BFTG - Watford (H)

[Winston Smith]

Lol @ losing to 10 man Watford at home

Lol @ Gunter's dive

Lol @ booooing at the end of a new managers first game

[P!ssed Off]

Thought we played very well until the goal, after which we played utterly woefully

Succinct and accurate!

Thus wasn't much to do with Watfords tactics, more to do with heads dropping and a feeling of here we go again that seemed to pervade our players. McCleary seemed to lose interest and pace and what was the idea of coming inside? - totally ineffective there

Up until they scored I thought we looked pretty safe defensively, a huge contrast from previous games. We also made enough chances to win but poor finishing cost us - can we please get rid of Murray?

Without Murray We wouldn't Have even had a foothold In the game

Ian Royal put it nicely: "Murray had enough chances to win two games on his own."
But we didn't win two games. We didn't win one game. We didn't even draw. We lost. And we lost because Murray had a shit game.

[Will95]

Before I start, after so little time I didn't expect to see big changes from Clarke, but with that in mind:

Same old s**t we saw under Adkins, just now with energy and excitement which makes it better to watch, but still fukking useless.

Nice to see everyone busting a gut out there instead of constantly stopping with and without the ball.

Couldn't hit a barn door today.

Watford fans have the worst fukking songs ever the pcunts.

In all: still oxf*rd.

All in all you still seem like a negative oxf*rd yourself! How about concentrate on the game and the small improvements made rather than trying to look good in front of your little group of teenagers you hang with

Jesus

A) I noted it was improved and that considering the time he couldn't have done much.

B) I watched the whole game without trying to impress anyone.

C) I'm glad you know me better than it obviously know myself

D) please explain who you think I am because, honestly, I think you're a little confused

[Pepe the Horseman]

Tbf we did miss an open goal - who else but Nick Blackman, take a bow, with the possible exception of Shaun Cummings probably the sh*ttest player ever to represent Reading at this level.

I'm not 100% on some of the dates they left the club but this team is worse:
----------------------???------------------------
--Mullins---Khumalo--M. Williams-----
Daley----Dobson----Akpan------Brooker
-------Tyson----Owusu---Morgan---------

Left out some players who stayed past their best (principally Gorkss, Lita and Ingimarsson) and I don't think we've had a bad goalkeeper at this level. Seems harsh to stick Young or Andersen in by default.

Worst second-tier Reading player goes to Michael Dobson imo, but there's a strong case for any of that back three.

Shouldn't be anywhere near a worst team list.

Bit harsh. Reckon he'd at least make the bench.

[WestRoyal]

Decent game, decent atmosphere, decent performance.

Unlucky to lose, but signs of solidity and a much more reading like approach

Feds. 7 slow.some good saves
Pearce 7 solid
Gunter 6 better
Obita 6 whats Happened to him?
Hector 8 beast
Williams 5 hid a bit imo
Norwood 6 bypassed
Blackman 6 ok
Macleary 6 did alot well, but rarely beat his man
Cox 6 ok
Murray. 7 Won every flick on, held up brilliantly, couldn't finish

Norwood bypassed! He was the go to man for every defender for the full 90, sprayed almost perfect passes and was the conduit for just about everything we managed to achieve. You may have issues with him, but don't invent criticism. Your mark of 6 is about right but the comment is well astray.

Erm....sorry but I thought this was the place for my opinions and scores on the match...

Lol at having Issues with him. He's probably my favourite player.

My comment wasn't à Reflection on him. Everything he did was decent, but whether u like it or not the vast majority of Balls went over him to Murray, or straight to the wing. Hence 'bypassed'

It certainly is a place for your opinions but its also a place for a reply to an opinion whether they agree with it or not.
And why do people always say 'he's probably my favourite player' after they have written something negative about them just to make what they posted seem more justifiable. No need

[Winston Smith]

Some of his best friends are called Norwood

[3points]

thought one issue we had with Norwood yesterday was it seemed similar to when Guthrie was trying to run the midfield. Our defenders constantly looked to play the ball to Norwood for him to distribute, but that gives the oppo an extra second or two to regroup and get men behind the ball. We looked most threatening yesterday when the ball made it to either wing / full back quickly and we pushed on from there. Sometimes that was via Norwood, but at other times it wasn't.

Neither Norwood nor Williams are currently making late runs into the box, so we don't score goals like Abdi's yesterday. I don't think Williams will be playing when Karacan is fit.

[Ian Royal]

Losing 1-0, at home against a team with ten men, you literally cant ask for much more. Urzzzz

errrr, surely we can?????????????

Pepe doing a good job of squirriling out those with comprehension problems.

[sandman]

Tbf we did miss an open goal - who else but Nick Blackman, take a bow, with the possible exception of Shaun Cummings probably the sh*ttest player ever to represent Reading at this level.

I'm not 100% on some of the dates they left the club but this team is worse:
----------------------???------------------------
--Mullins---Khumalo--M. Williams-----
Daley----Dobson----Akpan------Brooker
-------Tyson----Owusu---Morgan---------

Left out some players who stayed past their best (principally Gorkss, Lita and Ingimarsson) and I don't think we've had a bad goalkeeper at this level. Seems harsh to stick Young or Andersen in by default.

Worst second-tier Reading player goes to Michael Dobson imo, but there's a strong case for any of that back three.

Shouldn't be anywhere near a worst team list.

Bit harsh. Reckon he'd at least make the bench.

You're so funny, just like everyone on Anything Else.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Are you ok?

[LUX]

I'll hold your coat, Pepe m8.

[Lacoste]

Tbh Clarke was completely the wrong appointment. He has no footballing philosophy, zero success as a boss and always looks like a no2 who doesn't quite believes what he's saying when talking.

However, people who think that after only two days at the club he can change an awful lot and suddenly start producing excellent displays should quite frankly never be allowed inside a ground again.

[melonhead]

Erm....sorry but I thought this was the place for my opinions and scores on the match...

Lol at having Issues with him. He's probably my favourite player.

My comment wasn't à Reflection on him. Everything he did was decent, but whether u like it or not the vast majority of Balls went over him to Murray, or straight to the wing. Hence 'bypassed'

It certainly is a place for your opinions but its also a place for a reply to an opinion whether they agree with it or not.
And why do people always say 'he's probably my favourite player' after they have written something negative about them just to make what they posted seem more justifiable. No need

lol.
I gave him an above average score, and later said everything he did was decent. The word bypassed is a comment on the team, not him. It's an explanation as to why the score wasn't higher, which it would have been if he was more involved further up the pitch. Though i Do very much enjoy the pinged diagonal.
So It's OK, put your claws away, I'm not attacking him in any way.
In fact, I'd go as far as to say that he IS my favourite current reading midfielder who isn't injured.

[RoyalBlue]

IMO there is one significant reason why we lost this game.

After they went down to 10 men we kept Blackman and McCleary out wide, hugging their respective touchlines and then moved the ball around the width of the pitch. This created loads of space through the middle which the likes of Murray, Cox, Williams and Norwood were really starting to exploit. At the same time McCleary and Gunter were beating their men on their left at will and firing in some decent crosses. Had we continued to play that way for the full 90 minutes I am confident that we would have got at least a point and probably three out of the game.

However, soon after conceding we inexplicably moved McCleary and Blackman inside making if far easier for Watford's ten men to deal with any attacks and also making our own job more difficult as players started to get in the way of each other in the centre. Who the hell decided to do this? If it was Clarke/his coaches why? If it was the players, why the hell didn't Clarke and co scream instructions to start them exploiting the space again?

Oh and I though Norwood was immense yesterday. Always knew that he was a great passer of the ball and possessed a good shot but yesterday the amount of 'dirty' work he got through was outstanding. He produced numerous ball winning challenges/tackles and the tackle that he produced fairly early in the second half to cleanly dispossess their man in our area, just as he was about to fire in a shot (he looked odds on to score) was absolutely superb.

[Ian Royal]

I gave him an above average score, and later said everything he did was decent. The word bypassed is a comment on the team, not him. It's an explanation as to why the score wasn't higher, which it would have been if he was more involved further up the pitch. Though i Do very much enjoy the pinged diagonal.
So It's OK, put your claws away, I'm not attacking him in any way.
In fact, I'd go as far as to say that he IS my favourite current reading midfielder who isn't injured.

I thought he was bypassed for about 20 minutes in the second half but apart from that was the driving force behind everything we did.

[biff]

When playing vs 10, you spread it left and right as quickly as possible to grind them down for as long as it takes. For us to go narrow after conceding was suicide. And to not freshen legs up against a tiring 10 men also beggars belief. Mcleary was blowing on 70 mins and Blackman looked completely disinterested. We move on.

[Lacoste]

I gave him an above average score, and later said everything he did was decent. The word bypassed is a comment on the team, not him. It's an explanation as to why the score wasn't higher, which it would have been if he was more involved further up the pitch. Though i Do very much enjoy the pinged diagonal.
So It's OK, put your claws away, I'm not attacking him in any way.
In fact, I'd go as far as to say that he IS my favourite current reading midfielder who isn't injured.

I thought he was bypassed for about 20 minutes in the second half but apart from that was the driving force behind everything we did.

But Ian, as you're probably aware, you have proved you know absolutely nothing about football so your thoughts are pretty much irrelevant.

[Ian Royal]

I gave him an above average score, and later said everything he did was decent. The word bypassed is a comment on the team, not him. It's an explanation as to why the score wasn't higher, which it would have been if he was more involved further up the pitch. Though i Do very much enjoy the pinged diagonal.
So It's OK, put your claws away, I'm not attacking him in any way.
In fact, I'd go as far as to say that he IS my favourite current reading midfielder who isn't injured.

I thought he was bypassed for about 20 minutes in the second half but apart from that was the driving force behind everything we did.

But Ian, as you're probably aware, you have proved you know absolutely nothing about football so your thoughts are pretty much irrelevant.

awww bless.

[WestRoyal]

Erm....sorry but I thought this was the place for my opinions and scores on the match...

Lol at having Issues with him. He's probably my favourite player.

My comment wasn't à Reflection on him. Everything he did was decent, but whether u like it or not the vast majority of Balls went over him to Murray, or straight to the wing. Hence 'bypassed'

It certainly is a place for your opinions but its also a place for a reply to an opinion whether they agree with it or not.
And why do people always say 'he's probably my favourite player' after they have written something negative about them just to make what they posted seem more justifiable. No need

lol.
I gave him an above average score, and later said everything he did was decent. The word bypassed is a comment on the team, not him. It's an explanation as to why the score wasn't higher, which it would have been if he was more involved further up the pitch. Though i Do very much enjoy the pinged diagonal.
So It's OK, put your claws away, I'm not attacking him in any way.
In fact, I'd go as far as to say that he IS my favourite current reading midfielder who isn't injured.

You can attack him all you want, doesn't bother me.
by the way you are my favourite poster

[bcubed]

IMO there is one significant reason why we lost this game.

After they went down to 10 men we kept Blackman and McCleary out wide, hugging their respective touchlines and then moved the ball around the width of the pitch. This created loads of space through the middle which the likes of Murray, Cox, Williams and Norwood were really starting to exploit. At the same time McCleary and Gunter were beating their men on their left at will and firing in some decent crosses. Had we continued to play that way for the full 90 minutes I am confident that we would have got at least a point and probably three out of the game.

However, soon after conceding we inexplicably moved McCleary and Blackman inside making if far easier for Watford's ten men to deal with any attacks and also making our own job more difficult as players started to get in the way of each other in the centre. Who the hell decided to do this? If it was Clarke/his coaches why? If it was the players, why the hell didn't Clarke and co scream instructions to start them exploiting the space again?

Oh and I though Norwood was immense yesterday. Always knew that he was a great passer of the ball and possessed a good shot but yesterday the amount of 'dirty' work he got through was outstanding. He produced numerous ball winning challenges/tackles and the tackle that he produced fairly early in the second half to cleanly dispossess their man in our area, just as he was about to fire in a shot (he looked odds on to score) was absolutely superb.

I said this earlier in thread - Was beginning to wonder if I imagined it

I thought to start with that McLeary was tiring but i believe it was tactical. I just don't understand it

Either way it was a terrible idea, resulting in zero chances bring created after the goal was conceded