Bikey is not the messiah he's a twunt.

[rg6royal]

All I can say is that Bikey has all the physical attributes to become a good Premership player in the future. It's just his mental attributes which let him down and need improving.

I'm still debating whether He'd be better playing in the midfield just infront of the defence tbh.

[Ian Royal]

or you work on the flaws and eliminate them

Look, for example how Ronaldo turned from a show-pony into a great great player

That was about teaching a young player to make the right decisions. Not making established players suddenly capable of timing a tackle or more naturally athletic, or teaching someone to concentrate for 90 minutes.

I can't help but feel that Bikey playing in the Prem consistently would end up as another Titus Bramble

[AthleticoSpizz]

or you work on the flaws and eliminate them

Look, for example how Ronaldo turned from a show-pony into a great great player

That was about teaching a young player to make the right decisions. Not making established players suddenly capable of timing a tackle or more naturally athletic, or teaching someone to concentrate for 90 minutes.

I can't help but feel that Bikey playing in the Prem consistently would end up as another Titus Bramble

in all fairness, Bramble has matured and played well for Wigwam.

Not to mention that he has been paid three or four times Bikeys wage for the past 5 years

[Cookie]

general not arsedness

Discuss...

The hall-mark of greatness is to appear general not arsedness but while doing so, to be just that bit ahead of mere mortals on a time-space coordinate.

[Archie's penalty]

I seem to be hitting pay-dirt with my threads at the moment.

And that's a lovely phrase I seem to have coined...

[Royalee]

I seem to be hitting pay-dirt with my threads at the moment.

And that's a lovely phrase I seem to have coined...

Are you pissed?

[rhroyal]

In my view if Bikey leaves there's no centre back as good as him we can realistically replace him with, as they will want to play at a higher level. I often wonder what fans on here expect from a team like Reading.

Bikey is too casual and sometimes error prone. Not all his distribution finds a Reading player - If this wasn't the case he'd be world class. Just one of those things change and he'd be in the top half of the Premiership.

Kebe blows hot and cold and his end product is poor. He's no good in the air. - Imagine if he always produced an end product, always played to his best and was strong in the air. Hey presto you have Cristiano Ronaldo.

Matejovsky is a liability defending and doesn't have the hard work to complement his ability. A bit slow too - Better bring in Steven Gerrard then.


etc.

Face it. We're Reading, and we won't get better players than we have now so long as we're in the Championship. What matters is the sum of parts and not its components. We lack the consistency as a team at the moment, you can't place the blame with individuals when the team around isn't working. We don't have world class players, we're in the Championship. There was a spirit in the 05/06 team. An understanding, a togetherness and the players were mentally tough. That's where we've gone wrong this second half of the season. We can't get better players than what we have at the moment, we just need them playing together properly again.

[Archie's penalty]

I seem to be hitting pay-dirt with my threads at the moment.

And that's a lovely phrase I seem to have coined...

Are you pissed?

No. Tired. HTH. You?

[Royalee]

Nope

[Hoop Blah]

In my view if Bikey leaves there's no centre back as good as him we can realistically replace him with, as they will want to play at a higher level. I often wonder what fans on here expect from a team like Reading.

Bikey is too casual and sometimes error prone. Not all his distribution finds a Reading player - If this wasn't the case he'd be world class. Just one of those things change and he'd be in the top half of the Premiership.

Kebe blows hot and cold and his end product is poor. He's no good in the air. - Imagine if he always produced an end product, always played to his best and was strong in the air. Hey presto you have Cristiano Ronaldo.

Matejovsky is a liability defending and doesn't have the hard work to complement his ability. A bit slow too - Better bring in Steven Gerrard then.


etc.

Face it. We're Reading, and we won't get better players than we have now so long as we're in the Championship. What matters is the sum of parts and not its components. We lack the consistency as a team at the moment, you can't place the blame with individuals when the team around isn't working. We don't have world class players, we're in the Championship. There was a spirit in the 05/06 team. An understanding, a togetherness and the players were mentally tough. That's where we've gone wrong this second half of the season. We can't get better players than what we have at the moment, we just need them playing together properly again.

I agree we sometimes expect a bit too much from our players and we need to be realistic but there are players out there who play at this level, and below, who would strengthen our team and squad and would probably be willing to come to Reading.

The art of management is finding the right blend of players and building a team. Part of that is recognising the weaknesses of the team and the players that make it up and getting a balance of strength and weaknesses that make the sum of the parts greater than their individual worth. It's also bringing in players like the 04-07 vintage of Sidwell, Shorey, Harper, Doyle, Lita, Kitson, Little, Sonko, Murty and making them better players and moulding them into a better team.

All of those players were better the the our current of players, either in ability or just what we managed to get out of them, so it shows that we can do it and that we can get players better than the likes of Kebe to take us forward.

[Millsy]

TO be fair he did one of the best passes I've seen in several years from right back, right up to Kebe left wing, which resulted in a shot on goal.

[Ian Royal]

In my view if Bikey leaves there's no centre back as good as him we can realistically replace him with, as they will want to play at a higher level. I often wonder what fans on here expect from a team like Reading.

Bikey is too casual and sometimes error prone. Not all his distribution finds a Reading player - If this wasn't the case he'd be world class. Just one of those things change and he'd be in the top half of the Premiership.

Kebe blows hot and cold and his end product is poor. He's no good in the air. - Imagine if he always produced an end product, always played to his best and was strong in the air. Hey presto you have Cristiano Ronaldo.

Matejovsky is a liability defending and doesn't have the hard work to complement his ability. A bit slow too - Better bring in Steven Gerrard then.

etc.

Face it. We're Reading, and we won't get better players than we have now so long as we're in the Championship. What matters is the sum of parts and not its components. We lack the consistency as a team at the moment, you can't place the blame with individuals when the team around isn't working. We don't have world class players, we're in the Championship. There was a spirit in the 05/06 team. An understanding, a togetherness and the players were mentally tough. That's where we've gone wrong this second half of the season. We can't get better players than what we have at the moment, we just need them playing together properly again.

I for one am not expecting better players. I would prefer players with a more well rounded overall game. I'd be happy to have a midfielder who was less visionary, but could run around for 90 minutes and tackle a bit.

Likewise, I'd prefer a defender who could concentrate for 90 minutes and was a little more othadox, but was a little less quick or strong in the tackle.

[cmonurz]

Imho, having a defender who is always a bit slower than you would like is going to cost you more in the long-run than a defender who might switch off once in a while.

[Ian Royal]

Imho, having a defender who is always a bit slower than you would like is going to cost you more in the long-run than a defender who might switch off once in a while.

Doobs is slow. His speed has rarely cost us.

[cmonurz]

That's the crux of it though. I don't think Bikey has cost us any more than Duberry, but the former can play football. Duberry is a good defender, but will never be any more than that. Bikey really can be our Hansen or a Matthaus (although not at that level, of course).

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Dubbery is our worst centre back at the moment.

[brendywendy]

sodje?

[Ian Royal]

Kebe is far worse at CB.

[Royal Rother]

...+ Federici (or Hamer who's getting rave reviews), Sigurdsson, Robson-Kanu, Church, and even Bennett (all getting good reviews)

[holsgrove breaks a leg]

Can someone not be a bit negative after your team doesn't get promotion?

I agree with Floyd re: that pass but he is infuriating sometimes. And he is overweight.

I just think that Duberry gets a lot of criticism when Bikey makes the mistakes a lot of the time...

so you will gloss over the mistakes that duberry did against charlton for their 2nd and equalising goal,and the 1st v blackpool and against brum and against adebola when he scored for bristol city, there are undoubtedly a fair few more recently i could also add.I was comftable with Doobs when we signed him but since jan/feb he has declined rapidly no question. His distribution has been woeful,he panicks when there is a melee in the box and especially time after time he has not got ahead of the man he marks in set pieces- that 2nd goal for charlton typifies his lack of awareness of what is around him which is even more frustrating as he is actually strong in the air. I have been critical of Ivar in the past but i have to say look at the stats when we were without him-silly goals being shipped in and ultimately defeats crept in as the end of the season approached.We lacked his calmer influence, organisation and reading of the defensive situation put in front of him. Bikey coming back into our defence again has given us a semblace of authority, steel and athleticism that was unquestionable when he started at the beginning of the season and he gives a real threat when a decent delivery is made at set pieces.He has made mistakes for certain but actually not the glaring ones that Duberry has which have caused goals to occur partly because Bikey can more often than not recover any mistakes through his pace.