U's Fred

I thought the Oxford forwards out muscled our back 3 today and giving the first two goals away didn't help
In the last 3 games how many times have we given the ball away
Playing Theo has a wing back is a waste
I thought Drinnan played well he won more aeriel challenges than Piggott and the amount of running he does
One thing that I feel is obvious is that players like Ruel and Happe have become better players under Ritchie

I can't agree it was poor. Oxford are the better side. They have three quality midfielders and it showed. They're ahead of us in building their squad. I feel we gave them a match and we may have given them a better match if we had the likes of Graham, Agyei and Sanders (who I think will be very good) up and running - given them something extra to think about. We had a good attitude and worked hard today. We weren't poor - well I don't think we were.
Neither can I agree it would've been a travesty if we got something from the game. If they missed their chances that's their problem.

We definitely were not poor.  But we are still some way short of Oxford who were the better team and deserved the 3 points.  1 shot on target tells the story where our problems are. Graham would have made some difference.  But been our issue all season.

Our first season in League 1 and we are doing OK.  Not great, but OK.  The team including the management are on a steep learning curve against players and coaches who have been there and done it.  We should all be satisfied with our progress thus far.  I am.
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Much in what you say, Oreo.  Oxford are better than us but still not quite the full package and their manager will be livid that they could have thrown it away.  

I stick to my verdict though from our side.  Too many passes going astray. Too much snatching at shots.  Too many static or arriving too late into the box. Brynn's distribution doesn't need to be mentioned.  The only thing I would say is that we didn't it give up and Tom James, I thought, was close to his best.   I think we needed more defensive pace yesterday rather than the likes of Graham and Agyei.  As has been pointed out Archibald was ripped a new orifice by his opponent from the first minute onwards. Sweeney to balance James may have been a better option.  Surprised to see that Beckles wasn't available on the bench- maybe did himself a mischief against Portsmouth. 

Looking at the bigger picture, we have now played eight out of the current top twelve and haven't beaten any of them, so we are firmly mid-table at best and if the owners are investing in the window they need to be thinking about making sure we don't slip down this year and building for next season.  

I'd have settled for a top 20 finish in our first season back the third tier, so in that context mid table is quite satisfactory

I posted a post at half time, butt seems it didn’t make it to the thread.

I watched Oxford intently as I wanted to see and understand why there is a difference or what that difference is between the top and middle parts of the league. Oxford are the best side I’ve seen this season however, they are beatable and we should of and could have done better. We didn’t play badly, but we could have been better over the 90 mins.

What I saw was an organised Oxford side who all knew their roles and positions. They had patterns of play which were repetitive and we should have stopped them easier than we did at times especially as the players would have sat through video analysis of how they play etc. Oxford were a small team, but had very quick players who utilised that ball behind the wingbacks down the channel’s time and again, some have said Theo got ripped, but their plan is to exploit the space behind those players with their front three who were all like lightening when moving. Maybe yesterday was a day for a back four? Now I’ve seen the game maybe that would have worked better for us? 5 across midfield and one up top which may have condensed the space and stop them from exploiting it.

It’s interesting when we deployed the same tactic in the second half we got on top of them, and had more ball and more attacking intent. The one downer for me was the amount of times we went backwards, I don’t think Oxford went backwards at all, always looking for that forward pass, looking to exploit the spaces down the channels and asking questions of our team by turning them around with that pass over the top. It’s interesting when Ritchie was interviewed on radio London after the game he said we stopped following the game plan in the first half and we started to go backwards when the pass was supposed to go forwards and that the players stopped following the plan we had in place. Interesting words indeed.

We are not far away from being a team that could get out of this league, in my opinion a centre forward of hard running is needed to make the difference and who can also score! Contrast their front three with our front thee and it’s like night and day. Now that’s not a dig at our players, but a highlight of the difference between a top team and one striving to be a top team. Their press when our defenders had the ball was the best I’ve seen this year, whereas we can’t do that as we either don’t have the pace or stamina to undertake such a tactic.

Even though we lost I didn’t lose hope or get annoyed as the players tried, they never gave up and with a little more composure and a bit more quality at certain points we may have got something from the game. We have come a long way in a short space of time, we are on the right track and we will get better.

Satisfied with the performance but of course not the result.We gave as good as we got but did not get the goals our shot shy forwards might have rewarded us with.The one mistake that opened the scoring is a mistake I have seen in every league in every competition I have watched in football this season.As part of the song goes everybody's talking about a new way of walking.(change walking for playing)

Yes a genuine question I agree. Equally would any of the top six teams transfer bid for any our forwards?

I thought from the outset that our line up was all wrong with 3 strikers and only 2 in midfield facing up to their 4.
Sweeney is o.k. but he never attempts to go outside the defender always stopping and playing the ball back. That said , neither does Jack Grealish and he commanded a fee of 100 million so perhaps there’s hope for Sweeney yet.
With archibald occupied in defence and with no graham we had no wing play and the sooner Agyei recovers the better.as we have 6 decent midfielders and not a winger in sight.
I don’t know what Brynn was thinking of but that was not a misplaced pass it was a perfect pass.
I thought as others have said that James was the pick of the bunch and to their credit they didn’t fold but we were beaten by the better side.
We are only 4 points off the bottom 4 and I hope we pick up a few results a bit lively.