Let's talk about the Oxford United game

[selby]

  A game against a side who seem to score plenty of goals averaging two a game scoring 24 in twelve games Fosu has six goals, Henry with five, and Brannagan with four all being in the top scorers for the division list, so when they have the ball they are a big threat.
  Our team selection is limited in numbers as last nights game at Rotherham  highlighted especially in the forward positions. Hope fully Ennis and Sterling are nearing fitness, and at least with Thomas it looks like we have some cover, and with luck all three shortly, which would be a very unusual situation for us to be in.
 Ennis has done enough to warrant the shirt if fit for me, Thomas and Sterling good back ups at the moment, moving Sadlier out wider where he is more dangerous, and Taylor on the other flank.
  Last night showed we really do need another quality mid field player signing, it is the strength of our side, but cover is way below their standard, Gomes the best bet on the bench as cover, but is not a Copps, Sheaf or Whiteman.
  In defence I would play Anderson and bring in Wright  for Daniels, just my preference with his experience and extra pace,  the rest of the defence being shoe ins if fit.
  Oxford are on a run of six unbeaten and last week the Accrington manager was quoted as saying they were the best team they have played, so are in good form.
   Can we get back to winning ways?
   Would you make Changes?
   Are we capable of stopping a free scoring team?
    Lots to discuss about this game, please have your say.

[steve@dcfd]

Let’s hope Ennis and Sterling are fit for the bench at least. Thomas can hopefully give us something different from the bench if Ennis is fit to play.
Wright for me should start in place of Daniels.
Amos on the bench.
Greaves or Gomes for Midfield cover on the bench.
Don’t want to see Kiwomya or Longbottom near the bench.

[Donnywolf]

Any chance they will have lost 2 or 3 to International duty ? Their Forum was worried the game might be off though this was last week so things may be more clear cut

https://yellowsforum.co.uk/threads/doncaster-postponed.3002/

How will they do with the 1 or 2 missing - are they regulars

[Donnywolf]

Let’s hope Ennis and Sterling are fit for the bench at least. Thomas can hopefully give us something different from the bench if Ennis is fit to play.
Wright for me should start in place of Daniels.
Amos on the bench.
Greaves or Gomes for Midfield cover on the bench.
Don’t want to see Kiwomya or Longbottom near the bench.

Fair comments

Wright should start somehwhere

Also Kiwomya and Longbottom were the 2 names I heard most yesterday in the Ground on the way to the Station and on the Train. 90% of the mentions were of the negative kind so perhaps they wont even be on the Bench

As usual though if DM sees things differently I defer to him as he is "the boss" after all

[Draytonian III]

Woodburn - Wales is injured
Sykes - Northern Ireland not in the squad

[Campsall rover]

Agree with Wright in for Daniels and either Ennis if fit or if not then play Thomas up front.
Sadlier out wide which is his best position with either Taylor or May on the other side. Possibly start with May as i think Taylor has been & will be most effective used as an impact sub in the last 25/30 mins of games when teams are tiring.
Sorry Brian I know you won’t agree but Alfie was man of the match 1st half last Saturday. Yes he faded 2nd half and largely was pretty much ineffectual.
Rest of the team picks itself.

This will be a tough game as i expected Oxford to do well this season and after a slow start they are proving to be a dangerous attacking force with the number of goals they are scoring.

Should be a good game with two teams going all out for the win.
We must start taking our chances when they come.
We were punished by a far inferior Portsmouth team, a match which we completely dominated. This must not continue if we are going to be successful this season.
We have to be more ruthless in front of goal. To lose a game in which we had 26 attempts at goal against the oppositions 6 attempts is nothing less than criminal.

Looking forward to the challenge Oxford will provide on Saturday.
Take our chances and we can beat anyone in this league. No one we have played has been better than us yet.
Coventry are a good footballing team and had a lot of the ball but were no great threat in front of goal.

If we start scoring the goals we should be scoring then we can finish very high up in this league, that there is no question imo.

[Metalmicky]

I understand that Woodburn (for Oxford) has gone back to Liverpool injured and he has been making them tick recently. Also Sykes is on international duties... 

They drew with Portsmouth in the EFL Trophy last night, although I understand that they played a strong team with 5 players that played on Saturday starting the game, and 5 who were on the bench from Saturday also starting.  Whereas Portsmouth had a Zero players who started against us and use only 5 players who were on the bench on Saturday...  I'm hopeful with a fresher squad and Ennis back in the team we can get 3 points - even though they are one of the form teams...   

[RoversAlias]

Campsall - Alfie might have been less influential than in the first half but he had a direct influence on our goal, firing on goal with James scoring the rebound.

I know you were praising him anyway and rightly so but just thought I'd add that as a point of clarity.

[Retdon1]

I would stick with Anderson and Daniels at the back. Idd want Wright to play a few more U23 games to fully ensure he’s over his injury worries

[Campsall rover]

I would stick with Anderson and Daniels at the back. Idd want Wright to play a few more U23 games to fully ensure he’s over his injury worries

He looked 100% last night. DM will know best though.

[Rovers91]

Tough game, will need to score at least a couple to get something from it.

[Alan Southstand]

It’s becoming painfully obvious to me that our season is going to be totally dependant on the availability of our loanees and, with 3/6ths of them injured at the moment, we do look weaker, particularly in an attacking sense. Kwame Thomas eases the pain somewhat, but he is not a John Marquis, so we shouldn’t expect too much.

It’s to be hoped at least one of either Ennis or Sterling is fit, or I can see us coming away with nothing on Saturday.

[selby]

  Alan, when we can field somewhere near our strongest line up, and as long as we have one of the three strikers to give us a focal point( Ennis, Sterling ,or Thomas), we have a chance against most teams in this division as the rest of the team can hold it's own against any of the other sides in this division, and Coppinger, Whiteman, and Sheaf up their as some of the most talented in midfield,Taylor and Sadlier both good players with skill, and a more than competent keeper and back four.
  Our back up as demonstrated last night is lacking on other teams such as Rotherham who are far stronger however, Blair and John could come in without weakening too much when fit and Daniels, and can cover more than one position, We could do with a couple of good additions,Gomes plus one other midfielder, and another good wide attacker.

[Alan Southstand]

I can go along with a lot of that short summary, Selby, but I would add that we are still suffering from the hangover of losing most of our good solid pro’s from last season. And, coupled with that, we have lost the offensive threat we had with Wilks and Marquis. Herbie, in midfield, was an unbelievable presence for us and was hardly ever out injured, despite some very cynical treatment by opposition teams.

Have we replaced the goal threat that Tommy Rowe provided, or indeed, his influence within the team? Sadlier is contributing to our goals tally, but Taylor is not yet finding the finishing touch to a lot of his hard work and Copps is more a creator than a finisher, yet he too has bagged a few already.

Like you say, when they’re all fit, we have the makings of a very good side, but with only one up top, the rest of the team have got to be wading in to help our cause.

[selby]

I agree Alan, and the fact that Rowe is playing in a top championship side proves just what standard of player we had, and was always going to be the hardest to replace with Marquis.
  I am happy the way we are going though, Rome was not built in a day as they say, and it will take time, and the identification of players we can attract and afford is now the real problem to overcome which is a backroom problem as well as agents being realistic which is proving the big problem with clubs like ourselves.
 A couple of the right players in the next window could see us fly if they complement the group, although we may have to be one of those sides that also have to get used to losing a couple every window we would like to keep who have been on loan and attract other bigger clubs.
  Forward planning, identification of players, is what will make the difference to us from now on, and having the lad from Crystal Palace last week shows the management are on the ball to me, and we more than ever need a period of stability at the management level to give them chance to shape the club. What they have done in four months  is tremendous, bringing in good young players at short notice, and creating a style that suits them.
   The club is in good hands, both on and off the field of play, if we carry on the progress made in such a short time at least it will not be boring.
  I would be looking to put a big severance payment in the managers contract and extending the length of contract if I was on the board.

[Alan Southstand]

Couldn’t agree more.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Sorry, I know it's about opinions and I respect yours, but I think the balance and quality of the current team is better without Rowe, without Andrew, without Butler, without Mason, without Marosi.

Herbie was excellent but he did have his injuries and niggles but I think our current midfield and shape is an improvement on last season.

Of course we cannot claim not to miss the goals contribution from Marquis and Wilks and I'm sure we hope that this is addressed with the return of Ennis, Sterling, Thomas coming in and possibly An Other sooner or later.

DM has one way or another bought himself time to improve the squad however he sees fit.

[selby]

DBR, we will never know how they would have fitted in or not, but they were good players who this manager might have got even more out of than the last two managers we had, in the former's case not that hard to do in my humble opinion, but as I say it is water under the bridge, but I would hazard a guess that Tommy Rowe's present and future managers don't use him as a left back.
 

[Donnywolf]

Current Super6 entries have Oxford to win 57% Rovers 22% Draw 20%

[Chris Black come back]

Rowe very good player but not and cold. Didn’t easily fit in McCann set up either.

[selby]

CBC,he did at Charlton,he was brilliant

[Alan Southstand]

He didn’t fit into the McCann set up because I think there was friction between them, first and foremost and then secondly, Herbie kept him out when he came back from injury.
This season, we have neither of the above and we don’t have 4-3-3. TR would have fit into DM’s 4-2-3-1 system with ease and he would have got his fair share of goals.

I do like what Darren has done/is doing but, because of the shenanigans before DM joined us, we’ll never know what Darren could have done with the good pro’s we had. Probably better I would think.

[steve@dcfd]

As DM says we are still a work in progress. Our performances and results have masked there is still plenty of work to do.

 The defence which as been the good this season will be tested on Saturday but have stood up to the task most times this season. Whiteman and Sheaf have done their jobs so far this season.

Taking of chances needs to improve which ever front four play. We have had good creativity but taking of chances have not been good enough, which was evident last Saturday. Enough shots but very few on goal. We have to make the keeper work to stop us scoring.

We have made a big change of playing staff from last season, our style of play is different, we have lost the goal scorers out of the team. We have had injuries to the three young loanees, two were brought in to help with goal scoring. Last Saturday we had creativity so even without those players we had chances we should have taken. This game will be difficult as they are a team in form so let’s hope we can defend and score as a team who ever is selected.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

This could be a pivotal game. If we carry on dominating games for decent spells and not getting the results, then maybe doubts will come in and confidence be affected.

On paper, we'd should be happy with a draw but, a win will put us back on track for play offs or better. Do the players want it enough? Do they believe in themselves and each other? Are they still learning enough enough to get better with the chances they create? Can they develop sufficient ruthlessness to make the difference?

This game will go some way to answering those questions.

[sha66y]

It’s a jigsaw puzzle coming together...but it should look great when finished

[Donnywolf]

The weather could play a big part. Raiin Rain Rain for all day could make for a tricky pitch / mistimed tackles etc so you never know

Throw in this usually poor Ref and there could be trouble - so lets hope we can take him out of the equation as well

Draw would be acceptable but hoping WIN - though I have gone LOSE on PvO

[Reesielad]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DonnyBazR0ver]

So those questions remain. What was disappointing was we just didn't do the basics well enough yesterday.

As good as our full backs have been so far, both seemed to allow space for their wide men to get crosses in far too easily.

Credit to Oxford as they did what we don't and that's pick out a teammate from those crosses, rather than the hopeful percentage balls we seem to deliver. Although Sadlier was unlucky when getting on the end of a Halliday cross.

Also game management, keeping them out until first half stoppage time and leave far too much room to invite the free shot on goal.

Bad day at the office and clear to see Oxford goals coming from midfield players siezing their chances. The presence of a striker other then Thomas and Ennis wouldn't have made any difference to the result!

Live, learn and move on.

[selby]

  My take is, yes we were beaten by the better side on the day, but some of the reaction is a little over the top. Finishing is the main problem we have at the moment, some of our approach play was good, the run of the ball, and some quite strange refereeing decisions all the game not helping our cause.
  Our usual dominance in midfield was not forthcoming in this game Oxford matching us up and stopping any game flow when not having the ball, at times they were quite cynical and dominated the referee, at one time he received a finger wagging for quite a time for giving us a throw in. Needless to say most of the bookings, fouls against, and dodgy penalty came our way, and it seems that Robinson has been there long enough to form a team in his own image.
  These things going on do not detract from the fact that we were second best on the day, but it does not help when a fair crack from the officials is not forthcoming. That was the poorest refereeing performance this season in my opinion.
  I am sure an acceptance from the team will be that they did not play well, and the management  and supporters know as well, and the weaknesses we have well documented, most people singing from the same song sheet. It is now the time to work on putting things right, but we  do have a good base to work from, things are not as bad as some would have us believe in my opinion.

[Alickismyhero]

My first game of the season and it was a very disappointing experience. Out played by a far better team but I am not as down as many people on the forum. In the first 10 mins we showed we could have been the better side and for short periods after that we looked like we could score. Only five shots and none on target says it all really. We shouldn't be too hard on Tomas, a young lad playing in the isolated position up front. The two CB's had him in their pockets and the ref gave him very little support from the battering he was taking. I like what DM is attempting to do with the resources he has at his disposal, the eternal optimist.