by Hampshire Royal »
09 Mar 2012 09:15
I saw the last two games, and while it's true to say that we don't play like Barcelona, we are extremely good at the way we play. The only time we looked vulnerable at Millwall is after Connolly got injured ultimately leading to Millwall's goal. The change at half-time, leading to Tabb coming on and Karacan playing at RB led to us totally dominating the second half and winning comfortably. I was a bit surprised that the same team wasn't started against Pompey, but can fully understand why Cummings was started.
On a very cold night, the game against Pompey wasn't the most pleasant evening watching football and it has to be said it was pretty dull. Having said that, we won comfortably against a very physical Pompey side. Of course I'd prefer that we played fast attacking football like Barca, and maybe if we had Messi we would. We do, however, have the players we have and with the manager we have we seem to be doing exactly what's right to get promoted this year and that is what's more important to me (and I suspect the vast majority of Reading fans). I remember talking to a Leeds fan about their team in the Sixties and Seventies and saying how dull I thought they were, also talking to a Wimbledon fan where I said much the same thing. Both these people couldn't disagree more with what I said. They said that the football they played was what was needed to gain the success they had, and they talked about it as if their teams were like the modern Barca. Just as a point, it may be worth noting that Barca are ten points behind Real in La Liga, so playing the Barca way is no guarantee of success.
It's pointless talking about how we'll do next year if we do get promoted, but I do think that McDermott is clued up enough to do what's needed to stay there, he's demonstrated enough times that he can make whatever changes are necessary to ensure that the team does whatever's necessary to stay there.
