BFTG - Brizzle

[Stranded]

For the handball the ref could not have been closer, he indicated the defender had his arms down by his side, correct decision in my view.

You've seen the picture on the OS? His arm is clearly not flat against his side. Therefore he has, under the current guidance, made his body 'unnaturally bigger' and IMO it should've been a penalty. That interpretation is why you see so many defenders unnaturally positioned with their hands behind their bodies!

The photo is taken as (or briefly after) contact - the ball has come off his hip and speed and knocked his arm making it look unnatural - his arm was in a natural position as Puscas shot only the force of the contact shifts the arm. No penalty and shows why a still photograph should not be used as proof of anything in football when everything in frame is actually moving.

[Coppells Lost Coat]

The way I see it, the ball would have passed his hip if his arm was not there, there was no movement to avoid contact and no attempt to put arms behind his back - like what has become the norm.
Would have been a harsh penalty but still within our rights to have been awarded it.

[Hendo]

Chalk it up to: "Seen 'em given"

[RoyalBlue]

Chalk it up to: "Seen 'em given"

Clearly the dinosaur Woolmer hasn't or maybe he just doesn't agree with the new guidelines.

[tmesis]

If there is a positive from the opening two home games, it's how we knock the ball about around the area to create openings. Some of the passing and movement is quite impressive. Our decisions when we get into the box, from those good positions...needs a little work, but for the first time in years I'm watching and I can see how we are trying to create chances.

It's frustrating as I get the feeling that if was actually given some money to spend, Paunović could actually build a decent team, but if we struggle he'll probably get sacked.

The big negative, on the other hand, is how easily we get dominated. Bristol City bossed chunks of the game last night without really having to work for it. We just kept giving the ball away really cheaply.

[Zip]

For the handball the ref could not have been closer, he indicated the defender had his arms down by his side, correct decision in my view.

You've seen the picture on the OS? His arm is clearly not flat against his side. Therefore he has, under the current guidance, made his body 'unnaturally bigger' and IMO it should've been a penalty. That interpretation is why you see so many defenders unnaturally positioned with their hands behind their bodies!

The photo is taken as (or briefly after) contact - the ball has come off his hip and speed and knocked his arm making it look unnatural - his arm was in a natural position as Puscas shot only the force of the contact shifts the arm. No penalty and shows why a still photograph should not be used as proof of anything in football when everything in frame is actually moving.

Agreed. No pen.

[Snowflake Royal]

For the handball the ref could not have been closer, he indicated the defender had his arms down by his side, correct decision in my view.

You've seen the picture on the OS? His arm is clearly not flat against his side. Therefore he has, under the current guidance, made his body 'unnaturally bigger' and IMO it should've been a penalty. That interpretation is why you see so many defenders unnaturally positioned with their hands behind their bodies!

Utterly ridiculous to think your arm has to be flat to your body. Perfectly natural position, never a pen.

[Snowflake Royal]

I also think Ejaria's defensive work is underrated on here and by fans generally. Watch him closely in a game and you see he's got a good footballing brain; providing cover for a LB that gets caught out of position and chasing back hard when we lose the ball in transition. Not all the time of course, but more often than not. Bristow or McIntyre would be better at LB with Ejaria in front of them

Yep good point

It's hit and miss, but you'd expect that from a winger I guess.

It's no surprise we'd struggle on the left with both McIntyre and Bristow out of position and their element.

[Hound]

It was prob one of those that looked more a pen at the ground. How we saw it behind the goal was it hitting the ball flush in the hand with his hand well away from the body. It looked as clear as anything

Could well have been the trick of the eyes and the force of the shot moving the arm away though hence why I’m not surprised other angles show it less a pen

[Sutekh]

Let's face it we have to be realistic. This will now be a fight against relegation. We need to adopt a far more defensive formation as most teams now will be better than us and try and pick up enough points to survive. During this time perhaps 2/3 of the young players will develop into championship quality.
Last night we gave the game away against a side that had not won in 12. We beat a poor side in Preston also.
We have to re-evaluate and accept that although we have a few good players we don't have a team and you need both. Be happy if we survive to fight for better things next season.
Having watched Reading for 59 years I'm well prepared for this!

It's not a relegation battle yet but could easily turn into one. This season goes one of two ways from here - we keep scoring fairly regularly and the defence gets sorted, we put a bit of a run together and move up the table. Our goals start to dry up and the defence remains all at sea, we're in for a long tough battle to stay up. Both are equally likely at this point.

We are, according to the club, now able to bring in loans and free's under certain guidelines, so the period up until after the break will be key for us - ideally get a few players in and use the break as a 2nd pre season.

I think that's being generous

Our goals are (from memory)
Swift - 2 - a player who struggles with fitness and has barely ever made double figures
Azeez - 2 - a kid breaking through
Moore - 2 - a centreback who rarely scores

Of our last few seasons, the players who've scored double figures or close are Joao (out for the year), Meite (out for at least the year), Olise (gone), Swift and Puscas.

I'd say our goals are almost guaranteed to dry up sooner rather than later. Whilst the defence has to improve a lot and has shown no signs of doing so.

Isn’t this exactly what happened with the team in Jack Mansell’s second season? Goals dried up while defence became ever more porous.

[Sutekh]

For the handball the ref could not have been closer, he indicated the defender had his arms down by his side, correct decision in my view.

You've seen the picture on the OS? His arm is clearly not flat against his side. Therefore he has, under the current guidance, made his body 'unnaturally bigger' and IMO it should've been a penalty. That interpretation is why you see so many defenders unnaturally positioned with their hands behind their bodies!

Utterly ridiculous to think your arm has to be flat to your body. Perfectly natural position, never a pen.

Agree. That is not a penalty. Really need to have common sense put back into the game over these decisions and at least the referee did that correctly on this occasion.

[Millsy]

Looking at the third goal on the highlights. That was by far the worst of the three imo. Morrison gets bullied by Martin and loses the first phase header. which shouldn't happen. Moore is nowhere near Weimann who is his man for the flick on. McIntyre then slow to get across to Weimann, but should have clattered him and taken the foul. If he'd done that then Weimann is then rolling on the floor and isn't able to get into the box for the return ball. Also, McIntyre needs to be closer to Weimann and tracking him after Weimann's flick on. It looked like McIntyre was running through treacle trying to get back. My son & I commented on a couple occasions in the stadium last night about how slow McIntyre looked when chasing back. Perhaps he spent too much energy running all over the place, trying to play left wing, left forward, centre forward to then be able to do his defensive duties properly.

Genuinely think we will look better and more balanced with two centre backs and a proper left back. All the defenders just looked half a yard off the pace - is that down to a lack of match fitness, desire or being slightly cautious because of covering an inexperienced left back?

Also, heard a rumour last night that Moore has handed in a transfer request

Really don't want to write too much negative when overall I see positive but it is a real concern that our defence should be so poor.

Ok so we lost Richards but in fairness he was better going forward. Surely one position can't devastate the whole defence - the only player I can think of who can ruin a defensive unit is a keeper but Rafael has actually been reasonable. It's as though they spent the whole time between last season and this actively unlearning how to defend? Or is it that Moore has his mind elsewhere, Morro has lost his legs, Yiadom has lost his brain. Yes zonal marking is shite but it's not like that's new to them - if anything they've had more time to perfect it.

[leon]

+1

The cnuts have got to get a grip and actually start defending.

[JR]

For the handball the ref could not have been closer, he indicated the defender had his arms down by his side, correct decision in my view.

You've seen the picture on the OS? His arm is clearly not flat against his side. Therefore he has, under the current guidance, made his body 'unnaturally bigger' and IMO it should've been a penalty. That interpretation is why you see so many defenders unnaturally positioned with their hands behind their bodies!

Utterly ridiculous to think your arm has to be flat to your body. Perfectly natural position, never a pen.

Nonsense that we are even debating this.

There was silly season for a few weeks last year in the premier league and thankfully the officiating bodies saw sense.

Never a penalty in a million years (except Sept 2020).

[BarryWhiteRFC]

You've seen the picture on the OS? His arm is clearly not flat against his side. Therefore he has, under the current guidance, made his body 'unnaturally bigger' and IMO it should've been a penalty. That interpretation is why you see so many defenders unnaturally positioned with their hands behind their bodies!

Utterly ridiculous to think your arm has to be flat to your body. Perfectly natural position, never a pen.

Nonsense that we are even debating this.

There was silly season for a few weeks last year in the premier league and thankfully the officiating bodies saw sense.

Never a penalty in a million years (except Sept 2020).

It was a shot on target stopped by his arm. They can easily be given.

[NathStPaul]

They can't be given based upon the directives given to referees. If that was given it would have been a huge refereeing error.

[Millsy]

Dunno, his arm muscles look pretty tensed up there. Definitely not a floppy arm that just got knocked out the way by the force of the ball.

Whether or not it's technically a penalty by current rules, players know what they're doing when they conveniently have tensed arms in those areas, strong enough to stay in position and keep a ball out even struck at force at close range...

Definitely seen them given.

[Coppells Lost Coat]

Still convinced this is a pen. One arm behind his back one away from his body - he knew what he was doing. I think that he was only 3 yards from him when he struck it is the mitigating factor here.
Seen them given a lot of times and lets hope those dont get given against us - which they almost certainly will.

[Hound]

Definitely seen them given. 'Natural' position is a bit of a weird one anyway, your arm naturally goes in a big arc from head to hip. Morrisons handball last week - no arguments at all that was a pen - but if you are going in for a tackle, your arm would 'naturally' go in the position it ended up in. And that was unintentional and point blank range. But clearly a pen.

[3points]

Looking at the third goal on the highlights. That was by far the worst of the three imo. Morrison gets bullied by Martin and loses the first phase header. which shouldn't happen. Moore is nowhere near Weimann who is his man for the flick on. McIntyre then slow to get across to Weimann, but should have clattered him and taken the foul. If he'd done that then Weimann is then rolling on the floor and isn't able to get into the box for the return ball. Also, McIntyre needs to be closer to Weimann and tracking him after Weimann's flick on. It looked like McIntyre was running through treacle trying to get back. My son & I commented on a couple occasions in the stadium last night about how slow McIntyre looked when chasing back. Perhaps he spent too much energy running all over the place, trying to play left wing, left forward, centre forward to then be able to do his defensive duties properly.

Genuinely think we will look better and more balanced with two centre backs and a proper left back. All the defenders just looked half a yard off the pace - is that down to a lack of match fitness, desire or being slightly cautious because of covering an inexperienced left back?

Also, heard a rumour last night that Moore has handed in a transfer request

Really don't want to write too much negative when overall I see positive but it is a real concern that our defence should be so poor.

Ok so we lost Richards but in fairness he was better going forward. Surely one position can't devastate the whole defence - the only player I can think of who can ruin a defensive unit is a keeper but Rafael has actually been reasonable. It's as though they spent the whole time between last season and this actively unlearning how to defend? Or is it that Moore has his mind elsewhere, Morro has lost his legs, Yiadom has lost his brain. Yes zonal marking is shite but it's not like that's new to them - if anything they've had more time to perfect it.

defending isn't just about the named defenders on the team sheet. Midfield protection plays a big part, as does (these days) the work the forwards do to track back or fill in space in a system / press the defenders. With McIntyre and Bristow both out of position and relatively inexperienced, does this mean Laurent and Rino play slightly differently creating gaps elsewhere as they cover the left hand side? I also think with Swift playing a floating role in midfield potentially creates uncertainties for others and, if Swift becomes the deepest midfielder at a point in time, he is not as good defensively as Laurent & Rino, and doesn't have the pace to cover the full backs, etc. Is that the reason we were defensively a bit more solid when Semedo played rather than Swift last season? Of course you lose a lot going forward without Swift