mrtrench
Well-Known Member
I'd imagine it's because he's a midfield enforcer and we controlled midfield yesterday without him. So better to play midfielders who are goal threats.
Match Thread Coventry City - Oxford United Match Thread - Saturday 7th Feb (12 Viewers)
- Thread starter Nick
- Start date
I'd imagine it's because he's a midfield enforcer and we controlled midfield yesterday without him. So better to play midfielders who are goal threats.
Gint11
Well-Known Member
Bobby’s not in form, but I’d have kept him in with Woolfy although both CBs were fine yesterday.
We dominated yesterday and Rushy had nothing to do but we knew that would be the case, home to 2nd bottom Oxford. I was bored watching that yesterday. Too slow in our passing and cautious. I can sense the fear in the players about going behind now or losing games, purely from the pressure and expectations around us. We have blown a 13 point lead and now struggling for form and confidence.
Im not suprised Onyeka didn’t play yesterday as we don’t need that type of player at home to Oxford. Subs were late yesterday too.
I know we can turn things and get over the line but all I’m seeing is caution, safe football and fragility. If we had gone 0-1 down yesterday we’d have lost but 2 months ago, we’d have come back and won.
We dominated yesterday and Rushy had nothing to do but we knew that would be the case, home to 2nd bottom Oxford. I was bored watching that yesterday. Too slow in our passing and cautious. I can sense the fear in the players about going behind now or losing games, purely from the pressure and expectations around us. We have blown a 13 point lead and now struggling for form and confidence.
Im not suprised Onyeka didn’t play yesterday as we don’t need that type of player at home to Oxford. Subs were late yesterday too.
I know we can turn things and get over the line but all I’m seeing is caution, safe football and fragility. If we had gone 0-1 down yesterday we’d have lost but 2 months ago, we’d have come back and won.
SkyBlue_Bear83
Well-Known Member
I get that argument, and even said it myself. But you would think we will need him against Boro, seems a bit of a risk to go into the Boro match with him playing 0 minutes when you had ideal opportunity v Oxford
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
Deliveries have gone to shit.
Otis
Well-Known Member
Very true and so many set piece kicks haven't even got past the first man.
Torp is a bit of a shadow of himself, as is Jack Rudoni.
These were both players who were making things happen and scoring too, earlier on
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
Is any outfield player playing at their peak? For me at that point you’ve got to look at the staff ahead of any particular player. What are the coaches doing?
Everyone seems to wind themselves and each other up on here and at the ground. Frustrating yes but some of the comments on here, CWR etc are way OTT
Earlier in the season even with just the same chances as yesterday, let alone the fact Oxford would happen to open up after one goal, we win that 2 or 3 nil. It’s just not going our way at the moment. As a fanbase we can either try to lift the players and get behind them or moan, boo, refuse to sing etc
Otis
Well-Known Member
I think Eccles is probably the one player playing at a pretty consistent level in midfield.
Torp, Rudoni and Grimes have all looked poorer for a while now.
There were some far better balls in second half yesterday.
Rodders1
Well-Known Member
Yeah Torp and Rudoni seemed to be flying under Lampard. Thought his experience and talent as a player gave them huge confidence from his coaching. Weird it seems to have disappeared.
Rudi did seem more central and aggressive when he came on to be fair though.
Otis
Well-Known Member
They should’ve had a sending off 10-15 mins earlier and tried to shithouse their way to a draw….which I don’t blame them in the position they’re in. We didnt get any big decisions we didn’t deserve though
Would also like to see a potential handball
incident again. From the corner it looked like the defender went up with two hands and semi caught ball (couldn’t tell if he pulled hands away before touching it though)
SkyBlue_Bear83
Well-Known Member
You always know it's gone to shit when people start saying Eccles is looking like our best player. Last time I remember that being said regularly was Robins last few months in charge
SkyBlue_Bear83
Well-Known Member
Should have had two more sent off, one for the blatant second yellow on Wright and another for kicking the ball away (can't remember the player but he was on yellow) laughably the ref gave a yellow card to someone else a few minutes later for the exact same thing.
Adge
Well-Known Member
And you was blinded.
Skyblue Bangkok
Well-Known Member
By the light
Adge
Well-Known Member
Yep-you know it’s bad when that rears its ugly head. To be fair to Eccles he was one of the only ones to come out with any credit against QPR but the game just passed him by yesterday.
Otis
Well-Known Member
Thought he was good first half. But then disappeared in the 2nd.
Nah he was astounded I think!
Adge
Well-Known Member
Can never last 90 minutes aswell which for a professional athelete is somewhat strange. Be interesting to see if anyone can come up with the last time he completed 90 mins.
Cally Fedora
Well-Known Member
Difficult game wasn’t it. Just needed something to break for us early but the longer it went on the more we seemed to tighten up.
Skyblueabo1111
Well-Known Member
Our opposition don't need goalies.
Legia Sky Blue
Well-Known Member
Tend to agree on this, although I might have brought in Woolfenden for Kitching. Oxford were never going to provide much of an attacking threat, and it was a good chance to get a bit of defensive confidence back before the Middlesbrough game, but now because we had a clean sheet I guess we will be compelled to play Lati and Woolfenden. Thomas & Kitching both had impactful games in the reverse fixture at Boro though and I suspect Boro will be happier seeing Lati and Woolfenden lining up against them.
As for the Oxford game, at the end particularly when they were hanging on with 10 men, it would have been handy to have been able to push Thomas forward to provide more of an outlet for crosses, as his presence might have encouraged a quicker delivery of crosses into their box rather than the more deliberate manner we adopted. They were just clearing the ball anywhere at that point with no interest in getting possession, and we should therefore have rained crosses in until they made a defensive error or have the ball drop kindly for us from an ensuing melee.
Gibbo
Well-Known Member
Took my Oxford based son-in-law to the game as an Xmas present - bit of a mistake eh! That was terrible and Haji's bad shooting apart, almost all of it can be placed at Lampard's door. Among the list of egregious errors yesterday
He has it fixed in his head to pull Torp. Even if he's playing better than Eccles - which he was yesterday by someway. If I was Torp I would look elsewhere. This is a recurring theme in Lampard - fixed opinions with limited ability to adapt.
I could have played central defence yesterday and not conceded - why keep Lati on when you've got a 6' 4" bloke on the bench who also scores goals. No offence to Lati at all, but Thomas is clearly a better bet in the opposition box. Or Kitching for that matter.
Why wait until the 80th min to bring on an extra striker, when they are down to 10 and packing the defence? And why Yang on 88. What was the point of that? I'd have switched Esse to his favoured side and pulled Sakamoto after 60 or 70. I thought Yang showed promise
Which brings me to Sakamoto. His ability to control a ball remains awesome, but his output thereafter utter dross. He's completely forgotten how to go to the line or engineer MVE going to the line. Every Championship defender knows he'll cut back. For those criticizing Esse I venture the number of out balls he received was far fewer than Sakamoto's.
You've just waited a month and paid a shit load of money to get the man you want. You are against a weak opposition and you don't give him at least 20 minutes? So his first game is likely against Boro (and probably as a sub)?
Everybody knows exactly what we'll do - and it will end and with a loopy hanging cross from Grimes which is absolute meat and drink to half competent central defenders at this level. Balls need to be delivered at pace - like Torp's corners
During an injury break late on, Lampard took the whole time to talk to Lati, who in the context of the game was probably the least important player on the pitch. Grimes needed the talking to.
Those who query the effort made by the players miss the point. They huffed and puffed and made the effort - several were absolutely knackered at the end. The problem was at the top. A limited ability to think, analyze and above all see beyond preconceived ideas.
He has it fixed in his head to pull Torp. Even if he's playing better than Eccles - which he was yesterday by someway. If I was Torp I would look elsewhere. This is a recurring theme in Lampard - fixed opinions with limited ability to adapt.
I could have played central defence yesterday and not conceded - why keep Lati on when you've got a 6' 4" bloke on the bench who also scores goals. No offence to Lati at all, but Thomas is clearly a better bet in the opposition box. Or Kitching for that matter.
Why wait until the 80th min to bring on an extra striker, when they are down to 10 and packing the defence? And why Yang on 88. What was the point of that? I'd have switched Esse to his favoured side and pulled Sakamoto after 60 or 70. I thought Yang showed promise
Which brings me to Sakamoto. His ability to control a ball remains awesome, but his output thereafter utter dross. He's completely forgotten how to go to the line or engineer MVE going to the line. Every Championship defender knows he'll cut back. For those criticizing Esse I venture the number of out balls he received was far fewer than Sakamoto's.
You've just waited a month and paid a shit load of money to get the man you want. You are against a weak opposition and you don't give him at least 20 minutes? So his first game is likely against Boro (and probably as a sub)?
Everybody knows exactly what we'll do - and it will end and with a loopy hanging cross from Grimes which is absolute meat and drink to half competent central defenders at this level. Balls need to be delivered at pace - like Torp's corners
During an injury break late on, Lampard took the whole time to talk to Lati, who in the context of the game was probably the least important player on the pitch. Grimes needed the talking to.
Those who query the effort made by the players miss the point. They huffed and puffed and made the effort - several were absolutely knackered at the end. The problem was at the top. A limited ability to think, analyze and above all see beyond preconceived ideas.
torchomatic
Well-Known Member
I thought Woolfenden was pretty good yesterday. The main issue i had was there were quite a few times when he had the ball to cross into the box where ideally you'd want him IN the box. That's where Thomas would have been.
Had no issue with Kitchin being dropped yesterday, but I would still have started Thomas.
Nick
Administrator
If he had given it to mve to cross in he would have gone back to rushworth.
Gibbo
Well-Known Member
One of the most infuriating things yesterday. The ball would be cleared to our man, usually MVE because he'd been told to be there, who seemed unable to produce a reverse pass to either wing to quickly keep the pressure on. The pass back meant Oxford had time to reset.
Skybluekyle
Well-Known Member
Not taking this from a fan of a team that is happy playing as little football as possible. Football games are actually horrid to watch these days, just away teams ensuring the ball is in for as little amount of time as possible.
I could make an argument they could have had three red cards yesterday; Brown and Spencer could easily have been given their marching orders, Brown should have gone and Spencer kicked the ball away a little bit after the whistle had been blown, albeit for something that didn't look a free kick (again, attempt to remain balanced).
Nick
Administrator
What were we given the we shouldn't have been?
Unless people were watching a different game where Oxford weren't fouling and kicking the ball away and then time wasting.
Tommo1993
Well-Known Member
There was plenty of soft and laughable free kicks we were given.
Nick
Administrator
Which ones? Weren't they given any?
If anything, we weren't given enough. They should have had another player sent off at least.
SlovakSkyBlue
Well-Known Member
I know
