Looking at this after a win, and on a break, so perspective instead of anger. But this team wasn't dismantled over the summer. We lost one very good player in Sids, who had been replaced effectively at times last year. We jettisoned Seol, who had a great deal to do with our early season success, but slipped badly after that and isn't exactly lighting it up for fulham, either. It's second season, so maybe the players think they belong, or the refs are calling us tighter, or the others know our style, or whatever, but there have to be reasons for a side that plays a set, aggressive, organized style to look unorganized and chaotic. Clearly, we need everyone playing their best, and that's simply not the case. Shorey has been poor, doyle now has one goal, gunn looks slow, as does murts. the center defenders are giving up too much space. the wings can't cross effectively. So, what is behind what's wrong right now? Is the defense too slow? The way benjani raced through us makes this a real concern. Is Murts leaving too much space available on the right, which is ruining our shape? How many times have we been beat down his side this season? Not as often as we're beat down Shorey's, you say? Okay, point to you. but our wide defense is letting in way too many dangerous balls. Of course, when they're not, people are running freely through the center and maybe the issue here is that with duberry and sonko in central def, we don't have the speed anymore to make up for any mistakes there? Lord knows we seem to be missing Sids, a lot, in cleaning up mistakes. Also, i love marcus, but are we seeing him exposed? A keeper clearly is not responsible for most goals, but when there's a very slim margin, he can't give up howlers, and needs to make the occassional miracle save. He is and he's not, so that's a problem. But, IMO, our central problem is actually on the wings. We don't have the wing play we need in this side to play our game. We're not creating the wide pressure that kept us going all last year. we're not giving our strikers enough good chances, and that's primarily down to a lack of quality on the cross. Our best play last year came when Little was playing on the right, and I'd say we miss him a ton more than sids. But he's gone for this season, and maybe forever at this level. We need to re-establish width. Hunt is fine cutting in if we're maintain width on the right. Fae or rosenoir would be fine on the left if we were maintaining width on the left. but we're not, and we're way too narrow, not talented enough to play that style and getting skinned and killed on the break because of it. The coppell wings play a killer style. right now, they're not. I think we need convey, as much asn anyone on this roster.
When you can't put your finger on the problem, then it's the midfield. That's my rule of thumb... And I'll follow that on by pointing out that some of the matches I have seen had very poor linking of defense to offense. This left the strikers starved of possession and the defenders far too busy. I also agree that it was wing play with Convey and Seol that carried the early play last season, and that there is far less of it this season. What confounds me this season was the spirited displays to open with ManU, Chelsea and Everton, only to look so poor against bottom 10 clubs.
Well, here's one concrete problem: Kits going into detail about why he doesn't like to train hard. This, i believe, explains both why he's always injured and why he's going to continue to be an occassional player. Frankly, it's the attitude of a player who needs a swift kick. http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/readingfc/2016/2016461/im_a_nightmare_to_train
but it's hardly a recent thing, and he's probably been our most consistent player this season. To be honest it appears to be more of dislike of knackering himself out than the tactical side of training. Overall I'd put it down to mainly two things. 1) lower motivation. A second season in the premier league just isn't as exciting as a first. It's not that players are going through the motions, but that extra 5% that came from that initial excitement has gone. 2) no shape to the team with no fit natural right-sided player. additionally, I'd say that achieving the goal of survival so early last season meant that the rest of the season went a bit flat. I think the Korea trip was a mistake. Two games against very tough opposition, and another against a team used to the draining conditions meant certain players came back low on confidence.