Rage Online

This phrase used by Chris Wilder after every game is starting to get on my t*ts. What is it supposed to mean? Whether we win, lose or draw he trots it out. Anyway we really do need to move on from today's performance.

The only players to come out with credit were Clarke and Mullins, the latter of whom seemed to move to midfield during the game probably because he thought he might as well try to run the show.

Hunt and Newey had poor games - far, far too much space for Southend forwards and several times, Clarke saved their bacon when they allowed one on one (or even two on one) situations to develop. Hunt really worries me.

Raynes was Raynes - limited and I think it was his man who scored their second completely unmarked - how he got man of the match is beyond me.

Rose - did ok and I like him but he hasn't got that quality final ball that will open up defences - we're missing someone who can do that.

Hall - I'm not such a hater of him as many but it was his error that led to their first goal (albeit a super strike)

Potter/Rigg - they were closed down very effectively all game and I don't think they beat a full-back between them. Was Rigg fully fit, he looked like he was lethargic from the off.

KIitson - A couple of neat touches but not at his best and for a few games hasn't really been that effective

Smalley - Bad miss in the first five minutes, should have hit the target and then couldn't hold up the ball

Beano - huffed and puffed as ever but never really got going

O'Dowda - Showed he isn't really ready yet - one excellent cross but also a poor first touch and a lack of control generally - could have been nerves though, I'm sure better will come

Davies - Better than Hall and more of a threat.

A general observation - we don't move for each other whereas other teams do - we are very static.

We are still fourth, only 3 points off second but also only 3 points off twelfth. I've no idea where we are going to end up this season.

Radley Rambler wrote:
Hunt and Newey had poor games - far, far too much space for Southend forwards and several times, Clarke saved their bacon when they allowed one on one (or even two on one) situations to develop. Hunt really worries me.

Completely agree- I have recurring nightmares about both of our full backs.

Both of them are simply not up to it. That might sound harsh on Newey in particular
but defensively he can be got at.

There was also the small point that Southend wasted about 4 golden chances and had a decent shout for a penalty ignored by the referee.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say that I think Kitson - or perhaps more accurately, the way we use Kitson - is a big problem.

Yes - he hold it up. It sticks to him, mostly. But everything stops when it does. I got the impression Southend's gameplan was to let Kitson be the target, let us pump long balls at him, but just to make sure when he brought it down, there was nothing available for him to pass to.

Our complete lack of pace and movement around him, rendered his decent first touch completely redundant.

Kitson's lack of goals for us is a concern. I was horrified by an interview he gave a few weeks ago when he said he wasn't bothered by scoring goals. What the hell are we paying him big money for if it's not to ripple the goddam onion bag?

I don't want my big money signing doing fancy flicks (or being constantly booked) 40 yards from goal. There was one counterattack today when Beano was released down the right, he waited as long as humanly possible for someone, anyone to get in the box, Potter eventually did, Kitson was making no effort at all to get there. The move came to nothing.

It is now no longer possible to argue it's just bad luck that strikers who've scored goals elsewhere, don't score them for us. Nor that strikers leave us and then become prolific. We have put a lot of eggs in a big ginger haired basket, and we have created a system that doesn't put him in a position where he can score.

This is a worry.

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Pace. Is this the slowest team we've ever had? We were crying out for some pace today to stretch the game. Yet, Williams, goal scoring hero of last week, doesn't even make it off the bench. Apart from damaging his confidence, it also deprived us of the only player we've got who could be described as quick. Utter lunacy.

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Chesterfield. Still the greatest team ever to play at this level? Were we really graced by their presence as so many on here (and managing our club) have said in the aftermath of our defeat? Two defeats - one the their hated local rivals, and throwing away a 3-0 lead today to lose 4-3 would suggest otherwise. No one in this division is unbeatable, you just have to try and beat them in order to do so. I doubt Jim Bentley of Morecambe was lavishing rich praise upon the Spirites at half time today.

Totally agree about Kitson and his effect on our game plan, and about our lack of pace.

Potter has got pace - but he is producing very little at the moment
and I would rest him for Tuesday night (possibly)

Rigg showed for the ball today and did OK but again his final delivery was not there.

Smalley had an indifferent afternoon too so with Kitson not having the best of games , Oxford were completely
mis-firing in the final third.You cannot win games when that happens and
when the rest of the play is so laboured. Where was the energy and passion to win?

Have to look at goal two again, but I'm not sure that Raynes as MoM was that bad a call. I didn't think Mullins had a good game at all, really and it's hard to see who else was in the running. Clarke?

It completely mystifies me why Rose gets good ratings, when others playing more effectively than he does take a hammering. Can the Rose praisers point to anything creative or potentially game changing he did all afternoon? And then set that against the number of passes that went astray, fifty-fifty balls that went unwon and challenges pulled out of, runners not covered or teammates not helped, midfielders running beyond him? In the absence of any sort of creative hub and with both wide midfielders having very indifferent games not sure it's fair to give much stick to the strikers.

On home form, the atmosphere's pretty bad, isn't it? Hadn't been for a while, but I was surprised how flat it was (and that's even without the shouting moron who sits two rows behind Hog and me in SSU, who just loves it when we play badly so he can spread his poisonous bile around. Aside from that it really depressed me when there were cheers when Hall's number came up (first goal error notwithstanding, he hadn't been any worse than anyone else and had at least put a shift in, but even if he had been worse, that's hardly the action of "supporters".

I guess most know that I am no Wilder fan, but I'm not sure what else he could do other than make slightly different substitutions ... it's not like he briefed Potter and Rigg to have 'mares, is it?

I only listened to it, Jerome...

Sing up Oxford - http://fanchants.co.uk/football-team/oxford-united/

Ancient Colin wrote:Have to look at goal two again, but I'm not sure that Raynes as MoM was that bad a call. I didn't think Mullins had a good game at all, really and it's hard to see who else was in the running. Clarke?

It completely mystifies me why Rose gets good ratings, when others playing more effectively than he does take a hammering. Can the Rose praisers point to anything creative or potentially game changing he did all afternoon? And then set that against the number of passes that went astray, fifty-fifty balls that went unwon and challenges pulled out of, runners not covered or teammates not helped, midfielders running beyond him? In the absence of any sort of creative hub and with both wide midfielders having very indifferent games not sure it's fair to give much stick to the strikers.

On home form, the atmosphere's pretty bad, isn't it? Hadn't been for a while, but I was surprised how flat it was (and that's even without the shouting moron who sits two rows behind Hog and me in SSU, who just loves it when we play badly so he can spread his poisonous bile around. Aside from that it really depressed me when there were cheers when Hall's number came up (first goal error notwithstanding, he hadn't been any worse than anyone else and had at least put a shift in, but even if he had been worse, that's hardly the action of "supporters".

I guess most know that I am no Wilder fan, but I'm not sure what else he could do other than make slightly different substitutions ... it's not like he briefed Potter and Rigg to have 'mares, is it?

Spot on - how can anyone think that sort of thing is going to help. I'm sure he knows he didn't have a great game (like most of the other players) but such vitriol is only going to demotivate him/make him cagey in his next appearance. I've never understood why 'fans' boo a player or cheer when he is subbed.

There were even "fans" shouting "off off off", when Asa Hall looked to have taken their player with a red card tackle in the second half. Unbelievable.

Raynes - looking at the FLS lowlights, he was one of the defenders who could have tracked the scorer, but overall I agree with AC - a reasonable shout for MOM as one of the least poor players.

Smalley - I think Radley Rambler's comment about his early miss is a bit unfair - I thought at the time the defender did really well to force him wide and narrow the angle.

Kitson - absolutely YF Dan, what is the point of having someone do fancy flicks, way out (only some of which work), but generally failed to deliver anything meaningful. As a result of having spent a few months in Oz a few years ago and watching A-League coverage, I find the phrase "marquee signing" is usually a warning rather than a positive thing.

What were the RadOx people going on about? The booing was for Smalley being taken off (instead of Kitson or Potter or any of several others), which turned to cheers when Beano's name was announced.

I knew the writing was on the wall as soon as the teamn was announced. How can we stand a chance without the players to control midfield?

And as others have said, how can we not pass the ball to each other, players not move for each other, and play with such a lack of pace? What really frustrated me was, in the second half especially, quite often one of our players did pass the ball to a team-mate - except those were usually times when we were starting to break - and the ball should have been played in front of the team-mate for them to run onto. Instead they had to stop to wait for the ball and all momentum was lost. Ridiculous.

Currently we are as high as we are only because of away form that is, realistically, unlikely to be maintained through the season. On the other thread about about the Hartlepool game, some were wondering why there was so much negativity around when we were second in the table. This game was a eloquent response to such optimism.

Dr Bob wrote: I knew the writing was on the wall as soon as the teamn was announced. How can we stand a chance without the players to control midfield?

Just as a point of interest what line-up would you have wanted to see - I got the sense the one he chose was just about the most popular choice in the lead-up to the game....

Mooro wrote:

Dr Bob wrote: I knew the writing was on the wall as soon as the teamn was announced. How can we stand a chance without the players to control midfield?

Just as a point of interest what line-up would you have wanted to see - I got the sense the one he chose was just about the most popular choice in the lead-up to the game....

More to the point, in Whing's absence do we actually have any players that can 'control midfield'?

To be totally fair, that's almost my starting XI given suspensions and injuries, (although I'd have Davies for Hall every day, and possibly Williams for Kitson or Smalley with Potter given a free role behind the other forward).

That is no exoneration of Wilder though, I'm horrified that he's assembled a squad lacking in so much pace...It's a bad thing that at this point we have a squad so lacking in variety. Oh for an outlet yesterday, a player capable of stretching their ponderous defence. We had one nippy lad, left thumb twiddling on the bench, his only crime seemingly the nerve of scoring last week.

I'm really not trying to be anti-Kitson, but at the time of his signing I was non-plussed and am still non the wiser as to why we've used so much of our budget on him. Dwight Gayle's do exist out there, I'd rather we'd gambled on 6 or 7 potential untapped gems than invested heavily in one former star who may well be well past his best.

One goal in 10 for a striker, let alone a marquee, big money signing, cannot be described as a good return. Williams, for example, has one in one, and an assist.

My patience with the Kitson gamble will run out very quickly if he doesn't start scoring regularly, or at the very least start getting in positions where he might score regularly. His lack of willingness yesterday to get in the box for me was a massive concern.

I MAY UPSET A FEW FANS BUT AFTER FIRST TEN GAMES APPEARS THAT THE PROBLEMS WHICH NEED
TO BE SORTED ARE THE NEED FOR AT LEAST ONE ONE NEW TOP CLASS MIDFIELD PLAYER ONE CLASS WINGER AND
A CLASS STRIKER THESE ARE GOING TO COST MONEY BUT WITHOUT INVESTMENT I SEE NO HOPE OF A TOP THREE
FINISH THIS SEASON .

I MUST ALSO ADD THAT BOTH POTTER AND CONSTABLE ARE VASTLY OVER RATED AND NEED TO BE MOVED OUT ASAP