Thoughts v Reading

The substitution killed us ,it was a double whammy,losing our most creative player Cantwell and replacing him with our second most creative player Christie which rendered him ineffective.
Lowe to me is not a winger and should play off Solankes shoulder in a 4-4-2 or a 3-5-2,Dembele would have been the better bet.
 
kirsikka said:
I actually thought the ref was pretty lenient. And overall it was an excellent performance from him.

Didn't fall for theatrics from either side, didn't automatically book for every foul instead basing yellows far more on their merits. Allowed a little physicality to the game without giving free kicks. Again, both ways with that.

More like him please.
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He played advantage for reading one time and they passed it into touch. He then brought it back and gave the free kick. Seems odd.
 
Sub-par crap, these players don't have it in them despite fair few having PL experience and Parker is dross. If we do by some miracle get top 2 it's because everyone else has been shite rather than us being good. Those away games I don't think this team have got the heart for, the only positive is we have no one left to play who is playing for survival it's now just promotion/playoff teams and midtable.
 
Been puzzling about the performance all the way home. We lost the plot - energy collapsed, motivation seemed to disappear, and we were bereft of onfield leadership. Reading near-played us off the pitch second half …. we were barely in the game.

Problems started at the back, where Kelly had a shocker (again). Can we afford to keep him on as captain? One issue is that he never gets subbed - no one else is asked to take formal responsibility and he goes on playing hopeful, inaccurate balls or negative lateral passes. Can we drop him for Cahill? Is it worth a try? And why do Christie and Anthony hug the touchline as if afraid to move infield … leaving Solanke once more playing against multiple CBs?

Oh dear … that was a dire and demoralising performance, and once more Parker on Solent after the game mumbled and muttered without conviction. He seems bemused …
 
Allen said:
Our next game will decide our season.
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It won't of course in a literal sense but I do understand what you mean.

A strong performance and a win would be worth far more than three points. A decent draw would be ok... but a limp defeat after today's poor showing and we're there to be chased down.

We could have removed a lot of the pressure from Saturday, not just in points on the board but also in our belief and that of the chasing pack - but now we've got to go there and deal with it.

It's always about the next game in the aftermath of a poor performance but today was very poor, inexplicably so, and Saturday is very big.
 
corfe_red said:
I just don't to have any connection with this team or manager, playing anti football I've come out of DC after losing feeling better that seeing that defensive, frightened, timid, turgid, fearful, apprehensive souless performance.
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I'm the same ,I could walk into any place and I wouldn't recognise any of our players,except for one or two.
They've certainly not captured my attention in the same way as our 14/15 and before squad
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
I don’t like to single any one person out from tonight as there were few highlights from that second half… but… It all starts from the back. Kelly has been the root of our problems for the last three games. So slow and too casual in possession. How many times does he get the ball, run 10 yards forward and then check back to play a sidewards pass, or back to the keeper, at which point the opposition are set… He needs to be dropped There are simply no excuses for that second-half performance.
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it was interesting how Meps was criticised for passing inside with his right foot so narrowing the pitch when playing on the left but Kelly seems to do the same now rather than playing wide.
 
Had a long journey back home tonight so have had plenty of time to summarise my thoughts:

1. We can’t cope with midweek games unless we rotate more - think lerma, cook and cantwell struggled tonight. This is a big issue for April.

2. Billing is often criticised but we miss his running off the ball so hope he is back refreshed for Saturday.

3. I worry about the ability of the team to cope with pressure. Second half you could see belief draining out the team as were outclassed by an ordinary reading side. Would help if had more leadership on the pitch -maybe time to bring back Cahill

4. Peterborough performance so much better than tonight and maybe people realise it wasn’t as bad as they originally thought? Second half today was totally unacceptable.

5. Crowd stepped up support the side really well after the Peterborough reaction but players need to do their bit now.

6. I don’t get how so many predictions have us comfortably in second place by end of season given the poor performances.

7. We now have 6 of the next 9 games away from home with opponents who will attack better than reading. I thought that might suit us but we had no counter attack capability when Reading pressed us back. That’s a real worry.
 
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Really don't think rotation can be considered with games coming so thick and fast.

Parker has his favourites and sticks with them.

Hopefully Smith and Billing can offer some cover and Dembele should be used more.

If miracles happen Brady, Stanislas and Moore could come into contention.
 
OK we are second in the league with games in hand over just about everyone and their dog. Do we really deserve to be there? I'm tending to think not, we have been fortunate that teams who have been on good runs and start tailgating us for second place have had periods of poor results and fallen away. We can't rely on other team's results to keep us where we are, we need to play looking as if we really want that second place.
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
I understand your point to a degree as I often think, with our set up we end up with Lewis Cook being the lone midfielder as the rest are wide and up top… However, if Kelly was quicker in his distribution and trusted his teammates to be able to play football in tight (ish) areas, things would speed up ten fold… I’m also not advocating he just lumps it forward either… If he’s gonna make it in football he needs to be able to read the situation a lot better than he is now… The first instinct should not always be defensive… get the ball, see the pass, play the ball…
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look not totally sticking up for Kelly, well I am a bit . In the first half Phillips with the ball ignored lermas runs every time to eventually play the ball to Stacey or the 50 yard cross diagonal to Anthony attempt .
With 2 x men static , and only solanke up top, the set up is completely wrong .
Even when we do get the ball forward outside, we barely have an options in the box.
How many times did one single player attempt to go beyond Solanke ? No once .
For me also Lerma looks a little lost playing beyond the ball and not quite sure where he should be running
This set up is kiiling us . In this league we could play a 442 and I would swear we would create ample of chances and win more games with the players we have .

Reading make it 1-1 . So we make a change . The change is like for like .
I stated earlier , Parker sitting in the crowd high up, surely must have seen this set up doesn’t work
 
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First half we started well but the goal slowed our attacking down, 2nd half reading upped there game and we stopped ours I don't think reading really had a misplaced pass in 2nd half?
Kelly was so poor why does he have to take 20 or 30 touches before he passes it (zamura and Anthony basically holding hands does cut his options down a bit though). Kelly is also so lightweight the only good part from his game is his speed to recover.
when lowe came on at least 2 of the cross field balls which went to him he should of done alot better with,and with lowe on the right wing Stacey gets alit less support and they exploited this.
as others have said we knew about nyland and should of put him under more pressure, the yeovil match was harder for him then last night.
last night I think a fit Moore would of made all the difference for us
 
bpl234 said:
look not totally sticking up for Kelly, well I am a bit . In the first half Phillips with the ball ignored lermas runs every time to eventually play the ball to Stacey or the 50 yard cross diagonal to Anthony attempt .
With 2 x men static , and only solanke up top, the set up is completely wrong .
Even when we do get the ball forward outside, we barely have an options in the box.
How many times did one single player attempt to go beyond Solanke ? No once .
For me also Lerma looks a little lost playing beyond the ball and not quite sure where he should be running
This set up is kiiling us . In this league we could play a 442 and I would swear we would create ample of chances and win more games with the players we have .

Reading make it 1-1 . So we make a change . The change is like for like .
I stated earlier , Parker sitting in the crowd high up, surely must have seen this set up doesn’t work
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I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said here and like I said, I don’t like to single out Kelly from the crowd but for me he did stand out as a big part of our problem when it comes to slowing the game down… Our players seem to have one off the ball movement/run and beyond that is park football, where you stand facing that ball with your hands pointing to your feet shouting ‘give it… give it’… Kelly misses that one run every time as he’s just looking around, thinking… that’s why he ends up with no options… Not entirely his fault… but it is what it is… He just has to be quicker… He’s the captain, and for that reason alone he needs to lead and be better in all areas…

I think he should be dropped for Huddersfield but I can’t see that happening…

Re Phillips… He’s doing ‘ok’… as are the back 4 but we’ve just got to get out of this constant looking to each other first as opposed to to looking forward… You’re right in that the set up probably offers little in the way of flexibility and creativity for the players, but they have to did a way to get beyond that I guess…

Just a final thought… The super awesome Fulham have also grabbed just 1 point from their last two games against Barnsley and WBA who are bottom 3 in position and form respectively… Just saying
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said here and like I said, I don’t like to single out Kelly from the crowd but for me he did stand out as a big part of our problem when it comes to slowing the game down… Our players seem to have one off the ball movement/run and beyond that is park football, where you stand facing that ball with your hands pointing to your feet shouting ‘give it… give it’… Kelly misses that one run every time as he’s just looking around, thinking… that’s why he ends up with no options… Not entirely his fault… but it is what it is… He just has to be quicker… He’s the captain, and for that reason alone he needs to lead and be better in all areas…

I think he should be dropped for Huddersfield but I can’t see that happening…

Re Phillips… He’s doing ‘ok’… as are the back 4 but we’ve just got to get out of this constant looking to each other first as opposed to to looking forward… You’re right in that the set up probably offers little in the way of flexibility and creativity for the players, but they have to did a way to get beyond that I guess…

Just a final thought… The super awesome Fulham have also grabbed just 1 point from their last two games against Barnsley and WBA who are bottom 3 in position and form respectively… Just saying
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Phillips clearance in the 2nd half was excellent and overall reading didn’t really create any chances .
Agreed kelly could be quicker with his passing but as both said those static wide men standing there with their backs to goal do not help us.
This is the championship and the great thing with it, is that anyone can beat anyone . Our goal was a thing of really beauty.

you can’t begrudge the players workrates but it’s getting that guy closer to Solanke. Get someone looking for flick ons or giving their defence more to think about .
 
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