Back From The Game: Liverpool

[Alan Partridge]

My take on the game is quite simple; until we get a proper right back, we will always be vulnerable at the back, whilst I genuinely see no place for Marek in our midfield. BMcD clearly favours a straight 442, and in that formation, Marek is a luxury the team can't afford. We have to ensure we battle in midfield in order to protect our defence so that means starting with Karacan & Cisse next game; Howard clearly not match fit when he came on and was invisible.

A big LOL to all those calling for Hamer to be brought in after the Plymouth game; he had a mare.

As mentioned, massively harsh to judge Hamer on 20mins, he hasn't really played at all this season and was thrown on not quite at the deep end but more the ocean. 15mins to go 1-1 with Liverpool in front of 23,000. THe only thing he did really wrong was he didn't know whether to come for the cross at the end which Torres got on the end of.

Looks like Federici is going to be out for a couple of weeks so if that's the case let's have a look at Hamer from the start. It's a lot harder for a keeper to come on with 15mins left than any other player.

I don't agree with Marek being a 'luxury' either. Just because he's a half decent footballer, if the team doesn't create then we can battle and scrap all we like but it won't get the job done. I thought Cisse was pretty poor the other day if i'm being totally honest. Liverpool never really commited much going forward, I thought Cisse stopped some attacks well but he gives the ball away just as much as MArek does, only difference being cisse does it with a 5 yard simple pass. I prefer Cisse at centre half and still think he'll end up there eventually.

Big fan of Karacan don't understand why he was taken out of the side. He was utterly wasted in that 4-1-4-1 crap Roddgers played. He has more than enough energy and fitness as well as all round game to offer more than to just mark our own bloody centre halves. He should be playing every game. One solution could be to get another half decent winger in to play on the left and play Karacan with Sigurdsson in the middle. Sigurdsson is probably a compromise between Cisse and Marek to an extent!

Reading certainly do need more up front though, be interesting to see if this new lad is any good!

[URZZZZZZZZ]

Saw the game also on TV here in Japan (Live coverage started 2:10AM!), and I was pretty impressed how Reading plays against five times European champion.
It was rare opportunity for non-UK resident to see Reading players joined last Summer in the game, and to be honest, I thought we play much better than I can imagined from comments in Hob Nob last 5 months.
Well, I can now stop worry about religation matter, as long as Royals are capable of showing that level of performance.
I still much prefer team of 2005-06 season and it was joy to watch Royals against WBA in FA cup that year. Pure magic football for me.
Now I feel like saying; Happy New Year to all!

What a load of bollocks! Would you rather Reading get relegated and lose all it stars ( Siggy, Karacan and McAnuff ) than watching them play great football? I would rather survive this horror season than to play nice football TBH.

[Sharpy]

we have a team that plays a premiership style of football still as shown by pre season against Chelsea and Liverpool game. the championship is too 'in your face' and physical for our team. unless we can adapt to this style of play we won't be going anywhere...

[bishbosh92]

Good summary.

Karacan was excellent, Mills looked really out of touch.

Mills may of looked out of touch , but id pick him anyday over Pearce

[BR2]

In reply to Sun Tzu's earlier post about Liverpool's class or lack of it.

Not wishing to be picky but I know you prefer the facts to be correct.
Kelly,a very promising right-back/future centre-back didn't play.
I thought that Reading missed a trick by not putting more pressure on young Danby but I suppose with McAnuff getting quite a bit of joy over on the right we concentrated more on that area despite Insua being a full Argentinian international (but very slow)and Danby being a novice.
Personally I would have brought on Kebe rather than Howard for us to attack from both wings for the last 15 minutes but who knows whether the manager was under instruction to make sure that we got the draw.

[papereyes]

McAnuff got joy until they doubled up and we didn't attack the space that Aurelio was leaving.

Although I did smile at McAnuff taking two international(ish) players to deal with him.

[Hoop Blah]

Karacan and Sigurdsson in the middle on their own would just be out of their depth in this league. They need an older head in there alongside them, but I'd still like to see Karacan get a run of games again. He's the closest thing we've had to a Sidwell type player since the ginger one chased the money.

I'm not much of a fan of Cisse, and Gunnarsson is a busted flush as far as competing in the centre of the park is concerned. I'm not sure Matejovksy and Karacan offer enough of a physical presence at the moment either but maybe a Karacan and Howard pairing might be the best blend, or perhaps Tabb gets a game. Just goes to show the lack of balance in the squad I suppose.

I think Sigurdsson has to stay out wide for now though. He and McAnuff on the wings means that we have a nice balance with McAnuff providing genuine width whilst Sigurdsson will chip in with goals whilst also naturally come inside and help out the central two if needs be. They can both swap sides comfortably as well, which is quite handy too.

I'd still like to see another genuine winger added in January though. I still think Jamal Campbell-Ryce would add something to our squad, and he can't get a game at Barnsley these days for some reason.

[PEARCEY]

Karacan and Sigurdsson in the middle on their own would just be out of their depth in this league. They need an older head in there alongside them, but I'd still like to see Karacan get a run of games again. He's the closest thing we've had to a Sidwell type player since the ginger one chased the money.

I'm not much of a fan of Cisse, and Gunnarsson is a busted flush as far as competing in the centre of the park is concerned. I'm not sure Matejovksy and Karacan offer enough of a physical presence at the moment either but maybe a Karacan and Howard pairing might be the best blend, or perhaps Tabb gets a game. Just goes to show the lack of balance in the squad I suppose.

I think Sigurdsson has to stay out wide for now though. He and McAnuff on the wings means that we have a nice balance with McAnuff providing genuine width whilst Sigurdsson will chip in with goals whilst also naturally come inside and help out the central two if needs be. They can both swap sides comfortably as well, which is quite handy too.

I'd still like to see another genuine winger added in January though. I still think Jamal Campbell-Ryce would add something to our squad, and he can't get a game at Barnsley these days for some reason.

I agree about Siggy and McAnuff playing wide. Gave us balance against Liverpool. Although Karacan is small he is physical so I would like to see him alongside Matejovsky(at least one of them can tackle). That means Tabb msses out which would be a shame so I'd play him at right back ahead of Gunnar. Mills should stay in the side as well alongside Ivar/Pearce.
I'd stick with Church and Razzer up-front in the hope they can start to pick up more of an understanding.

[Hoop Blah]

Agree PEARCEY, although as much as Karacan can put it about, he still needs to bulk up or needs a bigger partner alongside him, if nothing else because we need a bit of arial ability to support the centre halfs.

The new Icelandic bloke should hopefully push Church and Rasiak for a place harder than Long currently is, but they're certainly the preferred pairing up tops at the moment, which really does highlight one of the problems.

We did a decent job of stopping Liverpool play, but as someone else said previously, that's completely different to the sort of challenge we face in having to win Championship games week in week out.

[brendywendy]

we didnt "just" stop them playing though, we did a creditable job of playing our own game pretty well too

[Hoop Blah]

we didnt "just" stop them playing though, we did a creditable job of playing our own game pretty well too

We did ok yes, and especially considering the quality of opposition (regardless of how bad a side they are by Liverpools standards they're still a decent Premiership team with a couple of world class individuals), but we didn't really come that close to scoring another goal did we?

We didn't really create that many opportunities to score let alone decent clear cut chances. The best I can remember being Sigurdssons long range effort. That's all I meant, as that's where we have to be better in the league to win games.

It was a credible performance without doubt, but a sign that we can improve our league form? I don't think it has any bearing whatsoever.

[Hampshire Royal]

If we're talking about "facts", BR2, surely you mean Darby not Danby.

The fact remains that we matched, and at times outplayed a pretty solid Top 10 Prem team, who still have a good chance of qualifying for the Europa League. Regardless of who they played or didn't play they should have stuffed us. Can we maintain this in the league? Who knows. Although it's probably just as well we've got Newcastle for the next game. If we can put in this sort of performance against a 'better' team, then now's the time to be playing the best team in the CCC. The real problems will be against the lower teams in our league.

[BR2]

If we're talking about "facts", BR2, surely you mean Darby not Danby.

The fact remains that we matched, and at times outplayed a pretty solid Top 10 Prem team, who still have a good chance of qualifying for the Europa League. Regardless of who they played or didn't play they should have stuffed us. Can we maintain this in the league? Who knows. Although it's probably just as well we've got Newcastle for the next game. If we can put in this sort of performance against a 'better' team, then now's the time to be playing the best team in the CCC. The real problems will be against the lower teams in our league.

Totally agree HR.
Your point about the right-back's name has been noted-the real fact for Sun Tzu's post is that the very promising Kelly(spelling? ) didn't play.

[paultheroyal]

Look forward to doing it all again next week live on ITV.

[Ian Royal]

Agree PEARCEY, although as much as Karacan can put it about, he still needs to bulk up or needs a bigger partner alongside him, if nothing else because we need a bit of arial ability to support the centre halfs.

The new Icelandic bloke should hopefully push Church and Rasiak for a place harder than Long currently is, but they're certainly the preferred pairing up tops at the moment, which really does highlight one of the problems.

We did a decent job of stopping Liverpool play, but as someone else said previously, that's completely different to the sort of challenge we face in having to win Championship games week in week out.

I'd agree with that. I'd be worried about height if Karacan and Tabb played together. And I think it's maybe a season too soon for Karacan and Siggurdsson to be paired very successfully. Although I don't think Karacan needs to bulk up a great deal. He's little, but he's tenacious and strong.

I'm slightly hesitant about Howard and Karacan because I think it's a little lacking in creativity. Howard is skillful, but he's not really been at his best as the creative one of the midfield. But it's probably the best balance of passing and skill, athleticism and resiliency we could play right now.

I consider Marek to be a luxury, although I think he's showed much more this season than ever before. I think he's best in a midfield three with a box to boxer (or man in the hole ahead of him) and a defensive player next to him to help protect midfield and the back four.

Siggurdsson is a little wasted on the left, but he is still our best option there for the moment. Unfortunately, with Kebe, Henry, HRK and McAnuff on the books I can't see us bringing in another winger. And I actually think playing more of a wide midfielder than an out an out winger is important for us at the moment as two wingers would be a little lightweight for me.

[Mr Angry]

I would love to see some official stats regarding marek; assists made, important passes in a build up to a goal, defensive tackles made, number of passes given away that have led to opponents goals etc.

Without any evidence to back this assertion, I would strongly suspect that he has far more entries in the negatives than the positives. (And thats not counting a grand total of 2 goals in 55 appearances - Karacan, a defensive midfielder, has 2 in 33......)

[Ian Royal]

I would love to see some official stats regarding marek; assists made, important passes in a build up to a goal, defensive tackles made, number of passes given away that have led to opponents goals etc.

Without any evidence to back this assertion, I would strongly suspect that he has far more entries in the negatives than the positives. (And thats not counting a grand total of 2 goals in 55 appearances - Karacan, a defensive midfielder, has 2 in 33......)

I don't think Marek has more than half a dozen assists, if that, in his time here. But I think he does have quite a few important passes that set up others to provide an assist. But that is almost impossible to quantify and also relies on the other player putting in a good ball for him to get recognition.

But he does give the ball away with simple passes too often, and gets caught in possession too often too.

[Hoop Blah]

Harper used to lead the clubs own stats on key passes, according to Murty anyway. I agree that as exciting as Matejovsky can be to watch, I just think he doesn't do enough to counter the negatives his play brings. By that I mean the lack of defensive discpline and cover that we'd get if we played a pairing like Karacan and Howard.

The Sidwell & Harper pairing provided a goal threat as well as the defensive protection the back four needed. We didn't need a 'creative' midfielder in there alongside them because the forwards and wingers did enough of that for us. Personally I think that's enough for any decent side (look at the likes of Utd, Livepool and Chelsea over the last few years - Alonso aside they've had athletic disciplined midfield combinations in the mould of Sidwell and Harper).

Having one of them in there that can head the ball, and one that can chip in with goals is pretty important though.

[Ian Royal]

True, I think Sig and Davies are the only ones likely to chip in with more than the odd two or three goals a season.

[Sun Tzu]

If we're talking about "facts", BR2, surely you mean Darby not Danby.

The fact remains that we matched, and at times outplayed a pretty solid Top 10 Prem team, who still have a good chance of qualifying for the Europa League. Regardless of who they played or didn't play they should have stuffed us. Can we maintain this in the league? Who knows. Although it's probably just as well we've got Newcastle for the next game. If we can put in this sort of performance against a 'better' team, then now's the time to be playing the best team in the CCC. The real problems will be against the lower teams in our league.

Totally agree HR.
Your point about the right-back's name has been noted-the real fact for Sun Tzu's post is that the very promising Kelly(spelling? ) didn't play.

Gents your corrections duly noted and appreciated !

A Liverpool fan had told me Kelly would be playing and not having bought a programme or paid any attention to the PA I simply assumed ! The comment was not intended to cast aspersions on the potential of Kelly (who again my mate had told me is very promising) but he's hardly one to describe as 'oozing class' as yet. Steve Heighway, John Toshack, Graeme Souness, Michael Owen, Ray Kennedy.....