error by the cataclysmic Catalonian, the second goal resulted from us deciding to play musical statues when defending corners, the fourth goal was a complete disaster for Ruffels while I have no idea what Mouisnho was up to for the fifth.

Our dire mistakes plus their top quality performance led to the thrashing.


I don’t blame the back 4 overmuch. We were destroyed in midfield.
Thank God we don’t have to play Wigan every week. They are mustard.

I don’t believe in the instant tin tack culture, Clotet doesn’t deserve the bullet based on our season to date and the injury list has been horrendous.

One game like this could so. easily lead to the slippery slope though. Clotet must earn his money with instant effect. Ledson, Rothwell and Carroll must all start on Boxing
Day.

It sticks in the craw to say this after our record home defeat EVER - but me must try and remain supportive. You can’t hound out the manager based on one game horror show against the runaway league leaders .

 

[Peterdev]

It's a totally unacceptable performance and has probably been coming for a while. To be honest I can't see us winning for a while. Confidence needs rebuilding and I'm not sure Clotet can rebuild it.
It would be expensive to get rid but we are paying the price for not signing enough players of quality in this league.
Agree Wigan are class

 

[OUFCwaffle]

can'y wait to see the highlights for this one

 

[malcolmsmoustache]

Just seen Paul Cook’s comments.
He said Oxford set up ‘just the way we like it’, and were one of the few teams this season to try and take them on.
Why did we do this?
Wigan are physically very strong and had pace in every position.
It’s pretty b obvious that you try and keep it tight, and deny them space.
Which we did not do. Ever.
From the first goal, we collapsed.
There was no evidence of any game plan, and we were chaotic.
Tiandelli has recovered after a few dreadful opening games. But he’s still a weak link, and Wigan targeted him from the first minute. But he was no more embarrassing than anyone else.
And why play Xemi against such a physically big team? Carroll or Ledson would have given us more
I only stayed until the end out of curiosity. I genuinely thought they would get 10.
Worst performance since the days of Patto and Kemp.....

 

[Northstandboy]

Clotet has lost the plot. Will he last to Boxing Day? Garry Monk has just been sacked at Borough after jumping ship from Leeds. He has good experience but whether we could get him is another matter.
The worry for me is we are allowed to decline and whether we can get new players in January. This squad is woeful and woefully inadequate.
Any chance of promotion in my view is gone this season. I'm more worried that we will be playing Bury and Macclesfield next season

DE will not pay off Pep, let alone sign Monk who will probably demand a much bigger wage.

 

[Notaswindonfan]

Just seen Paul Cook’s comments.
He said Oxford set up ‘just the way we like it’, and were one of the few teams this season to try and take them on.
Why did we do this?
Wigan are physically very strong and had pace in every position.
It’s pretty b obvious that you try and keep it tight, and deny them space.
Which we did not do. Ever.
From the first goal, we collapsed.
There was no evidence of any game plan, and we were chaotic.
Tiandelli has recovered after a few dreadful opening games. But he’s still a weak link, and Wigan targeted him from the first minute. But he was no more embarrassing than anyone else.
And why play Xemi against such a physically big team? Carroll or Ledson would have given us more
I only stayed until the end out of curiosity. I genuinely thought they would get 10.
Worst performance since the days of Patto and Kemp.....

Why ,because the manager decided this was the best way to beat them...sarcasm

 

[Winchesterox]

Just trying out an image upload...

 

[mickbrownsconscience]

I'm speechless.
More gutless than the woeful 0-2 at Hayes and Yeading or the pathetic 'Turkey Turley' 1-3 at Salisbury.
I think you have to go back to the tonking at Histon for a similarly bad team performance; And they were all away matches.
I truly can't recall a worse home showing in the sixty years I have been trudging to the Manor and Minchery Farm.
Aaargh.

 

[holdsteady]

Think we’ll lose this one and don’t really mind. Our season won’t be defined by how we do against the runaway leaders. They’re a class above and there’s no shame in that.

Er yeah, you had a point but they ran away with it the northern bastards