BFiFollow - Colchester

[Zip]

Ian aside, I just hope Joao can stay fit!

Gotta disagree. For me, Joao aside, I just hope Ian can stay fit.

Why did Ian stop posting from his Ian royal account?

Because he’s a snowflake.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Gotta disagree. For me, Joao aside, I just hope Ian can stay fit.

Why did Ian stop posting from his Ian royal account?

Because he’s a snowflake.

Ah I see... cool

[URZZZZ]

Yes definitely concerning that Pauno picked that side...hopefully he’s not another manager who likes to play players out of position but it’s not a great start. It’s going to take him a while to learn about his players and how to deploy them, which isn’t really ideal so close to the start of the league season.

Just as well we have enough quality to not be dragged into a relegation fight. We will see

He gave fringe players a chance in a competition renowned as one where fringe players get a chance. Based on today for example, he will know not to perservre with McNulty but ship him off to Gillingham.

But didn’t he play McNulty out wide? He’s clearly a striker & I’m not sure he would’ve learnt anything about him from today. I’m all up for giving fringe players a chance...in their correct positions

Difficult to. Imbalance of the squad evident, too many strikers, too many attacking midfielders, not enough (none) wide players and few CB’s. Players had to squeeze in to unfamiliar roles to get a chance today

[Zip]

He gave fringe players a chance in a competition renowned as one where fringe players get a chance. Based on today for example, he will know not to perservre with McNulty but ship him off to Gillingham.

But didn’t he play McNulty out wide? He’s clearly a striker & I’m not sure he would’ve learnt anything about him from today. I’m all up for giving fringe players a chance...in their correct positions

Difficult to. Imbalance of the squad evident, too many strikers, too many attacking midfielders, not enough (none) wide players and few CB’s. Players had to squeeze in to unfamiliar roles to get a chance today

This imbalance may well mean Aluko stays as he may be seen as a winger although from past experience of watching him he constantly drifts infield rather than sticking out wide.

[Einstein agogo]

Interesting side with some fairly obvious flaws to it. Can't read much into it being a cup game against L2 opposition and the first game of a new manager who only met the players about a week ago, if that.

Southwood -WHO??? 7 one error of judgement bowling the ball out to Morro and putting him in trouble, at least one decent save, no chance with the goal
Araruna - 7 WHO???beautiful cross for the first goal, decent performance but seemed to go awol a lot towards the end. Tended to play quite high, which leaves me worried about gaps in behind. Though if Rino and Laurent play they can cover that fairly well. Swift, Ejaria or Olise in deeper and it could be a problem
Bristow - 6WHO?? quiet start and not hugely tested, but grew into the game and some nice moments later on
Moore - 7 much what you'd expect
Morrison - 7 not hugely tested
Laurent -who??6/7 very quiet first half, grew into it when Rino came on, couple of decent chances he didn't put away
Olise - 6/8 quiet first half playing deeper and more cautiously, moved forward second half and was much much better
Aluko - 6 he was ok, but everything he did Olise did better. Petulant strop at McNulty early on, threw himself on the ground, pulled out of challenges, dwelt on the ball, bending in nice crosses no where near the strikers and then vanished second half... 5th manager giving him a chance he's repeatedly proved he doesn't deserve
McNulty - 5 out of position, passing wasn't quite there, wasn't really his day, not likely to get a look in with the competition. Still think there's something there but he's not making it hard to sideline him
Baldock - 6 hard working, did ok but didn't have a huge impact
Joao - 10 completely transforms the side with his ability to finish, touch, work rate and strength

Rinomhota - 8 transformed the side when he came on. Him and Laurent are so important to the side, we play so slow without them driving forward and getting stuck in. Some loose moments though
Richards - 6 didn't notice him much but did fine, nearly scored... not played in his position so doesn't mean a lot
Melvin-Lambert -WHO?? N/A not on long enough or involved enough to rate, but got a chance and wasn't far off putting it away

All in all, it looked like much the same Reading as ever. Wholly dependent on one or two players to perform well.

[Notts Royal]

He gave fringe players a chance in a competition renowned as one where fringe players get a chance. Based on today for example, he will know not to perservre with McNulty but ship him off to Gillingham.

But didn’t he play McNulty out wide? He’s clearly a striker & I’m not sure he would’ve learnt anything about him from today. I’m all up for giving fringe players a chance...in their correct positions

Difficult to. Imbalance of the squad evident, too many strikers, too many attacking midfielders, not enough (none) wide players and few CB’s. Players had to squeeze in to unfamiliar roles to get a chance today

So then you change the formation to suit your squad. So if you are top-heavy with strikers maybe play 2 up there in a 3-5-2.

If we had too many attacking midfielders, why did we sign Ovie?

Aluko, Meite & Olise can play the “wider” roles if we play narrowly like last season.

I agree we have too imbalanced a squad...that’s what happens when you churn through multiple managers in quick succession.

The answer is to accept bids for players to bring that balance back, ie Swift & Puscas (who I have a sneeky suspicion will leave by the transfer window).

The answer isn’t to play players out of position

[Snowflake Royal]

Southwood -WHO??? highly rated Academy keeper who spent last season getting plaudits in Scotland and has been involved in pretty much every preseason game and talked up on here as a No 2 for about 18 months
Araruna - 7 WHO???First team squad member who joined us in January and has already made three appearances and featured on the bench a fair bit more
Bristow - 6WHO?? Academy left back
Laurent -who?? Our only new signing, who featured heavily in preseason and was much talked about, including getting national recognition for his performance in Shrewsbury's FA Cup run last season, including against Liverpool
Melvin-Lambert -WHO?? Academy striker

Do you ever think maybe you're not paying enough attention?

[Hendo]

I understand not knowing Bristow and Melvin-Lambert as they have been plucked from u18s without much exposure. But not knowing the others, especially Laurent is a bit

[Stranded]

Yes definitely concerning that Pauno picked that side...hopefully he’s not another manager who likes to play players out of position but it’s not a great start. It’s going to take him a while to learn about his players and how to deploy them, which isn’t really ideal so close to the start of the league season.

Just as well we have enough quality to not be dragged into a relegation fight. We will see

He gave fringe players a chance in a competition renowned as one where fringe players get a chance. Based on today for example, he will know not to perservre with McNulty but ship him off to Gillingham.

I don't think there should be any complaints about playing young or fringe players (except Aluko he can oxf*rd off for all eternity).

But.

McNulty RW and AMC?
Olise deep playmaker?
Richards RW?

Not sure that tells us a whole lot of anything about those players, other than if we play them we should play them in their actual position.

Surely best to use the formation you intend to use and get the fringe players to show they can fit into it. We shouldn't be shifting formation to accommodate McNulty. He needs to show the manager he can fit his plans.

[skipper]

This is a game that Osho probably would have started. I'm disappointed he didn't stay on, but he's not signed for anyone. Got to be thinking he made a mistake there....

[Nameless]

This is a game that Osho probably would have started. I'm disappointed he didn't stay on, but he's not signed for anyone. Got to be thinking he made a mistake there....

He’ll get a club, there is still ages to go before the deadline and even after that he can still sign. He may only get a short contract, he may not be at the level he hopes and he may find mortgage payments remain tight . I’d not be averse to us offering him some kind of deal. Worst case we could invite him to train with us and put a short term deal on the table if we think he’d add cover until January

[South Coast Royal]

Saw this on tilehurstend man of the match poll

Ian Royal gets everywhere

Ian aside, I just hope Joao can stay fit!

Therin lies our success or failure next season.
In his Sheff Wednesday days he was in and out of the side and in English football he averages about 30 games per season; let's hope that he stays fit and plays in most league games.

[Snowball]

First Half

We looked OK going forward and the centrebacks seemed to be OK (kept us in it) but it was surprisingly easy for Colchester to cut us open.

I thought at first it was lack of a clearly-defined DM doing his job but it may have been more to do with the fullbacks playing high and we were getting skinned because of it.

Colchester looked a TEAM and we looked like an eleven thrown together.

For the first thirty minutes I thought JOAO wasn't holding up to his usual standard. The 17 year old FB was solid once he'd got over his nerves. I was impressed by Araruna.

Most impressive though was Aluko. He was busy, always available, won a few balls, laid off quickly. The commentary against him was embarrassingly biased. He supplied Baldock's chance and dropped two crosses into space that on-form strikers would have buried. He is clearly an attacking central midfielder. Play players where they are best, and bingo.

I was liking Araruna more and more, but looks like we are going to play high fullbacks and will get caught a lot when we do. He was involved a fair bit and his cross was very similar to Aluko's pair. Because JOAO made that one work he gets praised for a brilliant cross.(It was very decent). If JOAO (or Baldock) had been sharper for Aluko's balls in the commentator would probably have said it was a lucky shank.

Second Half

I refuse to believe that it was merely Rhino coming on that made the difference (much as I like him). McNulty had shown briefly but was generally anonymous (ditto Baldock)... but it was an utterly different game in the second 45. I guess it was like going from 10.5 men to 11 but I suspect we made a formation change that I didn't see.

Of course JOAO's equaliser will have lifted RFC and knocked Colchester.

Olise improved second half, Rhino made a difference, and we started to look like a team. Olise's through ball for the second goal was peach, as was his ball for the debut kid, who could/should have scored. I was further impressed by Aluko and Araruna


Essentially we were ragged first half against a decent team who played as a team, but once we got the goal we started to play. Second half we looked like a good side and we will get plenty of good-looking goals this season.

But if we play as loosely at places like Derby we will ship a lot of goals.

[Westwood52]

This is a game that Osho probably would have started. I'm disappointed he didn't stay on, but he's not signed for anyone. Got to be thinking he made a mistake there....

He’ll get a club, there is still ages to go before the deadline and even after that he can still sign. He may only get a short contract, he may not be at the level he hopes and he may find mortgage payments remain tight . I’d not be averse to us offering him some kind of deal. Worst case we could invite him to train with us and put a short term deal on the table if we think he’d add cover until January

My understanding was that he was on an unproved out of the Academy deal of £60k a year.In January he was offered half that;which was not enough to pay his mortgage.When he got into the team post lockdown and showed up well,he was offered his original deal.At his age he is going into his best years and wanted more.At that point Bowen dropped him.Not sure what the sort of wages a L1 or L2 would be on ? Probably around £60 K ?

[NewCorkSeth]

This is a game that Osho probably would have started. I'm disappointed he didn't stay on, but he's not signed for anyone. Got to be thinking he made a mistake there....

He’ll get a club, there is still ages to go before the deadline and even after that he can still sign. He may only get a short contract, he may not be at the level he hopes and he may find mortgage payments remain tight . I’d not be averse to us offering him some kind of deal. Worst case we could invite him to train with us and put a short term deal on the table if we think he’d add cover until January

My understanding was that he was on an unproved out of the Academy deal of £60k a year.In January he was offered half that;which was not enough to pay his mortgage.When he got into the team post lockdown and showed up well,he was offered his original deal.At his age he is going into his best years and wanted more.At that point Bowen dropped him.Not sure what the sort of wages a L1 or L2 would be on ? Probably around £60 K ?

Average is probably slightly higher no?

[NewCorkSeth]

O'Shea speaks really well. Can see why he has been given so much match day responsibility. Clear communicator and clearly has a lot of knowledge.

[Snowball]

Serious question


In official stats does that go down as the new manager winning first game?

[Snowflake Royal]

Expect so, he's in post. It's similar to if he was ill or banned from the touch line.

https://www.soccerbase.com/managers/manager.sd?manager_id=3954

[SCIAG]

This is a game that Osho probably would have started. I'm disappointed he didn't stay on, but he's not signed for anyone. Got to be thinking he made a mistake there....

He’ll get a club, there is still ages to go before the deadline and even after that he can still sign. He may only get a short contract, he may not be at the level he hopes and he may find mortgage payments remain tight . I’d not be averse to us offering him some kind of deal. Worst case we could invite him to train with us and put a short term deal on the table if we think he’d add cover until January

My understanding was that he was on an unproved out of the Academy deal of £60k a year.In January he was offered half that;which was not enough to pay his mortgage.When he got into the team post lockdown and showed up well,he was offered his original deal.At his age he is going into his best years and wanted more.At that point Bowen dropped him.Not sure what the sort of wages a L1 or L2 would be on ? Probably around £60 K ?

Yeah about right for L2. L1 is better.

[royalp-we]

Serious question


In official stats does that go down as the new manager winning first game?

It should do. O’Shea said that Pauno picked the team and although they didn’t say it explicitly - they would have been in contact with a watching Paunovic throughout.