[Dancingwilldoit]

That's the first time ever I have walked out of a game after 60 mins. Crap doesn't even come close.
Caldwell has to go and go now. That team selection was just plain stupid. We started with yet again a back 3 but just to invite the opposition on we help them out by playing Gardner and Angel in the centre of midfield. Now call me a cynic but FFS Neither of them have a tackle in them, Evatt and Hird aint exactly quick - cue wave after wave of Oxford players running midfield.
Not happy with going 2 down with no reaction from the manager, Dan Jones goes off injured. Do we bring on Anderson? No, No lets not bother with a defence, our forwards are that good we can score 3 no problem, lets give that nice Mr Kak another run out. Jesus if it wasn't so comical I would be in tears.
Caldwell is just totally inept and in it way way over his head. Please put a long term fan out of his misery get rid now. The tit head has just been on the radio saying if fans are going to show negativity Then they should stay at home!!!!! I wish him and most of the team would stay at xxxx home. Our reserves cant do any worse.
That's me done till he goes.

[Devongone]

Don't do that Dancing. You could help him and Pooch look for the signs of promise they're both seeing.

Caldwell never had a chance and must have been delusional to come to us, at least it'll be good when we discover this is the worst win % since Chesterfield Metropolitan.

But this is Mr Allen's fault and that fat tit's too. Bill Shankly would have had trouble winning games for us now.

Being dead isn't all that much worse than being Caldwell .....

[spireitematt]

Caldwell has bitten the hand which feeds him. You should never ever criticise the fans because things aren't going good.

Sounds like he has been reading the Jeremy Corbyn book of Leadership blame everyone else.

The club is down, we will be playing L2 football next season Pooch you can't try and put a positive spin on it.

[bluepooch]

Well I have said all along that there needs to be signs of improvement and each disappointing home performance seems to be followed by an away result that gives us a glimmer of hope.We go to Walsall on Tuesday and I expect us to get a result just like we did at Millwall and Gills.
Caldwell is already showing the pressure and Im afraid to say Carson needs to be making a decision soon because regardless of how this season goes he needs to decide whether to trust him with the mass overhaul in the summer .
As for the game, how on earth did Oxford manage to acquire the services of Mcaleny who, lets face it, made a massive difference.I also thought Evatt and Hird were awful and I agree its crazy to play a back 3 with those two in it
Caldwell said Jones wasn't injured and it was tactical ,to be fair Jones has been poor since his return but you could have taken any of them off today.
Id love to give Gary more time but unfortunately football is a results game and if he cannot engineer any improvement from the dross served up by Wilson then he too has to go,if we can afford to pay him off.

[Dancingwilldoit]

If Jones wasn't injured then that's even worse. Clueless to take off a left back and replace him with a right back who hasn't got a left foot.
How many times has 3 at the back failed? Its not as if it frees an extra man up front in our case, we look like we are playing with 9 men there's so little movement off the ball
Please somebody tell me why are we playing the likes of Grimshaw when Dimaio cant even make the bench? Faupala makes it ahead of Evans? I wont even mention our keeper.
The alcohol is slowly kicking in now. Am really looking forward to our local Derbies at Staveley and Matlock.

[bluepooch]

I thought Grimmy was ok today and is the best of the loans.Dancing its the worst thing you can do drown your sorrows but dont worry we wont be playing Staveley anytime soon.
I never envisaged that things would be so bad so soon under the new manager its like a a nightmare but it looks like you were right Dancing ,he is struggling to cope in a vastly different scenario to the Wigan situation of last season.
Id like someone credible to buy the club but as things stand Ive no doubt Carson will get rid of Caldwell sooner than later if it stays as it is .
Ill be renewing my season ticket next season for the simple reason if we dont buy tickets we might not have a club to watch and id rather have a crap team than no team at all.

[Devongone]

I love you guys. The image of 6' 5" Dancing pissed and slowly sliding under the table is great.

There's nothing actually wrong with three at the back - lots of European teams use it successfully. You do however have to have the right players.

I think many new departures in football are really echoes of the past. I learnt the game playing three at the back; for Matt's benefit I'll describe how it worked in the men's football team my dad ran .........

Nowadays the three at the back tend to play much closer together, but then it was two genuine full backs and a centre half. What was vital and allowed this not to be an open-space fest for forwards were things called WING HALVES. In my dad's very successful team the wing halves were one small, stocky, aggressive all-action player who would tackle, work and run throughout a game AND a much more elegant player of Frank-Lampard build, much lazier, could tackle if needed, much nastier at times, could also get forward, pass and score some crackers from outside the box. So the centre half had cover in front of him AND his full backs tucked in with him when they were needed to cover. Two of the three at the back were young and mobile and the third was a former pro who knew the game inside out. But I reckon it was wing halves who were pivotal, they were the first line of defence and the base of the attack .........

Now Mr Caldwell's problem seems to be that at least two of his back three are immobile and the third's fitness seems as though it will now permanently be in doubt AND in front of them he isn't playing anybody who resembles any kind of old-fashioned wing half. Angel seems to be able to read the game and is a controlling midfielder so should win interceptions, but like Dancing I'd think Dimaio would be the nearest approximation to a partner for him.

Unfortunately selections are fairly inexplicable ahead of our failing defensive capability. If Evans was fit enough to come on, even though he has failed for us, surely he's a better bet as a starter than Faupala, Dennis and SEB? We're not winning, we always bring Simons on, but he's never worth more than 25 minutes ....... for me it's a case of start him a few times or ditch him (or else how will estimate whether he's making the grade at the end of the season). SEB, what is going on, wasn't good enough for us, wasn't wanted at Shrewsbury, what's happened, did he visit Lourdes? Stuckmann, if we had to sign a keeper (at the risk of sounding like a escapee from a Bunter book) why did we have to come up with one of the most mistakeful ones in the country and then play him rather put him on the bench to which he is highly suited?

We aren't winning at Walsall ..... or even holding them. I've only been to their ground twice and we didn't manage a shot either time.

How does Caldwell think fans will react to played seven won none? Danny would surely have done better than that even if we would still have been anchored in the drop zone. The Hump would clearly have done better, but I still say Caldwell was given an impossible job - I worry about his judgement that he decided to take it. But the fans do need to take into account that the reason we are at the bottom is that AS A CLUB we are currently crap. Why can't we say that about something we love? WE ARE CRAP!

[spireitematt]

I play 3-5-2 when I play Football Manager and it works because I put 3 centre backs close together and I make the wingers track back when defending to make a 5-3-2. Other formations I've used are 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3.

The 3-4-3 formation which Caldwell is playing isn't working its leaving us wide open and vulnerable. That 1st goal yesterday was xxxx dreadful that was amateur defending, the 2nd one was a great goal for them and nothing you could do about it, the 3rd and 4th were diabolical, we are not closing players down when they have the ball we're standing off and letting them run at us and even shoot from distance and you're going to get punished.

[Dancingwilldoit]

Blue, it seems you are right about Jones, he wasn't injured and it was a tactical substitution???
Now, about 5 mins before he was brought off Jones went over to the bench and said something, next thing he was off.
Jones is a good player and was being played out of position. He is an attacking full back, that doesn't seem to be a role Caldwell believes in. If we assume Jones actually said something along the lines of "FFS boss this isn't working" which would have been a true statement, it could well be why he was replaced on the left side by a right back with no vision or will.
Caldwell tried to end Morsy's Wigan career by benching and then outing him on loan. Do we assume we wont see Jones again this season? If the manager cant take criticism from fans, he sure as hell wont like a bit of the truth from one of his players.

[Devongone]

Whatever strategies and tactics we adopt it has to suit the things the players can do. (If you've got Adam Le Fondre at centre forward don't be lumping high balls for him. If you've got Sam Hird at the back don't be leaving him one on one with Adam Gemili chasing a through ball).

As Matt points out 3-5-2 works at Football Manager or the real game. And yes it is because the two wide men in the five track back. That limits the space the three at the back are covering ..... and under pressure you effectively have five at the back.

Three at the back fails when the opposition exploits the space up front and no-one from your team closes it down. But equally no system works if the opposition works a lot harder than you (because there are more spaces than players on the pitch.) You can let them have as much space as they like in areas where it doesn't threaten you, but if you don't minimise it near your own goal you tend to lose 0-4.