Selles In

[Sutekh]

Is that 4 wins, 4 draws, 1 defeat in 9? Massive improvement over a sustained period. Looked very tired and lethargic against Cheltenham and today, but it was the end of a busy period and ultimately points matter. Hope we'll look fresher after a fortnight off and keep this going.

Still cant help but feel it's despite him not because of him.

[Royalwaster]

Is that 4 wins, 4 draws, 1 defeat in 9? Massive improvement over a sustained period. Looked very tired and lethargic against Cheltenham and today, but it was the end of a busy period and ultimately points matter. Hope we'll look fresher after a fortnight off and keep this going.

Still cant help but feel it's despite him not because of him.

No - I think you've got to give him some credit. He started the season with no proper pre-season and a hastily assembled squad - and also lack of real management experience ... and I think he's slowly learning from his mistakes. Has managed to get Femi to play like a god when pretty much everyone on here was writing him off - I remember reading posts like: 'I never want to see him in a Reading shirt again' ... so some credit has to go to Ruben for that.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Managers are judged by results. This is now a sustained run of good form. Even if you remain skeptical, it would be mad timing to change the manager now (and obviously he remains in a job so long as Dai stays anyway).

[Royal Rother]

It's funny how in retrospect everyone was always agreeing with me when I'm right, but before the fact I'm always wrong.

There's been dozens of match threads on here over the past 4 years where countless posters have bemoaned the lack of defensive cover provided by the midfield, and about how when we clear the ball it comes straight back because our CM can't dominate and control the game, or about how Swift can't influence the game because he needs an enforcer along side him to give him freedom, along with numerous discussions about a narrow midfield resulting in our full backs getting rinsed when they push forward. In fact, that particular discussion has been going on for nigh on a decade.

I think the problem here Ian is that you're only interested in the sound of your own voice to the point that you blank out most things that you can't argue with.

Ooof!

[Hound]

Difficult to judge Selles really. Still don’t think the tactics or performance were great today - this Abbey long ball hoof to Smith thing is rubbish, plus the seeming lack of wanting to play through our two decent midfield players is odd

We still seem to be quite similar to how we started the season but just the ‘small margins’ etc going our way.

Though would say
Settled team
Abbey, Binden etc picking up experience through the season
Craig + more sensible shape/formation
Dorsett > NGW etc
Knibbs, Smith, Azeez forming a good combination and staying fit
Wing staying fit
Azeez becoming genuinely good

Are all massive factors in why we are now getting results. Selles can of course take credit for some of them. Though often that’s correcting his own mistakes which is of course still a good thing

[Millsy]

Is that 4 wins, 4 draws, 1 defeat in 9? Massive improvement over a sustained period. Looked very tired and lethargic against Cheltenham and today, but it was the end of a busy period and ultimately points matter. Hope we'll look fresher after a fortnight off and keep this going.

Still cant help but feel it's despite him not because of him.

Exactly this. Lol @ people getting excited and acting like we won a cup final, for scraping past a truly awful actual league one relegation side, who were (still are) the lowest scorers in the division yet still happened to put two past us today at home with ease. The level of gloating and ecstasy had me running to the table expecting us to be in the promotion places only to see us *just* outside the relegation zone on goal difference and having played an extra game. Ok so take off the points deduction and it's still firmly in relegation dogfight territory. Even two of our most clueless managers of all time (Pauno and Ince) managed to pull of far more impressive runs. Even Taxi had his moments. But still, really hoping we're wrong and this form will continue till the end of the season if suddenly everything has clicked with Selles' masterplan. Judging by the performances against two very poor sides recently it seems the masterplan is nothing other than "count your lucky stars and hope that Azeez is keeps carrying the team."

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Is that 4 wins, 4 draws, 1 defeat in 9? Massive improvement over a sustained period. Looked very tired and lethargic against Cheltenham and today, but it was the end of a busy period and ultimately points matter. Hope we'll look fresher after a fortnight off and keep this going.

Still cant help but feel it's despite him not because of him.

I don't really think that's fair though considering pretty much all the early season criticism was "because of him". As many have mentioned, we aren't playing that much better/worse (bar 40 minutes at Cheltenham) than earlier in the season and we aren't doing that much differently. We are still an open team who obviously want to be expansive, but now the fine margins are going our way probably because of a few tweaks to the side, formations and personnel. We all now know the XI we can trust really and those who will deliver, it's just a shame that outside that XI the rest of the players are just inconsistent.

That credit, for me, goes to the manager. Sticking to his principles and adjusting a few things in the team. Moving Knibbs central has seen him do a complete 180, he was ineffective before but now he is impacting games and getting goals. Massive additions have been Wing and Smith in our side, Holmes has slotted back in effectively, Craig is doing a better job in the holding role than Savage, Hutchinson etc. This isn't to give Selles a golden review or anything, because the narrative can quickly change in 5 games time, but at the current moment, he's doing well and it's hard to argue.

[Royal_jimmy]

2 home wins, 2 away draws over Christmas with some tricky games in there. 8 points is a terrific return.

Well done Ruben!

[Snowflake Royal]

Football is rubbish, but we're getting results for now.

[Royal_jimmy]

Football is rubbish, but we're getting results for now.

3rd tier football is rather poor. You wanted it so you can't moan

[Stranded]

Current form tables:

4 games: 4th
6 games: 9th
8 games: 8th
10 games: 8th
12 games: 11th

So essentially, we were rubbish for the first 13 games of Selles reign, which would be for a number of reasons - some self induced, others a learning curve, others out of his hands.

Since then though,we are getting top half results. Mindset is stronger too, defeats like the Shrewsbury & Pompey ones, don't look like happening again.

As an attacking force, it is now working - 21 goals in last 10 games. Now if we could just sort the defensive side of the game...

Nice mid-season break for the side now.

[Rax]

I'm happy to give the guy time - obviously the behind the scenes situation isn't helping!

What I can't get my head around though is Holmes's omission today - he was immense last game and yet gets completely dropped

[rabidbee]

I'm happy to give the guy time - obviously the behind the scenes situation isn't helping!

What I can't get my head around though is Holmes's omission today - he was immense last game and yet gets completely dropped

He is injured.

[Sanguine]

Football is rubbish, but we're getting results for now.

3rd tier football is rather poor. You wanted it so you can't moan

Ha, I'd forgotten that Ian-ism, fwiw. He wasn't alone, but now you mention it, Ian was adamant that third tier football wouldn't be all that bad.

[Sanguine]

And 'we are doing well in spite of the manager' is tedious nonsense. He coaches them all week, picks the team, the formation, the tactics and manages things in-game. It didn't come off at the start of the season - perhaps in part owing to the relative inexperience of the team, but that team is now clearly growing and Selles should get a bunch of credit for overseeing a turnaround in results. Obviously.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Football is rubbish, but we're getting results for now.

credit indeed

[Stranded]

And 'we are doing well in spite of the manager' is tedious nonsense. He coaches them all week, picks the team, the formation, the tactics and manages things in-game. It didn't come off at the start of the season - perhaps in part owing to the relative inexperience of the team, but that team is now clearly growing and Selles should get a bunch of credit for overseeing a turnaround in results. Obviously.

There were more than enough posts calling this season early on for it to be a surprise. A lot said that with an inexperienced squad led by an inexperienced boss that it was likely we would start slowly before hopefully improving in the second half of rhe season.

How bad we were may have jolted a lot of us, myself included, but hopefully this improvement, which has now lasted about 1/4 of the season, continues.

[Rax]

I'm happy to give the guy time - obviously the behind the scenes situation isn't helping!

What I can't get my head around though is Holmes's omission today - he was immense last game and yet gets completely dropped

He is injured.

Is he - have heard nothing official.....

[URZZZZ]

And 'we are doing well in spite of the manager' is tedious nonsense. He coaches them all week, picks the team, the formation, the tactics and manages things in-game. It didn't come off at the start of the season - perhaps in part owing to the relative inexperience of the team, but that team is now clearly growing and Selles should get a bunch of credit for overseeing a turnaround in results. Obviously.

There were more than enough posts calling this season early on for it to be a surprise. A lot said that with an inexperienced squad led by an inexperienced boss that it was likely we would start slowly before hopefully improving in the second half of rhe season.

How bad we were may have jolted a lot of us, myself included, but hopefully this improvement, which has now lasted about 1/4 of the season, continues.

The main issue was the 4-2-2-2 formation we persevered with for too long. The two “CAM”s in particular, looked completely lost under it. Know there was a fair amount of to and fro with regards to whether the formation was the issue but you only have to look at the transformation in Azeez and Knibbs’ game since changing to the 4-1-4-1, partly down to the fact they have much clearer, defined roles in the team

Think there’s still a long way to go for Selles here as major flaws are still apparent with an inability to keep a clean sheet and I think to an extent, we do still over rely on individual brilliance to score goals. However he is somewhat learning from his mistakes and has shown he can be flexible when needed so credit there for that

[RG30]

Coincidence form has picked up with Andrew Sparkes demoted and Eddie Niedzwiecki being more hands on within the coaching set-up?