The Road to Wigan Pier

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recordmeister
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The Road to Wigan Pier

Post by recordmeister »

Dare I start this thread? Well, I guess someone has to...

Set up today was completely wrong. Don’t know if it was scouting reports or what, but I believe PC thought “they’re top of the league, they play football. If we let them come and play football, we can too and we’ll out play them.”

The opposite was true. They’re MASSIVE. Like HUGE. And they can play football. I mean, Dunkley looked small in their team.

Us: The midfield was appalling. Non-existent. Neither Xemi, who had the worst game I had ever seen any player in an oxford shirt, nor ruffles knew who was tackling and who was passing. Xemi, made of paper. He was knocked about all over the place and should have been taken off after we went 2 down.

I sat bang on the halfway line- we didn’t push forward so when we did break 10 OUFC players were in the first 3rd and Thomas was in the final 3rd. Terrible.

The other awful players were Tendali, who was shocking and Mowatt who seemed to just get the ball ‘on the wing’ and only ever pass it backwards.

The rest of the team, no matter how good or bad to man, simply couldn’t cope with the excellent Wigan side who were big and physical, and came to ‘win’, not to ‘play football’ and the lack of a midfield and a right back.

As for the managers post match interview... I’ll leave that for another time aside from his ‘young team’ quote: we have an entire defence over 33 year old each.
Kairdiff Exile
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Re: The Road to Wigan Pier

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

Finally just listened back to Pep’s interview. I don’t doubt he’s a decent, honourable man and that he knows more about the game than I ever will - but my abiding thought from listening to him was that he doesn’t understand how much it hurts as a fan to pay to watch your side get humbled like that. I get that he has to maintain relationships with his players, but I don’t think any of them would have had cause for complaint if he’d come on the radio and said that the performance wasn’t good enough and the players and coaching staff owe the fans an apology.

I was put in mind of Darren Patterson - another talented coach who I thought was a decent, honourable man who prioritised the relationship with his players - who ultimately wasn’t up to the Manager’s task of taking hard decisions and doling our the odd home truth. Oxblogger has written a good post tonight which talks of the hard work that is needed to change things; that has to start by giving that squad a bollocking for the club’s record home defeat.

And yet despite all the above, I’m still “Pep In”.

He was brought in on the eve of the season, with little time to do a thorough recruitment of players, and knowing he’d lose some of the good ones who’d played the previous season. Appleton had that exact same scenario when he came in and struggled too initially. Pep has been unlucky with injuries, and would hopefully acknowledge privately that some of his imports haven’t worked. But with time to recruit properly and money to spend in January, he may yet turn things around.

This season was (in my mind) always going to be one of mid-table consolidation. I still think that’s the case. Pep has to use the rest of it to show us that he should have the keys to the car for next season’s journey.
YF Dan
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Re: The Road to Wigan Pier

Post by YF Dan »

I'm furious.

We're fucked. Relegate us now and put us out of our misery.

What will happen next:

Good teams will batter us, like Blackburn, like Wigan. Jeez. 7 at home. (Seven).

Everyone else will just out battle us. Who do you fancy us to out-compete? No-one. We have a team of injury prone, old, disinterested crocks. This is a recipe for disaster. Today was the start.

The first year under Appleton was really uncomfortable at times. But you always knew there was a plan. I have no idea what the plan is with Clotet. Who has he bought that has added any value to the squad? All we have are a series of injured leaches bleeding money from our poorly financed club.

I don't want to sack managers willy-nilly but that post-match interview was the worst thing I've ever heard. Absolute nonsense from first to last. We've just lost seven fucking nil at home to bloody Wigan with a back four that honestly is less mobile than me on valium with my bastard ruptured achilles. And what? By saying we have a young squad (average age of back four: 3786) he's was, in effect, blaming the youngsters... the few players in the squad who might just have the fire in their belly to keep us up.

Anyone who's watched us over recent weeks knew a decent team would do this to us. We are a defensive shambles. And where is the fight? No-one would have minded us losing to Wigan and putting up a fight. But 7-fucking-nil?

It's football. Freak results happen. I know. But this wasn't a freak. It's been coming. It's been coming since Curtis Nelson got injured. Southend could have scored 10 against us. But we have no plan. No future. No value. And a manager who could not have got what's needed for this division more wrong.

Someone please tell me something positive. All I can see I a prolonged, agonising car crash.
OUFC4eva
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Re: The Road to Wigan Pier

Post by OUFC4eva »

YF Dan wrote: Sat Dec 23, 2017 11:44 pm Someone please tell me something positive.
Image
OUFC4eva
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Re: The Road to Wigan Pier

Post by OUFC4eva »

Image

There were no positives....only negatives from a shambolic, depressing and embarrassing mess.

I have to say that performance wise, it can't get any worse that that, so maybe some hope to cling on to?

Some good analysis and comments above.It was indeed like watching a car crash in slow motion for 90 minutes.
Clotet must wise up quickly to a philosophy that can't work with these players but with the January transfer
window opening up I don't trust him to do the right things if resources were to be made available to him.

It's very worrying times. Several careers at OUFC should come to an end after that so maybe something
will emerge from the wreckage.
Jimski
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Re: The Road to Wigan Pier

Post by Jimski »

The worst thing is I kind of expected a hammering. I said to a fellow supporter at work last week that it was a question of how many they put past us, expecting something like the Blackburn game. The good attacking teams know our defence is crap and just go for it against us. Then again, I expected 4 or 5 goals put past us, not bloody 7.
SmileyMan
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Re: The Road to Wigan Pier

Post by SmileyMan »

YF Dan wrote: Sat Dec 23, 2017 11:44 pm Someone please tell me something positive. All I can see I a prolonged, agonising car crash.
0-7 is still only 3 points in the most important column of the table. Put's a dent in the one next to it though...

Wigan are clearly a class apart, which tells us a) we're unlikely to get battered like that again this season, and b) we're nowhere near ready to compete in Div 2, and so missing out on promotion might be a blessing in disguise

If you take our your frustration on the sprouts, you can have Christmas dinner prepared in 20 minutes

That's all I've got, sorry!
Radley Rambler
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Re: The Road to Wigan Pier

Post by Radley Rambler »

Well it wasn't good was it. The post-match interview was a real car crash though which has left me wondering if Pep is the right man. For now, however I think we have to give him a chance to prove himself much as Appleton did who had a much worse first half season. A few key things for me though:

Off the field:

1) Fundamentally the off-field situation needs sorting - is something happening or not? Is Eales staying with extra investment being pumped in or is he looking to sell up? The silence is deafening. I fully appreciate that NDAs and commercial sensitivity may be the cause of this but it is not helping the aura of the club at present.

2) Will Pep get money to spend in January? If not, where has the monies from Appleton, Lundstam and most importantly Johnson gone? If Pep isn't backed with funds then I will be less vocal if things don't improve. Mind you, based on the first set of recruits, I'd be looking for Pep to be heavily advised as to who to purchase.

3) Are we looking to invest in young rough diamonds or has the ethos changed such that we go for more experienced players? The former has worked wonders in terms of watching good skilful young players (who don't get injured too much) and the return on investment has been a key reason for recent success.

On the field:

1) We have to have a Plan B. We have played the same formation every single game. Away from home, that has been ok and one up front with Payne as No.10 is reasonable. At home, we've got to go with two up front and attack from the off.

2) Pep has to stop being so nice after sh*t performances. Yes the team has to stick together - same ethos as when I'm at work, I don't hang the team or individuals out to dry in front of my Board if we've screwed up but I do highlight 'areas for improvement' and point out where we could have performed better so that they know we aren't delusional. People get things wrong/don't perform on occasions and it's a strength to show you recognise that and are aware of what you can do to rectify it.

Looks like mid-table this season which if most of us are honest, we would have taken following the summer's managerial issues. I'm also not as concerned as YF Dan who I will happily have a sizeable bet with that we will stay up :).
Radley Rambler
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Re: The Road to Wigan Pier

Post by Radley Rambler »

SmileyMan wrote: Sun Dec 24, 2017 10:16 am
YF Dan wrote: Sat Dec 23, 2017 11:44 pm Someone please tell me something positive. All I can see I a prolonged, agonising car crash.
0-7 is still only 3 points in the most important column of the table. Put's a dent in the one next to it though...

Wigan are clearly a class apart, which tells us a) we're unlikely to get battered like that again this season, and b) we're nowhere near ready to compete in Div 2, and so missing out on promotion might be a blessing in disguise

If you take our your frustration on the sprouts, you can have Christmas dinner prepared in 20 minutes

That's all I've got, sorry!
Until January 27 2018!
Geoff
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Re: The Road to Wigan Pier

Post by Geoff »

The club has stated in the past that the Championship is the target. That result leaves us in no doubt where we currently stand. Wigan and Blackburn are good teams, I grant you, but let's remember they were not good enough to stay in the Championship. I hope that Pep only brought in some of those players in the summer to give him time to analyse the squad and decide what action would be required in January. Sticking plaster purchases in January will tell us that the Championship is no longer on the horizon.

Promotion this season would be a catastrophe. We would come straight back down and then have to hope the slide didn't continue.

Start rebuilding the squad in January Pep and concentrate on finishing in the top half of the table.
Dr Bob
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Re: The Road to Wigan Pier

Post by Dr Bob »

One thing in Pep's favour here (I said to a mate before the final whistle that I was 'looking forward' to hearing his post-match comments, not imagining they would be quite so ill-considered) is that he has consistently referred to this as a season of rebuilding and consolidation. And even when Eales has spoken about the Championship as the target, he has not put a date on it, whilst he has also recognised the need for someone with more money than him being needed to keep us there.

After the late and significant changes last summer, it could not be anything else. But having brought in several players, some of whom are simply not up to the job (Xemi being but the most obvious example), presumably on one-year contracts, how much fiscal space do we have to bring in more players this window, rather than next summer? Who can we sell other than those we would rather see staying and starting (such as Ledson or Rothwell )? Or do we wait for the injured players to recover, hope they do not get injured again, and survive through to the end of the season before having a major squad overhaul next summer?

One thought - that was possibly the worst game I have seen from Ruffels - but when his midfield partner is playing so poorly, how can Ruffels carry him, let alone against possibly the best midfield in the league?

And maybe no news is good news on the takeover front. Having been clear that he does not want to do his business in public (a la Santori), I am hoping that silence from Eales means that there is something to be silent about.

Hey - it is Christmas Day and I am trying to have happy thoughts.

Merry Christmas
Kairdiff Exile
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Re: The Road to Wigan Pier

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

Dr Bob wrote: Mon Dec 25, 2017 11:39 am But having brought in several players, some of whom are simply not up to the job (Xemi being but the most obvious example), presumably on one-year contracts
Like you, I thought that many of the last-minute bargain bin import purchases were only for the one season. Incredibly though, Xemi is on a three-year contract, so we’d better hope he improves as we’re stuck with him until summer 2020 unless we can offload him.

Festive greetings to the rest of you. (I’m only replying to message board threads on Christmas Day because I’m in a dark room trying to get the baby to have a nap and there’s not much else to do!)
Werthers Original
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Re: The Road to Wigan Pier

Post by Werthers Original »

Commenting here is better than watching Bake-off!
Lots has been said about the failings of our tactics, but the absolute basics aren’t there. Compare our random mix of fatties, midgets and beanpoles with the tall strong athletes of Wigan. And our half paced strolling with their speed and determination. We are not physically equipped or ‘up for it’
Also, what of the rumour that Xemi is here more to pursue his studies than to play football?
Matt D
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Re: The Road to Wigan Pier

Post by Matt D »

Radley Rambler wrote: Sun Dec 24, 2017 4:38 pm Well it wasn't good was it. The post-match interview was a real car crash though which has left me wondering if Pep is the right man. For now, however I think we have to give him a chance to prove himself much as Appleton did who had a much worse first half season. A few key things for me though:

Off the field:

1) Fundamentally the off-field situation needs sorting - is something happening or not? Is Eales staying with extra investment being pumped in or is he looking to sell up? The silence is deafening. I fully appreciate that NDAs and commercial sensitivity may be the cause of this but it is not helping the aura of the club at present.

2) Will Pep get money to spend in January? If not, where has the monies from Appleton, Lundstam and most importantly Johnson gone? If Pep isn't backed with funds then I will be less vocal if things don't improve. Mind you, based on the first set of recruits, I'd be looking for Pep to be heavily advised as to who to purchase.

3) Are we looking to invest in young rough diamonds or has the ethos changed such that we go for more experienced players? The former has worked wonders in terms of watching good skilful young players (who don't get injured too much) and the return on investment has been a key reason for recent success.
this is the stuff that worries me. with appleton we had an owner who was taking the club in a specific direction. it doesn’t feel like that now. it feels more like lenagan post-wilder when he seemed focused on selling the club and was happy to let on-the-field matters drift. and while I’m not immediately concerned about relegation I can see how this situation could very easily go that way.
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