The List

[Ancient Colin]

A quality Conference player is an oxymoron. (Of course some of our players are also Oxy morons but that's something else entirely)

Well, precisely, and that's why management is so important - in terms of squad building, selection, formation and style. You have to adapt to the players' limitations, get the best out of them by imposing some sort of structure. Look at Dagenham last year: probably a pretty limited squad in terms of natural ability but they were big, rapid, direct and playing in a system that was easy to understand and implement (and one which made it easy to bring players in or move them around).

Now I'm not remotely suggesting that is a good way to play or that we should play like that - we couldn't, anway. It's just that it didn't happen by accident. This is how we are going to play, let us bring players in who can play in that structure, let's train to play like that and drill it into the players' skulls. That alone helps to create a determination and togetherness.

A squad with our average level of talent could easily get promoted. But only if it were built in a rational way, not assembled randomly from bit parts picked up at car boot sales, none of which fit together and all of which have vital pieces missing.

[GodalmingYellow]

In terms of football overall, yes players are not quality, but in terms of the Conference there are quality players. And we don't have enough of them.

It all depends who you are comparing them to, as has already been pointed out.

It is difficult to achieve promotion from any division, with mediocre players relative to that division. And therein lies our problem, or one of them.

I agree with AC that management style and tactics have to be adapted for the division being played in, in order that game plans are within the players capabilities, but there is no reason why a Conference side cannot play good passing football with wingers, and that is what we've failed to achieve, or one of the things.

A combination of poor player signings, poor team selections, poor coaching and you end up 14th in the table.

[Mally]

In terms of football overall, yes players are not quality, but in terms of the Conference there are quality players. And we don't have enough of them.

It all depends who you are comparing them to, as has already been pointed out.

It is difficult to achieve promotion from any division, with mediocre players relative to that division. And therein lies our problem, or one of them.

I agree with AC that management style and tactics have to be adapted for the division being played in, in order that game plans are within the players capabilities, but there is no reason why a Conference side cannot play good passing football with wingers, and that is what we've failed to achieve, or one of the things.

A combination of poor player signings, poor team selections, poor coaching and you end up 14th in the table.

But I think we do have quality players in terms of the Conference and in previous years we've had quality players for the level at which we've played. Yes of course we've had the odd donkey but a lot of players we've had have left Oxford and been succesfull at the same level or even higher.

It's AC's point that is at the heart of the problem - they haven't been managed correctly. I had hoped that Patto would be the man to finally sort this out but I'm a bit concerned about the way he's transfer listing so many players mid season because it suggests he can't get the best out of them.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next 2 seasons to those who go now. What's the betting that Duffy scores the winning goal for his new club home and away against us next season?

[GodalmingYellow]

In terms of football overall, yes players are not quality, but in terms of the Conference there are quality players. And we don't have enough of them.

It all depends who you are comparing them to, as has already been pointed out.

It is difficult to achieve promotion from any division, with mediocre players relative to that division. And therein lies our problem, or one of them.

I agree with AC that management style and tactics have to be adapted for the division being played in, in order that game plans are within the players capabilities, but there is no reason why a Conference side cannot play good passing football with wingers, and that is what we've failed to achieve, or one of the things.

A combination of poor player signings, poor team selections, poor coaching and you end up 14th in the table.

But I think we do have quality players in terms of the Conference and in previous years we've had quality players for the level at which we've played. Yes of course we've had the odd donkey but a lot of players we've had have left Oxford and been succesfull at the same level or even higher.

It's AC's point that is at the heart of the problem - they haven't been managed correctly. I had hoped that Patto would be the man to finally sort this out but I'm a bit concerned about the way he's transfer listing so many players mid season because it suggests he can't get the best out of them.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next 2 seasons to those who go now. What's the betting that Duffy scores the winning goal for his new club home and away against us next season?

We have a few quality players, but not enough to sustain a challenge for promotion in my view, and we have a number of reasonable lpayers who are good enough for the squad. We also have a pile of crap players, as most of the released list indicates.

No team will have 11 quality (for the Conference) players constantly on the park as it is too expensive to do. But a promotion winning side will have 6 or 7 of that standard in every game.

And as I said above, I agree the coaching has to be better as well. Anyone would think the ball was a grenade the way our players play with it, and perhaps more importantly, they don't seem to understand the benefits of running into space before receiving the ball. Our off ball movement is largely non-existent, and that is a huge factor in our poor performances.

[Swissbloke]

Wasn't the plan to also sign new players, erm where are they then?

Or are we now waiting to get rid of dross first?

I see all our listed players were snapped up, which also proves the &quotcrap players&quot point

[Mooro]

I dont think we've got the budget to bring any more in until we get someone out..Twigg and Gilly may have gone from the wagebill, but Macca and Murray may well have used up most of anything released and it would not surprise me to hear that we were running overbudget over the first half of the season with the various monthly/non contract players to the extent that we have to cut back from now on in..

[GodalmingYellow]

I dont think we've got the budget to bring any more in until we get someone out..Twigg and Gilly may have gone from the wagebill, but Macca and Murray may well have used up most of anything released and it would not surprise me to hear that we were running overbudget over the first half of the season with the various monthly/non contract players to the extent that we have to cut back from now on in..

That's my suspicion too, and end of Jan is the first Conference review point, from memory.