How Do We Stop The Rot?

[OUFC4eva]

One win in ten and players seemingly devoid of any confidence and belief.

This is a CRISIS.

[GodalmingYellow]

Well according to Waddock, Smalley gets selected over Beano, because Smalley works harder in training.

Sorry, but that's not good enough. Training can only ever be a guide. What happens on the pitch is the hard and fast stuff. And that's where Smalley fails and Beano succeeds.

Pitch time has to outgun training time always.

Smalley's contribution today was very very poor, but the defeat wasn't his fault.

The defeat today was due to poor goalkeeping for the first goal (badly lined up wall and poor positioning and late reaction) following poor defending conceding a foul in such a critical position.

The first goal caused so much sapping of confidence that we then created nothing until Beano and Kitson came on.

The 2 full backs had shocking games, and have been below par all season. Don't like criticising youngsters, but Ruffels has become a regular so must begin to accept criticism when he plays poorly, and today he was very poor.

How do we stop the rot. Back to basics. 4-4-2, players in position. That is the players who are doing best on the pitch.

Back to basics in training. Pass and move. Pass and move over and over and over again. Get rid of this notion that 3 touches to control the ball is acceptable, or that waiting 10 seconds whilst looking for options is in any way acceptable. Pro footballers should know where their teammates are. They should need only a second or so on the ball unless they are running at defenders. Clarkey need kicking practice under pressure. The defenders need practice on jockeying strikers away from danger areas without fouling. All basic stuff.

[Kernow Yellow]

5 points from our last ten games. That's HALF a point per game.

Three goals scored in our last 8 games.

One solitary point from our last 6 away games.

This is pretty much as bad as I've ever known it in 30 years of following Us. Thank God for the points we gained earlier in the season when we had a half-decent manager. Because if we were anywhere near the bottom third of the table now we'd be nailed on for relegation.

Gary Waddock's start has been inauspicious to say the least.

See you all at Plymouth . I just hope it doesn't put my boys off being Oxford fans for good...

[Jimski]

Not sure it's a crisis as such, as at worst we'll be in this division again next year, but certainly it's very worrying. We didn't even get the traditional new manager "honeymoon" of a couple of wins when Waddock came in. Oh well, there's always next season.

[Shoobedoo]

Back to basics? Absolutely GY, including putting both fullbacks on the posts at corners, something I think we were all told to do at primary school.

And not capitulate after conceding a soft goal. That was truly pathetic, and I'm extremely relieved that work will prevent me coming again this season.

[The Enforcer]

The 2 full backs had shocking games, and have been below par all season.

When I saw the line-up, I was very surprised to see Bevans axed from the squad. Surely he wasn't made scapegoat for the own goal in the previous match?

Also, I don't agree with the cheering when Smalley gets subbed, but if it's so obvious to many that he's low on confidence, I am baffled as to why the management are starting him every match ahead of Constable/Kitson/Connelly/Williams* (*delete as applicable), thereby perpetuating the problem. Surely it would be better to start with strikers not struggling for confidence, which may then lead to the team being in a stronger position later in the match to then create a healthier environment in which to introduce Smalley from the bench. Although I would prefer two from Constable/Kitson/Connelly up front, I happen to think Smalley is a decent back-up striker when on form and even when having a bad game overall against Southend still came closer than anyone to scoring. Imagine if he could score an injury-time winner what it could do for his confidence and our season?

[Werthers Original]

Where to start. Why is a new manager still playing the ridiculous discredited formation of his predecessor, and still picking Smalley on the wing? But mainly, is there any other ground where so little had happened this season? In terms of chances, shots, saves and incidents. It's been pathetic and basically boring and it will be hard to convince my friends to renew their season tickets.

[OUFC4eva]

It seemed to me that an Oxford player flicked on the Fleetwood corner at the near post
from which they netted their first goal. It looked like either Whing or Smalley to me.If that was
bad enough - two Fleetwood players had the freedom of the back post.

The upsetting thing in my view was the way in which we started the second half - it was shambolic
with passes going astray with alarming regularity in our shower of a midfield, Clarke kicking the ball out of play twice
and players looking like rabbits caught in the headlights.

Wroe came on for the second half and promptly passed to the opposition
no less than three times with his first four touches.

I think what we are seeing is a playing crisis and the season will peter out and with so many of the playing personnel
being out of contract ,the turnover in players will be huge, and that comes with big risks. The budget will be
cut I would have thought and Waddock will have his work cut out to get a new squad bedded down.

We were top of the league just before Christmas and in the third round of the FA Cup.

I am embarrassed to be a supporter at the moment.

[OUFC4eva]

Where to start. Why is a new manager still playing the ridiculous discredited formation of his predecessor, and still picking Smalley on the wing? But mainly, is there any other ground where so little had happened this season? In terms of chances, shots, saves and incidents. It's been pathetic and basically boring and it will be hard to convince my friends to renew their season tickets.

Agree with this completely - I've not seen what I call a good game of football
at Grenoble Road this season. There is simply no excitement, no thrills and spills, no cut and thrust.

[Radley Rambler]

I watched the Southend game with my father-in-law who doesn't follow football at all. After 20 minutes, he said to me 'Southend look quick and inventive going forward whereas you don't' - sort of sums it up nicely.

[JoeyBeauchamp]

Now we're outside the play-offs, I'm resigned to another season in Div 4, so anything else will be a bonus. View it in that way and it seems a little less horrific.

[ty cobb]

What has happened at this club since Christmas is a disgrace and the more I see of Waddocks selections and tactics the more I question his appointment. Myself and a number of others were not enthused by it and he is doing nothing to prove us wrong.

With so many of the players out of contract we will be starting again in the summer. All this from a squad that had got us to the top of the league.

How do we stop the rot? I don't think we can and we're stuck for another season in this league. Perhaps fans could remember this before being unenthusiastic about a manager who has got us entrenched in the play offs, as we saw with Atkins, swapping an effective albeit sometimes unexciting manager is not something to be encouraged and to be honest I think Oxford fans are essentially now getting what they deserve, if people can't get behind a club near the top of the league than we are expecting far too much.

[OUFC4eva]

.. as we saw with Atkins, swapping an effective albeit sometimes unexciting manager is not something to be encouraged and to be honest I think Oxford fans are essentially now getting what they deserve, if people can't get behind a club near the top of the league than we are expecting far too much.

I think you are spot on.

[amershamwrighty]

I may be wrong, but I don't think the Club or the fans 'swopped' anybody. CW resigned, and he didn't make a particularly good job of that either.

[YF Dan]

As has been pointed out many times before, there are strong parallels with the Atkins walk out, not least the blind loyalty of some fans to their man.

To the Wilder faithful, this football genius had built a tremendous squad and was unquestionably leading us on a march to promotion, much like Atkins was back then.

To the Wilder/Atkins sceptics, for the third season in a row, he'd built a steady if totally unspectacular team, awful to watch, that ground out results in the first half of the season, and was likely to fall to pieces in the second half when teams worked us out.

The parallels are uncanny.

And here's another one: like Atkins, Wilder knew he was a busted flush. He knew his best bet was to get going before the wheels came off and go to a team where his sprinkler approach to signings would be allowed by a desperate chairman, where he had everything to gain and nothing to lose. And so, like Atkins, Wilder shat his pants and ran away.

Ty, I agree, we'd be a few points better off had he stayed, but I'm very confident we wouldn't have gone up automatically. We were not a good team and once the away run came to an end, we were always going to struggle. Yep, we might have sneaked the play offs but given our record against the top 7, do you really think we'd have won them?

The big mistake for me was giving Wilder another season, not least given that he apparently spent most of it applying for other jobs. We needed a new man last season, a man who wouldn't have resigned Smalley, wasted a huge chunk of a small budget on Kitson, and actually thought about what you need for this division, ie strong defenders and fast strikers.

It's impossible to judge Waddock at the moment. He's inherited a squad woefully short of confidence, totally lacking in options, missing a key defender, and with a tricky run in...and of course no budget to play with. At least we have Kitson for another year though huh? If I can pick a crumb of comfort from yesterday's shambles, for the first 15 minutes we actually looked like we were playing with a bit of tempo ... That all collapsed as soon as we conceded admittedly but that was the confidence draining away.

We won't be able to judge Waddock for at least a season. He has to rebuild, clear out a lot of dead wood, and will be working with a much smaller budget than Wilder was afforded. That is Wilder's legacy...those who still worship at his shrine would do well to remember that.