BFTG - Huddersfield (H)

[Winston Smith]

Thoughs Hudds played the perfect lone striker away from home performance.

Wells was quality, but also noticed that as soon as the ball went up to him 3 or 4 others would burst forward to support him very quickly. Obviously means high energy and potential to tire as the game goes on but it worked for them.

[Royal Lady]

Well my thoughts for what they are worth are that I didn't particularly expect any great football last night. I had backed us to win 2-0 though, which was a bit of a downer. I thought it was hard for Cox and Pog to do anything, as they weren't getting any service, particularly first half. I was slightly fed up with the ball being passed around between the defenders and Feds all the time. There seemed little urgency or need to try and push for a goal. Cox does run around and get himself into some good positions. Pog is continually held down, pulled back by defenders however. Some bloke behind me moaned that Pog hadn't jumped for a ball, but he, quite literally, couldn't, because a defender had his arms around his shoulders and was stopping him - ref didn't seem to care though. Ref was atrocious - should have booked more of Huddersfield's time wasting and booking Gunter for complaining, after he'd already booked the keeper for time wasting and then stopping the game to allow a Huddersfield substitution and the substitutes all walking off like they had lead in their boots was a joke. Plus he clearly didn't add on enough time after the time wasting and substitutions.

I thought Pearce had a solid game. Taylor was poor last night, Hector much poorer than on Saturday but Obita did well. Kuhl looks a good prospect, but let's face it, if we had all our injuries back, he wouldn't be having a sniff near the bench, let alone getting playing time and nor would Taylor imo.

To be fair to all of them though, they did keep pushing for a goal towards the end, their heads didn't go down, as I've seen on numerous other occasions last season - they are all having to learn to play together and a few are out of position - so I will take positives from that performance - I haven't expected us to do particularly well this season, until we get our injured players back, at least, so if some of those players are the future of Reading in a couple of years time, I'm more than happy.

[CayeneMatt]

A rare visit to the Mad Stad for me with work/saturday football commitments. All the below should be caveated with the fact I haven't watched in a while.

I thought that was a typical tepid home performance against a well-drilled, workmanlike, physical and cynical Northern championship side. I've seen plenty of these over the last few seasons. Huddersfield at least had quality (beyond anything I saw from our side) in Wells, Bunn and the no.10 who seemed to utterly dominate midfield just sat in front of their CBs.

I thought we played with a lot of energy and it was great to see the young lads playing for the first time. As every other oxf*rd has mentioned Kuhl looked very assured when he came on. Hector was a monster physically but a bit raw - knocked a fair few balls out of play.

The main issues in terms of playing style are the lack of ambition in running at defenders. Countless times we saw Huddersfield players dragging our defence and midfield about just by carrying the ball (Number 7 with dreads and Wells in particular). Whether you cut in and try and shoot, run across your own midfield or take your full back on you are creating the space - Mcanuff and Kebe used to be very good at this. Credit to Blackman for trying although his end product is lacking. Huddersfield were made to look well drilled because we didn't give them much to think about in this area, the pattern of play was largely to take a touch and stand still with the thing trying to pick out a pass, and inevitably end of going backwards. I've no qualms about this anid keeping the ball is important, but we need to show much more invention and verve. This is compounded by having no proper wingers and a right footer at left back I guess - think back to how Murty/Little and Shorey/Convey/Hunt used to double up down respective flanks and work a crossing opportunity.

Finally, on Pogbrenyak. I do have sympathy for him because controlling and winning long balls clearly isnt his game. But at the same time, there are plenty of Championship journeyman who are able to do this and serve as an outlet. Jason Roberts in our promotion season would monster centrte halves and win the majority of balls aimlessly knobbed in his direction because he was bigger, stronger, more determined and more wiley than Pog appears to me. There's no shame in having an out-ball, especially in games like this when we weren't able to create anything through pass and move. If that's not Pog's game then perhaps we bring in someone who can do that, link up with runners and bring in the midfield. .

A very good point about the Roberts and Pog comparison. Roberts won zero balls in the air but used his strength and speed to hassle the defence. Pog works hard but he lacks a lot of attributes when playing the hold up game effectively.

[P!ssed Off]

its still being slated on here!

but theyre mostly kids. youre going to get ups and downs, kids are inconsistent.
roll on a fully fit team, and some actual midfielders

I appreciate that at your age the starting 11 might have seemed like kids but they really weren't.
There are plenty of 22,23,24 year olds playing in the Championship, it is not a new thing that Reading are pioneering.
I'll give you one kid at most in Obita (20) but that is 1/11 and can hardly be considered 'mostly kids'.

The kids were on the bench. They had no involvement in the shambolic 1st half, and the 2 that came on in the 2nd half massively improved the game.

Not sure why people refuse to criticise the the players on the pitch because of the irrelevant age of the bench.

[leon]

its still being slated on here!

but theyre mostly kids. youre going to get ups and downs, kids are inconsistent.
roll on a fully fit team, and some actual midfielders

I appreciate that at your age the starting 11 might have seemed like kids but they really weren't.
There are plenty of 22,23,24 year olds playing in the Championship, it is not a new thing that Reading are pioneering.

The kids were on the bench. They had no involvement in the shambolic 1st half, and the 2 that came on in the 2nd half massively improved the game.

Not sure why people refuse to criticise the the players on the pitch because of the irrelevant age of the bench.

This. There's a lot of excuses about the team being children which is not true. That starting eleven had plenty of experience.

[Royal Tezza]

A rare visit to the Mad Stad for me with work/saturday football commitments. All the below should be caveated with the fact I haven't watched in a while.

I thought that was a typical tepid home performance against a well-drilled, workmanlike, physical and cynical Northern championship side. I've seen plenty of these over the last few seasons. Huddersfield at least had quality (beyond anything I saw from our side) in Wells, Bunn and the no.10 who seemed to utterly dominate midfield just sat in front of their CBs.

I thought we played with a lot of energy and it was great to see the young lads playing for the first time. As every other oxf*rd has mentioned Kuhl looked very assured when he came on. Hector was a monster physically but a bit raw - knocked a fair few balls out of play.

The main issues in terms of playing style are the lack of ambition in running at defenders. Countless times we saw Huddersfield players dragging our defence and midfield about just by carrying the ball (Number 7 with dreads and Wells in particular). Whether you cut in and try and shoot, run across your own midfield or take your full back on you are creating the space - Mcanuff and Kebe used to be very good at this. Credit to Blackman for trying although his end product is lacking. Huddersfield were made to look well drilled because we didn't give them much to think about in this area, the pattern of play was largely to take a touch and stand still with the thing trying to pick out a pass, and inevitably end of going backwards. I've no qualms about this anid keeping the ball is important, but we need to show much more invention and verve. This is compounded by having no proper wingers and a right footer at left back I guess - think back to how Murty/Little and Shorey/Convey/Hunt used to double up down respective flanks and work a crossing opportunity.

Finally, on Pogbrenyak. I do have sympathy for him because controlling and winning long balls clearly isnt his game. But at the same time, there are plenty of Championship journeyman who are able to do this and serve as an outlet. Jason Roberts in our promotion season would monster centrte halves and win the majority of balls aimlessly knobbed in his direction because he was bigger, stronger, more determined and more wiley than Pog appears to me. There's no shame in having an out-ball, especially in games like this when we weren't able to create anything through pass and move. If that's not Pog's game then perhaps we bring in someone who can do that, link up with runners and bring in the midfield. .

A very good point about the Roberts and Pog comparison. Roberts won zero balls in the air but used his strength and speed to hassle the defence. Pog works hard but he lacks a lot of attributes when playing the hold up game effectively.

It was a joy to watch in a slightly perverse way, he wouldn never win a header he would just watch the ball and plow backwards into the centre half, bringing it under with a touch or with his chest or some variation. There was a goal in the 4-2 at Upton Park (Hunt's?) that is amazing to watch, long ball and Roberts just barrells into the defender, never with the ball fully under control, until it falls to Hunt and he slots it in terrific. On a seriously note it was bloody effective in a way that Pog just doesn't seem to be to me - again not meant to be a slight on him as a player.

[wingnut]

its still being slated on here!

but theyre mostly kids. youre going to get ups and downs, kids are inconsistent.
roll on a fully fit team, and some actual midfielders

I appreciate that at your age the starting 11 might have seemed like kids but they really weren't.
There are plenty of 22,23,24 year olds playing in the Championship, it is not a new thing that Reading are pioneering.

The kids were on the bench. They had no involvement in the shambolic 1st half, and the 2 that came on in the 2nd half massively improved the game.

Not sure why people refuse to criticise the the players on the pitch because of the irrelevant age of the bench.

This. There's a lot of excuses about the team being children which is not true. That starting eleven had plenty of experience.

This is my beef too.

Far too many excuses being made for a bunch of players who should be doing better.

[meribel]

First half utter cack , reminiscent of Rodgers first couple of games , it was obvious they were playing to a plan , keep the ball at all costs and try to exploit any weakness in the Huddersfield defence ( there was none ) . Thank the Lord in the second half we reverted to plan B , lets hope we use this on Saturday .

[RoyalBlue]

Interesting that the BBC appears to have failed to spot the appalling 'ref' that is S Attwell apparently flash a yellow card at Gunter in second half stoppage time.

Fair play to Gunter, there were a couple of occasions during the game when he had long and forceful discussions with Attwell regarding some of his more bizarre decisions. He is clearly not the shrinking violet that some portrayed him to be.

I was staggered to hear Adi Williams say that he thought Attwell had a good game because he didn't blow very often for fouls. That would be fine if he was clearly playing advantage but on most occasions he wasn't. A foul is that and should be penalised unless an advantage can be played.

I also detest the way that Attwell and other referees do not deal properly with blatant timewasting. It is not good enough, nor within the laws of the game, merely to gesture that you are adding time on, particularly when like Attwell they don't even do that properly (just 4 minutes in the second half was a joke). Blatant & persistent timewasting should be punished with a yellow card and the time added on.

And plenty of praise for the ball boy looking after the North End of East Stand - a great piece of work in that second half. Pointedly refused to return the ball to the Huddersfield player who was demanding it, despite being 30 yards away from where the throw was to be taken, and clearly intended to hold onto the ball and waste some more time. Instead the ball boy threw it direct to the player nearest where the ball went out. The same ball boy raced up and down his section of the stand retrieving the ball really quickly and returning it straight to the hands of Reading players waiting to take a throw.

Oh, and I detest their number 30 for being responsible for me missing our goal. I was distracted by a loud ironic cheer from Feds' end of the pitch when the previously mortally injured player became Lazarus - I turned back just in time to see the ball hitting the back of the Huddersfield net! Is the footage on YouTube yet?

[Brum Royal]

Interesting that the BBC appears to have failed to spot the appalling 'ref' that is S Attwell apparently flash a yellow card at Gunter in second half stoppage time.

Fair play to Gunter, there were a couple of occasions during the game when he had long and forceful discussions with Attwell regarding some of his more bizarre decisions. He is clearly not the shrinking violet that some portrayed him to be.

'Greed. I'm definitely warming to Gunts as captain. Thought it a bit harsh to book him for verbals given the appalling display from Attwell (as usual).

I was staggered to hear Adi Williams say that he thought Attwell had a good game because he didn't blow very often for fouls. That would be fine if he was clearly playing advantage but on most occasions he wasn't. A foul is that and should be penalised unless an advantage can be played.

Not sure Adi did say that, Kevin Dillon did though certainly.

[Ian Royal]

Long balls were being played into the channels because there was nothing else on. Playing a passing game has to be accompanied with decent movement. We were passing it around the back so much because none of the forward or wide men were offering any sort of outlet.

Largely because the central midfielders were coming too deep and playing no where near each other, at least first half. And also largely because Huddersfield pressed us high very well.

[M Brook]

Christ, Hector MOTM, really?

Hospital pass to Akpan for the goal, nearly gave away a pen in the first half with a late slide, turned by Wells constantly but especially late on in the corner who went down looking for a pen instead of going for the shot.

If we're in the process of fanboy-ing Academy products, I'll give MOTM to Kuhl, who actually didn't put a foot wrong.

Totally agree, what passes did he pick?? Second half all his attempts to put it down the line went out of play!!?

Another vote for chillipepper. I thought Hector had a 'mare last night and was shown up time and again by an opponent half his size. He needs to learn quickly from that and he needs to learn to keep his cool as well. The worst thing for him now would be for people to say he was 'superb' or 'MOTM' - he had a competent game on Saturday but yesterday, and last Tuesday (admittedly playing out of position), he was poor. He has bags of potential and I am sure he will prove to be a real asset but people need to be honest about his performances. I know we are all desparate for him to do better than Morrison but we shouldn't judge his performances through RTG.

[Ian Royal]

One of those days. An early error from Hector cost us and from then on Huddersfield were content to make us try to hurt them. I thought we were always in it at 1-0 but concedeing that second did for us. Wayward shots. Dodgy refereeing and huddersfield time wasting after 35 minutes.

Akapan escapegoated from what I can see. He wasn't great again, but nowhere near as bad as many will say so I'm going to lay off him despite his flaws.

The left flank was a problem with cummings right footed and Taylor wanting to tuck in. We looked better with Obita back there. Decent debut from Kuhl, nothing to special. His sort though is more dependent on others to be able to play well than others are.

Mackie didn't impress but the game was largely a lost cause and I'm not gonna judge him on that.

Sure we had a nailed on penalty for Akpan.

We'll get rezults like that plenty this season. The thing to remember is its good learning experiences for the kids who'll get better with experience.

Fantastic analysis Ian-Royal from a match yet again you failed to attend, would you like to let us know your thoughts on the other 50 or so games played in the football league tonight or would that be the blind leading the blind ? in guessing what you saw on Sky Sports news 15 secs highlights of every game

Nice to see you're as knowledgeable about me as you are about the running of the club.

[melonhead]

its still being slated on here!

but theyre mostly kids. youre going to get ups and downs, kids are inconsistent.
roll on a fully fit team, and some actual midfielders

I appreciate that at your age the starting 11 might have seemed like kids but they really weren't.
There are plenty of 22,23,24 year olds playing in the Championship, it is not a new thing that Reading are pioneering.
I'll give you one kid at most in Obita (20) but that is 1/11 and can hardly be considered 'mostly kids'.

The kids were on the bench. They had no involvement in the shambolic 1st half, and the 2 that came on in the 2nd half massively improved the game.

Not sure why people refuse to criticise the the players on the pitch because of the irrelevant age of the bench.

its in the key positions, and down the spine where we really lack at the moment.
at CB & 2xCM

criticism is fine,if constructive
but booing them on the pitch isnt going to help them, they really need support, and to feel comfortable taking risks without the abuse from their own fans
and criticising them when we have no other options is also a bit pointless. its not their fault if theyre not quite good enough.

[Ian Royal]

Agree with Brendy. They may not be teenagers. But Hector, Obita & Taylor are all relatively inexperienced young players.

The booing at the end of the first half was stupid.

[Jano]

Think it's a bit of a hangover from the poor performances of the recent past and the booboys seem to feel they should do it whenever we are losing or not playing well, what annoys me is (and I can't say this for sure as I've not actually paid enough attention to it) that it seems to start from the band up behind me. I was under the impression these guys were coming up to drum up some atmosphere, and if they are booing they should all be thrown out from the top of the stand

[maffff]

Think it's a bit of a hangover from the poor performances of the recent past and the booboys seem to feel they should do it whenever we are losing or not playing well, what annoys me is (and I can't say this for sure as I've not actually paid enough attention to it) that it seems to start from the band up behind me. I was under the impression these guys were coming up to drum up some atmosphere, and if they are booing they should all be thrown out from the top of the stand

The drummer/band are all absolute morons. Boast about getting in free, bring more negativity than anything, and their contribution is shit. If we ever get any natural atmosphere going they seem to do their best to suppress it.

[RoyalBlue]

Interesting that the BBC appears to have failed to spot the appalling 'ref' that is S Attwell apparently flash a yellow card at Gunter in second half stoppage time.

Fair play to Gunter, there were a couple of occasions during the game when he had long and forceful discussions with Attwell regarding some of his more bizarre decisions. He is clearly not the shrinking violet that some portrayed him to be.

'Greed. I'm definitely warming to Gunts as captain. Thought it a bit harsh to book him for verbals given the appalling display from Attwell (as usual).

I was staggered to hear Adi Williams say that he thought Attwell had a good game because he didn't blow very often for fouls. That would be fine if he was clearly playing advantage but on most occasions he wasn't. A foul is that and should be penalised unless an advantage can be played.

Not sure Adi did say that, Kevin Dillon did though certainly.

DOH! You are absolutely right, it was Dillon not Williams. I shouldn't be surprised either. Much as he could be a very cultured player, Dillon was by no means averse to committing some niggly fouls as part of his game!

[Hoop Blah]

Re the inexperince of our side, it's not so young as such but it is lacking experience at this level, which is probably a by product of our recent success on the pitch, followed by failure and the problems off it, and the long injury list and the clubs policy of loaning out promising youngster (still a by product of recent success).

Our whole midfield is inexperienced and untested at this level. That wouldn't be too bad if it was just one of them, but all four last night have only played a relative handful of games in midfield at this level. Even against a team like Huddersfield, with perhaps a couple of inexperinced players themselves, it's going to be tough for that midfield to be effective against 5 men and a pretty defensive approach to the game.

[Snowball]

I hope Khul gets a run of at least six games before the others are fit enough
to replace him. I think, barring serious injury, he'll play at the top end of the Prem.

Quality player