BFTG Birmingham (A)

[3points]

Well another disappointing evening. Two changes to the starting line up, presumably giving both McCleary and Baldock a rest after returning from injury but Bod looked way off the pace and Meite is a better centre forward than left winger.

Birmingham set up to allow us the ball. No high press, just sit in and watch us pass it around the back. I thought we’d stopped playing that style of football. I cannot remember one occasion where Jaakkola kicked the ball long. First half we did OK. Meite had a good chance and Lee Camp made Kelly’s effort look better than it was. 0-0 about fair but we probably just shaded it.

Second half concede another early goal off the back of a ridiculous enforced error with Kelly unable to hit a simple ball to Ilori and conceding a corner, from which they score as we again fail to defend a set piece properly. Body language looked poor and heads started to drop. We then concede a second goal on the counter attack with Yiadom (maybe Bacuna) giving the ball away cheaply and selling Blackett out of position. Decent finish though. Then that was it. Game over. Yes we scored and did create a couple of chances but we were never in it after letting in the first goal.

Once we had conceded the first goal we needed to play differently. Perhaps get the ball forward more quickly, turn the defenders and midfield, scrap for second balls, lump it into the box and aim for Meite and Bod. But we just kept passing it sideways and it was easy for Birmingham to sit there and let us do nothing with the ball in our own half.

Walked away from the ground with a Blues supporting friend who thought we were decent first half and liked the look of Kelly. He just felt they took their chances and we didn’t. But it was the lack of effort and the one dimensional nature of our tactics which frustrated me the most.

Can’t be bothered to do players ratings tonight

[Zip]

How many players do we have who can play to a reasonable level for ninety minutes?

[Snowball]

How many players do we have who can play to a reasonable level for ninety minutes?

I doubt it's fitness. It's either a mental thing, or Clement saying "Don't go for a goal/another goal from 45-60 minutes,
just keep it tight." We promptly stop being dangerous, the back passes increase, concedes, and...

[Top Flight]

I was there and I can't say I have been impressed with our performance.

They worked hard to get a result against Millwall but I don't think there was enough desire on show tonight. They were going through the motions.

They work hard for 45 minutes and predictably don't turn up for the second half.

That's all I can be bothered to write at this time of the morning.

[Kulshaw72RFC]

How many players do we have who can play to a reasonable level for ninety minutes?

I doubt it's fitness. It's either a mental thing, or Clement saying "Don't go for a goal/another goal from 45-60 minutes,
just keep it tight." We promptly stop being dangerous, the back passes increase, concedes, and...

Im telling you, and I told Ian the other day but in his usual holier than thou way he dismissed it,

Clement is utter shite at half-time team talks which anybody who knows anything about football will know they are key for focus and motivation.

The dissent is real.

CLEMENT OUT!!!!

RESTORE ACCOUNTABILITY

[sandman]

What exactly should he say at half time? We have been in most games at half time, so all he must say is keep going and doing what you're doing. I doubt he's trying to reinvent the wheel.

I can tell you what he doesn't say. He doesn't say, "Liam play a stupid over hit pass that puts the ball out if play for a corner". He doesn't say, "Sam let the ball go over your head so one of the best strikers in the division can head the ball in from a yard".

These players keep making stupid, sloppy mistakes that cost us through their own laziness and lack of concentration. That's not to say the manager is blameless for the second half displays but some things the players need to take responsibility for.

[Brum Royal]

I cannot remember one occasion where Jaakkola kicked the ball long.

He did a few times tbf, generally in the direction of Bod. Agree with most of the rest of your post.

[stealthpapes]

Half time is clearly an issue - perhaps not in the managers' instructions, but in how the team use it to reset and recover. Take tonight, sure, an unforced error, but the defending was sloppy. The goalscorer was unmarked, and directed a loose ball past the keeper.

Laziness, lack of concentration in most, if not all, of the players straight after half time is something a manager can do something about.

Anyway, a 6/10 performance, with a soft goal conceded at a key time, and then a half-decent goal albeit one that started with us losing the ball on the left hand side of their box. Baldock looks good, Aluko wasn't shite but did little. All a bit one paced and slack.

Also:

22 minutes in - massive standing ovation and a very loud song from all the BCFC fans. A tribute for a recently passed fan.

55 minutes in - flashLOLights.

[Brum Royal]

I was there (nice local one for me). First half I thought we were ok to decent. The game seemed to be played at two paces though which I found odd, either walking pace or all out frantic, but at least when we did lift the tempo we carried a threat. However, we were guilty of quite a few sloppy passes (Illori in particular kept giving sloppy passes away to Blues players), and looked like gifting them a chance or two. However, at half time I thought we probably had the better of the chances and possibly could have been ahead.

Second half, that sloppy pass to give away the corner was the catalyst in our downfall. The heads dropped after conceding, and we completely fell apart for a good 25 minutes or so and were awful. That being said, we did wrestle our way back into it for the last 10 minutes or so and got the goal back (well taken by Meite). I thought the subs made a positive difference - GMac looked decent when he came on, and gave us a good threat down the right, and Meite was a lot more effective playing up top rather than on the wing. Should also add that Baldock made a decent contribution when he came on, a great bit of skill and pull back which he got (rightly) frustrated about that nobody gambled on, just before we scored. I'd probably go with him and Meite up top against Swansea.

[Coppells Lost Coat]

Swift and Kelly were playing with heavy legs last night. Got themselves in decent positions but had no ability on the ball last night. After 70 mins Kelly was playing way too deep. Sims was very weak. Looked too soon for Bod to start a game - Meite should have kept his spot. But hindsight is great.
We played just okay tbh. Silly mistakes cost us the game. It is getting very boring how its our own undoings that are ruining games. We gift at least 2 opportunities to the oppo every match.

[NewCorkSeth]

An interesting albeit frustrating game. That is the first time I can remember under Clement that we have played it out from the back. Bacuna almost played like a ball carrying centre back at times.

I mentioned after the Millwall game that Jaakkola kicked the ball out of play several times from goal kicks and I seem to recall his distribution being challenged last season so I wonder if Clement knows he can kick a long ball to save his life and told him to play it short?

If he did it was the wrong game to do so, imo, as not only did we have Bod back on the pitch (I know he isn't great at winning long range headers (why does he always jump early??)) But we had Meite who was full of confidence and almost always wins his headers. Speaking of he knocked a peach of a header through to Bod in the first half.

The formation of 4-1-2-3 worked to certain degree in the first half but Monk had it clocked in the second. The Birmingham players pressed much higher and much quicker after the break and we crumbled. I don't know if it was my bias against him but they seemed to target Kelly knowing they could muscle him off the ball so he was much less effective in the second half (and he gave away that stupid oxf*rd corner)

There was no change in movement in midfield to counter this. The guys kept the same shape which meant that often there was no passing route available for Bacuna other than back to Ilori or Moore who both made some sloppy passes.

Overall I think other than Clement having the inability to change it up or make positive tactical shifts the problem was, yet again, simple errors. I think we should all accept we are the most error prone Reading team in the club's history.

So how many goals is that straight after halftime now? 6? 7? That's incredible. It's like we are going for a record.

Also how slippery was that pitch? Everyone was falling over.

Jaakola - 6 - Some really good saves but his communication with Moore and Ilori is off a bit. If he could kick a dead ball he's be our best keeper based on the last 2 games.

Yiadom - 7 - Tidy, quick, can cross, can tackle. I don't think he could have done anything about the second goal and the yellow was nailed on but still he played well.

Ilori - 5 - Nothing went well for him I don't think. His passing was off which is weird considering how good he can be.

Moore - 6 - he got a few good blocks and headers in.

Blackett - 5 - I though he was postionally poor when defending but good enough going forward. Twice I think he could have pinged in a first tome cross but decided to take a bad touch.

Bacuna - 5 - Another of his less than good performances.

Kelly - 5 - Good first half, awful second half.

Swift - 5 - Suffered from the Birmingham tactics.

Sims - 4 - Poor. Really poor.

Bodvarson - 5 - The team did absolutely nothing to try and help him. Poor guy. As isolated as I've seen him.

Meite - 7 - MOTM - Great goal. Should probably have scored 2 or 3 (the header, the poncing around in the box and the shit blasted straight at Camp?) but I guess we should get used to that. His inexperience shows as he often chooses to take a touch instead of shooting.

I also though the ref was shite...

[genome]

Oh, Sam

[John Smith]

Definitely a glorious chance for 3 points wasted. We looked much the better side in the first half - all over them for most of it and loads of corners won. We looked pretty blunt down the left - Meite really isn't a winger. The two goals conceded were poor - I wish we cashed in for Moore in the summer. He's alright but £10-12m would have been so much better.

GMac looked good when he came on and tried to be creative and positive. As mentioned before Sims was poor and did nothing to argue for a place in front of Aluko for Swansea at the rate Clement is going.

I think the Clement countdown starts again now: Millwall gave him a stay of execution but now I can feasibly see Ipswich being his last game.

[Old Man Andrews]

Oh, Sam

We really do have some dumb players.......

Did Liam Kelly Instagram his Rolex again too? Sam Smith has done a grand total of zero at Oxford, been awful by all accounts. Needs to stay off social media and focus.

[Ascotexgunner]

The chants of "you don't know what your doing" as Aluko came on for Sims was enough to convince me the away fans have finally cracked.

[Hound]

The chants of "you don't know what your doing" as Aluko came on for Sims was enough to convince me the away fans have finally cracked.

neither do you from that comment. He came on for Swift

[Ascotexgunner]

The chants of "you don't know what your doing" as Aluko came on for Sims was enough to convince me the away fans have finally cracked.

neither do you from that comment. He came on for Swift

Ah my mistake...sorry.

[Hound]

The chants of "you don't know what your doing" as Aluko came on for Sims was enough to convince me the away fans have finally cracked.

neither do you from that comment. He came on for Swift

Ah my mistake...sorry.

was being an arse, sorry. But yeah the chants were audible certainly, noticed it myself.

[Ascotexgunner]

neither do you from that comment. He came on for Swift

Ah my mistake...sorry.

was being an arse, sorry. But yeah the chants were audible certainly, noticed it myself.

No probs, TBH my attention span had pretty much disappeared by that point of the game. I just saw us huffing and puffing to the final whistle.

[Old Man Andrews]

Guys, far too cordial. Call someone a pcunt or something please.