Back from the Bristol City Game

[Platypuss]

Am I right in thinking Tabb can play just behind the striker in a 4-5-1?

God knows, but I'm sure you'll be able to drag up some spastistics to make it look like he's Pele.

[RoyalBlue]

Marek looked way better than any of our other midfielders, he even got SHunt playing in the last 20

Armstrong was excellent

Lita stays on 1 goal per season. I thought he'd have a good one today.

Watching him, he seems to be a one-man-band, just looking for HIS shot

You must have turned away from the action a fair bit then because I can remember quite a few occasions when he looked to set up his team mates, particularly Doyle. In the end he did start to do more himself and I can't really blame him for that because no one else seemed to want to shoot!

[Royal Lady]

I actually thought Lita played one of his better games - he did seem to be up for it, as they say, mainly, I suspect because it was against his old team and he had something to prove. He's still a bit selfish though and if he'd passed a couple of times instead of going for glory we *might* have got a goal. Mind you, saying that, I couldn't see us scoring if they'd added another 50 minutes to the end of the game instead of the strange 5 added minutes.

SHunt really really needs a spell in the reserves and to be shown that he really isn't as good as he thinks he is. Harper and Cisse were pretty anonymous. Kebe tried, but he's just not very confident at the moment. I wish in training they'd concentrate on him on one on ones and passing.

All in all, to quote my husband "a dull and uninspiring game". If we play like that next week, we can wave goodbye to promotion - because we just aren't good enough I'm afraid.

[statto]

Bloody awful.

We can't go on a promotion campaign with a central midfield that is only in place to defend and a gameplan which allows the opposition to have the ball for the whole game - it's suicidal.


Harper has to go, he's done nothing all season. Matejovksy in. Cisse can stay and do the defensive job.

Kebe did OK today I thought, made some good yards, bit worrying him and Rosenior have forgotten how to cross.

Lita has to go, gets in good positions to oxf*rd up chances. One near the end in the box, no attempt to make any space or trick the defender, just whacked it in to him.

Too much hoofing, not enough happening in central mid. Hunt in dreadful form down the left, set pieces, crossing, dribbling, have all deserted him.

I'd bring in Bikey as well, seems Adebola gave Duberry a real run for his money today. I really feel having a good passer in defence can lead to many more opportunities.

[Dick Habbin's hairdo]

No,I wasn't there but five - or is it six? - without a goal says everything.

The only bright spot is the Bluenosers being as bad as us.
I still think we'll go up as runners-up to Cardiff coz we can't be this shoite for the rest of the season.

Now will people believe that Kebe is total self abuse... Giraffe on crack.

Henry - or Little on - with Cisse, Marek, Tabb midfield.

Pearce and Bikey in centre with, Stretch and Rosie. Hahnemann back and Doyle Hunt up front.

[earleyroyal]

I thought we saw the end of "they're trying too hard ... " last season.

Trying so hard that as soon as the second goal went in they seemed to be trying about 20% harder

Or maybe once they started passing it around they didn't look like they were playing in ankle deep puddles. After about 3 minutes today everyone knew we were fcuked, every time a team lines up with a 5 man midfield against our midfield (which has been the weak point for the last 2 years) they overrun us. Bristol weren't even that good but we have no footballing brains out there at all.

Bringing someone, anyone in to replace our two wingers, then putting two defensive midfielders (Cisse and Bikey?) and Matejovsky -not the Messiah but at least someone who looks to pass rather than hoof - in the middle would at least ensure that the ball spent more than quarter of the time on the floor. Not sure why Lita was getting so much abuse today (apart from a large minority of Reading fans being retards) when the midfield, as usual, was responsible.

[RFCBoy]

Something needs to change and these are them imo:
- Kebe Out, Tabb In
- Harper Out, Matejovsky In
- Cisse Out, Karacan In
- Lita Out, N.Hunt In

And all you boo boys please calm down it's one defeat, we're still in a strong position so get the behind the team and not on their backs with booing.

Urz!

[Royal Lady]

I'm just so cheesed off with the oxf*rd hoofball. Play it on the floor - pass it for goodness sake! Marek is too good for our team. He'll be in the premiership next season, even if we're not.

[RoyalBlue]

I thought we saw the end of "they're trying too hard ... " last season.

Trying so hard that as soon as the second goal went in they seemed to be trying about 20% harder

Or maybe once they started passing it around they didn't look like they were playing in ankle deep puddles. After about 3 minutes today everyone knew we were fcuked, every time a team lines up with a 5 man midfield against our midfield (which has been the weak point for the last 2 years) they overrun us. Bristol weren't even that good but we have no footballing brains out there at all.

Bringing someone, anyone in to replace our two wingers, then putting two defensive midfielders (Cisse and Bikey?) and Matejovsky -not the Messiah but at least someone who looks to pass rather than hoof - in the middle would at least ensure that the ball spent more than quarter of the time on the floor. Not sure why Lita was getting so much abuse today (apart from a large minority of Reading fans being retards) when the midfield, as usual, was responsible.

IMHO a pretty good summary of our plight and performance today.

[Dirk Gently]

Marek looked way better than any of our other midfielders, he even got SHunt playing in the last 20

Armstrong was excellent

Lita stays on 1 goal per season. I thought he'd have a good one today.

Watching him, he seems to be a one-man-band, just looking for HIS shot

The last 20? That would be the last twenty when City were just sitting back and letting us come at them? Anything that happened then proves nothing, because it was a different game by then and we had all the space we wanted.

[rg6royal]

Typical Reading fans blaming Lita. He was about 10 x better than Doyle today for starters. Bikey needs to be in the team, as does Jay Tabb and Karacan.

[Richi Royal]

My main concern today wasn't actually the performance (although that was dreadful and some players need to have a long look at themselves) what concerned me was the management or should i say lack of.

It was blatently obvious after about 15 minutes that we were getting out played in midfield, like the previous 3 games and swansea (thats 4 out of five games) the opposition put three midfielders in the centre against our two and we were out played. You could go back to even the watford game and we were outplayed for a majority of that game, the only difference is their defence were epically rubbish. Even games like doncaster and southampton (both games) have put three in the middle and we have failed to put in a performance, although we did nick a few results against doncaster and away at southampton. But the fact remains if you want to have a chance of a good result against reading play 3 centre midfielders. Teams have worked out how to play against us by putting three in the middle this pushed the already defensive harper and cisse even further back and we are left to hoof the ball up to the front two.... Who if they do win the ball have 30 - 40 yards to cover to even get into a shooting position and are left isolated with no support from the midfield.

So here is my problem, the management appear to only change things when we are losing, when more often than not it is too late for any real impact to be felt. While i am not a fan of 451 i feel in these games the only way to get a grip of the game is by matching up the midfield. Coppell is a 442 man, which is fair enough but IMO he is cosing us points by been too slow to make an impact on the game, even though we were been outplayed he waited until we were two nil down to make a change and it is not the first time, see southampton. I, like most, could see changed need to be made at half time but they weren't. This is not a call for coppells head at all, as he is easily the best qualified to get us promoted at the moment, but he should start taking some responsibility for what happens on the pitch and the results. And stop blaming the fans, the players are paid 15000+ per week to play football and to perform they need to have support.....give me a break... if i said that at my job which is paid miles lower then that as an excuse for not performing i would be sacked. If that really is the case surely the club should be paying the fans as they are a motivating factor and a key cog in the wheel???

My team for next week

---------------------Fed

Murty (i really thought we lacked leadership today)Doobs Pearce Armstrong

Tabb Bikey Karacan Shunt
-----------Matejovsky
------------Doyle

But i would happily have cisse in the middle instead of bikey

[poohs pure]

Am I right in thinking Tabb can play just behind the striker in a 4-5-1?

God knows, but I'm sure you'll be able to drag up some spastistics to make it look like he's Pele.

[winchester_royal]

Yet another dirty team that had a fat lump playing up front on his own.

I'm fed up with this division, and quite frankly i'm bored of the current team. Harper was yet again shite, Marek must, must, must start the next game....he looked 100x better than anyone else on the pitch when he came on today....pure class. Shunt looked better as well when Marek was on.....coincidence?

Oh, and something is up with Doyle at the moment, he has turned into the selfish player he was last season.

[Southbank Old Boy]

We NEVER win after internationals or a break.

Perhaps we should have tried a bit harder to stay in the cup to make sure we kept the team on a role without any breaks!!!!

[S09Royal]

Well, that has to have been the worst performance i've seen this season-and i've seen some pretty dire happenings, including 2 consecutive 0-0's- that scoreline now, doesn't even seem that bad, certaintly better than the annoyance of a 2-0 loss at home.

Not so sure that's true, I thought the defeats to Charlton and Southampton were infinitely worse. At least we created chances today. Lita should have scored a minute after they scored, and also in the 2nd half when he skied over from 6 yards. We looked better today than we did in the two games I've mentioned, when we looked like we should have been absolutely battered. It wasn't a battering today. A deserved defeat, outplayed yes, and a justifiable scoreline, but not a battering by any means.

Tbf, i wasn't at the Southampton home match or the Charlton away game, so the game today was pretty much the worst game I'VE seen this season. Coppell needs to sort out this team and he needs to stick with the same 11 week in, week out-unless of course there are injuries.

[soggy biscuit]

Firstly, can i say, what the effin'ell was the linesman on the east side doing today?? not ONE decision he made was right. An offside he never flagged, 2 penalty decisions turned down in the first half, waving his flag for NO reason whatsoever against Leroy, oh and just being fcuking slow all game. The ref wasn't much better.

Phantom goal anyone?

LOL @ Reading fans

[soggy biscuit]

I actually thought Lita played one of his better games.

[Gunny Fishcake]

Absolute total crap from all of them including the so called management team on the bench who looked like they were at a funeral . Where's the bloody passion gone ? We can all take defeats but where is the fighting spirit ? As least have a bloody go !! I'm starting to think Coppell has run out of ideas and is almost resigned to what will be will be . Why no changes today after the Preston game and the Swansea battering ?

We going backwards faster than any thing witty I can think of , and we need serious change of attitude and simple guile .

They should all be ashmed today to wear the hoops with such a pathetic gutless display .

[The 17 Bus]

and he needs to stick with the same 11 week in, week out-unless of course there are injuries.

that is what he is being criticised for though !!!!!