That draw should not mask a terrible performance.

If Barnsley had anything about them,they would have strolled that.Three games in a row and we have been collectively terrible.

IMHO

Rafael 5 No chance with the goal,but his kicking was very poor.

Gunter 5 Back to normal service after Leeds.He barely looks a Div 1 player.
Obita 5 An absolute shadow of his best days,they simply strolled past him.
Miazga 4 Looked so awkward.How did he ever get to Chelsea.
Morrison 2 Horrible error .Whats wrong with him ?
Moore 5 Started badly but TBF got better.
Rino 5 Looked a non league player,zero poise on the ball.
Adam 8 A shining light in a sea of s##te
Ejaria 5 Too much Hollywood tonight.
Puskas 4 Screwed up two good chances
Jao 6 Give him his due he did seem to have a measure of control

Blackett One lapse of concentration nearly did for us.
Meite Pub player,missed a sitter
Baldock Showed a bit of vision

Ref Bad first half ,but got better

Rafael made some decent saves, but as you say, a couple of poor kicks

Moore was OK, but looked a bit shaky at times. Miazga was fine. Morrison made a couple of decent blocks but gave away a ridiculous goal. Gunter and Obita, both predictably ineffectual offensively but didn't do too much wrong defensively

Rino had an absolute shocker, looks leggy and needs a game or two off. Ejaria showed why Swift is the better player, no end product time and time again. Adam was a lot better than I thought he would be, but his shot at the end on the counter was ridiculous

Wasn't happening for Joao until he seemed to drift over to the left in the second half and he got us our goal. Puscas offered nothing, stark contrast to the movement Baldock showed. Meite won the corner and expanded the pitch well but really should be at least hitting the target with his chance. Blackett did fine apart from one pass to Adam

2 goals in 5 games now which isn't a set piece and they both came with a 4-4-2

Time to abandon 5 at the back Mr Bowen

Agreed. Five at the back is too restrictive. I really want us to play authentic wingers as well.

Awful performance.

Ejaria needs to help us earn the right to play our football. First do the dirty stuff. Close down, press the opponent. Win us the ball. Then play your silky football. And make sure you release the ball earlier. Use your twinkle toes when it's necessary. But, please first of all seek to supply the strikers or wide players.

I also agree about the not needing five at the back.

It's time to rest Morrison in my opinion. He made numerous mistakes against the Brummies as well as scoring for them. And tonight he made a terrible mistake which caused their goal.

We need an extra body in midfield. We are not dominant enough and we lack width.

Works with decent wingbacks. Sheffield United play it with two high flying wingback (both on the scoresheet on Sunday against Norwich)

Ours simply aren't. You can play Yiadom/Gunter/Obita/Richards or whoever you want there. More or less, you'll get the same outcome. Gunter is afraid to go forward, a non entity in that aspect. Obita can cross the ball in, but never has the chance to because he refuses to take a man on. Richards and Yiadom cut inside too much. And there's your problem. As soon as Meite came on RW, Adam picked up the ball in midfield, switched the play to him, and we were getting crosses in the box. It isn't rocket science. Why it took Bowen 75 minutes to realise it, I have no idea, really poor from him tonight

Certainly not a great performance but there were positives

Barnsley looked reasonably good going forward and had a lot of energy. Don’t think they are a terrible side. An away point is always handy

We looked sharp up front I thought. Puscas held the ball much better, Joao a handful, Meite a bit better and Baldock showed what we’ve been missing. 6 goals for those 4 in the last 3 games.

The midfield didn’t work at all. Adam did well but offers little defensively and Rino and Ejaria stunk the place out. Pele back for Stoke please if not Swift

Nice to see Rafael make some good saves.

Bowen’s subs worked quite well again

Obvs a fair bit of shit as well but seems the other posters have all waded into that

The third terrible performance on the bounce, totally have had enough of this 5-3-2 formation. Its clearly not working with these players, so time to change. Pretty sure Bowen wanted us to play fast attacking direct football!! that"s clearly not happening and for some reason the players have lost confidence and the basic ability to pass to each other.
Its either back to basics with the good old 4-4-2 and wide fast wing play or maybe 4-3-3 or the popular 4-2-3-1. I personally would prefer the 4-3-3 with something like this:

Rafael
Yiadom Miazga Moore Obita
Rhinomota Pele Ejaria
Baldock Puscas Boye

If I was a Reading player I'd be asking for a transfer, the team is a mess and my career would be going nowhere. Absolute shit-show.

What is our gameplan?!

oxf*rd hell.

Glad I’ve had the hour journey home to digest the performance Instead of putting an emotional post straight after the game; some ridiculous comments both on here and on Twitter!

Firstly, no getting away from the fact it was a very poor 1st half and a better team would have been at least 2 up against us. Only Adam & Puscas (when not pushing opponents over) came out of it with any credit. The back 5 were woeful, most notably the wing backs who looked well off the pace. In the few games I’ve seen, I’m not so sure Obita is vastly better than Richards. Gunter was very negative & on a different wavelength to Miazga.

2nd half was an improvement - I’ve read a few laughable comments about Bowen making the wrong subs which simply wasn’t the case. Both Baldock & Meite were the right subs and injected much needed energy. Granted the changes could’ve come a bit sooner, but they were positive. Other laughable comments about wanting to see us play with wingers...we have just 1 winger who is over the hill so that’s not the answer. We could play a diamond, or a 4-2-3-1 Or 4-3-3 with narrow inside forwards...Meite only seems capable of that role as shown by a decent showing tonight.

Another laughable comment about us holding on...we were the more likely to win that game in the last 10 minutes; end to end stuff but we were looking better.

Another laughable comment about us hoofing it forward - the goal came from us messing around with the ball at the back. And there were several other occasions where we tried to play it out. Cabral to me is an average goalkeeper. 3 centre backs doesn’t suit Moore but the other 2 looked ok.

Rino was off the pace but Adam put in a decent showing. The fact that he was our best player summed up the fact we just aren’t a very good side really.

Other laughable comments previously calling for Joao to start - the bloke is distinctly average. Yes he scored tonight but he’s lazy and...just not very good.

Finally, it’s laughable that some fans got so upset at Bowen’s reaction to the abuse he received at the end tonight. If you’re going to dish it out, you have to learn to take it. Bunch of snowflakes!

Just got in. I am frozen and utterly fed up. That was a truly dreadful game of football. Both teams were awful. If Barnsley didn’t need us to gift them a goal, they could have been 2 or 3 up at HT. We were nowhere in the first 45......despite that superb chance for Puscas. We only really came to life when Yaks and Baldock came on.
The only positives for me were that Rafael looked solid (not amazing, just solid) and was unlucky with the goal. Adam played well 2nd half, once we discovered that if you give him the ball, he can do stuff with it. Also Ovie did provide some amusing moments of completely humiliating some of the back 4......however, he needs to do more of the less glamorous stuff in games like that. Overall, that is 90 minutes and 3 fingers that I’ll never get back...

Pass to Ejaria, watch him inevitably lose it because he's either got no options or he spends three hours dawdling on the ball? Then maybe score from a set play

We were beginning to implement a style under Bowen and it's completely gone. They go long when they can retain it with a short, simple pass, and then they go short under pressure. Obviously Morrison is at fault for the goal, but I can't get my head around why Rafael even passes to Morrison. Stupid pass and the epitome of our recent seasons

Hopefully with Baldock and Swift back, we can start to get our style back. Arguably our two most important players, not even just so much for Baldock's play himself, but he seems to improve his partner's performance (Joao looked a lot better with Baldock)

Who would sign them? How many clubs have actually shown an interest in any of our players in the last few years?

We've had to pay people to take players off us or send them to one of the owners other clubs.

Ok I've had some time to think on it now and want to credit Barnsley. They, like us, were terrible. But at least their players looked like they wanted to stay up this season. They ran when they had to, fought when they had to and put us under some well sustained pressure. If I was a Barnsley fan I would be pretty pissed off that the team who seem to lazily accept that they are "too good" to get relegated snatched a draw there. Which we did. We didnt deserve that. Of course I'm glad we got it.

I dont think anyone in our team was good. Not even ok. It was as disjointed as I've seen us. We were lopsided and mismanaged. Gunter pushed high on his flank and Obita stood off all game. We basically invited diagonal balls and whipped crosses. Morrison and Moore pushed high to press (neither doing it particularly well) while Miazga stayed back to play everyone inside.

We played forwards up the left and back/central from the right. Infuriating game plan. If it was one.

Rinomhota and Adam struggled to find each other all game. I think the only passes were when they were pressed and completely out of other options. Although neither were poor, they did not work well together. Adam is turned too easily in defence (he cant circle around fast enough and Barnsley clearly knew that) and Rinomhota pressing fast left Adam with too much running to do. Out of sync. In fact, twice, they challenged each other for the same aerial ball allowing Barnsley to attack empty space.

Funnily Adam grew into the game. He looked sharper in the last 10 minutes. Another assist too. I no longer think he is a waste of space. He serves a purpose. But not as a starter. Our defence cant handle it.

Rafael made some decent saves. There is a debate brewing over whether or not he is actually any good so maybe this was a game to earmark for his shot blocking ability?

Ejaria struggled but got fired up for brief 5 minute intervals. He is seemingly our only player capable of winning a free kick.

I really though Joao/Puscas could work. It didnt. Puscas made his runs too early and Joao doesnt look up enough. I hadn't noticed that before. When he found Obita for the chance in the second half Puscas was central and clear. A simple pass inside and it would have been a goal. In fact of he had hit the pass at the exact same angle and strength to the right instead of the left he would have found Puscas ready.

Anyone doubting Joao as a hold up player should think back on last night. His trapping of the ball is unrivalled in our squad (not that, that is a high benchmark) and that is essential if we are going to continue. He did look a wee bit stroppy when things didnt go his way. Bit like Barrow.

Baldock looked bright. Great cross to find Meite. Shame he got under it. Wouldn't be averse to seeing Joao/Baldock against Stoke. Baldock seems to be our most intelligent forward (again, not saying much) and could link up nicely as Puscas likes to spend his time on the defenders heels and Meite has been known to drift about so can be hard to find.

All in all a very poor game. Both teams looked crap. Ours looked unmotivated. Back to defensive errors, easily overrun midfield and neutered attacking. Long may it last.

I can see a problem with that.

Rafael keeps us in the game but gets a 5

Clueless.

Works with decent wingbacks. Sheffield United play it with two high flying wingback (both on the scoresheet on Sunday against Norwich)

Ours simply aren't. You can play Yiadom/Gunter/Obita/Richards or whoever you want there. More or less, you'll get the same outcome. Gunter is afraid to go forward, a non entity in that aspect. Obita can cross the ball in, but never has the chance to because he refuses to take a man on. Richards and Yiadom cut inside too much. And there's your problem. As soon as Meite came on RW, Adam picked up the ball in midfield, switched the play to him, and we were getting crosses in the box. It isn't rocket science. Why it took Bowen 75 minutes to realise it, I have no idea, really poor from him tonight

Can't disagree on the general point of that but:

Gunter isn't afraid to go forward there were at least 2 occasions in the first half yesterday where firstly he linked up really well with Puscas and got in the box before being tackled and secondly he was the only Reading player with Puscas when he took a poor touch after a bobble and couldn't shoot/square for a tap in - Gunter even gave him an ear full.

Only annoying time with Gunter yesterday was an occasion after yet another excellent Adam pass where he burst forward, suddenly stopped and passed it backwards - probably a hangover of Stam/Gomes - which ended up with the ball back with Rafael to boot forward and we lost the ball. If you look at Gunter's heatmap most of his touches were in the Barnsley half.

Overall a very disappointing performance and the tone was set in the first few mins when Obita fell over and Moore completely missed his kick and sent the ball out for a corner under no pressure. We were lucky Barnsley are total pony else we would have been 2 or 3 down at the break - as is from the moment Joao scored we probably had a 10/15 min spell where we should have scored the second - how Meite doesn't hit the target from a Baldock cross that simply had "goal" written all over it, only he'll know.

On the flipside, once that spell finished we just switched off and seemed to think we could coast to the point - very nearly coming unstuck as a result.

Having had a bit of time to recover from watching it, I think a lot of the criticism is a bit of an overreaction tbh

A cold Wednesday evening in Barnsley, who have just come off a good home win and a couple of reasonable performances in defeat, we kick a goal into our own net, and still come away with a point. 2 of our key players were either out or only fit for the bench, and the third - Ejaria, just coming back of injury (and had a shocker)

It was disappointing at times, but its also a reasonable job done. We're a lower mid table team, and have no god given right to go and win at Barnsley. The strikers are scoring, and we have again come back from a goal down.

There's plenty to improve, but also some good signs

To be fair to Ejaria there was never anyone showing for him to release the ball to! That's why Swift is such a massive miss.

Ejaria is a one-trick pony. Is he gonna spend his entire midfield career trying to dribble round 3 or more defenders ? Try putting a tackle in ffs.

Pass to Ejaria, watch him inevitably lose it because he's either got no options or he spends three hours dawdling on the ball? Then maybe score from a set play

We were beginning to implement a style under Bowen and it's completely gone. They go long when they can retain it with a short, simple pass, and then they go short under pressure. Obviously Morrison is at fault for the goal, but I can't get my head around why Rafael even passes to Morrison. Stupid pass and the epitome of our recent seasons



No reason at all why Rafael shouldn't have passed to Morrison. He was in acres of space and had absolutely ages to move the ball on. Instead, he dithered on it and, rather than hit long when he was closed down, seemed to try to take it past the player. His error was so bad that you could almost be forgiven for thinking a gambling syndicate might have got to him! Can we please have the old Michael Morrison back?

TBF I can understand us wanting to mix direct football with playing it out, but we`re not bloody Man city, just play how you feel comfortable. for me it was too much long stuff that made it into a scrappy encounter with no midfielders able to put their foot on the ball.

Oh and you twitter pricks can just fukk off.

I don't think the pitch helped last night - ball seemed to bobble a hell of a lot. No excuse for a shoddy performance but may have had some impact.

Pass to Ejaria, watch him inevitably lose it because he's either got no options or he spends three hours dawdling on the ball? Then maybe score from a set play

We were beginning to implement a style under Bowen and it's completely gone. They go long when they can retain it with a short, simple pass, and then they go short under pressure. Obviously Morrison is at fault for the goal, but I can't get my head around why Rafael even passes to Morrison. Stupid pass and the epitome of our recent seasons



No reason at all why Rafael shouldn't have passed to Morrison. He was in acres of space and had absolutely ages to move the ball on. Instead, he dithered on it and, rather than hit long when he was closed down, seemed to try to take it past the player. His error was so bad that you could almost be forgiven for thinking a gambling syndicate might have got to him! Can we please have the old Michael Morrison back?
I can think of one reason he shouldnt have. Barnsley had pressed high all game and Morrison is our weakest player on the ball. Common sense imo. And actually it's a recurring theme for us. Decision making is poor.

part of the problem was it was quite a long pass across the face of the goal. It gave the Barnsley attacker that extra second or two to close him down.

And as stated the pitch wasn't great either, so MM had to take care to control the ball.

It wasn't a great idea to pass to him, but then he should have just walloped it away somewhere. Had 2 chances to do so

No reason at all why Rafael shouldn't have passed to Morrison. He was in acres of space and had absolutely ages to move the ball on. Instead, he dithered on it and, rather than hit long when he was closed down, seemed to try to take it past the player. His error was so bad that you could almost be forgiven for thinking a gambling syndicate might have got to him! Can we please have the old Michael Morrison back?
I can think of one reason he shouldnt have. Barnsley had pressed high all game and Morrison is our weakest player on the ball. Common sense imo. And actually it's a recurring theme for us. Decision making is poor.

This - Barnsley had been high pressing literally all game and to good effect.

No reason at all why Rafael shouldn't have passed to Morrison. He was in acres of space and had absolutely ages to move the ball on. Instead, he dithered on it and, rather than hit long when he was closed down, seemed to try to take it past the player. His error was so bad that you could almost be forgiven for thinking a gambling syndicate might have got to him! Can we please have the old Michael Morrison back?
I can think of one reason he shouldnt have. Barnsley had pressed high all game and Morrison is our weakest player on the ball. Common sense imo. And actually it's a recurring theme for us. Decision making is poor.

Pretty much this. Look at where the Barnsley player is. At best Morrison gets a couple of touches before having to move it on. We know he struggles at times with the ball at his feet, and he wasn’t exactly blessed with options on the ball. Morrison apportions most of the blame there but Rafael really should have thought better in that situation too

I can see a problem with that.

Good job January is around the corner then

For now, we have Meite, McCleary, Boye, Obita/Richards could probably do a job

Not ideal obviously, but not sure we can get much worse than the last three games

Works with decent wingbacks. Sheffield United play it with two high flying wingback (both on the scoresheet on Sunday against Norwich)

Ours simply aren't. You can play Yiadom/Gunter/Obita/Richards or whoever you want there. More or less, you'll get the same outcome. Gunter is afraid to go forward, a non entity in that aspect. Obita can cross the ball in, but never has the chance to because he refuses to take a man on. Richards and Yiadom cut inside too much. And there's your problem. As soon as Meite came on RW, Adam picked up the ball in midfield, switched the play to him, and we were getting crosses in the box. It isn't rocket science. Why it took Bowen 75 minutes to realise it, I have no idea, really poor from him tonight

Can't disagree on the general point of that but:

Gunter isn't afraid to go forward there were at least 2 occasions in the first half yesterday where firstly he linked up really well with Puscas and got in the box before being tackled and secondly he was the only Reading player with Puscas when he took a poor touch after a bobble and couldn't shoot/square for a tap in - Gunter even gave him an ear full.

Only annoying time with Gunter yesterday was an occasion after yet another excellent Adam pass where he burst forward, suddenly stopped and passed it backwards - probably a hangover of Stam/Gomes - which ended up with the ball back with Rafael to boot forward and we lost the ball. If you look at Gunter's heatmap most of his touches were in the Barnsley half.

Overall a very disappointing performance and the tone was set in the first few mins when Obita fell over and Moore completely missed his kick and sent the ball out for a corner under no pressure. We were lucky Barnsley are total pony else we would have been 2 or 3 down at the break - as is from the moment Joao scored we probably had a 10/15 min spell where we should have scored the second - how Meite doesn't hit the target from a Baldock cross that simply had "goal" written all over it, only he'll know.

On the flipside, once that spell finished we just switched off and seemed to think we could coast to the point - very nearly coming unstuck as a result.

To be honest, whilst Barnsley aren’t great, they don’t look like a team that should have been 8 points adrift off relegation, Ive seen plenty worse teams this season

General consensus from their fans is their defence is woeful. Which, sort of, went with the flow of the game, no idea how the ball went through for our goal and how they left Meite and Joao so free for Meite’s headed chance was slightly strange

Of course, if we’d played onto their weaknesses a bit more, we could have got more from the game. Now we’re looking onto Stoke where we need a point minimum

yep as said elsewhere, a point at Barnsley isn't as bad as some are trying to suggest.

They were pretty good in midfield, but yeah, the defence didnt look too hot.

Stoke could get within a couple of points of us with a win - its another no-lose really. Would take a point happily enough