Villa Game

[Alan Partridge]

In all honesty Reading played alright for the most part, typical Reading performance, there was nothing new, nothing inventive, no new players or tactics, just 4-4-2, same players and nothing new learnt for me, for the first half an hour anyway. Then Cisse got injured and I got to see Karacan play for an hour, must say very impressed. He's like Harper in terms of he gets uo and down the pitch well, but he's got an eye for a pass and played some lovely slide rule passes in particular in the 2nd half. He likes a tackle as well and got involved. I like him and would prefer him to Cisse, not only that but I thought he showed Harper up for the pretty average footballer he is.

.

So average that it looks likely that a PL manager will pay £4.5M for him!!

Saying what I see, Harper isn't really that great a footballer. He passes it around without any real purpose, can't really break up play. His 1 well 2 big attributes are his fitness and also his personality, he's a very popular player at the club. I thought he was totally outshone by a 19 year old with little or no first team experience. Someone with the same sort of fitness levels but ot afraid to drive forward or try and create things. If Reading were to recieve £4.5million for Harper it would be more good business.

[towserSL2crew]

Wot do you reckon then ?
We played well I thought , Kebe in 1st half was very good and Jem did very well and could be important players this season ,given a chance .Leroy was sharp & Convey did well
Shorey will go this week and we need a decent replacement. Hunt battled well but hes not a defender , rarely tackled and was often out of position but as I said , hes no defender.
Or have we already got someone in our squad to replace Shorey who just needs a chance ?

[Chaney]

hey why not play a winger in defence if it means we can save having to spend some of RFC,s precious cash

[Handsome Man]

hey why not play a winger in defence if it means we can save having to spend some of RFC,s precious cash

Our cash surely?
Cash that belongs to us.

[Dirk Gently]

hey why not play a winger in defence if it means we can save having to spend some of RFC,s precious cash

Our cash surely?
Cash that belongs to us.

Really? Why?

[winchester_royal]

Overall a thoroughly enjoyable game.

Karacan was fan-bloody-tastic miles better than Cisse
Henry and Pearce looked good when they came on, as did Long and Hunt N
Lita was fantastic.
Convey is back to his best.
Harper was steady.
Doobs was imperious.
Cisse was .......... crap. Let the Villa midfield run through him, offered nothing going forward. Karacan miles ahead of him.
Kebe was exciting to watch, and has improved massively since last season.

We missed someone making runs from midfield into the box though, any one know where MM was?

[The Cap]

For me that was a sound performance that must surely give us all a lot of hope for the coming season. So the question is, do we purposely lose the first home game to Plymouth 2-1? With the players we've got coming through don't even suggest it.

[papereyes]

If we're looking for a left back, then I genuinely don't think we could do much worse with that young lad Villa had there. No idea who he was, but up and down the pitch, skillful, eager. It also annoys me that Villa's two best players today, imo, cost £3 and £1 million. Bargains that can be bought. Their other two players that impressed were the gangly 27 in midfield (Salifou? Osbourne?) and the left back. Neither of whom would have been expensive.

I don't think we were all that good but there were positives.

I shall write a longer post after I have eaten.

[The whole year inn]

I think N Hunt may well prove a few of his doubters wrong this season.

He finds the space before the ball, all we need is someone that can give it to him. RIP Glen Little

[papereyes]

Right. Tortellini pasta bake. 7/10

I thought Villa would have battered us had Young and Agbonlahor played the whole game. The front two they started with was hilariously slow and one-paced. And for long chunks of the game, they passed it round us as if we weren't really there. Cisse was pretty anonymous and Karacan was a more agile and aggressive replacement. That said, he wasn't great. A well-taken if lucky goal and got in the way but Villa's young midfielder(s) were better and tougher.

The wings were the most promising areas. Kebe (like Karacan) looks really ungainly and I don't think he knows what he wants to do with the ball all the time. But he ran at players, forced errors and got involved. Convey was good but went missing for big chunks. Understandable, mind you.

Lita didn't dive and got into some really good positions while Doyle seemed faster than he'd been all last season. Both of them got onto the end of some pretty clever balls and against poorer defence/goalkeeper, we could have scored more.

Subs - Kelly seemed OK, but wasn't tested. Sonko and Pearce didn't make any howlers. Henry was pretty anonymous and Hunt ...

Hunt made a great chance where the defender made a mistake and he pulled the ball out from under his feet, created some space hit the post. Then he failed to see the ball again for 15 minutes. He looked up for it and probably wasn't helped by both teams easing down for the last 10. Long was equally anonymous - chased well but made little real impact.

[Sarah Star]

Just wanted to say how impressed I was with Karacan. Would like to see a bit more of him. Also some good passing of the ball, players knowing who and where to pass the ball. Noel Hunt and Kebe didn't look too bad either going forward and the defence worked well from the start. The Villa goal came just after some drastic substitutions and I wonder if that unsettled the team a bit. Would like to see Hahnemann passing the ball a bit more instead of hoofing it up the pitch for a free for all, but otherwise thought we weren't bad at all.

Feel free to contradict me. I've still got a lot to learn.

[Ian Royal]

May I point out it is not the reading way to enter the season without a recognised senior player for a position.

When we started last season we had both Seol and Oster fit who are recognised right wingers. We also had Little who was (naively) expected back before xmas. There is a world of difference between having 1 right winger not be good enough, selling another and having the 3rd stay injured all season and starting the season without a single recognised left back with any first team experience.

But don't let that stop you making stuff up to make us look clueless.

[Kevin Doyles Right Foot]

My MOTM would have been karacan tbh, he looked class and basically worked his socks off like Harper but actually got forward more often and picked out some cracking passes, and also would get stuck in, one example being that crunchin challange with saiflou (sp?) harps I doubt would ahve gone in for that.

[Ian Royal]

Karacan the new Sidwell?

I remain totally unconvinced by Cisse in midfield. He has done absolutley nothing to impress me there. If we didn't have so many defenders he'd be a shoe in for converting to cover centreback

[SteveRoyal]

Omg whats up with everyone this evening people are being positive!

I like it.

[rg6royal]

Omg whats up with everyone this evening people are being positive!

I like it.

'greed

Makes a change around here

[The whole year inn]

May I point out it is not the reading way to enter the season without a recognised senior player for a position.

[Ian Royal]

May I point out it is not the reading way to enter the season without a recognised senior player for a position.

Name the season and position.

[Sir Rodger Doyle]

In all honesty Reading played alright for the most part, typical Reading performance, there was nothing new, nothing inventive, no new players or tactics, just 4-4-2, same players and nothing new learnt for me, for the first half an hour anyway. Then Cisse got injured and I got to see Karacan play for an hour, must say very impressed. He's like Harper in terms of he gets uo and down the pitch well, but he's got an eye for a pass and played some lovely slide rule passes in particular in the 2nd half. He likes a tackle as well and got involved. I like him and would prefer him to Cisse, not only that but I thought he showed Harper up for the pretty average footballer he is.

Oh dear, oh dear.

[Streets]

I think N Hunt may well prove a few of his doubters wrong this season.

He finds the space before the ball, all we need is someone that can give it to him. RIP Glen Little

Matejovski and Karacan.

Karacan today seems to have proved he has vision as well as able to track back and tackle.