{"id":662512,"date":"2025-12-21T02:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T07:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=662512"},"modified":"2025-12-20T14:00:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T19:00:48","slug":"three-talking-points-oxford-united-lose-charlton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/12\/21\/three-talking-points-oxford-united-lose-charlton\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Talking Points as Oxford United Lose at Charlton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oxford United<\/a> head into the Christmas break on the end of a damaging defeat on the road at relegation rivals, Charlton.<\/p>\n

The hosts took the lead just 15 minutes before the end of the game as the troubles continue for Gary Rowett’s side.<\/p>\n

Here are three talking points from the game.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/strong>: Team News, Form and Predicted Line-Up as Oxford United Travel to Charlton\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Oxford United Lose at Charlton<\/h2>\n

Back Three, Again<\/h3>\n

Rowett opted for a back three on the road at Blackburn and stuck with the same formation last time out at home against Preston, but admitted it was the wrong decision for that fixture at Grenoble Road.<\/p>\n

However, he stuck to his guns with the same defensive shape but it compromises Oxford in attack.<\/p>\n

For the most part, they looked alright defensively although it was still Charlton that created the better chances in the game, often cutting through the backline. Jamie Cumming was certainly the busier goalkeeper, keeping the U’s in the game.<\/p>\n

Big Selection Calls<\/h3>\n

Sticking with the starting lineup, there were some surprising choices, both positive and negative.<\/p>\n

A positive came in the shape of Brodie Spencer, who made an unexpected return from injury as an attacking wing-back, and the Northern Ireland international put in a solid 80 minutes at the Valley.<\/p>\n

Another positive, based on last week, was the starts again for Ole Romeny and Nik Prelec, with the duo looking lively against Preston and the performance noticeably dipped when they were replaced. However, they weren’t as effective in this game.<\/p>\n

However, there were also some big calls which many supporters didn’t enjoy. Mark Harris came in for top scorer, Will Lankshear, while Stan Mills and Jack Currie were on the bench despite support for them to start. Przemyslaw Placheta also returned to the bench, but he, like Spencer, was making his return from injury.<\/p>\n

Rowett Out?<\/h3>\n

Fans have been vocal online for a number of weeks now, but for the first time, there were calls inside the stadium for Gary Rowett to go.<\/p>\n

Des Buckingham was dismissed with the U’s in a better league position, and you could also argue that Rowett has a stronger playing squad at his disposal, but it’s the approach to games and the tactical setup that is frustrating supporters with a negative style of play and a lack of results at the end of it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Featured image courtesy of IMAGO \/\u00a0PPAUK<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oxford United head into the Christmas break on the end of a damaging defeat on the road at relegation rivals, Charlton. The hosts took the lead just 15 minutes before the end of the game as the troubles continue for Gary Rowett’s side. Here are three talking points from the game. Read More: Team News, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":662516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8430,33,32,30],"tags":[779],"class_list":["post-662512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oxford-united","category-championship","category-league-football","category-news","tag-charlton-athletic"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/335"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662512"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":662514,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662512\/revisions\/662514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}