Reality check

[Royal With Cheese]

It's nice to see some mearured posting rather than the knee jerk reactions of some nobbers after yesterdays game.

[Sir Rodney Effing]

It's nice to see some mearured posting rather than the knee jerk reactions of some nobbers after yesterdays game.

I think most fans will realise that was just an extraordinarily - see, nice and measured:) - bad day at the office and that we'll be OK. Nothing went right for us, except we did kept it down to 2-1. Back to normal for the boyos.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

I don't know what happened yesterday, to be honest. We spent the whole game looking like we'd just got out of bed and barely did a single thing right all game. I can't recall us passing so badly for a long time. We looked a division below southampton, and although they did pass the ball nicely, they weren't anything special. Burnley were probably better. The difference is that we turned up against Burnley, and didn't yesterday.

When things click, as they usually do for us, we do look head & shoulders above the teams we play. Even the fans of the teams we've beaten tend to say that, but we can't do the difficult games.

If you look at the winning margin in our games this season (counting League Cup)

by 1 goal - 2
by 2 goals - 4
by 3 goals - 3
by 4 goals - 2
by 6 goals - 1

...then we have battered a number of teams by completely playing them off the park. What we don't seem to have is the ability to nick the win without playing well, which is what you need to set the pace. It's something Birmingham clearly do have. Not that it's plain sailing for them, as their lack of goals is going to hit them at some stage this season and they'll drop a lot of points.

A "problem" with winning so many games comfortably, as said above, is that complacency is going to creep in, with players thinking that they've only got to turn up and knock the ball about a bit, and we'll pick up an easy 3-0. It can also lead to us panicking needlessly just because we aren't 2-0 up after 20 minutes. Southampton were decent yesterday, but weren't that great. A performance even resembling normality from us would have seen us win, but we just looked completely unprepared for a difficult game and spent the first hour looking like rabbits caught in the headlights.

[jonboy]

Good post Floyd.
I agree with most of your comments. For some time I have thought how poor Rosenior is, his distribution is shocking, he's extremely athletic but it's not always enough (Long also falls into this catagory). I have a problem with full backs who cannot wrap their foot around the ball when they knock it down the line. It's a specialist position.
I think this has been coming for a while, we may have been scoring hatfuls at home but we have not been playing that well. Burnley, Palace, Doncaster all games that easily could have gone the other way.
Totally agree on the subs, why was Harper on the pitch?! Cisse had more of an impact.
I'm still reserving judgement on Jimmy though, I don't think winger is is best postion. He should stop the step overs. He would be better suited up front but only if marek was playing.

[Pat Butchers Ring]

Southampton were one of the few teams to come to Reading and try and pass the ball about, and just like against Doncaster and the second half against Swansea we truly struggled. Some of their movement, passing and little flicks were a joy to behold and they were a class above us all game.

Bad day at the office today but Southapton are not a decent team. If we were any where near our best we would have steam rolled them yesterday. There was a point (just after our goal) that you could see panic set in to the inexpericened saints team, their fans seem to go very quiet at this point as well.

Luckily for Kebe, as long as Rosenior is playing he won't be the worst player on the pitch; England's right back was atrocious in every department again today, if only he could play football half as well as he talks to the media

Harper was truely awful but the same could be said of many others (including our support). Hunt/Armstrong didnt offer much more so i dont think its right to single out kebe/rosenior.

Basically our problem today was that we couldnt string two passes togother and every touch we had was either heavy or over hit. 100% agree about Bikey and long though. Bikey was f*cking about with the ball every time he got it and would then berate everyone around him. Long is supposed to be a player that makes an impact with pace but he didnt show any pace and lacks a massive amount of quality. For all of leroys faults he has more class than Long and in this division its class that differentiates you from the rest.

Like i said, overall a bad day at the office but this result will be insignificant if we get 6 points at cardiff and Cov. Big IF though.

[79Royal]

Southampton were one of the few teams to come to Reading and try and pass the ball about, and just like against Doncaster and the second half against Swansea we truly struggled. Some of their movement, passing and little flicks were a joy to behold and they were a class above us all game.

Bad day at the office today but Southapton are not a decent team. If we were any where near our best we would have steam rolled them yesterday. There was a point (just after our goal) that you could see panic set in to the inexpericened saints team, their fans seem to go very quiet at this point as well.
quote]

I agree that Southampton weren't as good as some on here are suggesting, but they did play well yesterday. They deserved their win and they made us look very average at times. That said, if we had scored that chance in the first coupe of minutes, I think it would have been a different game.

I still think we can catch Brum, but Wolves might be too far ahead to catch now.

[loyalroyal4life]

It's fooball. We're bound to lose occasionally. We're still top 3. With plenty of the season left. What's the problem?

James Harper playing in midfield

[floyd__streete]

we had players away on international duty and this always happens following international games... don't know why BUT i feel there is now a psychological effect on the players such that they have already lost( in their minds ) before the game kicks off.

Amd that 'psychological effect' is none other than our management team.

Reading manager Steve Coppell:
"We never do well after an international break."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 727305.stm

We never do well after an international break, this apparently is something which Coppell disappointingly seems to accept as fact. Why do we never do well after an international break? Because the management bang on about it so much. We had Coppell complaining about long trips after internationals last season and even Kevin Dillon has stuck his oar in on the subject already this season. That is your 'psychological effect'. Did every other team who had players playing in international friendlies during the week struggle this weekend? No, of course they bloody didn't.

[winchester_royal]

we had players away on international duty and this always happens following international games... don't know why BUT i feel there is now a psychological effect on the players such that they have already lost( in their minds ) before the game kicks off.

Amd that 'psychological effect' is none other than our management team.

Reading manager Steve Coppell:
"We never do well after an international break."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 727305.stm

We never do well after an international break, this apparently is something which Coppell disappointingly seems to accept as fact. Why do we never do well after an international break? Because the management bang on about it so much. We had Coppell complaining about long trips after internationals last season and even Kevin Dillon has stuck his oar in on the subject already this season. That is your 'psychological effect'. Did every other team who had players playing in international friendlies during the week struggle this weekend? No, of course they bloody didn't.

'Greed. Coppell should just accept that the team played poorly, and substitutions should have been made earlier.

[Dirk Gently]

Has no-one ever stopped to think that no team in the world can be expected to be in the right frame of mind for a match in the same week that a 13-year-old team mate, a member of the "Reading Family" was killed.

The tribute to Stewart was truly moving and the emotion got to thousands in the stands and no doubt to the players too - they are people too, with emotions - not just the automations you get on Championship Manager.

So I defy anyone to go out and play relaxed, silky football after that , and I'm pretty relaxed about yesterday's defeat.

[winchester_royal]

Has no-one ever stopped to think that no team in the world can be expected to be in the right frame of mind for a match in the same week that a 13-year-old team mate, a member of the "Reading Family" was killed.

The tribute to Stewart was truly moving and the emotion got to thousands in the stands and no doubt to the players too - they are people too, with emotions - not just the automations you get on Championship Manager.

So I defy anyone to go out and play relaxed, silky football after that , and I'm pretty relaxed about yesterday's defeat.

That is very true. We'll get back on track, freshen the team up for tuesday and another away win is on the cards.

[readingbedding]

We are one of the best footballing sides in the division, although it was the worst home performance by a long way this season, the team deserves a lot of credit for performing so well at home up until now.
Southampton were spot on against us, someone did their homework and the combination of Southampton playing well and most if not all of our players playing below par meant it was a frustrating game for everyone connected with RFC.
In so far as a 'reality check', it's a silly throwaway cliche, that means absolutely nothing, the 0-3 away against Wolves was one, so was 2-0 loss against Ipswich, so was the 1-4 against Bristol City, in fact all games is a reality check.
Yesterday's game did nothing to dent my optimism this season, the players are better than that, the fans are better than that, and sometimes you get what you deserve in a match and yesterday proved that.
The various managers of other clubs enthusing about our footballing prowess in this division surely must give the more fickle, ignorant and emotional RFC fans a clue of how we are perceived and rated within this league.
We're going up!

[earleyroyal]

Well maybe that thrashing today will do us some favours in the long term. We're not Brazil - we were closer to being Barnet today - so we were never going to go through the long season unbeaten at home in such a competitive league. It might bring some amongst us down to earth too; three wins on the spin had already toasting promotion it seemed and some of the fanciful predictions on another thread belied Southampton's good away form and the fact that we simply aint nowehere near as good as some of you think we are.

Southampton were one of the few teams to come to Reading and try and pass the ball about, and just like against Doncaster and the second half against Swansea we truly struggled. Some of their movement, passing and little flicks were a joy to behold and they were a class above us all game. No complaints at all today - the referee performed well and Southampton played honestly and openly. My only reservations tonight are with the management; Harper on for 80 anonymous minutes? No half time changes having been played off the park in an ineffective opening 45 minutes? Long on for half an hour of the usual honest endeavour with negligible quality? The players can take a look at themselves too; Hahnemann inexplicably failing to come for the first cross for the opening goal for instance, Bikey's showboating bordering on sloppiness. And there is a complete absence of leaders on the pitch for Reading when things go badly wrong as they did today. Not good to watch, but a timely reminder that we aren't head and shoulders above this division like we were 3 years ago.

I fail to see why Jimmy Kebe is hyped up so much to be honest. From a winger you want end product and I cannot recall a single decent cross from him today. Sure, he's pacy but he runs himself down blind alleys and struggles to stay on his feet half the time; if you want to watch a pacy athlete go to Crystal Palace for the sprints, give me a footballer like Glenn Little every time. Luckily for Kebe, as long as Rosenior is playing he won't be the worst player on the pitch; England's right back was atrocious in every department again today, if only he could play football half as well as he talks to the media. Our right side today failed throughout ninety minutes with the exception of any unusually accurate finish at the end of some excellent work by the industrious Doyle who was a class above anything else we had today.

This season was always going to be one of transition and I comfortable and satisfied with where we are the moment. We will finish in the top six and we will win many more than we lose, which is a pretty decent effort. Our squad is a decent one at this level but would we cope in the Premier League? Absolutely not, this isn't remotely as good a side as the one we had three years ago - James Harper's performances, for instance, show what a good player Steve Sidwell was/is. Wolves are pulling away and the difference between us and Birmingham is that when they are 2-1 down their impact sub is Kevin Phllips. And ours is Shane Long.

Can't really disagree with a word of that, I would say that Kebe has 5 or 6 assists, one of the highest in the CCC this season, so must be doing something right. Though I'm not sure what

We have the ability to play good football but resorting to hoofball never works for us, that said it must be tempting when the fans are booing every underhit or overhit pass after about 4 minutes.

The thought of this team, not strengthened, in the Premiership (which it could well be) scares me. Anyone still care to claim that our team of 05/06 is not as good as this?

[RoyalBlue]

Has no-one ever stopped to think that no team in the world can be expected to be in the right frame of mind for a match in the same week that a 13-year-old team mate, a member of the "Reading Family" was killed.

The tribute to Stewart was truly moving and the emotion got to thousands in the stands and no doubt to the players too - they are people too, with emotions - not just the automations you get on Championship Manager.

So I defy anyone to go out and play relaxed, silky football after that , and I'm pretty relaxed about yesterday's defeat.

There again maybe you might have expected the 'Let's do it for Stewart' mentality.

Am I right in thinking the Under 18s played in the morning, after a minute's silence, and dedicated their win to Stewart?

[Victor Meldrew]

we had players away on international duty and this always happens following international games... don't know why BUT i feel there is now a psychological effect on the players such that they have already lost( in their minds ) before the game kicks off.

Amd that 'psychological effect' is none other than our management team.

Reading manager Steve Coppell:
"We never do well after an international break."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 727305.stm

We never do well after an international break, this apparently is something which Coppell disappointingly seems to accept as fact. Why do we never do well after an international break? Because the management bang on about it so much. We had Coppell complaining about long trips after internationals last season and even Kevin Dillon has stuck his oar in on the subject already this season. That is your 'psychological effect'. Did every other team who had players playing in international friendlies during the week struggle this weekend? No, of course they bloody didn't.

It's not just after an international break is it?
Our best performances have been against the better teams,i.e Wolves,Sheff Utd,Burnley,Swansea whereas we have done poorly against the worst sides,i.e Forest,Charlton,Preston,Southampton and didn't excell v Doncaster.
So in my eyes it looks as though the players are very motivated when they come up against the better sides but unmotivated against those that they expect to beat.

Who's fault?
Presumably it's partly the fault of the manager/coaches and partly the players and if we want to get promoted the attitude has to change.
Yesterday two of our potential wantaways,Bikey and S Hunt played as if it were a kickabout and hopefully they have been made very aware in training today that it was far from good enough yesterday-the trouble with those two is that they are virtually undroppable (with deputies Bobby and Duberry either not being fit or no longer good enough even at this lower level) and yesterday it looked as though they know it.

[Ian Royal]

I didn't mind losing today, but what really surprised me was what a good team Southampton were, they played us off the park. Quite why they are down near the bottom of the division is a mystery if they can play like that.

When we got back into it and had some momentum they just kept the ball, pass after pass, and throw in after throw in until our frustration showed and we just gave the ball back to them.

Their tactics stifled our wingers, and then we look like an ordinary team with fragile confidence that is incapable of making the simplest pass.

Having said that, Doyler could of equalised it with this free header at the end, but in fairness that would have been a travesty given how we'd played.

The reason they're at the bottom is because they can't do that every week. Remember last season, or the season we got relegated before that. We were quite capable of playing teams off the park. We just couldn't do it more than a couple of times in the season. Saints had a fairly decent away record as well iirc.

[readingbedding]

Has no-one ever stopped to think that no team in the world can be expected to be in the right frame of mind for a match in the same week that a 13-year-old team mate, a member of the "Reading Family" was killed.

The tribute to Stewart was truly moving and the emotion got to thousands in the stands and no doubt to the players too - they are people too, with emotions - not just the automations you get on Championship Manager.

So I defy anyone to go out and play relaxed, silky football after that , and I'm pretty relaxed about yesterday's defeat.

No way.
I'm not having any of the tragic death and tribute getting to the players.
As soon as the whistle goes, all thoughts would go out of the window and you'd start to concentrate on the game that the young fellah loved to play himself.

[floyd__streete]

Has no-one ever stopped to think that no team in the world can be expected to be in the right frame of mind for a match in the same week that a 13-year-old team mate, a member of the "Reading Family" was killed.

I wondered who might be first to bring this up! The Reading senior players would never have met this lad, and the first hand accounts of the following thread would suggest that they weren't exactly in emotional turmoil over the sad news: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=82453

The various managers of other clubs enthusing about our footballing prowess in this division surely must give the more fickle, ignorant and emotional RFC fans a clue of how we are perceived and rated within this league.
We're going up!

I can recall the likes of Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson stating that Reading wouldn't go down last season. But then, I'd never expect you to see the bigger picture, Reading Bedding.

[readingbedding]

I didn't mind losing today, but what really surprised me was what a good team Southampton were, they played us off the park. Quite why they are down near the bottom of the division is a mystery if they can play like that.

When we got back into it and had some momentum they just kept the ball, pass after pass, and throw in after throw in until our frustration showed and we just gave the ball back to them.

Their tactics stifled our wingers, and then we look like an ordinary team with fragile confidence that is incapable of making the simplest pass.

Having said that, Doyler could of equalised it with this free header at the end, but in fairness that would have been a travesty given how we'd played.

The reason they're at the bottom is because they can't do that every week. Remember last season, or the season we got relegated before that. We were quite capable of playing teams off the park. We just couldn't do it more than a couple of times in the season. Saints had a fairly decent away record as well iirc.

The Saints manager would know more than most about our strengths and weaknesses, he did his homework and Southampton did a 'Reading FC' on us.
Let the usual fans pour misery and doom on the situation.
The players won't, and that's all that counts.

[readingbedding]

Has no-one ever stopped to think that no team in the world can be expected to be in the right frame of mind for a match in the same week that a 13-year-old team mate, a member of the "Reading Family" was killed.

I wondered who might be first to bring this up! The Reading senior players would never have met this lad, and the first hand accounts of the following thread would suggest that they weren't exactly in emotional turmoil over the sad news: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=82453

The various managers of other clubs enthusing about our footballing prowess in this division surely must give the more fickle, ignorant and emotional RFC fans a clue of how we are perceived and rated within this league.
We're going up!

I can recall the likes of Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson stating that Reading wouldn't go down last season. But then, I'd never expect you to see the bigger picture, Reading Bedding.

It's your bigger picture, not mine.
I disagree with it, 100%.