Home Match Day Thread +++ 20/01/2018 OUFC v Bury match thread +++

[Blox21]

Clotet is not fit to even lick appleton's boots . Still too many on here making excuses for the Spaniard. The players make the same mistakes over and over again . What the f**k does he teach them in training . The quicker Tiger takes full control the better and gives him his marching orders !

 

[yellowbow]

My player ratings:

Eastwood -6 Didn’t have a huge amount today but, not sure if it was my imagination as I was watching for an sign of him looking unsettled, he seemed to lack his usual composure

Carrol - 5 Don’t get me wrong, I like him and I’m sure he has a huge future in the game but if we want to push on in this league we need better at right back. I just don’t think it’ll ultimately be his position. There were times today when it was crying out for him to bomb on down the line but he sat back

Martin - 6 Didn’t really do much wrong, but where the hell were the centre backs for Bury’s Winner??!

Mousinho - 5 Dwells far too long on the ball and lacked discipline at times with verbals to the ref. I thought he was going to talk his way to a red card when he was booked. I feel again that we need to do better at centre back if we want to be successful

Tiendalli - 8 People may not agree but he was my MOM. Worked hard, got the assist and won some important tackles

Henry - 7 Started off shaker but kept going and was one of the few really trying to make something happen when the wheels started to fall off

Mowatt - 6 Would have given him a 7 with his early endeavours but he faded out of it after the introduction of Ledson for some reason. He seemed to get lost with the muddled formation and got pushed to the periphery when maybe he should have had a bit more conviction and taken control of things?

Ruffels- 6 Steady game, nothing more nothing less really...

Buckley-Ricketts 7 A little raw with a lot to learn about men’s football but bags of potential. It’s nice to have a player who genuinely excites again

Obika - 4 Sorry but really poor. So off the pace

Mehmeti- 4 To be fair he did try to make runs off the ball that weren’t seen but I just don’t think he’s the answer to our striker problems

Ledson - 6 Good to see him come on and out subsequent problems weren’t really down to him

Napa - unfair to rate him as things had gone to the fairies by the time he came on

All in all a really flat atmosphere and a totally disjointed performance not helped by Peps balls ups and a total lack of striker options.

 

[Common Villager]

Lazy claim/post. Appleton inherited a demoralised bunch of has beens and never weres. He started disastrously, but from November - as he weeded out some of the worst non-achievers and tweaked his system - we gradually improved. In Jan he brought in Roofe, MacDonald, Baldock and Skarz. All very good at that level. By the end of the season we were a team on the up.
Whereas, Pep inherited a youthful team of achievers, who just 2 or 3 months beforehand had been hammering Millwall away.
Unlike Appleton, his team started brightly and in place of improvement he has gradually brought uncertainty, tactical inertia and lack of motivation to those same players whilst chucking in a bunch of ageing crocks, most of whom are picking up a last six figure pay cheque, to 'add experience.'
So in actual fact, far from being the same as Appletons first season it is the opposite.
We are now 6 points or so clear of a dank and nasty place, after a run of games against bottom 8 teams. Looking at points totals to date it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if 54 points are required for 20th place. That means 16 points from the next 16 games (don't fancy needing something from Blackburn on the last day). Sounds fine until you realise that we have 32 points from our last 27. And we need to play almost all the top 10.
I think we will make it and end up in something like 18th place, with 58 points and thanking our stars for the first two games of the season.
The wild cards are the new players. If Pekalski, Ricketts and Brannegan can swiftly inject pace and authority then it could be an easier ride. But the form sample with current manager and tactics is deeply worryingly. We have not been much off a point a game since September.

Posted this on the Pep vs MApp thread, but worth posting again here...

I’ve seen this comment quite a lot, but I’m not sure how true it is. Sure, he inherited a stronger group. But I’d say it was only marginally so, not ‘much’ stronger. Don’t forget, the likes of Hylton, Wright, Clarke, O’Dowda and Mullins we’re already at the club when Appleton arrived


Off the top of my head, here’s a list of players that left or had their loans expire last summer:

Dunkley
Edwards
Skarz
Johnson
Lundstram
Johnson
McAleny
Maguire
Martinez
Sercombe

That’s nearly a whole team of first team players.

So, he inherited a squad that was better. No one could argue that Eastwood, Ledson, Hall and Nelson are not good players at this level. But I think it’s often overlooked just how many changes to the squad there were last summer, all of which were seemingly out of Pep’s control.

 

[Scotchegg]

Lazy claim/post. Appleton inherited a demoralised bunch of has beens and never weres. He started disastrously, but from November - as he weeded out some of the worst non-achievers and tweaked his system - we gradually improved. In Jan he brought in Roofe, MacDonald, Baldock and Skarz. All very good at that level. By the end of the season we were a team on the up.
Whereas, Pep inherited a youthful team of achievers, who just 2 or 3 months beforehand had been hammering Millwall away.

Equally lazy post considering that you were so vocal about us still being in a relegation dog fight until the Match of MApp's first season.
Also, we lost Johnson, Maguire, Lundstrum, Dunkley, Scarz, McAleny and Sercombe through the summer plus Nelson, Hall and Long to long term injuries. So hardly taking on a settled team as you imply!

Pep has shortfalls and his recruitment leaves a lot to be desired, but let's not rewrite history Charlie!

 

[Blox21]

I know the manager usually takes the blame after poor results (more often than not, correctly), but we must acknowledge just how bad the team that we were able to put out today. That starting 11 must be the worst we’ve seen in the last three years?

Tiendali
Martin
Carroll (at the moment)
Ruffels
Henry
Mehmeti
Obika
Mowatt (still not convinced by him)

All of the above are players that ‘can do a job’ (just about) at this level, but you can’t have a whole team of players that fall into that category and expect to be any higher than mid table.

Of course, Clotet has a lot to answer for with regards to some of the players we’ve brought in, but I definitely think the situation he landed in during the summer was a key factor in some of the more rushed signings.

Also, I hate to use it as an excuse, but the number of injuries we’ve had over the course of the season has been unusually high. Had the likes of Nelson, Hall, Raglan, Rothwell, Pekalski, and Brannagan been available today, I expect we’d have seen a different outcome.

So, on the whole, I don’t think Pep should be sacked. I still think we’ll end up around or abouts where we are now. Which I don’t think is a bad outcome, given the chaos of the summer and the constant uncertainty off the pitch.

That said, he needs to prove that he is learning and that he can get the team performing on a more consistent basis.

Do you have confidence in Pep to take us to the next level ?
Because I don't .

 

[Deleted member 462]

Lazy claim/post. Appleton inherited a demoralised bunch of has beens and never weres. He started disastrously, but from November - as he weeded out some of the worst non-achievers and tweaked his system - we gradually improved. In Jan he brought in Roofe, MacDonald, Baldock and Skarz. All very good at that level. By the end of the season we were a team on the up.
Whereas, Pep inherited a youthful team of achievers, who just 2 or 3 months beforehand had been hammering Millwall away.
Unlike Appleton, his team started brightly and in place of improvement he has gradually brought uncertainty, tactical inertia and lack of motivation to those same players whilst chucking in a bunch of ageing crocks, most of whom are picking up a last six figure pay cheque, to 'add experience.'
So in actual fact, far from being the same as Appletons first season it is the opposite.
We are now 6 points or so clear of a dank and nasty place, after a run of games against bottom 8 teams. Looking at points totals to date it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if 54 points are required for 20th place. That means 16 points from the next 16 games (don't fancy needing something from Blackburn on the last day). Sounds fine until you realise that we have 32 points from our last 27. And we need to play almost all the top 10.
I think we will make it and end up in something like 18th place, with 58 points and thanking our stars for the first two games of the season.
The wild cards are the new players. If Pekalski, Ricketts and Brannegan can swiftly inject pace and authority then it could be an easier ride. But the form sample with current manager and tactics is deeply worryingly. We have not been much off a point a game since September.

Posted this on the Pep vs MApp thread, but worth posting again here...

I’ve seen this comment quite a lot, but I’m not sure how true it is. Sure, he inherited a stronger group. But I’d say it was only marginally so, not ‘much’ stronger. Don’t forget, the likes of Hylton, Wright, Clarke, O’Dowda and Mullins we’re already at the club when Appleton arrived


Off the top of my head, here’s a list of players that left or had their loans expire last summer:

Dunkley
Edwards
Skarz
Johnson
Lundstram
Johnson
McAleny
Maguire
Martinez
Sercombe

That’s nearly a whole team of first team players.

So, he inherited a squad that was better. No one could argue that Eastwood, Ledson, Hall and Nelson are not good players at this level. But I think it’s often overlooked just how many changes to the squad there were last summer, all of which were seemingly out of Pep’s control.

We still never lost Johnson twice !

 

[bigdel]

Mr Eales you cannot keep taking the P**s out of us , when season ticket time comes around if Pep is still here and we are playing this crap you can forget me.

 

[Osei Yaw]

Lazy claim/post. Appleton inherited a demoralised bunch of has beens and never weres. He started disastrously, but from November - as he weeded out some of the worst non-achievers and tweaked his system - we gradually improved. In Jan he brought in Roofe, MacDonald, Baldock and Skarz. All very good at that level. By the end of the season we were a team on the up.
Whereas, Pep inherited a youthful team of achievers, who just 2 or 3 months beforehand had been hammering Millwall away.
Unlike Appleton, his team started brightly and in place of improvement he has gradually brought uncertainty, tactical inertia and lack of motivation to those same players whilst chucking in a bunch of ageing crocks, most of whom are picking up a last six figure pay cheque, to 'add experience.'
So in actual fact, far from being the same as Appletons first season it is the opposite.
We are now 6 points or so clear of a dank and nasty place, after a run of games against bottom 8 teams. Looking at points totals to date it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if 54 points are required for 20th place. That means 16 points from the next 16 games (don't fancy needing something from Blackburn on the last day). Sounds fine until you realise that we have 32 points from our last 27. And we need to play almost all the top 10.
I think we will make it and end up in something like 18th place, with 58 points and thanking our stars for the first two games of the season.
The wild cards are the new players. If Pekalski, Ricketts and Brannegan can swiftly inject pace and authority then it could be an easier ride. But the form sample with current manager and tactics is deeply worryingly. We have not been much off a point a game since September.

Let's not pretend the squad Appleton inherited was that bad. He had Clarke, Wright and Mullins for a kick off, they were all good players at that time at that level. He also inherited Hylton, which was lucky, as Danny dragged us through many s**t games single handedly and rightly won player of the season. Add to that Ruffels and O'Dowda and there were 234 league appearances that year, an average of 39 each. So these key players were obviously fit.

Who are the 'youthful team of achievers' that Pep inherited?

Nelson? Injured. Hall? Injured. Ribeiro? Retired through injury. Johnson? Head was out the door. Captain Lundstram? He was off too. Who else was there?

 

[Common Villager]

Do you have confidence in Pep to take us to the next level ?
Because I don't .

Did you have confidence in Appleton? Cause I did (you can look back at my old posts on the old forum), but a hell of a lot of people didn’t.

FWIW, I’m still undecided on Pep. I think he came in to a much worse situation than a lot of people suggest. We lost a lot of key players in the summer, and the constant speculation over the ownership of the club must have had an affect on him and the rest of the coaching staff (as Appleton alluded to during his recent appearance on the EFL show).

I think the squad that is currently available is poor at this level. We lack any sort of creativity and have very little pace all over the pitch. We’ve got no players that can create goals for themselves, and we’ve got defenders that are all prone to horrendously ‘off’ days. Sometimes I look at our list of available players and think we’re doing well to not be closer to the bottom.

As I mentioned in a previous post, some of the blame regarding the squad can be aimed at Clotet. But I think some of the signings were rushed due to the short summer he had.

I really don’t think now is the time to sack Clotet. I would give him until the end of the season so prove he’s capable of getting the team to produce the goods on a more consistent basis (assuming he’s also given the opportunity to improve the squad in the areas he feel necessary).

 

[yellowbow]

I think the argument is getting a little muddled. It’s not so much about comparing the squads that Appleton and Pep inherited, more about is there a clear strategy going forward and is there signs of progress. I’m sorry to say this as, as I’ve said before, I like Pep, he seems a man of integrity, but there’s little sign that things will improve. I hate to say this but I think DE needs to scrap this ‘project’ and start again..

 

[werthersoriginal]

Today was dreadful and there is something very weak and unconvincing about us. We are a footballing side who can’t pass the ball. But the vitriol against Clotet still seems disproportionate. Is it because he seems laid back, cultured, intelligent? I think some of our fans only want a good old boy who will give us a team of hundred per centers, nine Mickey Lewis trier types plus a nippy guy up front. And Eastwood in goal.

 

[Johnf]

Again as last week we lose 2-1 to a very very poor side, and the way we are playing I can’t see where the next win will come from.
Let’s hope we can get the new signings playing and get a few injured players back because the sooner we can get to 50 plus the better.
If we are in a relegation dog fight in March/ April I don’t think the current squad have the bottle to win it.

 

[Common Villager]

I think the argument is getting a little muddled. It’s not so much about comparing the squads that Appleton and Pep inherited, more about is there a clear strategy going forward and is there signs of progress. I’m sorry to say this as, as I’ve said before, I like Pep, he seems a man of integrity, but there’s little sign that things will improve. I hate to say this but I think DE needs to scrap this ‘project’ and start again..

When Eales joined he had a clear plan, and very good appointments were made in every area of the club that assisted greatly in the delivery of that plan. After a successful period, a significant number of the people that had been instrumental in said success departed, and it became obvious things were not as rosy off of the pitch as they had been previously.

Clotet came in during a period of uncertainty and change, so it’s very unfair to expect him to continue delivering ‘the plan’ when the club is in a completely different place to where it was a year or so ago.

 

[yellowbow]

Today was dreadful and there is something very weak and unconvincing about us. We are a footballing side who can’t pass the ball. But the vitriol against Clotet still seems disproportionate. Is it because he seems laid back, cultured, intelligent? I think some of our fans only want a good old boy who will give us a team of hundred per centers, nine Mickey Lewis trier types plus a nippy guy up front. And Eastwood in goal.

Well you’ve won me over. When can you start...?! ?

 

[Mellowyellow]

The legacy of our summer recruitment or lack of it is to blame which Darryl has to take some blame for.

Add to that, we don't have a midfield, no pace and no creativity meaning the ball goes backwards and sideways.

The forward line is poor, with Obika not able to hold the ball up which is very frustrating, especially as he appears to be strong and athletic.

Pep go to take some blame too, but I think he's been badly let down by Darry.

He had enough of a pre-season to bring in his own bunch of crocs. That's his legacy. He picks the team, and he tells them what system to play.

 

[Mellowyellow]

We improved under Appleton after the January window when he got players like Baldock, MacDonald and Skarz in. Then Roofe turned up in February I believe. Pep has made a better start and I feel he's now getting the players that will hopefully move us on, like Brannagan on a 3 year deal. But he's been stuck with quick fixes, much in the same way Appleton was. I don't think Pep is stupid, he will know players like Williamson and Tiendalli aren't the future, hence why they got 1 year deals.

Appleton didn't shush the fans, but he did refer to them as 'white noise', which went down like a sack of s**t at the time. People vowed not to go back whilst he was in charge but they had to eat their words when it turned out he knew what he was doing.

It was because of Appleton's understanding of the game and experience, that he turned it around and knew what those players you mention were capable of. clotet, has neither the experience or knowledge of players, proven by the poor quality crocs he brought in.

 

[milburn]

Since beating Bristol Rovers in mid October we have won 4, drawn 5 & lost 7 in the league.

We managed to beat Blackpool & Doncaster by very fine margins.
Plymouth went down to 10 men early giving us a penalty in the process that got us off the mark.
MK Dons was a good win, but let’s not forget that they had played 2 days earlier with the same team down to 9 men before half time. They were knackered.

It’s amazing (and lucky) that we are still 10th in the league!

 

[lerekdilley]

For those not on Twitter, we’ve had a message from our old friend! Not sure why he hates us so much....

https://twitter.com/x/status/954790950877921280

 

[Mellowyellow]

Today was dreadful and there is something very weak and unconvincing about us. We are a footballing side who can’t pass the ball. But the vitriol against Clotet still seems disproportionate. Is it because he seems laid back, cultured, intelligent? I think some of our fans only want a good old boy who will give us a team of hundred per centers, nine Mickey Lewis trier types plus a nippy guy up front. And Eastwood in goal.

Its nothing to do with that, it's because he is a poor manager as was kemp, rix, Talbot and Patterson.

 

[Bigfella72]

For those not on Twitter, we’ve had a message from our old friend! Not sure why he hates us so much....

https://twitter.com/x/status/954790950877921280

Hope he enjoys div2 ?