Away Match Day Thread 26/12/2022: L1: Ipswich Town v OUFC

[YellowSubmarine]

Ipswich last few home games.

Glad to see we’ve got that underdog tag from Karl considering what we’ve spent in recent seasons.

Going for it..

 

[Golden Dr Otto]

Well my first game of the season live (watched plenty on iFollow) and where to start.

1. This season reminds me a little of the league two relegation season where we were all focused on the playoffs and whether we could make them and nobody ever considered we might be in a relegation battle until the last minute. (2 wins in 9 games / 5 points off the drop zone, 10 points from the playoffs)

2. I was perplexed in the build up to this as to so few tickets sold and so little activity in the forum discussing a sell out game against a big team. I walked into the away end and grabbed a beer and the fans seemed defeated already. I can’t recall feeling this vibe in forever. I was shocked, Having watched the game I understand why there’s apathy.

3. The players. As Tonyw says….tell me which of our current players would make a top two team. Cam Bran if he recovers form? The transfer activity has been so utterly woeful that it’s not just made us weaker, it’s also contractually locked us into 24 months of future weakness. This is even more depressing when you think he’s been given FIVE YEARS to get to this point and our biggest ever budgets. Robinson is accountable. And he still doesn’t know his best team or line up with almost no injuries. And he’s about to compound this with another window. He absolutely needs to be removed from the club. Even if you think he may repair some of the current mess he’s never getting us promoted. Which is our budget and goal and new stadium need. So why bother keeping him ?

4. Our starting team doesn’t have goals. We score a goal every 80 minutes. The lack of pace is startling.

Bodin doesn’t even bother trying to beat his man as he knows he’ll get caught. The full back knew this in the opening five minutes after their opening encounter when it was crying out for him to attack outside but he checked back…twice. But if he does get a cross in it’s a lonely Taylor battling big tall center backs in an aerial battle …or a near post swinger that Taylor can no longer be arsed to chase towards

Taylor looks done. No pressure, no legs, no energy, just a belligerent uninterested player. And he’s a player I’ve loved.

Henry. Gosh. A league one bergkamp to that. Just done. Thank you for the memories.

Browne - I can’t judge on this game but based on Iplayer we’ve bought a solitary unit who doesn’t care for the team game we are supposedly trying to play. Plus he’s still a sicknote

Long - that left wing was quality but long couldn’t get close. He’s a lower half full back. He can survive but he can’t thrive at this level

McGinty -

You could see the gradual disintegration of the the team and their desire / confidence / effort as the game drifted on. Once the first goal went in I was 100% convinced we may as well go home, you could feel it all over.


Overall it was good to be back amongst Oxford fans. I thought the team looked vaguely ok for 15 minutes but the last third decision making was ponderous, slow, conservative , and playing from fear. After that we didn’t have any decisions to make in the last third so that resolved that.

Some good chants today ….when the rather weird Ed Sheeran styled light show started in the second half with Ipswich fan camera phones I liked “is there a power cut”. You little rascals.

Good luck and thank you to those who go every week. You keep the club alive and allow part timers like me to stroll in and opine.

Plus I took my daughter today to edify her on why American sports environments are sanitized dull. She loved it. Hoping she didn’t understand the f**k your mums, all inbreds, paedo light show chants given the language barrier !

 

[uptheus]

Karl’s dismantled one

Plus Plymouth

 

[uptheus]

A defeat and he’s magically back .

Been back quite a bit then!!

 

[uptheus]

Whatever the back story with Stevens, there’s no hiding that he and Eastwood were statistically two of the poorest goalkeepers in the division. It was very much a problem that needed dealing with.

However, loaning out the (marginally) better of the two, putting the wobbly backup in full-time and buying an unproven lad to throw in at the deep end was not the way to handle it.

It’s a problem we haven’t dealt with. In fact, we’ve made it worse with another sub-par goalkeeper at the club. Stevens simply has to come back and play and send McGinty out on loan. If Stevens is still poor come the summer, we need to go big on a GK.

Eastwood was fine and Stevens just needed to get over his illness etc, but the whole thing was managed horrendously.

I don’t buy stats all the time, I can see with my own eyes that Eastwood & Stevens are good keepers if managed correctly, that’s why I say it wasn’t a priority. We had bigger fish to fry, but we didn’t focus on them, hence the extremely poor window.

The sad thing is, both Karl, Grant and the other directors think they only took a risk with one player (Murphy), and that judgement really concerns me.

As others have said before, we’ve extended contracts and brought in players who are quite frankly high risk, aging or past it or n longish agreements (2 years), who are on high salaries, so this mess could take a while to address/resolve.

 

[chuckbert]

A Facebook post just came up of my boy as mascot against Exeter Boxing Day 2015. Back when we could win 3-0 on 26/12.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

A Facebook post just came up of my boy as mascot against Exeter Boxing Day 2015. Back when we could win 3-0 on 26/12.

❤

 

[Grumpy Git]

To me that match more or less confirms that our promotion chances this year are as close to zero as you can get. Unless the club signs eight or nine quality player in January (unlikely as very few of such quality would want to join) then a lower mid table position is the most likely. Current form over the last ten league matches of win two, draw six and lose two would also confirm this.
With the long term aim this season of avoiding relegation each match will have to be taken on its own. And expectation taylored to that end.

We’ll be lucky to sign one quality player in January.

 

[dabigfella]

MK DONS ARE 5 POINTS BEHIND US

But for how long!!!

 

[WRox]

Well my first game of the season live (watched plenty on iFollow) and where to start.

1. This season reminds me a little of the league two relegation season where we were all focused on the playoffs and whether we could make them and nobody ever considered we might be in a relegation battle until the last minute. (2 wins in 9 games / 5 points off the drop zone, 10 points from the playoffs)

2. I was perplexed in the build up to this as to so few tickets sold and so little activity in the forum discussing a sell out game against a big team. I walked into the away end and grabbed a beer and the fans seemed defeated already. I can’t recall feeling this vibe in forever. I was shocked, Having watched the game I understand why there’s apathy.

3. The players. As Tonyw says….tell me which of our current players would make a top two team. Cam Bran if he recovers form? The transfer activity has been so utterly woeful that it’s not just made us weaker, it’s also contractually locked us into 24 months of future weakness. This is even more depressing when you think he’s been given FIVE YEARS to get to this point and our biggest ever budgets. Robinson is accountable. And he still doesn’t know his best team or line up with almost no injuries. And he’s about to compound this with another window. He absolutely needs to be removed from the club. Even if you think he may repair some of the current mess he’s never getting us promoted. Which is our budget and goal and new stadium need. So why bother keeping him ?

4. Our starting team doesn’t have goals. We score a goal every 80 minutes. The lack of pace is startling.

Bodin doesn’t even bother trying to beat his man as he knows he’ll get caught. The full back knew this in the opening five minutes after their opening encounter when it was crying out for him to attack outside but he checked back…twice. But if he does get a cross in it’s a lonely Taylor battling big tall center backs in an aerial battle …or a near post swinger that Taylor can no longer be arsed to chase towards

Taylor looks done. No pressure, no legs, no energy, just a belligerent uninterested player. And he’s a player I’ve loved.

Henry. Gosh. A league one bergkamp to that. Just done. Thank you for the memories.

Browne - I can’t judge on this game but based on Iplayer we’ve bought a solitary unit who doesn’t care for the team game we are supposedly trying to play. Plus he’s still a sicknote

Long - that left wing was quality but long couldn’t get close. He’s a lower half full back. He can survive but he can’t thrive at this level

McGinty -

You could see the gradual disintegration of the the team and their desire / confidence / effort as the game drifted on. Once the first goal went in I was 100% convinced we may as well go home, you could feel it all over.


Overall it was good to be back amongst Oxford fans. I thought the team looked vaguely ok for 15 minutes but the last third decision making was ponderous, slow, conservative , and playing from fear. After that we didn’t have any decisions to make in the last third so that resolved that.

Some good chants today ….when the rather weird Ed Sheeran styled light show started in the second half with Ipswich fan camera phones I liked “is there a power cut”. You little rascals.

Good luck and thank you to those who go every week. You keep the club alive and allow part timers like me to stroll in and opine.

Plus I took my daughter today to edify her on why American sports environments are sanitized dull. She loved it. Hoping she didn’t understand the f**k your mums, all inbreds, paedo light show chants given the language barrier !

Great post.

Sam Long isn’t a L1 full back though. He’s barely a L2 one. He can still cope at centre back to some extent, but I wouldn’t want to be relying on him as anything more than cover. KR’s decision to play him there stunk of not wanting to drop him after a good performance at Wednesday and he ruined our team shape to accommodate him and Djavan in positions that don’t suit them. Didn’t help Brown either. Ridiculous to change a settled and performing defensive balance for no reason.

I don’t think there’s a quality issue in the squad btw. In terms of top 2, we’ve got more than just CB who would thrive in a successful environment. There’s no balance or depth, consistency in structure or personnel, and the only time we’ve really had that with KR is when the forms been so good the teams picked itself. Let’s hope we get the central midfielder and striker that might make that upturn remotely viable this season.

 

[TailsWeWin]

Another total f**k up of tactical awareness. I’m completely fed up with this manager and his mess of a team. So Browne (our ONLY attacking threat with a modicum of pace) goes off, and on comes …. Henry. !! Three forward players with no pace. A completely swamped midfield. A full back who gets done time after time. Defensive players playing out of position.
The atmosphere among the away fans was defeatist from the start. Understandably. We are a shambles of Robinson’s making.
Can we get rid of this man now?
Please.

 

[ubermeistervonmeat]

Another total f**k up of tactical awareness. I’m completely fed up with this manager and his mess of a team. So Browne (our ONLY attacking threat with a modicum of pace) goes off, and on comes …. Henry. !! Three forward players with no pace. A completely swamped midfield. A full back who gets done time after time. Defensive players playing out of position.
The atmosphere among the away fans was defeatist from the start. Understandably. We are a shambles of Robinson’s making.
Can we get rid of this man now?
Please.

clearly not or so it would appear at least

 

[ubermeistervonmeat]

Another total f**k up of tactical awareness. I’m completely fed up with this manager and his mess of a team. So Browne (our ONLY attacking threat with a modicum of pace) goes off, and on comes …. Henry. !! Three forward players with no pace. A completely swamped midfield. A full back who gets done time after time. Defensive players playing out of position.
The atmosphere among the away fans was defeatist from the start. Understandably. We are a shambles of Robinson’s making.
Can we get rid of this man now?
Please.

the board would appear to be as shambolic as him - they deserve each other but we deserve better

 

[dabigfella]

Another total f**k up of tactical awareness. I’m completely fed up with this manager and his mess of a team. So Browne (our ONLY attacking threat with a modicum of pace) goes off, and on comes …. Henry. !! Three forward players with no pace. A completely swamped midfield. A full back who gets done time after time. Defensive players playing out of position.
The atmosphere among the away fans was defeatist from the start. Understandably. We are a shambles of Robinson’s making.
Can we get rid of this man now?
Please.

I would agree if I knew how much Robinson had to do with the recruitment process. A lot of rumours say that he didn't really want a number of players signed. From the odd remark I suspect McGinty wasn't his choice for instance. He was also annoyed hat the club wasn't prepared to lay out the money to retain certain players as well.
As I say if it was all his doing then his job is in serious jeopardy.

 

[Symp59]

Yes listening to the Ipswich commentary on I follow they were amazed by our tactics but being an Oxford fan we aren't amazed any more it was a desperate attempt to get Karl's players he's hoping will get him out of the s..t he's got us in. 6 wins in 22 tells the story.

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

Player Ratings:

McGinty: 4 - Yes the spilled shot for the first goal was a tricky one, but I can guarantee you he’ll be viewing that as an error, and will be one that he feels he should have done better with. No chance with the other two goals, but spilled a couple of other shots which he should have been holding on to. Came out off his line well a couple of times though which was good to see.

Brown: 5 - An unusually poor game for him, given the runaround a couple of times and had his lack of pace exposed a bit.

Findlay: 5 - Couple of decent runs forward but caught way out of position for their third goal.

Moore: 5 - Played worse than Long did in his position last game, looked a bit rusty and slow to react to things.

Long: 3 - Went missing at times, Ipswich would be marauding down the right (especially second half) and you’d be thinking ‘Where on earth is Sam Long?!’

McGuane: 6 - For me one of the only players who was ok, albeit not great by any stretch of the imagination.

Brannagan: 4 - His run of poor form (for him) continued, couldn’t have much influence on the game. If that was his man for the corner then that is shockingly poor defending.

Browne: 6 - Had a couple of nice touches before he was injured

Bodin: 4 - A weird one, he was bright early on and looked sharp before absolutely disappearing. Strangely poor corners as well. I’m not sure he has the legs to play wide against a good side.

Anderson: 5 - He needs to play right back or not at all. Hope he plays there next game.

Taylor: 4 - A game where I agree he had no service, but he lacks the pace/strength to make anything happen on his own. One through ball from Henry which a pacier player would have got on to.

Subs:

Henry: 4 - He looked slow and lethargic once we went behind. Couple of decent passes when we were on top, but he’s not the player to have when you’re behind against a good side who are giving you the runaround; he just doesn’t have the legs any more to compete. At home against a side when you’re dominating possession? Sure.

Murphy: 5 - Slightly unlucky that the half he played was the one where we were under the cosh, and yes he did very little (I think he’s going to be better out wide than centrally) but had a couple of nice touches to be fair, beat his man at one point well. I’d start him next game.

O’Donkor: 5 - Couldn’t really get into the game but still did more than Taylor (as he almost always does when coming on for him this season). Won a free kick with a nice turn and should have had another as well.

Wildschut: 3 - A concerning one for me, on for 30 mins and yet literally every time I saw him get the ball he messed up. Every time. He didn’t look like a footballer. Hopefully just a one-off.

Goodrham: N/A - Not sure what he was supposed to do when coming on for the 89th minute.

 

[Fred]

the board would appear to be as shambolic as him - they deserve each other but we deserve better

I'm not denying there has been an argument for sacking KR this season but describing the board as shambolic is over the top. It's just a marginal difference of opinion.

 

[ubermeistervonmeat]

They are sleepwalking into a relegation battle

 

[Symp59]

Yes we should be thankful of the board. Karl's been given the money he made the bad decisions with the incoming players. Please dont give Taylor another contract,he's been brilliant but times up. Same for Henry ,Bodin and Baldock.

 

[Scrongo]

Mmmmm some people are not concerned about relegation. 5 points off a relegation place at Christmas isn't good. Only 2 loses in a row ,& the teams below win 2. Then we're in the zone, the actual chances of that is very very high. It's very naive & disrespectful , to think otherwise....