FFFFFF Is anyone else sick of watching a bunch of little kids get their asses handed to them by men? God, i hate this season. Did we get stuck in once today? F'ing Blades and we're letting them run free, giving six foot cushions. We play like a bunch of very talented kids who don't know the first thing about what it takes to actually win a football match. That, of course, might be because that's exactly what we are. On overall skill, we're brilliant. We could and did at times dance circles around a good United side. But we lost every 50-50 ball. In fact, i'm pretty sure we lost every 60-40 ball. We certainly lost every contested ball in the air. We stood and watched, again, assuming balls would roll out of bounds, while United ran onto them and made plays. In space, we make these brilliant combos, it's stunning at times. But do we ever put a man on his back? No, kind of tough to do that when we're lying there ourselves, I guess... The fire that Harper brings in the last four minutes is exactly what we're missing. he's got to start, bring a bit of passion to the kiddie fashion show. i know, this is what a youth movement is all about. they're learning. But the all style no substance play we're getting right now is driving me out of my mind. God, Morgan treated our players like bopper clowns. We get pushed off the ball and turn to the referee looking for a call, in the f'ing championship? meanwhile, Sheffield pushes ahead. At one point, it may have been sifi, makes a nice physical play, wins the ball and turns to look at the ref, assuming he's about to be whistled. christ. What we've seen, this group of kids, if they ever man up and become actual professionals who fight for every ball, every second of the game, could be spectacular. on current form, they're going to be pushed around the field by almost certainly inferior talent week in, week out.
Rodgers needs to start Mooney, Matejovsky, and Harper. Losing every single week will not help the team's confidence. And we need to buy another striker, and either a winger or cmid. Given that we've seen no ambition over the past 4-5 transfer windows, we won't see any in this one either. Losing Bikey and getting milquetoast Mills hasn't helped us either. At least Rodgers was blatently honest about "all the money not being available". His tactics haven't impressed me in the slightest, and being outmanuevered by Kevin Blackwell doesn't bode well. We are a ship listing in the water with Rodgers brought in with a bucket full of holes, meanwhile the loudspeaker is blaring all is well.
I agree with EVERYTHING you said, mschofield. I didn't realize the significant change that would come abroad after last year but this is too much. I don't mind youngsters in our squad, especially the way we used em last year which i think created a pretty positive outcome but, solely relying on them, especially for promotion, isn't going to lead us anywhere. The slow death of RFC is upon us.
A day to cool off, and would add this, i think young un-spellable icelandic kid, sylfi or whatever, may be the most exciting talent i've seen at reading since the first days of young sids. i think he's got amazing potential, big four potential i think, in four years, several of these kids can be very good prem players. i just don't think that will be with us, if we keep listing. we simply need steel.
There's no other thread I can see where this is sort of "fits", so I'm just going to say it here. Mother. ********. Ugh.
thank god we're not the only ones. Here Hunt vents his anger, and more importantly, perhaps, though only perhaps, Rodgers vents his frustration
Well, it's good to see they're bothered about it, but I certainly won't feel any better about this until the results come. This is just not a squad that should be in the position we're at right now. I didn't necessarily expect it to click 100% from the off, with a young squad and a new manager...but I never thought it'd be this bad. Still, it's a long season. There's time to improve. And, boy, does it need to improve...
The only problem i have with the "we are too talented to go down" and "it's a long season" argument is that in the ccc, it's always a scramble, and every point counts for a lot. if you're not stealing a couple here and there, it's very hard to catch up when you find your feet. I can't see this team going down, but, i knew leeds, newc, forrest would never drop from the prem, as well. I fear that this is now our natural level, the ccc, and when we do things well we can challenge and go up, and if we're lucky we can yo-yo. but it's a thin line between that and danger, isn't it?
I'm not sure Rodgers knows what he's doing. I'd be interested in comparing how previously relegated teams have faired, especially considering our fire sale of players & replacement on the cheap policy.
i'm not quite there, but i wonder. still, of the players rodgers sold this year, the only ones that really bug me are harps and rosenoir. doyle, hunt, bikey we were never going to keep, and at least we got cash in return. harps and rosenoir were just put on an ice flow. I'm not at all sure we got more from howard than we had in harps, seems like for like,b ut we paid money for the switch. Cumming at least has potential, But, another concern here is that this is really looking like at least a two year project, and we've got two main players right now, odea and bertrand, who are loaners and will be gone before we reap any rewards. if we owned bertrands contract, i'd feel pretty good about the summer dealings and see this as a project for the future.
We may not be little Reading for that much longer... http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2635779/Reading-set-for-80m-takeover.html From several rumors I have heard, negotiations are in the advanced stages. It should be quiet for a few more weeks until we hear something from this again.
The cheering for the first shot on target in the 90th minute at a home match pretty much sums up this season. Quite a few things wrong with this side.
I dunno, this isn't a new rumor. i, for one, believe SJM has been the best owner in the club's history, and it would be sad to see him leave. anew owner, with a bucket of cash, might solve some problems. BTW, was anyone surprised to see lita score one, and, he claims, two?
the list is long and puzzling. Given the size of last season's wage bill, i understand now why we have on a youth movement. dosn't make me happy about it though
SJM has been the best owner in the club's history, without a doubt. I certainly wouldn't be a fan of Reading if he hadn't invested in it. Current form, we need more firepower. We might need to return to the dreaded 442.
Brenda's tykes can't get it done again. Its a shame all the progress in the last 10 years is being thrown away on a man with his book of tactics and large watch. We need to go back to simple, direct football.
http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/f...rs_reading_fc_still_lacking_my_type_of_player Maybe we'll finally start winning some games.
Glad i've not been able to watch but just a couple of the matches this year. bummer to check the scores online or after the fact only to see the losses keep piling up. it's early days yet i know, but relegation is a real fear at this point.
Not too much confidence about regarding that quote, mainly because we've got worse since he bought his players in. There are newborn babies that weren't even conceived the last time we won at home. I think he's got three games before possibly being invited into Madejski's office for a small chat. The last of those is a home game v Ipswich. Lose that one and I'm sure Rodgers will be passed a service revolver and invited to retire to the drawing room.
The problem i have with filling a warm bath for the man, and handing him the razor, is that Reading can look really good these days. They can pass and move and make the beautiful game really beautiful. It's just all the little things they fing can't do. they don't fight for the their space, they give up too quickly on balls, they hit the ground when standing it is needed. They're skilled, but stupid. Fast, but weak. It's frustrating, because they look like a lot of clubs I've watched, that once the key turns, they could be as good as it gets in CCC. but that key won't turn. It's like watching crewe when they went down. they looked like a team that should have been pushing for a playoff position, but they gave up stupid goals, and failed to score easy ones.
and while he hand't exactly been unstoppable this year, the fact that n hunt is out for the season is dagger for this club. I mean, he was as close to clinical and anyone we have.