Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 0 - 4 Oxford United

[onceknownasrab]

One of those days I'm afraid. Our confidence is low and we faced an organised, grafting Oxford team that deservedly walked away with three points. There were positives for us despite the scoreline. Yesterday was a lesson and a wake up call for the players but moreso for the manager. We are a league 1 team. Play like it.

Bishop - 6 - did what he could to keep scoreline down and no blame attached for the goals. Needs to clear long more and not add to the pressure on defenders. Good keeper.

Elvis. - 6 -. Worked hard. Sometimes caught out of position but he should have a yell at a few who should be covering him when he goes on a run. Needs to work on his end ball. Good player.

Kiernan -6- morale looks low but he is not the liability some claim. Still feel he needs to be in the midfield. Good player.

Dieng -6-. Looks comfortable and improving but for me he should be in the midfield alongside Kiernan. One error but the teams slide is not down to him. Good player.

Taylor -6- he looks to have ability and a burst of pace. Terrible shame for the lad but he won't do it again. Showed character to continue trying. Good player in the making.

Ralph -6-. Can play. Worked hard and was clearly trying to help Taylor through the game and encourage him after the blooper. Good player.

Milligan -2- he adds nothing a youth could not contribute and probably less. I have no idea why we persist with him. Poor player at our level and needs to be shipped back to Oz.

Hamilton -4- I see nothing in him that makes me want to select him. Like Milligan we could do better by sticking an untested youth in. Jury is out as to whether he is good but he is not producing it for us. Adiós.

McL. -6-. Worked hard and looked a little sharper. Suffering due to lack of assistance. Good player.

Cox. -6-. Runs around but is way, way too deep. When your top scorer has to succumb to being a midfielder it should be a forward moving mid. He spent so much time deep in our own half it was pointless. Caught out for the third goal. Good player still.

Hopper. -6- ran about. Got his head to a lot but had no control of it and many of his headers were like clearances back into own half. Needs to have things to chase and harry for rather than back to goal so much. Good player.

Subs;

Hutch. -7- I said last year he is class and I think he is coming good. I want to see him as a number 10. When the team around him improves he will shine even more. Very good player.

Goodship -6- too good to warm the bench and needs to lead the line alongside hopper. Good player.

Manager -5- much to learn but I feel he is going in the right direction. The team looks sharper but not utilised correctly. I thought he got it right when taking off Taylor and putting Hutch on. I hope he recognises that.

I could have been harsher in the marking but individually the majority did try. Collectively and tactically it's just not working. I still believe we are close to turning the corner. Sorry for the doomsayers but I did not see anything to make me believe the team does not care. UTB

 

[mfurok]

The tactics cost us any chance in that match.

Absolutely pitiful - again.

 

[Sandbach Shrimper]

My first home game of the season – I feel sorry for anyone who's had to watch that dross every fortnight. Think onceknownasrab is being quite kind.

Oxford were nothing special but they did what they needed to do to win. We literally gifted them the first two goals and then it was game over already. We did show a bit of fight in the second half and got into some good positions, but we just had no quality in the final third. Don't think their keeper had a proper save to make until near the end.

If you're going to play it out from the back then you need movement and we just don't have that. There were so many times when the centre-backs had the ball and were looking for a pass and there was just nothing on, so we end up passing it around at the back. Hamilton and Milligan were anonymous. Bishop, Dieng and McLaughlin probably our best performers. Hopefully Humphrys will be back soon, at least he acts like he cares unlike most of them.

 

[Fairport]

Although many on here may disagree I thought that for the most part the effort was there but the squad just isn't good enough mainly because of too many poor signings. Together with the tactics employed by Sol these are the reasons we are where we are.

 

[Andy_S]

I wouldn't say I travelled to Roots Hall yesterday feeling confident, but, with good reason I thought, I was hopeful that we might see a slightly improved afternoon. After all we'd just managed a win, albeit in a nothing game against weak opposition, we'd essentially had a chance for a "mini pre season" and Sol had managed to stamp some authority by making an example of Lennon and trying to ship out Ridgewell. Any chance we had to show that we were now better and more prepared though was wiped out and killed off by an atrocious bit of play within 50 seconds. That was it, confidence was back to being shot. I had no idea at the time what Taylor was thinking and after watching it back I still have no idea. He wasn't under pressure and their striker was stood on his own, completely in his eyeline, so just what was he doing!?!?! Now I watched him at Dagenham in pre season and I commented then that he looked in no way ready for first team action and actually, the trialist alongside him of the same age actually looked a far more assured player. Now yes, fair play to him for showing for the ball after the mistake, but defensively he was caught wanting several times, especially in the 15 minutes he lasted in the second half. There's no way he should be back in the league anytime soon, centre half shortage or not.

Now to the next moan.... We've seen many inept midfield performances over the past 18 months (cheers Chris), but yesterday took the absolute biscuit. Just what, JUST WHAT, did Milligan or Hamilton contribute yesterday? Did they make a difference going forward? No. Did they break things up? No. Did they help the defence? No. Did they give our players an option? No. Here we have an international captain and a player on loan from one of the biggest clubs in the world and they both are coasting by, doing absolutely nothing for us. I am seriously, seriously struggling to remember Hamilton even being on the pitch yesterday and I'd love to know how many touches he actually had.

----------------------------

Bishop - Made one decent double stop, but the rest of his saves were regulatory, which is why I'm not understanding why he seems to be getting away from criticism on here. If Oxley had of conceded those four goals then he'd have been hung, drawn and quartered by many. I'm sorry, but he's either not good enough or not ready. Pick one. Heavy defeat in, heavy defeat out, he's conceding far too many that he's made easy for the forwards. Look at how much of the goal he gives them to aim at for the second, third and fourth. Dreadful. An out of form Oxley is better than an out of form Bishop.

Bwomono - Tries hard, runs up and down the line, claps the fans, but is that clouding a lot of our judgement? It's an interesting discussion....

Kiernan - He had an absolute stinker. I'd suggest that it's probably the worst I've seen him play, especially in the first half. He didn't look comfortable at all, but again, to be honest I'd suggest that part of that was down to the midfield in front of him doing naff all to help.

Dieng - The pick of the back line, but absolutely shoddy for their second. He could've made up for giving the ball away but instead backed off and off and off, essentially telling Henry to shoot.

Taylor - As covered previously, looked somewhat out of his depth.

Ralph - Was pretty anonymous for most of the game. He made a couple of good bursts to the byline late on once he'd been moved to a more conventional left back position. Ironically.

Milligan - Did he break sweat? Did he pass the ball further than five yards once? The ironic cheers when he made a forward pass after about 65 minutes said it all.

Hamilton - I'll pay for his train fare back to Manchester.

McLaughlin - At least tried to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and at least gave a slight hope that he might do something to create.

Hopper - Barely saw the ball and barely had a chance to hold the ball up or flick it on or generally do anything with it.

Cox - A pale shadow of his former self. He looks like he's started sulking at what things have turned into around him.

----------------------------

It's obviously ridiculous for Campbell to be receiving a huge load of flack this early on, but I'd suggest that yesterday was the first time that he could justifiably be criticised. I couldn't believe what I was seeing in that first half, so much so that you felt you needed to rub your eyes and look towards the dugout just to make sure that Kevin Bond wasn't there. Why all of a sudden did we decide to go back to playing it out from the back? We haven't done that since he came in, so why now? It failed for Bond and it'll fail again. The players even said publicly once Waddock scrapped it that they more comfortable without doing it, so why on earth did we go back? We've got a collection of players without any confidence, so why put more pressure on them? We basically shot ourselves in the foot with it, because not only did it cost us the first two goals, but it made the atmosphere even more toxic. Does anyone know if Sol tried to get his Macclesfield team playing that way? Watching MOTD last night, Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea all got into strife playing it out from the back, so how on earth are these morons supposed to do it?

PS - No, I've not calmed down yet.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

The former Mr Rab at #182 has summed it up well, a tad harsh on Hammy imo but overall a fair balanced, unemotional report.

 

[Chairman Trigg]

From the Oxford board ...sums our problems up perfectly
Southend are right at the bottom of the form table and they’re losing games by far bigger margins than even we are winning them. They dominated possession – 63% per the BBC – but most of this came from the back five passing it around one another. They struggled to work it forwards, and often lost possession further up field when we pressed their back line into a clearance or long ball – particularly the LWB and LCB in the first half.

Our goals came from capitalising quickly on Southend errors and running direct at goal from the middle of the pitch. Across all four, it took an average of 0.25 passes and less than six seconds to go from winning possession to scoring.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

I I couldn't believe what I was seeing in that first half, so much so that you felt you needed to rub your eyes and look towards the dugout just to make sure that Kevin Bond wasn't there. Why all of a sudden did we decide to go back to playing it out from the back? We haven't done that since he came in, so why now?

We have played it around at the back since Campbell came in. Especially at Sunderland and Portsmouth.

 

[tallboyblue]

We have played it around at the back since Campbell came in. Especially at Sunderland and Portsmouth.

Playing around the back simply enables the other side to compose themselves.

 

[AndyT]

... and press easily, knowing they are not going to get turned by a quick ball upfield, leaving them stranded.

I'm all for keeping it on the deck, but it only works with quick passing and a complete understanding of each other's games.

All that happened yesterday was that it was passed around a bit and then knocked upfield anyway, by which time, they were back in position.

 

[mfurok]

Rigsby will tell you that PB never asked his team to play like that.......and at Swindon, when they tried it, we took complete advantage and quickly went two up by capitalising on their inevitable mistakes.

Problem was that Swindon had the guts to fight back and win the game.

Unlike us.

 

[AndyT]

I remember that Swindon game. They were all over the shop and someone (Tyrone Barnett?) missed a sitter to put us 3-0 up after about 25 minutes, IIRC.

Here's the match. Just look who is just below us in the table that day :-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35211760

 

[Billy Bests boot laces]

If we're planning long term then we hired the wrong guy. He won't want to be here long term.

What Manager would want to be?

 

[Billy Bests boot laces]

[QUOTE="Chairman Trigg, post: 2201792, member: 8869" financially the effects of this season is an absolute disaster and come Jan where is the money going to come from to turn this around .The resulting clear out and cut backs must seriously question Rons and the clubs whole future
[/QUOTE]

For starters, in League 2 ( Div 4! ), rough estimate of less away fans got to be around £200k over the season?. Unless we're 'up there' challenging for promotion, home fans down to 4,500- 5,000 per game?.
Add on loss of takings inside ground for food/drink sales = overall considerate drop of incoming revenue?.

 

[Thundersley Blue]

The only thing I will add to the above. Nobody in the side wants the ball, well that was true until Hutchinson came on. When the ball is hit long the forwards are incapable of retaining possession. Why on earth was Cox the furthest player when the ball was kicked long ? Hopper should have been leading the line and he didn't. Looked a lot better once Hutchinson came on in a 4-4-2.

Absolutely no good blaming Campbell. Things will change in January, whether the results do is another thing.

 

[Stuart W]

I wouldn't say I travelled to Roots Hall yesterday feeling confident, but, with good reason I thought, I was hopeful that we might see a slightly improved afternoon. After all we'd just managed a win, albeit in a nothing game against weak opposition, we'd essentially had a chance for a "mini pre season" and Sol had managed to stamp some authority by making an example of Lennon and trying to ship out Ridgewell. Any chance we had to show that we were now better and more prepared though was wiped out and killed off by an atrocious bit of play within 50 seconds. That was it, confidence was back to being shot. I had no idea at the time what Taylor was thinking and after watching it back I still have no idea. He wasn't under pressure and their striker was stood on his own, completely in his eyeline, so just what was he doing!?!?! Now I watched him at Dagenham in pre season and I commented then that he looked in no way ready for first team action and actually, the trialist alongside him of the same age actually looked a far more assured player. Now yes, fair play to him for showing for the ball after the mistake, but defensively he was caught wanting several times, especially in the 15 minutes he lasted in the second half. There's no way he should be back in the league anytime soon, centre half shortage or not.

Now to the next moan.... We've seen many inept midfield performances over the past 18 months (cheers Chris), but yesterday took the absolute biscuit. Just what, JUST WHAT, did Milligan or Hamilton contribute yesterday? Did they make a difference going forward? No. Did they break things up? No. Did they help the defence? No. Did they give our players an option? No. Here we have an international captain and a player on loan from one of the biggest clubs in the world and they both are coasting by, doing absolutely nothing for us. I am seriously, seriously struggling to remember Hamilton even being on the pitch yesterday and I'd love to know how many touches he actually had.

----------------------------

Bishop - Made one decent double stop, but the rest of his saves were regulatory, which is why I'm not understanding why he seems to be getting away from criticism on here. If Oxley had of conceded those four goals then he'd have been hung, drawn and quartered by many. I'm sorry, but he's either not good enough or not ready. Pick one. Heavy defeat in, heavy defeat out, he's conceding far too many that he's made easy for the forwards. Look at how much of the goal he gives them to aim at for the second, third and fourth. Dreadful. An out of form Oxley is better than an out of form Bishop.

Bwomono - Tries hard, runs up and down the line, claps the fans, but is that clouding a lot of our judgement? It's an interesting discussion....

Kiernan - He had an absolute stinker. I'd suggest that it's probably the worst I've seen him play, especially in the first half. He didn't look comfortable at all, but again, to be honest I'd suggest that part of that was down to the midfield in front of him doing naff all to help.

Dieng - The pick of the back line, but absolutely shoddy for their second. He could've made up for giving the ball away but instead backed off and off and off, essentially telling Henry to shoot.

Taylor - As covered previously, looked somewhat out of his depth.

Ralph - Was pretty anonymous for most of the game. He made a couple of good bursts to the byline late on once he'd been moved to a more conventional left back position. Ironically.

Milligan - Did he break sweat? Did he pass the ball further than five yards once? The ironic cheers when he made a forward pass after about 65 minutes said it all.

Hamilton - I'll pay for his train fare back to Manchester.

McLaughlin - At least tried to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and at least gave a slight hope that he might do something to create.

Hopper - Barely saw the ball and barely had a chance to hold the ball up or flick it on or generally do anything with it.

Cox - A pale shadow of his former self. He looks like he's started sulking at what things have turned into around him.

----------------------------

It's obviously ridiculous for Campbell to be receiving a huge load of flack this early on, but I'd suggest that yesterday was the first time that he could justifiably be criticised. I couldn't believe what I was seeing in that first half, so much so that you felt you needed to rub your eyes and look towards the dugout just to make sure that Kevin Bond wasn't there. Why all of a sudden did we decide to go back to playing it out from the back? We haven't done that since he came in, so why now? It failed for Bond and it'll fail again. The players even said publicly once Waddock scrapped it that they more comfortable without doing it, so why on earth did we go back? We've got a collection of players without any confidence, so why put more pressure on them? We basically shot ourselves in the foot with it, because not only did it cost us the first two goals, but it made the atmosphere even more toxic. Does anyone know if Sol tried to get his Macclesfield team playing that way? Watching MOTD last night, Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea all got into strife playing it out from the back, so how on earth are these morons supposed to do it?

PS - No, I've not calmed down yet.

Pretty much spot on, except:-
Slightly too harsh on Bishop. Nothing much to choose between him and Oxley. Personally would get Ted Smith back, and secondly,
Too kind to McLaughlin. When was the last time anyone saw him beat a man? I'm afraid his best days are long behind him.

 

[RobM]

If we're going long ball, how about Hopper and Humphrys up top?

 

[Westcliff DGS]

If we're going long ball, how about Hopper and Humphrys up top?

We will need movement and defending then from the front 2 not something Humphrys is good at. As bad as things have been we have had more energy and movement without him

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

If we're going long ball, how about Hopper and Humphrys up top?

I would try that with maybe Cox in a play maker role in the midfield; trouble is Humphrys has a suspect character and seems injury prone. Maybe Charlie Kelman and Hoppy could lead the line?

 

[fbm]

It's taken me until now to even begin to consider anything to say at all. I've also watched the goals again and they look even worse than they did live! So, here are some observations from yesterday.

We had 63% possession and in their 37% they managed to fashion 20 goal attempts. I would also love to see the "heat map" for our team as I reckon 80 % of the game took place in our half.

Everyone makes mistakes. I felt for young Taylor. Less than a minute into his league debut and he drops a rickett like that, which is duly punished. Then Dieng drops a similar rickett and we are 2-0 down after about 30 mins. As I say, everyone makes mistakes and there were a lot of misplaced passes. But in both cases, it's difficult to see who they were trying to find with the passes that weren't even intercepted; they just went straight to them. I thought Cox had done a similar thing but watching it again there's an unlucky deflection straight to their player. But the question does have to be asked; what on earth did Taylor and Dieng think they were doing?

Individually, the midfielders would be ok in some sort of system but not in this one. I really do think the midfield is the main problem; they don't support the attack, they don't help out the defence and they don't give the defenders options in possession. I refuse to blame Milligan or Hamilton; it's the system and blend that is the problem. Trouble is, there's no alternative.

3 at the back doesn't work. It means that occasionally one of the CB's is going to have to be a full back and our ones aren't.

Our kids do their best but they are really not all that good - yet! Hutchinson has promise but he is far too easily pushed off the ball, he lacks pace and strength and his positioning/reading the game could be much better. Elvis flatters to deceive and gets away with tons because he puts in 100% effort. But I doubt he would get into any other football league team as a full back. And that isn't his fault, his chance has come way too early.

Bishops kicking is nowhere near as accurate as Oxley's. That means that because we haven't really got anyone that can hold the ball up, it comes straight back.


There are probably more, can't really remember. But for me, this is my 50th year of supporting SUFC and is by some distance the worst. I am a diehard fan and will always go, it's not an option for me to wilfully miss a game as statictically we can't lose every match and I want to be there when we do actually turn the corner. But my God, it's getting harder.