MATCHWATCH : Barnsley (a)

[Zip]

Nyland - 5 weak on the goal, and some terrible kicking
Yiadon - 5 can't cross to save his life
Morrison - 7 solid
Holmes - 8 cleared up loads
McIntyre - 7 crucial block and solid game
Drinkwater - 8 best game in a Reading shirt by far
Laurent - 7 crucial goal but very mixed performance
Swift - 6 luxury who didn't really perform
Ince - 7 ran all day, but still didn't produce an end product
Ejaria - 6 played quite well until the crucial moment, but couldn't deliver a pizza
Joao - 5 not very involved, so often held on to the ball too long or took his first touch into a second player

TDB - 7 good cameo

Glad to come up against another team without the fitness to last the game, few goals and a tendency to fall apart. We were terrible first half, and pretty poor much of the second. But then the game in general was desperately low in quality. We stepped it up when Barnsley began caving and did enough, but still nearly managed to throw it all away at the death

Now then master Royal. I have a bone to pick with you. I have been saying for two years that Yiadom couldn’t cross for toffee and you always disagreed with me. Finally the penny has dropped.

It seems from your ratings that Holmes is recovering his form which is good to hear.

Yep. He always occasionally had a good ball in him before but just cut inside instead. But today he put in low balls and high and they were all dreadful.

Rahman is certainly a better crosser down the other flank. Yids often does the hard part well by getting into a great position to cross but nearly always then fails to deliver.

[karbota]

Just got home (obvs don’t live in Reading) absolute scenes when we scored made hard work of it again should have won it with our second half performance despite nearly throwing it away at the death in true Reading fashion ! Special mention to Drinkwater who again got embarrassingly booed before the game when the teams were read out. Thought he worked tirelessly breaking up play and putting his foot in, I know Laurent scored the all important goal but Drinkwater was far better over the 90 minutes. Ejaria was awful just no end product did we really pay 3 mill for that?
Also worst game I’ve seen from Joao just Anonymous couldn’t hold it up or win a single ball. Ince will be a big miss against Stoke it’s not just his attacking intent he chases back to tackle and challenge

Cant argue with that.

[Millsy]

Lol at Ince's dive.

[The Green Programme]

^^^ He earns £100k a week and spent numerous months looking extremely poor. We're just expressing a bit of frustration, pretty much par for the course for football fans to boo one minute then cheer the next.

Back to today, we were a bit lucky that Barnsley bottled it in the second half. We were absolutely nowhere in the first 45 mins and didn't look like we could get into the game. But they fell back and let us come on to them and then never recovered. We made the absolute most of it and looked strong when TDB came one. Should have won the game and sunk Barnsley there and then - but this will be a big knock for them and hopefully could send them spiralling.

Drinkwater was very good today and we’re lucky to have a player of his quality giving it 100% for us.

Booing him or any of our players is brainless.

It's football. A lot of what fans do and say is 'brainless'. It's all part of the game.

It’s not ‘part of the game ‘ as you put it.

It’s brainless, IMO.

And Paul Ince knows a thing or two about playing in midfield; certainly a lot more than every fan and a lot more than those on BBC Berks (although I of course have huge respect for MG and AW, neither compared to Paul Ince as a player or as a leader) and Paul Ince post match comments about DD were spot on.

I hope those that booed DD at the beginning of the game, when his name was announced over the PA; now acknowledge that this was wrong and that DD’s performance contributed a great deal to us winning the game.

[Zip]

We shouldn’t be booing DD. However we did not win the game.

[Millsy]

Felt like a win tbf.

Booing DD is just bizarre. He's done ok in recent games when not asked to pass it in the box. Today he was decent.

[SCIAG]

Danny Drinkwater being paid £100k a week by Roman Abramovic is an act of patriotism and solidarity with Ukraine. Who knows what would be being done with that money of he hadn’t stolen it?

[Bristol Paul]

Now then master Royal. I have a bone to pick with you. I have been saying for two years that Yiadom couldn’t cross for toffee and you always disagreed with me. Finally the penny has dropped.

It seems from your ratings that Holmes is recovering his form which is good to hear.

Yep. He always occasionally had a good ball in him before but just cut inside instead. But today he put in low balls and high and they were all dreadful.

Rahman is certainly a better crosser down the other flank. Yids often does the hard part well by getting into a great position to cross but nearly always then fails to deliver.

Said the same previously and been caned for it. Yiadom does a lot of decent stuff, but has little end product.

[Royal Rother]

Drinkwater having a good game means we move onto our next culprit, Ejaria

It really is pathetic that you are right.

As I said a couple of weeks ago, many Reading fans can’t operate without a target to abuse.

IIRC it took about 6 months for Snowball to get through to the muppets that Shane Long was actually bloody good.

I’d like to see Snowball’s analysis of Drinkwater’s contribution because he’s actually been middling to decent all season imo, and, by what seems to be a unanimous vote, MOTM today.

Booing your own player because he is paid a ridiculous amount of money by somebody else is beyond pathetic.

The player I don’t like is Joao, because I can’t abide players with great talent but blow hot and cold and wave their arms about, sulk and go head down when they are on a cold spell - but booing him would never enter my mind.

It's almost like when someone actually plays well they get praised, and when they play badly they get stick isn't it.

If only.

[Royal_jimmy]

I was too drunk yesterday so didn't post my thoughts but our fans were fantastic yesterday (booing Drinkwater aside). Never stopped getting behind the team even when we were 1-0 down for much of the game. Complete contrast to Bournemouth where it was pretty toxic in the away end.

Still have a lot of work to do, we need at least 3 more wins and a draw. We have 4 home games this month which are all winnable as well as Hull away. If we keep up the performances we should pick up enough points from those games.

[Franchise FC]

I was too drunk yesterday so didn't post my thoughts but our fans were fantastic yesterday (booing Drinkwater aside). Never stopped getting behind the team even when we were 1-0 down for much of the game. Complete contrast to Bournemouth where it was pretty toxic in the away end.

Still have a lot of work to do, we need at least 3 more wins and a draw. We have 4 home games this month which are all winnable as well as Hull away. If we keep up the performances we should pick up enough points from those games.

Really ?
Posh have 7 games left, are 8 points behind - colour me shocked if they get more than 10 points, meaning one win would be enough to see them off. If we get another 10 points they would have to win 6 and draw one of their remaining games, and that ain’t happening

Derby have 6 games left, are 6 points behind - wouldn’t be surprised if they got 10 but given their fixture list that’s going to be a stretch, meaning a win and a couple of draws would be enough. If we get another 10 points they’ll need to win 5 and draw 1, and that ain’t happening either

Barnsley have 7 games left, are 5 points behind - they couldn’t beat the one team that they need to overhaul to get out of it and have won only 6 games all season - I’ll be equally surprised if they get more than 10 points, meaning two wins would be enough. If we get another 10 points they’ll need to win 5 and draw 2 of the last 7 and they’ve only won 6 all season (he repeated for emphasis)

You’re right that it depends on us getting a few results, but two wins or even a win and a couple of draws probably ought to be enough (before the court cases from Derby and Barnsley, obviously)

[Snowflake Royal]

Felt like a win tbf.

Booing DD is just bizarre. He's done ok in recent games when not asked to pass it in the box. Today he was decent.

He epitomises everything wrong with football and the way our club is run imo.

He's vastly overpaid, won the league, got his big pay day and given up really putting the effort in once he's been signed by Chelsea. Solely to stop anyone else competing with them from having him.

He's stepped down a division on loan to revitalise a dying career, as an obviously one of the most talented players in our squad and week in week out almost without exception he makes basic lazy error after basic lazy error.

He should be absolutely running the show against every team in the division and he's probably our worst performing midfielder over the season.

We signed him because he's a Name we could get from a big club, with no effort to think why he's available, whether he's what we needed or if he'd deliver.

I'm certainly not letting him off the hook for being shit because he has 1 good game in 8.

[South Coast Royal]

So, posters want Ejaria to go, Swift is going and DD won't be here plus possibly Laurent.
There will need to be some exceptional signings (with no money) if we are not to be in this same position next season.
Creative midfielders are almost as difficult to get as goalscorers.

There surely has to be a coach somewhere out there who can get Ejaria to be the player that we know he could be-Liverpool have tried, Rangers have tried and at least 3 managers at Reading have tried.
Maybe taking over the central role when Swift goes could be the making of him as his tight control might prove more dangerous than being stuck out wide, especially (as we have occasionally seen) in and around the box.

As for yesterday great credit to Morrison for his forward's touch to set up the desperately season-defining (?) goal.
Dreadful game to watch but , as seen in very recent games, we are at last finishing games stronger.

A key week coming up as , beyond that, I don't see us picking up too many points but a draw and a win (Morrison out for the season and they no longer have Kieffer Moore) might just be enough although Barnsley do have Peterborough to play.

[Snowflake Royal]

If Ejaria goes, we get decent money for him. Which means we have money to buy a replacement.

And tbh, Camara looks pretty promising, as does Azeez.

Rinomhota, Tetek, Camara, Azeez, Ince, Hoilett would be a decent starting point to build from.

Four managers now haven’t got a lot out of Ejaria and he's had three and a half seasons with us to develop. Maybe he'll come good like Swift did, but it's not exactly looking likely, and he doesn't have the same injury issues as an excuse.

Plus if he stays he'll be one of our top earners and he really doesn't justify that.

[RoyalBlue]

If Ejaria goes, we get decent money for him. Which means we have money to buy a replacement.

.

According to a section of our fan base, he's poor, has no end product and was a waste of 3 Million. Furthermore, numerous clubs and managers have failed to get the best out of him. Yet we will get decent money for him if he goes?!

From the tv coverage I saw of yesterday's game he put in a decent performance.

Creative players (e.g. Ejaria, Swift, Drinkwater) have to take risks and in doing so will sometimes make mistakes and/or lose the ball. Stop them trying to be creative and your team really struggles to create space and opportunities - something we have witnessed far too often.

[Snowflake Royal]

If Ejaria goes, we get decent money for him. Which means we have money to buy a replacement.

.

According to a section of our fan base, he's poor, has no end product and was a waste of 3 Million. Furthermore, numerous clubs and managers have failed to get the best out of him. Yet we will get decent money for him if he goes?!

From the tv coverage I saw of yesterday's game he put in a decent performance.

Creative players (e.g. Ejaria, Swift, Drinkwater) have to take risks and in doing so will sometimes make mistakes and/or lose the ball. Stop them trying to be creative and your team really struggles to create space and opportunities - something we have witnessed far too often.

Agree he had a decent game. Until it came time to actually achieving anything.

Someone will take a punt on being able to get more out of him for about £1m, I'm sure.

Absolutely oodles of examples of talented disappointments getting multiple second chances out there.

You do know Drinkwater's been one of the defensive midfielders for most of the season, right?

[Royal_jimmy]

If Ejaria goes, we get decent money for him. Which means we have money to buy a replacement.

.

According to a section of our fan base, he's poor, has no end product and was a waste of 3 Million. Furthermore, numerous clubs and managers have failed to get the best out of him. Yet we will get decent money for him if he goes?!

From the tv coverage I saw of yesterday's game he put in a decent performance.

Creative players (e.g. Ejaria, Swift, Drinkwater) have to take risks and in doing so will sometimes make mistakes and/or lose the ball. Stop them trying to be creative and your team really struggles to create space and opportunities - something we have witnessed far too often.

Agree he had a decent game. Until it came time to actually achieving anything.

Someone will take a punt on being able to get more out of him for about £1m, I'm sure.

Absolutely oodles of examples of talented disappointments getting multiple second chances out there.

You do know Drinkwater's been one of the defensive midfielders for most of the season, right?

If £1m was the best we could get then I'd rather keep Ejaria. We would do well to find a replacement with a fee that low

[Snowflake Royal]

According to a section of our fan base, he's poor, has no end product and was a waste of 3 Million. Furthermore, numerous clubs and managers have failed to get the best out of him. Yet we will get decent money for him if he goes?!

From the tv coverage I saw of yesterday's game he put in a decent performance.

Creative players (e.g. Ejaria, Swift, Drinkwater) have to take risks and in doing so will sometimes make mistakes and/or lose the ball. Stop them trying to be creative and your team really struggles to create space and opportunities - something we have witnessed far too often.

Agree he had a decent game. Until it came time to actually achieving anything.

Someone will take a punt on being able to get more out of him for about £1m, I'm sure.

Absolutely oodles of examples of talented disappointments getting multiple second chances out there.

You do know Drinkwater's been one of the defensive midfielders for most of the season, right?

If £1m was the best we could get then I'd rather keep Ejaria. We would do well to find a replacement with a fee that low

We got Laurent for nothing on half the wages.

[SWLR]

Drinkwater having a good game means we move onto our next culprit, Ejaria

Before him it was Zonal Marking - who has been great for the team over the years... no pleasing some

[Snowflake Royal]

P39, W11. I can't imagine why people might think there's some criticism warranted.