by Snowflake Royal »
23 Sep 2017 20:25
The Reverend Snowflake Royal
As for the decision to replace Kelly with Ilori, it was fuking idiotic.
The boos ringing out ably demonstrated that you weren't alone in this spectacular lack of comprehension. Unfortunately the MadStad is choc full of fcuking idiots like you.
Kelly (who despite being hailed as some sort of messiah was having a pretty ineffectual game) was replaced in his role by JVDB. Joey was moved forward and was replaced by Ilori.
Oh, and by the way, it worked.
And as for Jaap's comments, get a grip RFC fans - you got a bit of criticism. Get over it.
I'm well aware of what Jaap did with the substitution, thank you. What worked, was bringing on Bodvarsson for Gunter, not Ilori for Kelly. Berg performed no better in midfield than Kelly did. He under hit several passes to lose the ball, and took two of the worst, most wasteful and stupidiest shots I've ever seen.
Normally, I'm on board with criticising booing from our fans, because it's usually moronic. But there are a few things that are relevant here that Stam doesn't seem to have considered.
1) You don't join Reading FC and expect a loud and partisan crowd.
2) You don't implement a slow, patient and tactical chess-like system and expect it to inspire the crowd to be loud and excited by it
3) You don't drop 7 out of 12 home points and expect the crowd to be loud and supportive
4) You don't start the season badly having finished third the previous season and improved your squad and expect the fans to be loud and supportive when losing at home
5) You don't fail to improve the biggest glaring weakness in your squad and instead spend over £7m on a winger famed for not having an end product and expect the fans to be loud and supportive when losing at home
Yes, the fans can lift the players, but it's a two way street. The players also need to lift the fans. And during Stam's entire tenure we've looked seriously unconvincing when trying to come from behind.
The fact is, the crowd start supportive and singing every game. It's only the lack of anything remotely inspiring on the pitch that sees things go dead. The crowd also got behind the team when Bod came on and we actually showed some threat. The fact is also, the crowd will still be there when Stam is long gone. They are the people he is working to produce something for and entertain. He needs to remember that. Because the second he loses a significant proportion of them, he's a dead man walking and there's basically no way back. His comments don't help. There is a place for some criticism of the crowd, but that was not the right reaction.