Playing Pep
The inside story of how Oxford United did battle with mighty Manchester City
chatty, joking with each other, as ever, Mackie the loudest in the canteen as they have a late lunch. But it is not quite right.
Training had been put back because Robinson attended the funeral of Benik Afobe’s two-yearold daughter Amora, who had tragically died from a severe infection. Naturally Robinson, who had managed Afobe at MK Dons, looks pale and drained but he eventually changes and prepares for work.
“Ok, let’s meet,” he suddenly shouts after scanning the room. The players quietly file into a windowless conference room. Saturday’s away defeat by relegation-threatened MK Dons was Oxford’s first in 19 matches, discounting Football League Trophy penalty shoot-outs. They were poor, very poor. And they know it. The defeat also leaves them eighth, one point off the play-offs. Promotion is the priority.
“I want to apologise,” Robinson says. “I watched the game back and I got the tactics wrong. As a manager you have to take responsibility. What do you think? Maybe I was a bit negative in the way we set up … so if you find something in the game that is not right, be brave enough to tell me. Did anyone read what [Jose] Mourinho said last week? He either wins or he learns.”
It feels like, with one unexpected mea culpa, a build-up of pressure has suddenly dissipated. “We have lost one in 19 and it feels like the end of the world,” contributes captain John Mousinho. “We are right in the mix. It’s a brilliant feeling for us to have this level of desire to improve.” Mousinho and Mackie are the senior pros, the ones who police the squad.
Robinson ends by reminding them all to be in the same room at 10am the next day for the tactical analysis of how they will try to beat City. “There is no point going into a