honeybradger

He's the one who keeps playing these players though. Skipp is a write off and shouldn't see the pitch for us yet he was one of the first substitutions in. Before this game he has played Ayew every minute or close to it. For some reason he clearly rates him which is a red flag. He has stood by the Faes-Vestergaard pairing who make errors every game. Nelson meanwhile is out in the cold who was solid at this level at the end of last season. Kristiansen is also a borderline write off yet we have Aluko who can come in instead. I could accept the excuse that we have a terrible squad, which I completely agree with, if Cifuentes was taking the approach that these players are bad and need to be replaced but instead he has put his arm round their shoulder and enabled them.

He played left back most of last season.

Not even

9 more players like him and we will be good.

He went to Juventus's academy? It's not like he went off into the wildernessess of the European lower leagues, he got picked up by one of the biggest clubs around.

I said at the start of the season that he's our best centreback and I stand by it. Not having him involved at all is really poor.

He hasnt exactly attempted to fix the squad has he, instead he has just cemented the rubbish in their positions. Could have given Nelson a proper chance who is proven quality at this level, instead he has chosen to back Vestergaard and Faes who are worth at least one big error a game. Could have given Aluko a chance instead of Kristiansen, could have given Evans a chance instead of bringing in Carranza. There's lots that he could have done to fix the squad but instead he has built his short managerial term around these overpaid and under skilled players (as you put it).

Let's see how Cordova Reid performs at this level. If he's no better then what's the point of playing him over a player who is going to learn and develop from the gametime and improve over the season. It feels like we're expecting Page to be one of our best players when all he has to do is be as good or better than our worst player in his position to justify involvement.

The lineups not that bad, at least we have a striker that doesnt sit in midfield and Monga's starting. Reid despite not having any technical ability does have the ability to get on the end of chances as well.

BCDR starting tonight apparently. Whether it's for Mavididi, James or Soumare we'll have to see.

We dont have any PL quality. Not even Fatawu at this point in time.

Not much you can do when subbed off at 56 minutes whilst playing as a 10 in this system which is pretty isolated. Will be interesting when Ramsey is back, not sure he is going to fare much better.

I remember the first year after we signed Fofana his old teammate Saliba was struggling in the Arsenal U21s. There was a debate over whether we had signed the better centreback despite the French saying Saliba was better. It's interesting that one was one of the best centrebacks in the premier league that season and one was struggling to impress in youth football, yet the one struggling at youth level was actually the better player. Just goes to show how much of a talent drain getting dropped to the u21s is, if an elite player like Saliba can struggle that badly you can only imagine how it has/will affect Page.

It's fairly simple he should leave out BCDR, Kristiansen, Daka to make way for 2-3 of Aluko, Nelson, Page, Evans. Those first 3 dont contribute much anyway.

So what i said is correct that the academy players have been pushed further away from the matchday squad than when the season started. It's not just for the new signings either it's for duffers like Kristiansen and Cordova Reid (yes he did get us the point the other day but still a duffer). It's not hard to understand why i think it's dubious that Cifuentes will integrate the young players over the season considering his decision making implies the opposite.

James Trafford was dropped for Muric by Burnley in 23/24 in the PL. Muric was a catastrophe for Ipswich so getting benched by him is impressive. He then had a good season at championship level in 24/25. He was then swiftly replaced at Premier League level by Man City after a couple blunders. Stolarczyk was fine when we were in the PL last time, there's no guarantee that if we go up someone like Trafford doesn't commit the same errors that Stolarczyk gets blasted for. Trafford's record at that level is actually very spotty.

Sadly the trend has been Cifuentes phasing the youth players further and further away from the first team, not integrating them. There's no guarantee either way as you cant guarantee the future but for me Cifuentes is making a big mistake with the way he has handled the academy thus far.

The issue is that as we were reminded last game these senior players such as Faes, Vestergaard, Ayew, Kristiansen are both poor and inconsistent and are not necessarily the way forward to promotion. I would back us more to go up this season if we had Nelson in our backline who held his own against Leeds, Sunderland and Sheffield United last season and was consistently a 7-8/10 for Oxford than Faes who was dropped like a sack of potatoes by Iling Junior and has been inconsistent to consistently poor over his 3 years here. Cifuentes doesnt have a choice between promotion and blooding the youth, he has a choice between bravery and cowardice. He can continue to play the underperforming senior pros in hope that they sneak promotion, likely resulting in us falling short, or he can bring through the young players and inject some much needed energy and talent into this side. Sadly with the way things are going I think he will keep making the same mistakes and we will fall short at the end of the season having given the young players minimal game time.

You will always have fans waiting in the wings to jump on any bad performances from our academy players. Look at the reaction to Nelson's game against Huddersfield. Reasonable fans know that Nelson and the other academy lads are the way forwards, not the senior plonkers who have let us down again and again, and will forgive bad games knowing that these young players are worth supporting through rough patches.

He's played striker against Valencia and Spurs recently. Scored against Spurs but also missed a sitter. Didn't do much against Valencia but there were a couple times he lost his marker but didn't receive the ball in behind. Despite him not being in the best form at the moment id still rather have him up front than Ayew.

Needs to start banging them in for the u21s and force Cifuentes's hands. Realistically the striker position is still very open. Sadly it's easier said than done as he's not getting much service for the u21s, Aluko is the only creative player in the side and he's a right back.

So by your logic Kristiansen must be impressing in training more than Aluko. Kristiansen can hardly kick a ball straight whilst Aluko is brimming with individual quality. Either the people the players are trying to impress arent of the right standard or performances in training dont factor into it and it's mostly down to who's more senior in the dressing room. I find it interesting that some weeks the club post photos of the winners of an internal 7 aside game they do in training, often times it's not our first XI players who made up the winning side.

Playing Faes and Vestergaard over Nelson is just yet another poor decision from a club that have been on a terrible run of decision making for the last 5-6 years. When we talk about the decline of the club in 5 years time and how we cemented ourselves from PL regulars to championship regulars the lack of game time for Nelson this season and the academy in general will be one of the main talking points. We can talk about Rudkin's previous mismanagement over the last few years all we want but the club is still currently in a salvageable position, with the number one saving grace being the talent that is coming through the academy. Cifuentes is not utilising it nearly enough and is further continuing the clubs downwards trajectory by playing the same old suspects. You cant stop the rot if you build your starting XI around the rot.

Faes and Vestergaard do not guarantee promotion. This narrative that they are imperious at this level needs to stop, they weren't last time we were down we just had too much quality for their mistakes to punish us. Nelson is not only our future but he's our present, if we can get him to perform at the same form he had at Oxford he is our best defender.

It's more acceptable for Nelson to make errors because he's young and can learn from it. Faes and Vestergaard have been doing the same mistakes for us for 3 years now. This is just what they are.