MATCHWATCH : Stoke City (a)

[Orion1871]

Is this the fault of the management or players just not being good enough ?

My first away game in a long time ,

Shocking! Totally gutlesss performance by the team , but then they only played to the instructions of the manager. So who is to blame?

Not completely - they were told to keep it tight early on and we are caught out messing around at the back in the first 10 minutes

10+ years of that nonsense and still we never learn.

[CountryRoyal]

Hope you're ok m8 x

Get well soon fella

Thanks guys. I had an appointment with a neurologist last night so will have scan in the next day or two. Fortunately/unfortunately had to go private because NHS GP referral time was 35 weeks. Shambles.

[paultheroyal]

I wish managers would flip the style of play on its head a bit. Get the ball up top from the back, early, long ball, press and win it in the final third. If lost in possession, battle hard to win it back!! The amount of throw ins we have in the final third and it ends up back to Lumley is quite frankly infuriating.

[Mr Angry]

Bang average players trying to play like Barcelona and tika-taki the ball out of their own penalty area are a disaster waiting to happen; at best it slows down play and at worst......well, watch the highlights of Stoke v Reading!

I know the football purists will be up in arms at the suggestions that, every now and then we should go long, but we should. Teams have sussed us out and put us under a high press that results in turnovers and frequently, goals.

[Hound]

Hmm we’re hardly playing like Man City (or even Swansea) now. Barely ever try to play it out - well because of that first goal basically….

We play long ball a fair bit, certainly don’t mess around a lot at the back nowadays. In fact I imagine we prob do less than nearly any team in the div

[South Coast Royal]

Hmm we’re hardly playing like Man City (or even Swansea) now. Barely ever try to play it out - well because of that first goal basically….

We play long ball a fair bit, certainly don’t mess around a lot at the back nowadays. In fact I imagine we prob do less than nearly any team in the div

With our current rag bag collection of players it is probably better not to play out from the back.
Looking at the longer term however I would hope that our younger players will be coached to do both, build from the back when appropriate but play long as well, i.ie a mixture rather than just the one way of playing.

In recent years we do see our young defenders coming through being reasonable on the ball and passing, e.g. McIntyre and Holmes but perhaps they are lacking in what is their first job, defending.

As we keep on saying, this is not the season to criticise much as survival is the sole objective but next season we hopefully will start building teams and the way we play, both short and long, should be the Reading way.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Hmm we’re hardly playing like Man City (or even Swansea) now. Barely ever try to play it out - well because of that first goal basically….

We play long ball a fair bit, certainly don’t mess around a lot at the back nowadays. In fact I imagine we prob do less than nearly any team in the div

When we played Swansea, it was reported that it was the fixture with the two teams with the most contrasting styles in terms of with the ball. Swansea averaged the most possession per game in the league, we averaged the least possession, which suggests we don't just keep hold of the ball.

[Hound]

Hmm we’re hardly playing like Man City (or even Swansea) now. Barely ever try to play it out - well because of that first goal basically….

We play long ball a fair bit, certainly don’t mess around a lot at the back nowadays. In fact I imagine we prob do less than nearly any team in the div

With our current rag bag collection of players it is probably better not to play out from the back.
Looking at the longer term however I would hope that our younger players will be coached to do both, build from the back when appropriate but play long as well, i.ie a mixture rather than just the one way of playing.

In recent years we do see our young defenders coming through being reasonable on the ball and passing, e.g. McIntyre and Holmes but perhaps they are lacking in what is their first job, defending.

As we keep on saying, this is not the season to criticise much as survival is the sole objective but next season we hopefully will start building teams and the way we play, both short and long, should be the Reading way.

Yeah agreed

No good just always kicking it long (or always playing short) as teams can quickly counter that. Being comfortable with both surely the aim

[Snowflake Royal]

Hmm we’re hardly playing like Man City (or even Swansea) now. Barely ever try to play it out - well because of that first goal basically….

We play long ball a fair bit, certainly don’t mess around a lot at the back nowadays. In fact I imagine we prob do less than nearly any team in the div

Absolutely shocked to read people complaining about trying to play like Barcelona still or we should try going back to front quicker.

I must be watching different games to everyone else. Because this season we've been pretty direct and high tempo with very little pissing about at the back. Passing it round defence is still in our armoury and we deploy it mainly when appropriate.

One of our biggest issues is ball retention, you don't get an average of 40% possession pissing about with it slowly in defence like we did under Stam et al.

Yeah, first half against Stoke there were periods where we passed it between CBs and DM inside our half with no clue what to do, but that is very much the exception this year.