KR in / KR out?

[Kairdiff Exile]

I wasn’t there today, but he’s got to go hasn’t he? That post-match interview was execrable. Hitting out at poor Nathan Cooper, who’s hardly Paxman when it comes to tough questioning, felt petty and desperate.

Anyone go to Cambridge today? Sounded pretty toxic on the terraces from what I can gather.

[OtmoorYellow]

Surely out.

His RadOx post match interview was bizarre.

And he keeps saying he knows what needs to be done, which begs the question why hasn’t he done it already?

Another trip to League 2 would be disastrous and could put the club back 10 years on the field. With no guaranteed ground in 3 years time, what does the future hold?

Soz, feeling a bit glass 1/2 (3/4) empty after today’s result.

[Dr Bob]

Having been otherwise engaged yesterday, I am currently listening back to the Wasn't At The Game show. The man has totally lost the plot with such a disgraceful interview. It is not just about one point in 21, it is about who we are losing to and that nothing has shown a hint of a scintilla of an improvement through that time. How long must we wait for him to deliver what he keeps telling us he is the best place person to deliver? And whilst teams below us having games in hand does not matter much if they too are losing game after game, some of them are starting to pick up games again (even if it is only against us...

But worse than this, if some of the rumours I have heard about his conduct, towards individual players and collectively (which explain the treatment of Jodi Jones, Matty T and Findlay), are true then frankly things are a LOT worse regarding his behaviour than is known publicly. And I am not even including what he may or may not have done in his personal life, which would point to him being a hypocrite and an arse, but which might now be affecting how he is doing his job and how he is treating individual players.

Over the last few weeks, players seem to have had no clue as to what their roles are and how we should defend, attack, and transition between the two. Have they forgotten? Have they lost interest? Something has gone very wrong with how the team is being coached to play. I have just shown my wife the graph on the new Oxblogger piece post-Cambridge and whilst she says she knows nothing about football, she could see that eventually, managers reach the end of their natural. Simple psychology. We now need the club to put KR out of his misery, regardless of anything or anybody else.

[Isaac]

After the last 3 defeats I've thought they've got to make a change now, but the board (or whichever bit of it makes these decisions) don't seem to be willing. Robinson has been the figurehead of the club for so long, there is a vacuum above it seems. Our head of recruitment resigned before Christmas I believe and they haven't managed to appoint a new one - given the mess made of the last 2/3 transfer windows this is odd.

It seems likely to me that the board is/has been understandably distracted by the work required for the new stadium. They'd got away with it up to now (largely thanks to Robinson, who up until this season has done a good and occasionally very good job).

As for the Cambridge game, it was sadly familiar. Re-jigged line up but the same "plan" to score goals, which seemed to be hit it long and hope Baldock/Smith could do something. Not a great idea for this team at the best of times, but with those two small strikers we predictably created nothing. 2nd half was a bit better, but we never looked like scoring, much like we haven't looked like scoring over the last however many games.

I wonder if the board realise there's no way out for Robinson now, even if we win a few games in the near term most of the fans have given up on him. Any defeat, or disappointing draw will bring back the chants and demands for him to leave.

[Kernow Yellow]

I'm a big fan of managerial stability, but he's got to go now. Until a few weeks ago I was confident we wouldn't go down, as we have good, committed players in key central positions and there are some very poor teams in this league. However the recent run of results is beyond terrible, and I don't think we have anything to lose by making a change. Robinson has done good things for us over the last five years, but he is losing it and not thinking straight any more. We've got some good footballers, and a manager with a less scrambled brain could get much more out of them.

Stability is one thing, but no-one goes on for ever, and it's time for him to go. The sooner the better frankly.

[Kairdiff Exile]

Pretty clear consensus on here, and on the Radio Oxford phone-in after Saturday's game - and yet it's now 4pm on Monday and we've had no Club Statement replete with photo of corner flag hanging limply. Meanwhile, Grant Ferguson apparently "liked" an Oxford Mail tweet from Saturday quoting Karl Robinson's ambitions for the club, whilst the big man himself is allegedly in Marbella having a break for a few days.

Hard to know what to make of it all except that if we don't win against Bristol Rovers on Saturday then all of the above will look even more astonishing.

EDIT: good update piece here from the Oxford Mail, for anyone who's not seen it.

[Jimski]

Well, he's gone. Can anybody come in and successfully turn the tide this season, do we think?

[Dr Bob]

I think what we need, even on a short term basis, is an experienced manager who knows how to organise and motivate players. Apart from the obvious point of having to work with what he has, we have talented players. Recent weeks have suggested to me a lack of clarity over structure and roles as much as anything.

[Kairdiff Exile]

It's a shame that the change has been made AFTER consecutive defeats against relegation rivals. A caretaker a fortnight ago would have had a pair of eminently winnable games in which to try and get a reaction out of the players. Instead, we've got Lincoln and Derby, both of whom will present problems. But we are where we are and we can't change what's gone before.

For my money, this isn't a squad that should be anywhere near a relegation battle. Listening to Cam Bran yesterday, he knows it too. I wouldn't be rushing to appoint a perceived experienced manager or tactical genius - what's needed someone to collectively grab the players by the scruff of the neck, look them in the eyes and ask whether they really want a relegation on their CV. Karl Robinson got us into this mess, but he's not been helped by players making it pretty bloody clear that they didn't want to play for him - so now they've got what they want, they need to take responsibility for putting it right.

Let the caretaker group pick the team for the rest of the season, maybe even give our many and various new captains a responsibility in it too. Dip everyone's hands in the blood, publicly, and tell them to own what happens between now and May.

[OtmoorYellow]

At last. As Already mentioned above, this should have happened 2 weeks ago.

I’ve got no confidence in the group appointed as caretaker. LB-S has really only worked with kids. CS was more on the sports science side and WB is a goalkeeping coach. Happy to be proven wrong of course, but my preference would be to get this appointment done quickly. Maybe give someone until the end of the season to keep us up and in so doing earn a longer contract.

Of those available, the Cowley’s have only had success at one league club plus a myriad of minor non league outfits, elsewhere they haven’t been effective yet. MApp is proven at this level and to some extent at this club. Ditto Wilder although not everyone enjoyed his style of football, but I felt he was poorly treated and he perhaps still has unfinished business here. I defo do not want a big name ex-player just for the purpose of generating public interest. We don’t need marketing gimmicks.

[Dr Bob]

I thought it was the other C Short who worked on the sports science side? That aside, someone had to be put in caretaker charge, so some of the criticisms of them being put in temporary charge seem excessive. I just hope the recruitment process was started well before today. What we don't know, and maybe I am being naive or overly optimistic, is what those three can offer when freed from what I imagine was the overbearing dominance of KR. One name I saw in The Other Place was Warburton. Interesting. But not the Cowleys please.

[Isaac]

The fact we now have 2 joint-captains and 3 joint-managers shows what a mess we're in. If we get relegated this season it will be a bigger balls up than the relegation to the Conference. It still looks to me that the lack of structure is a large part of the problem, the board relied heavily on KR for anything football related and we've ultimately suffered for it.

It's a shame it ended like this - the first 4 years of Robinson (once he got going) were enjoyable, we played good, attacking football, scored plenty of goals and generally watching Oxford was something to look forward to. The two play-off campaigns ultimately showed that we weren't quite good enough, physically, to win consistently in league one, but I hope we look back positively once the dust has settled.

[Kernow Yellow]

If we get relegated this season it will be a bigger balls up than the relegation to the Conference.

Yep. At least then we had the excuse that FK was running the club into the ground and sold all our best playing assets in the January window (partly to avoid having to give some of them new contracts, iirc). Now we have mega-rich owners with big plans for the club. I can't help but feel their geographical distance has caused the dithering to some extent.

I agree with OY, get the recruitment done. This is not a criticism of those in temporary charge, but the end of the season is too long to meander rudderlessly. I'm not saying it should be hurried, but we need someone in who is the right person for the job.

We definitely have some players here that are good and solid enough to get us away from relegation. The question is, do we have enough of them in the right balance? KR has really messed up our squad and that should not be forgotten. The last few windows have been bad, but this January was the worst yet. To not have Taylor available now that Baldock has broken down again and the (loanee) replacements are powder puff or crocked is unforgivable really. Time and again we are relying on Goodrham and O'Donkor to rescue games, and it's not working - they are good prospects but not yet solid L1 players. The more I think about how Robinson blew a great budget, the angrier it makes me! The rebuilding will take a while and yet more investment, regardless of what league we are in next season. Depressing stuff.

[ty cobb]

Right decision for KR to go, recruitment this year was a disaster and the run we were on suggested he had run out of ideas and was reacting in a way which was causing further damage.

That said, once the dust settles I hope he is given the respect his overall record deserves. He took over when we were at real risk from relegation (sounds familiar.. took us to a comfortable mid table position the season after then a 3, 6 and 8 place finish playing some amazing football in all those seasons.

He also developed a affinity for the club, dealt very well with Joey and Mad Dogs passing and did a lot of very good community work.

I was sad he couldn't turn it around and can understand why the Board took too long to do the deed as well given they seemed to be very reliant on him which this season was part of the problem given the recruitment decisions (getting rid of Matty Taylor looks more bizarre by the day) and the Jan additions were along a similar vein.

Overall though - another in a recent run of good managers (with a couple of notable exceptions!) - hope he does well wherever he ends up next.

[Kernow Yellow]

He took over when we were at real risk from relegation (sounds familiar..

When Robinson took over, we had nine points more than we do now from the same number of games.

Pep Clotet's record that season (that got him sacked) - 38pts from 29 games. GD +1 (despite the 0-7)
Robinson's record that season - 11 pts from 10 games. GD -3

Pep and Faz combined ppg - 1.25
KR ppg - 1.1

So while we avoided relegation, I wouldn't say Robinson was the key factor in that.

12 months after taking over, on 22 March 2019, we were 1 point clear of relegation (not sure where you're getting 'comfortable mid-table' from - it was far from comfortable for most of the season).

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we stuck with him at the time. But let's not pretend Robinson had a good start here. Far from it. And what respect he did earn he blew this season. He's certainly not in the Wilder/Appleton bracket as far as I'm concerned. He's left us worse off for starters.