Manager's Favorites

[OLLIE KEARNS]

Interesting thread. Couple of points / comments in reply;

- Lita East Stand chant was only because he was scoring a hat trick for Norwich v Wolves.
- Coppell gave reasons for Hunt coming off on Monday. Namely that he is struggling with a number of niggling injuries.
- Strikers. It will be interesting to see what happens in the Jan window. Coppell went in record as saying this was a make or break season for Long and it looks like break at the moment. I would doubt that Lita will play for Reading again. My guess is that we could see Lita sold, Long on loan and a purchase of a new striker in the window.
- Sonko was not going to be in the side at the start of the season. He only got in because of a late injury to Duberry. Still can't believe we got £2m for him Not surprised he's not in the Stoke side. I expect he keeps giving away penalties and getting sent off in training
- Karajan and Pearce did well but only too a point. It's great that they have both had some first team experience but I wouldn't have either in on merit at present. Their time will come.
- Harper. All Coppell's sides depend on people doing a specific job within a cleary defined structure. Harper does that very well which is why he plays so many games. That said I would still love to see Cisse and Marek in tandem.

[Handsome Man]

The most annoying thing about RFC and it's fans are those that feel the need to quote a whole post.

That is so annoying - far worse than relegation

[FiNeRaIn]

The most annoying thing about RFC and it's fans are those that feel the need to quote a whole post.

That is so annoying - far worse than relegation

[londinium]

Personally I think the post is just going over the same old thing that has been written on here many a time and is utter tosh.


If you look at all the games this season then you will see that proportionately we have won, drawn or lost the same with any combination of the 4 main central midfielders (Harps, Gunnar, Cisse and Karajan).

I am not bothered who plays in the midfield and the fact that Marek doesnt get on with 20 mins to go means we are winning and we want to hold onto what we have rather than need some midfield inspiration as we are losing.

As for Gunnar, did he not come against Cardiff when we had 10 men and help us get something from the game not only by scoring but by sureing up the midfield.

With regards to Doyle against Cov, it may have appeared to be one of his quiter games, this was the case as Cov did their homework and doubled up on him giving Hunt more space... you will find that more and more when a striker is on form, thats why Ebanks-Blake is getting on the score sheet more and more although he is shite, as teams are doubling up on Iwelumo.

I guess Coppell got it wrong again today!!!! That Gunnar is passed his sell by date!!!!!

[2.8 lita injection]

Thank the lord for favourites.

[Millsy]

The most annoying thing about RFC and it's fans are those that feel the need to quote a whole post, ffs we know what you are replying to, now stop it.

As for the topic, fans are much quicker to disregard players than managers are, because we want success, there and then, we do not see the team building going on, hence we slap in players we would like to see at our clubs, with no idea if they are really it or not. It is not that long ago that we berated the club for not getting in Hulse, at the time he took us apart on his arrival at Leeds. Since that game against us Hulse has scored 30 goals, signed for 1.1m and sold for a £1m profit by Leeds.

Summer of 2005 we signed a Kevin Doyle , unknown player from Eire, lack of ambition, etc etc, for 78k, since then this player has managed 52 goals, and is a book profit of at least £6m, sometimes the manager seems to know sod all, but twice manager of the season, named by most as one of the top managers in the English game, we should be happy not sat here complaining, it's not as tho we are doing all that badly,.

It seems strange to see RFC fans unhappy with 3rd at the second tier.

Despicable isn't it? Have to run the mouse down a whole 3 millimetres to get past the quote. And of course there's absolutely zero chance a response is to someone who's written afterwards because people never pull silly stunts like that.

[M U R T Y]

What really annoys me is a substitution with about one minute left-surely there is a greater risk of that player getting injured after sitting around for 89 minutes than the benefit of time-wasting and breaking up of play that are the normal reasons for making a sub at that time.
Personally I preferred the days of no substitutions when injuries came down to the luck of the draw and when players stayed on heroically (goalkeeper Arthur Wilkie and his 2 goals anybody when he played on the wing after a goalkeeping injury?) but I suppose nowadays the risk of worsening an injury is just not worth it bearing in mind how financially valuable players now are to the club.

Can you give me a single example of a player coming on in the last 5 minutes or so and getting injured? They do warm-up routine all second half for a reason you know!

[West Stand Man]

Wonderful post, which I think sums up the frustration of the majority of Reading fans.

For 'the majority of' read 'some'.

[bishbosh92]

Despite i agree that coppel doesnt change the team enough and has favorite players, we cant fiddle with the team to much.

Take liverpool last year for example Rafa always changed the Squad, and it never worked as they couldnt gell together.

I will admit harper should be dropped for a game or 2 tho after a few disapointing performances.

[Alan Partridge]

Only just read this and was exactly what we were speaking about after Coventry,so I agree totally Wongle.

To quote schards the 2nd half really was 'dull and uninspiring' Coventry at 3-1 were there to be thumped yet we made the obvious changes but not the right ones. Not mch more needs to be said because your original post sums up my feelings completely.

[Platypuss]

For me SC showed his "odd" side when he picked Sodje and Halls for the Cup game vs Swansea rather than players with a future.

[Ian Royal]

Only just read this and was exactly what we were speaking about after Coventry,so I agree totally Wongle.

To quote schards the 2nd half really was 'dull and uninspiring' Coventry at 3-1 were there to be thumped yet we made the obvious changes but not the right ones. Not mch more needs to be said because your original post sums up my feelings completely.

[IMAMATEOFJOVSKY]

Interesting thread. Couple of points / comments in reply;

- Lita East Stand chant was only because he was scoring a hat trick for Norwich v Wolves.
- Coppell gave reasons for Hunt coming off on Monday. Namely that he is struggling with a number of niggling injuries.
- Strikers. It will be interesting to see what happens in the Jan window. Coppell went in record as saying this was a make or break season for Long and it looks like break at the moment. I would doubt that Lita will play for Reading again. My guess is that we could see Lita sold, Long on loan and a purchase of a new striker in the window.
- Sonko was not going to be in the side at the start of the season. He only got in because of a late injury to Duberry. Still can't believe we got £2m for him Not surprised he's not in the Stoke side. I expect he keeps giving away penalties and getting sent off in training
- Karajan and Pearce did well but only too a point. It's great that they have both had some first team experience but I wouldn't have either in on merit at present. Their time will come.
- Harper. All Coppell's sides depend on people doing a specific job within a cleary defined structure. Harper does that very well which is why he plays so many games. That said I would still love to see Cisse and Marek in tandem.

....and Harpers specific job is ?? He is definitely the weak link in the current team - rather have a Ben Watson, Ferrie Bodde type in there

[Dr Hfuhruhurr]

Of course, the irony of criticising Coppell's favourites, is that you choose your own favourites as a counterexample.
Essential the OP comes down to 'I would pick a different team to SC'.

The manager's doing alright, isnt he?

[Vision]

Only just read this and was exactly what we were speaking about after Coventry,so I agree totally Wongle.

To quote schards the 2nd half really was 'dull and uninspiring' Coventry at 3-1 were there to be thumped yet we made the obvious changes but not the right ones. Not mch more needs to be said because your original post sums up my feelings completely.

Hmmm. As much as we criticise Coppell for at times being slow to make changes to win a game in which we're behind, i can think of few occasions over his time here when he's made changes which have cost us leads. We rarely throw away a lead in the last quarter of games which would suggest to me at least that he does make the "right" changes in those situations as was the case against Coventry.

As stated earlier, Cisse had obviously picked up a knock during the game so Gunnar was a like for like change whilst it was documented that N Hunt had a slight knock going into the game so changing him like for like with Long seems perfectly logical to me.

Frankly it seems a bit odd to be criticising the changes in that game specifically given the the circumstances.

[Royal With Cheese]

To quote schards the 2nd half really was 'dull and uninspiring' Coventry at 3-1 were there to be thumped yet we made the obvious changes but not the right ones. Not mch more needs to be said because your original post sums up my feelings completely.

What constitutes a thumping?
5-1, 6-1, 7-1?


I don't know about anyone else but I'll take 3-1 canter at home any day of the week thank you.

[bishbosh92]

To quote schards the 2nd half really was 'dull and uninspiring' Coventry at 3-1 were there to be thumped yet we made the obvious changes but not the right ones. Not mch more needs to be said because your original post sums up my feelings completely.

What constitutes a thumping?
5-1, 6-1, 7-1?


I don't know about anyone else but I'll take 3-1 canter at home any day of the week thank you.

Agrred there coventry had there heads down and were there for the taking.

But it seems the changes Coppel made it look like he was going for a more sat back Apporaoch, I no wede basically won the game but i wouldnt mind a few more goals.