Oldham away match thread

[magicrat]

Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

 

The players let us down today, not the manager. You don't believe that crap about only concentrating on one game at a time do you, because Rodgers basically put that one bed the other month.

 

We have a small squad, a thin squad and two big games that we need to have the best chance of grabbing something from. Points are NEVER guaranteed in the league but you try to give yourselves every advantage.

 

We have a striker now, one that before today seems to know where the goal is so I would hope that we would also start to see some better results against the sides in the top part of the league. I won't be cutting my wrists just yet.

 

You make some good points but doesn't explain why Carra wasn't starting ( surely a no brainer if Stevie was on the bench in a cup ties like this) and he left the midfield so exposed . Shlevey wouldn't have started on wedesday and should have been in today from the off.

[Guest davelfc]

You make some good points but doesn't explain why Carra wasn't starting ( surely a no brainer if Stevie was on the bench in a cup ties like this) and he left the midfield so exposed . Shlevey wouldn't have started on wedesday and should have been in today from the off.

 

I don't think any of us can question Rodgers team selection when none of us have a fucking clue who will or will not be playing in the next two games.

 

I think it will be fairer to judge this game after our next two games when it's all played out. I still blame the players, some of them, for being precious overpaid pricks.

 

I think I've made my opinion on Rodgers very plain in other threads, it would be easy to use this game as a stick to beat him with, it would also be wrong to do so.

[mike23]

Only managed to catch the second half. Sounds like it's probably best I didn't see the first half. Had a feeling we weren't going to turn it around when Borini missed an absolute sitter within 30 seconds of the second half starting. Their third goal seemed to confirm that and it was one of those where you wondered how the hell no one managed to deal with it. We had chances after that and maybe on another day with a bit more luck might have salvaged a draw but it was absolutely ridiculous we were in that position against a team as utterly shite as Oldham. Gerrard is exempt from blame as he gave everything when he came on, it's just a shame the same couldn't be said about most of the other players.

 

I can't think of any other team of the same sort of size as us who struggle so much so frequently against lower league opposition in the cups. In the last 20 years we seem to have gone out against more than our fair share of lower league teams and even when we win it rarely seems to be convincingly. We got away with a half assed dispaly at Mansfield in the last round but weren't so lucky today.

 

Rodgers would have received criticism whatever side he put out. A full strength team and some people would have moaned he shouldn't be risking players when we had big games coming up. The one player I am surprised didn't play was Carragher who would have maybe had the defence a bit more organised and certainly would have given it everything. A quick look at Oldham's recent league form though indicates that whatever side we put out should have comfortably been able to deal with them.

 

The FA cup was probably by far our best chance of winning a trophy this season as there are a lot of very good teams left in the Europa League. It could be a very depressing week with trips to Arsenal and Manchester City to come.

[magicrat]

I don't think any of us can question Rodgers team selection when none of us have a fucking clue who will or will not be playing in the next two games.

 

I think it will be fairer to judge this game after our next two games when it's all played out. I still blame the players, some of them, for being precious overpaid pricks.

 

Some perspective would be better I have to agree Dave and if we get something out of the next couple of games todays fiasco won't seem that important but I'm gutted to be out of the cup at the moment.

[Faustus]

His post in this thread made me laugh and that took some doing considering how shit we were today. Surreal bit of posting. He reminds me of Private Godfrey from Dad's army.

 

 

I think this may be the most unintentionally hysterical paragraph ever written:

 

"Boundary Park is a proper football ground, and one I had not been to for many years, a welcome change from the PL sanitised offerings. A lunchtime in the pub before wandering down to the ground rolled back the years, the brooding Pennine backdrop could easily be the tombs for Andy Ritchie,Joe Royle and other past Latic royalty watching the new breed."

 

Part Stuart Hall, part Alan Patridge.

[mike23]

Agree that Shelvey is another one who would have seemed an ideal starter for this game, especially as I'd be seriously surprised if he started against Arsenal on Wednesday. He's a player who if nothing else would have at least put in a shift and those were the sort of players who should have been starting.

 

Too fed up to even feel particularly angry with the result or performance. Just completely deflated. Seems like every single time we seem to be getting somewhere this season an absolutely monumental fuck up happens (I'm still trying to figure out how we managed to lose at home to Aston Villa) to bring our progress to a complete stop.

[Guest davelfc]

Some perspective would be better I have to agree Dave and if we get something out of the next couple of games todays fiasco won't seem that important but I'm gutted to be out of the cup at the moment.

 

Me too, the writing was on the wall when Ayres appeared to suggest they were not that important. These games are always potential banana skins, we seem to do better when up against top teams in cup games.

[magicrat]

Me too, the writing was on the wall when Ayres appeared to suggest they were not that important. These games are always potential banana skins, we seem to do better when up against top teams in cup games.

I know, hate playing these Mickey Mouse outfits away. Mansfield was bad enough .

[Torvald Utne]

I think this may be the most unintentionally hysterical paragraph ever written:

 

"Boundary Park is a proper football ground, and one I had not been to for many years, a welcome change from the PL sanitised offerings. A lunchtime in the pub before wandering down to the ground rolled back the years, the brooding Pennine backdrop could easily be the tombs for Andy Ritchie,Joe Royle and other past Latic royalty watching the new breed."

 

Part Stuart Hall, part Alan Patridge.

 

Having no idea who you are quoting there I can only assume it's xerxes, it has to be, it's just classic xerxes.

[xerxes]

xerxes really is a knob, isn't he?

 

I actually attend games and call it as it is, without getting caught by the lemming waves of armchair fans.

[xerxes]

Having no idea who you are quoting there I can only assume it's xerxes, it has to be, it's just classic xerxes.

 

thank you;)

[Guest San Don]

You can blame Rodgers all you like but by doing so you take the heat off the shithouses who he entrusted to wear the shirt today. I'm not defending him, he pretty much set us up with a 2 man midfield which is naive to day the least. As much as I think Carra would have been suited today, I've also bemoaned Coates' lack of games so if be a hypocrite to criticise that selection. I wasnt happy with the subs and think Gerrard should have been on at HT.But regardless of that, the team we had on the field should have beat league 1 cannon fodder like Oldham. He can drill them all he wants, give them the finest team talk known to man, but if they go out there and allow themselves to get bullied like that what can he do? What can he do when Jones spills a pea roll cross with no pressure on whatsoever? For too long too many of them didn't fancy it. Until Stevie came on no one took any kind of responsibility of the match. Too many of them hid, bottled it.

 

What I will say is we are frighteningly easy to score against. Be it the midfield or defence, te solid spine we once possessed has vanished. We are a soft touch to any side that adopts a physical approach. To win matches against sides like that you have to win the battle first. We nearly come unstuck at Mansfield and we didn't learn from that today. Disgusted and every one of them should be ashamed of themselves.

 

Some good points here. Im not one to put all the blame on the manager or, alternatively, all on the players. Truth is just about everyone was culpable (as they always are).

 

The manager's team selection was poor. Surely we scouted oldham before the game and would have seen they are a big, physical side? Yet we played coates in one of his few first team games. A poor management decision imo.

 

The midfield was totally uncreative and allen has come in for some comments he just isnt strong enough to run the show. But yet again, the manager selected him for this game.

 

The ref allowed them to get away with being overly physical imo. That smith lead with his arm for the first goal and again when clattering Skrtel. How he didnt give a foul on Sturridge before their second amazes me but there you go.

 

Sterling was ineffective after picking up the early booking, Jones should have done better with the second, borini apart from a neat backheel in the first half, was absent the whole game except for his moment at the start of the second half which he wildly blazed wide.

 

I dont agree many of the players didnt look up for it.

 

I agree we are frighteningly easy to score against. But then again, wtf is rodgers' defensive coaching staff doing? Very little from what I can see this season.

 

I dont get this resting players because of the arse game. Gerrard played so how does that work? Carragher has played fuck all first team football recently. Are people suggesting he cant play Sunday \ Wednesday in defence? Its not as if he's in midfield or up front. Does he have to train hard if he's playing today and again on Wednesday?

[Guest davelfc]

I actually attend games and call it as it is, without getting caught by the lemming waves of armchair fans.

 

[KMD7]

I think this may be the most unintentionally hysterical paragraph ever written:

 

"Boundary Park is a proper football ground, and one I had not been to for many years, a welcome change from the PL sanitised offerings. A lunchtime in the pub before wandering down to the ground rolled back the years, the brooding Pennine backdrop could easily be the tombs for Andy Ritchie,Joe Royle and other past Latic royalty watching the new breed."

 

Part Stuart Hall, part Alan Patridge.

 

Quality prose there. xerxes is a literary giant.

[Faustus]

Quality prose there. xerxes is a literary giant.

 

Aye, it's superb stuff.

 

I'm kind of gutted now that I failed to fully appreciate the brooding Pennine backdrop. I think the fact that Oldham is a complete shithole detracted from it.

[xerxes]

 

Loved it. Thank you.

[magicrat]

I think this may be the most unintentionally hysterical paragraph ever written:

 

"Boundary Park is a proper football ground, and one I had not been to for many years, a welcome change from the PL sanitised offerings. A lunchtime in the pub before wandering down to the ground rolled back the years, the brooding Pennine backdrop could easily be the tombs for Andy Ritchie,Joe Royle and other past Latic royalty watching the new breed."

 

Part Stuart Hall, part Alan Patridge and part poster displaying a personality disorder

 

I have been to Boundary Park and it was a shithole and that was when it still had stands on 4 sides. Was the Hovis music running through his head as he pulled on his clogs to go down to the ground with his whippets?

[FanchesterCity]

I know, hate playing these Mickey Mouse outfits away. Mansfield was bad enough .

 

They aren't Mickey Mouse outfits, they are football clubs from relatively small towns struggling to survive amidst neighbouring bigger city teams.

This is was 90% of football is actually like, dire grounds (and Latics is by no means the worst of the bunch), poor football (by PL standards) and the highlight of most seasons is managing to stay afloat... so much so, they actually want away draws to big teams just to earn a bit of money.

 

Liverpool are the better team and the bigger club. Nobody questions that, but sometimes a lower league teams just pulls out all the stops for their moment of glory, and a top team gets a little bit complacent and doesn't care for the conditions too much... the classic conditions for cup upsets which happens to every club.

 

Seriously, going to Anfield and watching Liverpool is a bloody joy compared with the crap Latics fans have to deal with year in year out. Whilst their number might be in the thousands rather than tens of thousands, they put many PL club fans to shame.

 

There's nothing Mickey Mouse about football at that level. Nothing at all.

 

I totally understand what you mean about having to play lower league opposition, and the banana skin waiting to happen. It's like Russian Roulette for top clubs... we all know some of us will come a cropper (we got a good hiding by Villa at home!), but really, 'Mickey Mouse' is derogatory to a decent, but struggling club.

[Dr Nowt]

You make some good points but doesn't explain why Carra wasn't starting

 

Would appear from today's starting line-up Carra may well be first choice again.

 

Would also appear from today's performance that's probably a good thing.

[magicrat]

They aren't Mickey Mouse outfits, they are football clubs from relatively small towns struggling to survive amidst neighbouring bigger city teams.

This is was 90% of football is actually like, dire grounds (and Latics is by no means the worst of the bunch), poor football (by PL standards) and the highlight of most seasons is managing to stay afloat... so much so, they actually want away draws to big teams just to earn a bit of money.

 

Liverpool are the better team and the bigger club. Nobody questions that, but sometimes a lower league teams just pulls out all the stops for their moment of glory, and a top team gets a little bit complacent and doesn't care for the conditions too much... the classic conditions for cup upsets which happens to every club.

 

Seriously, going to Anfield and watching Liverpool is a bloody joy compared with the crap Latics fans have to deal with year in year out. Whilst their number might be in the thousands rather than tens of thousands, they put many PL club fans to shame.

 

There's nothing Mickey Mouse about football at that level. Nothing at all.

 

I totally understand what you mean about having to play lower league opposition, and the banana skin waiting to happen. It's like Russian Roulette for top clubs... we all know some of us will come a cropper (we got a good hiding by Villa at home!), but really, 'Mickey Mouse' is derogatory to a decent, but struggling club.

Are you from Oldham by any chance ?

[FanchesterCity]

I have been to Boundary Park and it was a shithole and that was when it still had stands on 4 sides. Was the Hovis music running through his head as he pulled on his clogs to go down to the ground with his whippets?

 

That's an example of what can happen when the owners and the council fuck about for donkeys years 'deciding' how to make things better, whilst the ground starts falling down.

 

The local council have made a real mess of both OAFC and Oldham Rugby League over the years. It's fair to say it's never been the best of places, and a completely missing stand only makes it worse, but there are reasons for it, and not all of the club's doing.

 

All the 'spare' land by the side of the ground is part of a covenant that MUST be left for public playing fields, meaning the club can't use it to build a new place, and proposals to move the ground have met with all manner of cock-ups on the council's part.

 

I know it's not really of much concern to Liverpool fans, but just like Liverpool's new stadium / extension proposals have gone on for years, it's the same at smaller clubs. Only they get far less publicity and are much more prone to being shafted by councils and owners.

[FanchesterCity]

Are you from Oldham by any chance ?

Born and bred - but don't live there now. If you can get out, you do!

 

I just think fans of PL teams lose all bloody sight of what's going on in the lower leagues and how it is for average clubs.

[Dr Nowt]

I thought the 'performance' most at fault for our defeat today was Coutinho's. Might as well not even have been on the pitch given how invisible he was.

 

With lightweight children like him in the team, how do we expect to beat lower league sides? (None of whom were in for him, I notice.)

[ZonkoVille77]

I thought the 'performance' most at fault for our defeat today was Coutinho's. Might as well not even have been on the pitch given how invisible he was.

 

With lightweight children like him in the team, how do we expect to beat lower league sides? (None of whom were in for him, I notice.)

 

Sums it up for me.

Get the torch and pitchforks and meet me outside melwood at 10am tomorrow.

[Evil_Ways]

Defence is the easiest to sort out, it is just getting organized. For now, we are not.

 

Better than 4th is reasonable.

 

Sorry, but are you saying anything below top 3 is unreasonable, considering our state and the happenings within the club over the last few years ?