Back from the Game - Brighton (H)

[bcubed]

I'm not sure how far we can go playing like this,the style is similar to Wimbledon of old without the big central striker,but Wimbledon did well,as do Stoke now,so maybe we can get back up and stay there.
We say it every year that this is a poor division but we might just turn out to be one of the best of a poor bunch and as Brian's mantra is to not think further than the next game maybe we should adopt the same philosophy as fans of not worrying what will happen if we get promoted let us get there first.
How good it feels today not to be looking down and all credit to Brian-just those 2 or 3 new players Mr Chairman and who knows?

Every summer WITHOUT FAIL some people on these pages insist that "we will struggle" (even at the start of the season when we ended up with a record breaking 106pts ) and when they are shown to be wrong it's because IT'S A POOR LEAGUE and now, as we surge into a playoff place having beaten all of West Ham, Leeds and Brighton in recent weeks we did it by PLAYING LIKE WIMBLEDON

I couldn't disagree more. This league looks rather tasty right now in my view whilst the likes of Blackburn and Bolton already look fit for the drop. I watched all of Stokes game yesterday and half their team seemed to have the first touch of a rapist yet they're in the top half of the Premiership

I know it's a strange concept for some but when we are near the top of the table it could be because we have a rather decent team.................................

Woodcote,
I wish you would read things properly once in a while before jumping in with your size twelves in the style of a SUN reporter.
I said that we always say on here that it is a poor division-that is a fact (i.e. some people do say it) and yet you have gone
all angry about it and mis-read by interpreting it so badly.
Incidentally I DO think it is a poor division-last season Swansea,QPR and Norwich all looked a cut above (and have held their own so far in the Premier League)whereas so far nobody has looked much especially the top three, Saints 'Boro and West Ham.
I know you don't watch us very often Woodcote but I can assure you that this division is far from "tasty" and if you care to read most of our "Back from the game " threads you will see that there are many more cases of "turgid" and "dire" than "tasty" unless of course you resort to your insulting "Reading fans know f*** all" stance.

Brian has found a winning formula and for the past 2 seasons it has worked,just as it worked for Wimbledon, with our midfielders especially closing down the opposition and our defenders hoofing the ball as far as they can into the channels.
It works for us as it did for Wimbledon and with the players at his disposal Brian has made sure that we play to our strengths of determination and fitness with our wingers providing the occasional glimpses of brilliance.
Whether we can keep this up for a full season we shall see as it demands tremendous commitment every game.

Melonhead,
Quite frankly you are a buffoon and are one of the reasons why I don't post on here any more (good job some say but don't worry it is just during the Christmas break).
Please don't kid yourself that we are the new Barcelona-nearly every team that we play against outpasses us but what the Doncasters and Brightons and Peterboros of this world don't have is the fantastic work ethic and determination that our current team has.
None of our starting 11 would IMHO get in our 2005/6 side but they are a cracking example of how far hard work can get you,just like Wimbledon of old which is in fact a compliment and not a criticism.

I agree with your comments in general but I think nostalgia is playing tricks on you
The 2005/2006 side was very similar in my view in that it always achieved more as a team than the sum of its individual parts.
As just one example, Ingi and Sonko were not the most gifted footballers but performed heroics week in week out
More to the point which Reading players from that team went on to greater things at Premier clubs? Answer (Sidwell apart) none
Yes they are all legends in the eyes of all Reading fans and rightly so but let's not pretend they were massivley different to today's' offerings

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Maybe my memory is playing tricks, but i remember lots of balls pumped into the channels in the 05/06 side.

Doyle was a wonder for chasing into the channels and being able to lay to ball back to little/hunt/convey to cross


The only problem with our current balls-into-channels scenario is we don't have a Doyle to chase them (although ALF is suprisingly tasty when required)

[facaldaqui]

I am the Marek Matejovsky of Hob Nob; creative, but my talents are wasted here

Have you thought of joining a higher-level forum in the Czech Republic?

[Svlad Cjelli]

I am the Marek Matejovsky of Hob Nob; creative, but my talents are wasted here

Have you thought of joining a higher-level forum in the Czech Republic?

We're just waiting for his HNA? contract to expire so we can ship him out - his terms here are too good for him to want to move on.

[grey_squirrel]

tbf i h8 the brendan rodgers style of passing for passings sake

id much prefer a team who can do it when needed/appropriate, but can also lump it away when required(see brighton getting into all sorts of trouble cos they insisted on playing out from the back every single time) and play in different styles to suits whats happening on the pitch
and yesterday showed we are certainly that, and all th ebetter for it.

i never said we were barcelona- just that recently weve been trying to play it on the deck more.
and im right

Absolutely totally agree with this.

According to Sky Sports, Swansea are in the top 5 in Europe statistically for most successful/completed passes this year, but what a bore they are. Saw their game against QPR the other day. I would rather watch wood warp. Meaningless, pointless, back and forth, eternal nothingness passes with no end result. No wonder they are holding their own (and not conceding).

That may be their success in survival (and fair play) but I would rather watch "hoof ball". It's boring!

[Z175]

I hope Mills is back ASAP

And I hope you have too much Xmas Sherry typing that!

Shame it possibly wasn't just the sherry mills had been having before his last appearance. I suspect we won't see him again if indeed a B sample is confirmed. Not accusing him of anything of course, but how a player that poor can suddenly become Maicon and then totally disappear after a drugs test is a bit fishy. Presumably its supposedly a groin or an ankle?

[melonhead]

i never said we were barcelona- just that recently weve been trying to play it on the deck more.
and im right

If by 'recently' you mean 'the last hour and a half' I'd agree entirely.

Sorry Brenders, not picking on you, honestly. I actually rather like you. You are the Ghost of Promotion Future to my Ebeneezer Scrooge.

tbf people see what they want to see

i see beautiful flowing football, you see aimles shoofball- as always the truth will lie in between the two


regardless, since long has gone, and as the team has begun to gel together, its been noticeable that we are trying to play it on the deck more.

sometimes we lose it a bit when the opposition play well, sometimes its not appropriate for th eteam we are playing, or th ematch situation. but we are trying.

brian always plays to the teams strengths. we set up to hoof it to the channels cos thats what long was good at. imo

[melonhead]

I am the Marek Matejovsky of Hob Nob. shit, but think im brilliant

[facaldaqui]

Absolutely totally agree with this.

According to Sky Sports, Swansea are in the top 5 in Europe statistically for most successful/completed passes this year, but what a bore they are. Saw their game against QPR the other day. I would rather watch wood warp. Meaningless, pointless, back and forth, eternal nothingness passes with no end result. No wonder they are holding their own (and not conceding).

That may be their success in survival (and fair play) but I would rather watch "hoof ball". It's boring!

Pity they didn't play that way in the PO Final. Could have done with no end result that day.

[melonhead]

id blanked that out of my mind tbf

one of the onluy times ive ever seen them so incisive
tbf we let em do it 1st half

[SCIAG]

Absolutely totally agree with this.

According to Sky Sports, Swansea are in the top 5 in Europe statistically for most successful/completed passes this year, but what a bore they are. Saw their game against QPR the other day. I would rather watch wood warp. Meaningless, pointless, back and forth, eternal nothingness passes with no end result. No wonder they are holding their own (and not conceding).

That may be their success in survival (and fair play) but I would rather watch "hoof ball". It's boring!

Pity they didn't play that way in the PO Final. Could have done with no end result that day.

They did for the most part, it was just we gave away two stupid, pointless penalties and left our defence exposed because we were chasing goals.

[FiNeRaIn]

We lost the play-off final due to one of the worst defensive displays I can remember a team putting in for a long, long time in a championship play-off final. Harte, Zurab, Griffin and Federici were absolutely ROTTEN and cost us every single one of those goals between them. Going forward we were alright and were on top until zurab the zombie stuck his leg out like a clown and get them a 1-0 win. Downhill from there, rest of the team and fans completely let down by 4 of the back 5. Mills to his credit was not bad at all...you could see his reaction to the final penalty we conceded...teams launching a fightback from 3-0 down...ball goes into the box with the guy going away from goal...what does griffin do? gives them a completely free penalty to sew their promotion up. Idiot.

[Winnershroyal]

We lost the play-off final due to one of the worst defensive displays I can remember a team putting in for a long, long time in a championship play-off final. Harte, Zurab, Griffin and Federici were absolutely ROTTEN and cost us every single one of those goals between them. Going forward we were alright and were on top until zurab the zombie stuck his leg out like a clown and get them a 1-0 win. Downhill from there, rest of the team and fans completely let down by 4 of the back 5. Mills to his credit was not bad at all...you could see his reaction to the final penalty we conceded...teams launching a fightback from 3-0 down...ball goes into the box with the guy going away from goal...what does griffin do? gives them a completely free penalty to sew their promotion up. Idiot.

Still hurts?

[Sarah Star]

One thought from after the game (& in my dreams): Craig McKail Smith is so quick! Surely he's wasted in that Brighton team. Just think what he could have done if he'd joined Reading.

[Ian Royal]

i never said we were barcelona- just that recently weve been trying to play it on the deck more.
and im right

If by 'recently' you mean 'the last hour and a half' I'd agree entirely.

Sorry Brenders, not picking on you, honestly. I actually rather like you. You are the Ghost of Promotion Future to my Ebeneezer Scrooge.

Personally I think we started to play better football with more passing quality just before Mills got injured and Harte came back in. Harte reappeared giving us less mobility on the left and we resorted back to a directer game. Which whilst direct is still pretty far from Wimbledon's style of old, or more recently Bolton's with Kevin Davies. IMO.

We now seem to have found some winning form, thanks at least partly to Harte's set pieces getting us some goals which we dearly needed. Now it seems we're heading back towards the better passing style again because we've got a bit more confidence, and probably partially because Harte has been replaced by Griffin who is better at getting forward and exchanging attacking passes. We'll always be fairly direct under McDermott. Just as we were fairly direct under Coppell. We don't fanny about with the ball.

Frankly trying to compare this side to the greatest second tier team that has ever existed is just plain stupid and unnecessary, we don't need 106 points to get promoted, we need about 86. And I think several of our players would be in with a shout of pushing for a place in that team, even if there's only ever one winner between the two teams.

That's the impression I've got, although I'm happy to admit it's been from some limited viewing. Generally I'd trust your judgement completely Floyd, if you weren't such a dour bastard who revels in being bitterly pessimistic.


Clearly things are coming together, and this team is easily capable of competing at the top when it's got a bit of form and confidence. Just as it's no better than mid-table when that form and confidence is a bit lacking. When Kebe & McAnuff are in form, we work well and it doesn't matter that we don't have a lot of guile in midfield. When they aren't or when another team figures out to close them down effectively, then we struggle because of that lack of guile in midfield and the lack of a bulldozing terrier like Long upfront.

[rhroyal]

i never said we were barcelona- just that recently weve been trying to play it on the deck more.
and im right

If by 'recently' you mean 'the last hour and a half' I'd agree entirely.

Sorry Brenders, not picking on you, honestly. I actually rather like you. You are the Ghost of Promotion Future to my Ebeneezer Scrooge.

tbf people see what they want to see

i see beautiful flowing football, you see aimles shoofball- as always the truth will lie in between the two


regardless, since long has gone, and as the team has begun to gel together, its been noticeable that we are trying to play it on the deck more.

sometimes we lose it a bit when the opposition play well, sometimes its not appropriate for th eteam we are playing, or th ematch situation. but we are trying.

brian always plays to the teams strengths. we set up to hoof it to the channels cos thats what long was good at. imo

I haven't had a chance to watch us much this season, but I saw us play West Ham. I was struck by how much more we're playing it out from the back this year, as we can no longer rely upon Shlong to chase the balls in the channel down and win all the flick ons. Only 1 match, but a definite observation. Gorkss and, even more so Pearce, had time on the ball to start attacks from the back and looked comfortable enough doing it. Can't extrapolate for the rest of the season, but that's definitely what I saw in that match.

[1871 Royal]

I did notice on Monday we seemed to play the ball on the deck a lot more. It was actually very nice to see. Although its not something that has really bothered me in the past we seem to do well season on season regardless on how we play. Possibly not entertaining to watch at times but 3 points is 3 points, I am happy with them passing along the ground just as we have players who are able to make those passes and read what people are going to do. This is where I believe that Marek had problems and his critics, he could see passes that our players couldn't. Would love him in the middle the way we seem to be playing right now though. Feds threw the ball out a lot more as well, which is pleasing, although the ironic cheers from the crowd get tiresome. As do the call for shooooooot whenever a player gets about 30 yards from goal

[Platypuss]

It was certainly noticeable in the first half that Pearce was being given licence to come forward with the ball.

[Hoop Blah]

I do think we've started to play a little more football and try to pass the ball a bit more. I put that down mainly to confidence. McDermott has always said they don't send them out to whack it down the channels but I'd say that when you're not playing too well and your confidence is low then you look for the percentage [easy] ball too often.

We are still a pretty direct side though. Without a change in personnel that will pretty much always be our default way of playing because the way we set up encourages it. Is that a bad thing though? In some respects yes but at the same time it is an easier (and cheaper) method to get right.

[ZacNaloen]

We're direct but not in the most cynical of ways.

Personally I quite like teams that play our style, and not many of them do any more. But it only really works if you do it quick & pass it around a bit, which was a staple of Coppell and now Mcdermotts sides when their tales are up. Too direct and the opposition defence will just lap it up because it's so one directional.