The League Two season is
now ten games old – a point which is widely recognised as the time
to review the start we have made to the season. By this point in the
season the table has begun to take some shape, promotion contenders
and relegation candidates materialise and patterns have begun emerge.
At the ten-match mark we
find ourselves fourth in the table, outside the automatic promotion
places by two points. It's a decent position to be in and puts us in
a good position to push on and challenge this season but a concerning
trend has emerged, albeit a not-unexpected one. Of course, the issue
on everyone's lips at the moment is the team's home form.
It's something which has
been debated extensively on Yellows Forum and on the excellent Oxpod
United podcast and a veritable cavalcade of explanations have
been posited, from negative fans to away teams raising their game at
the Kassam. It's an issue that's come to dominate all talk of the
club but one I've been reluctant to wade into, mainly due to the fact
that I've already written about it last
season. However, at the risk of repeating myself, it would be
impossible to review the season so far without reference to this
unusual phenomenon.
In the simplest of terms,
Oxford appear to be a completely different side away from home than
we are at home. On the road, we are clinical, free-scoring and
relatively solid at the back (only Fleetwood and Mansfield have
conceded fewer goals than us away). At home, it's a completely
different story: only struggling Hartlepool and Accrington have
scored fewer goals than we have on their own ground and matches at
the Kassam frequently descend into dreary morale-sapping experiences
as United struggle to find any rhythm to break down the opposition.
 |
| Away |
 |
| Home |
The level of support or the expectations of the fans shouldn't be a factor. Look at small, moneyed clubs like Crawley - expectations are high but supporters are low and it seems to have no effect on their performances. This season has put paid to the popular myth from last season that the state of the pitch was responsible for our poor home form - London Welsh have only played once at the Kassam so far this season. Having a 'nice' stadium isn't the problem either; Rotherham had a brand-new stadium last year which was a lot better than ours and they won promotion and Chesterfield's stadium is much newer and shinier than the Kassam and they have no problems at home.
In my opinion, the reason
for our inability to perform at home is not due to the atmosphere or
the pressure the players are under, it's something far simpler. The team are set up to be a very
good counter-attacking outfit, but when it comes to taking the
initiative and breaking opposing sides down we frequently struggle.
This is borne out by the
stats. According to the (admittedly not-too-reliable) possession
statistics listed on the club's official website, we have enjoyed the
majority of possession on just two occasions this season. Clearly
that's not because we're being outplayed by our opponents, it's
because the team is set up allow our opponents to see a large amount
of the ball and then hit them when the openings appear. This is a
tactic which will naturally lend itself better to away matches but
it's not going to work so well against other teams who are looking to
do similar to us at our place – Southend
on Saturday being a prime example (for the record, the Shrimpers
had just 38% possession in that match).
Oxford are probably the
best team in League Two without the ball, but clearly we need to be
better with it. Despite losing, I saw some positive signs against
Portsmouth that we are still capable of imposing ourselves on
sides when they come to the Kassam but we clearly lacked that cutting
edge that has made us so clinical on our travels. Nevertheless it
gives me some hope that we can change our style of play at home and
we'll have to if we want our form to improve.
We don't need to be
fantastic at home to win promotion from this league, as the current
table demonstrates, just a slight improvement will be enough to get
us over the line. Gillingham won the league last season despite
losing six and drawing five of their home matches last season –
including a 1-0
defeat to us. That said, if home crowds are to improve from their
average of 6,180 we are going to have to start getting results and
entertaining fans. That's not so easily solved...
0 comments:
Post a Comment