Millenniumram

I thought he may have needed a rest to be honest, but he’s proved me wrong today with a seriously lively performance

GET IN COLLINS

Mendez-Laing has bounced back from a poor game against Peterborough to have a superb game today. He’s everywhere

Forsyth is getting roasted by Rooney down this near side. May need to get Elder on at half time

GET IN MENDEZ Justice as that should have been a penalty

They’d also been the best defence in the league up until those game. But we all know Warne is desperate for a back 3

Very strong call to drop Wildsmith. That back three absolutely TERRIFIES me - it’s the same one that was absolutely calamitous at the start of the season. Glad to see John-Jules start (hopefully this means we’re more convinced by his fitness now), but I have a very bad feeling about this game.

Seems like a potentially very talented lad, but still quite raw I imagine at his age for a CDM - only really got a proper taste of first team football recently. I’m not convinced he’s what we need - unless of course we lose Bird.

Bird is still a good player at this level - really don’t get the hate from an (admittedly small) group of supporters for him. He very rarely makes mistakes, which is something that can’t be said for many of our players. I think you’d be lucky to get £3m for Bird in League One with 6 months left on his contract. You wouldn’t get a better player (in the same age bracket) for that money in my view.

Unfortunate post about an hour before we choke a key match in the promotion battle, to a team who simply have more pace and youth than us. 3rd time this season we’ve conceded an injury time goal at home to lose points I think? You don’t get promoted doing that. Got to manage games better.

Oh I know, I’m just giving my view. Warne won’t be sacked irrespective of what happens - as I’ve said before, his job is one of the safest in world football.

Promotion isn’t just a perfect result, it should be the minimum expectation this season in this league. If I don’t meet my minimum expectations, then yes I would be fired.

He said about him not being capable of starting a match, but I don’t recall him mentioning his fitness as having been mismanaged by his previous clubs, unless I’ve missed something?

Promotion I hope. Paul Warne’s P45 if not. Happy New Year all!

In principle yes, but what if that’s instead of another striker signing?

Think that was the plan when we originally signed him (hence only a 6 month loan) - but that won’t happen now. My post was based off some information I was told by someone ITK - that the reason he isn’t starting is because our medical team doesn’t believe he is capable, and aren’t sure when he will be again. Sounds like we think his injury has been mismanaged at previous clubs which is why he’s had his issues here. It’s not impossible we will give him more of a chance to prove his fitness and extend his loan until the end of the season, if the medical team have enough confidence in him, but I think it’s unlikely. Only a gut feeling though.

Yeah it’s a real shame for a player with his level of technical ability. Another player whose potential has been ruined by injury - we’ve seen a fair few of them.

I don’t know - he’s not pacy like Tomori, but he still makes some incredible recovery tackles. Players like Thiago Silva aren’t exactly rapid but still look top class in the Premier League - I don’t think Cashin would struggle to adapt.

Fairly certain his loan won’t be extended. Unfortunately, he’s a bit of a waste of a place in the squad if he can’t start a football match. We will be looking for replacements I’m sure, hopefully early in the window.

£4m is a lot of money for a League One CB with 6 months left on his contract. Obviously the option we have for another year plays into our hands, but I still thought we’d struggle to get £2m. Delighted, but surprised, that it sounds like he’s staying for the season. Still fully expect him to leave in the summer, but hopefully as a Championship player for even more money! He’ll play top end Premier League football imo. He’s that good in all aspects of his play.

The thing is it wasn’t even that we couldn’t afford them. Rhodes messed us around and didn’t show up for his medical - it’s not often I agree with Warne’s quite extreme “character” policy with new signings, but I wouldn’t want a player here who did that. No matter how many goals he’s scored since. The Alfie May one does frustrate me though. Available for £250k, surely to goodness we could’ve afforded to spend SOME money after the sales we made. Absolute bargain in my opinion, and I’m not remotely surprised to see him banging the goals in - he was the best player on the pitch when he played us last season. We’re doing pretty well without them of course, and you don’t HAVE to have a 20 goals striker to get promoted - if you spread the goals out like we’re doing. But I do feel the fine line between us and the top 2 at the moment is down to our weaker attacking threat compared to our defensive solidity. We never really replaced McGoldrick - as talented as John-Jules is, there’s little point in signing a player who can’t actually start a football match. The absolute number one priority this window has to be that top quality moment 9 in my opinion.

If it carried on in the same vein as the first 15 mins it could have been, with the quality going forward that Oxford possess. Maybe no one should post at all until the game has concluded then if that makes you happy?

I pressed that before we made a double sub we actually improved the team

Man says we can’t cope cope with their football at a time in the game when we couldn’t cope with their football… shock horror!

What a comeback! Joe Wildsmith owes the whole team a pint