Some of Steve Coppell's decisions mystify me

[Royalee]

Excuse me, but what did Pearce do to get taken off at half time? Was he shooting at his own goal or something? Ah well, at least Coppell gave youth a chance for all of 45 minutes before replacing it with players out of position to destroy their confidence.

How the bloody hell can you play so badly at Villa with a shit formation, then do exactly the same thing again a few days later? Does he have the memory span of a goldfish or was he trying to throw the game?

The ONLY part of our inept squad which is any good is going forward, so why the hell play the smallest player in the squad up front on his own and confuse the hell out of everyone in the process?

Tosser.

[West Stand Flash]

Don't slag off Coppell - He can do no wrong to many

[Royalee]

Don't slag off Coppell - He can do no wrong to many

He's done wrong every time he's picked a team this season with the exception of Old Trafford, which he'd also have buggered up had Duberry not got lucky and broken Rooney's foot.

[Hampshire Royal]

Be like Arsenal at home. We will never NEVER look to get forward & try to hang on for 0-0 from the first second.

Roll on Saturday

Well don't fukcing go then. Tell you what, let me have your ticket and I'll book a flight and go to the game. Wakner!!

[West Stand Flash]

Be like Arsenal at home. We will never NEVER look to get forward & try to hang on for 0-0 from the first second.

Roll on Saturday

Well don't fukcing go then. Tell you what, let me have your ticket and I'll book a flight and go to the game. Wakner!!

I wouldn't p1ss on you if you were on fire, so why would I give you my ticket?

W@nk stain.

[Hampshire Royal]

LOL - good come back. Imagine, W@nk Stained Flesh having the intellect to make a comment like that. I know when I've met my intellectual superior. Give my regards to your Uncle :D

[West Stand Flash]

LOL - good come back. Imagine, W@nk Stained Flesh having the intellect to make a comment like that. I know when I've met my intellectual superior. Give my regards to your Uncle :D

I like to help individuals who are clearly below me in stature so no worries Sir.

[Hampshire Royal]

My purpose on this forum today is to divert your attention towards making oh so clever come backs to me, hoping that you don't post your cliche'ed negative bollox on here.

Well, I can hope.

Anyway I quite like your fourteen-year-old-style posts, they make me laugh.

[3 veesinarow]

Don't slag off Coppell - He can do no wrong to many

Don't support Coppell - He can do no right to many

[Barry the bird boggler]

I was confused totally last night, esp. in the 2nd half.

1. Cox on for Pearce - anyone any clues why? Pearce looked to be doing well to me, one of the few bright sparks.
2. Cox then seemed to take up the right back position for a while, another baffling decision
3. What the hell was Shorey doing in central midfield, is SC now working on the possibility of making Tim (Dellor Cruz) our left back and saving money by making use of Shorey's ability to run games
4. Shorey is eventually substituted and on comes Hunt into the same central midfield area
5. Why on earth didn't Henry get a chance, Convey was not playing particularly well and Lita just seemed to be trying to show why he's not in the first team nor attracting any attention from anyone so surely SC could have tried to freshen things for the last 20 minutes or so.

Overall what on earth did SC learn about his team from last night, if anyone sees him, could they ask?

[Dirk Gently]

I was confused totally last night, esp. in the 2nd half.

1. Cox on for Pearce - anyone any clues why? Pearce looked to be doing well to me, one of the few bright sparks.
2. Cox then seemed to take up the right back position for a while, another baffling decision
3. What the hell was Shorey doing in central midfield, is SC now working on the possibility of making Tim (Dellor Cruz) our left back and saving money by making use of Shorey's ability to run games
4. Shorey is eventually substituted and on comes Hunt into the same central midfield area
5. Why on earth didn't Henry get a chance, Convey was not playing particularly well and Lita just seemed to be trying to show why he's not in the first team nor attracting any attention from anyone so surely SC could have tried to freshen things for the last 20 minutes or so.

Overall what on earth did SC learn about his team from last night, if anyone sees him, could they ask?

I was more or less asking the same questions yesterday - it must be particularly hard on James Henry to see Cox come on and play right midfield!

I can only assume that Pearce went off so that SC could see how Cisse got on at centre-back.

[Vision]

To be fair the changes did improve us considerably in the 2nd half so even if taken individually they seem a little bizarre, the overall effect was positive which is all you ask from substitutions.

Can't help but get the impression that last night (as well as the 1st game ) was nothing more than an opportunity to do the sort of experimenting he's not prepared to do for League games. If he's learned something from it then all well and good but i don't think theres much point in analysing things too much.

[alidoe10]

I was confused totally last night, esp. in the 2nd half.

1. Cox on for Pearce - anyone any clues why? Pearce looked to be doing well to me, one of the few bright sparks.
2. Cox then seemed to take up the right back position for a while, another baffling decision
3. What the hell was Shorey doing in central midfield, is SC now working on the possibility of making Tim (Dellor Cruz) our left back and saving money by making use of Shorey's ability to run games
4. Shorey is eventually substituted and on comes Hunt into the same central midfield area
5. Why on earth didn't Henry get a chance, Convey was not playing particularly well and Lita just seemed to be trying to show why he's not in the first team nor attracting any attention from anyone so surely SC could have tried to freshen things for the last 20 minutes or so.

Overall what on earth did SC learn about his team from last night, if anyone sees him, could they ask?

I was more or less asking the same questions yesterday - it must be particularly hard on James Henry to see Cox come on and play right midfield!

I can only assume that Pearce went off so that SC could see how Cisse got on at centre-back.

Thats definitely how i saw it. Coppell wanted to work out who was his best centre back partnership for next few games. Ingimarrson & Pearce or Ingi & Cisse. Thought Cisse did well second half but wasnt really under any pressure from spurs who were more concerned about not conceding.

Is Ingimarrson one yellow away from a suspension?

[andrew1957]

After the abject first half the obvious changes to me were to bring on Cox for Long (who was having a shocker), Henry for Shorey or DLC and later Hunt for Convey.

The final team would have been Fed, Roseior, Pearce, Ingi, Shorey or DLC, Hunt, Cisse, Harper, Henry, Lita and Cox. I honestly think that this team would have come back in the second half. Henry would have added something and Cox looked our most likely goal threat and would have been playing in his preferred position.

Pearce was one of our best players in the first half and I could see no sense in taking him off.

[papereyes]

The throwaway comment that Shorey lost a bet at the Christmas party has more than a worrying ring of truth about it.

[cmonurz]

Maybe I’m wrong, but, as pleased as I am that Pearce and Cox saw some action last night (albeit only 45 minutes each), Coppell’s formation (a holding midfielder), tactics and substitutions (Pearce off at half-time to put a midfielder in defence) smack of someone who played the youngster because he thought he should, not because he particularly wanted to.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Excuse me, but what did Pearce do to get taken off at half time? Was he shooting at his own goal or something? Ah well, at least Coppell gave youth a chance for all of 45 minutes before replacing it with players out of position to destroy their confidence.

How the bloody hell can you play so badly at Villa with a shit formation, then do exactly the same thing again a few days later? Does he have the memory span of a goldfish or was he trying to throw the game?

The ONLY part of our inept squad which is any good is going forward, so why the hell play the smallest player in the squad up front on his own and confuse the hell out of everyone in the process?

Tosser.

Reading FC 13th in the Prem and you think we are 'Inept'

Tosser.

[Vision]

The throwaway comment that Shorey lost a bet at the Christmas party has more than a worrying ring of truth about it.

Again i still think it was a case of experimenting really. We lack creative passing in the middle of the park and Shorey is arguably our best passer so Coppell probably thought why not have a look.

[rob the royal]

I would begin by saying that I am a huge fan of SC and think he should stay as manager of Reading for as long as he wants to BUT some of his decisions do mystify me.

ditto regarding team selection versus aston villa (a) and spurs (h)

[Platypuss]

The throwaway comment that Shorey lost a bet at the Christmas party has more than a worrying ring of truth about it.

"It was just something I was playing with really. He is creative on the ball and it was just an experiment I wanted to try."