Long - time for a change?

[Wycombe Royal]

Just seen the highlights

Long is a diving cheat, and for that reason alone he should piss off out of my club.

You are WRONG. It was a clear penalty, Long was pulled
and Long, by cutting across the player
means he gets space to shoot or the penalty

clever forward play

Some people are blinded by their dislike of him, other blinded by their love.

I like the middle ground and being able to judge him on his merits......

[Snowball]

There is nothing "blind" involved from here

Top Scorer this season. Won a penalty on top of that.
Leads the line well.
Of all our players has scored more RFC goals
Young, still improving, getting cleverer.

And, at the moment, no other RFC players are remotely challenging him for "best forward."

[Wycombe Royal]

There is nothing "blind" involved from here

Top Scorer this season. Won a penalty on top of that.
Leads the line well.
Of all our players has scored more RFC goals
Young, still improving, getting cleverer.

And, at the moment, no other RFC players are remotely challenging him for "best forward."

Did I say which I thought you were? You assumed that........

[SLAMMED]

[pea]

There is nothing "blind" involved from here

Top Scorer this season. Won a penalty on top of that.
Leads the line well.
Of all our players has scored more RFC goals
Young, still improving, getting cleverer.

And, at the moment, no other RFC players are remotely challenging him for "best forward."

But surely you see that after watching him in 150 games but he's only scored in about 25-30 Reading fans are bound to find him frustrating?

[Badger Finger]

Well said that man...

Watching him play is a terrifying experience.

[Snowball]

Did I say which I thought you were? You assumed that........

No, I'm assuming you assumed I assumed something

[Tony Le Mesmer]

How many penalties has Long won for us now? Im actually losing count. I think its every one this season.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Shane "tenpin" Long

[Snowball]

How many penalties has Long won for us now? I'm actually losing count. I think its every one this season.

Correct. Has won 7 pens under McDermott, all converted, six by him, one by Harte 7 of our 30 League goals.

So he's been directly responsible for 9/30 = 30% plus 3 more direct assists (Pearce, Antonio, Hunt) = 40% of our goals

[Ian Royal]

How many penalties has Long won for us now? Im actually losing count. I think its every one this season.

Five. My god he goes down at the lightest of touches.... A good thing really because I couldn't see him scoring for any of the chances he's gone down without winning a penalty. And I think he knows it as well.

I'm convinced Long could easily have stayed up with the majority of those challenges. Much as I hate the tendency to look for and make the most of minimal contact, as long as refs refuse to give anything unless you fall over, regardless of how obviously you've been impeded, he's doing the right (if rather distasteful) thing.

Looking forward to watching the game, it looked like a cracker from the highlights. Hunt & Church missed their obligatory chance each, Long missed his obligatory two or three. Bloody superb keeping from Fed.

Well done Shane sounds like a good performance and some well deserved goals given your work rate. If you could see your way to proving me wrong permanently this time, rather than temporarily like on every other occasion you've looked like turning the corner with us, that would be nice.

[Ian Royal]

How many penalties has Long won for us now? I'm actually losing count. I think its every one this season.

Correct. Has won 7 pens under McDermott, all converted, six by him, one by Harte 7 of our 30 League goals.

So he's been directly responsible for 9/30 = 30% plus 3 more direct assists (Pearce, Antonio, Hunt) = 40% of our goals

You appear to be getting confused. Long has six goals this season, 4 of which are penalties, and he won Harte's penalty.

[Snowball]

How many penalties has Long won for us now? I'm actually losing count. I think its every one this season.

Correct. Has won 7 pens under McDermott, all converted, six by him, one by Harte, 7 of our 30 League goals.

So he's been directly responsible for 9/30 = 30% plus 3 more direct assists (Pearce, Antonio, Hunt) = 40% of our goals

You appear to be getting confused. Long has six goals this season, 4 of which are penalties, and he won Harte's penalty.

Thanks, Ian. Yup, mixing myself up. 5 pens of the 30 goals then, this season, plus 2, plus 3 direct assists, 30%

[Jerry St Clair]

Shane "tenpin" Long

The natural heir to Martin "Skittles" Williams.

[Jerry St Clair]

Just seen the highlights

Long is a diving cheat, and for that reason alone he should piss off out of my club.

Strange I must have missed that change in the laws of the game that now permit defenders called Barker to tug forwards back by the arm/shoulder in the area and mistime challenges from behind resulting in trips!

I didn't actually say they weren't fouls - I think it's debatable.

I said Long is a diving cheat. He chucked himself to the floor like a sack spuds both times.

[cmonurz]

Having just caught the highlights...

- First, props to Long for finishing what was a relatively easy header, but still, he got ahead of his marker and it's that goal from open play I've asked of him for a while. Now let's see him repeat the trick 3 times in the next 5 games, not blank again until February.

- Second, whilst I wouldn't call him a 'diving cheat', he certainly has a bit of the Michael Owens about him. The second incident in particular, imho he is already looking for that challenge from Barker before he is within a yard of the ball, he certainly went looking for contact and made it happen, not something I particularly like to see in a Reading player.

- The penalty, have to be honest I'd have been screaming blue murder if he had tried to stay on his feet then skied a left-footer over the bar.

[sandman]

And you are blinded by love. Any praise you might of got for sticking up for Long after his performance today has evaporated completely. As Wimb said you'd have been far better to just enjoy being right for once instead of bringing out the same boring stat fest.

I'm not "blinded" by anything. Shane Long is a very important player to this club,
has been involved in about 50% of all our goals this season (in the games he played)
and, as predicted, he is getting better each season(Your opinion. In other peoples opinion Shane has not improved much if at all from the 18 year old kid who came over with Doyle and I would tend to agree with that assessment).

Barring serious injuries, he will be a sought-after striker (He's already 23 and has been here for 5 years). Big deal he isn't the most prolific,
but a goal every 250/225 minutes is not at all bad.(It is if he wants to be a "sought after STRIKER". You won't find many bigger clubs than Reading queuing around the corner for a striker with that record. There's no guarantee that he would take the penalties at another club either, which reduces his goal count further)

He's more than just a striker, does loads of work off the ball, hammers defenders, wins pens and free-kicks.(I'd take him doing less of that and stay up front. Every week I see him on the wing instead of the centre where he should be.His workrate is obviously admirable I wish he'd let Jimmy and Jobi - As Jobi did so brilliantly for the second yesterday- do their job and stay in the middle.

Why the bloke continues to get criticism and yet other players missing chances are glossed over, beats me (For most of the season he's been playing up front on his own. The other players you mention are not strikers. If a striker misses chances they are going to be pulled up on it more than the likes of Karacan would.).

Shane will do OK to well this season, better next season, even better the year after. (On new years eve he'll have been playing first team football for 5 Years he's not going to develop much more now)

If you suggest that 2ww Assessment of Long was blinded by hatred and then you make a post that defends him just as vehemently then what else do you call it other than "blinded by love"?

Shane is a nice, humble lad just like Doyle and most if not all of the Irish lads who have played for us in recent years have been. I like Shane as a person and I don't think he's a bad player but he's never ever going to live up to the hype that you give him. I've no doubt that he would be extremely embarrassed by most of your posts which imo don't do him or you any favours.

[Snowball]

This 5-6 seasons stuff about Long is a total misrepresentation of reality.

He has started more league games in 2010-11 than he did in his first three seasons
and in all probability, by February 4th this season will have started as many league games
as he did in his first FOUR seasons.

In less than 1.5 seasons 2009-10 and this one he has started 42 league games, exactly 1.5 times his league starts in FOUR years previous

That is, SIXTY PER CENT of his league starts have been in the last 16 months.


He has had 70 League Starts. 35 (50%) of those have been under McDermott.

That is 50% in the first five years, 50% in the last 12 months.

2005-06 - - - 01 (10) - - - 04 (00)
2006-07 - - - 09 (12) - - - 03 (00)
2007-08 - - - 07 (22) - - - 03 (00)
2008-09 - - - 11 (26) - - - 04 (00)

28 League starts in four seasons. Simon Church had 22 League starts last season.


2009-10 - - - 22 (09) - - - 02 (03)
2010-11 - - - 20 (00) - - - 00 (01)

[Wycombe Royal]

I'm struggling to find the point of all that.

[Snowball]

I'm struggling to find the point of all that.

It's simple. The actual league starts Shane Long has made, up until Jan-Feb this year were 35 or so,
not even a full season's worth, spread out over almost 5 seasons. It's easy to toss out meaningless
stuff about him having had 5-6 seasons, but it's false in terms of league starts. Not only was he a late-
starter but he's been given not-that-many league starts. NOW he is getting them, and IMO he's developing
very well, most obviously with a dramatically improved first touch.