How can a team playing so poorly have such good current form

[rfc2001]

I'm not going to sit here and say I'm a tactical wizard; but 4-4-2 is just not versatile enough for the modern game.

Most teams are playing three in midfield now with a CAM moving into pockets, making the reverse pass and essentially keeping the ball on the deck and letting everything flow.

Although Man City play 4-4-2 they have one winger that keeps the width and Silva that to moves into pockets.

Hypothetically if you wanted more creativity, drop one of Jobi or Jimmy and play a more technically gifted player that can free roam. Then get a striker that can drop short LINK play!

That or I'm talking complete SH*T you decide.

This is all made on the assumption that we have the players to do this!

[Vision]

The manager is obviously paid to take the club as high as he can, in that he is succeeding. The acid test is not now, it is if or when he gets the finances for creative players. Can Brian create an attractive team?

He already has hasn't he?

The side he took over he played Kebe/McAnuff on the wings, played through Siggurdsson playing just off a main striker. Tabb and Howard were his central midfield then and the full backs were pretty attacking too.

Last season, shorn of Siggurdsson he developed a high tempo attacking side,retaining the wing play but making more use of the attributes of Long.

This season with what he's been left and what he could afford to get he's gone into a pretty much "stop the opposition from playing first then hope to fashion something at the other end"style.

What remains to be seen is IF he is allowed to keep the players he wants to keep and then add those he wants, what his preferred style of play will be.

The team plays as attractive as it needs to. What could have been more attractive than the way we played away to Forest last season, or the way we thrashed Cardiff? Brian's philosophy is to defend leads doggedly, but if we are behind or drawing he will not settle for a draw and the team starts attacking like mad. Therefore, it's a function of our method that the more favourable the score the less attractive we get. Then it's up to the other team to make a game of it: if they throw numbers forward, we start to get breakaways; if they just nurdle about in front of our serried ranks, we close out a tight win.

Well Forest/Cardiff were both last season which underlines my point that this season's approach is a more cautious one.

In most post match interviews last year you'd hear McD talking about playing "on the front foot" in almost every one. Scoring first is still important of course but I think we were more pro-active about going and getting it last season. The 1st half goal tally is improving now but I'd suggest the comparison between this season and last season would indicate that we aren't playing on that front foot as much as we were. It's a slight change in tactics and with the wingers we have at our disposal we'll always be a counter attacking threat if we do score first but I do think we're more conservative in our approach this season.

Of course "attractiveness" is a completely subjective thing anyway. My point really was in response to RR's question over whether MCD can create an "attractive team". My response is that he already has in the latter part of 09/10 and for a large part of last season as well. It's just this season his resources and options are more limited and he's adapted the team's style accordingly.

[Royal Prince]

I agree with the OP, but would echo many of the comments on here, we may not be very entertaining but we're bloody good at grinding out results!

The one thing that keeps playing on my mind is how we'd cope in the Prem with the current squad, and I'd love for us to get a chance to take on any of the top flight teams in our current form. I'm convinced that our style of play would see many big sides come unstuck. Again we'd never set the world alight in the Prem, we'd always be last on match of the day, but I'm convinced we'd easily pick up enough points with our tenacious style to finish at least mid-table.

Fingers and toes crossed the big bad wolf keeps rolling on and next season we all get a chance to find out!

[Royal Rother]

Two things we need to remember I think.

1) Without Kebe's explosive pace, teams defend higher up the pitch and squeeze the play. We simply aren't good enough passers to pass it through them so if in doubt we'll hit it into an area and then pressurise them from there.

2) Roberts is a huge player for us but lets just say he "manages his game" very well. He's a passenger for large parts of the game but overall it's worth it because the quality he brings when he's on it is obvious. It does make it difficult when at times we're effectively playing with 10 men. I suspect this also might be why McD is reluctant to start with the Roberts/ALF partenrship many favour.

I have to say I've been of the opinion that it simply won't be good enough when we come to play the better teams in this league. Thing is, when we have (Boro,Burnley), we've still won.

File under: The manager knows what he's doing to get the very best out of the resources he has available.

Have to agree with this.

I've said for months that we're not playing well enough to sustain our form but I think I need to rephrase that a bit,

Hmm, you think?

[MmmMonsterMunch]

I agree with the OP, but would echo many of the comments on here, we may not be very entertaining but we're bloody good at grinding out results!

The one thing that keeps playing on my mind is how we'd cope in the Prem with the current squad, and I'd love for us to get a chance to take on any of the top flight teams in our current form. I'm convinced that our style of play would see many big sides come unstuck. Again we'd never set the world alight in the Prem, we'd always be last on match of the day, but I'm convinced we'd easily pick up enough points with our tenacious style to finish at least mid-table.

Fingers and toes crossed the big bad wolf keeps rolling on and next season we all get a chance to find out!

You see now I massively disagree with this. I'm behind Brian in terms of what we're doing now but if this were to continue forevermore we'd all get very bored very quickly.

What exactly is the point of just existing in the PL & not even playing that well? Answer = none. Football is supposed to be entertainment. Most on here can see that the current style is a means to an end for this season, but this should not be the way we go about things in future.

FWIW, you can see they've made a collective decision to tighten up & just keep racking up the points as the style of play has definitely changed since Sep/Oct.

Anyone else other than me think TSI have promised the players & Brian a huge promotion bonus?!

[Royal Prince]

Anyone else other than me think TSI have promised the players & Brian a huge promotion bonus?!

Never even crossed my mind, but now you've mentioned it I can't help but

[Hoop Blah]

Pretty sure they can't do that, they can only officially reward them in the way their original contracts state. Isn't that what Boston got done for a few years back?

I'm sure they could all be given a nod and a wink that a nice new bumper contract will await them if they go up of course, but that's no different to the situation any other season really so not sure there's a story or influence there.

[Simon's Church]

I'm not going to sit here and say I'm a tactical wizard; but 4-4-2 is just not versatile enough for the modern game.

Agreed. And our current form totally backs this up.

[Arch]

Brian (not surprisingly) seems to have had the best insight into all this. "In the second half, we controlled the game without the ball, but we didn't control the game with the ball". If you can do both, be your approach ever so utilitarian, it can still be entertaining because you'll create chances and be "on the front foot". It doesn't have to be Barcelona beautiful. But if you give the ball away a lot, even if your defence is watertight, it's just frustrating viewing and you don't create the chances. As an exile, the results are the main thing for me, but I can certainly see how someone could come away from our seventh win on the trot not entirely delirious. We can boss games even with the limitations of our current staff, and bossing games is entertaining, but sounds like recently we haven't been doing so.

[Hoop Blah]

Aren't you another one that rarely goes to games though Ideal?

Not saying that's a bad thing, but it does put a different perspective on the importance of excitement and entertainment.

[royalp-we]

Jesus christ, what is wrong with people, they complain when we are winning!!!!!!!!!!!

Just to set one thing straight, we do NOT play poorly, we play EFFECTIVELY and that is what football is about. EFFECTIVE FOOTBALL WINS MATCHES.

NOW F^CK OFF!

^this

We aint Barca... Or even an Espanyol. We are good at getting the job done

[melonhead]

good. i hate spanish football

[Alan Partridge]

good. i hate spanish football

That is until Barca flog Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Fabregas, Pedro and others, bring in 2 midfelders that run lots but can't pass, a braindead irishman up front with no first touch and 2 full backs that can't cross the halfway line.

Then you'll be all over them.

[Arch]

good. i hate spanish football

That is until Barca flog Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Fabregas, Pedro and others, bring in 2 midfelders that run lots but can't pass, a braindead irishman up front with no first touch and 2 full backs that can't cross the halfway line.

Then you'll be all over them.

Sure, if they win every game.

[melonhead]

tbf if barca had taken onboard some of the current "reading way" they may not be so far behind in the title race

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

I am guessing here, but it would seem you have watched Reading as long if not longer than me (1979 was my first game). It may be that there is some rose coloured nostalgia kicking in, the old "when I was a kid it snowed for weeks every winter" syndrome where we choose what we remember. Think Burns, think Bullivant, awful, awful football teams, as awful as the teams of McGhee and Coppell were good. In the mid 80's I only went to Reading games for something to do when the pub shut at 2pm, it was dreadful entertainment. For a Swansea style of football you need creative players, we haven't got any, so we have to find a win from what we have. If we tried to play creative football with Leigertwood and Karacan it would be goodnight Vienna. I agree it lacks inspiration and excitement but it depends what the fans want. Some want attractive Championship football whilst the others want the glamour of PL. The manager is obviously paid to take the club as high as he can, in that he is succeeding. The acid test is not now, it is if or when he gets the finances for creative players. Can Brian create an attractive team?

There was certainly a lot of dismal stuff in the past. I remember under Jim & Mick, we used to often have a pretty turgid first half an hour, and obviously, the football when we were struggling was dire.

The thing is, we aren't struggling. I've never known a promotion-chasing team generate as little enthusiasm. We very rarely seem to have a sustained spell of pressure, and we hardly ever have an exciting game.

It's not about the football being great. It's not as if there's a basic choice of premier league standard football or boring football. It's just that our games are less end-to-end, and more middle-to-middle.

Some of it may well be tactical, but not our tactics. After all, it can't have escaped the attention of the other club's scouts that we create very little through the middle. How many clubs play us with the tactic of stifling our wingers to snuff us out as an attacking force? Quite a few, I'd imagine.


One other thing. We do see to have stopped hoofing the ball forward, and are keeping it on the deck much more lately. If it does click into place, I think we could be unstoppable. IT reminds me a bit of the 2004/5 team. That team was solid but had trouble scoring, and we had a fair few dull games that year. One or two smart acquisitions later...

[Franchise FC]

Moan when we'r winning
We like to moan when we're winning
Moan when we're wiiiiiining
We like to moan when we're winning

[Ian Royal]

Aren't you another one that rarely goes to games though Ideal?

Not saying that's a bad thing, but it does put a different perspective on the importance of excitement and entertainment.

I'm not sure it does. I've been saying the same thing about our style of play as you have, but I've only been to 4 games this season so far (seen another 10 - 12 on tv / interwebz admittedly). What it tends to do is reduce the emotional impact of a result or performance and maybe give you a bit more objectivity because you're not quite so rapt up in the "atmosphere". It's all coming at you a little bit colder if you will. Which can be a good thing and a bad thing. You get lesser highs or lows, but it means it's harder to identify with those who are going every week and seeing us smash teams / get dicked all the time (and everything inbetween obviously).

At least that's how it seems to work for me.

[BonBoh]

I honestly think that BMD has got most of the teams in this division sussed. He puts out a team that can play the opposition put in front of them and change their tactics accordingly. With so many games in March, Reading are playing effective football and getting the results.

Our recent shots on target to goal conversion ratio is extremely good. In the last 3 games, we've scored 6 goals from 10 attempts on target. That's a 60% conversation rate per shot on target. Our defence has kept 6 clean sheets in the last 7 games. Extremely effective.
When we take the lead we snuff out the opposition, preserve energy and do enough to control the game.

In my opinion, the stylish play will ultimately suffer but this is a tactical game and that's exactly what BMD is good at - tactics. It's still entertaining and good football. It's not necessarily poor (except for parts of the first half vs Millwall). It's just not pretty. Oh, apropos Millwall - Their games either side of playing us was a 3-1 win at Burnley and a 3-0 win at Peterborough. They are on form, so considering the circumstances, Reading did really well to go there and get a result. We adapted to the way Millwall play and beat them at their own game. That's football.

[Wimb]

the title of the OP is wrong, we aren't playing poorly, we're just not playing 'attractive' football. How anyone can describe a team with 10 clean sheets in 14 games as playing poorly is beyond me As others have said, the point is to win games and we've been doing exactly that.

Now if you want to talk about how attractive we are in getting those results then that's a totally different argument. If you look at the stats & scorelines then this season is looking more and more like 1994/95 when we finished 2nd despite scoring just 58 goals. It's generally accepted that that era was some of the best football we've ever played but given the fact that I was just 8 at the time I can't sit here and say I remember if we were actually that stunning to watch... so if an older head can comment that would be grand

Back to the present and the Pompy game was mind numbingly boring to watch for 90 minutes but then the result is something you can enjoy and savour all week long, so hey enjoy it while it lasts