Rage Online

... but it bloody well does.

That was truly appalling. I'm starting to wonder just how much better these new players are supposed to be than those who went before...

That was horrific.

The worry is that a majority of the players did not appear
to have a care in the world and did not appear to be playing for their manager.

Back to the drawing board (again)

Absolutely shocking, pathetic. That was the absolute clincher me today: I'll see the season out because I've paid for my ST but if the &quotclub&quot need to make some savings they can start by not spending out on a stamp to send a renewal form to me.

Hard to know what else Patterson could say afterwards other than his predicatable play for the sympathy vote by taking the blame on himself and praising our &quotmagnificent&quot supporters and inferring that many of the players wouldn't be here next season.

It's his team, his signings, his tactics and his decision making and the whole lot stinks. I have absolutely no faith in him choosing his players for next season nor his ability to do anything with them.

And if Jamie Hand needs a lift back to Lincoln I'll gladly give him a piggyback all the bloody way.

I gotta be honest w'ya!

Five fucking times Patto said this well worn cliche in his post match
post mortem.

&quotHog&quot wrote: Hard to know what else Patterson could say afterwards other than his predicatable play for the sympathy vote by taking the blame on himself and praising our &quotmagnificent&quot supporters and inferring that many of the players wouldn't be here next season.

Implying. You inferred it, he implied it.

&quotboris&quot wrote:

&quotHog&quot wrote: Hard to know what else Patterson could say afterwards other than his predicatable play for the sympathy vote by taking the blame on himself and praising our &quotmagnificent&quot supporters and inferring that many of the players wouldn't be here next season.

Implying. You inferred it, he implied it.

Whatever! The absolute least of my worries about OUFC and Patto at the mo Boris.

The really scary thing is that at this rate we could get drawn into a relegation scrap.

Thanks for trying to cheer me up Boogie but it ain't working ...!

Well, not for the first time, and no doubt not for the last, I'm going to buck the trend on this forum.

To my mind we had 20 minutes at the start of the game which showed what Patto can achieve. We mauled promotion chasing Burton in that time, and only lack of composure in front of goal prevented us scoring, which might well have resulted in a different match.

Now to the bad bits.

The shape of 4-3-3 was highly risky against a well organised Burton side. Trainer ain't good enough and should not have been in the side. Hand, who is Patto's one bad signing, ain't good enough. Yemi looked fitter, but his confidence like so many around him is obviously incredibly fragile, as a result of the battering the team has had this season.

Quite what Turley thought he was doing backing off along his goal line for their first goal I've no idea. Quite possibly the worst single mistake I have ever seen by a goalkeeper. I've no idea why Patto felt inclined to mention that Turley has been carrying an injury for some time. a) Not an excuse for not stepping one pace forward and catching the ball, and b) If Turley has been carrying this injury, why no sub keeper and why was Tardif released?

Quite what Quinn thought he was doing for the second goal is beyond me as well.

If you are to play 4-3-3, you start with your 3 best strikers. Yemi isn't one of our 3 best strikers.

The midfield 3 with Trainer and Hand included was far too weak a midfield to be playing against Burton.

So we played with an injured keeper and no back up. A midfield of just 3 players including 2 very weak players, against a strong promotion chasing team, and a front 3 including a player low on confidence and not our best 3 up front. This all in a changed formation for the first time against strong opposition.

So the mistakes are Patto's in selecting the wrong formation and wrong players, 2 individual errors resulting in a need to chase the game against opposition who were too good to concede under those conditions. The pressure was on and the passing game went out of the window and the hoofing game came into action. added to that the midfield keep giving the ball away there was only ever going to be one winner.

Having said all that, a change of manager is not what is required, not because I think Patto is the right man, but because I don't know if Patto is the right man or not yet. This one result and one performance is not going to change my mind on that. It is a bad performance which followed a number of much improved performances, even though they were not converted into wins.

The stattos may trot out the overall record of Patto, but again to my mind that isn't relevant, as many of those results were achieved with Smith's team. The important information to consider is whether the team is headed in the right direction overall, albeit possibly with one or two glitches along the way, and whether the record under Patto having got his own team into place, improves. It is still far too early to tell on that.

The club needs stability, ith a manager knowing that they will get enough time to make a difference. Sack Patto now, and the process begins again with calls for another sacking if in ten games the new manager hasn't improved the results. That cycle leads to self-perpetuating misery.

Fair enough if we keep losing 3-0 each week for the next 5 or 6 games, I might be persuaded to change my tune, but for now, it must be a case of continuing to maintain stability.

I can almost hear the whistle of bullets coming for me.

I 100% agree with GY. Spot on in every area.

Yesterday certain players, who have been doing really well recently, lacked big time. The Foster/Quinn pairing which has been solid as a rock until the last home game was flatfooted and looked tired yesterday. Murray wasn't great either, but he was batter than Hand who had a shocker. Yemi. Well, WTF is he? A winger? He can't cross and doesn't seem the want to beat a player. A striker? The guy couldn't score in a night club in Slumdon at the moment.

One of he things that really angers me about being in this league is the problem of what do you do with a player like Yemi. If we were back up in say League 1, you stick him out on loan to a &quotlower div side&quot to get him scoring and get the confidence back up. What can you do in Conf other than get him out to an even lower non-league side and, bang, the confidence is gone as you're playing to 150 people at Fisher Ath. It's a horrid, horrid, horrid division to be in. The Kassam is a horrid, horrid, horrid place to go and watch football. Yesterday was a horrid, horrid, horrid day. Esp as 90% of the other results during the day made me smile (Man Utd, Chelsea, Newcastle...!) which, in contrast to the 3-0 defeat we had, we made me even more angry.

I did like the banging of the chairs, however. It gave a good &quotprotest&quot without booing, and the sound of empty chairs being banged down must send a shiver thro the Board, as that's what'll happen with next season's ST sales if a decent team isn't built in the close season. Oh, and next time let's rip the chairs out. We don't own the bloody things, Kassam does. Let him deal with it.

GY, I agree in the main. As regular forumites may have noticed I've never been a fan of 4-3-3. We always end up outnumbered in midfield and lumping it forward from defence. Despite that we had an excellent opening 15-20 minutes and no manager can foresee that his keeper will step back and say 'After you Claude' to one of the best strikers in the division.

I also agree that now is not the time to be changing managers. What Patto is trying to put in place looks better than I've seen from the previous half a dozen managers. He should be given at least until the end of the season, if for no other reason than little could be done to change the squad now anyway.

An occasional fan came to the game with me yesterday and thought, despite the scoreline, we had greatly improved from his last visit just before Christmas.

&quotGodalmingYellow&quot wrote:Well, not for the first time, and no doubt not for the last, I'm going to buck the trend on this forum.

Fairish post. But what about the lack of heart for the battle? The fact that players come to the club showing signs of ability and then after 4-5 games in the infamous yellow shirts turn into humdrum donkeys? What about that?

Going 4-3-3 was a terrible boo boo.

Playing an injured keeper and an injured centre forward was a terrible boo boo.

Kicking out an improving (ahem) Hutchison for a ludicrously bad Jamie Hand was a awesomely bad boo boo.

Who's to blame for that GY?

The dilema of course is that clearly changing the manager every few months is not helping, but is Patterson the right manager to give time to?

I am afraid that my current view is that he is not.

DP came in stating that he preferred 4-4-2. I am not sure that I have ever seen Oxford United play well in a 4-4-3 formation. After Cambridge when we played OK in my view (although were playing against a much better side), why totally change the formation?

The totally inept and spineless performance in the second half (we only had one shot- Trainer's miss in the first few minutes) is a huge worry though.

Overall whilst there are occassionally some promissing signs, I am not convinced that the motivation, tactics, players are generally suggesting that we will get any better next season where we need to be in the Play offs as a minimum.

Sure, give DP to the end of the season, but things do have to get much better.

&quotAscension Ox&quot wrote:

&quotGodalmingYellow&quot wrote:Well, not for the first time, and no doubt not for the last, I'm going to buck the trend on this forum.

Fairish post. But what about the lack of heart for the battle? The fact that players come to the club showing signs of ability and then after 4-5 games in the infamous yellow shirts turn into humdrum donkeys? What about that?

Going 4-3-3 was a terrible boo boo.

Playing an injured keeper and an injured centre forward was a terrible boo boo.

Kicking out an improving (ahem) Hutchison for a ludicrously bad Jamie Hand was a awesomely bad boo boo.

Who's to blame for that GY?

Well Patto is to blame for that, and he is to blame for many of the points I put in my first post. Now it is up to the manager to show that he can turn it around. But none of this provides enough justification for changing the manager now.

The players have to take a heap load of responsibility too. If they can play that well for 20 minutes then that badly for 70 minutes, I'm afraid Conference players or not, they have a lot to answer for.