Did we know Wigan was a big game

[Pearcehegone]

Interesting metro blog

http://blogs.metro.co.uk/sport/did-read ... -big-game/

[LoyalRoyalFan]

What a load of old shite.

I suppose the players went out there with the sole intention of losing the game? Every game in this division is a big game (cliche bingo).

We lost to the better team, we were played off the park, we have to deal with that and move on.

[maffff]

Text pls. Can't open in office.

[ZacNaloen]

Did Reading know that Wigan was a big game?
By Rob Lawson 12:49 pm Tuesday 26 February 2013
Brian McDermott, Football, Manchester United, Reading Football Club, Wigan Athletic

Reading's lackluster performance was a huge missed opportunity (Picture: PA)
I don’t want to talk about the Reading game itself on Saturday. I don’t want to analyse the tactics or the starting lineup. Today, I want to question the mentality.

To me, it seems that Reading were far more up for the challenge against Manchester United in the FA Cup five days prior to this game. Sure, that’s the kind of game that every player wants to play in but the fact is; that the game against Wigan was colossally more important. So why could Wigan spot the opportunity to really go for it and not us, and why did we offer the lackluster performance of a team seemingly down and out already?

We were outplayed all over the pitch by a far superior Wigan side who wanted it more, and fair play to them.
Usually, Brian McDermott is spot on. He’s a likable manager, with a real honest approach, and has a habit of making good substitutions. But I don’t think his approach helps us in such important, ‘crunch’ games.

McDermott made it crystal clear that the game against Wigan was not a relegation 6-pointer. He played down the importance of the tie beforehand as he always does. Normally, I’d like this approach – it takes the pressure off of the players, and relaxes fans a little more.

In games as important as the home tie against Wigan at this stage in the season, is it really working to just treat the game as ‘just another game’? I fear this mentality was drilled into the Royals’ players’ minds. The players came out, having been told that this game was ‘just as important’ than any other game and the performance reflected that.

We were outplayed all over the pitch by a far superior Wigan side who wanted it more, and fair play to them. They looked much more up for the fight than Reading did. Wigan spotted that this was a great opportunity to really go for it, play well and get a result, and boost their chances of survival. Reading didn’t. Truth is; it was a home game, against a fellow relegation candidate, towards the back end of the season, and Reading simply lacked any sort of heart, desire or spirit.

Perhaps McDermott needs to come out in games such as these and tell his players that like it or not, it’s a huge game, and that we MUST play well. It’s beyond belief how we could be so naive.

Okay, in fairness, the table could look worse. We aren’t out of it by any stretch of the imagination, and there is plenty of tasty looking opportunities to make amends. But what frustrates me and many other Reading fans, is the evident lack of motivation and fight that we showed.

That feeling of a missed opportunity is back, and it feels horrible.

[Reading West]

It is kind of the same theme that was raised in another thread, this time the article was from the ESPN blog:-




Royals lack mentality to handle relegation pressure
Posted by Jon Keen

After Reading's woeful surrender to Wigan in their crucial relegation six-pointer on Saturday, I wonder just how well equipped they are, psychologically, for the next 11 games and the tooth-and-nail fight for Premier League survival. And the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the team's mindset, and the whole philosophy of manager Brian McDermott, leaves them very poorly equipped for such a struggle.

This philosophy, which dates back to the days of Steve Coppell, is to treat each match as it comes and to regard each one as just another game. Therefore, each match is as important -- or unimportant -- as the previous or the next and each brings the same level of expectation, whether it's against Crawley Town or Manchester United. In this way any peaks of pressure are kept off the players and they can prepare for every single match in the same way. A phrase McDermott has used a lot of late, "we move on", emphasises this -- a bad performance won't be dwelt upon. Instead, the team will put it behind them and focus immediately on the next match.

This approach of "no pressure, just another game" has led to some important victories over the past couple of years. While in the Championship, Reading won FA Cup victories at both Everton and Liverpool and it was also the perfect mindset for the late surge to win the Championship title last season. Very few pundits tipped anyone other than West Ham or Southampton to get automatic promotion, but a relaxed Reading, under no weight of expectations and approaching each game in the same way, pulled off some incredible results and stormed to the Championship title.

I don't doubt that the "just another game" mindset was critical to achieving this, but I believe that this psychology brings with it a fundamental flaw that puts Reading at a massive disadvantage. If your whole approach is based upon protecting players from pressure and treating every match as "just another game", it leaves those players without a coping strategy when a match does have great importance and is crucial to the team's future.

And in a Premier League relegation fight any pretence that each game is "just another one" or that there's no pressure or weight of expectation on the players is not credible. It's surely obvious to all that every remaining match is important -- with some absolutely critical. To try and maintain any illusion that they're not, under Premier League levels of attention, is a ludicrous deceit.

So sadly we've seen Reading repeatedly buckle under pressure -- when a match does matter they seem mentally ill-equipped to rise to that challenge. At best, they underperform, and at worst, they freeze like rabbits in headlights. Five seasons ago in their last (unsuccessful) Premier League relegation struggle, they suffered crippling home defeats to Bolton and Fulham in very similar, "must-win, high-pressure" circumstances to Saturday's crushing loss to Wigan. But that same season, under no pressure and no expectation, they beat a full-strength Liverpool team.

Another perfect example of Reading's inability to cope with pressure comes in the Championship play-offs two years ago. In the semifinal second leg away at Cardiff after having been written off by most and with key players out injured, they were superb -- thrashing the Red Dragons 3-0 in what I believe was their best performance of the past five years. But two weeks later at Wembley in the final versus Swansea, they were under intense media scrutiny and worldwide attention. As a result, their first half performance was abject and unrecognisable -- they clearly weren't mentally able to cope with the pressure of the game. But only once they had gone three goals down in 40 minutes, and so knew the game was lost, did that pressure disappear and then they started performing, coming within a post’s width of levelling the score line.

This inability to perform under pressure is a recurring theme: The two highest-pressure matches of last season were away at West Ham and Southampton and both followed similar patterns. For much of the first halves of both games the home team outplayed a Reading team that looked shell-shocked at times, and it was only once the game looked to be irretrievably slipping away from the visitors that they again realised the pressure was off, relaxed and went on to win the game. And this same psychology has much to do with Reading's incredible comebacks this season -- only once the game seems to be have been virtually lost do they seem to be able to lift their mental shackles away and play the way they can.

And so I really fear that Saturday's defeat has revealed finally the fact that something about McDermott's management strategy and team preparation leaves his players mentally unable to cope with the pressure of a match that really does matter. And with only 11 Premier League matches remaining -- all of them high-pressure games which really do matter -- McDermott needs to find a way to overcome this Achilles's heel if his team are to have any hope of Premier League survival.

[Rollerbob]

What a load of old shite.

I suppose the players went out there with the sole intention of losing the game? Every game in this division is a big game (cliche bingo).

LoyalRoyalFan - I think you are missing the point slightly. We didn't go out to lose the game, but the way we played (compared to the way Wigan played), it just looked like they were more up for it. - I'd agree with the blog -

Perhaps McDermott needs to come out in games such as these and tell his players that like it or not, it’s a huge game, and that we MUST play well.

- Not sure that going into each game with 'oh it's just another game' is the way to go.

[Gordons Cumming]

The question is:-

Who is Rob Lawson?

How long has he supported Reading?

Where does he sit?

Important questions needing answers.

[BraisingsteakRoyal]

These are the kinds of articles that could rile the players into action.

Sadly, and somewhat ironically given the subject matter, it won't.

[melonhead]

one team played really well. the other team played really badly.
the team who played well won.

[Norfolk Royal]

I think the second article is excellent and makes some very pertinent points.

[Esteban]

I think the second article is excellent and makes some very pertinent points.

I think the second article is tripe and picks on certain games to illustrate the writers' point of view. We all know that Wigan are good at retaining possession and have lots of pace and power. Three facets of the game we always struggle against. We were in the game until Morrison's two mistakes before half time and had we gone in at 0-0, then maybe some things could have been addressed. The timing of the goals killed us.

To suggest that we were under prepared because we try to maintain a relaxed attitude toward games is the result of a journalist looking for a story that isn't really there. We won away at West Ham and Southampton last season BECAUSE we were getting outplayed? How ridiculous!

[melonhead]

agreed

[Ian Royal]

The it's just another game approach works really well for games where we aren't favourites, are in form and its a case of no bad repercussions if we lose, but big old gains if we win. It lets the pressure sit squarely on the opposition and keeps our players relaxed and playing their natural game.

It doesn't work when we have to win to avoid bad things happening to us, or we are favourites. Because it means the players come out as if its any match expecting the opposition to do the same, and when they instead come out like its life or death on the one match we completely hand them the initiative and don't have enough to take it back.

It's just so evident in the approaches by the different managers. McDermott, perennial overachiever when towards the top of the table, Martinez perennial survivor against the odds with Wigan. Funnily enough it was Martinez's brand of football that won. It was Martinez's approach to the game that won. It'll be Wigan that stay up (hoping for an IR jinx).

[Royal91]

Loads of managers use this philosophy of 'the next game' and they do OK. It worked last year for us.

Ultimately were not good enough. Fight and spirit will only get you so far in the Prem.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

It is kind of the same theme that was raised in another thread, this time the article was from the ESPN blog:-




Royals lack mentality to handle relegation pressure
Posted by Jon Keen

After Reading's woeful surrender to Wigan in their crucial relegation six-pointer on Saturday, I wonder just how well equipped they are, psychologically, for the next 11 games and the tooth-and-nail fight for Premier League survival. And the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the team's mindset, and the whole philosophy of manager Brian McDermott, leaves them very poorly equipped for such a struggle.

This philosophy, which dates back to the days of Steve Coppell, is to treat each match as it comes and to regard each one as just another game. Therefore, each match is as important -- or unimportant -- as the previous or the next and each brings the same level of expectation, whether it's against Crawley Town or Manchester United. In this way any peaks of pressure are kept off the players and they can prepare for every single match in the same way. A phrase McDermott has used a lot of late, "we move on", emphasises this -- a bad performance won't be dwelt upon. Instead, the team will put it behind them and focus immediately on the next match.

This approach of "no pressure, just another game" has led to some important victories over the past couple of years. While in the Championship, Reading won FA Cup victories at both Everton and Liverpool and it was also the perfect mindset for the late surge to win the Championship title last season. Very few pundits tipped anyone other than West Ham or Southampton to get automatic promotion, but a relaxed Reading, under no weight of expectations and approaching each game in the same way, pulled off some incredible results and stormed to the Championship title.

I don't doubt that the "just another game" mindset was critical to achieving this, but I believe that this psychology brings with it a fundamental flaw that puts Reading at a massive disadvantage. If your whole approach is based upon protecting players from pressure and treating every match as "just another game", it leaves those players without a coping strategy when a match does have great importance and is crucial to the team's future.

And in a Premier League relegation fight any pretence that each game is "just another one" or that there's no pressure or weight of expectation on the players is not credible. It's surely obvious to all that every remaining match is important -- with some absolutely critical. To try and maintain any illusion that they're not, under Premier League levels of attention, is a ludicrous deceit.

So sadly we've seen Reading repeatedly buckle under pressure -- when a match does matter they seem mentally ill-equipped to rise to that challenge. At best, they underperform, and at worst, they freeze like rabbits in headlights. Five seasons ago in their last (unsuccessful) Premier League relegation struggle, they suffered crippling home defeats to Bolton and Fulham in very similar, "must-win, high-pressure" circumstances to Saturday's crushing loss to Wigan. But that same season, under no pressure and no expectation, they beat a full-strength Liverpool team.

Another perfect example of Reading's inability to cope with pressure comes in the Championship play-offs two years ago. In the semifinal second leg away at Cardiff after having been written off by most and with key players out injured, they were superb -- thrashing the Red Dragons 3-0 in what I believe was their best performance of the past five years. But two weeks later at Wembley in the final versus Swansea, they were under intense media scrutiny and worldwide attention. As a result, their first half performance was abject and unrecognisable -- they clearly weren't mentally able to cope with the pressure of the game. But only once they had gone three goals down in 40 minutes, and so knew the game was lost, did that pressure disappear and then they started performing, coming within a post’s width of levelling the score line.

This inability to perform under pressure is a recurring theme: The two highest-pressure matches of last season were away at West Ham and Southampton and both followed similar patterns. For much of the first halves of both games the home team outplayed a Reading team that looked shell-shocked at times, and it was only once the game looked to be irretrievably slipping away from the visitors that they again realised the pressure was off, relaxed and went on to win the game. And this same psychology has much to do with Reading's incredible comebacks this season -- only once the game seems to be have been virtually lost do they seem to be able to lift their mental shackles away and play the way they can.

And so I really fear that Saturday's defeat has revealed finally the fact that something about McDermott's management strategy and team preparation leaves his players mentally unable to cope with the pressure of a match that really does matter. And with only 11 Premier League matches remaining -- all of them high-pressure games which really do matter -- McDermott needs to find a way to overcome this Achilles's heel if his team are to have any hope of Premier League survival.

some of this is complete cr4p - at what point were the West Ham and Soton games slipping away irrerievably? We were not even behind at any stage against Saints.

[Man Friday]

one team played really well. the other team played really badly.

Yes, we know that. But the question is "why?" The author argues that "the why" is because we weren't 'up for it' whereas Wigan were.

[RoyalinBracknell]

I do feel that elements of the second articlare are somewhat flawed. For instance I find the claim that the pressure was on us in the second leg of the playoff against Cardiff 2 years ago unconvincing. I wouldn't say we were written off at all - from reading forum posts around that time my perception is that the general verdict was that it would be too close to call - and I'm not sure that the pressure is ever off going into the 2nd leg of a playoff semi-final. If anything, I'd say the writer's references to us being 'written off' would more aptly apply to the final against Swansea; certainly I felt Swansea were the clear favourites going into that match. And I'm not sure how much the result was based on mental weakness. Swansea were a very strong side who got the rub of the green with a few things in the first half and ruthlessly exposed some weaknesses that we had generally been able to contain in previous matches.

I'm not convinced whether it really is a mental thing, although the premise of the argument is certainly an interesting one. It might be that we're inferior to some opposition teams in football ability but often make up for that with our spirit and commitment; hence when these latter factors are matched by the opposition, who are heavily motivated for the 'big' matches we struggle to compete. It stands to reason that if both sides are equally up for the match then you might expect the better side to win.

Perhaps it's also the case that we were all too aware of how big a game Wigan was, and thus had to deviate from our usual preparation/approach?

[Cureton's Volley]

We were poor against Wigan but it could have been very different. The first 40 was close, and I think we had 2-3 chances which didn't get on target. Their 1st goal was defection/handball, 2nd goal individual error & class on their part. It was at this point I feel we mentally lost it, because the game plan was fooked in such a big game & clearly some team members were frustrated with others... Culminating in Pog behaving badly. Screw the hacks we can do it, and if not I still look forward to next season!

[melonhead]

one team played really well. the other team played really badly.

Yes, we know that. But the question is "why?" The author argues that "the why" is because we weren't 'up for it' whereas Wigan were.

dunno

didnt eat our weetabix?
players struck incapable by space rays?



id prefer to think that the team just came up against a team who like to pass, and it all came off for them, while at the same time not coming off for us.
these things happen.
if we played like that every week id be seriously worried/suicidal. but we dont/wont, so im not.

[melonhead]

The it's just another game approach works really well for games where we aren't favourites, are in form and its a case of no bad repercussions if we lose, but big old gains if we win. It lets the pressure sit squarely on the opposition and keeps our players relaxed and playing their natural game.

It doesn't work when we have to win to avoid bad things happening to us, or we are favourites. Because it means the players come out as if its any match expecting the opposition to do the same, and when they instead come out like its life or death on the one match we completely hand them the initiative and don't have enough to take it back.

It's just so evident in the approaches by the different managers. McDermott, perennial overachiever when towards the top of the table, Martinez perennial survivor against the odds with Wigan. Funnily enough it was Martinez's brand of football that won. It was Martinez's approach to the game that won. It'll be Wigan that stay up (hoping for an IR jinx).

imo you and dirk are just drawing conculsions where there is no real link.


it was wigans players manager and approach that won the game
it probably will be they who stay up
but that does not = we lost because we didnt think it was a big game.