Matejovsky slams selfish strikers

[Ian Royal]

Interesting points from Marek, one of my major criticism from the last few games though is a lack of willingness to have a shot.

The number of times against Villa him or Harper picked up the ball on the edge of the bax and then played it around the edge, rather than even considering having a shot made me mental.

Yes Sidwell missed most of the time, but at least it kept defenders wondering, therefore sometimes leaving the gap to play the throughball and sometimes leaving the shooting angle open.

[West Stand Man]

We we all knew that the Balding Guy sat quietly during matches, we've now had it confirmed from a player that he is just as silent during training.

I quote from the article...

Mr Coppell is the boss but basically he does nothing during training.

No, because like the good leader that he is he does his talking with the coaches and lets them deliver their parts of the process unhindered. It is called good management. If they don't deliver then he deals with them, and they deal with the players. Sounds pretty good to me.

[earleyroyal]

Archie's Penalty - I have heard of fishing but was trying to get an insight into the mind of TV. Why do it? Surely he realises that pissing people off on an internet messageboard is one of the sadder things to waste your life doing.

Actually no he doesn't, I think that solves it

Well being on here is kinda sad in the first place I guess...

Can't argue with that.

[brendywendy]

The most interesting part of the interview is the bit where he says copps bought him to change the way we play

good to hear

[MartinRdg]

So let me get this right, the gist of the interview is "i was brought here to instil a short passing game into the mentality of my team mates but as I expected, some are struggling with this at the moment".

Seems to me, he's criticising the footballing culture in this country rather than any particular indivduals, something we have done on here on numerous occasions, and is somewhat in tune with the reasoning behind the management bringing him here in the first place..

An example of which is that England will not be at Euro 2008 but Czech Republic will be?

[rotherwick_royal]

Really interesting stuff. I think if he sticks around long enough he will become a legend at the club.

I hope the message gets thorugh to the players in question without rocking the boat. Maybe a few things got lost in translation, but he still needs to learn one or two things about the English press though.

[Royal With Cheese]

Really interesting stuff. I think if he sticks around long enough he will become a legend at the club.

Agreed. I already think of him as being a legend as we've won two on the spin.

However, if we lose the next game I will, naturally, call for the entire first team to be dropped, and for Coppell to resign.

I AM A READING FAN.

[Dirk Gently]

Really interesting stuff. I think if he sticks around long enough he will become a legend at the club.

Agreed. I already think of him as being a legend as we've won two on the spin.

However, if we lose the next game I will, naturally, call for the entire first team to be dropped, and for Coppell to resign.

I AM A READING FAN.

If we lose at Liverpool surely you need to be your bit with masses of motivational booing?

[Tilehurst End]

Seems to be a critisism of lack of vision and awareness rather than just plain selfishness.

As for the long ball issue I seem to remember both Kitson and Harper having similar moans in the past. Most continental players are brought up with a passing mentality and long may it continue. Having watched Arsenal and Bolton in European action in the last few days I know where I'd rather have a season ticket. An interesting stat came up towards the end of the Celtic v Barcelona
game where Celtic had attempted 170ish passes with a 62% success rate and in the same time spell Barca had Attempted 523 with an 86% success rate.

Didn't Cloughie say something about god wouldn't have created grass if the ball was supposed to be in the air.

[readingbedding]

Absolute mountain out of a molehill.

Strikers are selfish SHOCKER.
Even more so when they are in a bit of a rut...MORE SHOCKS.

It's just a bit of a moan from a creative midfielder asking his fellow strikers to invite him in the attacking play.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Absolute mountain out of a molehill.

Strikers are selfish SHOCKER.
Even more so when they are in a bit of a rut...MORE SHOCKS.

It's just a bit of a moan from a creative midfielder asking his fellow strikers to invite him in the attacking play.

I get the feeling it's not even really a moan. It just looks like he's been asked about the differences here to what he is used to at home.

[readingbedding]

Absolute mountain out of a molehill.

Strikers are selfish SHOCKER.
Even more so when they are in a bit of a rut...MORE SHOCKS.

It's just a bit of a moan from a creative midfielder asking his fellow strikers to invite him in the attacking play.

I get the feeling it's not even really a moan. It just looks like he's been asked about the differences here to what he is used to at home.

Yeah, perhaps you're right.

Mind you, in every game all round the world since the beginning of time, people who have played football have been frustrated with their fellow footballers not passing, moving etc when there were better positions and options etc, etc.

[RoyalBlue]

If i'm honest, i'm reading the article and thinking "This is so goddarned true... finally."

Then i think, he hasn't been learning English for long, maybe the Journalists have twisted his words?

Still. No criticisms, he doesn't sound like he's insulting anyone, just having a whine at the lack of passing done. I agree, passing is the way forwards.

Unless you were Marek against City in which case passing was the way to give the opposition possession.

I guess it's human nature to easily spot the few occasions when one of his passes did go astray and gift possession to the opposition, rather than see the numerous occasions on which he passed the ball perfectly to feet with little or no show/fuss. I bet his pass completion rate was actually very high.

[brendywendy]

If i'm honest, i'm reading the article and thinking "This is so goddarned true... finally."

Then i think, he hasn't been learning English for long, maybe the Journalists have twisted his words?

Still. No criticisms, he doesn't sound like he's insulting anyone, just having a whine at the lack of passing done. I agree, passing is the way forwards.

Unless you were Marek against City in which case passing was the way to give the opposition possession.

I guess it's human nature to easily spot the few occasions when one of his passes did go astray and gift possession to the opposition, rather than see the numerous occasions on which he passed the ball perfectly to feet with little or no show/fuss. I bet his pass completion rate was actually very high.

ive watched him for the last few home games, and he gives it away maybe three times in a game
which on the whole is a pretty good amount for 70+ minutes, better than most others on the team

probably not the devastating statistical insight you were after, but its all ive got

[RoyalBlue]

Quite - and very good considering he is trying to pass the ball far more often than most others in the team.

[winchester_royal]

As usual an inocuous comment taken by the media and turned into a big thing......not once does marek 'slam' any of the strikers, he is just saying how there are times where in the uk the strikers do things differently.........

Someone needed to tell doyle and kits they are too selfish anyway....coppell wasn't gonna do it

[readingbedding]

As usual an inocuous comment taken by the media and turned into a big thing......not once does marek 'slam' any of the strikers, he is just saying how there are times where in the uk the strikers do things differently.........

Someone needed to tell doyle and kits they are too selfish anyway....coppell wasn't gonna do it

Strikers?
Too selfish?

Blimey.

[Chuckle Brother]

If I was him I'd actually have gone even further. I'd have said that since he has been in the team the strikers are not intelligent enough or don't have good enough movement to enable him to play the clever passes that are what we are missing this season. Meaning he has to try passes that really aren't on meaning he is giving the ball away more than he would like.

[Archie's penalty]

If I was him I'd actually have gone even further. I'd have said that since he has been in the team the strikers are not intelligent enough or don't have good enough movement to enable him to play the clever passes that are what we are missing this season. Meaning he has to try passes that really aren't on meaning he is giving the ball away more than he would like.

Pretty harsh CB.

Think Doyle makes pretty good runs.

[Chuckle Brother]

If I was him I'd actually have gone even further. I'd have said that since he has been in the team the strikers are not intelligent enough or don't have good enough movement to enable him to play the clever passes that are what we are missing this season. Meaning he has to try passes that really aren't on meaning he is giving the ball away more than he would like.

Pretty harsh CB.

Think Doyle makes pretty good runs.

They can't be that good though being as he hasn't scored since December and before last week none of our strikers had scored this year.