Away Match Day Thread 5/8/23 L1: Cambridge United v OUFC

[Northstandboy]

First game of the season. COYY!

 

[MC Yellow]

Looking forward to Saturday to hopefully put some of this negativity behind us.

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

I will judge the team after about ten games like I always do. A collective bad performance in one game will not define our season.

To be fair, a season is still a lot longer than ten games. If you win the first ten and then lose the next twenty (or vice versa) then things will change quite a bit…

Everyone saying ‘judge after ten games’ what would be an acceptable points total? 15? 20?

 

[BrockBuster]

Looking forward to Saturday to hopefully put some of this negativity behind us.

Wednesday in the League Cup first!

 

[MC Yellow]

Wednesday in the League Cup first!

Oh yeah

 

[The mighty Aldo]

To be fair, a season is still a lot longer than ten games. If you win the first ten and then lose the next twenty (or vice versa) then things will change quite a bit…

Everyone saying ‘judge after ten games’ what would be an acceptable points total? 15? 20?

Depends who you’ve played
Last season we had an extremely easy first ten games after Derby where we came up against teams which we should have beaten but drew or lost Morecambe Lincoln Bristo Rovers and MK only beating Cheltenham Burton and Cambridge in that spell lost to Plymouth fair enough but after 10 games we had 11 points
At least 5 points lower than we should have got

 

[tonyw]

But Swansea are and we employed similar tactics against them. Thought we held our own and pressed well
Trouble is against Championship teams who allow you to play a bit more we will look ok, so I expect us to play well against Bristol City, we may not win but will give a good account of ourselves
But against a lot of teams in our league they won’t let you do that, space is at a premium they will break up play and get men behind the ball. If they then go a goal ahead we give ourselves a mountain to climb because they just sit there and hit you on a counter attack.

I said this on Saturday - but almost everything we created against Swansea was down to an incessant press winning the ball back, and then our forwards breaking quickly.

But that's not going to happen if the opposition defenders/keeper are perfectly happy to boot it 60 yards downfield to a man-mountain striker as soon as someone comes within ten yards of them.

What Saturday showed is that we still need to learn how to play effectively against an opposition that's perfectly content to concede possession and get ten men organized behind the ball at all times. And - at the risk of overemphasizing a point that's been made a thousand times in the past 48 hours - a core part of that is having some attacking threat from the full back positions.

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

Post Cambridge Dub:

The Dub: An Oxford United podcast - Post Cambridge - BBC Sounds

Robyn and the team discuss the U's opening day defeat and their upcoming matches!

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[East Stand Fan]

Depends who you’ve played
Last season we had an extremely easy first ten games after Derby where we came up against teams which we should have beaten but drew or lost Morecambe Lincoln Bristo Rovers and MK only beating Cheltenham Burton and Cambridge in that spell lost to Plymouth fair enough but after 10 games we had 11 points
At least 5 points lower than we should have got

Last season was the easiest opening fixtures we've probably ever been blessed with. The fact we only won one (I think) and that was a last minute scrape against Cambridge, was absolutely telling in terms of how the rest of the season was going to pan out. Billy Bodin said prior to the Derby game that there was no reason why we couldn't win the first 8 games and a few of us expected to get at least 6-7 wins out of those so to only win one in the manner we did was shocking.

We had a pretty bad start in the 19/20 campaign losing 2-4 at home to Burton, losing to Bristol Rovers, Blackpool and Fleetwood and drawing 3-3 to Coventry. Still worked our way up to third in the end. I'm not too worried about losing the opening game even if the manner of the defeat was disappointing but we need a response. We even went from relegation zone to playoffs in 4 months a couple of years back so there's always hope but it's not something we can pull off every year and these bad starts if they persist can completely kill a season.

 

[NorthernExile]

Complete lack of cohesion, with the same mistakes being made as last season.

Blanket statements like these don't say anything.

We were actually very comfortable up until their first. Brown lost the ball and despite playing catch-up, we recovered quickly and set up well defensively.



Not too many ways we could set up better here. Play this scenario through ten times and we probably get the ball safe on nine occasions. The only other way they could score is if he hits a worldie of a cross into the back post or, more likely, he plays it inside and the attacker scores first time from outside the box. The player actually hits a bit of a nothing shot/cross and it gets parried to the only place that puts us in danger. Long and McEachran react well and are only inches from making a block, but margins are fine in football, and Cambridge take the lead despite making the slower start.

Brown and Beadle will rightly be called out by the coaches when they work through the analysis this week, but I suspect Marcus Browne might come in for a little bit of criticism too. When the ball originally goes out to Ciaron Brown, Marcus is dawdling towards the touchline. If he'd been quicker to attack the space, he'd have been in a 1v1 out wide. Ciaron had nowhere to go and unfortunately he has the turning speed of a cargo ship. That's not his game, he's an excellent defender in terms of his reading of the game, but if teams are going to press us wide, we're going to need wingers/wide midfielders who can consistently get to the touchline in support. Brown and Beadle were poor here, but it probably doesn't happen if Browne finds space.

We were hard to break down under Manning last season and will be so again this season. Our defence, much maligned, is not going to be our issue.



Their second goal is simply a brilliant counter attack. Long (highlighted left) is caught high up the pitch and Elliott Moore (highlighted right) presses high. The Cambridge player flicks it on perfectly and Ruben is left chasing shadows. Both Moore and Long are nowhere near the picture when the ball gets played into the box, and McEachran is slow to get back. There are a couple of attackers waiting for the ball and the cross picks out one of them perfectly. I'm not sure what work the coaches will do on this one. It's hard to be critical of Moore, because that flick on rarely comes off at League One level, but there's probably no need for him to press so highly at that stage of the game, even at 1-0 down. At the end of the day, we can point fingers, but it's a really good goal, similar to the one Taylor scored vs Wigan a couple of years ago. You just don't see that type of quality and execution every week at League One.

I expect we'll have an easier time of it against Carlisle, but we'll certainly need to improve up the pitch. Outside of Ruben and Mills we offered little creativity, and that only came when we were two down and Cambridge eased off the press somewhat. I'm not surprised we're looking at a proven goalscorer; on that showing we're going to struggle to consistently break down the more organised teams, and so we'll need a player who can put away the chances we do manage to create. However, probably more importantly, we'll need our wider players to create space for themselves and Rodrigues—who looks to be playing the role Twine did under Manning.

 

[Scotchegg]

Blanket statements like these don't say anything.

We were actually very comfortable up until their first. Brown lost the ball and despite playing catch-up, we recovered quickly and set up well defensively.

View attachment 15042

Not too many ways we could set up better here. Play this scenario through ten times and we probably get the ball safe on nine occasions. The only other way they could score is if he hits a worldie of a cross into the back post or, more likely, he plays it inside and the attacker scores first time from outside the box. The player actually hits a bit of a nothing shot/cross and it gets parried to the only place that puts us in danger. Long and McEachran react well and are only inches from making a block, but margins are fine in football, and Cambridge take the lead despite making the slower start.

Brown and Beadle will rightly be called out by the coaches when they work through the analysis this week, but I suspect Marcus Browne might come in for a little bit of criticism too. When the ball originally goes out to Ciaron Brown, Marcus is dawdling towards the touchline. If he'd been quicker to attack the space, he'd have been in a 1v1 out wide. Ciaron had nowhere to go and unfortunately he has the turning speed of a cargo ship. That's not his game, he's an excellent defender in terms of his reading of the game, but if teams are going to press us wide, we're going to need wingers/wide midfielders who can consistently get to the touchline in support. Brown and Beadle were poor here, but it probably doesn't happen if Browne finds space.

We were hard to break down under Manning last season and will be so again this season. Our defence, much maligned, is not going to be our issue.

View attachment 15044

Their second goal is simply a brilliant counter attack. Long (highlighted left) is caught high up the pitch and Elliott Moore (highlighted right) presses high. The Cambridge player flicks it on perfectly and Ruben is left chasing shadows. Both Moore and Long are nowhere near the picture when the ball gets played into the box, and McEachran is slow to get back. There are a couple of attackers waiting for the ball and the cross picks out one of them perfectly. I'm not sure what work the coaches will do on this one. It's hard to be critical of Moore, because that flick on rarely comes off at League One level, but there's probably no need for him to press so highly at that stage of the game, even at 1-0 down. At the end of the day, we can point fingers, but it's a really good goal, similar to the one Taylor scored vs Wigan a couple of years ago. You just don't see that type of quality and execution every week at League One.

I expect we'll have an easier time of it against Carlisle, but we'll certainly need to improve up the pitch. Outside of Ruben and Mills we offered little creativity, and that only came when we were two down and Cambridge eased off the press somewhat. I'm not surprised we're looking at a proven goalscorer; on that showing we're going to struggle to consistently break down the more organised teams, and so we'll need a player who can put away the chances we do manage to create. However, probably more importantly, we'll need our wider players to create space for themselves and Rodrigues—who looks to be playing the role Twine did under Manning.

Excellent post.

 

[Yellows1]

Blanket statements like these don't say anything.

We were actually very comfortable up until their first. Brown lost the ball and despite playing catch-up, we recovered quickly and set up well defensively.

View attachment 15042

Not too many ways we could set up better here. Play this scenario through ten times and we probably get the ball safe on nine occasions. The only other way they could score is if he hits a worldie of a cross into the back post or, more likely, he plays it inside and the attacker scores first time from outside the box. The player actually hits a bit of a nothing shot/cross and it gets parried to the only place that puts us in danger. Long and McEachran react well and are only inches from making a block, but margins are fine in football, and Cambridge take the lead despite making the slower start.

Brown and Beadle will rightly be called out by the coaches when they work through the analysis this week, but I suspect Marcus Browne might come in for a little bit of criticism too. When the ball originally goes out to Ciaron Brown, Marcus is dawdling towards the touchline. If he'd been quicker to attack the space, he'd have been in a 1v1 out wide. Ciaron had nowhere to go and unfortunately he has the turning speed of a cargo ship. That's not his game, he's an excellent defender in terms of his reading of the game, but if teams are going to press us wide, we're going to need wingers/wide midfielders who can consistently get to the touchline in support. Brown and Beadle were poor here, but it probably doesn't happen if Browne finds space.

We were hard to break down under Manning last season and will be so again this season. Our defence, much maligned, is not going to be our issue.

View attachment 15044

Their second goal is simply a brilliant counter attack. Long (highlighted left) is caught high up the pitch and Elliott Moore (highlighted right) presses high. The Cambridge player flicks it on perfectly and Ruben is left chasing shadows. Both Moore and Long are nowhere near the picture when the ball gets played into the box, and McEachran is slow to get back. There are a couple of attackers waiting for the ball and the cross picks out one of them perfectly. I'm not sure what work the coaches will do on this one. It's hard to be critical of Moore, because that flick on rarely comes off at League One level, but there's probably no need for him to press so highly at that stage of the game, even at 1-0 down. At the end of the day, we can point fingers, but it's a really good goal, similar to the one Taylor scored vs Wigan a couple of years ago. You just don't see that type of quality and execution every week at League One.

I expect we'll have an easier time of it against Carlisle, but we'll certainly need to improve up the pitch. Outside of Ruben and Mills we offered little creativity, and that only came when we were two down and Cambridge eased off the press somewhat. I'm not surprised we're looking at a proven goalscorer; on that showing we're going to struggle to consistently break down the more organised teams, and so we'll need a player who can put away the chances we do manage to create. However, probably more importantly, we'll need our wider players to create space for themselves and Rodrigues—who looks to be playing the role Twine did under Manning.

An excellent summary of Saturdays game.

 

[Grumpy Git]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1687882040966811648

Generous of Blackpool, yet again.