Why Lita Doesn't Work

[SteveRoyal]

You are SOoooo thick.

Well, that was dignified.

[cmonurz]

No I don't snowball.

I've merely pointed out that when given the service he thrives on he scores. And if you work backwards from what I've actually said it explains WHY he doesn't work in the current set up.

Something you still haven't really managed to do. The best you've done is just now saying he isn't suited to our style. A rather empty phrase.

If we stopped being such a one trick pony and developed some play through the middle Lita would become much much more useful to us.

Seeing as no one is currently scoring in our system, because the system has been sussed and countered, I'd say it was a pretty good idea to change the system, if only a little.

Agreed, in 0506, didn't all our strikers get 12-18 goals or so? Lita didn't score the same sorts of goals as Kitson or Doyle, and vice versa. But we played in such a fluid way that one or the other wasn't wasted.

[Ian Royal]

So what you're saying is, the one time Lita got the type of service Huntley describes him needing he scored? Is that right?

Rother: because there is nothing else in the post and they take up so much room contributing nothing.

On the first point, you are probably right, but as per my post at the same time as H&P's we just don't play to his strengths (I fear only MM has the vision to help him there) and he doesn't have enough else to his game to make a particularly strong contribution if he's not getting the service he needs.

On the 2nd, they may not be earth shattering but they do often contribute something of some interest - but you have to put the time into reading them. Most people have become snowballind it seems.

Because his posts are so frequent and massive and full of redundant stats and little intelligent analysis of the stats.

And he keeps quoting himself or putting two or three posts in a row and expanding on what he's already posted. But still not actually saying anything.

[FiNeRaIn]

Im a lita fan but surely his time is up, had two great chances to score and his finishing cost us. We need strikers who score, not miss easy chances. Get hunt back in now for me, I just don't think lita can do it for us anymore.

[Snowball]

I

On Lita, it's frustrating, because it should work. Lita is our one striker who likes the ball fed through to him to run on to, and has decent pace - and a very different player to Doyle, who is comfortable with the ball at feet, moving wide to pick it up etc. It should be perfect - effectively the 2 up front should become a 1-1. But it doesn't happen.

It doesn't happen because Lita is interested in one thing, LITA.

He is not a team player. He doesn't suit the Reading ethos

[Snowball]

[

Agreed, in 0506, didn't all our strikers get 12-18 goals or so? Lita didn't score the same sorts of goals as Kitson or Doyle, and vice versa. But we played in such a fluid way that one or the other wasn't wasted.

It's certainly true that goals were spread out more

goals-games-subs "games"

18 27 07 27.70 139 minutes per goal Dave Kitson
18 41 04 41.40 207 minutes per goal Kevin Doyle
11 22 04 22.40 183 minutes per goal Leroy Lita
03 01 10 02.00 60 minutes per goal Shane Long


10 29 04 29.40 264 minutes per goal Steve Sidwell
07 44 01 44.10 567 minutes per goal James Harper
07 45 00 45.00 578 minutes per goal Bobby Convey
05 34 01 34.10 614 minutes per goal Glen Little
04 19 10 20.00 450 minutes per goal Brynjar Gunnarsson

[Ian Royal]

what does minutes per goal have to do with what he said?

Honest question.

[Royal Lady]

Hi snowball/Shane - I noticed you were able to post on Saturday as you hadn't been picked for the squad.

[Snowball]

Hi snowball/Shane - I noticed you were able to post on Saturday as you hadn't been picked for the squad.

I was at the game

[Snowball]

First season in the Premiership it's clear that Lita and Doyle COULD play together.

One or other of them scored in 9 of the first seventeen games (where they both played) I clocked

[hughsies no.1]

Hi snowball/Shane - I noticed you were able to post on Saturday as you hadn't been picked for the squad.

I was at the game

yeah its true, i saw him in the pre-match video when the team were signing autographs for the mascots sitting next to doyler

[Snowball]

what does minutes per goal have to do with what he said?

Honest question.

Well if you'd bothered to look you'd see that in that first season
Lita was more prolific than Doyle, and Long was averaging 1.5 goals per game!

[cmonurz]

what does minutes per goal have to do with what he said?

Honest question.

Well if you'd bothered to look you'd see that in that first season
Lita was more prolific than Doyle, and Long was averaging 1.5 goals per game!

But that has very little to do with my central point, which was to expand on Ian's comment about the way we play, and how Lita simply won't score a lot of goals in the current set up. I gave 05/06 as a season where three very different strikers, Kitson, Doyle and Lita, all scored a fair amount of goals. What this shows me is that we scored a lot of different types of goals. I personally don't think a change in the way we play would necessarily be detrimental to Doyle and NHunt.

Of course, Convey & Little in 0506 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> SHunt and Kebe, and that makes all the difference.

[papereyes]

First season in the Premiership it's clear that Lita and Doyle COULD play together.

One or other of them scored in 9 of the first seventeen games (where they both played) I clocked

Lita scored the majority of his goals after Doyle was injured at Everton

It also came to a point where Seol was tried up front ahead of Lita.

[Millsy]

-stats-

Mate your contributions to HNA are great. You're a real asset to the board in my opinion. And your analyses I generally agree with. A breath of fresh air.

But this is a bit of a disappointment as all I see is a load of numbers and then you don't even answer the question you pose in the thread title!

Slightly less raw data please... and a little more analysis/explanation of what you deduce please (you generally do a fab job of that!). Otherwise it's just a spreadsheet.

So... why do you think Lita and Doyle isn't working?

We know it hasn't been working, but why? Is it because we just happen to have been found out with 4-4-2 like YLUDA have? Is it because we're oging through bad form anyway with our midfield? Is it because he is off form himself? Is it because Nunt and Doyle just work fantasticlaly together?

[Snowball]

-stats-

Mate your contributions to HNA are great. You're a real asset to the board in my opinion. And your analyses I generally agree with. A breath of fresh air. But this is a bit of a disappointment as all I see is a load of numbers and then you don't even answer the question you pose in the thread title!

The thread title should say "Bin Lita" but the actual title is like a rhetorical question. It means "Lita Doesn't Work!"

And, incidentally, I did give 3-4 possible reasons why I think he's useless in the current Reading team, then followed that post up with expanded explanations.

Slightly less raw data please... and a little more analysis/explanation of what you deduce please (you generally do a fab job of that!). Otherwise it's just a spreadsheet.

You may think that, but it's when you see it all laid out, not one game this season when Lita has started has he scored OR Doyle scored, and the points won less than half those won whit the best partnership (Doyle-Hunt) and the second-best Doyle-Long) (and no thi isn't an argument for Long, just an observation that Long and Doyle on the pitch together have scored seven goals. Considering the fact that Long has only started three games, that's an achievement.)

So... why do you think Lita and Doyle isn't working?

I've answered this twice already in this thread.

(a) He doesn't work WITH Doyle (or anybody for that matter) (I mean as a twin-unit)

(b) He is selfish and chooses a low-percentage shot rather than a promising pass

(c) He is desperately trying to up his value for when he gets a signing-on fee and is not acting in the best interests of his team or his team-mates.

(d) Because he doesn't work closely with the other striker, the way he works does not suit our system

(e) His accuracy is POOR. Official club stats show that Long gets more shots per "game" than Lita and more shots ON TARGET than Lita

(f) I have a feeling he is not well-liked by other players and his choice over the far-better Noel Hunt may well be causing unrest, especially among the Irish contingent.

(g) He did not want to support the club by being on the bench. Even if I understand the desire to play it still says "F-ck Reading. He made no secret of the fact he wanted to stay at Norwich. He refuses to sign a new contract (because he wants to make money from a signing-on fee. So, all-in-all, how would other players view him? As a playboy-type who drives a Hummer, broadcasts sex videos, gets into night-club spats, is happy to play elsewhere and stay elsewhere, won't help the club, doesn't want to sign... and then Coppell plays him. If I was Noel Hunt, or his brother, or Doyler I'd feel that was a slap in the face.

I don't think it's just Lita being back (and playing) but I DO think he is a major factor in the off-colour form of some of the players. We saw last year how a few players getting unhappy cam spread a malaise through the dressing room

[Snowball]

Two World Wars, here's the post I posted on why I thought, Lita wasn't right etc, twenty-odd posts ago!



The thread is about the fact that when he plays NO STRIKER SCORES

and that's because he either

(a) doesn't suit the way we play

OR

(b) he is extremely selfish and goes for goal rather than put a team-mate in

OR

(c) he's not good enough

OR

(d) something about him or the interaction between him and other players seems to stop them playing as well[/quote]

(a) In all the games I've seen him so far he seems to play on his own, rarely interacts with Doyle, whereas Doyle-Hunt just seem to know what each other will do, seem to play for each other. When the ball is sent up and Hunt jumps I actually expect him to win the header (unlike Lita) but also I expect it to go into the right space.

(b) Lita "should have passed" when it was 1-0 at Swansea, but again showed he's only interested in improving HIS goals-scored record (and we all know why)... He did the same yesterday shhopting from low-percentage angles rather than try to play others in.

(c) This season he has scored just the one goal, put through for a 1 on 1 (decent goal) but he hasn't turned any more of his 14 chances into goals.

Long is more accurate and scores more often and everyone thinks Long is sh!t

CLUB Statistics

6 Starts (03 sub) 8 shots on target 6 shots off target 1 goals LITA

3 Starts (22 sub) 6 shots on target 5 shots off target 3 goals LONG

(d) I have no idea what the truth is, how Lita interacts with the team, but he's been "out of it" a lot
these last two seasons, wasn't prepared to be on the bench, was keen to stay at Norwich, and there
are other off-field "elements" which says to me he's not a Reading-type of player (as a person) and
I seriously wonder if he's part of the current malaise.

Example, unless Noel is being secretly disciplined, (eg maybe he got p!ssed at being dropped for Lita)
then he should rightly be upset... might that not affect his brother, the other Irish lads etc?

It takes very little to undermine a team. Look what happened last year.[/quote]

[specialjon]

Congratulations on proving our second top scorer is better than our third top scorer.

If it's so obvious why hasn't Sir steve worked that?????????????????????????????????????

[Mad Dog's Ghost]

Okay, Lita's shooting was abysmal on Saturday. But he worked his socks off. As did Doyle. They have to because supply is utter dross. Said it before, say it again - Torres and Rooney would get fack all playing for Reading because the scraps they'd have to feed on are pitiful. Please, some quality on the flanks next game.

When's Little joining?

[Snowball]

Okay, Lita's shooting was abysmal on Saturday. But he worked his socks off.

When's Little joining?

I had an engine, and I was fast, and I worked my socks off, too
playing until I was 38. But I was always crap.

Lita has had a fair few chances since he returned and he's failed with them all