Last season, it was abundantly clear where Oxford's deficiencies lay: ruthless against the lower teams in League One, impotent against the better ones.
Despite this fundamental flaw, they were able to book a second consecutive football league playoff spot for the first time in their history.
Hopes of making it three in a row have been dashed by three straight defeats, two of them against fellow playoff challengers.
Results from these matches would have no doubt kept top six ambitions alive for at least another few weeks, and it appears to be a case of old ghosts coming to haunt Oxford.
In the wake of another defeat to Sunderland - Oxford have not beaten them in any of the last eight League games since the Black Cats dropped back into League One and have lost four of their last five against them - it is fair to question whether Oxford have actually addressed their inability to beat the better teams in League One.
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Oxford's struggles against the better teams in the division were well documented, but the stats are so remarkable it is worth revisiting to refresh the memory.
In their 24 games against sides in the bottom half, they picked up 55 points, which is a rate of 2.29 points per game.
To emphasize how strong that total is, had you picked up results at a rate of 2.29 per game for an entire season, you would finish on 105 points.
But Oxford finished on 74, and there are no prizes for guessing why.
Against sides in the top half of the division, United picked up 19 points, a rate of 0.86 points per game.
It meant 74% of Oxford's points tally last year came against sides in the bottom half of the table, with just over a quarter of their tally coming from teams in stronger league positions.
As Oxford finished in the top half themselves, they played two fewer games against these sides, but the proportion of their points which came against the struggling clubs is still remarkable.
Further extending the numbers to top eight teams is even more damning for United, who picked up only one win from 14 matches against those games (not including playoffs).
They lost eight of those matches, leaving them with a record of 0.57 points per game.
On the flip side, Oxford were incredibly efficient against the lower teams in the division.
In their 16 games against sides in the bottom eight of the division, they won 13 (81.25%), and did not draw a single game.
They also scored 38 goals against those struggling sides, which is just one short of the the combined total they registered against the other fifteen teams in the division.
Interestingly, the goals conceded numbers are near identical in all three categories, so it was clearly in front of goal that Oxford struggled.
This is born out in the shooting statistics.
Against teams who finished the season in the top eight, Oxford averaged 10.93 shots per game compared to 15.4 against the middle eight and 15.38 against the bottom eight.
It is interesting again to see there is no great disparity between performances against the middle eight and bottom eight teams, and it was only the promotion pushing teams that Oxford were scared of.
United also averaged 4 shots on target against the top eight sides, considerably lower than the 5.19 averaged against middle eight and the 5.56 against the bottom teams.
It is obviously not that surprising Oxford struggled more against better teams, but the extent to which both their performances and results dropped off is startling.
It is an issue Robinson would have no doubt been hoping to address, but have they really made any improvement?
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The simple answer is no, not much anyway.
Oxford have gained 19 points against top half sides, compared to 50 against the lower teams.
Again, being in the top half themselves, Oxford have played two fewer games against the top twelve, but the stats are still damning.
Against top half opponents, they have picked up 0.95 points per game, a slight improvement on last season's record, but still less than a point per game.
Again, only 27% of their points have come against the top half teams (compared to 26% last season).
Their record against the best sides in the league, though, is not as disastrous.
Robinson's side have won three of their twelve games against top eight sides this season - still not the strongest record, but an improvement on what they managed last year.
They have still been extremely strong against the weaker sides, with ten wins from fourteen games, which is a win rate of 71.43%.
The over reliance on these matches, though, will not be to the liking of Robinson.
The problem with this overreliance is you can never be sure of the game going your way.
Tale United's loss to Morecambe which, on paper, should have been a comfortable win, but a mix of poor finishing, great goalkeeping and bad luck meant that Oxford left Lancashire with nothing, and that ultimately put them in the backseat in the playoff race.
However, United have definitely improved against the better teams, even if they are still not accumulating points at the rate they would like.
Beating MK Dons and Sheffield Wednesday away was impressive, and not something which seemed likely to happen last season.
They also pushed Wigan all the way at home, drew with Rotherham with a scratched squad and arguably should have beaten Wycombe at the Kassam.
The improved performances are born out in the goal scoring stats.
Oxford have averaged 1.08 goals per game against the top eight teams this season compared to just 0.36 last season.
Again, Oxford fans would probably like that number to be bigger still, but there are small improvements.
Similar conclusions can be drawn from the number of goals Oxford have conceded, which is also much more similar across all three categories compared to last season.
Whilst there has been a slight increase in the number of goals Oxford have conceded against the better sides, it is only in line with the flamboyance and openness Oxford have played with this season.
One concern would be a slight drop off in performances against the mid-table sides (points per game against these sides have gone from 1.68 last season to 1.56 this time round), but that can generally be put down to the strength of the division this time round, which sees the likes of Ipswich, Bolton and Portsmouth all in that 9th to 16th bracket.
United's record against the stronger teams in league One last year was horrendous, and it is still not brilliant this time round.
You may well argue that their failure to win these games is what has prevented United from breaking into the top six, but their performances, if not always their results, have improved.
If Oxford want to be a genuine promotion challenger next season, they will need to progress this further, but they have shown this season that they are capable of learning and improving.
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