Away Match Day Thread +++ 26/12/2017 Gillingham v OUFC match day thread +++

I am, as I'm sure are the vast majority of supporters, becoming increasingly disillusioned with this Oxford United team, not least because the incredible feel-good factor that surrounded the club for the last couple of years has almost entirely evaporated. But I am also very sceptical of modern football's short patience with managers and fans' violently knee-jerk reactions to bad results. Looking at the big picture, I have some sympathy for Pep. If you look at the team that started at Oldham on the opening day, Johnson was sold on deadline day, with no real time to get in a replacement, Ribeiro has retired, and Nelson and Hall are both out for months. Our current bad run of form has kind of coincided with losing the last two, which isn't really surprising - any team will struggle if you take out its best attacking outlet and its best defender (and footballer, to be honest). There's a lot to criticise Pep about - tactical inflexibility, the situation with Ledson and frustratingly copy-paste post match interviews - but he has been dealt a pretty bad hand in many ways, and we are still in a reasonably promising position in the league. I'm willing to retain the faith, at least until after this transfer window.

Also, can we stop with the 'fockooss' jokes. They're just the next iteration of the 'hotdog and pint' comments on literally any thread about Eales from the summer, which were very boring, and a pretty lazy way of mocking the fact that English is not our manager's first language.
I am not so sure that you have properly thought through your statements. The run of bad form has been there from the outset with early exits from two cup competitions amongst other poor results. The lack of investment, whether by choice or lack of available funds, has led the team away from the tried and tested method of finding and developing young talent. We are left with journeymen and players whose talents are not really up to the challenge of this division. Granted, we still have some talent in the team but how many of those will wish to stay?
You appear to be of the opinion that all will be ok and that all the criticism is of the "knee jerk" type. Far from it, those of us who have seen years of OUFC recognise the alarm signals and are deeply concerned. But, hey, wait until after the transfer window. What the hell for? Are we going to sign all those players we didn't sign pre-season? Not a chance.
So, we should stop with the "fockoos" jokes? Ok, we'll start with focus jokes. End result is the same. Hot dogs and pint jokes? Why not? Personally I am paying a lot more for my season ticket, as is my wife, and what have we seen for the additional funds? A promotion team? Hardly. Top players coming in? err nope. All contrary to what was stated by the chairman and his board. So, jokes will continue.
 
For I don’t know how long when defending corners we need to leave someone upfield, Jack Payne would be the ideal person as he can’t outjump some of the oppositions strikers etc, if we don’t then all they do is lump it back in.

Clotet needs to learn English footy quick or he needs to go.
 
Maybe someone will start a thread translating our coach's spanglish then ? as in what he said....compared to what he really means:whistle:
Whatever faults it has being Spanenglish isn't one...the frustration lies in limited range of expressions related to footy talk in this context ..not everyone has the luxury of being Morinho however who I just heard being ver y prickly, answering his own questions and using similar stock phrases. We all got frustrated with Mapp and his often curt post match talks ...but we aren't going to get bloody brilliant or diabolical. I think PC is often concentrating too hard on producing correct grammar but in English we sometimes need a very long phrase e.g a lot of this team hasn't had many relatively speaking minutes playing together = young ..wrong choice of adjective as it happens..and we wd prob. Disagree anyway in the end.

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I haven’t been since Southend. So after the Wigan horror I was expecting the worst

What I saw was a limited group of players giving their all, trying to pass it and being reasonably well organised against, admittedly, a team who offered minimal threat

The question that interests me are: why are the players limited?

Are they poor Pep choices? Terrible wastes of money and favours to his network

Or are they the best we could afford as the drain on resource and finance appears to continue

If it’s the latter then despite what the guy says in interviews, I think he’s making him a reasonable fist of things with what he’s got.

The player drain firesale has been extraordinary for Club of our size.

AT the moment I suspect he’s being judged by Appleton standards, who had a lot more to spend, and that’s not fair
 
I think what I find unacceptable is the huge variance in performances.
There is no excuse for a basic lack of organisation and commitment, which is what we saw for Wigan.
But I also saw that at Fleetwood and Port Vale.
The Vale performance, incidentally, was probably just as bad as Wigan.
And yet, we look pretty good against lower league L1 teams, so a reasonable level of ability for L1is there.
So there would appear to be an issue of motivation and basic organisation.
The better lower league managers sort this out, as it’s vital to have less talented players who are always organised and committed.
Good teams in L1and L2 know exactly what they are doing and which players does what task.
Wilder was very good at this. And no one can tell me that Shrewsbury have a stellar group of players? They even have Carlton Morris, who sulked his way through a couple of months with us.
Pep has also brought in a number of players who are just not up to it.
Tiandelli is the obvious culprit, but Mowatt and Xemi are not far behind.
He has brought in a job lot of journeymen, and the only ones we have all enjoyed seeing are Ricardinho and Payne.
I’m not ITK, but I would bet that the players view Pep as a nice bloke who knows his stuff, but he is not someone they are wary of.
He’s a coach, not a manager. Hence the huge variance in performance.
If you have a performance as horrendous as Wigan, would you expect it to be dismissed as a bad day at the office? Which is basically what Pep did.
I don’t think he’ll take us down, but nor would I trust him with transfer monies in January.
On the basis of the Wigan game alone , I would fire him.
I have seen nothing in the last four months to suggest he’s what we need to move forward.
 
Far better than Saturday, but we should have had all three points, will be interesting on Saturday up against a far better team than the Gills and with them losing today at home they'll have point to prove. Don't look forward to a long drive home with no points!
Out of interest how do we compare to this time last season on points? I can remember us drawing quite a few at the start of last season
 
Anyone confident of any sort of result away at Bradford, based on recent performances?

I'm just counting today's point as another in the limp to the 50 that we need.

Well only in that after hardly losing a home game for a year that was Bradford's 6th home defeat of the season today which is crap even compared to ours
 
Far better than Saturday, but we should have had all three points, will be interesting on Saturday up against a far better team than the Gills and with them losing today at home they'll have point to prove. Don't look forward to a long drive home with no points!
Out of interest how do we compare to this time last season on points? I can remember us drawing quite a few at the start of last season
After 24 games we have 1 more point than last season. Don't be fooled though as we need to win 4 of the next 5 to maintain that!!
 
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I'm just glad we 1. Didn't get smashed and 2. got a draw, albeit after giving away the lead.
 
After 24 games we have 1 more point than last season. Don't be fooled though as we need to win 4 of the next 5 to maintain that!!

Cheers, I thought we were way behind last season, I suspect we are ahead of Mapp's first season at this point or maybe not I get most things wrong!
 
Cheers, I thought we were way behind last season, I suspect we are ahead of Mapp's first season at this point or maybe not I get most things wrong!
Mapp had 28 points from 24 games in his first season so we are 4 points ahead of that but other than mathematical stats it means nothing. Different league for starters...
 
I think what I find unacceptable is the huge variance in performances.

Pep has also brought in a number of players who are just not up to it.
Tiandelli is the obvious culprit, but Mowatt and Xemi are not far behind.
He has brought in a job lot of journeymen, and the only ones we have all enjoyed seeing are Ricardinho and Payne.
I’m not ITK, but I would bet that the players view Pep as a nice bloke who knows his stuff, but he is not someone they are wary of.
He’s a coach, not a manager. Hence the huge variance in performance.
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With all due respect that is bollox.

Everybody on here (that I read) suggested that Mowatt was a great signing. He was player of the season for Leeds 2-3 seasons ago and did Ok at Barnsley.

How on earth can anybody call Mowatt / Xemi as 'journeymen'?? The last thing that they are are journeymen.
 
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For I don’t know how long when defending corners we need to leave someone upfield, Jack Payne would be the ideal person as he can’t outjump some of the oppositions strikers etc, if we don’t then all they do is lump it back in.

Clotet needs to learn English footy quick or he needs to go.
Didn't MAPP always leave 11 players in our box for corners? Even Wigan did I think.

Personally I would prefer the Diaz leaving 3 upfront. But many teams seem to have all players in the box and I assume that there is a good reason for that?
 
With all due respect that is bollox.

Everybody on here (that I read) suggested that Mowatt was a great signing. He was player of the season for Leeds 2-3 seasons ago and did Ok at Barnsley.

How on earth can anybody call Mowatt / Xemi as 'journeymen'?? The last thing that they are are journeymen.
Isn't Mowatt on loan?
 
Mowatt was brought here to try to revive a dead career. But it has stayed dead.
 
Didn't MAPP always leave 11 players in our box for corners? Even Wigan did I think.

Personally I would prefer the Diaz leaving 3 upfront. But many teams seem to have all players in the box and I assume that there is a good reason for that?
He did, and it was frustrating then, but atleast under MAPP there was some organisation when defending a set piece. The Goal they scored yesterday, we had Henry, Obika, Ruffels, Mousinho all at they front post marking men, Surely if Payne is in the box thats where he is, instead of the middle of the box marking a 6ft+ man. It's comical, you watch Payne trying to defend that corner yesterday, he was helpless the only thing he could do was push the player, if a CB had the initiative to pick up the bigger players then we would be fine, but yesterday we conceded because as the ball goes in Payne is on a man half a foot bigger, and as the ball is headed towards goal 3 men who were on the front post marking move into a position that leaves Eastwood helpless. Ledson also got a bit unlucky as i'm sure that ball was bouncing towards Ruffels to clear but he kills it for the striker to put in.

As for other teams bringing a whole team back, other teams have one thing ourside doesn't have at the moment. PACE, they can hit us on the counter and create opportunities that way. Our only two options from a corner is for a clearance up field with nobody up there, or Eastwood has to catch it and then roll it out to somebody and by that point they have a everybody in the correct position.
 
For I don’t know how long when defending corners we need to leave someone upfield, Jack Payne would be the ideal person as he can’t outjump some of the oppositions strikers etc, if we don’t then all they do is lump it back in.

Clotet needs to learn English footy quick or he needs to go.
Agree fully with this, what is the point of Jack being in the area when the opposition have a set play, he is a small chap, so leave him on the halfway line so that they have to keep men back. By getting everyone behind the ball we are inviting the opposition to camp in our half.
I also despair with his substitutions, he seems to do the same most weeks. Wes off, Obika on. Jack off,Mowatt on. It always seems to be like for like. Change it round a bit.
 
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