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Darren Purse leaves town


Theodopolous

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May be Oxford United are more informed than some contributors to this site. A quick look at the league goal difference before and after Darren's injury suggests a huge decline in our defending abilities once he was no longer playing. He was immense in the games against Maidstone and, just may be, we could have put in a play off challenge had he remained fit. The manager speaks highly of his coaching contribution and on top of that he seems to be a very nice guy. IMO he deserves more from this site than the  sarcastic comments above.

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I'm not sure what his contribution on the field at ETFC has to do with him taking up a coaching position at another club....i think you will find they are two completely different skills... a few of our World Cup winners could vouch for that.... you can take my comments how ever you want 53 seasons but the fact is our defending under our coaches this season has been nothing short of woeful....But maybe working with the youngsters with more open ideas will bring out the best in his coaching and do thank him for his contribution and wish him all the best

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I agree with others that our defending has been poor for much of the season.

 

I'm not privy to the dressing room so don't know how much influence Darren has been but I imagine its been good for our players to have the experience of working alongside such a respected professional. I suspect that the past few months, whilst Darren has been out injured, have proved to him how much more difficult it is to influence the behaviour of players whilst not on the pitch. The good news is that performances, on and off, have been better in the final part of the season so some encouragement there.

 

Ironic that with all the criticism of not playing young players enough, justified or otherwise, Darren has chosen to take on the U16 team at Oxford Utd.

 

Oxford are one of Darren's former clubs so I can well understand why he would want to take on the challenge and I wish him well for the future.

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May be Oxford United are more informed than some contributors to this site. A quick look at the league goal difference before and after Darren's injury suggests a huge decline in our defending abilities once he was no longer playing. He was immense in the games against Maidstone and, just may be, we could have put in a play off challenge had he remained fit. The manager speaks highly of his coaching contribution and on top of that he seems to be a very nice guy. IMO he deserves more from this site than the  sarcastic comments above.

 

 

Ho hum! Sarcasm should definitely be a no-no here, shouldn't it, 53S. Heaven forbid that someone should have a sense of humour on social media nowadays. Let's all make sure that we conform to what is 'expected' of of us and say what we are supposed to say. After all, we might end up offending someone, and we're not allowed to do that anymore, are we? That's what free speech means, doesn't it? Making sure that we don't say anything out of turn and making sure we say what we're supposed to say. (Orwell RIP).

 

Anyway, let the stats speak: 

 

We played 17 league games with Darren starting:

 

Points per game: 1.5

Goals scored per game: 1.7

Goals conceded per game: 1.6

 

 

We played 29 games without him starting:

 

Points per game: 1.0

Goals scored per game: 1.5

Goals conceded per game: 1.8

 

So, we were definitely a better team with Darren starting, but the stats concerning the games when he didn't start raise another question in my mind: exactly how good was he at getting his message across to players on the training ground/pitch side? Not very, by the looks of it.

 

And by the way 53S, we would not have got anywhere near the play-offs if Darren had been in the side all season long and we had continued to gain points at the same rate as we did in those 17 matches in which he did play. We would have ended up with 70 points, which would have left us in 9th place, 9 or 10 points off the play-offs (taking goal difference into account).

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I commend your sentiments B-T-G. If 53 Seasons had read some of Theo's and my posts pre the new year it would perhaps have deduced that my sarcasm was partly directed at Theo. That is because at the the beginning of the season our views were quite far apart but as the season progressed we came to respect each others point of view. By the end we found we had much more in common. Hence my friendly admonishment of him.

 

God knows why I am explaining this. May be it's just that I want to wind up the season on a more convivial note. 

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Steve Bould has been Arsenal's number 2 now for a number of years now and if anything our defending has got worse, my point being it doesn't always translate on to the pitch.

 

Anyway, I'm sure the manager won't have to look far for a replacement, there's plenty of contributors on here who seem to know better.

 

Ps - the second paragraph is an attempt at that thing we used have - humour

 

Good luck all, have a great summer

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to be honest the initial 'sarcasm' was mainly aimed towards Oxfords 'job for the boys''... it seems a case of who you know....

 

Ps... don't get to convivial 4WF I always enjoy your forthright honest opinions ... that is what this forum is about...in the words of the great Roy Walker "say what you see "

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