winchester_royalRoyalBluewinchester_royal Jesus wept m8, it was a friendly. We started the game with a LB/LM and a CB (both of whom are still very young) playing in the middle, and a RB offering no width down the left. We then had to bring an 18 year old with no first team experience on half way through the 1st half after our main striker got kicked out the game. It's not bloody surprise we weren't playing free flowing football..especially as Stevenage just sat deep in their banks of four and kicked any of our guys who dared to approach.
It was a dull game, but that's what these type of games are. Man City lost 2-0 at Dundee a couple of weeks ago, does that mean we can safely say they're going to be relegated? I saw a very young side, that has been stretched to the limit by injury, play some tidy football at times and more importantly they all looked fit and strong. We've got a number of key players to come back in, let's not forget that our best player (Pog) and our only fit midfielder (Akpan) were sat on the bench for most of last night, and we'll improve for getting Guthrie back in the team.
I've come to expect the ridiculous from you RB - but that post is right up there with your worst.
As they say, there is none so blind as those that won't see. Really suggest you go and watch some other teams play if you don't think that was bad.
As for the friendly excuse - how can that excuse highly paid professionals not being able to pick out simple passes or being prepared to take a shot?! For a neutral watching last night, it would have been very difficult to have picked out which was the team containing the Championship quality players. That's because so few of ours displayed the quality you would expect at that level.
Fitness and strength (didn't see much sign of physical strength in challenges from many of them) may be fine for League 2 but on their own won't see you through in the Championship.
Tidy football? On limited occasions and generally taking us nowhere or ending up with no one prepared to shoot. However, untidy football was more the order of the day.
Yes, we have some key players missing but how long until they are back? I would suggest months for a couple of them and just how long is Guthrie going to be suffering from his problem? Did anyone imagine it was going to keep him out this long? On top of that we have a woeful lack of cover in terms of strikers, in fact we don't really even have two proven strikers at Championship level and are hardly spoilt for choice at centre and left back either.
The fact that we had to bring on an 18 year old with no experience shows just how weak (partly due to injuries) our squad is, as did the bench. Who is Hyam?!
As for the suggestion that Stevenage just sat back and kicked us, you do them a very blinkered disservice. Yes they were very physical/determined but I don't think I would be wrong in saying they also played some good attacking football at times and created far more opportunities and tested the keeper more than we did. True, they wasted numerous corners by playing them straight into McCarthy's hands but our own corners were no more effective.
I went to the game with a neutral who had no axes to grind, yet he too thought we were pretty dire.
Can't be bothered to argue with most of that emo drivel, but the reason we brought had to bring on Stacey is because our more likely to be involved youth were getting 90 mins elsewhere and Adkins clearly didn't want to play Pog for more than a few mins. Why? Because friendlies are about fitness. Nothing more nothing less.
Can't be bothered or can't actually offer decent evidence to support what you came out with? So instead just resort to insults.
The fact that you claimed Stevenage just sat back and kicked us shows how incredibly blinkered and wrong your opinions on last night's game were anyway. As for friendlies 'only being about fitness, nothing more, nothing less', I would like to see how many managers actually agree with that statement.
What's more, if that is the view at Reading (I don't for one moment believe it is), they damn well need to change it PDQ. They clearly are in desperate need of more practice at passing, shooting and virtually every other part of their game, particularly in a (semi)competitive environment and should be maximising every opportunity to do so.
One thing I agree on is that Adkins didn't want Pog to be on long but that was probably more to do with the realisation that we are now down to just two 'strikers' and that the ref was doing little to control some of the challenges that were flying around. By the time Pog did come on, things had finally calmed down.
Anyway, with such low expectations of players, at least you will be able to enjoy things as we have to endure even more turgid shyte than at times last year.
starting XI.