Ince out!

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Ince OUT

[Getthebeerens]

The mission at the start of the season was to keep Reading FC in the Championship and we are well on track to achieve this.

We are 1 win away from equalling the same amount of wins from last season with a lesser squad and we have a terrific home record. Like it or not progress is being made. This season was always about survival and nothing else, it doesn’t matter about how and when we get the points. It’s just about getting enough to survive.

[Crowbar6753]

Carroll isn’t the whole issue.

When you only have the players available that allow you to play 5-3-2 with two defensive mids (one of whom is a repurposed cb) and without any playmaker, you’ll always be one dimensional.

Azeez needs to play in a side with other quick players and a player in the middle who plays attacking passes (regrettably Ejaria has made himself unplayable).

Ince is damned by the options available to him.

The problem with that is, we don't have the players to play that way, but we do have the players to play other ways.

Exactly this, and in the game against Cardiff our midfield was dire!! Ince has been complaining we have no midfield, so why was Casadei not used!!! Why complain all window that we need a midfielder as we are short and then get one in and not use him in a game that was crying out for something else in the middle!!!!! totally baffled.

[Crowbar6753]

The mission at the start of the season was to keep Reading FC in the Championship and we are well on track to achieve this.

We are 1 win away from equalling the same amount of wins from last season with a lesser squad and we have a terrific home record. Like it or not progress is being made. This season was always about survival and nothing else, it doesn’t matter about how and when we get the points. It’s just about getting enough to survive.

"No" progress was made early in the season!! We are currently regressing at an alarming rate of knots!!!! Snowflake Royal just gave us two examples of formations with players being player in their natural positions of which i would be 100% confident of us surviving with these teams.
Ince is a nice guy with bags of experience which he has used to good effect behind the scenes, however, he is no tactician, hence why he has never made it as a manager!!
Why someone with his knowledge of the game cannot see that our total lack of creativity and this persistence of playing 5 at the back is clearly now not going to work and win us games any longer and that a plan B/C is know needed for us to move forward is beyond me.
Azeez, Hoilett, Ince, Meite will all create chances in the right formation and position!! Joao, Carroll and Long will score goals if you feed them the ball in the right position!!!
Our defence is not good enough to play for a 0-0 draw, so we need to score goals.
We probably need to win 3 more games to be totally safe, however, with the way we have played recently and the totally dire, negative tactics used and with the run of games we have after Blackpool i really do not see where these three wins will come from, and lets remind ourselves, the only reason we beat Rotherham was down to the 4-3-3 formation that we all called for which injected the attacking influence we have all been craving for.

[leon]

The mission at the start of the season was to keep Reading FC in the Championship and we are well on track to achieve this.

We are 1 win away from equalling the same amount of wins from last season with a lesser squad and we have a terrific home record. Like it or not progress is being made. This season was always about survival and nothing else, it doesn’t matter about how and when we get the points. It’s just about getting enough to survive.

"No" progress was made early in the season!! We are currently regressing at an alarming rate of knots!!!! Snowflake Royal just gave us two examples of formations with players being player in their natural positions of which i would be 100% confident of us surviving with these teams.
Ince is a nice guy with bags of experience which he has used to good effect behind the scenes, however, he is no tactician, hence why he has never made it as a manager!!
Why someone with his knowledge of the game cannot see that our total lack of creativity and this persistence of playing 5 at the back is clearly now not going to work and win us games any longer and that a plan B/C is know needed for us to move forward is beyond me.
Azeez, Hoilett, Ince, Meite will all create chances in the right formation and position!! Joao, Carroll and Long will score goals if you feed them the ball in the right position!!!
Our defence is not good enough to play for a 0-0 draw, so we need to score goals.
We probably need to win 3 more games to be totally safe, however, with the way we have played recently and the totally dire, negative tactics used and with the run of games we have after Blackpool i really do not see where these three wins will come from, and lets remind ourselves, the only reason we beat Rotherham was down to the 4-3-3 formation that we all called for which injected the attacking influence we have all been craving for.

I’m struggling to disagree with any of this.

Apart from the agreeing with Ian Royal but Tbf he has a point

[fred sharpes nose]

Ince deserves a bit of slack.

He took the job to help out (bit like Dads with kids football, put the nets up and do your best!). He mandated I guess get the structure right eg Bowen etc. He has at times fired up the squad to be a bit harder. His sole focus is staying up - laudable to have such a resolute approach. The fall out from that is going to be significant (see below). He is likely to succeed in meeting the objective set. Let’s also recognise a) he is an inexperienced manager, years in post for age b) his last job was ages ago. So maybe rusty.

What’s plainly clear in his tenure though is he is a very limited manager in terms of skill set and overall ability. So we can’t be too hard on him - it’s not his fault he is just not that good. I’m pretty certain a more rounded and competent manager would get more out of the squad we have. A different approach to motivation after our excellent start and a reset of targets would probably have happened with a more positive experienced manager. Clearly not a risk taker and it would seem not a great coach/ man manager. I’d suggest the youngsters have suffered from him being here - not good for the future. He has failed, for whatever reason, to get anything out of talented (though maybe hard to manage) players - Joao, Meier, Eharia. Outcome of this is we are likely to lose them for zero when once they were valuable assets. Ditto the kids.

His short term thinking has both a positive and negative ( for the long term) effect. His decision making ability in terms of selection, formation, game management, substitutions etc. Is clearly a challenge, which generally he gets wrong. However he will keep us up - the manner and consequences of his approach is not appealing. Evidenced by match quality, lower crowds, and increasingly endless excuses, and trend towards it’s not my fault.

IMO he should see out the season, get thanks for keeping us up, pick up a tidy bonus and head back to the golf course. Like in a temp to perm job he hasn’t demonstrated he is good enough for us past this season. I hope Bowen is already compiling the selection list for a new manager to take over from survival and move the club forward.

The club deserves a good manager, after years of poor choices- we need to get this right. Like some of our journeyman, misfit, injury prone squad who aren’t actually good enough, Ince falls into the same category- we can’t be to hard on him, it’s not his fault he isn’t very good/good for the long term.

If he is still in post at the start of next then no season ticket renewal for me.

Get us over the line Paul with our thanks and plan a relaxing and deserved holiday

[Getthebeerens]

The mission at the start of the season was to keep Reading FC in the Championship and we are well on track to achieve this.

We are 1 win away from equalling the same amount of wins from last season with a lesser squad and we have a terrific home record. Like it or not progress is being made. This season was always about survival and nothing else, it doesn’t matter about how and when we get the points. It’s just about getting enough to survive.

"No" progress was made early in the season!! We are currently regressing at an alarming rate of knots!!!! Snowflake Royal just gave us two examples of formations with players being player in their natural positions of which i would be 100% confident of us surviving with these teams.
Ince is a nice guy with bags of experience which he has used to good effect behind the scenes, however, he is no tactician, hence why he has never made it as a manager!!
Why someone with his knowledge of the game cannot see that our total lack of creativity and this persistence of playing 5 at the back is clearly now not going to work and win us games any longer and that a plan B/C is know needed for us to move forward is beyond me.
Azeez, Hoilett, Ince, Meite will all create chances in the right formation and position!! Joao, Carroll and Long will score goals if you feed them the ball in the right position!!!
Our defence is not good enough to play for a 0-0 draw, so we need to score goals.
We probably need to win 3 more games to be totally safe, however, with the way we have played recently and the totally dire, negative tactics used and with the run of games we have after Blackpool i really do not see where these three wins will come from, and lets remind ourselves, the only reason we beat Rotherham was down to the 4-3-3 formation that we all called for which injected the attacking influence we have all been craving for.

But if we progressed from the beginning of the season we would most likely be in a playoff hunt which is very unrealistic. Would you prefer we spread out our 12 wins evenly over the season so we show no sign of decline. Unfortunately football does not work like that, Ince even spoke about we will have tough times ahead when we were towards the top of the league.

[Stranded]

Again, we started well because of who we played then. Go look at the fixtures and mix of results. They are actually in pattern with the rest of the season.

I have major issues with the way we play esp away but we haven't regressed as bar Blackburn we have played pretty much the same throughout. The games were front loaded for us in being a bit more friendly.

[leon]

Ince deserves a bit of slack.

He took the job to help out (bit like Dads with kids football, put the nets up and do your best!). He mandated I guess get the structure right eg Bowen etc. He has at times fired up the squad to be a bit harder. His sole focus is staying up - laudable to have such a resolute approach. The fall out from that is going to be significant (see below). He is likely to succeed in meeting the objective set. Let’s also recognise a) he is an inexperienced manager, years in post for age b) his last job was ages ago. So maybe rusty.

What’s plainly clear in his tenure though is he is a very limited manager in terms of skill set and overall ability. So we can’t be too hard on him - it’s not his fault he is just not that good. I’m pretty certain a more rounded and competent manager would get more out of the squad we have. A different approach to motivation after our excellent start and a reset of targets would probably have happened with a more positive experienced manager. Clearly not a risk taker and it would seem not a great coach/ man manager. I’d suggest the youngsters have suffered from him being here - not good for the future. He has failed, for whatever reason, to get anything out of talented (though maybe hard to manage) players - Joao, Meier, Eharia. Outcome of this is we are likely to lose them for zero when once they were valuable assets. Ditto the kids.

His short term thinking has both a positive and negative ( for the long term) effect. His decision making ability in terms of selection, formation, game management, substitutions etc. Is clearly a challenge, which generally he gets wrong. However he will keep us up - the manner and consequences of his approach is not appealing. Evidenced by match quality, lower crowds, and increasingly endless excuses, and trend towards it’s not my fault.

IMO he should see out the season, get thanks for keeping us up, pick up a tidy bonus and head back to the golf course. Like in a temp to perm job he hasn’t demonstrated he is good enough for us past this season. I hope Bowen is already compiling the selection list for a new manager to take over from survival and move the club forward.

The club deserves a good manager, after years of poor choices- we need to get this right. Like some of our journeyman, misfit, injury prone squad who aren’t actually good enough, Ince falls into the same category- we can’t be to hard on him, it’s not his fault he isn’t very good/good for the long term.

If he is still in post at the start of next then no season ticket renewal for me.

Get us over the line Paul with our thanks and plan a relaxing and deserved holiday

This is cutting him some slack?! Christ

[karbota]

Ince deserves a bit of slack.

He took the job to help out (bit like Dads with kids football, put the nets up and do your best!). He mandated I guess get the structure right eg Bowen etc. He has at times fired up the squad to be a bit harder. His sole focus is staying up - laudable to have such a resolute approach. The fall out from that is going to be significant (see below). He is likely to succeed in meeting the objective set. Let’s also recognise a) he is an inexperienced manager, years in post for age b) his last job was ages ago. So maybe rusty.

What’s plainly clear in his tenure though is he is a very limited manager in terms of skill set and overall ability. So we can’t be too hard on him - it’s not his fault he is just not that good. I’m pretty certain a more rounded and competent manager would get more out of the squad we have. A different approach to motivation after our excellent start and a reset of targets would probably have happened with a more positive experienced manager. Clearly not a risk taker and it would seem not a great coach/ man manager. I’d suggest the youngsters have suffered from him being here - not good for the future. He has failed, for whatever reason, to get anything out of talented (though maybe hard to manage) players - Joao, Meier, Eharia. Outcome of this is we are likely to lose them for zero when once they were valuable assets. Ditto the kids.

His short term thinking has both a positive and negative ( for the long term) effect. His decision making ability in terms of selection, formation, game management, substitutions etc. Is clearly a challenge, which generally he gets wrong. However he will keep us up - the manner and consequences of his approach is not appealing. Evidenced by match quality, lower crowds, and increasingly endless excuses, and trend towards it’s not my fault.

IMO he should see out the season, get thanks for keeping us up, pick up a tidy bonus and head back to the golf course. Like in a temp to perm job he hasn’t demonstrated he is good enough for us past this season. I hope Bowen is already compiling the selection list for a new manager to take over from survival and move the club forward.

The club deserves a good manager, after years of poor choices- we need to get this right. Like some of our journeyman, misfit, injury prone squad who aren’t actually good enough, Ince falls into the same category- we can’t be to hard on him, it’s not his fault he isn’t very good/good for the long term.

If he is still in post at the start of next then no season ticket renewal for me.

Get us over the line Paul with our thanks and plan a relaxing and deserved holiday

This is cutting him some slack?! Christ

Yeah that's a bit harsh, he could stay on as Parkys assistant. BTW Wrexham won again!

[Fezza]

Carroll isn’t the whole issue.

When you only have the players available that allow you to play 5-3-2 with two defensive mids (one of whom is a repurposed cb) and without any playmaker, you’ll always be one dimensional.

Azeez needs to play in a side with other quick players and a player in the middle who plays attacking passes (regrettably Ejaria has made himself unplayable).

Ince is damned by the options available to him.

The problem with that is, we don't have the players to play that way, but we do have the players to play other ways.

Tom Ince needs to play with Azeez and Hoilett on the wings, the issue is that Hoilett is required at the back due to the mass of injuries and that we need to play a back 3 to cover for the ineptitude of our left backs at defending.

I'm not sure how you alter the 5 / 3 / 2 and retain any solidity in defence. Our midfield (with Ejaria downing tools) lacks a playmaker, unless you play the kids.

[Sutekh]

Carroll isn’t the whole issue.

When you only have the players available that allow you to play 5-3-2 with two defensive mids (one of whom is a repurposed cb) and without any playmaker, you’ll always be one dimensional.

Azeez needs to play in a side with other quick players and a player in the middle who plays attacking passes (regrettably Ejaria has made himself unplayable).

Ince is damned by the options available to him.

The problem with that is, we don't have the players to play that way, but we do have the players to play other ways.

Tom Ince needs to play with Azeez and Hoilett on the wings, the issue is that Hoilett is required at the back due to the mass of injuries and that we need to play a back 3 to cover for the ineptitude of our left backs at defending.

I'm not sure how you alter the 5 / 3 / 2 and retain any solidity in defence. Our midfield (with Ejaria downing tools) lacks a playmaker, unless you play the kids.

Play the kids then, results can’t really be much worse can they ?

[Fezza]

Here's some sides that might work and play to people's strengths.

.......................Lumley
Yiadom, Mbengue, Holmes, NGW
Hoilett, ...any 2 midfielders,... Ince
.................Carroll, Another

Spoil midfield protecting defence, get the ball wide and down the wings to cross into Carroll. You also have the option ofhitting Carroll for knock downs or flick ons or hitting the channels for Azeez/Long/Meite to chase.

......................Lumley
Yiadom, Holmes, Sarr, Rahman
..............Any 2 midfielders
..Meite............Ince..............Azeez
........................Joao

Again, protect defence and spoil in midfield. Use Meite and Azeez to attack the full backs and with Ince get bodies around Joao, giving him options and pulling defenders off him.

There are many variations along these lines. We just need to avoid defence being too many inexperienced players along side each other, and only really slow centrebacks if possible.

We saw how much better we looked going 4-3-3 against Rotherham and I don't think Azeez or NGW played to the level they're capable of in open play in that game.

We have options. Ince is ignoring them.

I don't disagree with either of those formations, the issue is the LB and CB combinations. Neither NGW or Baba are good enough in defence, Sarr seems poor. I guess you could put TMac at LB... realistically the end of the season can't come soon enough.

[Fezza]

The problem with that is, we don't have the players to play that way, but we do have the players to play other ways.

Tom Ince needs to play with Azeez and Hoilett on the wings, the issue is that Hoilett is required at the back due to the mass of injuries and that we need to play a back 3 to cover for the ineptitude of our left backs at defending.

I'm not sure how you alter the 5 / 3 / 2 and retain any solidity in defence. Our midfield (with Ejaria downing tools) lacks a playmaker, unless you play the kids.

Play the kids then, results can’t really be much worse can they ?

We have the 2nd or 3rd best home form in the league, results could be much worse.

[Franchise FC]

I’d give him a contract extension tbh

Just to see Royal Jimmy self-combust

[Snowflake Royal]

Here's some sides that might work and play to people's strengths.

.......................Lumley
Yiadom, Mbengue, Holmes, NGW
Hoilett, ...any 2 midfielders,... Ince
.................Carroll, Another

Spoil midfield protecting defence, get the ball wide and down the wings to cross into Carroll. You also have the option ofhitting Carroll for knock downs or flick ons or hitting the channels for Azeez/Long/Meite to chase.

......................Lumley
Yiadom, Holmes, Sarr, Rahman
..............Any 2 midfielders
..Meite............Ince..............Azeez
........................Joao

Again, protect defence and spoil in midfield. Use Meite and Azeez to attack the full backs and with Ince get bodies around Joao, giving him options and pulling defenders off him.

There are many variations along these lines. We just need to avoid defence being too many inexperienced players along side each other, and only really slow centrebacks if possible.

We saw how much better we looked going 4-3-3 against Rotherham and I don't think Azeez or NGW played to the level they're capable of in open play in that game.

We have options. Ince is ignoring them.

I don't disagree with either of those formations, the issue is the LB and CB combinations. Neither NGW or Baba are good enough in defence, Sarr seems poor. I guess you could put TMac at LB... realistically the end of the season can't come soon enough.

If we have more of the game, and score more goals, defence becomes less of a problem.

Ince's solution is to cripple every other part of the side to protect the defence and we're still leaking goals galore.

So take the pressure off. Up possession, up time in the oppo half, create more chances.

Opposition have to worry more about the threat we carry and can't just pile on the pressure and push us deeper and deeper with no concern for their own goal.

McIntyre and Holmes have both played fullback. Yiadom can play left back, we also have Abrefa.

There are a plethora of possibilities, none of which are being tried.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Here's some sides that might work and play to people's strengths.

.......................Lumley
Yiadom, Mbengue, Holmes, NGW
Hoilett, ...any 2 midfielders,... Ince
.................Carroll, Another

Spoil midfield protecting defence, get the ball wide and down the wings to cross into Carroll. You also have the option ofhitting Carroll for knock downs or flick ons or hitting the channels for Azeez/Long/Meite to chase.

......................Lumley
Yiadom, Holmes, Sarr, Rahman
..............Any 2 midfielders
..Meite............Ince..............Azeez
........................Joao

Again, protect defence and spoil in midfield. Use Meite and Azeez to attack the full backs and with Ince get bodies around Joao, giving him options and pulling defenders off him.

There are many variations along these lines. We just need to avoid defence being too many inexperienced players along side each other, and only really slow centrebacks if possible.

We saw how much better we looked going 4-3-3 against Rotherham and I don't think Azeez or NGW played to the level they're capable of in open play in that game.

We have options. Ince is ignoring them.

I don't disagree with either of those formations, the issue is the LB and CB combinations. Neither NGW or Baba are good enough in defence, Sarr seems poor. I guess you could put TMac at LB... realistically the end of the season can't come soon enough.

If we have more of the game, and score more goals, defence becomes less of a problem.

Ince's solution is to cripple every other part of the side to protect the defence and we're still leaking goals galore.

So take the pressure off. Up possession, up time in the oppo half, create more chances.

Opposition have to worry more about the threat we carry and can't just pile on the pressure and push us deeper and deeper with no concern for their own goal.

McIntyre and Holmes have both played fullback. Yiadom can play left back, we also have Abrefa.

There are a plethora of possibilities, none of which are being tried.

Whist I don't necessarily disagree, P.Ince has admitted that we don't have that many good technical footballers in our squad. So yes, whilst we need to find a different way to do things, trying to make pretty drastic changes, like upping possession, is just going to kill us even more.

What we need to do is find other ways to improve how we play. We haven't been able to easily dip into the market to find players and our squad is so limited. It's battle-hardened with a battle-hardened manager. So we do have to take those aspects of our game, our strengths, and then look at where we are weak and find other ways to do things.

As I said earlier, I've no problem with conceding possession to the opposition away from home because that's where we are, but we don't carry a threat often enough, players can often make poor decisions etc. So maybe we can change the shape to have a 4-3-3, we still sit deep, have a compact middle third but having 2 players on each flank means we are less vulnerable to being overloaded in the wider areas, thus conceding less crosses etc. On the flip side, it means we can stretch the game on the break and we can have some players who can swing crosses in towards Carroll, rather than relying on wing backs that can't get up the field because of how deep they usually are.

[blythspartan]

I genuinely like PInce and his plain speaking. My only issue with him is his tatics are the same whether we’re away to Burnley or Cardiff or at home to Rotherham.

I understand trying to batten down the hatches against Burnley, and Boro in the near future but we have to show more ambition against teams that are not better than us. We don’t need technically gifted players to beat the likes of Blackpool and Wigan. IR’s formations show different ways of playing to the strengths of the players we do have. We’re 10 points clear of relegation but we’re are still playing with fear.

[Zip]

I genuinely like PInce and his plain speaking. My only issue with him is his tatics are the same whether we’re away to Burnley or Cardiff or at home to Rotherham.

I understand trying to batten down the hatches against Burnley, and Boro in the near future but we have to show more ambition against teams that are not better than us. We don’t need technically gifted players to beat the likes of Blackpool and Wigan. IR’s formations show different ways of playing to the strengths of the players we do have. We’re 10 points clear of relegation but we’re are still playing with fear.

Yep.

[Snowflake Royal]

I don't disagree with either of those formations, the issue is the LB and CB combinations. Neither NGW or Baba are good enough in defence, Sarr seems poor. I guess you could put TMac at LB... realistically the end of the season can't come soon enough.

If we have more of the game, and score more goals, defence becomes less of a problem.

Ince's solution is to cripple every other part of the side to protect the defence and we're still leaking goals galore.

So take the pressure off. Up possession, up time in the oppo half, create more chances.

Opposition have to worry more about the threat we carry and can't just pile on the pressure and push us deeper and deeper with no concern for their own goal.

McIntyre and Holmes have both played fullback. Yiadom can play left back, we also have Abrefa.

There are a plethora of possibilities, none of which are being tried.

Whist I don't necessarily disagree, P.Ince has admitted that we don't have that many good technical footballers in our squad. So yes, whilst we need to find a different way to do things, trying to make pretty drastic changes, like upping possession, is just going to kill us even more.

What we need to do is find other ways to improve how we play. We haven't been able to easily dip into the market to find players and our squad is so limited. It's battle-hardened with a battle-hardened manager. So we do have to take those aspects of our game, our strengths, and then look at where we are weak and find other ways to do things.

As I said earlier, I've no problem with conceding possession to the opposition away from home because that's where we are, but we don't carry a threat often enough, players can often make poor decisions etc. So maybe we can change the shape to have a 4-3-3, we still sit deep, have a compact middle third but having 2 players on each flank means we are less vulnerable to being overloaded in the wider areas, thus conceding less crosses etc. On the flip side, it means we can stretch the game on the break and we can have some players who can swing crosses in towards Carroll, rather than relying on wing backs that can't get up the field because of how deep they usually are.

I don't accept we have players who are incapable of maintaining a reasonable possession level when set up appropriately.