Cardiff match thread sponsored by sheep fiddler (c)

[floyd__streete]

To be absolutely honest, 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield threading balls through to the speed demon Rasiak is the absolute end for me. 4 years putting out the cones at Chobham and Rodgers thinks he is Rinus Michels. If you are really going to insist on someone as limited as Rasiak leading the line for you then play two wingers and bang the ball into the box at home for ninety minutes.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Robson-Kanu actually looked the only player capable of creating something out of nothing in his starts. Long, I felt, was the best player when we played one up front. I hardly think they did fcuk all in their starts when IMO they were two of the better players in their games.

Well thats what opinions are for I guess.

HRK looked dangerous without actually doing anything, while Long looked garbage to me


The first 3 home games I counted only 3 shots that required saving by the keeper. While I was a bit worried by the shooting-from-distance, I was happy with the number of saves we forced their keeper into (plus a few missed headers)

[loyalroyal4life]

so how does this bode for saturday, honestly think its got to be 3 points on saturday at least 6 from next 3

[Tamworth_Royal]

Perfectly serious. What's wrong with you people? One more unfortunate reverse in a game we played our best footnball of the season is no cause for undue pessimism. We are improving, the players are getting used to each other. We ain't going up, but things are coming together.

^^^
What he said

I quite enjoyed that game.
Only downsides were too many lame floated crosses into the box when their defence were all huge, and the whole Hunt-Church thing.

Pretty happy with the play in the middle of the park today. Though Marek had a very good game and he & Howard look to make a very good partnership

Could you just remind me of the result ?......... did we win for the first time since January ? ( That's 8 months ago ?)

[John Madejski's Wallet]

To be absolutely honest, 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield threading balls through to the speed demon Rasiak is the absolute end for me. 4 years putting out the cones at Chobham and Rodgers thinks he is Rinus Michels. If you are really going to insist on someone as limited as Rasiak leading the line for you then play two wingers and bang the ball into the box at home for ninety minutes.

^^^ that

Much as I just slagged off Long, I thought he would have been more suited to that game than Rasiak

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Perfectly serious. What's wrong with you people? One more unfortunate reverse in a game we played our best footnball of the season is no cause for undue pessimism. We are improving, the players are getting used to each other. We ain't going up, but things are coming together.

^^^
What he said

I quite enjoyed that game.
Only downsides were too many lame floated crosses into the box when their defence were all huge, and the whole Hunt-Church thing.

Pretty happy with the play in the middle of the park today. Though Marek had a very good game and he & Howard look to make a very good partnership

Could you just remind me of the result ?......... did we win for the first time since January ? ( That's 8 months ago ?)

F*ck me how do you manage to be a Reading fan?
Being miserable every time we lose much mean a lifetime of it

[handbags_harris]

Robson-Kanu actually looked the only player capable of creating something out of nothing in his starts. Long, I felt, was the best player when we played one up front. I hardly think they did fcuk all in their starts when IMO they were two of the better players in their games.

Well thats what opinions are for I guess.

HRK looked dangerous without actually doing anything, while Long looked garbage to me


The first 3 home games I counted only 3 shots that required saving by the keeper. While I was a bit worried by the shooting-from-distance, I was happy with the number of saves we forced their keeper into (plus a few missed headers)

Against Newcastle and Swansea HRK dribbled from way out wide into a position where he was one-on-one with the keeper and should have scored. Long also was a little unlucky with refereeing decisions in the first half at Newcastle, and actually turned the game against Newcastle. He was garbage against Sheff Utd though. Either way, not happy with the way things are going, which is the way of Southampton at the moment.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Against Newcastle and Swansea HRK dribbled from way out wide into a position where he was one-on-one with the keeper and should have scored. Long also was a little unlucky with refereeing decisions in the first half at Newcastle, and actually turned the game against Newcastle. He was garbage against Sheff Utd though. Either way, not happy with the way things are going, which is the way of Southampton at the moment.

Different opinions are what football is all about.

We're not scoring, fine. But i'm currently measuring improvement on how much attacking and shooting we're doing. If the goals don't come in the next few games, then fine, i'll probably start getting a bit despondant too. But this is whole new team under a manager who has yet to even figure out who his best players are. I'm happy to give them time, so long as they look like they're at least trying to score a goal (unlike the first 3 home games)

[rg6royal]

I liked the look of the midfield today. Karacan holding with Howard, Siggy and Marek all pushing on, very good display from the midfield as well.

We just don't get any luck do we!

[RG30]

That was our 9th game of the season and are we any closer to finding out what our best team is? Up until the goal, I thought we played well and were the better side. We started off high tempo which was what we've been good at previously and Hunt should have done better. But it was a stupid goal to give away against the run of play just when Church had been bought on, and yeah we still had 1 or 2 chances afterwards but it seemed like we wanted to pass the ball into the net.

[clauski]

I was disappointed with the game again tonight. For me the players gave their all, yes, but we still looked absolutely constrained by Rodgers' dud tactics. For the first hour we tried to do everything right down the middle with no width at all and Cardiff lapped it up, just putting 4 defenders and 4 midfielders behind the ball and letting our over-complicated passing moves break down. Seeing the empty space on the flanks just crying out for the glory days of Convey or Little was depressing. When we did start to make things happen it was because we started playing down the left, but there was no end product because we had no specialist left winger and crosses were poor and from too deep. So why can't Rodgers see this and concede his system isn't working?

[handbags_harris]

Seen the goal again now. Federici could have done so much better. Near post over his head. He should be saving that every time.

[handbags_harris]

I was disappointed with the game again tonight. For me the players gave their all, yes, but we still looked absolutely constrained by Rodgers' dud tactics. For the first hour we tried to do everything right down the middle with no width at all and Cardiff lapped it up, just putting 4 defenders and 4 midfielders behind the ball and letting our over-complicated passing moves break down. Seeing the empty space on the flanks just crying out for the glory days of Convey or Little was depressing. When we did start to make things happen it was because we started playing down the left, but there was no end product because we had no specialist left winger and crosses were poor and from too deep. So why can't Rodgers see this and concede his system isn't working?

Diamond offers no width because it's not designed to offer width. Something I was crying out for after 2 minutes of the Sheff Utd game, and what I was crying out for when I found out the team tonight. I don't like the diamond at all, it leaves us very one dimensional, as well as exposed defensively. No surprise that the goal came from out wide. Left wing cross (Marek not tracking his man - Whittingham - simple ball down the channel, cross, right winger - Burke - scores.

NOT

VERY

GOOD.

[londinium]

I was disappointed with the game again tonight. For me the players gave their all, yes, but we still looked absolutely constrained by Rodgers' dud tactics. For the first hour we tried to do everything right down the middle with no width at all and Cardiff lapped it up, just putting 4 defenders and 4 midfielders behind the ball and letting our over-complicated passing moves break down. Seeing the empty space on the flanks just crying out for the glory days of Convey or Little was depressing. When we did start to make things happen it was because we started playing down the left, but there was no end product because we had no specialist left winger and crosses were poor and from too deep. So why can't Rodgers see this and concede his system isn't working?

Diamond offers no width because it's not designed to offer width. Something I was crying out for after 2 minutes of the Sheff Utd game, and what I was crying out for when I found out the team tonight. I don't like the diamond at all, it leaves us very one dimensional, as well as exposed defensively. No surprise that the goal came from out wide. Left wing cross (Marek not tracking his man - Whittingham - simple ball down the channel, cross, right winger - Burke - scores.

NOT

VERY

GOOD.

Even the crosses that did eventually come from the left were bread and butter for the defence as they came from so deep.... the only decent crosses (or attemptd crosses that won corners) were from Kebe in the last 15 mins

[Ian Royal]

Agree with JMW and Rother.

We sounded massively better than against Doncaster. 6 on target, 7 off target. 12 corners. when you're not doing well sometimes it just won't quite go right. Another night we could have slaughtered them with crosses finding their men and shots being slightly more accurate.

Beaten by a snatch and grab goal against the run of play.

The important thing is the performance was better, and that result will certainly have fired up the players. Gutting. We desperately need to stick with the same 11 and formation for two or three games though. This chopping and changing is stupid. Rodgers is acting like a clueless FM player making panic changes all the time. Continutity is often the key.

Looking forward to P'boro much more now. A win there and we're still easily on track for the season anyone with half a brain expected. A slow start and mid-table finish.

[John Peel]

Has anyone seen the OS report? Have we employed Comical Ali as our new PR man or what?

http://www.readingfc.co.uk/page/MatchRe ... 51,00.html

[handbags_harris]

Another night we could have slaughtered them with crosses finding their men and shots being slightly more accurate.

Crosses finding their men - wingers are specialist crossers of the ball. Put them on the pitch to do their job. Shots from outside the area rarely go in and that is where we were shooting from.

The important thing is the performance was better, and that result will certainly have fired up the players. Gutting. We desperately need to stick with the same 11 and formation for two or three games though. This chopping and changing is stupid. Rodgers is acting like a clueless FM player making panic changes all the time. Continutity is often the key.

Looking forward to P'boro much more now. A win there and we're still easily on track for the season anyone with half a brain expected. A slow start and mid-table finish.

The performance was only better than Donny because Cardiff came here to attack and win so it was always going to be a game in which we appeared to attack more potently,so was it actually that much better a game than against Donny who came to sit back and defend? Unfortunately, despite calling for a stable team game in game out, this formation needs a change for reasons I have already stated.

In other words - I don't wholly agree with your post.

[clauski]

Agree with JMW and Rother.

We sounded massively better than against Doncaster. 6 on target, 7 off target. 12 corners. when you're not doing well sometimes it just won't quite go right. Another night we could have slaughtered them with crosses finding their men and shots being slightly more accurate.

Sorry, but I think that's nonsense. To have listened to the radio comments after I left the ground suggested we had witnessed a 5-star entertainment packed game where we were much improved but desperately unlucky. That wasn't the game I saw. And I think you are imagining something different to reality in terms of loads of crosses/shots etc - they were all from deep or long range, really nothing cutting through or creating easy chances still in my opinion. My feeling is that expectations have been lowered so some people felt enthralled simply to see some shots, but ultimately our system was nowhere near good enough and whatever Rodegrs says I think the turnaround will be a long time coming.

[floyd__streete]

Has anyone seen the OS report? Have we employed Comical Ali as our new PR man or what?

http://www.readingfc.co.uk/page/MatchRe ... 51,00.html

http://www.readingfc.co.uk/page/NewsDet ... 70,00.html

"the players will be super."

[It Is What It Is]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a bigger attendance today than the Doncaster match? And a much better atmopshere, all the half-hearted supporters stayed at home for once thank god and 'us' real supporters went out and SUPPORTED the team tonight. Good performance, a few back-to-back wins are a'brewing...