La grande coupe d'Oxfordshire

Anything yellow and blue
Post Reply
OtmoorYellow
Puberty
Posts: 444
Joined: Thu Aug 03, 2017 1:35 pm

La grande coupe d'Oxfordshire

Post by OtmoorYellow »

At times the U23 side looked decent, playing incisive passing football, but a bit like the first team, that lasted about 20 minutes. They played a very similar formation to the first team, with just 1 striker (Jonte Smith) up top.

Once City began pressing high and closing down from the front, the same old problems of the first team came to the fore. Lots of tippy tappy along the back line, eventually back to the keeper, and with nowhere else to go a long punt forward, giving the ball back to the opposition.

Matt Berry Hargreaves (who I normally rate very highly) in particular got caught out several times on the edge of his own area, not knowing what to do with the latest in a series of tippy tappy passes.

Like the first team, there was a lack of creativity in the opponents box and far too few shots on goal. And again like the first team, there was frequent panic and lack of marking in our own penalty area.

It got me to wondering if there are significant weaknesses in the system the club is trying to employ, or institutional weaknesses in the coaching of that system throughout the club.

Jonte Smith didn't look like a lone striker, and for all his running about chasing the ball, had few if any shots, bar the tap in for our goal,

The highlights of the team were Fabio Lopes, who looked very comfortable playing the Brannagan type role, and left winger Owen James, who has pace and trickery in his locker. Captain Aaron Heap did OK in midfield, and Jack Stevens did very well to keep the score down with numerous fine saves. Other than that, the performance was poor really.

City on the other hand were useful. Not so pretty on the eye, but nonetheless effective, moving the ball quickly and very strong and athletic in retrieving the ball. Unfortunately, their top scorer, who I was looking forward to seeing again, didn't play.

So the last cup run ends for another season.
Kairdiff Exile
Mid-life Crisis
Posts: 707
Joined: Mon Jun 17, 2013 3:59 pm

Re: La grande coupe d'Oxfordshire

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

Thanks for this, Otmoor - useful reading for those of us who weren't really following this fixture!

Lopes has looked good on the few occasions I've seen him, and seems like one who could make the step up. It's a shame there are so many ahead of him in the pecking order really. That seems to be a systemic problem in professional football now - when I started watching games in the early 90s, it was quite common to see a few 17 or 18 year-olds in the matchday squad. Now, there might be one on the bench as a non-playing sub. The culture seems to be that we farm them out to Woking, Oxford City etc and then release them a year later without them getting a chance in professional football.

Good to see Smith get a goal, even if his performance as a whole wasn't dazzling. To be honest, I'd settle for a striker who can be in the right place and poach a goal when the ball breaks to them - we've lacked that this season.
Post Reply