Oxford | Page 3 | Vital Football

Oxford

That was hard work but pulling out those late winners like that in the dour games when you are having a off night is what can win you titles. Huge win putting us tantalisingly close to promotion.

Delighted to see Devante get on and make the difference, he deserves all the credit in the world for not being greedy and going for glory and allowing Grigg the tap in when he was clean through and what a sublime pass from Morsy to set it up. Hope we get to see Cole more between now and end of season i think he's got a lot to offer.

But i wish we'd stop blindly launching it so much like we did tonight. Every time we get the ball down and play football around the opposition box we look so much more dangerous. It's good we have Vaughan as an out ball to hit but we don't do him or the team any favours by trying to hit him every time and bypass midfield so often.
 
Couldn't be happier for Cole to take his chance tonight, he's the type of player that i like to see play the game. Hopefully he gets a few more chances and does well in preparation for next season.

What was up with Dunkley hitting 99% long balls, he's usually not that wasteful with possesion. The amount of times he pumped the ball up to vaughan was crazy.

Colclough did well, jacobs didn't have his best of games and i struggle to understand why roberts, jacobs, power, elder and vaughan stayed on the pitch longer than him. He had the fullback every time, when jacobs went across to his side he didn't beat him once.

Anyway delighted that we got the win, credit to cook for making the changes even if i don't agree with some of them.
 
Hate how we resort to long ball when we start with Vaughn. Why can't we play the same way and knock the ball around? Fulton, Elder and Roberts are League 1 quality and were poor tonight. Morsy is absolute class, he and Burn had more touches than the whole team combined. Grigg and Cole added that bit of quality that was lacking the whole game.

But seriously, one of the worst games I've seen, terrible reffing and anti-football from Oxford. Don't blame them after getting thrashed at their place. Big win, Championship guaranteed for me.
 
Bit of criticism about the long ball. Perhaps justified as it didn't work last night, however I think it's important a team has a different way of playing at times and to be fair I/we would be critical if we didn't. The team has looked fatigued these last two games, understandably so, but at this stage it's about results rather than performances and they just need to dig deep and get over the line, which to be fair they have virtually done.
 
The long ball was about trying to put it over the top of their 9 man defence. They didn't give us much room to play football as there were too many bodies in the way. Only when they began to tire a little where we able to have a bit more room.
Much better teams than us struggle to play against a packed defence, which is why it is so effective. But in the end you need that little break and quality usually comes through.
Very glad we didn't chose Robinson as our manager, playing those tactics with both Charlton and Oxford can't be a coincidence and the delaying tactics start to the second half was a disgrace, pity the abysmal referee changed his mind and stopped the kick off, would have served them right.
 
I keep banging on about Cole getting his chance not that we should drop Grigg for him but he has proved in 15 minutes of football with 2 assists that he should be second choice ,
Vaughn naturally gets players to knock it long for the flick on , trouble is we play one up front , for me Vaughn would be the one to throw on last 10 if it is ey lads ey ..
Good win crap game ..
 
The thing was earlier in the season we had the midfield coming deep to pick up the ball off the back line then we pushed up as a side in possesion with the full backs overlapping building up with pass and move sometimes this caused us problems as we couldn't get the ball up field fast enough and make it stick against packed defences.

More reccently we've seemed to adjust the way we play to counter that and push our attacking midfield much higher up without the ball and the def midfield is not dropping back as often. It appears we are aiming to get more men forward to battle around their box for knock downs with the drawback being that we aren't particulary amazing at the more direct approach.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with mixing it up and having 2 different ways of playing, and i'm happy to have both options and wouldn't want us to become a side who refuse to go direct when the situation calls it. But I think we've not got the balance quite right and in recent weeks have been guilty of using the long passes a little too indiscriminatly rather than using them when the move is on.

I do wonder if that is down to the loss of Evans as Max has been doing a good job replacing him but they aren't the same type of player or if there are simply some nerves about passing it out from the back with a mistake at this point in the season being so costly we are just avoiding the risk.
 
As Kenny so rightly says the long ball was down to them parking the proverbial bus. How many times have we seen sides come and do just that for us to start playing the ball around in front of them and boring the pants off the support. The direct ball is Vaughans game and had Roberts and Jacobs been closer to him then they might have picked up a knock down or two. The amount of times Vaughan gave them the eyes asking "were the hell are you" was unbelievable. Time and again he battled to win the ball only to see them yards away. If we are going to play that system then we need players to get tight to him and for me the obvious choice would be Cole playing as a number 10. He obviously has the skill and composure to work alongside Vaughan and take the opportunities that come along. Jacobs is a winger and Roberts is more of a creative midfielder, if we were to sacrifice Jacobs to accommodate Cole then I think it would work. Perhaps PC might give it a try sometime.
 
Game after game I read so many negative comments re our most recent performance on this board. A football game is made up of two sides battling against each other. Oxford, like Rotherham and others who came before, may not be the best footballing team, but they make things awkward to play against. The outcome is not too entertaining from our point of view as paying spectators. We just have to seek solace in the fact that we keep winning. Generally speaking professional football, even at the top level, is not that entertaining, anyway. I just feel good seeing us at the top of the table once again.
 
Made in Wigan said:
Karl Robinson - thank fuck we never hired this bloke in the summer. Charlton and now oxford are probably the dullest, least adventurous teams I've seen in years.
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I agree thankfully we didn't hire Robinson. He must be one of the most deluded arrogant people in football. He's well up there with Pardew.
In one interview with him today he claims Oxford would have won if they'd had a recognised goalscorer and their game plan was perfect.
What a tosser!!!!
 
Oscarbon said:
Charlton then go and score again in the 8th minute of injury time just for good measure.

So that is another 3 goals added to the goal difference.

Promotion has got to be done and dusted now for certain!!
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Will you be arsed going next season when we are in the championship?
You have missed a treat this season, the radio is no substitute for being at the game......mate.
 
KDZ, i entirely disagree with you about Vaughan yesterday. He lost many more challenges for high balls than he won, but that's normal with hoofball. When he won them, many went nowhere and to blame others around him is ludicrous. I do agree that it does no harm to try it once in a while, but last night the first half was wasted, as was the first half at Rochdale for the same reason. I wasn't bored by the challenge in front of us last night, Maybe because I always felt sooner or later we'd get the breakthrough.
 
Is anyone really surprised that we played long ball yesterday? It has been like that for most of the season.
Dunkley and Burn are not good with the ball on the ground so i guess it makes sense not to overplay at the back but when you dont have a big targetman up front it is imo a bad tactic to use against low sitting teams.
I think it is one reason why we "struggle" against teams who sit back and try to counter, next season we will hopefully try to play more football on the ground with off the ball movement and less direct long balls.
 
henski said:
KDZ, i entirely disagree with you about Vaughan yesterday. He lost many more challenges for high balls than he won, but that's normal with hoofball. When he won them, many went nowhere and to blame others around him is ludicrous. I do agree that it does no harm to try it once in a while, but last night the first half was wasted, as was the first half at Rochdale for the same reason. I wasn't bored by the challenge in front of us last night, Maybe because I always felt sooner or later we'd get the breakthrough.
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I didn't mention Vaughan or say he was winning most of his headers. Think you might be replying to someone elses point.
 
truelatic4eva said:
Will you be arsed going next season when we are in the championship?
You have missed a treat this season, the radio is no substitute for being at the game......mate.
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I, like you, will probably please myself. It depends on commitments I have elsewhere. If my Granddaughter goes to school and my Step-Daughter no longer needs us to look after her Monday and Tuesday, thus meaning I have to make a living by working Saturday and Sunday I might.

You see feeding myself and my partner, and caring for my children and Grandchildren are a priority to me.

But each to their own....mate.
 
Yon Mon said:
I agree thankfully we didn't hire Robinson. He must be one of the most deluded arrogant people in football. He's well up there with Pardew.
In one interview with him today he claims Oxford would have won if they'd had a recognised goalscorer and their game plan was perfect.
What a tosser!!!!
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Thing is with the squad of players we have here and the fabulous backing from the board he probably wouldnt have had to resort to those tactics.
 
Oscarbon said:
I, like you, will probably please myself. It depends on commitments I have elsewhere. If my Granddaughter goes to school and my Step-Daughter no longer needs us to look after her Monday and Tuesday, thus meaning I have to make a living by working Saturday and Sunday I might.

You see feeding myself and my partner, and caring for my children and Grandchildren are a priority to me.

But each to their own....mate.
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I really don't know why you bothered responding to that obvious piece of antagonism oscar!
 
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