Back from the game - Hull

[winchester_royal]

Funny really, especially given that Church is from the academy, runs around a lot, and then gets slated by most.

Think Karacan might be okay if he had a midfield who can create and pass next to him.

Now then, if only we had some money to go out and buy one with.....

[FiNeRaIn]

Funny really, especially given that Church is from the academy, runs around a lot, and then gets slated by most.

Because people are stupid and think the fact we don't score goals is PURELY the strikers fault. Its like trying to educate children.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Why are people having a go at Cummings and Karacan? They both played well.

No. They didn't.

As predicted...plebs on here coming on claiming karacan played well as he's the new love child. It amazes me that someone is immune from criticism because they are from the youth academy and run around a lot. He lost the ball twice in the first 8 mins alone with some awful passing into touch and this continued throughout the game. He gave away 2/3 silly free kicks including a push right in front of the referee, messed up two of our better attacking moves, lost posession about 7/8 times in total including the phase of play that hull scored from. Had he actually been able to complete a simple pass into space we were in a good position to create a clear cut chance. Instead he lost the ball and 20 seconds later it was in the back of our net. He did nothing all game and for people to claim he was even average is plain wrong...let alone " played well" simply beggars belief.

The work rate of Karacan is what ticks Reading over.

[FiNeRaIn]

Not really, when he plays well in other aspects of his game he does ok but all he does is act as a harrier to the opposition. If we got to the prem unfortunately he would be one of the first people we need to replace. You can get away with a diabolical first touch, lack of awareness and composure in the championship at times, but not a hope in hell in the prem. You need way more quality than just running around a lot.

[Royal Prince]

Thought we played quite well today and deserved at least a point, unfortunately we came up against a top quality defence and a dubious interpretation of the offside rule cost us in the end.

Main observations:

Tabb and Karacan were their usual tenacious selves and put a decent shift in, but Paul McKenna showed them how it should be done with some simple but effective passing. Everytime Hull switched play it went through him to good effect.

Antonio is a liability. Don't want to knock him too soon as he's young and obviously has potential, but the lad seems to want the ball played into his feet otherwise he ain't bothered. He doesn't close down, and if the ball isn't coming to him in the box there is zero movement, he's just not interested.

Hull's defense is quality! Other than that I'd hate to be a Hull fan watching that uninspiring dross every week, but with a defence like that no wonder they are picking up results.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

How the fcuk is their goal not off-side?

Just seen it again on FLS. Matey is practically standing over the ball so how the fcuk is he deemed 'inactive'? Bullsh1t.

[Royal Prince]

How the fcuk is their goal not off-side?

Just seen it again on FLS. Matey is practically standing over the ball so how the fcuk is he deemed 'inactive'? Bullsh1t.

Exactly, what a shambles!!!

McDermott must have been mad as he made a school boy Maths error.... "I hope the managers of the other 92 league clubs knew that rule because I certainly didn't"

[Gav]

How the fcuk is their goal not off-side?

Just seen it again on FLS. Matey is practically standing over the ball so how the fcuk is he deemed 'inactive'? Bullsh1t.

^^^ This. Just politer.

[Basingstoke Royal]

Karacan - mom. Controlled the midfield and won the ball back for us so many times. He can't be expected to create lots of chances to. He is more a makalele.
Harte - put some great balls into the box that someone should have been on the end of.
Church - shite again. Le Fondre must be fuming to be below Church in the pecking order.

The depth of the squad is not enough. Options off the bench are very limited.

Creative centre midfielder, centre half and experienced centre forward please.

[FiNeRaIn]

Karacan - mom. .

Stop taking the rest of your post seriously after that.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

DIABOLICAL decision for their goal. Wasn't sure watching it live this afternoon but that really is terrible. The two players are both actively involved there.

[Basingstoke Royal]

Karacan - mom. .

Stop taking the rest of your post seriously after that.

He dominated against a five man midfield. Yes going forward he needs to improve, but he needs a better player along side him. As another poster said, he is what makes us tick and he will be a top, top player. If you can name a better reading player on the pitch yesterday then please go ahead.

[Barry the bird boggler]

DIABOLICAL decision for their goal. Wasn't sure watching it live this afternoon but that really is terrible. The two players are both actively involved there.

Dreadfully dull game between two bloody awful teams who really looked like they didn't want to be there. It showed that Reading simply do not have any options/experience or strength in depth when faced with 2/3 injuries at the same time. The goal was a bit of joke but then it's not the first time we've been caught out by officials.

All credit to the officials though they apparently sat down with Heston after the game and went through the goal. Seems they have been given a directive that a player is only offside if they touch the ball.

Now this runs against the interpretation I've seen where a player who runs towards a through ball from an offside position is given offside because they are intending to take an ACTIVE role in the game.

So, with this being the case then, why were linesmen - including the lot yesterday - also flagging offside when the player concerned hadn't touched the ball. And why are officials being given directions like this halfway through a season with, seemingly, no direction also being given to the clubs themselves.

[Pandoras Box]

Play to the whistle was how I was taught. All standing in a line looking at the ref with your arms up rather than trying to chase it down............Look..look.. Mr Ref it's not fair.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Play to the whistle was how I was taught. All standing in a line looking at the ref with your arms up rather than trying to chase it down............Look..look.. Mr Ref it's not fair.

Absolutely I quite agree with that, but just seems odd for officials to be given a directive like this in the middle of a season on a law that is already inconsistently interpreted by officials, players and fans alike.

[Cypry]

Seems I saw a different game to quite a few yesterday.

Defensively we looked solid, they had two shots on goal, one a free kick from well outside the area, the other was the goal. Yes, you could criticise them for not playing to the whistle for the goal, but it was such an obvious offside that you can hardly blame them.....seems that FIFA need to clarify the offside rule....according to he ref it's no longer a case of the player being active, but he now has to touch the ball....

Admittedly Hull were poor going forward, but defensively we looked solid...

Karacan and Tabb were solid enough in midfield, but offered little going forward, of the two Tabb looked like he had the most to offer in that department, but his final balls weren't quite there.

I have some sympathy for Antonio - his first start this season (only his fifth start in Reading colours I believe), he started quite brightly I thought, in fact we felt he was our best player early doors doing the basics, getting to the byline and getting crosses in....he made a couple of errors, waiting for the ball to arrive, an whether this knocked his confidence, or whether he was tiring I'm not sure but he just couldn't get into the game second half. HRK was OK, but seemed to tire towards the end of th game. With neither winger firing and a central midfield who offered little attacking threat it was always going to be a struggle once we went behind and the game just fizzled out....

Hunt and Church....Hun didn't have his best game, didn't win much in the air, and just looked generally out of sorts - wonder of he's carrying a knock? Church, well, not sure really. He ran about a lot again, pulled their defence around, but saw little of the ball.....what was noticeable to me was that after he was substituted, we got worse if anything....ALF got 20 minutes on the pitch and I only remember him touching the ball once......

Once again, left very frustrated by McDermott - what the hell was the point in having D'Ath on the bench?
1 goal down, 10 minutes to play, and the team offering nothing going forwards, surely Brian could have tried something????


All in all feeling a bit meh! Didn't deserve to lose, didn't deserve to win, and frustrated by a lack of ideas from the management...

[Handsome Man]

Why are people having a go at Cummings and Karacan? They both played well.

No. They didn't.

As predicted...plebs on here coming on claiming karacan played well as he's the new love child. It amazes me that someone is immune from criticism because they are from the youth academy and run around a lot. He lost the ball twice in the first 8 mins alone with some awful passing into touch and this continued throughout the game. He gave away 2/3 silly free kicks including a push right in front of the referee, messed up two of our better attacking moves, lost posession about 7/8 times in total including the phase of play that hull scored from. Had he actually been able to complete a simple pass into space we were in a good position to create a clear cut chance. Instead he lost the ball and 20 seconds later it was in the back of our net. He did nothing all game and for people to claim he was even average is plain wrong...let alone " played well" simply beggars belief.

Wind-up or a post-modern plan to create your own scapegoat to confuse team board thickies?

I just don't know what you are on about.

[RoyalBlue]

DIABOLICAL decision for their goal. Wasn't sure watching it live this afternoon but that really is terrible. The two players are both actively involved there.

Dreadfully dull game between two bloody awful teams who really looked like they didn't want to be there. It showed that Reading simply do not have any options/experience or strength in depth when faced with 2/3 injuries at the same time. The goal was a bit of joke but then it's not the first time we've been caught out by officials.

All credit to the officials though they apparently sat down with Heston after the game and went through the goal. Seems they have been given a directive that a player is only offside if they touch the ball.

Now this runs against the interpretation I've seen where a player who runs towards a through ball from an offside position is given offside because they are intending to take an ACTIVE role in the game.

So, with this being the case then, why were linesmen - including the lot yesterday - also flagging offside when the player concerned hadn't touched the ball. And why are officials being given directions like this halfway through a season with, seemingly, no direction also being given to the clubs themselves.

It is indeed incredible. Particularly as everything that is written by FIFA about the offside law makes it quite clear that a player does not have to touch the ball to be offside.

And yesterday's officials claim they have been given a directive to the opposite? Bullshit! If indeed this is what they claimed, then the club should pursue this matter further for the benefit of everyone who is involved in football.

[West Stand Man]

I must be missing something here..........

I actually thought we played rather well in the 1st half. If some of the final balls had been more accurate we could've had the game won by HT. Thought Karacan & Hunt were outstanding 1st half.

Admittedly 2nd half we weren't so good but I certainly didn't think it was bad. Antonio put a decent shift & Gorkss was immense as always.

Strange.

Other than not being prepared to go as far as 'outstanding' for Karacan and Hunt, I agree with this. They were, however, pretty good throughout. Gorkss continues to impress - he was an excellent buy.

Antonio put in a pretty good shift. He has pace and the ability to get in behind defenders, his final ball was lacking though and that is something that will improve with experience. How we went in 0-0 at half time defeats me. We carved them apart for 44 1/2 minutes (I've allowed them 30 seconds for the long free kick that looked goal bound). How the Pearce chance at the back post failed to go in will haunt me and him for a long time. Having said that, it was the longest 45 minutes of football I have seen for while, seriously lacking in sustained excitement.

Second half wasn't much better from an excitement perspective and Hull cam back into it. They were still much the worse of the sides, but the fight was more obvious. My initial reaction for the goal was that McLean was well offside but Brady was just on. How it is deemed 'not interfering with play' when a player chases the ball down and gets to within a couple of mm of touching it (with intent) I do not know.If the current directive to referees is that the player has to touch the ball then we could see some interesting scenarios (offside players in front of the keeper nor being called in future for instance).

[Platypuss]

McDermott must have been mad as he made a school boy Maths error.... "I hope the managers of the other 92 league clubs knew that rule because I certainly didn't"

He didn't say "managers" or "other".