I hated every minute of that. Oxford are a dreadful bunch and if we’d and if we’d not spent the second half launching it into the heads of their CBs we’d have won.
Ok, breathe before I write this because that was an incredibly frustrating and difficult watch. Aside from when McCleary would get on the ball, we had very little threat.Hanlan looked a lot sharper than his first game in the first half, looked a good player. Anonymous second half but fitness and the formation didn’t help him. Horgan was a huge upgrade when he came on, I know he was benched as on International duty but he needs to start. A few other comments/worries.
Formation - 4 at the back does not seem to work for us. The shape was a mess today and we put together almost no cohesive football today, even when compared to Sunderland last week. We need to get back to 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-1-2 with McCarthy right wing back as Jack Grimmer continues to be on poor form (from my perspective).
Time wasting - last season this makes sense as we were up against far superior teams. This season we have a strong side for this division. And to be fair, we have really reduced it so far this season, to be at a level with most of the other clubs. It’s still not right but all professional football teams do it. Today we got the balance completely wrong. Zero urgency, slowing things down to a crawl and breaking up the match. We had no confidence to get out there and beat a team we should be beating, and that is disappointing.
Obita - He is a solid left back/wing back in League 1. But not a table topping one. Which is not a problem at all, he’s decent and we can rely on other players, but he is no winger. Kaikai or Horgan have to be ahead of him.
Bayo - again did well when he came on but I am worried that he seems to be our first go to attacking option of the bench. We don’t seem to try anything else. For me Bayo is a fantastic option with 5-10 minutes to go, throwing balls into the box, but not for 20-30 minutes. We lose all shape and any cohesive play (not today, we had none) and again I think it’s a little negative.
Found that incredibly frustrating. Oxford passed it around nicely on the halfway line but offered very little. We were off the pace, especially in the second half, and certainly did not deserve more than a point.
I fully expect to see the normal remarks about time wasting and gamesmanship from Oxford fans going by their reaction in the ground but I thought they were much more guilty of that than us today.
Less said about the referee the better. Both teams right to not be happy about his performance.
The shape was weird today. Lopsided 4-4-2 the point of which I couldn't work out - only possible benefit seemed to be McCleary making runs from deep, but that didn't really happen. Ended up as more of a 4-2-4 at times and we looked a touch vulnerable down both flanks. A solid performance on the whole, though.
Oh, and it's not time-wasting; it's clock management.
Comments
They're trying to out-shithouse us and failing miserably
Whatever Oxford changes at halftime we need to respond.
Hahaha, have they learnt anything from Wembley? ?
Dirty batstards
Taf going full Terry Evans there.
Very
Probably should have played Ipswich in their current state
Hope no one has plans for this evening.
Bayo winner incoming
Thompson has been extremely soft today, almost costing us a couple of times. Poorest game I can remember him having.
Best chance of the half there.
Probably been told to reign it in.
Is it not 'rein it in'?
It certainly is ! At least I didn’t go for rain.
Posh have let in 6 goals,who is stinking out The Championship this season,LOL!!
Pooh, do hope Lavelle hasn’t had a stinker !
About 6 stamps in the last 5 mins, ref lost his red?
Meant to say ‘Oooh’ but maybe right first time.
Whoops! Wrong club. Should’ve said Knight perhaps. But Lavelle welcome to have a stinker next Saturday.
I hated every minute of that. Oxford are a dreadful bunch and if we’d and if we’d not spent the second half launching it into the heads of their CBs we’d have won.
I need to calm down.
First time Oxford have dropped points in eight regular season home games
A good point. Very feisty, difficult game.
Ok, breathe before I write this because that was an incredibly frustrating and difficult watch. Aside from when McCleary would get on the ball, we had very little threat.Hanlan looked a lot sharper than his first game in the first half, looked a good player. Anonymous second half but fitness and the formation didn’t help him. Horgan was a huge upgrade when he came on, I know he was benched as on International duty but he needs to start. A few other comments/worries.
Formation - 4 at the back does not seem to work for us. The shape was a mess today and we put together almost no cohesive football today, even when compared to Sunderland last week. We need to get back to 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-1-2 with McCarthy right wing back as Jack Grimmer continues to be on poor form (from my perspective).
Time wasting - last season this makes sense as we were up against far superior teams. This season we have a strong side for this division. And to be fair, we have really reduced it so far this season, to be at a level with most of the other clubs. It’s still not right but all professional football teams do it. Today we got the balance completely wrong. Zero urgency, slowing things down to a crawl and breaking up the match. We had no confidence to get out there and beat a team we should be beating, and that is disappointing.
Obita - He is a solid left back/wing back in League 1. But not a table topping one. Which is not a problem at all, he’s decent and we can rely on other players, but he is no winger. Kaikai or Horgan have to be ahead of him.
Bayo - again did well when he came on but I am worried that he seems to be our first go to attacking option of the bench. We don’t seem to try anything else. For me Bayo is a fantastic option with 5-10 minutes to go, throwing balls into the box, but not for 20-30 minutes. We lose all shape and any cohesive play (not today, we had none) and again I think it’s a little negative.
Stream? Why didn't you get over here?
Average game, best move of the game was when Mccarthy was sent down the wing and Vokes had a shot.
Apart from a hot last ten mins there wasn't a lot of fun in that one.
We're definitely going to be very competitive in this league though.
A valuable point. Especially if we played as badly as @Quarterman saw it!
I didn't miss much, did I? ?♂️
Found that incredibly frustrating. Oxford passed it around nicely on the halfway line but offered very little. We were off the pace, especially in the second half, and certainly did not deserve more than a point.
I fully expect to see the normal remarks about time wasting and gamesmanship from Oxford fans going by their reaction in the ground but I thought they were much more guilty of that than us today.
Less said about the referee the better. Both teams right to not be happy about his performance.
The shape was weird today. Lopsided 4-4-2 the point of which I couldn't work out - only possible benefit seemed to be McCleary making runs from deep, but that didn't really happen. Ended up as more of a 4-2-4 at times and we looked a touch vulnerable down both flanks. A solid performance on the whole, though.
Oh, and it's not time-wasting; it's clock management.