Argyle go into the game after suffering heavy back-to-back defeats at Norwich City (6-1) and Bristol City (4-0), leading to speculation surrounding the future of Pilgrims head coach Wayne Rooney.
We caught up with Plymouth Live football reporter Chris Errington to get the lowdown on Argyle.
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How would you assess the opening few months of the season for Argyle?
It has been very up and down. They suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat away to Sheffield Wednesday in the first match of the season, but recovered quite well and by the time of the October international break, Argyle were 14th in the table after successive home wins against Sunderland, Luton Town and Blackburn Rovers.
However, when they returned to action after a two-week break, they were thrashed 5-0 at Cardiff City and they have found points hard to come by since then, as well as picking up injuries to some very key players, such as captain Joe Edwards, exciting on-loan Toulouse winger Ibrahim Cissoko and Morgan Whittaker.
Is Rooney under any pressure following a couple of heavy defeats?
Argyle’s owner and chairman Simon Hallett addressed this subject at a fans’ forum in Cornwall on Monday, following Argyle’s back-to-back defeats away to Norwich City and Bristol City.
He said: “Clearly we are all under pressure. We are not playing well, we are not doing what we want to do on the pitch.
“So we are all feeling the pressure. Fans are feeling the pressure, the board is feeling the pressure and Wayne is feeling the pressure.
“What we are going to do is not think about getting rid of him and changing him. We are thinking about how we can support him.
“So there are no conversations going on about replacing Wayne, but there are conversations going on about how we can support him to help him become the great coach we think is in there.”
A number of players have represented both Oxford United and Plymouth Argyle over the years, and ahead of the clash this weekend, we picked out six notable players to have done so #oufc https://t.co/yw4sFgejIq
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What’s the playing style and likeliest formation under Rooney?
With points hard to come by lately, Rooney has been trying different formations, especially away from home where they have yet to win.
Their record at Home Park is much better with four wins, three draws and one defeat, and generally, they have been set up in a 4-2-3-1, so I would expect that to continue on Saturday.
Earlier in the season, Argyle were keen to play out from the back, starting with goalkeeper Dan Grimshaw, and through the thirds, but they have moved away from that a bit recently.
Who are the key players to watch?
With Cissoko and Whittaker out, a lot of attacking flair is missing. So they are relying on the likes of strikers Andre Gray and Michael Obafemi to come up with their goals.
Gray, who was a free agent signing in early October after a spell playing in Saudi Arabia, scored both goals in the Pilgrims’ last home game, a 2-2 draw with Watford, when he got a spectacular equaliser in the sixth minute of added time at the end of the match.
Argyle’s only win since October was a 1-0 home defeat of Portsmouth and it was Obafemi, who is on loan from Burnley, who was on target with a fine finish.