Created absolutely nothing straightforward from midfield.

Feed our strikers and they'll score. But we don't. It's all scrappy and trying too much. Why did Ince take on 2 at walking pace rather than pass.

Will our strikers score? I'm not convinced by that at all
Joao's record prior to this season was virtually 1 in 2. Carroll can always get a few, Long a few, Meite has got goals for us across about three or four seasons and been top scorer twice isn’t it?

So yes. Absolutely.

How many good chances have our strikers had in the last few games? I reckon you could count on the fingers of one hand. They're not missing anything clear cut and we have the fewest shots per game in the division. Our conversion rate is actually decent.

Shouldve happened at 70mins at the latest.

Ince has no clue about how to manage substitutions and has any sub he’s made actually made a difference to a game?

Yeah it's a bit worrying. I guess his only defence is we were doing alright for a little while, but certainly by 70mins it became clear that it wasn't going to lead to anything.

Because you've only listed one creative player and he's never actually created anything and has lost what small creativity he had.

I thought you meant Fornah, creates out of nothing. Ejaria is very creative, Ince clearly can't get the best out of him. Long isn't a scorer, does nothing but pressure defences, open space, create chances. Meite makes things happen out of nothing as he did twice tonight. Joao makes stuff out of nothing normally. Carroll wins everything at him and turns long balls into chances. An immense attacking line, we should be doing better. Not to mention Ince.
if you call falling on his arse creative. When has he ever made more than 5 assists in a season? Never. In 127 appearances for us.

Will our strikers score? I'm not convinced by that at all
Joao's record prior to this season was virtually 1 in 2. Carroll can always get a few, Long a few, Meite has got goals for us across about three or four seasons and been top scorer twice isn’t it?

So yes. Absolutely.

How many good chances have our strikers had in the last few games? I reckon you could count on the fingers of one hand. They're not missing anything clear cut and we have the fewest shots per game in the division. Our conversion rate is actually decent.

We don't create much so I agree on that but Joao has been poor this season and nothing like the player of two seasons ago
Long is a workhorse and not a goalscorer.
Carroll had a number of headed chances v Luton and didn't take them or even come close to doing so.
Yaks is a hardworking player and will maybe get ten in a season..

They don't get much service but sometimes they need to try and create something out of nothing and none of them are capable of that.

Ince has to turn this around soon.
He is not on borrowed time yet but he will be if this wretched run continues much longer
We could easily be in the bottom three by Christmas.

I thought you meant Fornah, creates out of nothing. Ejaria is very creative, Ince clearly can't get the best out of him. Long isn't a scorer, does nothing but pressure defences, open space, create chances. Meite makes things happen out of nothing as he did twice tonight. Joao makes stuff out of nothing normally. Carroll wins everything at him and turns long balls into chances. An immense attacking line, we should be doing better. Not to mention Ince.
if you call falling on his arse creative. When has he ever made more than 5 assists in a season? Never. In 127 appearances for us.

.I'm afraid to coming around to this point of view too Always backed Ovie but he had to produce the goods this season and has been very poor.

I thought you meant Fornah, creates out of nothing. Ejaria is very creative, Ince clearly can't get the best out of him. Long isn't a scorer, does nothing but pressure defences, open space, create chances. Meite makes things happen out of nothing as he did twice tonight. Joao makes stuff out of nothing normally. Carroll wins everything at him and turns long balls into chances. An immense attacking line, we should be doing better. Not to mention Ince.
if you call falling on his arse creative. When has he ever made more than 5 assists in a season? Never. In 127 appearances for us.

Creating doesn't necessarily mean the final assist you know, but turning the game - a bit of trickery out of nothing. He's been shite lately, yes, but you are aware that you are allowed to petulantly detest a player as your "thing" on HNA but actually sometimes concede that he does have some good points about him? Because that's literally the only thing he's good at ffs - presumably what you meant by "bags of talent" the other day - unless you meant he's a good goalkeeper or ball header or something else?

That’s the poorest game I’ve seen Tince have this season. Difficult to see where goals are coming from.

Agreed. I'd have kept Joao on ahead of him. At least Joao was actually starting to do something.

Agreed. I'd have kept Joao on ahead of him. At least Joao was actually starting to do something.

Yeah, he jumped for two headers. OK they were more like slight hops but a new record for him nonetheless.

I don't think he will be here beyond January the way this is heading

Let's hope he keeps waiting.

Took Colchester with the smallest budget to there highest ever league position. The only manager to take a 4th tier team to the league cup final. Beat Chelsea at the bridge after being 2-0 down. Managed Charlton to the playoffs only to lose Swindon on penalties.
Took Bradford up via the play offs to the 2nd division. Never finishing outside the top ten. Went to Bolton despite a transfer embargo gained automatic promotion to the championship. Winning 3 Managers of the month along the way.
Left Sunderland with the team in 6th Sunderland failed to make the playoffs after he left. Has 63% win record at Wrexham runners up in the league and FA trophy.

Rubbish manager

So's Robert fukking De Niro.

That was pretty turgid and we don’t look like scoring in a month of Sunday’s. I blame the lack of any creativity whatsoever. We are not making any chances for our strikers.

Saying that, was I expecting anything away at Burnley, QPR, Swansea and Watford and and my answer is “No”. We need something against Hull so that we can go into the break on a positive note but I am not confident.

Ever since Ady said that we don’t have to worry about looking down the table anymore we’ve not been good.

Who knew Ejaria had a black belt in judo though. Very impressive.

He's headed too many footballs in his life.

All this alarm and negativity is a continuation of the abject cr@p served up against Preston. If Reading had managed to get a win in that then we’d not be too worried about losing a game away at a ground where Reading notoriously always struggle and against a PL yo-yo team that is likely going to be in the play offs at the end of the season.

Hull is the big one. Lose that then I think Ince is going to be under massive pressure and will be hoping the month off allows injuries to finally subside and the likes of Sarr and Moore to help solidify what is a team with defensive frailties (unsurprising since much of that defence let in 87 goals last season). Then I give him to the end of January to get the team lifted into something looking like mid-table obscurity or his departure is going to be called for.

Time forRalph

It's more than defensive frailties
We barely score any goals in open play and thats a big worry.
We are also getting into the worrying habit of conceding late on. Thats not a good sign.
It wasn't just Preston either with the performance v WBA even worse.

Agree with you about the timescales.

if you call falling on his arse creative. When has he ever made more than 5 assists in a season? Never. In 127 appearances for us.

.I'm afraid to coming around to this point of view too Always backed Ovie but he had to produce the goods this season and has been very poor.

As I said the other day, it looks to me like Ejaria has been told to cut out the tricks and become more of a “normal” footballer.

Trouble is, that’s his MO, take that away from him and there’s nothing much left by the looks of it. So he just goes backwards. Massive shame because he had something that people would pay to watch.

.I'm afraid to coming around to this point of view too Always backed Ovie but he had to produce the goods this season and has been very poor.

As I said the other day, it looks to me like Ejaria has been told to cut out the tricks and become more of a “normal” footballer.

Trouble is, that’s his MO, take that away from him and there’s nothing much left by the looks of it. So he just goes backwards. Massive shame because he had something that people would pay to watch.

He looks lost and I have no idea what position he is supposed to be playing

Ejaria really hasn't looked the same player at all since Ince came in, neither has João. We have players capable of creating chances and scoring goals at this level but it's not happening.

Got back after some traffic on the M25 about an hour after the game.

I thought Watford bossed the first half and we were lucky not to be 2 or 3 nil down. We were a bit better second half but toothless. Watford don't look a top 6 team to me.

Lumley going off is a concern, hopefully he will be back straight after the world cup. Bouzanis is an ok keeper but don't feel he's commanding enough and should have done better for the second goal.

My reviews:

Keepers - 6
Mbengue - 5 got a lot right and a lot wrong
Yiadom - 5 poor
Holmes - 4 his worst game in what's been a good season
Hutch - 6 was ok. Good to have him back!
Baba - 4 very poor again
Fornah - 6 was impressive in midfield but naive. Otherwise I'd have given a 7
Hendrick - 5 frustrating and kept giving the ball away
Ejaria - 4 awful, not the same player and poor foul for the penalty
Ince - 4 his worst game for us. Been off the boil in recent weeks and probably needs a break
João - 5 tried hard but no service

Can't be bothered to rate the subs

Hull we have to get 3 points from and a better performance is needed. Unfortunately it's another graveyard stadium for us, not won there since 1994. Got a lot of grounds in the league we've not won at for a long time and that is one of them! The games after the world cup look profoundly difficult and daunting.

Fair ratings
I would take a draw on Saturday.

Just back. No surprise we lost and once again no surprised we could barely register a shot on target. We give ourselves no chance with our pathetic style of play, so negative it’s painful - the useless Hendrick and Ejaria the absolute worse of the culprits. I’m not sure what’s happened to Ejaria, he’s always slowed the play down and been frustrating but has aways had that glimpse of quality and skill - nowhere to be seen since he’s come back.

Also someone needs to tell that ref that football is a contact sport, can’t remember a more whistle-happy oxf*rd in some time.

We need a result against Hull but I can’t see it, when you wait until 10 minutes left when you’re trailing the game to make an attacking sub it really sums up this godawful game plan. In danger of the wheels well and truly coming off.

Also Vicarage Road is oxf*rd, reserved seating and no beer. It’s a no from me.

.I'm afraid to coming around to this point of view too Always backed Ovie but he had to produce the goods this season and has been very poor.

As I said the other day, it looks to me like Ejaria has been told to cut out the tricks and become more of a “normal” footballer.

Trouble is, that’s his MO, take that away from him and there’s nothing much left by the looks of it. So he just goes backwards. Massive shame because he had something that people would pay to watch.

This exactly for me. A lot of what he did wouldn’t show up in the “stats are for prats” sheets but he would always draw multiple defenders and twice a game produce a piece of skill to get me out of my seat . Added to that he never shirked defensive duties either .

Tbf he’s barely started this season and when he has it’s mostly been against the likes of Burnley and Watford away where tactically we’re on damage limitation mode .

He’s a shadow of the player he was and today was absolutely a bad game for him but it seems he is the current punching bag for all the deficiencies elsewhere.

I will say this again…. The players who are going to the World Cup are way off it, absolutely way off it. Saturday will be no better. Almost playing at 75%. I am not surprised but it’s not a good look.

Break can’t come quick enough, and that team should have enough about them to get the 9 wins to stay up!

On reflection it was a weird game.

Much more balanced than anyone could have really expected. Riddled with dreadful errors, but we had plenty of the ball and a good number of attacking moves that poor control, decisions, good defending or fouls fizzled into nothing by the time we were near their box.

Watford also only took the lead through a ludicrous penalty and despite looking by far the better team didn’t threaten or dominate us anywhere near as much as I expecting. Saying that I think they had several higher gears and simply didn’t need them. Lumley did make a couple of very good saves, but it wasn’t one of those where you can just feel it coming for ages.

Most of the players had bright moments, but compounded them by ridiculous errors. Mbengue being the perfect example. Some good challenges and blocks, pace saving us a couple of times. Yet gifted Watford attacks in our own half half a dozen times in inexcusable passes, and played some mindless long balls.

As for Ejaria, I suppose he could have been told to cut out the tricks, but I don’t think so personally. I think he's simply oxf*rd his fitness through Covid and everything looks a laboured effort. His balance, which he always played over the edge of - hence the frequent pratfalls, is worse and he simply can't do it anymore. Combine that with the counterattacking style and change of position which means he no longer has a slow build up and lots of possession high up the pitch mean he still delivers absolutely nothing, but now doesn’t even delight the barking seals in the crowd with his pointless pirrouettes.

More and more as a team we rely on Tom Ince. The problem is despite his immense work rate, he is still twilight of his career Tom Ince and a player who hasn't really had the goals and assists in him for years to be that big of a difference. And he knows he has to do it alone, you can see in the way he tries to dribble the length of the pitch and take on too many players rather than release it.

I expect PInce will use the failed experiment of 4-1-4-1 to go back to his previous shape despite its repeated failure. It certainly didn’t work with midfield still too deep and Ince wasted on the right wing and Ejaria has never ever been a tradition left winger.

Pre-season prediction of a repeat of Gomes, Clement and co is looking pretty good despite the surprisingly good start.

Considering Ince is left footed why does he keep playing on the right. Makes no sense to me.

So he can cut in and shoot. Wingers who hit the byline and cross are extinct.

I didn't actually think, collectively, the team played all that badly. We were all over the place in the opening 15-20 minutes, but got hold of the ball, regained some composure and looked threatening. Of course, some individuals produced worse games/moments than others, Rahman with the ball was poor (although thought he defended quite well personally for the 2 penalty shouts) and Ejaria had a poor game on the whole. But the team performance didn't lack spirit, it just lacked quality in the final third and a real cutting edge.

Unfortunately, this lack of a cutting edge in the final third is becoming a common theme now and something that we do need to address urgently as we are slipping towards having the worst attack in the league (only a few teams have scored fewer I think). Whether it's down to a lack of confidence, lack of cohesion etc, only the staff should know but it needs addressing for the Hull game and then a good solid couple of weeks on the training ground during the WC break.

Seen criticisms of the subs but I'm not sure how I feel about it personally. I can see the game plan, stay in the game until the 80th minute and go for it in the final 10 and obviously that's where we've conceded the second goal which has killed the game. There was a plan there, whether we could have done it earlier is up for debate. At the moment, it's just a sticky spell and we would benefit from the WC break, getting players back on the training field and having returned to fitness and then going again really. We could definitely be worse off than we are.

Let's hope he keeps waiting.

Took Colchester with the smallest budget to there highest ever league position. The only manager to take a 4th tier team to the league cup final. Beat Chelsea at the bridge after being 2-0 down. Managed Charlton to the playoffs only to lose Swindon on penalties.
Took Bradford up via the play offs to the 2nd division. Never finishing outside the top ten. Went to Bolton despite a transfer embargo gained automatic promotion to the championship. Winning 3 Managers of the month along the way.
Left Sunderland with the team in 6th Sunderland failed to make the playoffs after he left. Has 63% win record at Wrexham runners up in the league and FA trophy.

Rubbish manager

Good post, and I think the best is yet to come can you imagine a Parky Mad Dog combination wouldn't stand for any of this nonsense from the likes of Joao, Ejaria, Loum. If Wrexham win their game in hand tonight they top the league. Let's start chanting for him" Bring back Parky Piss off Pince"