Harte Signs

[Ian Royal]

In absolute terms Reading have let in far more goals with Harte in the team than Williams. 12 plays 4, (just to use the snowball standard of comparing absolute numbers of goals for Shane Long vs other strikers and ignoring the significance of appearances).

[Victor Meldrew]

Comparing the "deadliness" of a player who is a left back and basically only takes shots from free kicks (in other words a free shot) to a player who took the majority of his shots on the run and under pressure is quite frankly idiotic and totally irrelevant.

Agreed WR.
Also so little has been said on this thread about him as a left-back and from what I have seen with my own eyes he is as bad a defender as I always thought he was and it seems as though a number of clubs have sussed him in that area once the clouding effect of scoring from set-pieces is eventually seen through.

The trouble is Brian signed him and although he quickly ditched Williams as a poor signing I have this feeling that he doesn't want to ditch another poor left-back signing within 3 months of the start of this season when the chairman has been concerned with cloth-cutting and might start to wonder why we have so many left-backs but no creative midfielder nor a target striker.

You REALLY believe a manager of McDermott's ability is keeping Armstrong out merely to make himself look better?

What are you people on?

How about McDermott looks at everything, watches training, assesses where we've leaked goals etc
and decides in his best professional wisdom, that Player A is a better bet than player B.

That's what we pay him for, after all.

Managers have egos just like everybody else and hate to admit they are wrong.
Brian signed Williams and in signing Harte then effectively admitted that he was wrong about Williams by signing Harte.
Now that Armstrong is fit I hope that he will be man enough to drop his second poor left-back signing and now play the best left-back at the club.
Managers DO make mistakes you know,Williams being a case in point,and IMHO Harte is another one.

[Hoop Blah]

'McDermotts ability' is still largely unproven.

He did a marvellous job at turning things round last season but he obviously had the players onside because he was the good guy from behind the scenes and wasn't a threat to their egos or wallets.

I've always said the real test of his managerial credentials will be in successfully building his own squad and own team. He's doing a decent job of it so far, but if a manager of Coppells ability and experience can make fundamental mistakes then I'm sure McDermott can do the same!

[Ian Royal]

It's rather early to write off Williams, he's played three league games!

We obviously needed a bit of cover at left back and no one really could know whether Armstrong could come back at anything like his previous quality, and more importantly stay injury free. Harte is a short-term reliable option, exactly what we needed. Especially if you bear in mind he can play centreback and we'd also been looking very light there too.

He has generally performed fairly well from the recent games I've seen. He brings quality set pieces to a team that might otherwise be a little lacking there, although he is far from perfect defensively. Armstrong (assuming he's still fit) must be pushing him close for the left back slot though.

[RoyalBlue]

It's rather early to write off Williams, he's played three league games!

We obviously needed a bit of cover at left back and no one really could know whether Armstrong could come back at anything like his previous quality, and more importantly stay injury free. Harte is a short-term reliable option, exactly what we needed. Especially if you bear in mind he can play centreback and we'd also been looking very light there too.

He has generally performed fairly well from the recent games I've seen. He brings quality set pieces to a team that might otherwise be a little lacking there, although he is far from perfect defensively. Armstrong (assuming he's still fit) must be pushing him close for the left back slot though.

Reliable? About as reliable as an Austin Princess (apologies to those too young to remember). He has been found wanting on far too many occasions. Williams wasn't much worse and was definitely quicker and able/willing to push forward. Armstrong is way better. Let's try him there and see how long he can stay injury free for.

As for quality from set piecee, that has been lacking far, far too often from Harte - other than when the ball is put on the spot or just outside the area. At the risk of getting incinerated, I would suggest Howard probably edges it in terms of all round ability in a dead ball situation.

Back to Austin Princesses - one for the oldies:

What do Roddy Llewellyn and British Leyland have in common?

They both put big ends into princesses!

[Snowball]

In absolute terms Reading have let in far more goals with Harte in the team than Williams. 12 plays 4, (just to use the snowball standard of comparing absolute numbers of goals for Shane Long vs other strikers and ignoring the significance of appearances).

Striker Tables don't announce such things as

"Thierry Henry is only third but he's had a bad leg"

or

"Van Nistleroy hasn't got as many goals, but he's played less games"


They simply announce the order of merit like this

10 Smith
09 Jones
01 Ivor PalmTree

[Svlad Cjelli]

....."Van Nistleroy hasn't got as many goals, but he's played less games"

I thought you were meant to be a writer?

[Snowball]

Managers have egos just like everybody else and hate to admit they are wrong.
Brian signed Williams and in signing Harte then effectively admitted that he was wrong about Williams by signing Harte.

You don't know that, do you, Vic? I certainly don't believe it was the case

For one thing, look at the timings of the signings of Zurab and Harte and it was very obvious they were already "pre-cooked".

It's much more likely that McDermott couldn't even scratch together the 100K until Gyfli (we'll be relegated for sure now) Siggurdson had been sold, and that he was already looking out for a free-kick taker weeks or even months before the Sig left.

Now that Armstrong is fit I hope that he will be man enough to drop his second poor left-back signing and now play the best left-back at the club.
Managers DO make mistakes you know,Williams being a case in point,and IMHO Harte is another one.

OTOH Mac may have been "surprised" that Stretch went to Lourdes. How many expected that one?
And of course, Mac might know (for example, not saying it's the case) that Stretch CAN'T PLAY a
serious sequence of games at full-back due to his many injury issues over the years.

[Snowball]

....."Van Nistleroy hasn't got as many goals, but he's played less games"

I thought you were meant to be a writer?

Dragged down to the level of the readership

[Svlad Cjelli]

....."Van Nistleroy hasn't got as many goals, but he's played less games"

I thought you were meant to be a writer?

Dragged down to the level of the readership

Inexcusable!

[Snowball]

Reliable? (Harte is) About as reliable as an Austin Princess (apologies to those too young to remember). He has been found wanting on far too many occasions.

YOU SAY. So please describe all those goals he let in. Please tell us which goals he was responsible for.

Let in 12 goals in 11 games, still the sixth best defence in the league (including our 5 conceded in 4 games before Harte arrived)

01 Was he responsible for Pearce and Cummings failing to cope with Lita?
02 Was he responsible for the first goal at Boro?
03 Was he responsible for Mills failing to jump for the 3rd Boro goal?
04 Was he responsible for Howard's reckless challenge against Taarabt after both Griffin and Karacan were skinned?
05 Was he responsible for the free-kick by Taarabt taken on the left?
06 Was he responsible for Mills' back-heel v QPR?
07 Was he responsible for Mills and Griffin failing to deal with Sinclair v Swansea?
08 Was he responsible for Zurab trying to run the ball out of play at Preston?
09 Was he responsible for HRK being turned v Swansea?

10 He was partly responsible for trying to chest a ball down v Doncaster, but Mills was cover and failed
11 He misjudged the flight of the ball at Bristol after Griffin allowed the cross. Even then Mills was in front of the man.
12 He was skinned by a very good pass v QPR

He IS slow, painfully so, but we, as yet, have not let in loads of goals with the right-winger going past Harte.

[BR2]

Dear,oh dear,oh dear.
I think Brian needs to sit in the stands like Coppell used to and then he might fully appreciate the poor positioning and dire tackling of the second full back he signed this season.
Paul Bodin,Stuart Gray,Ian Harte,all about the same.
Nicky Shorey,Ryan Bertrand,Chris Armstrong all good full-backs and where are they now?
Shorey is playing Premiership football
Bertrand is playing for one of the better sides in this division
Armstrong is sat on the bench-what a waste.

[RobRoyal]

....."Van Nistleroy hasn't got as many goals, but he's played less games"

I thought you were meant to be a writer?

Do you reckon Snowball's published work is full of random CAPITALISED OUTBURSTS?

I bet he writes three long books before anyone has had a chance to read or review the first one...

[Snowball]

....."Van Nistleroy hasn't got as many goals, but he's played less games"

I thought you were meant to be a writer?

Do you reckon Snowball's published work is full of random CAPITALISED OUTBURSTS?

I bet he writes three long books before anyone has had a chance to read or review the first one...

At least I have SOLD six books. Apparently I was very big in China.

[cmonurz]

That's six more than I've ever sold, but then I won a Bracknell bowling tournament, so we'll call it a draw on the skillz stakes.

[Alan Partridge]

I thought you were meant to be a writer?

Do you reckon Snowball's published work is full of random CAPITALISED OUTBURSTS?

I bet he writes three long books before anyone has had a chance to read or review the first one...

At least I have SOLD six books. Apparently I was very big in China.

I bought one of those, I really quite enjoyed 'Britain's Stattest Man'.

[Snowball]

That's six more than I've ever sold, but then I won a Bracknell bowling tournament, so we'll call it a draw on the skillz stakes.

That's almost funny.

Allegedly I sold 400,000 in China.

[cmonurz]

I once fit 2.5 creme eggs in my mouth too.

[Ferris]

I headbutted a horse once.

[RobRoyal]

That's six more than I've ever sold, but then I won a Bracknell bowling tournament, so we'll call it a draw on the skillz stakes.

That's almost funny.

Allegedly I sold 400,000 in China.

Haven't the poor buggers suffered enough?