Home Match Day Thread 28/11/2023 L1: OUFC v Bolton Wanderers

[Malc]

COME ON YOU YELLOWS

 

[Osei Yaw]

I still don’t trust thorniley as are centre back always doesn’t look like he’s gonna win the header compared to brown and looks weak

Is there anything that Ciaron Brown can't do?

 

[Jon-ioualways]

We beat Bolton last season means we’ve gone backwards

We lost at home to Bolton last season....means we've improved!

 

[Theox07]

Is there anything that Ciaron Brown can't do?

Attack as a left back

 

[m]

Is there anything that Ciaron Brown can't do?

Cold fusion.

 

[Joey]

Cam is joint 3rd with Ruben for goals scored this season.

All well and good but that only equates to four goals, and are they all penalties? Still count of course but it doesn't help the argument that they're a goal threat if they don't score from open play. We could have given penalties to someone else and have the same results. I will say usually Bran does get goals from open play so this season is a bit of an outlier but

McGuane is a water carrier in the midfield, he will pick the ball up off the back 4 and pass it on and he is there to break up play. Not every midfielder is in there for attacking reasons, you need to have defensive ones too.

Not every midfielder has to be attacking, no, but I don't think we have many goalscorers in the team regardless of our tally. Up front Harris isn't and O'Donkor definitely not. Winger wise Goodrham has a few in him but I'm yet to be convinced Mills does, Murphy doesn't and Edwards is unknown. Browne when he's back has never scored many. Bodin and Rodrigues I have faith in, although recently Billiy has been pretty poor with his finishing.

In our current strongest lineup it's arguable that the only reliable goalscorer in the whole team is whoever is playing at 10. I think we've overperformed so far and sharing the goals around isn't a bad thing but we can't rely on Greg Leigh going on mad spurts or Brannagan to keep getting penalties.

 

[BicesterU]

My hope/expectation is that the owners have signaled their intent to give it everything to get promotoed this year by getting Buckingham out of his CFG contract, and will back that up by making money available for the goal-scorer we're crying out for in January.

As someone's already said, Harris is clearly a gutsy, hard-working player with some good attributes, but he lacks the movement, anticipation and instinct that turn half-chances in to goals.

The epitomy of that for me was the chance just after 36 minutes where Stevens lifts a pass into the box for Bodin, Santos is drawn to Bodin's run, and rather than bust a gut to hit the space left by Santos, Harris just kind of dithers and misses out on what would've been a clear shot on goal from 6 yards out.

 

[Joey]

My hope/expectation is that the owners have signaled their intent to give it everything to get promotoed this year by getting Buckingham out of his CFG contract, and will back that up by making money available for the goal-scorer we're crying out for in January.

As someone's already said, Harris is clearly a gutsy, hard-working player with some good attributes, but he lacks the movement, anticipation and instinct that turn half-chances in to goals.

The epitomy of that for me was the chance just after 36 minutes where Stevens lifts a pass into the box for Bodin, Santos is drawn to Bodin's run, and rather than bust a gut to hit the space left by Santos, Harris just kind of dithers and misses out on what would've been a clear shot on goal from 6 yards out.

Agree with all of this. It's one of those situations where xG etc won't give you a fair idea of a goalscorer, watching that live and then back on iFollow (around 36:25) showed that he just can't sniff things out. From when Stevens picks up the ball on halfway Harris is only ever jogging until it's too late. He seems to hope that the ball is going to fall at his feet rather than anticipate where it could go and gamble on it.

 

[AbsoluteZero]

Scoring goals looks like it could be a struggle for the next few weeks. This season we have played our best matches and scored our most goals ... when Harris wasn't in the team. I thought Harris was desperately poor against Bolton. He must have a fantastic GPS number of km's run, but his running is very ineffective. He doesn't run the channels, very rarely runs behind, does very few, if any, sprints to get into the box and even when he is offered a chance he never looks like scoring. He doesn't win headers, is not great at closing down, and generally doesn't link up play well. He basically tries to compete in a wrestling match against the central defender but always comes off second best. It is starting to have a knock on effect on the rest of the team too. The defence is now working much harder than at the start of the season, and they are getting increasingly slow coming out of defence to start an attack. We are losing the ball far more frequently in dangerous areas of the pitch. McGuane is starting to look like the McGuane of old again playing backward ponderous passes and as other teams are starting to work him out getting caught in possession as things are getting slowed up generally. But there are no other options, at the moment Harris has to play.

If we can get Browne through the next 10 days then I would be tempted to play him up front, in fact it might be better for him playing there rather than playing on the wing and having to track back in defence and having to do several sprints down the line to create an attack. With his injury situation and needing him to be eased back it may be more suitable playing up front without having the added responsibilities elsewhere on the pitch. There's no better time to try it for 45 minutes against Grimsby and/or Forest Green. I'm just looking for alternatives to Harris for the next 5-8 weeks, because with Harris we could easily start to lose pace at the the top of the division because we are not going to be scoring enough goals. Harris either needs to step up massively and prove me wrong or we need to try something different. The January transfer window will determine our season, we need an early incoming not a last minute one.

 

[LeftSideLarry]

We‘re quite capable of going toe to toe with Bolton, beating Barnsley and Derby away, but we also have it in us to lose and perform poorly at Cambridge, Wigan and Cheltenham.

In all fairness, Bolton lost to Wigan, Reading and Carlisle.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Scoring goals looks like it could be a struggle for the next few weeks. This season we have played our best matches and scored our most goals ... when Harris wasn't in the team. I thought Harris was desperately poor against Bolton. He must have a fantastic GPS number of km's run, but his running is very ineffective. He doesn't run the channels, very rarely runs behind, does very few, if any, sprints to get into the box and even when he is offered a chance he never looks like scoring. He doesn't win headers, is not great at closing down, and generally doesn't link up play well. He basically tries to compete in a wrestling match against the central defender but always comes off second best. It is starting to have a knock on effect on the rest of the team too. The defence is now working much harder than at the start of the season, and they are getting increasingly slow coming out of defence to start an attack. We are losing the ball far more frequently in dangerous areas of the pitch. McGuane is starting to look like the McGuane of old again playing backward ponderous passes and as other teams are starting to work him out getting caught in possession as things are getting slowed up generally. But there are no other options, at the moment Harris has to play.

If we can get Browne through the next 10 days then I would be tempted to play him up front, in fact it might be better for him playing there rather than playing on the wing and having to track back in defence and having to do several sprints down the line to create an attack. With his injury situation and needing him to be eased back it may be more suitable playing up front without having the added responsibilities elsewhere on the pitch. There's no better time to try it for 45 minutes against Grimsby and/or Forest Green. I'm just looking for alternatives to Harris for the next 5-8 weeks, because with Harris we could easily start to lose pace at the the top of the division because we are not going to be scoring enough goals. Harris either needs to step up massively and prove me wrong or we need to try something different. The January transfer window will determine our season, we need an early incoming not a last minute one.

Sigh, Browne isn't the messiah, he just hasn't played for a while. I'd play Bodin as centre forward next, and sign someone good on 1 January.

 

[SteMerritt]

Cold fusion.

I think he could, it's not the most complicated of cocktails.

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[gofish2]

Very tactical game I thought. Lots of good possession (more so Bolton) and they looked dangerous at times. We had some good attempts on goal and I'm quite happy with the result

 

[Beast]

My hope/expectation is that the owners have signaled their intent to give it everything to get promotoed this year by getting Buckingham out of his CFG contract, and will back that up by making money available for the goal-scorer we're crying out for in January.

As someone's already said, Harris is clearly a gutsy, hard-working player with some good attributes, but he lacks the movement, anticipation and instinct that turn half-chances in to goals.

The epitomy of that for me was the chance just after 36 minutes where Stevens lifts a pass into the box for Bodin, Santos is drawn to Bodin's run, and rather than bust a gut to hit the space left by Santos, Harris just kind of dithers and misses out on what would've been a clear shot on goal from 6 yards out.

That’s exactly what I said to a fellow OUFC fan after it happened. Someone with that strikers instinct would have anticipated that and had a chance to score. There’s other occasions as well where crosses are put in the box and he does not anticipate making runs into dangerous areas and have a chance to score. He does have really good qualities to his game, but he’s just not a striker or a natural goalscorer.

 

[bazzer9461]

A 5 for Mcguane? be serious

Exactly I thought Saturdays game was worse for him

 

[Big Ronaldo]

Interesting game last night. Two very good sides going toe to toe. Considering that they have tonked a few sides recently, we were certainly competitive. A draw is a good result for where we are at the minute.
I echo what many have said that if we can secure a decent goal scorer in the next transfer window then Automatic promotion is very much a realistic possibility.

 

[dickwalton1964]

A 5 for Mcguane? be serious

Yes, ridiculous. You have to wonder if he/she was at the game. I know people see games differently but this view is taking the p*ss.

 

[Nadi-]

Although 2 good sides last night, but both were guilty of some poor finishing.
To be in the autos at the end of the season, both will need to improve.
Where Plymouth and Ipswich would of picked up all 3 points last season

 

[m]

Although 2 good sides last night, but both were guilty of some poor finishing.
To be in the autos at the end of the season, both will need to improve.
Where Plymouth and Ipswich would of picked up all 3 points last season

Not if they were playing eachother.

 

[Bicester Yellow]

Cam is joint 3rd with Ruben for goals scored this season. McGuane is a water carrier in the midfield, he will pick the ball up off the back 4 and pass it on and he is there to break up play. Not every midfielder is in there for attacking reasons, you need to have defensive ones too.
I agree we need a Marriott type of striker for up top. The Matty Taylor from a few years back would have a field day in this team, it’s just unfortunate age and injuries have caught up with him.

Good points Steve, that I don’t necessarily disagree with you on. I feel we need a CM in January for this reason, Cam will score a few, however we need a threat from midfield as if Cam is injured we are in big trouble. We will need a player like that, we will need a striker & I think we will probably need back up for Leigh if we can find it as think the last two games has again shown the limitations of brown at left back. No problem with him as centre back but those are the 3 positions I’d like us to attack head on between now and the window opening.

 

[Bicester Yellow]

All well and good but that only equates to four goals, and are they all penalties? Still count of course but it doesn't help the argument that they're a goal threat if they don't score from open play. We could have given penalties to someone else and have the same results. I will say usually Bran does get goals from open play so this season is a bit of an outlier but

Not every midfielder has to be attacking, no, but I don't think we have many goalscorers in the team regardless of our tally. Up front Harris isn't and O'Donkor definitely not. Winger wise Goodrham has a few in him but I'm yet to be convinced Mills does, Murphy doesn't and Edwards is unknown. Browne when he's back has never scored many. Bodin and Rodrigues I have faith in, although recently Billiy has been pretty poor with his finishing.

In our current strongest lineup it's arguable that the only reliable goalscorer in the whole team is whoever is playing at 10. I think we've overperformed so far and sharing the goals around isn't a bad thing but we can't rely on Greg Leigh going on mad spurts or Brannagan to keep getting penalties.

Our XG backs up this fact, I’m pretty sure it’s the lowest in the top half, by the same token, our defensive XG is one of the best but goals win games.