Back from the game , Swansea home,

[winchester_royal]

LOL at blaming Mills for today. Thought him and Zurab were superb TBH, those two along with Griff, HRK and Feds were the only players to come out of today with any credit.

Lots of effort up top, but very little quality. Only looked threatening when we had 2 up top. Must be 4-4-2 on tuesday.

[howser]

Have to admit I do get confused with the 4-5-1 at home ? To me that already says to the opposition that you dont have anybody up front who can score ! yes by all means do that formation away, the old adage, win at home and draw away, you will be close at the end of the season.

McD obviously has no confidence in his strikers ability to score, the only thing missing so far this season is the "we will go with what we have" comment, One can only wonder as to why we dont and havent got someone who can score in on loan, would love to know why, can any of you fellow nobbers can shed some light on this mystery ?

[Royalee]

It's not so bad that we're playing 4-5-1 at home, more the choice of personnel - a winger who's clearly not comfortable in the role, the most one-footed fullback ever and a striker on his own who's not managed a single open play goal in 11 league games and several more pre-season.

[PEARCEY]

howser, I'm sure he's trying to do the best he can with what he has available.

He needs to be banging at the Chairman's door though. There is no reason why we cannot get someone in on loan. Madejski cannot say there is a lack of funding available. So McD needs to act.....and change the formation so that we have 2 up-front. Whats the point Long winning the ball in the air if no-one is running in to latch onto it.

[Sarah Star]

He's got to find a half-decent striker, who's different/ better than what we've got, who would want to come to us though.

[RoyalBlue]

Business as usual for Rodgers - Reading home defeat.

Whatever he does subsequently won't stop him being one of if not the worst Reading manager in history.

Whatever you say Schards, keep telling yourself McDermott's the bald Mourinho as yet another Matt Mills hoof bounces off of long to their centre back.

I simple comparison of the two's records at Reading is all the is needed.

Not a fair comparison. By the time McDermott was appointed even Madejski had realised that the great sell off had gone too far and that some more experience/quality had to be added to the squad.

[Royalee]

@Royalee:
I'm sure if we had a better striker, we would play him..
It does not seem we have very good strikers to replace him. Do you disagree?

Noel Hunt

[howser]

[quote="Ideal"]howser, I'm sure he's trying to do the best he can with what he has available.[/quote]


But isnt that the issue Ideal ? just what he has available ? we surly can't, with Sigs money, still say we can't afford anyone ?

[andrew1957]

We were out thought, out played, out fought and out classed today I am afraid - probably for one of the first times under MCD.

No one comes out with much credit. I thought Khiz looked like he might be getting back to his best and Long gave his usual 100% performance. Kebe showed a few moments of class. Fed made a couple of good saves and could not do much about the goal - but the rest was all a bit nondescript really.

I thought it was a bit early to sack Brendan when we did, but after today I am actually very glad that we did. Although Swansea were better than us, I felt that they bored Reading into submission for the first 35 minutes. I am really not sure I could cope with watching that style week in week out. Once they got in the lead I really never thought we would get anything from the game.

I cannot help thinking that today was a day when we REALLY missed Siggy. A club serious about promotion would never have let him go. Although as an RFC fan I live in hope - I still think mid table mediocrity is the likeliest outcome of this season.

[FiNeRaIn]

Terrible performance today, once again underlying the fact we need a striker who can score goals at this level and will be going NOWHERE this season without one.

[loyalroyal4life]

Fair play to Swansea and moreso Brenda!

Sound away performance, did exactly what they set out to do hit us on the break with the pace they have.

Sinclair looked quality and it would have been niced if Brenda signed him whilst he was at Reading

That was meant to be our strongest back 4 today, first time they have come together and tbh it is quite evident that they will be caught out for their lack of pace.

Armstrong does not fit in well in the centre, i would hope tabb will be back in soon as i would go with him and then 2 upfront.

Time for Mcderm to realise he does NOT have a replacement for Sig to play in the hole and if he is not getting any financial backing to find an adequate replacement, then must look to play 4-4-2

Thought Kish had a sound game out of a less than average team performance.

[Ginger Ninjas]

Fair play to Swansea and moreso Brenda!

Sound away performance, did exactly what they set out to do hit us on the break with the pace they have.

Sinclair looked quality and it would have been niced if Brenda signed him whilst he was at Reading

That was meant to be our strongest back 4 today, first time they have come together and tbh it is quite evident that they will be caught out for their lack of pace.

Armstrong does not fit in well in the centre, i would hope tabb will be back in soon as i would go with him and then 2 upfront.

Time for Mcderm to realise he does NOT have a replacement for Sig to play in the hole and if he is not getting any financial backing to find an adequate replacement, then must look to play 4-4-2

Thought Kish had a sound game out of a less than average team performance.

Agree with pretty much all of that. Don't have a good enough attacking midfielder to replace Sig (although tbf that's a big ask), so 442 seems like the option - hopefully with two hard-working but average strikers up top we can muster a goal!

[loyalroyal4life]

Fair play to Swansea and moreso Brenda!

Sound away performance, did exactly what they set out to do hit us on the break with the pace they have.

Sinclair looked quality and it would have been niced if Brenda signed him whilst he was at Reading

That was meant to be our strongest back 4 today, first time they have come together and tbh it is quite evident that they will be caught out for their lack of pace.

Armstrong does not fit in well in the centre, i would hope tabb will be back in soon as i would go with him and then 2 upfront.

Time for Mcderm to realise he does NOT have a replacement for Sig to play in the hole and if he is not getting any financial backing to find an adequate replacement, then must look to play 4-4-2

Thought Kish had a sound game out of a less than average team performance.

Agree with pretty much all of that. Don't have a good enough attacking midfielder to replace Sig (although tbf that's a big ask), so 442 seems like the option - hopefully with two hard-working but average strikers up top we can muster a goal!

And of course i can't see how he can't go with Noel Hunt from the start for Brizzle on Tues. He put one on a plate for Churchy today with a great cross, better than others crossing anyway

[Millsy]

Despite the BBC claiming 3 attempts on target, I can only remember one genuine such attempt - Jobi's freekick in the first half!

That is completely unacceptable for a home game, as is the tactic of playing poor old Long up front on his own, hoofing the ball forward to him and then not having anyone in position to take advantage of him winning the ball in the air.

If Ego Madejski and his poodle still genuinely believe we do not need a striker, then the lunatics clearly have taken over the Mad House!

As McDermott commented after the game, Rodgers 'spent money on Scott Sinclair who looks a very good player'. Well Brian it's time you started pointing out things like that to your tight-fisted chairman who is still squatting on the very considerable ill-gotten gains from encouraging The Sig to move on.

On final thought: Shorey to Harte - such is the 'progress' under the brilliant financial management of Madjeski and co!

Absolutely. Very clear message indeed that he thinks we need a striker, clear to all but the deaf, blind, and those living up Madejski's rectum.

They won because they bought a striker. We didn't because we have none and won't buy one.

Therefore we play with only one 'striker', and continue to do so for most of the game when 1-0 down at home because the 'options' are too cringeworthy and miss headers from 6 yards out.

The rest of our team is pretty good, which is what makes this so much more of a shame.

Madejski FC - the perfect Nearly Club. Because being a nearly club makes financial sense...

[No Hoops]

Wrong formation.

Jobi playing man off....................................why?

Hunt scores a hatrick mid week and is on bench..................................why?

Swansea were absolute Shi7e. The goalie was....well.....Shi7e.

I feel let down today.

[Snowball]

Long is hopelessly isolated. The long punts to him are wasted because when he gets the nod down or flick on, nobody is there.

When we went 4-4-2 Hunt's flicks started finding players. That's the MANAGER's fault, not the player.

Federici had a very good game.

Thought all the back four were pretty sound but that Zurab should NOT play CB. He should play midfield.
Near the end when he broke forward he looked a class above, and the only player playing with PURPOSE.

I like Karacan and Armstrong, but they are more REACTIVE players, running round putting out fires.
Zurab looks to me like he could RUN THE GAME from midfield. Bring in Pearce to partner Mills and
have Zurab as General.

McAnuff looked ordinary except for five very good minutes just after half-time.

Kebe wasn't too bad but looked slightly "flat". I wonder if he has a thigh niggle?

I'm not "sticking up for Long" but I think he is being given a hopeless job and runs
himself into the ground for his team. We need to go 4-4-2, not "get another striker"

If we go 4-4-2 and THEN the strikers don't start scoring well, after say ten games,
THEN we know we have a problem. Personally I think it's the set-up, not the personnel.

Long had two excellent games for Ireland. I will keep saying it. He isn't right for 4-5-1

Church's miss looked bad. Did he get a nudge or a shirt-pull?

[Ian Royal]

McD tactically wrong today. Can't play McAnuff, HRK & Kebe, particularly against a defensive well drilled team that will have numbers back most the time. McAnuff doesn't suit the hole. Harte was always in trouble against that sort of pace.

We were crying out for someone with some guile and good creative passing in the middle. Instead we had a great big hole just inside Swansea's half where our midfield needed to be creating. All our attackers were isolated. You need partnerships to work in attack and there was nothing there most of the game. McAnuff never got close enough to any of them at the right time and we're left with very little arial threat in the box too.

I think Harte needed to be replaced with Armstrong or quite probably Cummings to try and counter the pace. Howard needed to come in and take over from Jobi, probably for HRK if we wanted to stay one up front.

I thought we looked the better team apart from being utterly incapable of creating much in the way of a clear chance we could take. Swansea were distinctly average, but came with a game plan that worked. They weren't much of a threat until they scored, but from then on they were always going to cause us problems on the break as we committed more forward.

Fed - 7 - decent saves, not much to do with the goal I thought.
Griffin - 7 - did little wrong and was solid as you'd expect
Harte - 6 - did well considering. He can't help being slow. Won't get many tests like that this season
Zurab - 7 - solid, experienced and cultured. Did nearly score an own goal though
Mills - 5 - not what I came to expect from Mills after last season, though I suspect at a similar standard to the rest of this season. He needs to stop launching it for a start, he can pick a pass on the deck.
Armstrong - 6 - Solid, totally unfair couple of freekicks given against him, especially for the yellow card. Not much creativity about him though
Karacan - 6 - worked hard. Some good some bad. Not a creative passer.
McAnuff - 6 - worked hard but unsuited to the role he was in, didn't work with any of the other forwards.
HRK - 6 - light weight and didn't help Harte nearly enough, not as good as McAnuff
Kebe - 6 - nothing quite came off. not his game
Long - 6 - worked very hard and did a lot of good basic stuff. But missed plenty of decent headers and rarely got near anyone with a flick on. Won't score many playing on his own

Church & Hunt, gave us more threat upfront, but not a great deal. Too little too late.

Ref had a not bad game. Some howlers, but nothing that affected the outcome, so you can't really complaint.

Nice to see Rodgers get a decent reception, even if he is a bit of a cock.

[Ian Royal]

Oh, and we just looked disjointed in general. Lots of misunderstandings and players not reading each other... Long flick ons, Kebe not making runs at the right time etc.

[Man Friday]

Thought we played reasonably well (with the exception of some woeful finishing from headers). However, I thought Swansea were the better side. In fact, I would say that they're the best side I've seen at the Madejski for a year or two. Well done, Brendan Rodgers - perhaps you do know what you're doing after all. If so, why were we all over the place when you were our manager?

I didn't think anyone played poorly today but I am looking forward to Tabby's return. Mid-table mediocrity here we come. (Unless we invest a few million of the Siggy money on 2-3 good players. Oh, we did invest it. On a plane ride to Middlesbrough a few weeks ago.)

[Mr Angry]

Swansea are a good team and I'd be surprised if they weren't in the play-offs at the end of the season, yet at times we out-played them without having the cutting edge in the final third.

We never really seemed to get going today, and once the goal went in, I though at best we might nick a point.

Dyer and Sinclair are top quality wingers at this level, and it was always going to be difficult for the full backs today, even more so when we were chasing the game and got caught on the break; I know there are people who want to analyse a single performance and make sweeping generalisations about things, but this result does not prove we are relegation fodder.