Reading this forum tonight...

... you'd think we're in a relegation scrap. Some right knee jerk ***** being posted with a complete lack of balance. One person even suggested Oxford has been our only good performance this season which is ludicrous.

For some perspective here's a graph which shows (prior to today's match) the quality of chances created versus the quality of chances allowed by teams in this league. We'll be reyt.

 

To add to that, here's the shot stats so far this season:-

For/on target/against/on target
Oxford 19 12 9 4
Bradford 13 7 2 0
Wimbledon 11 1 4 3
Rochdale 23 9 6 1
Scunthorpe 25 10 8 2
Gillingham 25 7 7 3
Walsall 14 7 12 3
Coventry 14 5 12 2

Totals 144 58 60 18

 

Are we taking too many shots rather than creating good chances? 86 shots off target in 8 games seems excessive. It suggests we're attempting to score from areas of the pitch where we're more likely to miss the target. You can't score if you don't shoot, as the old adage goes, but you can, you can pass to a player in a better position.

 

It doesn’t matter what the stats say.
What matters is that we set off the season like a train.
And now we can see that we are struggling to break teams down.
We went from promotion contenders to maybes.

No matter how much of the game we have we can’t score against the more organised teams.
If the better teams can see we are struggling to score they will nick a goal.
Which is very reminiscent of the first half of last season.
Although this season we are playing worse teams - so we can sometimes get away with it eg Gillingham.

Take away Moore and we haven’t got much of a strike force.
Victor could come good but he needs time.

 

We have made a mistake not replacing Bradshaw and not adding an additional forward. We still have more than enough quality to get promoted. We would lose away to Coventry if we borrowed Real Madrid’s first team and they played me in my own. No worries from me.

 

Stats speak for themselves. We are simply not finishing. How many attempts did Brown have yesterday?

 

I'm going from memory (not the most reliable of sources, these days) and I can only speak for home games, but yes, it feels like we are taking too many shots, in particular from outside the box. I know we all love to see worldies but we're wasting possession too often by putting the ball into row Z. Inside the box we seem to be lacking composure and ruthlessness - too many wayward final passes or shots that are wellied instead of being placed. Love him or hate him, Winnall would have had a field day for us this season, simply because he had a cool head when it mattered.

But all that said, we're still head and shoulders above most L1 sides and I have faith that Stendel will get to grips with our shortcomings. As the OP says,"we'll be reyt".

 

Agree. I would also add that our policy of refusing to sign players of a certain age is having a dire impact!

 

I think we've proved ourselves as flat track bullies at the moment. 6 of the 8 teams we've played so far are in the bottom half of the table. From the two in the top half we've had a draw and a win.

That's not to say we won't go on to beat some of the better sides, we haven't had much chance yet, but all we've proved so far is that we are capable of beating the weaker teams, or at least the ones who have begun the season in poor form.

 

Be reasonable. Folk not used to holding it all in for a whole seven matches!