Where it went wrong last night

A lot has been made of Stendel's decision to drop Moore and in hindsight it does look like he got it wrong. But to me, the problem we had last night was more that Dougall had a stinker playing in the most important position of our 4-3-3 system. He was amazing before the injury but not sure he's back up to speed yet. He gave the ball away far too often, mistimed challenges, and was poor positionally. He has to be the heartbeat of the team in a 4-3-3 and he just wasn't at it. We never got going and even when he went off you could still feel the hangover of that poor start for another 10 minutes before we got going. I think the game would've looked a lot different had the pre-injury Dougall been playing last night, regardless of whether Moore had started.

Not that it was all his fault. We were sloppy all over the park (Brown aside), particularly in central midfield. I also thought we looked tired, as we have in every Tuesday night game this season. Perhaps that's understandable given the intensity in which we play, but what it means is that more players have to be rotated. And Stendel won't be a popular man if he does that. The good news is that we only have two Tuesday games left. The bad news is that one of them is against Sunderland.

 

No more long Tuesday night away games left . We've got some long distance away games but they are all on Saturdays . Thank God .

 

To be fair to Stendel he kinda admits that he got it wrong going 433 in his post match press conference.

 

Not much credit has gone to Oxford from what I've seen.... They pressed us really well and forced us into mistakes and could have been 2 or 3 up by half time but for a couple of good saves.

They tired in the second half and we came into it more and got a decent away draw after looking out of it for 70 minutes.

 

Was talking about this with my brother last night. Seems that midweek games have been a thorn in our side:

1-1 against Plymouth
3-1 against Shrewsbury
4-2 against Sunderland
2-2 against Oxford

From what I can see our only midweek night game win was away at Rochdale .

 

I thought Dougall was looking well off the pace and McGeehan was not up to his recent standard either. As much as I have enjoyed his contribution (pre-injury that is) it’s maybe time to leave him on the bench fore the time being. Apart from poor form we can’t afford a player who gets booked almost every match.

 

He got it wrong with the starting line-up. Start with Moore, get in front then worry about resting players and fitness regimes.

 

I know the players are well paid etc, but after the Rochdale match basically they've had one day off then back on the road down to Oxford against a team that haven't played for a week . I'd have snatched they're hands off for 2-2 .

 

Before the match i said id settle gor a point, at 2.0 down, i would have bitten your hand off with the offer of a point. Even a loss with no sendings off!
Although we were outfought for 70 mins i am very pleased with one point, who knows how valuable that may prove.

 

If you were to look back you will see that Dougal was the same last time he returned to the team. Took him about 3or 4 matches to get back to normal. When on form he is integral and that for me is why Stendel should persist with him in or maybe stick him in the U23 for a couple to get back to match fitness.

 

Win your home games.
Draw your away games.
Pick up points even when you’ve played bad.

This equals a good side who gets promoted.

Dave Bassett always said you needed an average of 2 points a game to guarantee automatic. We’re currently 2 points off this target. But would have met it if we won last night.

Onwards and upwards!

 

Dougall was excellent in the same system at Wimbledon less than two weeks ago. The main difference is that the one up top was Moore not Woodrow. Moore has far more in his locker to keep a pair of over-physical centre halves at bay and allow McGeehan and Mowatt to get forward to support him as at Kingsmeadow. Nothing against Cauley who is our best instinctive finisher but he's better in a two.

 

Back to business on Saturday hopefully.