Back from the game - Liverpool

[Hoop Blah]

^ very reminiscent of the Rodgers' era isn't it? 6 weeks in "it's still pre-season" - he did play a lot more players than McD has - but surely, as a manager, you have some idea of what formation you're going to use and only change it against maybe the Man City's/Man Utd's etc of this world where you tend to perhaps be a bit more defensive?

If we just stuck to playing 4-4-2 week-in week-out you'd have people slating McDermott for being [insert annoying cliche which means nothing] 'tactically naive'.

Fact is the players we have just aren't really good enough to consistently present Premier League teams with enough problems at the moment. They may be underperforming to an extent, but we've basically got a team full of players that have never been good enough for other Premier League teams to want. There's a pretty good reason for that.

[melonhead]

weve got points from every game we played 4-4-2
and nothing from every game we played 4-5-1

[No Fixed Abode]

weve got points from every game we played 4-4-2
and nothing from every game we played 4-5-1

Good point.

[Hoop Blah]

weve got points from every game we played 4-4-2
and nothing from every game we played 4-5-1

You mean apart from the 4-4-2 we played when we lost at West Brom and the 45 minutes of it against Spurs (although of course we started 4-5-1)?

[Jackson Corner]

ERRRRRRRR Hello did anyone expect us to get anything at Anfield today? First half was poor, 2nd half I would say was 50/50.
If we end up botttom of the prem come May, It will still rank as our third best season in 142 years of Reading FC. Get real.

And our worst!! Dillusional post.

Dillusional maybe statisticly correct.

[Platypuss]

"Delusional"

[Simon's Church]

weve got points from every game we played 4-4-2
and nothing from every game we played 4-5-1

You mean apart from the 4-4-2 we played when we lost at West Brom and the 45 minutes of it against Spurs (although of course we started 4-5-1)?

We were also drawing against Chelsea until we went 4-4-2.

[melonhead]

weve got points from every game we played 4-4-2
and nothing from every game we played 4-5-1

You mean apart from the 4-4-2 we played when we lost at West Brom and the 45 minutes of it against Spurs (although of course we started 4-5-1)?

ok ok
in every game where weve started 4-5-1 weve lost, and every game weve played 4-4-2 from the start(with the possible exception of west brom away) wvee taken points from


its still a relevant observation imo

[melonhead]

weve got points from every game we played 4-4-2
and nothing from every game we played 4-5-1

You mean apart from the 4-4-2 we played when we lost at West Brom and the 45 minutes of it against Spurs (although of course we started 4-5-1)?

We were also drawing against Chelsea until we went 4-4-2.

Bah!





again though- the over all trend is still clear
apart from away at the hawthorns, where they are rock solid this year, and away at the european champions, it holds true.....


(what have the romans ever done for us etc)

[Hoop Blah]

I think a more telling trend is where we've fielded a team of 11 in a league game we've failed to win and generally looked a bit out of our depth.

I do agree that our players don't suit playing in a 4-5-1 because we don't have the centre forward to make it work. We don't have someone to play in the 'number 10' role either and we've been playing it that way as opposed to the extra man sitting infront of the back four to release the other two a bit more (ie the way Chelsea used to do).

[LightwaterRoyal]

I think were missing Harte's dead ball delivery, Shorey and Guthrie wasted numerous good oportunities to put a good ball in the box. The question is how many chances does he create opposed to how many hes at fault for.

[sputnik]

(what have the romans ever done for us etc)

Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health ?

[bcubed]

First half dire
Second half much better and with a little luck could have got a draw
Agreed with subbing Pog with Alf. Despite people's dislike of 451 I think it represents our best chance away from home anyway. Otherwise we get overrun in midfield. It was working just fine in the second half but not helped by Pogs inability to win a single header, hence alf was a good sub in my mind. It didn't work because at the same time we went off the boil completely and hardly passed to Alf

Kebe anonymous and looking increasingly out of his depth
Shorey - Far too many mistakes
Cummings excellent

Enjoyed the Kop's sarcastic applause of the ref - the whole crowd stood and clapped for quite a while! Loud as well

[Muskrat]

I thought we'd play 4-5-1 but I'd have played Gunnar in front of the back four rather than Guthrie further up the pitch. Gunnar would have given the defence that little bit of added protection and played out of defense to the wide men. But then I'm not McD...

[RoyallyFcuked]

A very frustrating performance, although we showed a lot of promise in the second half (shock horror, as we are always always always shit until we are losing).

A team without a donkey like Luis Racist finishing would have buried us tbh. I was so disappointed with our crossing and final balls though. The amount of balls which just flew across the box with 0 players looking to make a gamble and run (BLOODY START ALF) was embarrassing.

Overall, we did OK but I oxf*rd hate this 4-5-1 and McD's glaring reluctance to go for broke at the end. Why did he wait so long to change up the strikers!?

We saw the players at the service station afterwards and they got a decent cheer tbh which was nice to see. McD seemed in a decent spirit and was willing to speak to the fans etc, although the players, perhaps understandably so, seemed very down and reluctant to acknowledge the fans.

Kebe of course sauntered passed, hood up, as if he couldn't give a oxf*rd. I bet he puts more effort into oxf*rd his wife than playing football, the lazy bastard.

Summary - Not looking good enough for the league at all, but hey ho, if we win 2 matches (lolz) everything will be all rosy and we'll be mid table! Plus we're usually slow starters.

Agree with this, I wasnt at the Liverpool game but I was at the Swansea game, and I also thought McD took too long to change things upfront and go for it. I'd like to see a different approach against Fulham at home on Saturday, with Roberts and Le Fondre starting upfront then see what happens.

Also, people saying Cummings played well but I read that he was poor and gave Sterling way too much room, especially for the goal? Can anyone confirm this or otherwise?

[Shortbread]

We don't have someone to play in the 'number 10' role either.

I thought we missed Hunty badly on Saturday - at least he might have given Agger and Skrtel something else to think about. I can't see them having an easier game all season.

But quite why we stood so far off a very ordinary Liverpool in the first half is a mystery. And just about the first time we did get stuck in to try and win some ball, we immediately lose Karacan to injury. Having to reorganise can't have helped - though we were ineffective with two ball winners as it was and then, despite having four forward-looking players in the midfield, we seemed to have little pace and little movement from which to have created something worthwhile. In showing so much respect to opponents, we do seem to have lost our mojo this season: and that's a worry.

RF - I thought Cummings played well: confident, not-overawed and generally did his job. Sterling was swapping about a lot in the first half and the goal was a result of one of those: it came from our left. Whether Cummings should have tracked him across or whether he shoulod have been picked up by someone else is a differnet matter - though I don't think we were man-marking like that. Credit to Sterling for the goal, to be fair. Though a ball over the top, in a Rogers team? Surely not...

[Pepe the Horseman]

Game's being shown on channel 429 at the moment if anyone's interested

[pea]

Cummings was brilliant, and Sterling's finish was inch perfect with neither Cummings nor McCarthy doing much wrong. Mariappa should have been cutting out that ball but I actually thought the three of them were our best players.

Liverpool fans sarcastic cheering of the referee was embarassing. Thought Sterling looked great but ruined it by diving as much as he could.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Sterling's finish was inch perfect with neither Cummings doing much wrong.

Ball watching?

[Snowball]

Sterling was the CB's responsibility at the time and Cummings was at RB

Suarez's very clever dink took the CB out of the game and
the only player to do anything worthwhile was Cummings
who made up a ton of ground to get across and almost got a block in