Progress

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Kairdiff Exile
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Progress

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

Good to see Us gaining three points and moving up the Div 3 table despite not playing any recognised opposition yesterday. A weird but welcome glitch in the system, I suppose.

How serious do we take this promotion challenge then? For me, I think we just lack the quality and the depth to get into the automatic places, so I fear another tilt at the playoff lottery beckons. But we do seem easy on the eye from what I've seen this season, and surely the new major shareholders must see this as an opportunity to potentially strengthen a bit in January to give it a real go?

Thoughts? I know it's all gone very quiet on this board in recent months, but it'd be lovely to have a conversation about it!
Dr Bob
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Re: Progress

Post by Dr Bob »

Not sure what you mean by "not playing any recognised opposition yesterday". MK were one place and one point behind us at kick-off. If you were referring to the players they had missing, then let us not forget us getting a point from the Rotherham game - a team that has swept aside most opposition this season, let alone a team as apparently 'weakened' as we were.

This is the crucial difference this season. Wins against Wednesday and MK (both away). Draws against Rotherham at home, but also Sunderland and Ipswich away. Held to a bore draw by WW who surely will have to open up when we go there next month. There has been, for a little while, a small gap from the Top 9 to the rest, and the only team up there to have beaten us this season is Plymouth. Given that the next two games are against Wigan and a resurgent Portsmouth, these have the potential to be season-defining for us.

But yesterday's match (well, the first half) also showed how vulnerable we are when not right on top of our game. If we have to be right on it to do well, will our players be able to keep that up until the end of the season? As they said on Quest last night, this is a better Oxford side than in the last two seasons. The challenge is that this is also, surely, the most competitive top-end of the table since we got back into this division. All I am willing to say is that we shall be in the mix...
Kairdiff Exile
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Re: Progress

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

Dr Bob wrote: Sun Dec 12, 2021 2:02 pm Not sure what you mean by "not playing any recognised opposition yesterday"... If you were referring to the players they had missing, then let us not forget us getting a point from the Rotherham game
No, I was referring to the fact that they're a Pariah Club who don't deserve to exist and who many of us still don't consider a legitimate opponent. It's an issue which has been discussed on here plenty of times before, so I'm not proposing to re-open old wounds.

On your substantive point, I completely agree about the vulnerabilities. We've done incredibly well in the last month to pick up so many points despite key absences, but I don't think we can reasonably expect to do so all season. And if Taylor were to get crocked then I think we'd be in real trouble.
Dr Bob
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Re: Progress

Post by Dr Bob »

Thanks. I agree about Franchise FC - I just did not pick this up. Soz.
slappy
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Re: Progress

Post by slappy »

We were discussing progress before the match on Saturday.
The same weekend last year, we had played 15 and had 15 points, and were in 20th place.
https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/lea ... mber-2020/

This season seems a lot stronger with the top 9 all doing well and I think it will be very hard to get into the top 2.
ty cobb
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Re: Progress

Post by ty cobb »

I think we have a much better squad than in recent seasons, although I think the first 11 in the season we lost at Wembley was better with Rob Dickie and Browne in the starting 11, albeit Kane is a upgrade on what we had.

So we should be in with a better shout to cement our play off position sooner rather than the last game of the season, however, we still don't seem able to beat the very top teams in the division - our record against teams in the top 2 when we play them suggest there is still a bit of a gap.

It feels like we are being more pragmatic this season with our play. Going out all guns blazing against Blackpool in the first leg of the play offs was a mistake and we seem happy to sit back and defend (e.g. Ipswich away) more this season than we did last. As the FV points out this week as well our shithousery levels when needed make us a bit more robust as well.

If we can strengthen in Jan to upgrade the players we have who knows, but things are certainly looking very positive for 2022!
Isaac
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Re: Progress

Post by Isaac »

Taylor and/or Brannagan missing would give us a problem I think. Whether we can hang on to Brannagan until the end of the season is likely to be decisive in where we finish.
Encouraging last couple of games, we were differently good in each of them. Overwhelmed Doncaster for the first half but lost our way and still found a late winning goal. Only really played well against MK for 20odd minutes but it was an excellent 20 minutes. Some seasons we struggle to win unless we score first, some good signs of resilience in this team.
Kernow Yellow
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Re: Progress

Post by Kernow Yellow »

Isaac wrote: Mon Dec 13, 2021 3:16 pm Taylor and/or Brannagan missing would give us a problem I think.
Absolutely. We might have squad depth with attacking wide players, and a couple of decent keepers, but elsewhere we rely on our first XI a bit too much. I think ARG's injury has (unfortunately for him) improved our passing play, with Kane doing well in his place, but without CamBran in centre mid we look a bit powder puff. If we lose him in January we are in big trouble. Agyei and Winnall are both significant downgrades on Matt Taylor too. And don't get me started on defensive cover - we did brilliantly to ride out the Covid crisis with a makeshift defence, but we can't rely on that kind of siege mentality for any period of time.

Our current form is very impressive though, and we are starting to get results against the teams around and above us, which is an improvement on last year. In fact I think our best XI looks to be a match for most in this league. It's what happens when they get injured or leave that worries me. But I'm certainly enjoying it while it lasts. With the teams in this division we should have no expectation at all of a top 2 finish, and a third successive play-off campaign would demonstrate significant progress on previous years. So as things stand I'm very happy.
Dr Bob
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Re: Progress

Post by Dr Bob »

Last week against Cheltenham, I thought that they negated us effectively, with us unable to find a way by, through or over them. I hoped it was just a bit of a hangover after the Wombles exhibition. Yesterday, though, we were outplayed from start to finish. Of course, had Matty scored early on when through it would have been different, but he didn't. We seemed unable to hit even simple passes. We also repeatedly had no chance to progress down the right, because Whyte had gone walkabout and Sykes kept coming inside. And without the ball we were as soft as blancmange. Giving Scully that much time and space was criminal, and things were not much better for their second goal.

Looking back at earlier postings on this thread, I think we can only hope that CamBran is not seriously injured. Regardless of any transfer speculation, if he is going to miss any games, and without Kane now, these next two games in particular could not have come at a worse time. My immediate reaction to the red card was that it was a sending off offence - although having seen it back now I am not quite so sure. But it was one of those classics of the form - a player loses control of the ball, then dives in the get it back. The only thing that made it somewhat hard to take was the number of other challenges, incidents and flashpoints that did not see yellows given. So to jump from nothing to a red was a bit odd. Before the match, I had read on Imps forums that the ref was a bit of a homer - and I heard some of their fans say the same thing later. Not sure that his decisions could be put down to that, though. They also said that that was their best home performance of the season. Hard to match how they played to their league position.

The question is, though - are these last two performances a blip, a mid-season drop, or a serious slump?
Kairdiff Exile
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Re: Progress

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

Dr Bob wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 11:00 am The question is, though - are these last two performances a blip, a mid-season drop, or a serious slump?
I'm basing this solely on having seen the highlights (the guidance for those of us living in Wales is to not go to a crowded stadium, let alone drive for several hours to do so), so my view may be way off the picture that match-going fans have seen - but here's my two pen'north.

I'm not convinced our full-backs are good enough for a side aiming for promotion. Ditto our strength in depth up front. Elsewhere, I think we're contenders, but those are both big gaps to have, and it's an open question as to whether we can address them in the Rip-Off Window. I fear it may be the summer before we can upgrade, but by then we'll seemingly have a bigger rebuilding job to do. I also think that after a lengthy tug-of-war, Brannagan will go - there are clearly clubs who are interested, and eventually one of them will meet our valuation. I have no issue with us selling players as long as we get a good price for them, and it sounds as though that's what we'll look to do.

Ultimately, this is such a hard league from which to win promotion that I think it'll take us several more attempts - and that's assuming that all remains well off the pitch and we don't have any changes in management. But to look at the big picture, I don't think there's any shame in being genuine contenders at this level given our attendances, provided we play good football (tick) and do our best in the two meaningful cup competitions (half-tick for this year).

EDIT: As an aside, it's interesting to read that Josh Ruffels is currently out of favour at 'Uddersfield and that a loan move by Sheffield Wednesday might be on the cards. I wonder...
Kernow Yellow
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Re: Progress

Post by Kernow Yellow »

I'm not sure why we were able to watch a Saturday 3pm kick-off on ifollow, but I'm not complaining as I was never going to go to Lincoln the first Saturday in January. Actually I am complaining, because we were awful.

As KE identifies, full-backs are an area of concern (and/or they are left too exposed by the players in front of them). I haven't been convinced by Seddon in any of the games I've seen. He gets forward very well, but this leaves gaps at the back, and his crossing anyway isn't great when he does find himself up the park. On another thread someone said they thought he was a definite upgrade on Ruffels. I'd definitely take Josh back in his place (assuming he was match fit). Sam Long has been very good since returning, but was also out of sorts at Lincoln.

What really bothered me was how much sharper Lincoln looked - brave and decisive on the ball, where we were ponderous. A complete role reversal from the Wimbledon game. Also, too many players individually were off the pace. Taylor gave the ball away far too often in build-up play, fluffed the good one-on-one chance early on, and was AGAIN offside when putting the ball in the net - how many times recently? Sykes also couldn't get the ball to stick, and Whyte had no influence at all (and was worryingly outpaced twice when trying to cover defensively). Holland was no improvement, to put it mildly. SK on RadOx identified the main problem - when Lincoln had the ball around their own area, we committed players forward to meet them without really pressing the ball, leaving huge gaps for them to play into. Pretty basic stuff. Speaking of basic stuff - our throw-ins are atrocious. We doggedly throw it short towards the centre of the pitch regardless of how deep we are, and try and play our way out of trouble. Yet we still only ever let the full-backs take the throws! Just throw it up the line sometimes FFS.

Fair play to Lincoln though, who were pretty impressive for 75 minutes. No idea how they are so low in the table.
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