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Reply | Is the season over?
at 21:33 19 Jan 2026
Bit early to give up.
Only takes three or four wins to change your position in the league.
Having said that I wouldn’t mind seeing people off the bench. Adamson and Esquerdinha as wingers added a bit of oomph against Stoke. Wouldn’t mind that again while we’re missing so many. |
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Reply | Rest of the Championship thread 25/26
at 15:10 19 Jan 2026
I regularly get told I’ve reached my exercise goal for high intensity activity by my smart watch when I’m watching a match. So it must push up my heart rate, blood pressure etc. |
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Reply | And we never spoke of it again – Report
at 13:52 19 Jan 2026
I don’t think his game plan included his entire front four being unable to pass the ball at all to another player in pink and black.
If they had then the whole thing might have worked. Remember he’s hardly seen Kolli play. He’s only played the equivalent of just over three matches this season and scored two goals in his last Championship outing. This is the first time he’s seen him in a back to goal kind of situation. We know Martí tried this last season and it didn’t work then and it’s probably (hopefully) clear to Stephan that it won’t work now.
JS said in his interview that he’s sorted the back out and now needs to get the front end working at the same time. I guess you can at least draw if you don’t let any in. |
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Reply | Dembélé new boo boy?
at 13:31 19 Jan 2026
Says it all.
But even without the stats (I love them but I’m a nerd and not everyone does) it’s surely obvious to anyone who’s watched us this season! |
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Reply | Dembélé new boo boy?
at 12:47 19 Jan 2026
It’s his decision making for me. He has a .04 XG per shot compared to Burrell’s .29 XG. In other words he shoots when he has practically no chance of scoring. Unsurprisingly his conversion rate is 2% compared to Burrell’s 29%. That wouldn’t matter if he’d only taken a few shots but he’s taken 39, five more than Burrell and only ten fewer than Kone who has a four times higher conversion rate.
How many times has Dembele therefore not passed/crossed when he should have done and wasted a decent chance? Say that’s up to three goals we’ve missed out on, not outrageous to guess, that could be at least a couple of extra points.
Fine to take a punt when you’re fairly central and not too far out. But shooting from miles out or ridiculously tight angles when there are other options. Just infuriating.
Not saying he isn’t talented or doesn’t have potential but in a way that makes it even more irritating that he doesn’t put the effort in. Personally I think he doesn’t listen to coaches as compared to e.g. Madsen he’s not really improved since he’s been with us. [Post edited 19 Jan 12:50]
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Reply | Team for Oxford?
at 12:32 19 Jan 2026
The trouble is Kone and Kolli together with Smyth and Dembele just doesn’t work either. You’ve got basically no one who can hold onto the ball. Especially if our opponents press us. Hence the 28?% possession and 58% pass completion at Stoke. No one was able to get hold of the ball long enough to get away from the press to make a decent pass. Madsen can pass it but only to someone who can control it and move forward.
I thought Morgan did quite well early on in acting as a link player last season, showing for the ball a lot and moving us up the pitch.
Chair can be infuriating in holding onto the ball for too long but at least he can hold onto it. We miss that.
Teams know they just have to press us and we lose the ball especially if we’re moving out from defence. If you look at other teams playing they have more space as teams know they can play around the press as their control and passing is better.
Interesting to see if Ronnie would make a difference as he does seem to be able to move past the press and take us up the pitch. May resolve our current issue. |
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Reply | And we never spoke of it again – Report
at 09:34 19 Jan 2026
That’s probably why he looks so happy with the draw. Not that a draw moves us up the table but it gives us a better platform to win on Tuesday. Don’t exactly know if it’s true but it seems like we’re more likely to lose if we’ve lost the previous match; in other words we go on bad runs so it’s good to avoid that by salvaging a draw.
Look away if you hate stats but we’re missing the player with the best conversion rate for anyone in the Championship who’s scored at least five goals. It’s a big loss. We’re having to adjust our playing style with hardly any time on the training ground to do it given we’ve also lost Saito, Varane and Poku at the same time.
Could really do with Illy back on the pitch to hang onto the ball and put some balls in the box. Can’t wait for Romnie to also to bring us up the pitch a bit. Maybe he’ll come on for some minutes on Tuesday.
Not sure we can play Kolli in the Burrell role. He just can’t hold the ball up or move us up the pitch. Would prefer Morgan or Bennie in the middle of the pitch and maybe play them with Kolli or Kone up front. We definitely need someone in the attacking mid position who doesn’t give the ball away so much. |
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Reply | Stoke fans on QPR (whose side are you on?)
at 19:08 18 Jan 2026
True and Julien Stephan acknowledged that. He wants to keep that defensive solidity and then use that as a platform to improve our attack. I doubt he enjoyed it much either but bearing in mind how close we are to Stoke in the table we can also enjoy the loss of two points to them as well as the gain of one point for us.
Incidentally we’re the Stoke fans also complaining about Ben Pearson’s antics getting Mbengue booked or Cisse pulling back Madsen to stop a promising breakaway? I’m guessing not. You can’t take it seriously as fans are generally hypocrites. |
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Reply | MBengue ban?
at 13:57 18 Jan 2026
That’s why he was so upset to be booked yesterday for pretty much doing nothing. Also I think he was unlucky to be booked for the Birmingham match for celebrating as a sub. Im sure I’ve seen that happen before and I haven’t seen anyone being booked for that. When players don’t get booked for blatant pull backs or bad fouls it just seems that reffing is based on a whim a lot of the time. |
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Reply | St Oke Methodist Church Away Match Fred
at 13:17 18 Jan 2026
In his defence we haven’t had an awful lot of time on the training ground since we started to notice the poor away form. We’ve had the four matches in nine days then the FA Cup match which they probably needed some rest after and was a Sunday match too, then another three match week.
But I agree we need to change things around a bit for the away games. Hopefully we’ll do that after this week if not before. |
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Reply | 2026 Bond
at 13:12 18 Jan 2026
Did you invest first time round as I understand you get priority if you did? If so go into your Tifosy account and there is a section called something like 2026 investment and go through the process if you want to roll over your bond. |
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Reply | 2026 Bond
at 12:08 18 Jan 2026
You just have to show that you realise you might not get your money back. So answer any question on that basis. |
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Reply | St Oke Methodist Church Away Match Fred
at 09:30 18 Jan 2026
Also in a dreaded three game week where arguably you’d want to put a bit more of your efforts in the decidedly more winnable (on paper obviously) Oxford away then a home game against another team around us on Saturday.
For once the last of the three game marathons is at home. And this week we’re playing on Tuesday rather than the usual Wednesday.
Wrexham are also playing on Tuesday except at home against Marti’s Leicester. Pretty crunch game for him. |
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Reply | Team for Oxford?
at 08:38 18 Jan 2026
Totally agree. I would have liked to see Morgan against Stoke instead of Kolli. I think he’d have done better at keeping possession in that role. Kolli just can’t play back to goal, he’s great in the box and when he has space but not in that quasi midfield role. He also hasn’t got Burrell’s pace that can catch teams cold even when they are setting up against us.
Always find it interesting watching other teams play where they’re given much more space than we’re given. Teams must know our passing isn’t great so if they close us down we’ll give the ball away. Morgan though I remember when he first played for us for Martí gave us a greater ability to hang onto the ball and progress upfield. I don’t think he’s a RB though. Just can’t get the positioning right.
Dembele is also another option. Agree don’t like the way he doesn’t help out his FB. Annoying to see him jogging back a few times against West Ham, including their second goal where he just comes into the picture as they’re shooting. Maybe he’d be better in that central position. He’d certainly be better at holding onto the ball than Kolli who seemed to give it away every time. Just not sure he works hard enough. I’m don’t quite know why Dembele is so highly regarded by JS though given the number of chances he has wasted this season and his poor work rate. He obviously sees something in him. |
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Reply | MBengue ban?
at 07:52 18 Jan 2026
As much a homer as you can get. Absolutely pathetic to book both Mbengue and Pearson. Obviously didn’t want to deal with the wrath of the crowd and Pearson wasn’t listening to him so he did b that thing that weak refs do and booked both of them. Agree about the pullback on Madsen for one of our few breakaways in the match and the foul on Jimmy. I was surprised the player got so badly injured for the Jimmy tackle as it looked like the kind of mistimed challenge that happens often in matches. Hope he’s okay.
Also missed the seemingly obvious handball for a pen from Mbengue so we were lucky there. But that just adds to his uselessness.
Honestly I don’t know how a ref gets to this level without being able to withstand a bit of pressure from a crowd. It happens in U5s football! |
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Reply | St Oke Methodist Church Away Match Fred
at 19:34 17 Jan 2026
It’s hard because with Saito, Chair and Burrell unavailable we’ve got no one who can really hold the ball up or stretch the defence. Kolli’s strength is not currently back to goal around the halfway line where he found himself today. He may get there but you really want him in or around the box. Kone is also not quite good enough at trapping the ball and passing. So the ball keeps pinging back. Smyth was having one of his days where he can’t control the ball either.
That said we were hamstrung (scuse the metaphor as I know it’s a sore point atm) by having a very slow central defence. JCS and hopefully Edwards would’ve been able to push up more which would have allowed Kolli and Kone to be in better positions to play to their current strengths. Thought we livened up a bit with fresh legs from Adamson and Esquerdinha. Think I prefer them as wingers than full backs in the current situation.
But four points this season from a team in seventh is pretty respectable. And after the last couple of seasons I think it’s reasonable progress to be above Derby, Leicester, Birmingham, Southampton, Sheffield Utd, WBA and Norwich and only four points from the play offs at this stage. Tuesday is a crunch match though that we really should go out to win, much more than today IMO. Some matches you really don’t want to lose, like today and it keeps us in the hunt. |
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Reply | Cocaine
at 15:13 17 Jan 2026
The other thing about the measles virus is that those that contract it actually lose the ability to recognise other diseases they previously had antibodies for; the virus has the ability to undo our defences. |
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Reply | Maximum number of season tickets
at 15:43 16 Jan 2026
I couldn’t believe how awful it was. I think it’s my worst away experience in terms of getting in and out of the ground and the general fan experience. Not much choice for eating/drinking and ridiculous navigating around the stadium. Our fans were brilliant but I’m guessing for a normal league match it would’ve been dire. |
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Reply | Palace
at 15:37 16 Jan 2026
Thanks for info. But they also don’t want a shiny new stadium in the Championship I’m guessing? I take the point though they have been good at unearthing players. |
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Reply | Palace
at 15:22 16 Jan 2026
Rumour that Mateta may also be on the way out. Surely they don’t need the money after all those sales??? |
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Site Scores| Prediction League: | 36 | | TOTAL: | 36 |
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