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Reply | The 3 sides of a match thread at Oxford
at 10:57 22 Jan 2026
I think it's because we can see it's a comparatively weak league this season and a half-decent side could make the play-offs. Judging by recent performances, I don't think that's us. |
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Reply | Player Sales
at 09:21 22 Jan 2026
What if the player wants to leave though? I can't imagine Sam is a Winston Bogarde, happy to sit on the bench every week. Even when Varane is injured, he can see that Hayden is ahead of him in the reckoning and that the manager doesn't really rate him. |
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Reply | Player Sales
at 08:16 22 Jan 2026
I like Sam and he's done well for us but I don't think he's good enough technically for how we're looking to play. I don't think Varane has kicked on this season but he's far better on the ball than Sam, even if his passes tend to be backwards. Of course, as mentioned elsewhere, for a side that aspires to play a possession-based style, we're not doing very well at the moment!
I do think we'll sell him, partly because I doubt he's the type who would be happy sitting on the bench most weeks. |
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Reply | The 3 sides of a match thread at Oxford
at 23:28 21 Jan 2026
We were barely in the play-off positions. Sorry, I should have been clearer - I meant post-Leicester when we were crap over Christmas. Even Sheffield Wednesday when we picked up the injuries was pretty crap. |
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Reply | Madsen
at 21:15 21 Jan 2026
Difficult for him to pass to most of them as they can barely control the ball. |
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Reply | Player Sales
at 14:08 21 Jan 2026
I think Field will be gone this window. |
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Reply | The 3 sides of a match thread at Oxford
at 11:23 21 Jan 2026
It's a fair point. Beale?  Probably wan't here long enough.
I suppose I just find us a very predictable side. I don't understand why he hasn't played an extra man in the midfield with the injury crisis. Kone was lost last night but he is playing far too deep - he looks far better on his own in the box. Can we not at least try that?
I also think draws are over-rated. Okay, good not to lose and keep a clean sheet but three draws gets you the same points as a win and two defeats. Draws take you nowhere fast. A draw away to Coventry this season is an excellent result. Two goalless draws against that team we played last night are really not good enough, however many injuries we've got. |
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Reply | The 3 sides of a match thread at Oxford
at 09:23 21 Jan 2026
I think the reason a lot of people are unhappy is that we can see this is a better squad than last season and a far weaker league. How on earth are we still only three points off the play-offs? We haven't played well since the Leicester game. Personally, not convinced by Stephan. Maybe because I like a proactive manager who can change things up if they're not working. Every game is deja vu as the French would say.  |
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Reply | The 3 sides of a match thread at Oxford
at 20:34 20 Jan 2026
They are a really poor side and the crowd is on their backs. Get at them second half and win this bloody game. Get Kolli on too. |
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Reply | A different ball game - Preview
at 12:05 20 Jan 2026
Got to agree with this. I'm still not sold on the manager - we have a better squad than last season and even with all the injuries should still have enough to actually aspire to win tonight. The way we approached the matches over Christmas was bizarre and didn't even work in terms of protecting players from injuries. Stephan does seem pretty one-dimensional in terms of style and his in-game management has hardly been inspirational.
One of the selling points when he came in was that he's supposedly good at developing young players. Have we seen much evidence of that this season? Morgan and Kolli have barely played. Morrison is off on loan. Walsh has only just come back into the side. Others have been restricted to cameos. Our wingers have all been underwhelming.
Our best players this season have been Dunne, Madsen, Burrell and RN-D, who's on loan. He gets a tick for playing Madsen regularly and getting him going but Varane has arguably regressed at the same time. Yeah, still more questions than answers for me. I hope we show some ambition this evening. |
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Reply | Afcon final
at 17:21 19 Jan 2026
Yes, I definitely empathise with them - in many ways it shows up how flawed VAR is. He blew up early for Senegal's goal but then because he doesn't blow up for the second incident, it gets scrutinised. Even then, you could argue that at every set piece there are similar tussles going on between defenders and attackers that don't result in anything, so it just seems random to focus on one challenge among hundreds that take place in a match. Football is imperfect; that's why it is so thrilling. You can't use VAR for everything that goes on, so why use it at all? [Post edited 19 Jan 17:22]
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Reply | Team for Oxford?
at 09:16 19 Jan 2026
Totally agree about playing Kone on his own. He looks a different player when we feed him in the box, rather than him having to play deeper with Burrell in front of him. Maybe stick Morgan as the extra man in midfield with Madsen and Hayden?
Yes, we have injuries but we still have a decent starting line-up and should be looking to beat Oxford IMO. |
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