Back from the Game - Forest (H)

[Royal Lady]

Tabb is out injured
Bertrand and Khiz gone
Rasiak gone
Griffin injured


Key players imo.

More worrying for me yesterday was Gylfi - I just hope he isn't becoming unsettled because he knows something we don't and another team are about to bid for him.

[Royal Rother]

But watching yesterday, I can see that although we might still have a club in 20 years, as opposed to the Pompey's and Cardiff's of this world, we will be sliding down the league at this rate and we however tightly run we are currently, we will suffer financially if we don't spend prudently and wisely now.

To me it seems ridiculously early days to be reaching those conclusions, especially as yesterday's game was against the 2nd favourites for the title. A couple of years of mid-table consolidation and a team in 2012/13 consisting of 7 or 8 Academy players is not beyond the realms of possibility from where we are now.

I'd take that.

Mind you, I'll still be watching Windsor & Eton rather than RFC so I don't really count!! (I'll get back to the music threads now. )

[Ian Royal]

Tabb is out injured
Bertrand and Khiz gone
Rasiak gone
Griffin injured


Key players imo.

More worrying for me yesterday was Gylfi - I just hope he isn't becoming unsettled because he knows something we don't and another team are about to bid for him.

The injuries are definitely a worry, but only Griffin and Bertrand are really major losses there. Rasiak was only a squad player who many thought was useless, Khiz played a (very important) cameo only and if Ivar gets fully fit we won't miss him that much. As for Tabb, I rate him highly, but Karacan isn't too far behind him in terms of the level he can play to.

What we genuinely need is a short and medium term plan for how we play and to select the best XI we can to do that. At the moment we seem to be struggling with having the strikers for one system and the midfielders for another.

[Royal Lady]

Khiz played a cameo? What are you on?

[URZZ]

I found yesterday very inspiring until Federici's blunder. We all make mistakes, I seem to remember Brighton away once upon a time, Hahnemann picking up a backpass from one of our defenders resulting in a pen for them.

Few things I noticed, although it's no good criticising a team that have problems that can't be helped, money for example, injuries and etc. It does look like it's gonna be a hard season, perhaps harder than last years, if we get into the top half I will be more than pleased.

I for one am not a Pearce fan, but yesterday I think he did have one of his better days, not just because of his scrabbly goal, but I think he coped well with their counter attacks and kept Blackstock quiet.

Even though it's been said many a time on here and it doesn't take a genius to work out, we do need a new defender, but I think we need a centre forward more than we need a centre back. Long did a few things right yesterday, he held the ball up extremely well, giving our midfield time to excelerate up the park and he got countless amounts of headers in, although... now I did say I didn't want to heavily criticise Reading, because this is a hard time but, I will say it, Long is totally and utterly useless in terms of being a striker. He doesn't have a goal scoring instinct, when he runs with the ball you just KNOW it won't lead to anything, let alone a shot on target. We absolutely need a striker, I hope someone will agree at how obvious this is seeming.

Generally though I was proud to watch Reading play the better football for the percentage of the game against a play-off hopeful team in Forest. We are still a decent team and I saw that yesterday, we deserved at least the point.

I can't help but feel though that there is a very slow decrease in Reading Football Club, a very very, very slow landslide. I can see next season being even more difficult, obviously finance is the issue, but I know for a fact without Kebe, Gylfi or McAnuff in particular we would struggle, it isn't even worth thinking about... and there is an expiry date on all of those players' names too, it's obvious

Gylfi looked quiet yesterday, and Howard was taking more of the set pieces, was this just 'doing things different for a change and not being so predictable' or... are we preparing for life without Gylfi?

Proud to be a Royal though and as for the hiccup Fed, no worries mate.

[sheshnu]

I seem to remember Brighton away once upon a time, Hahnemann picking up a backpass from one of our defenders resulting in a pen for them.

You sure about that?

[JoebyRFC]

we miss Bertrand. Simples. He injected pace down the left flank with Jobi, which pulled the opposition defence across, giving lots more room for Kebe to work his pace. Now he's gone the opposition defence can tighten up on both flanks, causing us to create less chances and slowing our passing down.

[The Rouge]

hmmm

[handbags_harris]

Well I don't honestly know what people were expecting yesterday. Firstly Forest matched up to us by playing three in the middle, therefore denying us space to play in (and given the lack of space there it wholly explains why so little of the ball actually went through there - I'm surprised the people who asked this question can't see that this is exactly why nothing went through there) and secondly Billy Davies teams are among the "best" at breaking up play by giving away copious amounts of niggly fouls and generally slowing play down when the ball is out of play. As a result of these two factors it is no surprise that yesterday's game wasn't a particularly good advert for Championship football, but I actually felt that we were decent value for three points (first 15 aside). Federici is a 'keeper who makes a number of errors but rarely will you see him f*ck up so royally with his kicking. The opener came very much against the run of play but from then on we were more than a match for one of the best teams in the division.

[Pseud O'Nym]

it seems he's using some of the club's money to fund his other ailing businesses.

I really have no desire to keep this pointless circular debate going, particularly on a thread where one would hope to find discussion of yesterday's game, but I just can't let that one go.

SJM is a businessman who has invested a great deal of money in RFC and, if RFC is generating a profit, then he has every right to use that return on his investment as he sees fit. That profit is not "the club's money" and it is disingenuous to describe it as such.

[loyalroyaldaz]

it seems he's using some of the club's money to fund his other ailing businesses.

SJM is a businessman who has invested a great deal of money in RFC and, if RFC is generating a profit, then he has every right to use that return on his investment as he sees fit. That profit is not "the club's money" and it is disingenuous to describe it as such.

That may well be the case but is it not disingenuous to trot the old "we are ambitious and want to get back to the Premier League" line then have a policy of spending Zilch !!!!

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Good atmosphere yesterday as well.

[URZZ]

I seem to remember Brighton away once upon a time, Hahnemann picking up a backpass from one of our defenders resulting in a pen for them.

You sure about that?

Erm, yeah, I am sure. Or were you not a fan back then?

http://www.royals.org/matdoc/040403.html

Third paragraph.

My only errors were, it was at home, not away. Oh and it was a free-kick not a pen, but whatever.. still a bizarre goal alike yesterday's.

[handbags_harris]

I seem to remember Brighton away once upon a time, Hahnemann picking up a backpass from one of our defenders resulting in a pen for them.

You sure about that?

Erm, yeah, I am sure.

http://www.royals.org/matdoc/040403.html

Third paragraph.

My only error was, it was at home, not away.

I can't believe this needs to be pointed out. Try again old boy

[URZZ]

I can't believe this needs to be pointed out. Try again old boy

Well no, it doesn't really need to be pointed out. Out of my entire post I had other things better discussing than previous keeping errors, but it was worth mentioning that even keepers as good as Arnie make mistakes similar to Fed's yesterday.

[handbags_harris]

Well no, it doesn't really need to be pointed out. Out of my entire post I had other things better discussing than previous keeping errors, but it was worth mentioning that even keepers as good as Arnie make mistakes similar to Fed's yesterday.

Since when does a backpass result in a penalty?

[FiNeRaIn]

I clearly remember the days when Scott Taylor, Adrian William, James Lambert etc. played their first few games - how exciting it was to see new home grown talent coming on - a great feeling. And they always used to get the biggest cheer of the day when coming on as sub, and/or when their names were announced.

How times have changed - it's all taken for granted now it seems, but this is, in my opinion, Madejski's greatest achievement for this club. Not getting to the Premier League, not the new stadium but the fact that he has financed the building and staffing of one of the best and most prolific academies in the country.

Because these days there is no loyalty and they all get flogged RR....where have you been? There is hardly any point in academy prospects anymore as we've seen, they all get poached by the big boys. I love watching sig, but in the back of my mind thats tarnished because he won't be here long.

[Royal Rother]

I do know what you mean about Sig (I'm sure fans of say West Ham / Everton etc. would say the same about their young players though) but maybe I am missing something. Who of our Academy prospects has been flogged to the big boys?

If you're talking about before they get old enough for 1st team football are there not rules to prevent that poaching from happening now?

The big boys are always likely to get the cream at their academies of course, but there's a helluva lot of others to go round. If we are seen as a club where the young players can and do develop into 1st team players we are likely to gradually get a better quality coming to us. I suspect that has slowly been happening over the last 5 or 6 years, recently accelerated by other teams closing / reducing their academies.

[Pseud O'Nym]

SJM is a businessman who has invested a great deal of money in RFC and, if RFC is generating a profit, then he has every right to use that return on his investment as he sees fit. That profit is not "the club's money" and it is disingenuous to describe it as such.

That may well be the case but is it not disingenuous to trot the old "we are ambitious and want to get back to the Premier League" line then have a policy of spending Zilch !!!!

I squirmed when I read his bit in the Scunthorpe match "Royal", just like everyone else, but no I don't think it was intended to mislead. Ill-judged, maybe even delusional, or possibly just ill-informed, if he relies on Howe for all his dealings with the club then I'm sure we all remember some pretty OTT stuff from that source.

But that's all irrelevant, saying he "is using the club's money" is obviously intended to imply some kind of wrongdoing, and you can't justify impugning SJM's integrity just because you don't like the tone of programme message.

[SteveRoyal]

Need to see Antonio starting IMO.