Back in late December, Gary Rowett was sacked as Oxford manager. What were the key things that went wrong?
I think in any managerial tenure there is a point where everybody gets a little sick of one another. Without doubt, I think this happened here and I don’t think Gary Rowett was at all disappointed to be let go.
He came in with the club really struggling in the Championship and delivered the one and only aim, safety. The issue was always going to be the second season and whether the pragmatic style
that had seen a limited squad secure survival could develop into a more exciting blend over the summer. It is safe to say that didn’t happen.
He wasn’t helped by a shambolic pre-season where an Indonesian tour (we are owned by an Indonesian) resulted in a lack of time on the grass and, ironically, a serious injury to our Indonesian international who was the headline act of the whole tour.
We stated the season slowly as a result, the recruitment was hit and miss and by the end, Rowett’s take was very much ‘back me or sack me’. I suspect there was a difference in opinion when it came to recruitment with Rowett favouring more experienced campaigners and the club wanting to return to investing in talented younger players and all that resulted in Rowett not seeing the January window.
Ex-Wycombe and Luton coach Matt Bloomfield was hired to replace him – what has he brought to the table so far?
He’s enthusiastic and clearly wants to do well for the club, but which manager doesn’t?! The win over Leicester was built upon a foundation of excellent out of possession shape and a phenomenal workrate. Bloomfield running over to the away end to celebrate felt like it could be the start of something.
Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to kick on and we are yet to score a home goal under his management. In a world where fans were desperate for a more expansive style of play than Rowett’s, we currently appear to be very similar in our set up and still fail to create a huge amount in games.
It is early days, but Tuesday’s defeat to Norwich was a mess and has deflated any early optimism.
His assistant manager is former Sunderland coach Mike Dodds. What sort of impact have you heard that he has made so far?
The word from the training ground is that the players are enjoying the sessions he puts on and his reputation as an excellent coach seems justified. Part of his role is to help advise the manager, however. Anybody and everybody associated with Tuesday night’s back four has some explaining to do, in my opinion.
Having looked solid in a back five, we moved to a back four and Bloomfield suggested that this was partly because the fans want more at home. However, the back four consisted of two central defenders at full back and a part time centre back who is more experienced at right back playing in the middle. One of the four defenders was in the role they should have been and it was a shambolic performance.
Whether the coaching team felt they couldn’t drop those players after a superb defensive effort away at Coventry, I don’t know, but it was a call that needed to be made.
Currently four points from safety, how confident are you of avoiding relegation?
I arrived at the ground on Tuesday saying that if we beat a depleted Norwich tonight, we will stay up. 20 minutes later all of that optimism had gone.
We do have very favourable home games and Sheffield Wednesday still to play, but everybody around us looks like they’ve got more at the moment. If we can’t find a way to threaten consistently in attack then I fear the worst.
Oxford are yet to win at the Kassam Stadium under Bloomfield. Are things quite flat at the moment?
Win, or score. With that in mind it probably shouldn’t have been surprising that the ground wasn’t at capacity and with the game being over early on, the empty seats because far more visible as the game wore on.
By the end, it had the look of an early league cup game in which the only people having fun are the superior away team’s fans. It was a bleak evening and with home form likely to be crucial, some enthusiasm needs injecting quickly.
Which of Oxford’s players have stood out this season, who you think can cause Sunderland problems?
Oxford’s main summer signing Brian de Keersmaeker has been out through injury for several weeks and has been a big miss in midfield.
January signing Myles Peart-Harris has started well and is clearly talented. He has a physical presence for a wide attacker and can carry the ball up the pitch effectively. I have moaned about the attack consistently throughout this, so it’s hard to genuinely believe that there are many threats.
I like the endeavour of Stan Mills, a throw back winger who beats his man and crosses early, but we often struggle for numbers in the box so that doesn’t always result in what it could. In all likelihood, our biggest threat will come from set-pieces and long throws.
On the other hand, if you were Regis Le Bris, how would you exploit Oxford’s weaknesses?
I would be surprised if Sunderland didn’t come up against a compact low block at the weekend, unless Bloomfield sees this game as a free hit and rolls the dice in the hope of landing on something to work with for the rest of the league season.
If we do bank up in defence, we can be hard to break down as Coventry discovered. In that case, rotations of the attacking players seems a fair bet to break us down. Norwich scored a lovely second goal on Tuesday where players were floating around and dragging defenders with them.
A team with quality should be able to unpick that lock if they move the ball quickly. However, if we defend like we did for the other two goals on Tuesday night, a man as intelligent as Regis Le Bris won’t be needing my help.
How do you think Bloomfield will set up tactically for the match?
As above, the likelihood is to be compact, frustrate and break at pace. There is a part of me that thinks we have nothing to lose and will that really enthuse the paying public after the last game?
Oxford’s fairly recent history of cup upsets under Karl Robinson was built on attacking whoever came to town. Newcastle and Swansea were sides who were taken on head to head and were great days out. We held the record for shots against a Pep Guardiola side for a long time as well.
If you offered me a 2-0 defeat where we try to frustrate or a 4-1 defeat where we threw a few punches but got caught out late in the game, I know which I’d choose.
Are any players missing, and who do you think will start?
After a busy schedule, it wouldn’t shock me to see some fringe players play. If anything, they deserve a chance to claim the shirt. A cup win is always nice but Bloomfield’s success will be defined by the league results.
There have been plenty of injuries with key players like Brian de Keersmaecker and Jack Currie missing, while Jamie Donley was injured early in his debut. The latter two are close to a return and may get valuable minutes here.
I hope we get to see more of Jin Woo, a signing from South Korea in January. He hasn’t played a game since November, but looked sharp in his cameo against Norwich. If he happens to be an attacker to get fans off their seats, that would be brilliant news.
Sunderland lost 2-0 in their last visit to Oxford – why is your score prediction for this time around?
That was a very good day out, but I’m not sure this one will have quite the same feeling.
I expect Sunderland to make changes as well, but every time I have worked on a Sunderland game this season the strength of the squad has been apparent. It’s an underwhelming draw due to the familiarity of playing Sunderland (despite them being much better now) and ticket sale reflect that.
I’m expecting a fairly flat Sunderland win where everybody gets largely what they expect from the day. 3-0 to Sunderland, but I’d snap your arm off to see a goal again.
