BTFG - Preston

[Snowflake Royal]

Some of Puscas's goals have been wonderful finishes. He seems to not be the quickest but then you think of his predator instincts at Wigan which I thinks are his strengths. I think he needs a decent supply of ball from widemen but we just don't play like that.

Best when playing facing the goal imo. So perfect for wide men pinging in crosses from the byline, or deep and pull backs.

[RoyalBlue]

Just seen Azeezs interview. Seems a top lad. Love him to fly this season

Would love him to sign a longer contract this week…

https://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/2020/j ... d-of-july/

Current contract runs out in July

How have we managed to have every half decent players contract expire at the end of this year? If we don't sort this embargo situation out we could be well and truely oxf*rd next season.

From VP's recent comments it would look like we signed him up last season as back up and as a useful looking prospect, not as proven red-hot talent, which he clearly wasn't then and can't yet really be described as on the back of a couple of very good performances.

[Millsy]

Some of Puscas's goals have been wonderful finishes. He seems to not be the quickest but then you think of his predator instincts at Wigan which I thinks are his strengths. I think he needs a decent supply of ball from widemen but we just don't play like that.

Best when playing facing the goal imo. So perfect for wide men pinging in crosses from the byline, or deep and pull backs.

Yeah one of my/our criticisms of Pauno has been the lack of plan B and inability to play to strikers' strengths, as I defended Baldock and Puscas, who would often be shoehorned into Joao's role an unsurprisingly not do too well.

Interesting that Baldock scored on his debut yesterday in a shit Derby team, in a typical fast acceleration/right place at the right time Baldock goal.

Of course we may not have the personnel to play to Puscas' or Baldock's strengths so our hands may be tied but you'd hope we will now at least try given we have no other option.

[Snowflake Royal]

Some of Puscas's goals have been wonderful finishes. He seems to not be the quickest but then you think of his predator instincts at Wigan which I thinks are his strengths. I think he needs a decent supply of ball from widemen but we just don't play like that.

Best when playing facing the goal imo. So perfect for wide men pinging in crosses from the byline, or deep and pull backs.

Yeah one of my/our criticisms of Pauno has been the lack of plan B and inability to play to strikers' strengths, as I defended Baldock and Puscas, who would often be shoehorned into Joao's role an unsurprisingly not do too well.

Interesting that Baldock scored on his debut yesterday in a shit Derby team, in a typical fast acceleration/right place at the right time Baldock goal.

Of course we may not have the personnel to play to Puscas' or Baldock's strengths so our hands may be tied but you'd hope we will now at least try given we have no other option.

I'm not a fan of plan B.

I'm a fan of putting in place the resources to play Plan A well. And if it isn't working switch up the players that aren't performing.

Screw trying to build a squad that can play three different ways and ending up with a third suited to one, a third another and a third the final. And not enough of any to play any effectively. Which is what we've done for a decade.

Coppell didn’t have a plan B. He just made Plan A work and slightly adaptable.

[Millsy]

Best when playing facing the goal imo. So perfect for wide men pinging in crosses from the byline, or deep and pull backs.

Yeah one of my/our criticisms of Pauno has been the lack of plan B and inability to play to strikers' strengths, as I defended Baldock and Puscas, who would often be shoehorned into Joao's role an unsurprisingly not do too well.

Interesting that Baldock scored on his debut yesterday in a shit Derby team, in a typical fast acceleration/right place at the right time Baldock goal.

Of course we may not have the personnel to play to Puscas' or Baldock's strengths so our hands may be tied but you'd hope we will now at least try given we have no other option.

I'm not a fan of plan B.

I'm a fan of putting in place the resources to play Plan A well. And if it isn't working switch up the players that aren't performing.

Screw trying to build a squad that can play three different ways and ending up with a third suited to one, a third another and a third the final. And not enough of any to play any effectively. Which is what we've done for a decade.

Coppell didn’t have a plan B. He just made Plan A work and slightly adaptable.

I'm with you on that, in an ideal situation where you can build your squad from scratch. I'm just saying in the current situation where we currently have no Joao, playing Joao footy is risky with whom we have, as it proved last season too.

[Lower West]

Best when playing facing the goal imo. So perfect for wide men pinging in crosses from the byline, or deep and pull backs.

Yeah one of my/our criticisms of Pauno has been the lack of plan B and inability to play to strikers' strengths, as I defended Baldock and Puscas, who would often be shoehorned into Joao's role an unsurprisingly not do too well.

Interesting that Baldock scored on his debut yesterday in a shit Derby team, in a typical fast acceleration/right place at the right time Baldock goal.

Of course we may not have the personnel to play to Puscas' or Baldock's strengths so our hands may be tied but you'd hope we will now at least try given we have no other option.

I'm not a fan of plan B.

That's how managers get found out and the weakness in the formation exposed, over and over again. Managers are increasingly tactically inept. Seem set on playing a certain style rather than having the ability to make something of the actual resources available.

[Snowflake Royal]

Yeah one of my/our criticisms of Pauno has been the lack of plan B and inability to play to strikers' strengths, as I defended Baldock and Puscas, who would often be shoehorned into Joao's role an unsurprisingly not do too well.

Interesting that Baldock scored on his debut yesterday in a shit Derby team, in a typical fast acceleration/right place at the right time Baldock goal.

Of course we may not have the personnel to play to Puscas' or Baldock's strengths so our hands may be tied but you'd hope we will now at least try given we have no other option.

I'm not a fan of plan B.

That's how managers get found out and the weakness in the formation exposed, over and over again. Managers are increasingly tactically inept. Seem set on playing a certain style rather than having the ability to make something of the actual resources available.

Tell that to our most successful manager ever. He didn't switch styles or formations. He just freshened up personnel in the same system. Sometimes they brought a different quality, but the basic plan was the same.

Squad resources are finite. Skill sets are finite. Establish a working system and stick with it, with a variety of players to make it work.

Our problem isn't that we don't have a Plan B for when Joao is out of form or just plain out, it's that we don't have an alternative player to Joao with the right skill set. Because our recruitment is conducted by agents and ever changing managers with no medium term vision, let alone longterm.

[Hendo]

Coppell's plan B was Hunt and Oster rather than Convey and Little

[Snowflake Royal]

Coppell's plan B was Hunt and Oster rather than Convey and Little

My point exactly.

[Westwood52]

Best when playing facing the goal imo. So perfect for wide men pinging in crosses from the byline, or deep and pull backs.

Yeah one of my/our criticisms of Pauno has been the lack of plan B and inability to play to strikers' strengths, as I defended Baldock and Puscas, who would often be shoehorned into Joao's role an unsurprisingly not do too well.

Interesting that Baldock scored on his debut yesterday in a shit Derby team, in a typical fast acceleration/right place at the right time Baldock goal.

Of course we may not have the personnel to play to Puscas' or Baldock's strengths so our hands may be tied but you'd hope we will now at least try given we have no other option.

I'm not a fan of plan B.

I'm a fan of putting in place the resources to play Plan A well. And if it isn't working switch up the players that aren't performing.

Screw trying to build a squad that can play three different ways and ending up with a third suited to one, a third another and a third the final. And not enough of any to play any effectively. Which is what we've done for a decade.

Coppell didn’t have a plan B. He just made Plan A work and slightly adaptable.

Having four strikers and three wingers helped.

[Millsy]

:D

Yeah one of my/our criticisms of Pauno has been the lack of plan B and inability to play to strikers' strengths, as I defended Baldock and Puscas, who would often be shoehorned into Joao's role an unsurprisingly not do too well.

Interesting that Baldock scored on his debut yesterday in a shit Derby team, in a typical fast acceleration/right place at the right time Baldock goal.

Of course we may not have the personnel to play to Puscas' or Baldock's strengths so our hands may be tied but you'd hope we will now at least try given we have no other option.

I'm not a fan of plan B.

I'm a fan of putting in place the resources to play Plan A well. And if it isn't working switch up the players that aren't performing.

Screw trying to build a squad that can play three different ways and ending up with a third suited to one, a third another and a third the final. And not enough of any to play any effectively. Which is what we've done for a decade.

Coppell didn’t have a plan B. He just made Plan A work and slightly adaptable.

Having four strikers and three wingers helped.

I'm trying to think back - did we have a plan B when Brian took us up? It seemed pretty direct stuff all the time.

Yeah I'm sure the best teams have a plan and run with it. Chicken and egg though: does playing with one plan GIVE them the success? Or does the success just preselect teams that were lucky enough never to need to resort to other options i.e. fortunate squad strength/injury luck so they happened to only need one plan, but it wasn't the reason they succeeded.

As I say this is all totally irrelevant in this discussion. It would of course be lovely to have a team of injury-less and supermen and a squad large enough to plough through a single plan regardless of knocks, but the fact is we aren't that team, and haven't been in years, so we have to be practical and be able to use players in a different way as a backup.

Unless the point being made is actually is our plan just the wrong plan to begin with? Because even without injuries, we were being found out and countered easily with physicality and a high press. So if the point is either a)buy another Joao or two or b) rather than keeping this plan and having a plan B maybe change the plan so it's more resilient to injury lottery and opposition tactics, then yes of course I agree with either option. Otherwise we have to have some other fallback option to make the most of Puscas.