Relegation the Reading Way

[Libertine]

I went to the article on the Guardian to read about what they had to say about it and add my comment (Why? I don't know tbh). But after I saw one too many comments directed at the rampant Spurs fans to "calm down, it was just Reading ffs" I decided not to, didn't have the heart to.

Am I going to panic over this game? Nope. What is concerning is that we took this beating at home and the score very conceivably, and realistically, could have been 5 or 6-1 against us for a game at the Madejski. I said at the time that the 4-2 scoreline which went against us at Stamford Bridge was the most flattering 4-2 any winning team will have. Well today's 3-1 scoreline is the most flattering 3-1 scoreline any losing team will have. To say we were better in the 2nd half, while true, is just grasping at straws seeing we conceded 2 more before we got our first at a point which the competitive part of the game had long ended. All of our weaknesses were exposed and exploited time after time after time after time today...and don't think the rest of the league didn't take note. We lack creativity and a clinical finisher like, for example, Defoe up front, our midfield will give up the ball when pressured, Spurs had acres of space in the middle of the pitch, and our back four is completely unable to cope with pace. What can be done about this? I guess we'll find out soon enough at WBA...

[royalsteve]

some right muppets. the only annoying thing about todays were the lack of fight that we showed against chelsea and some bad 1st touches didnt help either

remember we were playing spurs who will finish in the top 6 and have done for most seasons since being in the prem

actualy the other thing that annoyed me was the morons who left at 0-3, the same gory hunters who wont be here if we drop the championship - anyway if we get a result like a draw or even win away to wba then people will forget

[Ian Royal]

The positive is we looked no more overrun in midfield with just two players than we did three. And with two upfront we looked a hell of a lot more dangerous.

Actually royalsteve, Spurs have spent most of the PL finishing lower than 6th and higher than 16th.

[royalsteve]

also remember that spurs have imo the quickest team in the league

[RoyalTank]

some right muppets. the only annoying thing about todays were the lack of fight that we showed against chelsea and some bad 1st touches didnt help either

remember we were playing spurs who will finish in the top 6 and have done for most seasons since being in the prem

actualy the other thing that annoyed me was the morons who left at 0-3, the same gory hunters who wont be here if we drop the championship - anyway if we get a result like a draw or even win away to wba then people will forget

Well f**king said!!

[bracksroyal10]

At the end of the day yes we were shocking today especially in the defence 1st half but:

We haven't played for a month nearly
Spurs were always going to be tough to beat regardless of their recent form

Most importantly we are in a position to be able to invest maybe more than we normally would if needed in January. Would certainly think the possibility of another centre back coming in is likely if things don't improve.

[Libertine]

Well I am not all gloom and doom. But what I am pretty sure of is any manager, worth his weight in salt, will put on his paciest team on the pitch against us, force the play and pressure our back 4 as much as possible until we can show we can deal with that tactic. Not every team will have the pace, skill and depth combined which Spurs possess. But I think the top 10-12 teams in the league have enough pace and skill to give it a go. I am not discouraged that we lost 3-1, Spurs have spent a ton of money to put that highest of quality talent on the pitch. What I am discouraged about is how we lost. Too much respect was given, at least in the 1st half, and we at many times looked like deer caught in the headlights just watching. 2nd half we were better but all of our mistakes ended up in the back of our net. We never looked to be a threat to score until Spurs had taken their foot off of the peddle while coasting to the finish line. I do hope this is the low point of the season, and I hate to sound harsh, because for large swaths of the game it didn't look like we deserved to be on the same pitch as the Spurs. It truely looked like men against boys...

We don't have too many impact players who we can introduce who can be considered "difference makers". Next game we will/should have Roberts back and Kebe is available again. This is basically the team we will sink or swim with.

[USA_Loyal_Royal]

ok so here is the general gist of this whole thread: people moaning about us not playing well, etc.

here are the facts so everyone will shut the hell up and move on.

1. we are playing a spurs side who is going to finish top 5 this season. we have been relegation candidates from the start of the season, truthfully we cant expect to beat the top 5 but maybe 2-3 times in the 10 matches we will play against them. we would have been outstanding to have gotten a draw today. if we were playing another relegation candidate in this fashion, we would have every right to be concerned.
2. we hadnt played a competitive premier league match for almost a month. there will be some cobwebbs that need dusting off. we will learn from this match and mcdermott will fix the problems and look ahead to next weeks fixture.
3. we were playing a spurs team who has arguably the most pace in the premier league, they were playing against probably the slowest back 4 in the premier league. it was jems and legs, job to cover them for basically the entirety of the match which they failed to do for the most part. truthfully we did well to only have condeeded 3 goals.
4. we are now in 19th place. this is in no way we can predict the drop yet. every other team has played at least 4 matches now, except us. we are within a win or a draw from getting out of the relegation spots. (on goal difference). so let us catch up to be even on matches played maybe after 10 games and see where we stand. if we are in the relegation zone, we might have a reason to worry. right now we all need to calm down and enjoy playing against some of the best teams and footballing talents in the world.


the fans of this club are dreadfully fickle. get behind your team and support them with everything you have got. if we do go down, take it with some oxf*rd pride and continue to support your club. that will show more than if we just complain all the god damn time. this might just be the "american" way at looking at sports but there is always next year if something bad happens. the world will not end if reading fc gets relegated. just support your club and show some heart, and remember it takes more heart to support the smaller clubs like reading, than the bigger clubs like united who always win.

[Reading West]

I agree with you USA we have just had an enforced 25 day break the only team in the PL to have such a long stretch in not playing which would have surely had an affect after all in our previous game nearly 4 weeks early we were outplaying the current European champions for long spells

We are only 3 games in for crying out loud and the other 2 performances were pretty good. I know this is a different level to the championship but the two seasons that we were promoted we made bad starts, losing at home to Plymouth in 2006 on the first game before becoming the greatest team ever to grace the championship and last season we were in the bottom 3 for a while before .........well you know the rest

We have another 35 games to get things right against teams in our "mini-League" (which Tottenham is definetely not one of them)

Keep the faith

[Alexander Litvinenko]

It's all about what we learn from it.

We were always 99% certain to lose against this Spurs team, and, it could be argued, 3-1 flatters us.

But our fate will be decided by what we do against the likes of Stoke, Wests (Ham & Brom), Wigan, Saints, QPR, Villa, Swansea etc, and not by what we do against Spurs and the other top 6 clubs.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

This time last year we were destined for League One. In fact, its the 4th season running weve started liked relegation certainties.

[loyalroyal4life]

At the end of the day yes we were shocking today especially in the defence 1st half but:

We haven't played for a month nearly
Spurs were always going to be tough to beat regardless of their recent form

Most importantly we are in a position to be able to invest maybe more than we normally would if needed in January. Would certainly think the possibility of another centre back coming in is likely if things don't improve.

think you will find thats why mariappa came in

[gazzer, loyal royal]

I'm not sure why people are panicking. We didn't play very well, but there is still 35 games to go. We have a decent run of fixtures up till december, so we'll see where we are when Man United come to the Mad Stad.

There will be some changes for West Brom i'm sure of that, but lets not get too carried away.

[Royal Rother]

In reality only people without a single functioning brain cell like ManchesterRoyal are in panic mode. Looking around the forum today I really don't think there's that many of them.

[bracksroyal10]

At the end of the day yes we were shocking today especially in the defence 1st half but:

We haven't played for a month nearly
Spurs were always going to be tough to beat regardless of their recent form

Most importantly we are in a position to be able to invest maybe more than we normally would if needed in January. Would certainly think the possibility of another centre back coming in is likely if things don't improve.

think you will find thats why mariappa came in

Granted but beyond Gorks and Pearce we only have Morrison besides Mariappa and I would not be surprised if we see a loan move materialise for Morrison come January.

[larry1971]

yes the first two home performances have not been great and I don't think the near 3 week break helped but it's far to early to panic - and hopefully we will learn from the mistakes made yesterday the only thing I will say is we do need to get that first win on the board quickly just to boost the players confidence.

[andrew1957]

The facts are that we were playing a team or world class players who were outstanding on the day.

We simply don't have players of that calibre and unless Anton suddenly finds a couple of hundred million to invest - we probably never will. If the top teams play well against us we have no chance. Surely we all understood this even at the start of the season.

So for me I was disappointed but not particularly surprised by yesterday’s result. It was clear from the start of the match that Spurs were well up for it. Never gave us a moment on the ball and did not allow us to settle into the game. Not every team will play that well against us.

Our season will be defined by how well we do against Swansea, Norwich, Southampton, Wigan etc and not by how well we do against Man City, Mann U, Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal.

[PieEater]

I wouldn't mind losing if there was a performance and you just lost to a better team, but yesterday it looked like we'd just decided not to bother at all. The first half most of the team looked like they were still on the beach, Spurs were sharper, worked harder and just did the basics better. We stood off them and let them play, whatever team we do that against at this level will destroy us.

We haven't been beaten badly for a long time, even back in the Prem Arsenal were the only team to have given us a footballing lesson. Spurs were not in that class, but I fear we have many more lessons to come.

[Platypuss]

Disappointed by the result? NO
Disappointed by the performance? YES

[Alan Partridge]

In reality only people without a single functioning brain cell like ManchesterRoyal are in panic mode. Looking around the forum today I really don't think there's that many of them.

Most aren't over reacting, they are staying sensible and realistic.