Scapegoat of the week Award thread

[creative_username_1]

It's seems pretty unanimous that the award this week goes to Harte. Congrats

[ManchesterRoyals]

Its not a Scapegoat Harte played shitte

[super darren caskey]

[AbovetheI]

Escapegoat? Harte deserves all the criticism he gets

[Ian Royal]

Harte was at worst mediocre. Unless you count how quickly a player can run as part of how well he plays. Harte being done over for pace against Lennon is surely no shock and the blame for anything coming out of that must surely lie with McDermott for having a choice of left backs involving an old very slow player and a not quite as old not quite as slow player as the alternative.

[ManchesterRoyals]

Harte was at worst mediocre. Unless you count how quickly a player can run as part of how well he plays. Harte being done over for pace against Lennon is surely no shock and the blame for anything coming out of that must surely lie with McDermott for having a choice of left backs involving an old very slow player and a not quite as old not quite as slow player as the alternative.

MD need to change it as Harte will cost us he was all over the place today

[Simon's Church]

Harte getting outpaced by Lennon Shocking!

What about Gorkks getting outmuscled by Defoe?

[ManchesterRoyals]

Can we recall Mills from his loan?

Depends if they had paid a fee to loan him if they did i dont think he can return but if it was a free loan he can

[creative_username_1]

This thread should be renamed "LEFT BACK CRISIS".

i'm thinking more long term, a season long thread maybe 20-30 pages if i'm lucky

[Bandini]

Unless you count how quickly a player can run as part of how well he plays.

I think that most would include an assessment of the player's pace when considering how well he played.

[Ian Royal]

Unless you count how quickly a player can run as part of how well he plays.

I think that most would include an assessment of the player's pace when considering how well he played.

He can only run as fast as he can run. Playing badly involves underperforming. It's not like he was really caught out of position for their first goal. It's the manager's job to put players in place who can combat the opposition's strengths.

[Bandini]

Playing badly means just that. It's a different concept to underperforming.

His lack of pace also leads to him taking up poor positions in an attempt to compensate (which doesn't work).

[JordCot]

Looked nervous which was unusual to see, realistically he makes up for his lack of pace with what he adds to the team in terms of set pieces and passing. They were also shit today.

[gazzer, loyal royal]

Mcanuff for me. Awful awful awful

[creative_username_1]

Mcanuff for me. Awful awful awful

We can only have one scapegoat per loss/game

[ManchesterRoyals]

Mcanuff for me. Awful awful awful

We can only have one scapegoat per loss/game

Why they were nearly all shitte but Harte took top spot

[loyalroyal4life]

Mcanuff for me. Awful awful awful

Mcanuff will always be awful with harte behind him on the left side, granted gunter had a poor game least he has half an excuse having played midweek, i said it before the season harte will get picked apart too easily, you cant play someone based on their set piece ability which frankly has been shite thus far

[Davezk]

Not sure if this thread is meant to be sarcastic. I know some Reading fans are annoyingly fickle (and equally some think we can do no wrong, ever) but if we play like we did today for the rest of the season, we might as well accept we're out of our depth here.

There were games we got dominated at last season e.g. Brighton away but we somehow came through. If the results had gone the way the domination indicated, we'd still be playing Championship football. At this level, the margin for the error is even less and we'll get punished for our mistakes (Harte and McCarthy got lucky today)

[Davezk]

Also, Harte should be able to clear the first man on set pieces. Why have him in the team if he can't do this basic thing which involves elevating the ball above 2 metres?

[leicsRoyal]

If you have a player in the team at left back who takes most of your set pieces there are times when you will rely on him getting back ASAP.

I'm not talking about sprinting from the opposite corner flag but even so he needs to get back in position as soon as practically possible. The trouble with Harte is that he is not just a liability when the winger is running at him, he also causes problems when he has taken a set piece, even one from 10 yards inside the oppo half on his side of the pitch.
He seems to know that he hasn't got the pace to get back so just strolls it. Nobody can fully blame him for not getting back to defend that original attack as we should have cover but he is still out of position on the second, third and even fourth phase of play.

Bales run for Spurs third goal was superb, run straight into the channel where he knew Harte wouldn't be, dragging the central defender with him.