by Snowball »
22 Sep 2018 22:41
Keeper
I haven't seen him make a great save, or a horrible mistake, yet I feel better when he's in goal rather than Mannone..
Defence
Illori, for me, is improving every game. Today he played out of position and did very well indeed. His last-ditch tackle saving an almost-certain goal was top-drawer. Easy 8, possibly MoM
Yiadom
One of the best signings for years. Solid in defence, tough, very decent going forward, now gets goals. Should become a real fan favourite.
Moore.
Strange, but I can't remember specifics about his performance. Just the usual, solid Moore.
O'Shea
Solid, great in the air, big talker. Never let the side down and his sending-off was taking one for the team. The Radio Berks pundits (and me) read the team wrong and presumed a back fife with wing backs (because O'Shea was 87 and could barely walk...). Of course he isn't QUICK but, IMO, for the games I've seen him play he doesn't look like a liability.
His two fouls? He was isolated. Once out on the wing, the second time, last man in the middle. That suggests a failure of organisation.
MIDFIELD
Thought Bacuna looked VG first half, a very solid 7 for the 90 minutes. With Ezi behind him seemed far freer and much better.
Kelly may not yet be at his best but it seems to me he's on his way back. He seems far more fired up, more committed (as were the rest of the team).
Ezi. Big, strong-looking, wins headers. These are good extras. First 15 minutes he seemed to have three times the time his team-mates had, time to control the ball, look around, choose his passes. He made some mistakes, took a few chances... There was a hospital pass that Lori did brilliantly to save. BUT he did a superb job protecting the back four, and allowed Bacuna-Kelly to move more freely. IMO Ezi and Bacuna should be fixtures with Kelly/Swift fighting for the other midfield place. I liked his debut a LOT.
BTW, great header that helped us to our first goal
SIMS. Love this guy. All action, fast, skilful. I didn't think we used his speed enough, but if he becomes a regular, I think he will be as important as Barrow. Different kind of player, but VVG.
Baldock. I couldn't figure out the set-up for a while but he seemed to play wider. Was he actually a winger for the day? Whatever, that's easily the best he's played for Reading and I think he's finding his feet. Let's remember he played very little last season.
No way can he be a lone striker, but off a big man, yes!
(We have a fair few players who have been underperforming, down, misused, out of position, but they DO have class. Baldock is an example of that. Should get better and better if we can put together a half-reasonable run.)
Bod. Someone said he didn't win a header. Of course he did! Plenty. He's a hard-working, hard-running front-man that takes a fair bit of stopping. He held up the ball well for the most part. (I would rather him than two Meites). And yet again, he scored. When strikers are on a purple patch, play them!! End.
He has returned these excellent goal-scoring stats for almost a season's worth of games in two different calendar years. Even if we partly discount his hat-trick v Stevenage down to 1 goal, his stats are superb.
I couldn't get over the space we seemed to find in the first half. Was that skillz or because Hull dropped back too much? Hull were poor and look relegation-fodder, but, more importantly, we looked A LOT better than that.
What was also pleasing was the buzz, the energy, the closing down, the not-giving-up.
On the radio later it was suggested that Aluko or Aluko/Gunter were spoiling the team's dynamic. The impression was that Aluko's temperament was a problem. Bod, in his interview was saying that the difference today was that the team clicked. The inference was something to do team-spirit being notably better.
Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but...
