Back from the Preston game

[Maguire]

I think you're joking. Lita was okay but Doyle was having an excellent game until his knock.

No, seriously. I'm well aware of Leroy's limitations, but thought he had a decent game. It wasn't Doyle's day really and after getting smacked in the head (which was only 30 mins in), he wasn't really in the game.

Leroy was doing well at retaining the ball in the second half, winning free-kicks, generally making a nuisance of himself.

It's pretty clear that some people just have an issue with him in general (partly racial?) and can't really debate the merits of his performances objectively.

[brendywendy]

lita had another good game, looked lively to me, and worked his socks off again

[Dirk Gently]

When you love Leroy, who cares if his return coincides with our worst goal drought of the season?

Lita played better than most of the other Reading players - certainly a lot better than Doyle - and Coppell should feel vindicated at his selection.

Not going to argue with that at all - but we still had two individual strikers playing out there. When Doyle and NHunt play together the combination of them working for each other makes them both better, and so the sum is more than just the two of them.

On Saturday, and at QPR, we had decent individual perfromances from them but they never actually looked like a striking-team - they looked like a couple of strikers who happened to be playing in the same team.

Leroy thrives on the ball played in front of him, on the ground, to run onto, Doyler thrives on wing play and holding the ball up and isn't wasted as a provider for Leroy - I'm so sure how those styles and preferences are compatible.

So I'm not having a go at either of them - they both have much to offer. It's just the combination of the pair of them that's wrong.

[brendywendy]

thought he provided quite a few knock downs and headers on for doyle and others

[Royal Rother]

Some of Lita's jumps against defenders a whole head+ bigger than him are amazing and he worked hard as, to my eyes, he always does. NHunt works equally hard, it just seems to me that more happens around him. He just links up better with other players.

To get the best out of Lita we need MM to play as he is more likely to see the space to feed Lita around the box. He is better running onto through balls than poaching on scraps and knock downs from crosses.

EDIT: Holy crap - Woodcote just said much the same thing...

[Maguire]

Lita played better than most of the other Reading players - certainly a lot better than Doyle - and Coppell should feel vindicated at his selection.

Not going to argue with that at all - but we still had two individual strikers playing out there. When Doyle and NHunt play together the combination of them working for each other makes them both better, and so the sum is more than just the two of them.

On Saturday, and at QPR, we had decent individual perfromances from them but they never actually looked like a striking-team - they looked like a couple of strikers who happened to be playing in the same team.

Leroy thrives on the ball played in front of him, on the ground, to run onto, Doyler thrives on wing play and holding the ball up and isn't wasted as a provider for Leroy - I'm so sure how those styles and preferences are compatible.

So I'm not having a go at either of them - they both have much to offer. It's just the combination of the pair of them that's wrong.

Yes you make a fair point. I agree with that.

[Maguire]

Doyle and Hunt have even allowed us to get away without having a target man in our ranks because, despite neither being the tallest, they aren't the worst in the air. None of this applies to Lita and whilst his die hard fan club might not see it, one can only hope that our manager will, eventually

Some of Lita's jumps against defenders a whole head+ bigger than him are amazing

Are you sure you agree with him RR?

FWIW I think you're right - Lita can get more air time than MJ.

[Hoop Blah]

I thought Saturday wasn't a lot different to a lot of home games we've seen this season.

We looked pretty comfortable at the back and didn't give Preston many chances whilst at the other end we worked hard and had a few decent chances ourselves without ever really carving them open much. We huffed and puffed, got into some excellent positions down both wings and then our lack of quality on the ball meant those opportunities to create didn't result in clear cut chances for the front two.

Earlier in the season we were very clinical infront of goal and we ended up beating teams by pretty comfortable margins without ever really beating them convincingly over the course of the game.

With Doyle having a bit of a lean spell infront of goal and the lack of goals from midfield we're now seeing much more realistic scorelines from our performances.

I don't think anyone played that badly on Saturday, but nobody played that well apart from the two centre halfs who both did their jobs without any fuss. The two wingers were again a disappointment and I lost count of the number of times we turned down a chance to get the ball into the box to over complicate things and try and beat a man that was already beaten. This was also apparent from the fullbacks who always wanted to take an extra touch before delivering a cross. Maybe this is down to the state of the pitch, maybe it's just a general lack of confidence after some less than average performances recently, either way our passing and crossing has become more laboured of late and we're lacking that zip we had to our game in October/November and perhaps early December.

[Scarface]

I don't think anyone played that badly on Saturday, but nobody played that well apart from the two centre halfs who both did their jobs without any fuss. The two wingers were again a disappointment and I lost count of the number of times we turned down a chance to get the ball into the box to over complicate things and try and beat a man that was already beaten. This was also apparent from the fullbacks who always wanted to take an extra touch before delivering a cross. Maybe this is down to the state of the pitch, maybe it's just a general lack of confidence after some less than average performances recently, either way our passing and crossing has become more laboured of late and we're lacking that zip we had to our game in October/November and perhaps early December.

I think that is a very fair explanation for our recent performances.

What worries me is the same thing happened last season and Coppell stuck with the same players and look what happened. For me it's time to defiantely drop Harper and Kebe, however Doyle and SHunt have also been shite, but I don't think we need to make wholesale changes just yet, but they do need to feel their starting place isn't guarenteed.

Tabb will be busting a gut to make an impression, so his added enthusiam could be the spark we need.

[Royal Rother]

Are you sure you agree with him RR?

FWIW I think you're right - Lita can get more air time than MJ.

Oops, it was DG I meant...

[brendywendy]

not sure why kebe is being picked out for particular abuse-i thought he had a decent game, offering more offensively and defensively than hunt on this occasion, but certainly wasnt more poor or to blame than anyone else i saw out there.

[Alan Partridge]

not sure why kebe is being picked out for particular abuse-i thought he had a decent game, offering more offensively and defensively than hunt on this occasion, but certainly wasnt more poor or to blame than anyone else i saw out there.

In all fairness it's not a competition between them, I felt both were poor on the day. The entire midfield was really below average that was the main problem. Defence and strikers were both fine, but that midfield 4 just isn't working at the minute. Might be the pitch, might be a bit of confidence but it could do with a little shake up for the next game.

[brendywendy]

i just think dumping who IMO is consistently the most dangerous player in that midfield would be a mistake.


i dont remember a bad game from him that wasnt accompanied by bad games from the majority of the rest of our players-yet kebes mercurial nature sees him get the brunt of the stick for it.

id stick tabb in for shunt and marek for harps before i dropped kebe


but then you probably expected that from kebes official cheerleader

[Alan Partridge]

i just think dumping who IMO is consistently the most dangerous player in that midfield would be a mistake.


i dont remember a bad game from him that wasnt accompanied by bad games from the majority of the rest of our players-yet kebes mercurial nature sees him get the brunt of the stick for it.

id stick tabb in for shunt and marek for harps before i dropped kebe


but then you probably expected that from kebes official cheerleader

Entitled to your opinion! I actually agree with your re Saturday in that he was no worse than anyone else in there. Defensively he tries, no issue with him there unlike a couple of recent wingers here, Kebe challenges for things, i even saw a slide tackle on saturday! He's an outlet ball, he tries to be positive, there is something there with him. He's not a Brooker or an Oster in being totally useless, he's got something about him but at the minute it's not happening for him. Coppell's just bought someone that is happy out wide, it might be the time for him to shake things up a little. I'm with you I'd sooner see S Hunt go before Kebe but in all likeliness there is more chance of us going down with sun stroke in the current climate than that happening.

[brendywendy]

greed

[Hoop Blah]

not sure why kebe is being picked out for particular abuse-i thought he had a decent game, offering more offensively and defensively than hunt on this occasion, but certainly wasnt more poor or to blame than anyone else i saw out there.

Because it's been a while since he had an effective game perhaps?

I do think teams have sussed us and him out. I said before that without the guile and technique to go with his pace he won't have the longevity of a more technically gifted better winger and I think thats kind of what we're seeing now.

Hunt has got just as much stick as Kebe though so I don't think you can say Kebe is being picked on here.

[Dirk Gently]

not sure why kebe is being picked out for particular abuse-i thought he had a decent game, offering more offensively and defensively than hunt on this occasion, but certainly wasnt more poor or to blame than anyone else i saw out there.

Because it's been a while since he had an effective game perhaps?

I do think teams have sussed us and him out. I said before that without the guile and technique to go with his pace he won't have the longevity of a more technically gifted better winger and I think thats kind of what we're seeing now.

Hunt has got just as much stick as Kebe though so I don't think you can say Kebe is being picked on here.

I think a lot of it has got to do with the fact that the state of the pitch near the wings - where London Irish trundle up and down and have their lineouts - currently makes no man's land in The Somme look like a biliard table in comparison.

Many's the time recently that both SHunt and Kebe have struggled to get the ball under control as it bonces around on the bumps and divots.

[brendywendy]

not sure why kebe is being picked out for particular abuse-i thought he had a decent game, offering more offensively and defensively than hunt on this occasion, but certainly wasnt more poor or to blame than anyone else i saw out there.

Because it's been a while since he had an effective game perhaps?

I do think teams have sussed us and him out. I said before that without the guile and technique to go with his pace he won't have the longevity of a more technically gifted better winger and I think thats kind of what we're seeing now.

Hunt has got just as much stick as Kebe though so I don't think you can say Kebe is being picked on here.

i just did!

and no- i cant accept that our run of form is down to kebes performances
if the team as a whole isnt functioning-he struggles, which is not surprising

and i kinda meant that since weve already tried henry in the league, id just rather see how tabb does in huntys position instead

and i dont see how you can say its just pace-he has tricks, guile and technique-just not 100% consistently-but none of our other players do either

[Hoop Blah]

not sure why kebe is being picked out for particular abuse-i thought he had a decent game, offering more offensively and defensively than hunt on this occasion, but certainly wasnt more poor or to blame than anyone else i saw out there.

Because it's been a while since he had an effective game perhaps?

I do think teams have sussed us and him out. I said before that without the guile and technique to go with his pace he won't have the longevity of a more technically gifted better winger and I think thats kind of what we're seeing now.

Hunt has got just as much stick as Kebe though so I don't think you can say Kebe is being picked on here.

i just did!

and no- i cant accept that our run of form is down to kebes performances
if the team as a whole isnt functioning-he struggles, which is not surprising

and i kinda meant that since weve already tried henry in the league, id just rather see how tabb does in huntys position instead

and i dont see how you can say its just pace-he has tricks, guile and technique-just not 100% consistently-but none of our other players do either

You're right he does have tricks, it's just they don't really work very well or very often.

When he's been effective it's when he's basically been running in a straight line and occassionally changes direction with his step over/flick to change his angle slightly. The majority of other occassions he tries something a bit more advanced he trips himself up or gives the ball away.

Regarding the pitch bit Dirk, I agree it's certainly not helping, although I don't want to use that as an excuse for the lack of delivery I saw all too often on Saturday. A number of times the ball was under control and the player had time and space to deliver, and targets to aim for in the box, and they just turned back to into a defender. I don't understand why thats suddenly become a feature of our play but I can only guess it comes down to confidence.

[Royal Rother]

I was down in the corner of the West Stand on Saturday and the pitch had absolutely nothing to do with Kebe's 2 pretty laughable attempts to trick his was past a defender before just kind of giving the ball back to him as he lost balance and all control of his feet.

In fact the pitch behaved perfectly down that wing all match, although a bit more grass would certainly be very welcome..