I don't understand where it went wrong

[Focher]

I do think Coppell went in panic mode with his team selections. Players were in and out of the side - starting one game and not in the 16 the next. Did anyone really know where they stood? Couldn't have helped harmony or morale and nobody could play themselves into form.

Lita, Kitson, Karacan, Henry, Long, Cisse, Marek, Little, Kebe, either Hunt.... i could go on, but these guys were starting one week and frozen out the next, and in some cases after a half decent performance.

Our squad was almost too big and Coppell didn't know his best 11. If he did he should have sat them down when the form started to dip and told them they had 5 games to play themselves back into form. Nobody seemed on the same wavelength in the second half of the season and this can't have helped.

The of course there is the injuries and the lack of leaders on the pitch....

i could not have put it better myself.

[Millsy]

I've been thinkin this lots recently:

Could it be the players knew somethign we didn't?

That Coppell always planned to leave

He therefore lost the drive

And so did the players

When the the most successful manager in a club's history tells you he's leaving how is that goin to make you feel as a player? And how must it feel working for a promotion which is going to be with a different boss - one who may not pick you? How must it feel knowing the guy who's tryin to motivate you to want to play for the club himself wants out?

This could well be behind it all.....

[Dirk Gently]

Up to 27th Jan we (I think following data is correct!) :-

Won 16 games
Drew 4 games
Lost 5 games
Scored 46 goals,
Conceded 20 goals

Why? What changed after the 27th Jan and that win against Wolves? I know NHunt, Lita and Doyle's injuries didn't help but I still don't quite see how it all went so wrong in Feb/Mar/Apr/May? Home form played a huge part but again, we were doing so well at home in the first half of the season, what changed?

Leroy Lita returned from his loan spell and was in the dressing room and at the training ground.

HTH!

[Rex]

That's a relevant point Prisoner but last season Coppell was chastised for being too loyal to certain players. This season he bought in the more youthful players to give them the experience to break into the first team. This has been a proving ground for a number of players.
Looking back on the original aspirations of the supporters and Coppell assessing his loyalty to players - has this season been a case of going too far the other way and not getting the right mix of players to gel on the pitch.
My feelings are that Kitson / Little - having been a fall back gamble on steadying the ship - untimately failed in it's intentions. The promice of so much from both players out of form, who could have put a few players noses out of joint.
Decisivley again Doyle failed in the second half of the season with such a polarising loss of goalscoring form. Shunt also is an obvious example of crash and burn. Certain players still played too many ineffective games but were still auto first team choice.
The loss of Nhunt also proved a factor and a revelation in this season. His loss and input was also noted by myself and probably others.

[Bubbly4Me]

I can't be arsed to look, but wasn't Wolves the first game without Ingimarson?
Before that, the team tried to play football.
After that the hoofball axis of Armstrong and Duberry were allowed to take over and we stopped playing football for about two whole months.

Agreed. I think this coincided with the deteriation of the pitch too, which also leant towards hoofball.

[The 17 Bus]

we lost the spine of the team, Ingi, Harper, Hunt. Often criticised on here, but putting in 100% each game, and it was a damned sight better than the performances of those that tried to replace them.

[Snowball]

I do think Coppell went in panic mode with his team selections. Players were in and out of the side - starting one game and not in the 16 the next. Did anyone really know where they stood? Couldn't have helped harmony or morale and nobody could play themselves into form.

Lita, Kitson, Karacan, Henry, Long, Cisse, Marek, Little, Kebe, either Hunt.... i could go on, but these guys were starting one week and frozen out the next, and in some cases after a half decent performance.

Our squad was almost too big and Coppell didn't know his best 11. If he did he should have sat them down when the form started to dip and told them they had 5 games to play themselves back into form. Nobody seemed on the same wavelength in the second half of the season and this can't have helped.

The of course there is the injuries and the lack of leaders on the pitch....

Excellent post. There does seem to be an element of panic/surprise in 09
and that was exemplified by the selection of Church and the knee-jerk triple substitution


OTOH, watching the first half and Marek running around a lot more my kid
said that he thought the plan was to do a double/triple sub soon after HT

[Snowball]

1

I posted months ago wondering if the high-tempo system was hard to maintain for 46-50+ games
A number of players looked burnt out by season's end

2

Lita's return, couple with (it looked like) an excessive wage-award to S Hunt
(and possibly Doyle) may well have caused changing-room unrest. It doesn't
take a lot of that to make a difference to team morale. Add to that the fact
that RFC specialises in team-spirit and fight (missing since Birmingham)

3

The out-of-the-blue returns of Little and Kitson must have p!ssed off a lot
of the team. Little looked so unfit and slow some younger, more aggressive players
must have been seriously put out. Kitson, basically ambled his way through 10
appearances for 2 goals, was being paid Premiership wages and "possibly" was
on the brink of re-signing for RFC. That must have lowered morale. Remember these
are two players who had "dumped" RFC (like Lita, really.) A morale disaster.

4

The pitch did not suit sharp-passing at speed to wingers - little margin for error -
and we appeared to have no Plan B

5

Other teams sussed our system, played 5 in the middle, doubled-up on the wingers

6 DID the wingers lose form, or was it how they were marked out of the game, or was it (partly) the pitch,
or was it lowered energy and morale, passes not quite so accurate or in the right place, OR did the extreme,
vitriolic feedback (especially on Harper, S Hunt, Kebe) affect their morale, their willingness to give all?


AWAY FROM HOME, though... How could we have played Championship winning league form ONE defeat in 7 months?

That strongly implies a Madjeski effect, the pitch, the fans, a "hoodoo"

[Snowball]

AWAY FROM HOME, though... How could we have played Championship winning league form ONE defeat in 7 months?

That strongly implies a Madjeski effect, the pitch, the fans, a "hoodoo"

RFC Away Form Since November 1st

W 4-1 Bristol City
W 2-0 Sheffield Utd
D 2-2 Cardiff City
W 1-0 Barnsley
W 3-1 Birmingham
D 1-1 Southampton
L 0-2 Swansea City
D 0-0 QPR
W 2-1 Sheffield Wed
D 2-2 Plymouth
W 1-0 Doncaster
D 0-0 Crystal Palace
D 0-0 Coventry City
D 2-2 Blackpool
W 2-0 Derby County
W 2-0 Norwich City

16 games W8 D7 L1 24-12 31 points = an 89 point season

[brendywendy]

pitch went tits up
fans got the jitters
players got the jitters
teams started coming for a draw
wingers lost form

[Scarface]

It went wrong when Coppell decided to stay last August. If you look closely at his record as Reading manager, barring the 2 successfull seasons every other year the team have faded away at the end of the season and suffered extended runs of poor form. It was one season too many.

[Millsy]

AWAY FROM HOME, though... How could we have played Championship winning league form ONE defeat in 7 months?

That strongly implies a Madjeski effect, the pitch, the fans, a "hoodoo"

Excellent post except I'm rather surprised you make such small mention of the "fans". (At least you did though eventually!)

Half our fans are Prem glory hunters and newbies who just don't have the passion. Not their fault, it's just the way it is when you suddenly get big.

As a result our home atmosphere has be APPALLING. I literally cringe when the team needs a lift but I see the opposition fans totally outsinging us chant after chant after chant with only pathetic occasional whimpers coming out of the once'half-decent East Stand.

We pay our money, we sit back and expect to be entertained.

Very few of the current fans are born and brought up in Reading and have supported us and no-one else with fiery passion from the age of 5 and would sing our hearts out for the boys even at 3-0 down.

That only 19000 turned up against Burnley says it all: playoffs were deemed a failure for our spoilt fans.

Part of me hopes we get a good kick in the teeth, drop back down to League 1 for a few years and REALLY learn what passion means, from scratch.

Despite saying all this - fans ain't the reason we messed up. But it didn't help.

[Snowball]

WW, personally I think the fans have been a MAJOR part of the problem
but post that here and you get attacked. The difference between our home
and away is so revealing. I posted hat "89-point" run from November first.

Immediately before that run were the two unlucky defeats at Burnley and Preston and the 3-0 win at Wolves


I spotted this on another site.

One shareholder was applauded for expressing a desire to see striker XXXXXX - scorer of 30 goals last season and 16 this term - sold in the summer.

Manager: "XXXXXXX is a great player and has done fantastically well for the club," XXXXXX responded. "He was the most sought-after player last year - all the big clubs wanted him and it will be the same again.

"When we bought him nobody knew him and he became a great player. Players are quickly singled out and you realise how good a player is when they have gone.

"At this level, when players don't do well it's because they've lost their confidence. The only way to help a guy who has lost confidence is to help him again and again. But by slaughtering him you don't help him."

While confirming that XXXXXX would be bolstering their squad in the forthcoming transfer window, XXXXX dismissed concerns over the quality of his current crop.

"If tomorrow we say we have to sell the players do you want to know how many clubs would want to sign them?" he asked. "They have a huge value and if they go somewhere else, in two or three years you will say to me 'why did you let them go?'.

"They are great players and they will show you that they are great players.

"We are going in the right track and everyone at the club is convinced we are doing the right thing.

"If we do not get there next year or the year after then you can say this was not the right way."

[Snowball]

The players DO know about the lists, the emails, the local radio phone-ins
Doyle said so yesterday.

So (for example) if rumour goes round that Coppell has lost the changing-room
do we really think that has NO effect on morale? Worse if it's a lie.

We hounded Harper out of the team, SHunt out of the team and were working on hounding out Kebe

Then we'll start on the next three, soon as we can

[ellpryjon]

The players DO know about the lists, the emails, the local radio phone-ins
Doyle said so yesterday.

So (for example) if rumour goes round that Coppell has lost the changing-room
do we really think that has NO effect on morale? Worse if it's a lie.

We hounded Harper out of the team, SHunt out of the team and were working on hounding out Kebe

Then we'll start on the next three, soon as we can

TBH ive become used to it.....

Reading FC, Home of the fickle "supporter"

[Ian Royal]

Anyone who thinks the fans hounded players out of the side is a bit simplistic. Players got a stupid and unreasonable amount of abuse, but I doubt if that seriously affected Coppell's decision to drop them.

Hunt was certainly worthy of being dropped given his abysmal form. Harper was not working in midfield and got INJURED. Kebe was clearly not the answer to our problems blowing very cold for long stretches and occasionally quite hot, although often without the required end product.

The fans certainly didn't help matters, and contributed. But the problems began ON the pitch.

[ellpryjon]

Anyone who thinks the fans hounded players out of the side is a bit simplistic. Players got a stupid and unreasonable amount of abuse, but I doubt if that seriously affected Coppell's decision to drop them.

Hunt was certainly worthy of being dropped given his abysmal form. Harper was not working in midfield and got INJURED. Kebe was clearly not the answer to our problems blowing very cold for long stretches and occasionally quite hot, although often without the required end product.

The fans certainly didn't help matters, and contributed. But the problems began ON the pitch.

For once i agree with you.

[Henleyensian]

The players DO know about the lists, the emails, the local radio phone-ins
Doyle said so yesterday.

So (for example) if rumour goes round that Coppell has lost the changing-room
do we really think that has NO effect on morale? Worse if it's a lie.

We hounded Harper out of the team, SHunt out of the team and were working on hounding out Kebe

Then we'll start on the next three, soon as we can

I really think that that is part of the trouble, but on top of that I have said for weeks that the injury to Ivar was a great factor in our failure along with the state of the pitch when the weather was really bad, and very little could be done to help it. Now that the pitch has been helped to recover most of the confidence to play on the ground had gone. It is no surprise that we could do so well away when the fans that went to away matches were the vocally supportive ones and the pitches were smooth. I really do think that the atmosphere at home left a lot to be desired and that erodes confidence.

When you compare the players available for the team on Tuesday with the team that started the season and look at all the injuries and the lack of a regular captain, I think that says it all. Our opponents have a smaller squad, but they did not include young inexperienced players (as we had to)and it was obvious from the squad numbers that they had had a stable team. It seems to be a case of "what will be wiil be".

I have never played football, but they say "The onlooker sees most of the game" and I wonder how many of the critics of certain teams members could play as well as the people they criticise! I imagine that if they could they would be playing professionally as well. I have supported Reading since before most fans were born and find it disheartening when we have such a wealth of talent available that so many fans have to have at least one player who (they think) is rubbish.

[Millsy]

WW, personally I think the fans have been a MAJOR part of the problem
but post that here and you get attacked. The difference between our home
and away is so revealing. I posted hat "89-point" run from November first.

I know that only too well, having almost singlehandedly taken this cause upon myself, as a fearless ex-chantstarter.

RFC has lost its soul and its passion.

The spirit of southbank is now nothing more than a whimpering ghost.

And I still maintain that with the support we have (on the whole - including the new and understandably less passionate fans, not the majority of ppl who post here) we really don't deserve to be anywhere near the Premiership.

Managers come and go, players come and go, coachign staff come and go, even chairmen come and go... but the spirit of the fans remains. No spirit = no future.

But whilst some of my posts have been stupid and inflammatory because I was seething with anger at the time... on calm reflection I fear that because we've now achieved our dream of Prem footy, the ghost of Wembley 95 has been put to rest and we just no longer have the desperation. And many of the new fans have never even heard of that heartbreak and just regard Prem footy as the quite normal. I admit that even my passion for Prem footy (which was sparked on the drive home from that awful day in 1995) has dropped and I don't care as passionately about achieving it now that we've had it...

[The Cap]

2 world wars, 1 world cup wrote:
Part of me hopes we get a good kick in the teeth, drop back down to League 1 for a few years

Really?