adminOxford United’s Tyler Goodrham struggles are detailed
A rise from boy wonder to first team staple has rarely come much more steadily than it has for Tyler Goodrham.
Joining aged 14, the winger rose through the club’s ranks, making his debut in 2019 at 16, becoming the youngest player in Oxford’s history.
A duo of loan spells furthered his development before he made his league debut in 2022, scoring the winner in a 1-0 victory over Cambridge United.
The promotion-winning season of 2023/24 soon arrived where, now a mainstay in the Yellow’s side, he managed another 40+ game season.
We are now in late October, where the 22-year-old has not kicked a first-team football for two months.
After starting the first four league games of the season, Goodrham was an unused substitute in six games before being omitted from the squad completely in the last two.
So, where has it all gone wrong?
As ever with these circumstances, conspiracies have begun to surface.
But Goodrham is not a divisive figure; there is no sign that a fallout with manager Gary Rowett has caused his misfortune, and his performance were never considered drop-from-squad-worthy.
As it happens, the Republic of Ireland youth international fell ill at the time of the U’s pre-season trip to Indonesia and his recovery took time.
“When he did get back in, I think it’s always hard to hit form early,” manager Rowett told BBC Radio Oxford.
The fact that the academy graduate is known to be a down-to-earth young man has certainly made his case more curious but owes to the fact that this is purely a footballing issue.
The way that the Yellows set up in last weekend’s win over Sheffield Wednesday is a prime example, the five-at-the-back system with two strikers providing no room for a winger of Goodrham’s profile to appear.
“Tyler has worked incredibly hard and is a talented young player, but I’d expect him to come again, and he’s been a little unfortunate he hasn’t got on the pitch a bit more,” admitted the U’s 51-year-old manager to the BBC.
Squad size and the need for instant impact were two key reasons that Rowett outlined and Goodrham is not the only player to be left out of a squad this season.
Luke Harris also suffered the same fate for Oxford’s victory over Derby County just over a week ago.
As much as the U’s academy product has suffered as of late, it has been made clear by his boss that places are very much up for grabs.
And the fast-paced nature of the game could very well see the young winger enter the fray again sooner than some may foresee.
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