Post-Match Thread and Ratings Oxford United 2-0 Southend United

[mattitouk]

In deference.....their 2nd goal was a country mile offside....but the lino was about 10 yards behind the play at the time....I believe it was ironic that at one stage in the game, both sets of supporters were singing "you don't know what you're doing" to the officials....clearly they had a crap day at the office.:omg:

Didn't someone on here take a screen shot? and to be fair, it looked onside (well to me anyway).

Edit. Here it is. (I found it on the Sky Highlights Thread)

Apologies, I couldn't get it in the same post for some reason.

 

[mattitouk]

 

[Harry Bullocks]

Fair do's.. a shame the snapshot(s) don't cover the whole of the half of the pitch....you might've just seen the lino scampering back !

 

[Oakley1]

lets get this season out of the way.....lets hope Ron has the Budget to let Manager bring in the new faces we need and to kick out the ones no longer required

Judge on next season and the squad that is built up in the summer after some better games pre-season but we will have the usual **** teams again.......canvey,wakering either Ip**** or a West Ham 11.......but lets see the state of play come mid october and then we can get a clearer picture then.....

 

[WESTY_SUFC]

If you can't blame the manager for not having his own players it doesn't mean you can't blame him for using them in the wrong formation. Powell has done well since he took charge and rightly deserved credit.....but Sat was a disaster and he has to take responsibility for that too.

 

[Jai]

I know its all about opinions but I don't see not being able to head a ball, can't finish and no anticipation as attributes.

We certainly don't need to make the same mistakes as Bury or Port Vale the year before and have mass clear outs but like I said back in January we should have signed an experienced (at least Championship level) number 9 on loan. If we had then the knifes wouldn't already be drawn ready to stab CP in the back.

Well probably being 6ft 2ins we would have expected him to be a better hold up player but that hasn't materialised. Not sure we had much time to bring in better.

 

[Colchester John]

My rant - a review of our last away fixture

Why oh why do I bother? Another sad away trip and I was expecting better things from the team I have followed both home and away since 1960. I do know that age does play tricks on memories but what I experienced last Saturday against Oxford was without fear of contradiction, the worst Team performance for many many months. For me it started with team selection and tactics, I am quickly thinking that CP is Scottish and thinks that tactics are Scottish mints. Surely the best form of defence is attack? We play 4 5 1 but don’t have the players nor direction for this with a front runner who is only 5’ 10” and in my opinion it sends wrong message to opposition.

As we are fairly safe, why do we still persist in playing 2 Forward Loanees who wouldn’t get into a Ladies under-23 team, get rid of the Loanees! Surely we should be playing “the bench warmers” and under-23s now and not other teams’ dross.
I'm not negative Powell, think he is a great guy and really hope he succeeds, but today was terrible. In my opinion, wrong formation, wrong team selection, negative tactics, poor substitutions. However the players are more to blame, they came over as they didn’t care (with a few exceptions). Yet again the fans turned up (780 or so) but the players didn’t. Wordsworth was awful one again; looks disinterested and I truly hope we just let him leave on a free in the summer. The only positives for me were Elvis, and Dru. Why oh why didn't Robinson come on? When Powell brought him on at Blackburn last week he re-energized the side and almost helped us get a point.

Mass clear out needed, I have counted at least 12 that need to go. Worry is the 3 panic signings that Powell made all look hopeless as well! I would also like to see some more of the youngsters given a chance this season before we dip into the Transfer Market.

Rant over but I will still be there cheering them on to victory against MK Dons & Bristol Rovers, but away fixtures? Not so sure as so expensive with a long boring trip home when we lose.

 

[BrentwoodShrimper]

as someone said above - the new manager bounce has diluted which is to be expected. But Saturday was a Phil Brown type selection and performance. At 2pm when many of us first saw the team sheet on Twitter we said we are going to struggle. Mainly the selection of Wordsworth. He’s not interested. Secondly 4-1-4-1
Coxy for all his effort and hard work clearly needed a Theo or Marco alongside. Maybe it’s just me but a Chris Powell quote a couple of weeks ago was worrying. He said something along the lines of how Woody should have been a premier league player. Now unless Wordsworth is different in training I am truely baffled. Then at 2-0 down and limited to one sub he chooses to bring on Harrison?? He’s not equipped for this level. The game was crying out for a Theo. At the stage of the season why not send the loanees back. Or did we just play Harrison on loan contract conditions. If so it’s an insult to the travelling 600 or so who spent their hard earned and took 7 or 8 hours of their time to support the team.
Finally it looked as if CP had given up. He sat for much of the game. His body language very negative. Most games since he arrived he’s been shouting instructions from the line and animated.

 

[Fairport]

Thankfully I wasn't at Oxford on Saturday, shame for the faithful to witness another disappointing away performance. I have read all the feedback on here but I can't agree with those who are blaming the 4-5-1 set up. This has been employed successfully by plenty of teams over the years and can produce goals provided the midfield do their jobs properly. Hopefully, three points against MK will cheer us all up and help send that awful club into the basement division.

 

[meerkat54]

Think reality has set in for CP, he now can see there is much work to do end of season !

as someone said above - the new manager bounce has diluted which is to be expected. But Saturday was a Phil Brown type selection and performance. At 2pm when many of us first saw the team sheet on Twitter we said we are going to struggle. Mainly the selection of Wordsworth. HeÂ’s not interested. Secondly 4-1-4-1
Coxy for all his effort and hard work clearly needed a Theo or Marco alongside. Maybe itÂ’s just me but a Chris Powell quote a couple of weeks ago was worrying. He said something along the lines of how Woody should have been a premier league player. Now unless Wordsworth is different in training I am truely baffled. Then at 2-0 down and limited to one sub he chooses to bring on Harrison?? HeÂ’s not equipped for this level. The game was crying out for a Theo. At the stage of the season why not send the loanees back. Or did we just play Harrison on loan contract conditions. If so itÂ’s an insult to the travelling 600 or so who spent their hard earned and took 7 or 8 hours of their time to support the team.
Finally it looked as if CP had given up. He sat for much of the game. His body language very negative. Most games since he arrived heÂ’s been shouting instructions from the line and animated.

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

You need the players to play 4-5-1 ie a strong targetman and midfielders to get in the box. Also away from home we need some pace on the break which we lack. I'm sure CP is aware and will hopefully remedy in the summer. Harrison and Ladalpo were last-ditch signings, gambles which haven't paid off but we can send them back.

 

[WESTY_SUFC]

Thankfully I wasn't at Oxford on Saturday, shame for the faithful to witness another disappointing away performance. I have read all the feedback on here but I can't agree with those who are blaming the 4-5-1 set up. This has been employed successfully by plenty of teams over the years and can produce goals provided the midfield do their jobs properly. Hopefully, three points against MK will cheer us all up and help send that awful club into the basement division.

It makes a huge difference when the 1 upfront is neither big, strong, pacey, good at holding the ball up without support. I can't think of any successful teams who play this way without a striker who has some of these attributes. It was embarrassing and depressing to watch for everyone in the stadium to see what our issue was. I felt like my day and money was wasted.

 

[Mick]

... I have read all the feedback on here but I can't agree with those who are blaming the 4-5-1 set up. This has been employed successfully by plenty of teams over the years ...

Not with Cox as the lone man upfront it hasn't !

He's not equipped for that role but there's other things he can do so much better.

 

[Bratislava Blue]

No we didn't, we had 3 accurate shots on goal in an hour and a half. And imho we should have lost 3-0, not 2-0, as i'm certain their disallowed goal crossed the line. Im just glad the ref didn't give it.

What about the offside second? Are you saying that this should have stood? Oxford had 5 shots on target I hardly call that dominating!

Blackburn had 4 shots on target vs our 2 and we were definitely not dominated or do you think we were?

 

[Stuart W]

What about the offside second? Are you saying that this should have stood? Oxford had 5 shots on target I hardly call that dominating!

Blackburn had 4 shots on target vs our 2 and we were definitely not dominated or do you think we were?

It was not offside. Not only was I perfectly positioned to see it, but I made a point in looking for mistakes that the appalling lineswoman was making. That wasn't one of them. And our "attack" was powderpuff. Oxford looked far more threatening.

 

[Bluegoose]

I did a Manfred man concert back in the 70's at Southend Tech, Joybringer was released a week later, does that count?

 

[RobM]

We haven't scored a goal away from home in the second half since Fleetwood on 23rd September. And that was against ten men.

Crikey, I didn't realise it was that bad! Will we get 50% off away tickets in future? There's no point watching the second half!

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Still not convinced CP is any kind of upgrade on PB. Does he get a free pass due to his time as a player with us?

CP's a clear upgrade in terms of giving youth a chance. Dru has gone from being reluctantly used in something like 6 league starts out of 28 to being an ever present in 14 league starts out of 14. Elvis was first defender off the bench when Coker was injured - under the previous regime that would have been Wright on and Timlin switching to left-back or Ferdinand on and White switching to left-back. I would like to think he'll be an improvement on our truly abysmal cup form as well - it's hard to get worse. If those two areas see improvements then he's a clear upgrade even before considering our form of 6 wins, 4 draws and 4 defeats in his 14 matches compared to the 9 defeats, 2 draws and 3 losses in his predecessor's last 14.

But overall Powell is stuck with essentially the same group of aged players (plus 34 year old Turner and 32 year old Kightly and some last minute transfer deadline day signings) that similarly run out of steam in April last year. We shouldn't therefore be that surprised when we look jaded again and I think any manager gets a free pass until they've had a chance to put their stamp on the squad. That incidentally means as much departures as arrivals (although we haven't had an arrest yet under his watch) and on pre-season.

As for being negative, we actually had 4 attacking, creative players (Cox, Wordsworth, Kightly and McLaughlin) in the line-up. I suspect the issue wasn't so much lack of attacking intent but rather that we (a) maybe lacked some midfield bite to win the ball/cover for their forward runs or probably more likely (b) a Big Bad Barry Corr or Matt Harrold type figure to hold the ball up for them. Securing that player has to be the priority for the off-season and the search should already be underway. I'd suggest our fortune, no pun intended, next season will be dictated by our success in filling that role.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

A few posters (above) have suggested getting rid of the loanees and asked why we don't.
I suspect people are forgetting that Lapado is, IIRC, signed until end of season and not loan.
Mantom is a loan, but an injured/ill one who had no role at Oxford but might be a future signing.
That leaves young Harrison; who might be ok, with the right management and development, he might be a season loan next term: and also CP won't be wanting to get a reputation as an unsafe person for large clubs to deal with regarding their young players.

 

[Bratislava Blue]

It was not offside. Not only was I perfectly positioned to see it, but I made a point in looking for mistakes that the appalling lineswoman was making. That wasn't one of them. And our "attack" was powderpuff. Oxford looked far more threatening.

They were threatening going forward but they didn't dominate us as mattitouk was stating...