BFTG - United (A)

[RoyalBlue]

Just seen Al-Habsi's howler.



Just wow.

a poor ball in a dangerous position to have to recieve and at 0-3 down counted for sh1t.

Regardless of the circumstances (and I'm not sure it was a poor ball in a dangerous position until AAH turned it into one), it was a big and worrying mistake, particularly as his 'kicking' has now cost us a goal in each of the last two games.

Earlier in the season it looked as though AAH had finally overcome his demons when it comes to the ball at his feet but the last four or five games would suggest his new found confidence on the ball has largely disappeared. If his confidence is now shot that is worrying for our promotion push. With our preferred style of play we need him to be a good shot stopper and ball player.

Just seen Al-Habsi's howler.



Just wow.

but did you also see all the fantastic saves he made??? Just wow weren't they??!!!

Fantastic saves undermined by goals gifted by mistakes might not be good enough for a team hunting promotion. He is a great shot stopper but, if we are brutally honest, a few of his fantastic saves have been when he has responded brilliantly to recover from a situation where he might have done better with the initial save.

[Ian Royal]

The scene was set pretty much immediately, I thought. We kicked off a timidly and didn't look confident enough to play our own game. A couple of poor clearances that led to Utd getting the ball straight back and an early nice ball over the top for Rooney to pull down and we basically told Utd we were terrified, not going to press as a team or get tight and play a relatively high defensive line. Not a good combination.

We did start to show some quality in spurts after about 20 minutes, but never really looked like scoring and always looked prone to getting smashed by another couple.

At that level of opposition, you've got to start hard and certain. If not, you're finished and there's no recovering.

I like what Stam's achieved, but his style seems to be flawed in that we don't really take the game to the opposition. It's all a bit passive at times. And that's going to get shown up against better teams quite a lot.

[Ascotexgunner]

TBH AH's howler didn't bother me...I guess we all knew that was going to happen sooner or later the way we pass it round at the back......But it's best it happens now when it's in a game that we really have no way back in......Might wake the back line up a bit......
Was a bit disappointed with the performance....Seemed to ponder too long on the ball when going forward and maybe it's me but we seemed a little reluctant to shoot at times. Thought the ref gave us very little as well. The united keeper going in on McCleary locked rather nasty as did Young's tackle which didn't even warrant a card.

[Oilroyal]

Really don't understand the surprise at being beaten at old Trafford

Not sure why you think we are all surprised. We aren't.

As any Away fan (or indeed football fan) I always dream and hope and part believe it's possible to win against the big boys. I didn't expect it but thought we'd give them a game.

I'm not surprised to have lost 4-0 but I am a bit disappointed as I think we didn't play the way we can do.

Have a look... Manager v manager ... 11 v 11.... I Just wish Jaap would have played the kids.

[bobby1413]

Really don't understand the surprise at being beaten at old Trafford

Not sure why you think we are all surprised. We aren't.

As any Away fan (or indeed football fan) I always dream and hope and part believe it's possible to win against the big boys. I didn't expect it but thought we'd give them a game.

I'm not surprised to have lost 4-0 but I am a bit disappointed as I think we didn't play the way we can do.

Have a look... Manager v manager ... 11 v 11.... I Just wish Jaap would have played the kids.

What the actual fck are you talking about?

[Royal Ginger]

Just seen Al-Habsi's howler.



Just wow.

but did you also see all the fantastic saves he made??? Just wow weren't they??!!!

On balance he was pretty good with the shot stopping today. The howler was a bit special though.

[Oilroyal]

Not sure why you think we are all surprised. We aren't.

As any Away fan (or indeed football fan) I always dream and hope and part believe it's possible to win against the big boys. I didn't expect it but thought we'd give them a game.

I'm not surprised to have lost 4-0 but I am a bit disappointed as I think we didn't play the way we can do.

Have a look... Manager v manager ... 11 v 11.... I Just wish Jaap would have played the kids.

What the actual fck are you talking about?

Did you honestly think we could win this game or even compete?

[peterroyal76]

TBH AH's howler didn't bother me...I guess we all knew that was going to happen sooner or later the way we pass it round at the back......But it's best it happens now when it's in a game that we really have no way back in......Might wake the back line up a bit......
Was a bit disappointed with the performance....Seemed to ponder too long on the ball when going forward and maybe it's me but we seemed a little reluctant to shoot at times. Thought the ref gave us very little as well. The united keeper going in on McCleary locked rather nasty as did Young's tackle which didn't even warrant a card.

Young was booked and McCleary with the keeper was a fair 50/50 challenge.

[Ascotexgunner]

Just seen Al-Habsi's howler.



Just wow.

but did you also see all the fantastic saves he made??? Just wow weren't they??!!!

On balance he was pretty good with the shot stopping today. The howler was a bit special though.

Normally when keepers mess up like that they try and blame someone/anyone....Credit to him....He took the blame.....Even though the back pass wasn't great.

[peterroyal76]

I only saw it on TV. While they were waiting in the tunnel before coming on, the whole team looked incredibly nervous. This was evident for the first half, at least the first 20 minutes. After that, we played a bit better at times in the first half. Evans was good, as was Kelly, and AAH made a few good saves. Beerens was awful and, surprisingly, Moore did not have a very good game.

I thought that in the second half we looked more like our Champ side, and even though we let in 2 more goals, we weren't that bad. Swift was very good!! AAH's howler was unbelievable. As someone said, it was a good job the scores weren't level, or we were 1 up. At the end of the day, though, we were outplayed by a very good team and we can't have any complaints. It was only in the second half that we caused Man U any problems. Luckily we can now 'concentrate on the league' without any further injuries

If we were level or one up when AAH f@cked up he would probably be given player of the season.

[Uke]

55% possession FFFS

[AthleticoSpizz]

I only saw it on TV. While they were waiting in the tunnel before coming on, the whole team looked incredibly nervous. This was evident for the first half, at least the first 20 minutes. After that, we played a bit better at times in the first half. Evans was good, as was Kelly, and AAH made a few good saves. Beerens was awful and, surprisingly, Moore did not have a very good game.

I thought that in the second half we looked more like our Champ side, and even though we let in 2 more goals, we weren't that bad. Swift was very good!! AAH's howler was unbelievable. As someone said, it was a good job the scores weren't level, or we were 1 up. At the end of the day, though, we were outplayed by a very good team and we can't have any complaints. It was only in the second half that we caused Man U any problems. Luckily we can now 'concentrate on the league' without any further injuries

If we were level or one up when AAH f@cked up he would probably be given player of the season.

which would've meant that he had somehow managed to keep the previous three goals out.........which might've warranted it

[Kitsondinho]

Not sure about all the negativity. Our defence has hardly set the world on fire in the Championship....so when faced with a massively improved United side, this was the most likely outcome. As others said, we lost the game in the first 15. We looked all at sea and they were all over us. We also kept giving them the ball back, by lumping it up to Yann. Once we settled and started playing our game, we looked much better. We controlled possession either side of HT. The problem was United could (and did) hit us on quick breaks and we looked so vulnerable. Nevertheless, I felt Kelly, Evans, McCleary, Swift (when he came on) and Obita (ditto Swift) had decent showings, which bodes well for the future. We also showed we have the ability to keep the ball (admittedly when United were standing off us) against a very good side. Today was good experience for many of our players and hopefully it'll help us (as others have said) by reducing the number of fixtures we have coming up!

[Gunny Fishcake]

Never in the game , at times the game resembled a training game for Man U , woeful mistake from Al Hasabi though both cheating git Young and their goalie should have been sent off for two footed lunging tackles , proved to be a woeful FA Cup draw , we move on

[Oilroyal]

Never in the game , at times the game resembled a training game for Man U , woeful mistake from Al Hasabi though both cheating git Young and their goalie should have been sent off for two footed lunging tackles , proved to be a woeful FA Cup draw , we move on

No one player is to blame today.

We are a championship team playing very well... Anyone who hoped for a result today at old Trafford is deluded.

Bring on QPR and 1 or 3 presious points.

[winchester_royal]

Never in the game , at times the game resembled a training game for Man U , woeful mistake from Al Hasabi though both cheating git Young and their goalie should have been sent off for two footed lunging tackles , proved to be a woeful FA Cup draw , we move on

No one player is to blame today.

We are a championship team playing very well... Anyone who hoped for a result today at old Trafford is deluded.

Bring on QPR and 1 or 3 presious points.

How about instead of chucking insults around you have a go at understanding what people are actually saying.

Nobody is lamenting the fact we lost, more the manner of the defeat and the fact we never really looked like giving it a proper go. We can play much better than we did, especially for the first 25 mins where we looked overawed, nervous, and paid United far too much respect. Hence the frustration.

[Oilroyal]

Never in the game , at times the game resembled a training game for Man U , woeful mistake from Al Hasabi though both cheating git Young and their goalie should have been sent off for two footed lunging tackles , proved to be a woeful FA Cup draw , we move on

No one player is to blame today.

We are a championship team playing very well... Anyone who hoped for a result today at old Trafford is deluded.

Bring on QPR and 1 or 3 presious points.

How about instead of chucking insults around you have a go at understanding what people are actually saying.

Nobody is lamenting the fact we lost, more the manner of the defeat and the fact we never really looked like giving it a proper go. We can play much better than we did, especially for the first 25 mins where we looked overawed, nervous, and paid United far too much respect. Hence the frustration.

The manner we lost...we lost end of. We lost against a world beating team. We can win great against Huddersfield, Sheffield Wednesday and even drew against Brighton, but give the lads a break will you??? They played at old Trafford in front of 50 odd thousand fans. This team is not the best team I've watched over 30 odd years of supporting Reading BUT IMO Jaap is the best manager we've had.. Ever. It's his first season, we lost a old Trafford ... So what????? But we play QPR on Thursday to close the gap on Brighton and Newcastle in the competition that really matters.. I would have played the kids today. But does it really matter apart from ego

[Pepe the Horseman]

Gunter was woeful first half, looked terrified whenever Martial came near him. Blackett is so slow to react to anything it's painful to watch. We looked so much better when Obita came on. Kelly and Evans were good. Lovely ball from Evans with the outside of his boot. Probably the highlight of the game.

Rashford was dangerous and should've had a hat trick. Thought Dwayne was nailed on to break the record after that early goal, but didn't threaten after that.

Thought we looked good in the second half, until the third goal killed us.

[winchester_royal]

Okay so you have no interest in discussing the actual game - perhaps you should avoid the BFTG thread relating to it then?

[oldebiscuit]

4-0 flattered us, it could have been a lot worse.

That is the headline of the entire game for me.

It seemed every time Man united surged forward it looked like they were going to score.

And they had 200 £million pounds worth of players sat on the bench just in case... Get real Reading fans

'Greed, and as for Al-Habsi's howler, what a good time to have it, in a cup game not in the league.