Back from booing at my tv screen

[Snowflake Royal]

Al-Habsi saved us many times over the last couple of years with stunning saves. Mannone, is fine, but he's not going to get us poonts that way.

Short memories - AAH made some great/brilliant saves but he also cost us a number of goals because he was so uncomfortable with the ball at his feet. Mannone is a far better footballer in that regard and unlikely to cost us goals in the same manner.

This is just nonsense.

[Soul Man]

.....the usual, them forgetting who the customers are?

Or just pi55ed off with losing? (again)

Me? I tend to turn up to watch the football, not the platitudes and niceties of acknowledgement from the well-paid mavericks

You miss my point they just may have been pissed off with our rubbish support

[Snowflake Royal]

It my have escaped every one's notice but not one player applauded the fans when they left the field so their opinion of us us must be pretty low and quite rightly so

This isn't true.

McShane and several others did.

The support wasn't rubbish either. First half was about the best I've seen this season. Second half understandably deteriorated as the team fell apart.

[AthleticoSpizz]

.....the usual, them forgetting who the customers are?

Or just pi55ed off with losing? (again)

Me? I tend to turn up to watch the football, not the platitudes and niceties of acknowledgement from the well-paid mavericks

You miss my point they just may have been pissed off with our rubbish support

think I already had that covered

[Snowflake Royal]

Just to add to my argument for Gunter's appalling game now I'm home and not trying to type on a tiny phone screen:

Not only did he decide to try and check back inside and take on Jerome then demonstrate zero strength instead of playing a simple ball up the line, when we won the ball back, he then went on to pass to an unmarked Norwich player in his own penalty area. As mentioned earlier.

He followed this up with shanking a clearance high and into his own box. It was this series of clusterfucks that unsettled us and led to the corner that they scored from, ably assisted by the crowd complaining about the placement of the corner ball (I knew from the second the ref came over we'd switch off and they'd score).

He also pussied out of a physical duel for control of the ball that was his all day long for another turnover in midfield, kicked the ball into Berg rather than hitting it forward or passing leading to another turnover, and decided to stumble around failing to control, pass or shoot when in their penalty area, again leading to another turnover and break. This is all while continuing to tell everyone not to pass to him whenever possible. But he made a block and hit a good shot, so that's all fine.

His first half was pretty decent.

[Snowflake Royal]

Didn't realise Aluko took the freekick for our goal. Fair play - bump him up a couple. He produced end product. That was a great ball.

[genome]

3 assists in a week for Aluko

[Jack Celliers]

It was ok, We didn't have much luck: every time the ball went out it seemed to have a flukey deflection off a Reading player and the ref could have been kinder towards us, but the Norwich players were miles better than ours, and 2-1 flattered us massively. We are in a relegation scrap now and Stam should be up to the task, so I am not going to panic. The board have spunked so much money on players this summer, I hope they can keep their heads. It will be all right in the end.

Mannone 5 First soft goal of the season (overall however it has been a pleasant surprise that this is one area we have improved)
Gunter 5 Good
Blackett 4 Not good
Moore 6 Ok and he scored so probably has to be man of the match
McShane 2 Absolutely woeful - what has happened since the end of last season
Berg 5 Ok, but he's playing at his best and it isn't nearly good enough most of the time
Kelly 5 Ok, but to be honest he has been found out and his days seem numbered
Bacuna 3 just not very good at football
Aluko 0 I can cope with him not being a striker, but it would be nice if he had occupied a position somewhere and joined in a littlle
Beerens 2 a centre forward role was Stam's two fingers to the crowd and potentially a brave stroke of genius if only it had worked
McCleary 6 I like him - he is a Reading player

[NewCorkSeth]

3 assists in a week for Aluko

Crazy considering the teams performances. Really needs to play on the wing, he's hungry for the ball and very creative but honestly the last person in our team I want taking shots.
Anyone got an idea of team shape tonight?

[genome]

Anyone got an idea of team shape tonight?

No, and I don't think the team did either

[windermereROYAL]

Utter sh1te. 0/10 to the players and manaher. Hello league 1. Sack stam please

there speaks the mayor of simpleton

So fecking true, what a total prick. I'm surprised he can string a single sentence together with his fat arse sitting on the sofa.

I too have concerns its true but I was sat in the east east stand, actually watch the fecking game.

My view on it, first half 7/10 second half 4/10.
We do play lots of decent football. but it always breaks down on the final third. I`m not yet in the Stam out camp because I know what he`s trying to do here, but starting every game without a striker is truly baffling, Where the feck is the hold up player?

I think he knows the the next few games are vital for him and his future here,

Norwich are the best team by far we have seen this season. will be very surprised if the are not top 6 in May.

Good night.

[windermereROYAL]

It was ok, We didn't have much luck: every time the ball went out it seemed to have a flukey deflection off a Reading player and the ref could have been kinder towards us, but the Norwich players were miles better than ours, and 2-1 flattered us massively. We are in a relegation scrap now and Stam should be up to the task, so I am not going to panic. The board have spunked so much money on players this summer, I hope they can keep their heads. It will be all right in the end.

Mannone 5 First soft goal of the season (overall however it has been a pleasant surprise that this is one area we have improved)
Gunter 5 Good
Blackett 4 Not good
Moore 6 Ok and he scored so probably has to be man of the match
McShane 2 Absolutely woeful - what has happened since the end of last season
Berg 5 Ok, but he's playing at his best and it isn't nearly good enough most of the time
Kelly 5 Ok, but to be honest he has been found out and his days seem numbered
Bacuna 3 just not very good at football
Aluko 0 I can cope with him not being a striker, but it would be nice if he had occupied a position somewhere and joined in a littlle
Beerens 2 a centre forward role was Stam's two fingers to the crowd and potentially a brave stroke of genius if only it had worked
McCleary 6 I like him - he is a Reading player

Dear god, and you reckoned we were ok? McCleary 6?

[robig106]

Worst home performance this season. Stam is overcomplicating the shape and system, as McCleary, Beerens and Aluko kept switching positions frequently resulting in no relationship, structure and understanding on the pitch.
Last season Stam was ruthless with his substitutions recognising he had to make tactical changes at half time or even in first half of games.
In interviews he said he would rather outscore opponents rather than keep clean sheets. This season he has changed as a manager and so has his team and I feel for the worse.

[Sutekh]

Nice bright first half looking quite useful followed by a second half of utter cr@p that was as bad as anything they dredged up v Hull. In fact did Reading actually come out for the second half?

Absolutely zero threat in that half other than Gunter skimming the bar.

Usual problem though throughout - a team of supposed highly creative players that couldn't create a fart after winning a baked bean eating competition. Think the Norwich keeper only had to save the ball with his hands once in the entire game.

IT'S JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH

PS - was Moore's booking his fifth of the season, will he be suspended for the Leeds game (though as he scored he'd probably end up dropped for it anyway)?

[leon]

It was ok, We didn't have much luck: every time the ball went out it seemed to have a flukey deflection off a Reading player and the ref could have been kinder towards us, but the Norwich players were miles better than ours, and 2-1 flattered us massively. We are in a relegation scrap now and Stam should be up to the task, so I am not going to panic. The board have spunked so much money on players this summer, I hope they can keep their heads. It will be all right in the end.

Mannone 5 First soft goal of the season (overall however it has been a pleasant surprise that this is one area we have improved)
Gunter 5 Good
Blackett 4 Not good
Moore 6 Ok and he scored so probably has to be man of the match
McShane 2 Absolutely woeful - what has happened since the end of last season
Berg 5 Ok, but he's playing at his best and it isn't nearly good enough most of the time
Kelly 5 Ok, but to be honest he has been found out and his days seem numbered
Bacuna 3 just not very good at football
Aluko 0 I can cope with him not being a striker, but it would be nice if he had occupied a position somewhere and joined in a littlle
Beerens 2 a centre forward role was Stam's two fingers to the crowd and potentially a brave stroke of genius if only it had worked
McCleary 6 I like him - he is a Reading player

Dear god, and you reckoned we were ok? McCleary 6?

Mccleary was not a 6. 3 is more realistic.

[Snowflake Royal]

3 assists in a week for Aluko

Crazy considering the teams performances. Really needs to play on the wing, he's hungry for the ball and very creative but honestly the last person in our team I want taking shots.
Anyone got an idea of team shape tonight?

Mannone
Gunter, McShane, Moore, Blackett
Bacuna, Berg, Kelly
Aluko, McCleary, Beerens

But Beerens and McCleary swapped a lot, could easily be the other way round. And Berg dropped into central defence plenty Gunter and Blackett pushed on

[NewCorkSeth]

3 assists in a week for Aluko

Crazy considering the teams performances. Really needs to play on the wing, he's hungry for the ball and very creative but honestly the last person in our team I want taking shots.
Anyone got an idea of team shape tonight?

Mannone
Gunter, McShane, Moore, Blackett
Bacuna, Berg, Kelly
Aluko, McCleary, Beerens

But Beerens and McCleary swapped a lot, could easily be the other way round. And Berg dropped into central defence plenty Gunter and Blackett pushed on

So roughly what we saw against Hull? Strange shape for a home match

[NewCorkSeth]

Anyone got an idea of team shape tonight?

No, and I don't think the team did either

We're pretty good humoured considering how shite we are..

[leon]

Anyone got an idea of team shape tonight?

No, and I don't think the team did either

We're pretty good humoured considering how shite we are..

Apparently we are the worst fans in the world

[marlowuk]

I can't believe some of the comments on here!! Norwich was the best team I have seen at the Mad Stad so far this season and I thought we shaded the first half and they shaded the second half. It was a good performance from us and a change from what the side has served up recently.

In what way? Well, there was much less of the aimless, boring passing between goalkeeper and back four; there was more emphasis on fast, attacking, forward passing; Mannone was not afraid to kick it long to set up an attack and his kicking was more accurate than AAH; we showed some delightful one-touch football at times (as did Norwich); there was passion in our play - and, with 4 yellow cards earned, maybe too much passion!! We were also trying to direct our headers positively (not always successfully) rather than just winning the ball in the air.

Yes - there were simple misplaced passes, particularly in the first 10 minutes when Norwich bossed proceedings, but I saw plenty of the same on MOTD showing the highlights of the Premier League!! We were also unlucky in that most of the loose balls fell to the feet of the opposition (that happens!) and we desperately need Kermie back! But I was encouraged by what I saw - which was progression.

Of course it was far from perfect. Blackett had a good game, I thought, but lost Jerome for their winning goal. Gunter made two school-boy errors in a minute around our own penalty area although he nearly scored an equaliser towards the end. The right-footed Bereens was not comfortable on the left so predictably cut back inside on virtually every occasion.

But if we can get Swift back on form, Barrow back up to speed and Kermie back on the pitch then the future is bright.