MATCHWATCH : Millwall (h)

[Lower West]

Let's not kid ourselves about missing Meite and Swift either. They've only started 17 games between them. We've done perfectly well without them before.


Baffling to swap Semedo and Rino.

Apparently Rino does a better job on making forward runs to “manage” Millwall’s playmaker so VP swapped them about.

Semedo offers little playing as a no 10 / attacking midfield role. A real disappointment. Swift out for at least 6 weeks is a major blow. Might as well play Baldock in the hole.

[Dick Habbin's hairdo]

Today was solely down to Pauno.

He takes responsibility for getting it wrong..... especially taking Holmes off.

Gibson was solid.

That is all.

[Orion1871]

Agree with the above posts, we should have cashed in on Joao and Olise during the TX window, Joao is just another N Blackman a one season wonder, Olise shows a bit of talent but has delusions of the Premiership. We should have gone all out for Shane Long. then we would have seen the real Sam Baldock.

Absolutely not. A young lad like Smith who came on for them and changed the game would have been perfect.

Or do you have something against young English players?

[Hendo]

A young lad?

Matt Smith is 31

[Orion1871]

A young lad?

Matt Smith is 31

Age is just a number and as I always say, If you’re old enough you’re good enough.

[karbota]

Agree with the above posts, we should have cashed in on Joao and Olise during the TX window, Joao is just another N Blackman a one season wonder, Olise shows a bit of talent but has delusions of the Premiership. We should have gone all out for Shane Long. then we would have seen the real Sam Baldock.

Absolutely not. A young lad like Smith who came on for them and changed the game would have been perfect.

Or do you have something against young English players?

LOL 31 years young, sign him on the next window.

[windermereROYAL]

Relying too much on Joao for goals now, playing every game appears to be losing his edge, badly in need of a rest, we need Meite and Puscas back soon to help with the heavy lifting.

[RoyalBlue]

Don't pretend Semedo was he problem with the goals.

Watch the first goal back. Semedo is walking around like there is absolutely zero danger. You’d thing Rino would have made more of an effort to somehow even get close to the attacker.

Do F off.

Yiadom doesn't affect the cross. Laurent air kicks a clearance. McIntyre fails to block or control the ball going through, Morrison isn't covering the goalscorer and you want to blame Semedo? FFS

Seond goal, another unpressured cross from the right and a free header in the heart of our box. Again, that's Yiadom, Morrison and McIntyre's responsibility.

Agreed. Still it seems that Semedo is being developed by some as the replacement scapegoat for when Aluko leaves! Personally I thought he had a very good game today.

[Orion1871]

Agree with the above posts, we should have cashed in on Joao and Olise during the TX window, Joao is just another N Blackman a one season wonder, Olise shows a bit of talent but has delusions of the Premiership. We should have gone all out for Shane Long. then we would have seen the real Sam Baldock.

Absolutely not. A young lad like Smith who came on for them and changed the game would have been perfect.

Or do you have something against young English players?

LOL 31 years young, sign him on the next window.

He is a little older than he appears, so what? He is an excellent player and would have been a decent option. But no you would prefer a foreigner like Shane Long. Anti British people like you make me sick.

[Zip]

Relying too much on Joao for goals now, playing every game appears to be losing his edge, badly in need of a rest, we need Meite and Puscas back soon to help with the heavy lifting.

Yep this is a problem. We don’t have any heavy scoring midfielders so without Yaks and Puscas it’s all on Joao. We have a great opportunity to get back to winning ways on Tuesday night. It would be good to see Puscas on the bench. He can’t be far away by now.

[Zip]

Watch the first goal back. Semedo is walking around like there is absolutely zero danger. You’d thing Rino would have made more of an effort to somehow even get close to the attacker.

Do F off.

Yiadom doesn't affect the cross. Laurent air kicks a clearance. McIntyre fails to block or control the ball going through, Morrison isn't covering the goalscorer and you want to blame Semedo? FFS

Seond goal, another unpressured cross from the right and a free header in the heart of our box. Again, that's Yiadom, Morrison and McIntyre's responsibility.

Agreed. Still it seems that Semedo is being developed by some as the replacement scapegoat for when Aluko leaves! Personally I thought he had a very good game today.

Definitely one of our better players today.

[Notts Royal]

Relying too much on Joao for goals now, playing every game appears to be losing his edge, badly in need of a rest, we need Meite and Puscas back soon to help with the heavy lifting.

Yep this is a problem. We don’t have any heavy scoring midfielders so without Yaks and Puscas it’s all on Joao. We have a great opportunity to get back to winning ways on Tuesday night. It would be good to see Puscas on the bench. He can’t be far away by now.

I’d love to see Puscas come back and be on fire. I do think the fanbase view Joao as a much better player than Puscas when they have completely different attributes. Even better would be to see them firing together but our midfield is too strong to enable us to play 2 up top

[Jinx]

Agreed.

It's not like promotion earns you tens of millions of pounds or anything. Just a game.

+3

Reading’s destiny is the play offs, that’s what the players and management have to work on. The squad lacks the depth in terms of impact players so was always unlikely to be able to carry through an automatic promotion charge. If the club do not get promotion then next season should be immense with the experience of this season hopefully able to be compounded by decent summer transfer activity to fill the shortcomings.

Our destiny being in the playoffs is what worries me. I have visions of Huddersfield coming back.
Still when you think about it, being where we are now is just such a bonus from the last few seasons.
Think many of us are acting a bit spoilt and forget that.

This is the crucial bit - just enjoy the ride after the shit we have watched lately and expect a couple of slips

[URZZZZ]

What's 100% Aluko?......I've never seen it.
We might as well play with 10 men rather than bring him on.
I'm counting the days til him and Baldock finally leave. They are literally robbing this club of 2 good salaries.

[URZZZZ]

Disappointing defeat but given Millwall’s overall record (and in particular against the top 6) - not surprising we didn’t get the 3 points. Different story losing the game mind, but sure they’d have been a fair share of critics if we’d drawn that 1-1

Always surprised Smith doesn’t play more for them - always a handful, especially when you consider their other options. I like Bodvarsson, he did OK for us and worked hard, but he’s fairly limited

Need a reaction which I’m sure we’ll get on Tuesday

[URZZZZ]

Relying too much on Joao for goals now, playing every game appears to be losing his edge, badly in need of a rest, we need Meite and Puscas back soon to help with the heavy lifting.

Yep this is a problem. We don’t have any heavy scoring midfielders so without Yaks and Puscas it’s all on Joao. We have a great opportunity to get back to winning ways on Tuesday night. It would be good to see Puscas on the bench. He can’t be far away by now.

I’d love to see Puscas come back and be on fire. I do think the fanbase view Joao as a much better player than Puscas when they have completely different attributes. Even better would be to see them firing together but our midfield is too strong to enable us to play 2 up top

Could be an option if we were to develop a 4-2-2-2 sort of style with Joao dropping deep behind Puscas (especially with Swift and Meite out)

However, in the rare times we did see that partnership last season, bar Cardiff (H), it didn’t really work out, real lack of understanding between the pair. Puscas looked a lot better next to Baldock than he did Meite/Joao

Given it hasn’t been tried for a while and it’s a new manager this season, could be worth a go if results don’t pick up soon but no need for knee jerk reactions straight away, it’s a real chance for Semedo/Aluko to perform in these next few weeks, against what you’d argue, favourable opposition

Although Semedo has been decent these past few games, don’t think he’s the best player we’ll have and I’m still not entirely sure what he offers but as others have alluded to, he’s not as bad as people make out he is

[Stranded]

For what it's worth, I had no issue with the change at RB yesterday. Nearly all the crosses into the box were coming from Holmes' side. He wasn't closing down crosses nearly well enough.

Changing to fresh legs was clearly designed to try and negate that riskand help close out as the number of balls coming in from that side was likely to lead to a chance or two. Sadly it failed.

[paddy20]

Relying too much on Joao for goals now, playing every game appears to be losing his edge, badly in need of a rest, we need Meite and Puscas back soon to help with the heavy lifting.

More a problem of being marked out of the game now teams know he's our only real threat.Often had 3 players on him. Our short passing and triangles looks very pretty but it slows the game down and is generally not effective outside the box. When we put crosses in there are at best 2 players in there. Millwall just played the percentage game. Long ball in box put bodies in there and wait for break.

We looked good against Brentford as they gave us loads of space. We will struggle now as teams know how to play against us and without Swift and Meite we cant change the game. Just mark Joao and close us down all the time like Millwall did.

[Hound]

Hopefully have Puscas and Meite back imminently

That will allow us to change things up a bit hopefully

also a bit concerned about the reliance on Joao to pull something out of the hat at the moment. That and set pieces seem our main threat

[Notts Royal]

Yep this is a problem. We don’t have any heavy scoring midfielders so without Yaks and Puscas it’s all on Joao. We have a great opportunity to get back to winning ways on Tuesday night. It would be good to see Puscas on the bench. He can’t be far away by now.

I’d love to see Puscas come back and be on fire. I do think the fanbase view Joao as a much better player than Puscas when they have completely different attributes. Even better would be to see them firing together but our midfield is too strong to enable us to play 2 up top

Could be an option if we were to develop a 4-2-2-2 sort of style with Joao dropping deep behind Puscas (especially with Swift and Meite out)

However, in the rare times we did see that partnership last season, bar Cardiff (H), it didn’t really work out, real lack of understanding between the pair. Puscas looked a lot better next to Baldock than he did Meite/Joao

Given it hasn’t been tried for a while and it’s a new manager this season, could be worth a go if results don’t pick up soon but no need for knee jerk reactions straight away, it’s a real chance for Semedo/Aluko to perform in these next few weeks, against what you’d argue, favourable opposition

Although Semedo has been decent these past few games, don’t think he’s the best player we’ll have and I’m still not entirely sure what he offers but as others have alluded to, he’s not as bad as people make out he is

That’s a good point.

I don’t think the next run is going to be as straightforward as people think. Rotherham have really picked up, and Wycombe on their day can give teams a game. Injuries will make Tuesday more challenging than it should be too.

I’ll get shot down but Aluko as 1 of the 3 behind Joao would give better balance than Rino in the no 10 role. Put him on the right and move Olise centrally...would mean Joao is less isolated

Problem with Puscas is he’d suit a high energy team. Simply put we’re not that right now, especially with Ejaria in the side

4-4-2 with Meite might work but lack of wingers is an issue. But Rino & Laurent would work similar to Harps & Sidders