BFTG - Leeds

[kwik-silva]

Rather long post about tonight!


McCarthy - 7 - Did everything he needed to do well. Solid punches/catches but never really tested.
Kelly - 7 - Went forward well but unlike Gunter, perhaps, got back and did everything he needed to
Pearce - 6 - Didn't deal well with Poleon but cleared his lines well when called upon
Morrison - 6 - Missed several chances and didn't have a whole lot to do at the back
Bridge - 7 - Wasn't as good as Sunday but went forward well and put good tackles in when needed
Karacan - N/A
Guthrie - 6 - Goes crossfield well but everytime he tries to go through the middle it just doesn't work. Got bullied off the ball a lot
Williams - 5 - Don't know what happened today, had one nice turn in the corner and a good shot but didn't tackle well and also got bullied
Drenthe - 7/4 - In the first half looked lively and played well until he pulled a muscle. Totally anonymous in the second and was also bullied off the ball. Good cross for the goal but made better by Williams
Robson-Kanu - 7 - Seemed to hold up ball well but didn't have the support to really threaten
Blackman - 5 - Looked good to set up chances to cross but his crossing is awful. He's not a winger

Akpan - 6 - Few key passes, fell over in the box unnecessarily, not as good as Karacan but hopefully after some gametime will develop
Le Fondre - 7 - He does what he does
McCleary - 7 - looked very good when he came on, some good runs

[floyd__streete]

Gutted, left with 3 to go to get out the car park and missed the goal. Last time I left early was West Brom last year .....

Good atmosphere guaranteed with Leeds.

Thought we were the better team but still ineffective in the final 3rd. Leeds weren't great although Varney looked dangerous first half and gave Morro a few issues.

Blackman - Useless. He must have some piccies of NA in suspenders. No other reason for his inclusion.
Back 4 - Good I thought.
Guthrie - The engine room, always looking for the ball. If his shoulder keeps him out, we're in trouble.
Drenthe - Lost count the number of times he tripped over the ball. At least he lasted the full 90....
Williams - OK, solid
Akpan - Embarrassing. Shat himself everytime he needed to tackle.
Karacan - Looked bad. Very bad.

We needed that result. On to Derby.

Yeah, literally +1 to all that (bar perhaps Blackman comments, a little harsh). Substitute car park for early bus

Akpan's abysmal showing (his performance at Peterborough was equally dreadful) summed up a lot of Adkins problems; we literally do not have players with the ability to play the style he is wanting to impose.

Leeds were typical McD fare tbh. Percentage football, solid enough, fairly uninspiring. Poor old Hunty - Reading's loss isn't necessarily Leeds's gain. I am yet to see a wholly impressive Championship team thus far (Watford were excellent for the 2nd 45 against us).

Finally: Kelly > Gunter. Many thanks.

[sandman]

Great to get the three points however undeserved they may have been. Leeds passed it better and more accurately in the middle but didn't create any real outstanding chances and neither did we.

McCarthy - Nothing much to do. 6

Kelly - Tempted to give him 10 just for not being Chris Gunter. Made us a lot more solid in defence. 7
Pearce - Won everything and organised the defence well. 8 motm
Morrison - Solid. 6.5
Bridge - Showed his class as usual. Best Full back in the Championship. 7

Karacan - Has awful luck against Leeds this time however the injury looked to be more self inflicted. N/A
Guthrie - Passing astray a few times and can't tackle but other than that he was pick of the midfielders. 7
Williams - Wasn't great but wasn't bad either. Not convinced about him as a starter. 6
Drenthe - Very frustrating. Not quite as convinced about him as I was in the first few games. 6
Blackman - Improved slightly in the second half but not great. 5

HRK - Didn't really threaten too selfish when he did have opportunities. 5

Subs:

Akpan - Struggled. Dwelled on the ball a lot and didn't use his strength and athletic ability enough. 5
McCleary - Gave us some much needed wing play threat. 6
Alf - After all the late goals Alf scored for Brian you knew he would do it against him. 7

[winchester_royal]

Seriously worry about some of you guys. Blackman was perfectly decent on the right, skinned Warnock a fair few times, linked well with Kelly, just lacked that final killer ball...but certainly wasn't found lacking in effort and commitment.

Any of you that jeered him off are cunts of the highest order.

[Royal Prince]

By no means was Blackman a world beater tonight, but that was his most compotent performance so far. First half he struggled somewhat, but second half he was troubling Warnock, skinned him a couple of times, was even doubled up on at one stage, plus he held up the ball relatively well when he needed to. A decent performance and no better/worse than the majority of players on that field tonight.

Elsewhere I thought Pearce looked much more comfortable on the ball, and the defence in general were solid. Midfield were OK, Guthrie played some neat football but our movement off the ball let us down. Fingers crossed Jem is ok, however I fear the worst. Up front Drenthe played well, but was somewhat of a passenger for the last 15mins (although decent delivery for the free-kick). HRK held the ball up well, you really noticed the difference however when Alf came on as the ball just doesn't stick to him in the same way, plus he looked isolated at times. Great that he bagged the winner, but this team is still screaming out for a target man.

Overall pleased with the result, we've certainly established a great platform to build from. Just five points off top and we've not really got going yet!

P.s lolz at all those people who left early!

P.p.s double lolz at beating Brian with a late goal scored by super sub Le Fondre. Oh the irony!!!

[genome]

Did anyone else laugh when Akpan completely mistimed the jump for a header just before the end of the first half? It just looked really funny.

Also any news about that old chap who needed first aid in B15?

[kwik-silva]

Seriously worry about some of you guys. Blackman was perfectly decent on the right, skinned Warnock a fair few times, linked well with Kelly, just lacked that final killer ball...but certainly wasn't found lacking in effort and commitment.

Any of you that jeered him off are cunts of the highest order.

Completely agree, and that can be explained by the fact he's not a winger! No Reading player should get jeered off by our own support, ever.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Seriously worry about some of you guys. Blackman was perfectly decent on the right, skinned Warnock a fair few times, linked well with Kelly, just lacked that final killer ball...but certainly wasn't found lacking in effort and commitment.

Any of you that jeered him off are cunts of the highest order.

Yep agreed. He was improved in the 2nd half I thought & did skin Warnock a couple of times. Could have quite easily been the hero had HRK passed to him instead of aiming for Row Z.

I'm sure there are other clubs that do this too but it doesn't make it right. Shameful - we will need them all to play a part with all these injuries we have piling up. Get behind them FFS!!

[Arthur Pint]

My thoughts on tonight....

- Akpan does not like a 50:50 challenge in midfield

- Karacan should not play against Leeds definitely his bogey team.

- That back 5 was pretty solid, three clean-sheets in a row is at least one positive!

- McCormack looked like a one man show for Leeds

- I have no idea which foot is Blackman's stronger one, neither?

- We don't have anyone who can play the lone striker role

- Pearce and Guthrie were immense

- lol @ McDermott moaning about all the added on time

[Royal Prince]

No Reading player should get jeered off by our own support, ever.

+1

[biff]

+1 regarding blackman. Very unreasonable expectations of the chap if you want him to do a lot more than he did tonight. Good turn of pace, nice bit of trickery. Looked a lot more effective than Drenthe for much of it.

[Gunny Fishcake]

Can't think of a later injury time winner than that,amazing scenes particularly like it looked like Leeds had scored a minute earlier. Still not very good but a win is a win.....couldn't believe it when Robson-Kanu was taken off thought he had a great game, but Alfie popped up again .....poor Leeds fans they were stunned into silence .

[The Royal We]

3 points papers over the cracks again. Better performance but far from good enough.

Guthrie outstanding in midfield, but Akpan and Williams dire alongside him. Both easily pushed off the ball, the same with Williams at the weekend also. For a big man he's far too easily pushed off the ball.

One striker up front isn't working and will not work. We simply don't have the players to support the lone striker. We had a couple of decent balls into the box tonight, and with one man to aim for, the ball passed him by every time. We need two up front, either try adopt a 4-3-1-2 formation, or a 4-4-2 which we are better suited to. We just don't have enough quality to make one up front work.

Sneaking a winner is great, even sweater against that lot, but it really does just hide a mountain of problems.

Adkins says Jem's injury is a bad one, so that's him out for a few months now at the very least. If we were serious about Sissoko, we now must go out and get another CM, or look to young Jake Taylor. And the need for another striker is even more apparent.

I'm glad I read this. Was beginning to think I was at a totally different game.

How many efforts on target did we create? Was our quality of football really that much better than Leeds?

On the Brian thread people are talking about our passing game. What passing game? It was hardly total football. Did we even have more possession?

[MmmMonsterMunch]

3 points papers over the cracks again. Better performance but far from good enough.

Guthrie outstanding in midfield, but Akpan and Williams dire alongside him. Both easily pushed off the ball, the same with Williams at the weekend also. For a big man he's far too easily pushed off the ball.

One striker up front isn't working and will not work. We simply don't have the players to support the lone striker. We had a couple of decent balls into the box tonight, and with one man to aim for, the ball passed him by every time. We need two up front, either try adopt a 4-3-1-2 formation, or a 4-4-2 which we are better suited to. We just don't have enough quality to make one up front work.

Sneaking a winner is great, even sweater against that lot, but it really does just hide a mountain of problems.

Adkins says Jem's injury is a bad one, so that's him out for a few months now at the very least. If we were serious about Sissoko, we now must go out and get another CM, or look to young Jake Taylor. And the need for another striker is even more apparent.

I'm glad I read this. Was beginning to think I was a totally different game.

How many efforts on target did we create? Was our quality of football really that much better than Leeds?

On the Brian thread people are talking about our passing game. What passing game? It was hardly total football. Did we even have more possession?

We all know we don't have enough quality up top but I thought we really grew into the game - the last 20 mins of the 1st half Leeds barely got a touch & we passed it about quite well.

Our defence is definitely improving & looks solid. Losing Jem was a huge blow tonight though. Hopefully Jobi can come straight back in for Sat.

[TheLawnMowerMan]

We were very lucky to win - no imagination up front. Again.
Leeds offered little.
Blackman was rubbish.
Guthrie was awesome.
Everyone else was 6/7 out of 10.

[Cureton's Volley]

No Reading player should get jeered off by our own support, ever.

+1

+2 He wasn't good at all but it was still bang out of order

[WoodleyRoyal]

.

[Avon Royal]

Seriously worry about some of you guys. Blackman was perfectly decent on the right, skinned Warnock a fair few times, linked well with Kelly, just lacked that final killer ball...but certainly wasn't found lacking in effort and commitment.

Any of you that jeered him off are cunts of the highest order.

+1 to this.

Blackman had a solid game - he seems to have a decent leap on him too which is encouraging. He is clearly a confidence player though so the idiots that cheered when he was subbed have probably set him back a few weeks. Cheers muppets.

Why is it that some Reading fans always need to have a scapegoat? I remember some of the comments about Shane Long during his first few years with us.............

[leon]

Honestly tonight we were turgid

[Avon Royal]

A win is a win.

We move on.