Poor decision making is undermining Oxford's quality

The fact it to all of 97 minutes for Oxford to score against MK Dons was a minor miracle – although it made the celebrations considerably more jubilant.

Despite admirable efforts from the Milton Keynes backline – throwing bodies and men in the way of most that was goal bound – it felt for large periods that they were trying to set Oxford up.

Oxford were unable to accept these invitations. 

Shodipo looked short of confidence by the end of the game and Barker struggled to get behind a side who had clearly singled him out after his extravagances against Ipswich.

Taylor – though energetic and committed in his pressing – also struggled to cause too many headaches with shots on goal, and Elliot Lee was left too much to do at certain points.

Russel Martin’s side are committed to playing a certain type of football, the goal they scored illustrated why.

They threatened at other points during the first half but – largely – looked toothless when taking out Ethan Laird, who gave Ruffels a tough time on the right as he received little support in dealing with the threat.

A 97^th minute equaliser always feels good, but the bottom line is, Oxford could have easily come away with more had their decision making been better.

Everything up to their final ball was spot on.

Failing to score, though, and conceding during periods where Oxford are on top seems to be a recurring theme of late.

Harvey White opened the scoring for Portsmouth on Tuesday just shy of the fifty-minute mark when Oxford were experiencing their first period of control.

An almost identical event happened against Wigan. Oxford came out remarkably well after the fire break only to concede in the 57^th minute.

They turned that one around, but the point stands. Oxford need to improve their final decisions to meet the tenacity elsewhere on the pitch.

Robinson’s men started with superb urgency in this one again.

As indicated by the iFollow scoreboard, this still is taken from less than 30 seconds into the game. 

Oxford operated in a mainly man marking strategy. This was made easier by having two holding players which freed Gorrin from his usual sweeping role and by using a number ten Robinson had someone to sit on the deep playmaker Andrew Surman.

But as the image shows, this was not a one-man effort.

Every Oxford player on screen – and Elliot Moore who is just off it – are pressing towards the ball.

Lee is battling strongly, Gorrin and Brannagan are both picking up the outballs in midfield and Long is pushing high up the pitch to stop any ball down the line.

Don’t forget Shodipo and Taylor either who were enthusiastic in their pressing to stop the Dons’ from recycling the ball as they love to do.

The system left Atkinson and Moore isolated one on one with MK Dons’ two strikers at certain points – which they handled admirably throughout - but it also gave Oxford numerous opportunities themselves.

The above move resulted in an MK Dons free kick – Lee slightly too urgent in his pressing this time – but from the resulting free kick, surprisingly taken short by the Dons, Oxford were at it again.

Alex Gorrin, highlighted in this move, is far higher than we usually see him, and the double pivot which he formed with Brannagan appeared an obvious ploy to allow the midfield to press higher up the pitch without being outnumbered.

This time, they won the ball back and were ready to launch an attack had it not ricocheted out for a throw-in.

They continued though, and on the five-minute mark Matty Taylor’s pressing of Fisher led to a brilliant chance for Shodipo to run at the defence.

As the kick falls to him, he controls it and is seemingly away from the wing back and with only one defender between him and the goal.

Shodipo makes the right decision to engage the defender, but he is slow on the ball and there is soon a wall of white in front of him – who eventually steal the ball away.

It was at this point that far too many of Oxford’s moves broke down.

It wasn’t just Shodipo, the whole Oxford front line were culpable.

Here, barker has superbly evaded his marker and drives into the space.

Having engaged three defenders and Lewington also coming towards him, all that is left is to slide in one of Lee or Shodipo.

He, this time, spends too long calculating his options and his eventual ball to Shodipo is behind him and the momentum of the move is gone.

One minute after this event, MK Dons took the lead.

It is key to reitterate that these were not the only two examples, and Barker and Shodipo not the only two perpetrators.

Oxford were unable to convert their doggedness into chances let alone meaningful efforts on goal until the last knockings of the game.

Take it back to Oxford’s match against Doncaster and it’s the same story.

Oxford press high and energetically, surrounding the ball. Moore wins it back and plays it to Brannagan, who feeds it into the run of Barker.

At this point it is essentially a four on two situation and Barker has three options to pass to.

Barker again overruns it and the move fizzles out.

This is also at 0-0 and Oxford conceded the opener shortly afterwards.

Far from being an attack on Barker only – he is just that type of player – but Oxford are repeatedly falling into the trap of not taking their chances and conceding because of it.

Both games against Doncaster and MK Dons followed extremely similar patterns.

United should have been in front, weren’t, and then the opposition managed the game and frustrated Oxford.  

It's something that didn’t happen when oxford went nine wins in a row. They seemed to be able to score at will whether on top or not.

But at that point, United were still hovering above the relegation zone. 

It is credit to Oxford that teams need to manage games as they do against them, but Robinson’s team must also understand that they are going to be frustrated by them at points.

MK Dons knew the dangers posed by Oxford and set up accordingly, with their back five making it difficult to exploit space in behind.

When Oxford get the half chances to break then, they need to take them.

Oxford aren’t struggling to score at the moment because they have suddenly become bad. It is because teams have now realised that they are actually quite good.

In doesn’t stop the need, however, to put sides away when they have the chance to.

If Oxford want to make a sustained playoff push, they will need to show their decision making in the final third can match the rest of their game.