And I thought our performance against Birmingham was bad!!!

First the excuses - the pitch was not great and it was very windy.

Now the reality - we were outplayed by a mid Div 2 side. They had 12 shots (5 on target) to our 6 shots (2 on target) and 11 corners to our 1!! I lost count of the times we literally passed the ball to the opposition or passed it out of play. It was embarrassing!

No-one comes out with any great credit. Jaakkola made a few good saves but his distribution painfully slow and awful! Barrow and Bacuna at least tried albeit not very successfully. And what was the idea in setting the side up with no striker?

At least it was only about 1 miles journey for me!!

It’s not the result. Leicester drew with Fleetwood. Stoke lost to Cov. It’s the manner of this result and recent results. Just shockingly poor and above all BORING! It feels worse than under Brendan (he had a transitional team full of kids) and Adkins (we were never so low in the league). It’s all becoming a bit desperate.....

Thought Omar looked brilliant. Other than that absolutely dire. Bacuna had a shocker. Kelly poor. Jaakkola slow and ponderous with every goal kick.

Playing no strikers against a league 2 team

Omar was the stand out player, especially first half. Not quite as good as against Derby, but so much potential. How he's not played more is a complete mystery. Rest of the team really poor, but the set up and selection by Jaap was so negative. Jaakola was so slow and they completely had our passing out from the back sussed, so we had to go long, with two short wingers playing up front. Just didn't keep the ball all game, midfield completely invisible, apart from Kelly's inability to find a team mate with his passing. To his credit he did keep going and was marginally better as the game went on. So many players just look a shadow of last season. Joey's only moments of brilliance come when he's solving his own problems. Swift came on and was shocking, just so lightweight. McShane poor again. Can't believe how far he's lost it. Stevenage were nothing special, but made us look really, really poor.

Have to say that was one of the most toxic away crowds I've been part of. Yep, the team is out of form, but some of the negativity was unbelievable. No doubt that was why McShane behaved as he did and tried to get the team down the tunnel with acknowledging us. Not sure who changed his mind, but I've never seen anything like it. Start acting like a captain, grow a pair and help turn this dreadful season around.

It wasn't just his goal kicks (many of which he kicked out of play!). When he had made a save and with Stevenage committed to attack, he failed to release the ball quickly to set up a counter attack.

Kelly was shockingly bad.

It wasn't just his goal kicks (many of which he kicked out of play!). When he had made a save and with Stevenage committed to attack, he failed to release the ball quickly to set up a counter attack.

Yeah sorry, not just kicks.

It was painful to watch and I can only assume he's been coached to take as long as possible with every distribution. The slowness permeates every member of the team though.

Agree with all of that but are you saying that the crowds reaction wasn't justified? You're playing no striker against a league 2 team and had 1 shot on target? it's not rocket since.

I'm done.

Done with Stam

Done with the players (barring Richards)

Done with McShane being out captain.

Awful
Boring
Cold
Disappointing
Expected

Have to agree with previous comments regarding how poor this was. Yeah the fans did give some stick but why should players have to be treated with kid gloves to spare their wafer thin feelings. They are happy to take the plaudits with 30k+ supporting them at Wembley so when they can't be arsed to turn up for a game or three against the likes of Stevenage or Burton please spare me the sympaphy.
And yes I am still going to Hull next week!

So over Xmas and New Year we've played...

A team that were 20th at the time
A team that were 23rd at the time
A team that were bottom at the time
And a League Two side

P4 W0 D2 L2

Mental. I'm sure it doesn't help them, but the players surely cannot be too pissed off with getting stick from the fans.

Unfortunately it seems that Stam’s own thin skin has leached through to the players

Wasn’t there today but the offence he takes to a couple of boos at home has obvs led to the them and us mentality that led to today’s effort from McShane

It was all quite enjoyable really. But we were laughably poor.

Jaakola 4 saved well but looked far less competent than their debutant

Richards 8 the one good thing about the game - why were we playing Gunter and Bacuna out of position instead of him?
MacShane 2 he has gone
Ilori 6 ok but looked a bit bemused at times (am I really not good enough for this team?)
Bacuna 6 quite good

Kelly 1 the worst half I have seen from a Reading player in years
Evans 3 lightweight
Edwards 3 anonymoius
The other one is not worth commenting on

Barrow 6 good apart from his chance
McCleary 3 it's a shame

Stam 1
I don't know how you justify that formation: we had no striker, so we had to play two wingers up-front, so we had no wide midfielders and had to play four central midfielders?

Bristol city?

Agree with all of that but are you saying that the crowds reaction wasn't justified? You're playing no striker against a league 2 team and had 1 shot on target? it's not rocket since.

More than justified

Bristol city?

We were expected to lose that one.

And to quote Stam after the Birmingham game "I'm not sure what the supporters expect?" Ummmm more of the same please!

Dont think the problem is the players really, think the problem is simply the management making a simple game over complicated and confusing

Playing with no striker is just ridiculous, ok Bodvarsson may have been ill but there’s still Kermorgant

It was awful stuff from beginning to end with no outlet going forward and therefore even less creativity than usual for Reading. It took until about the 40th minute even get the ball near the Stevenage penalty area in any threatening manner

Most of the 1st half both teams appeared to be kicking in the same direction

Richards was probably the best player overall yet we all know he’ll be dropped for the next game and the team will be back to playing midfielders or right backs there

Crowd started out supportive and getting behind the team but as proceedings unwound, and it became clear how utterly inept it was going to be yet again, that support turned more to black humour and having a go at rhe management.

But the team managed to survive and we can all have another opportunity to watch Reading this month for the princely sum of a tenner. In fact if we’re lucky we could get a bonus 30 minutes on the night as well.

Boycott it and risk missing a cracker.

Onward to Nigel Adkins and Hull first though....

This thread is a depressing read. There has been a disconnect between Stam and the supporters for a while now but that has now spread to the players.
Surely the owners cannot allow this to continue much longer?

Drop McShane indefinitely, give Gunter the armband. Ilori and Moore need a run of games playing alongside each other, that should be our long term plan.

Oh, and start lining up a dinosaur for a six month contract. We are in serious trouble now

The way things are going he can play who he likes and we won’t improve much

But Gunter-Moore-Ilori-Richards should have been the back 4 for the last 2 months now

The game is simple. Kelly and JVB today stood out again as serial underperformers. Simply not good enough to play football at this level.

Up steps Chris Gunter. Some of our “fans” need to have a look at themselves

The game is simple. Kelly and JVB today stood out again as serial underperformers. Simply not good enough to play football at this level.

I'm gonna stick up for JVB, I like him, he's had some really good games when in midfield or protecting the back four, but put him in defence he's a liability. He's not a defender. I just don't get why Stam can't see that. I like his attitude but it does get him in trouble.
Kelly I've moaned about for for months......every time he starts we are shit. He gets the ball, looks up, and then takes ages to know what to do with it. That's no good at this level. His always over hits his passes as well. I agree, he just isn't good enough.

Well, fair play Guntz for the interaction........

I am not a fan of Gunter. I've wanted to see the back of him for about three years and I think his performances are insipid and symptomatic of everything wrong with our performances. He's nailed that message though. Well done.

Completely agree with Gunter there, if people indeed were doing sarcastic chants from minute 1, what the oxf*rd was the point of going? If you're going there expecting a poor performance and only intend to spread sarcastic and negative chants then kindly oxf*rd off. Probably doesn't apply to anyone on here anyway.

I was at the game today and the vast majority didn't sing the pretty shameful songs that were sung.

The vast majority turned up to support the team, the vast majority wanted to be positive and see a performance fitting of the amount of their salary they spent on getting to the game.
Yet again we didn't.

If people paid to watch me at work and I came up with that quality then is expect a lot worse than a few booboo songs.

Who is speaking for the loyal fans that turn up and don't abuse the team?