FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.16: SWANSEA AT HOME

OXFORD UNITED 1 SWANSEA CITY 2

This was an absolute shocker. The worst performance since we got annihilated at Bolton last season. It’s hard to believe that we had a flurry at the very end of the game where we came so very close to getting a point. We’d been third best (and that takes some doing when there are only two teams in it) from the very first whistle.

Last week’s effort at Sunderland had been the poorest thus far but we went down a few levels from that here. This was not Championship standard in the slightest. Continue playing like this and the points we’ll pick up between now and the end of the season will be able to be counted on the fingers of one hand. Perhaps you won’t even need any fingers at all.

The honeymoon period is well and truly over. Standards have been sliding and we’re now rapidly heading towards where many expected “little Oxford” to be with the inevitable immediate return to League One.

Just about everyone knows what the issues are. It’s not the back line. I think it was Tim who sits in front of me who said the defence is good enough for the Championship but the rest of it isn’t. On what I saw here I am in total agreement.

There was nothing going on in front of the back four to give them any decent protection. The solidarity and shape we had at the beginning of the season isn’t there anymore. The work rate doesn’t seem to be quite what it was and when that’s the case you’ve had it.

Swansea are no Sunderland but there’s no debate to be had about which was the better side here. They were vastly superior. We allowed them 16 shots, five of which were on target. They had so much space. Our closing down and positional play was so lacking. Where was the real battling?

I rightly heard it said numerous times as I walked away afterwards that we need Cameron Brannagan back. We’ve not won since we lost him just after half time on 14 September. There was a brief period when it was said that we weren’t really missing him much when we drew with Burnley then Luton. We were tricked into that thinking. His loss is proving massive.

We’re seeing more evidence as the season progresses of what the team as a whole and individuals have to offer. I’m beginning to conclude that we’ve got a few that sadly are not Championship level. Well that’s what it looks like at the moment.

If we’re playing 4 / 2 / 3 / 1 a fit Brannagan is obviously one of the two but I don’t think we’ve got anyone else good enough to play alongside him. Both Will Vaulks, who is very experienced in tier two and Louie Sibley, who seems more likely to get sent off than swing a game our way, don’t look good enough. Bang average at best thus far. Apparently we played 4 / 1 / 4 / 1 in this game. Josh McEachran being the one in front of the back four. This did not work.

The other huge issue which is helping kill us is the lack of quick, tricky, attacking wide men. I keep listing them:  Przemyslaw Placheta, Matt Phillips, Siriki Dembele and Kyle Edwards. Without them we’re so much blunter as an attacking and entertaining force. What is it with us and a really long injury list season on season? The usual questions regarding recruitment, risk taking, medical assessment and treatment etc. won’t go away.

Owen Dale started and lasted just under the hour but he didn’t do anything to show he was what’s required. His replacement out wide was Malcolm Ebiowei who most of the time when he’s out there just looks lost. He’s only 21 but I’d be expecting a bit more maturity at his age. He doesn’t seem tuned in to what’s going on and when occasionally does something decent then just spoils it. I can’t work out what’s going on with him. Nowhere near good enough he frustrates me no end but I kind of feel sorry for the guy.

Another who recently has not looked up to Championship standard – and let’s be honest deep down we’ve been thinking this since day one of this season – is Mark Harris. Poor touch. Poor passing. Yes he works and works but that alone doesn’t cut the mustard. And how many times was he caught offside?

Of course when nothing is clicking as a team and the balance is all wrong it is easy to blame individuals. For many their game will inescapably suffer.

Our passing was off. There was little understanding with one yellow shirt appearing to not know what another was doing or going to do. Our movement was poor. We posed so little threat to the visitors’ defence one would have thought it was an FA Cup tie with one team (us) up against a team from much higher up the pyramid but without actually being up for it.

Having the ball at the back now with nowhere to go, with the lack of our better quick wide players being available, is becoming the norm. Then as ever we go long and lose it. Earlier in the season we were partaking equally in tactical games of chess. It was fascinating to watch. Now we don’t appear to have the pieces in the right place to even start a game on an even keel let alone move them around effectively.

The work rate and desire to win this game just wasn’t there. In the first half when we were doing just about nothing attacking wise there were two occasions when we had an isolated man up front battling for the ball and looking like they might just come out on top. They needed help but we had no-one showing any real desire to get there and help out.

Was fitness an issue? If so that is a massive worry with games on Tuesday and Friday coming up.

Another thing that really struck me in proving how dreadful we were was how easily we allowed Swansea to keep possession when they had a throw in. In contrast we struggled massively to retain the ball when it was our turn to get it back into play.

So all doom and gloom then from me? Written us off as a hopeless cause? Of course not. Those injured players will be back. (Well some of them. Knowing our record in such things it wouldn’t surprise me if we weren’t to see one or more again or if we do it will be just the occasional glimpse of nothing much. Been there, done that before haven’t we?) And however rank this performance was we again only lost by one goal. We weren’t hammered. That just doesn’t happen now. (Hope I’m not tempting fate by saying that).

Excluding added time Dane Scarlett has been on the pitch for only 257 minutes. That works out at just under three full games. He’s netted three times. That’s a bloody good ratio. Mark Harris began like a house on fire but has not scored since August. Just saying. Scarlett is still learning his trade and at times will frustrate but he’s got something about him and as the season wears on could turn into a very valuable asset providing he stays beyond January.

Another positive for me was Idris El Mizouni who played the second half. He’s got some quality and showed it here. He’s another who sometimes frustrates and I can understand why he was left out of the starting XI but looked Championship standard to me. As I said earlier, some don’t.

Given the way the game went, with the Swans getting a grip on it from the very first whistle, it was a little surprising that they didn’t take the lead until the 38^th minute. Myles Peart-Harris had directed his near post header from a corner onto the crossbar and what happened immediately after was so very telling. Dale ended up with the ball in our area with no opponent near him. He was quickly closed down and turned back. Did we have any yellow shirts who were moving forward genuinely wanting the ball? He played it back to Peter Kioso who just whacked it over the half way line. Did we win and retain possession? No of course not.

The goal also spoke volumes. Tyler Goodrham lost out to Josh Key midway in the Swansea half. If TG had managed to get away he would have been through on goal. But he didn’t. It was good defending. I do wonder though why our young star held both hands up indicating that he wasn’t fouling. An “accidental” tangle in the style of a Jamie Mackie or Mark Harris would have stopped Key’s progress. As it was the Swansea no.2 was able to bring the ball 15 yards into our half without so much as the hint of a challenge. We were exposed down our left. It was Sibley and Ciaron Brown v Key, Goncalo Franco and Ronald. Why was that? Down to shape, lack of understanding throughout the team of each and every role, switching off or just not being up to it? I’m not putting any blame on Brown. He was generally magnificent and had been our outstanding defender. Probably kept us in it up to that point, but his sliding stretch couldn’t stop Key’s pass into Ronald’s path. The square pass was despatched with ease by Slovenian Zan Vipotnik. Swansea deserved the lead. Nobody could logically argue otherwise.

On the balance of play going in level at half time would have been a travesty but we nearly did. This time it was our turn to hit the bar with a header from a corner – Ruben Rodrigues from the centre of the six yard box.

Provided the delivery is half decent I think we have a real threat when we play high balls into our opponents’ penalty area, be they from corners, free-kicks or even throws. I really think we should try to do this more. Elliott Moore is always a danger and look at how tall Ben Nelson is. We’ve got others who can head a ball too. When we get a free-kick on the half way line why do we play it short, sideways or backwards even when we know we’re getting nowhere trying to keep possession and unlocking a defence that way? Why not get the big men up and launch it more often? (I can see the purists wringing their hands at such a comment).

That corner had come after a Goodrham shot which was on target was deflected out by Harry Darling’s head. Even when he’s having one of his quieter games Tyler is a player who can produce something out of nothing. He’s now a nailed on starter and very unlikely to be withdrawn unless injured.

We began the second half much better and should have equalised in the first few minutes. We moved the ball quicker. Brown to Goodrham to El Mizouni who played a sumptuous ball in. It was begging to be buried. Harris, on the stretch, put it over. Having got there he really should have scored. Better players than him will miss easy chances but I don’t want to have to keep saying that in his defence.

A minute or so later Jamie Cumming made a superb reaction save from Vipotnik. Our keeper is a player I am very pleased with. He wasn’t beaten again until the 80^th minute.

We had possession in our own half. With two players hassling Kioso he managed to get the ball to El Mizouni who passed it square and with Vaulks leaving it, Ebiowei ended up in possession close to the touch line. It was all pretty tight with not a lot on. Our loanee from Palace tried to play a long cross field pass to Goodrham but it fell way short with a Swansea head winning it easily and setting Franco on his way. Again there was space to run into and he was easily able to slip the ball between our lines, if lines were what we had.  Florian Bianchini’s movement was excellent and he finished clinically cutting the ball back across Cumming. It was all made to look so easy. We just weren’t able to cope.

Heads on the pitch didn’t go down though even if they did in the stands. Not that they ever really got up in the first place.

Greg Leigh on for Rodrigues provided some bustling energy. He played the ball to El Mizouni. It was still tight but the better players don’t let that faze them. He slipped it between two light purple, or was it pale lilac shirts – I’m not very good with colours – finding Brown (the player).  Our full-back kept possession in fine style, looked up and made a top quality pass to Scarlett who controlled with his left and scored with his right in an instant. Proof that we still have enough fit personnel to create and finish against teams such as Swansea.

And then, oh so nearly preservation of the unbeaten home record. A long throw from Vaulks with us putting four players in the box and three just outside. Swansea had three outside and seven marking our five. Without winning the ball cleanly we made a nuisance of ourselves. When it came back to Vaulks he put in a first time cross which Leigh headed just wide. Behind Leigh was Scarlett perhaps slightly better positioned but with Key challenging too who knows what would have happened if our Jamaican international had ducked under the ball? We just couldn’t quite unlock their defence a second time.

If we had done I wonder what those who left early when we were 2-0 down would have thought of their decision.

It had taken so bloody long but we’d at last got some real momentum. Only four added minutes from referee Michael Salisbury did us no favours. All Oxford fans thought it should have been more. The calculation of additional time appears to be somewhat random a lot of the time.

But that was that, the whistle soon blew signifying our first home defeat of the campaign.

This leaves us in 19^th position just two points and three places above the bottom three. Bound to be moving in that direction as we had not been winning games and now we’re losing them. In the last six games only QPR have picked up fewer points than us. They’ve got just three to our four. Two other team have only got four, fellow strugglers Plymouth and Blackburn who are still in 8^th place.

Thirteen games in the league couldn’t be much tighter. Just four points cover 22^nd to 13^th in the table. That’s 42% of the participants. One of the most obvious things I’ll ever say – a win on Tuesday would be nice. I don’t think we’re quite into this being a “must win game”, a cliché I find so tiresome, but we’re getting closer to it. Our opponents Hull are on pretty crap form too. They’ve drawn the last three 1-1 and lost the two before that without scoring. But that doesn’t have much meaning as Swansea came to Oxfordshire having not hit the back of the net in their previous five games. It’s all on us to get it right for 90 minutes and we very much did not do so on Saturday.  Lose and we could end up in a relegation slot. Win and we’d leapfrog the Tigers and with the possibility of being as high as 12^th.