Back from the game: MK Dons

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Our formation didn't change

In that nice section between Kelly getting injured and Williams coming on we were playing with Grav right in the middle of a back 3

I think you are confused as to what a formation is.

When we lined up against a goal kick, kick off or set piece from inside their half. Were we 3-5-2? No.

Just

[TBM]

In that nice section between Kelly getting injured and Williams coming on we were playing with Grav right in the middle of a back 3

I think you are confused as to what a formation is.

When we lined up against a goal kick, kick off or set piece from inside their half. Were we 3-5-2? No.

Just

It was 4-3-3

What you do in that formation though is push the centre backs wide, which pushes the full backs up the pitch and then the DM slots into the "hole" left by the CB's - so it can look like a 3-5-2 but its not

[LWJ]

In that nice section between Kelly getting injured and Williams coming on we were playing with Grav right in the middle of a back 3

I think you are confused as to what a formation is.

When we lined up against a goal kick, kick off or set piece from inside their half. Were we 3-5-2? No.

Just

Have one back m8

[LWJ]

It was 4-3-3

What you do in that formation though is push the centre backs wide, which pushes the full backs up the pitch and then the DM slots into the "hole" left by the CB's - so it can look like a 3-5-2 but its not

[George_]

We made 10 changes & it was lot of players 1st game of the season or even 1st game in a Reading shirt. This was never going to be a massively 1 sided match. Momentum was stopped a lot with the injuries we picked up and we were unable to have large spells of increased pressure around their box.

People booing need to have a word. Would you rather see us play a long ball diamond that we did at the end of last season which saw us lose 7 out of 8 at the end of last season? I know i wouldn't. Have a bit of patience with the team.

Like the look of Jaakkola. Think hes an upgrade on Al-Habsi because he can match him for shop stopping and i think he's better in the air than Ali, for example when crosses come into the 6 yard box he was punching them clear, but already twice this season teams have scored against us from headers in or around the 6 yard box.

Moore looked solid & had genuine pace which we have been screaming out for a centre back to have.

Liam Kelly is technically superb & wins most challenges hes gets into which is surprising good since he's bout 5 foot tall.

Thought Gravenberch looked solid if unspectacular. Kept the ball well and used his strength to keep of MK players.

Harriett can just run & run & run all night. even in the 120th minute he was still going. 2 cracking goals too.

Hopefully this was one of Mendes' worst nights because he was a bit of a shambles. No movement around the back. We were crying out for a striker to attack the front post from a cross all game.

We move on into the next round.

[PieEater]

After a promising start it looked like a game we'd dominate and score a hatful.

As it was we were pretty clueless going forward and never troubled their keeper until right at the end of the first half. Cooper was a liability with his backpass and taking out Kelly. The foul was clearly outside the box, you could see the skid marks, but the shit ref gave a pen. He continued to be shit with his picky fouls for any contact, we've really not had a decent ref in all the games I've seen so far.

Second half was more of the same until Ainsley scored a cracker, after that we had chances but never converted them.

MKD were utterly dross, we gifted them a goal and after that they did nothing going forward till ET.

[Hendo]

120 minutes + penalty shoot-out, not bad for £7 to be honest.

Thought we played quite well in parts. MK looked pretty organised and up for the game. After the first 10 minutes I thought it was going to be a walkover. We did well to come back into the game through an absolutely cracking goal from Harriott, great strike. Agreed with MK manager calling out our fans, passing it round the back and keeping possession is not the worst thing at all, did make me laugh when people were booing and complaining about passing it round the back, only for us then to pass it forwards and lose possession. I don't know about anyone else, but I would rather have the ball than not have it Yes I want us to see the ball go forward but only if the right pass is available, its up to the other players to move and make space for that pass.

Bloody Cooper, I could see exactly what was going to happen before it did. He is making mistakes that are just leading to goals/putting us under serious pressure. Jaakola looked assured and I would be confident if he was to become our Number 1. Unlucky with the 2nd goal, made a great save for the first effort but could do nothing with the second chance from such close range, good penalty save as well.

Jaakkola - 7 good saves when tested, can't really remember any crosses he had to deal with so cant comment on commanding the box/handling. Good penalty save in the Shoot-Out. I thought it was a pen in normal time FWIW, although I didn't have the best view of it.

Watson - 7 good, looked lively until he came down with cramp. Good to give Gunter some competition. Thought he could've demanded the ball a bit more when Jaakkola had it.
Moore - 7 good debut, looking forward to him striking up a partnership with McShane. Comfortable with the ball at his feet.
Cooper - 5 as said above, mistake for the goal/penalty, good in the air but with the ball at his fee, not sure. Don't think he has progressed as much as we all thought he was going to.
Obita - 6 standard Obita, got forward well but very one-footed. Good pen to win the Shoot-Out though.

Quinn - 6 standard Quinn, ran around a lot, good distribution but nothing outstanding.
Kelly - 7.5 was running the show before he went off, great range of passing, demands the ball and kept us ticking. Thought a goal was nailed on when a free-kick was given in his range!
Gravenerbech - 7 impressed, really impressed with him. My god he is strong, other players just seem to bounce off of him. Good passing, good movement, if a bit unfit as he was proper blowing towards the end. Shooting was a bit iffy yes, but the second attempt was much closer than the first!

Harriott - 8.5 *MOTM* Looks a player. Quick, can beat a guy and thought he linked up well with Watson when out on the right hand side. 2 great goals from very similar positions, hopefully he will be able to chip in with a few more.
Mendes - 5 think some criticism of him is harsh. Thought he actually held up the ball well and had some nice touches, didn't seem to be lethal in front of goal though. Should've done better with the chance right on full time (possibly hit the thing too well as he absolutely leatherd it, a scuff and it goes in) and the chance where he ran through on goal, possibly caught in 2 minds whether to go nearside or across the 'keeper and did neither,
Rakels - 6 disappointing to see him go off with a probable broken/fractured ankle. I like him, I like his energy and he tried to make things happen yesterday but it didn't seem to come off for him.

Subs

Beerens - 6.5 looked forward to seeing him play as it was my first game today, Can see the quality he has, just didn't really happen for him tonight.
Evans - 5 didn't seem to get into the game but stepped in well at CB when Cooper went upfront.
Williams - 6.5 standard Williams, driving force in midfield, should've had a penalty.

Ref - 4 just an odd performance really.

[Warfield North Stand]

Sitting in the Lower West for a change level with the 6 yard box. Gave us a brilliant view of the number of crosses from our wingers to, eh, no one. Mendes was/is a oxf*rd liability. He did not attempt to make a run, make space for ANY of the crosses. He even walked to congratulate Harriot when he scored. Lazy, useless piece of shit. Get rid.

[No Fixed Abode]

What was the attendance last night?

[sandman]

80,459.

[No Fixed Abode]

80,459.

6,848

Seems the club got the pricing strategy wrong. Should have had some offer on for kids go free seeing at its the school holidays.

[Tommio]

As someone previously mentioned it was a patchwork squad of new players so I think it would be unfair to criticise too much. Yes Cooper made an error with the backpass (player was going away from goal with his touch so could never be a red).
My only grumble would be the lack of quality deliveries. Mendes didn't seem to be on the same wavelength but I think that will come with time.

- Rakels injury was a bit needless as he was charging down a clearance that would have gone to the halfway line at best.
- Gravenbach looked useful, bar his shooting.
- Fair play to MK side who gave it a real go
- Garath McCeary and Danny Williams are our best players

Swift is our best player by far. Beerens missed him tonight hence his poor performance.

[Hendo]

80,459.

6,848

Seems the club got the pricing strategy wrong. Should have had some offer on for kids go free seeing at its the school holidays.

Could've been worse. Blackburn Rovers had their worst attendance since the 80's IIRC.

[Sutekh]

80,459.

6,848

Seems the club got the pricing strategy wrong. Should have had some offer on for kids go free seeing at its the school holidays.

Could've been worse. Blackburn Rovers had their worst attendance since the 80's IIRC.

Other problems at Blackburn. League attendances are down considerably as well. The fans there are boycotting games regularly (amongst other things) to try and get the message over they want the owners out.

[Billy The Fish]

Possibly the best value for money ever. I think there was +3, +8, +1, +3 minutes of additional time (although the stadium announcer is unintelligible and by the time he's said "The Fourth Official has indicated there will be Splsfdf minutes of additional time" he's usually just switched his board off). So that's 135 minutes of, well, let's call it football, for the princely sum of £7, that's only about 5p per minute! Plus a penalty shoot-out with a satisfactory result thrown in to boot. Bargain!

I for one like the new style of football that Stam has us playing. It broke down here because the midfield weren't dropping back to link up so the defense had no option but to play sideways for long periods. The important thing is to have players who are comfortable on the ball and can pass, we never had that when Rodgers was here so it failed completely then, but Stam seems to have chosen well with the new guys in this respect. One obvious weak link though is Cooper - horrible game for him, from the back pass, to the assault on Kelly and finally getting abuse from Obita when he couldn't play on in extra time. As we've signed hundreds of centre backs I don't expect to see him again this season - out on loan to a League 1 club to develop him please.

Btw, I can remember a game when the crowd were booing Matt Mills for playing it long out of defense all the time (he reacted badly as I recall) so you cant please all the people all the time.

Disappointing about Rakels (why risk making that block there?), but positive performances from Moore, Evans, Beerens, Harriott, Obita and Watson, down the right we seemed to be able to get round the back of their defense at will but no end product as usual. And a shame that Harriott couldn't finish off the shoot-out for a virtual hat-trick!

Overall it's all good I think, bring in a striker and we'll be excellent.

[PieEater]

Some thoughts about the new players.

My first look at Moore, Mendes and Gravenberch, only Moore impressed me, the other two really don't look good enough. Gravenberch is a unit but really did nothing of note all evening, if that was his chance to impress he blew it.

Similarly for Mendes, he looked slow. His physical approach wasn't helped by the truely shit ref who blew for endless fouls against him. Maybe some confidence will come with goals, but he didn't look like a player who would create much or worry a championship defence.

Beerens blew hot and cold, lots of tricks but no end product, not that he had much to hit in the box as Mendes was static.

Harriott could come good as a supersub, plenty of energy and drive as well as a decent shot.

Jaaklola, for some reason although he had very little to do all evening, it gives me more confident to have him in goal than Al Habsi.

[Maneki Neko]

one of Mendes' worst nights because he was a bit of a shambles

fair enough, but hes not played for ages, never played with that team before and is just coming back from an injury that's kept him out of preseason, so....

[TBM]

one of Mendes' worst nights because he was a bit of a shambles

fair enough, but hes not played for ages, never played with that team before and is just coming back from an injury that's kept him out of preseason, so....

That's fair enough but i'm a 36 year old, unfit, sunday league player and even i know that you should be attacking the near post when the wingers are doing what ours do...i think the only time he did it he almost scored

[NeilD]

The foul was clearly outside the box, you could see the skid marks, but the shit ref gave a pen.

Wasn't there, but the ref makes the pen decision based on where contact is made, not where the skid marks start

[SCIAG]

I was very confused when the teams were read out before the match. It looked like we were going to be playing 4-4-2 with Quinn and either Gravenbech or Obita in midfield.

Meite must have got injured in the warm up because Kelly started the match in his place and the team looked reasonably balanced. We could probably have used a more attacking midfielder in for Gravenbech just to give more support to the forwards.

Watson and Kelly had very good games, particularly Kelly playing out of position. Cooper made one major mistake but otherwise looked assured. I also liked the look of Moore. Gravenbech did OK considering, I'd like to see him in defence. Harriot was very exciting. Jaakola looked good.

At times I thought we were too conservative on the ball, particularly Moore who should have been playing more passes out to Watson.