Return of Leroy Lita?

[Avon Royal]

Everyone quickly forgets how useless Lita's been for 18 months because he scores a few for Norwich.

Lita's first touch is worse than Long's, as is his dribbling, his aerial ability, even his finishing, which is so hyped up it's unbeliveable.

Gunnarsson goes from "if we had him all season last year, we'd've finished in the top half" to utterly useless.

Bikey goes from "top 10 defenders in the world, better than Vidic" to "liability".

Kebe goes from great to terrible, oh, wait, he actually does .

Karacan goes from tough tackling, creative and incredibly quick to lightweight, uncreative and slow.

Hunt goes from "as good at crossing as Little" to useless.

That's what I call fickle.

Welcome to the wonderful world of supporting Reading FC.

Fickle and proud - we've never been any other way.

[2.8 lita injection]

But we seem to have more than other clubs, well maybe not as many as wolves.

[Platypuss]

Everyone quickly forgets how useless Lita's been for 18 months because he scores a few for Norwich.

Lita's first touch is worse than Long's, as is his dribbling, his aerial ability, even his finishing, which is so hyped up it's unbeliveable.

Gunnarsson goes from "if we had him all season last year, we'd've finished in the top half" to utterly useless.

Bikey goes from "top 10 defenders in the world, better than Vidic" to "liability".

Kebe goes from great to terrible, oh, wait, he actually does .

Karacan goes from tough tackling, creative and incredibly quick to lightweight, uncreative and slow.

Hunt goes from "as good at crossing as Little" to useless.

That's what I call fickle.

That's what I call polarised opinions, as it happens.

You might have a point if it were the same individuals expressing both those extreme viewpoints. It isn't though, is it?

OK, I'll grant you Jay.

[2.8 lita injection]

My favourite is that kebe is a sunday league player.

[Royal Lady]

In an ideal world, Lita would be at least on the bench, ahead of Long, but in reality he's not wanted here by Coppell and he's doing well at Norwich. I think Norwich will make an offer for him in January and I'd be surprised if he went for anything over what we paid for him. It will be a real shame, but rather that, than let him go on a free in the Summer.

[RoyalBlue]

Agree - Lita couldn't have helped.

Lita on form (as he currently appears to be a Norwich) is a class player capable of converting the faintest of chances and creating something himself out of nothing.

Long was poor today, typified by the way he tried to bring the ball forward through the middle of his own half and just ran straight into a tame challenge to be dispossessed.

WE NEED LITA BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Passion, strength, arrogance, hunger,

would this be the same strong Leroy Lita that falls over the moment a centre back comes within 5 yards of him?..just wondering

No it would be the same Lita who has scored four goals in two games, three against Wolves when he also hit the post, leading to another Norwich goal.

BTW you forgot the normal Lita critics' cry about always being caught offside!

[Schards#2]

Lita / Long comes down to a choice of someone who performs at Championship level and above 25% of the time and some who performs at championship level and above 0% of the time.

Not a perfect choice but still a no brainer.

Our bench has nothing to offer at the moment. Having Lita on it at the gives the possibility of something match changing.

[The Prisoner]

does anyone think Lita actually wants to play for us? No disputing that he once did, but its gone sour all round (fans/manager/player). Think we need to accept that he's all but moved on and is unlikely to ever be a regular fixture on the first team squad again. Not saying i agree as I think he has more to offer than Long but there you go.

[Dirk Gently]

That's teh nub of it - too many people talking about player A is better than player B forget that these are people, with personalities, personality clashes, likes and dislikes, etc.

It remains to be seen if Lita's time at Norwich will sort his mind out and re-motivate him here, or if the relationship between Lita and Reading FC has irretrievably broken down.

My personal view (based on nothing in particular except my feelings) is that it has broken down and that mentally he's moved on.

[working class hero]

Long wasn't strong enough to get through the tough QPR defence, Lita can.

I agree. In 10 minutes he should have scored!

Hunt and Doyle also failed. Sack them all and put Lita up front on his own.

In fact we don't need a team. Lita is so good he will do it on his own. Shame he really does so little when he plays. Looks weak in the reserves. And can't even score from a penalty.

[RoyalBlue]

Go away, look at the stats and then try to give an unblinkered view.

Goals scored v minutes played over the seasons?

Then try this season whilst out on loan.

How many penalties has he missed and is his record any worse than the likes of Hunt, Doyle and previously Kitson?

Everyone keeps on about Long being the impact sub and that he deserves his place in the squad on that basis. Yet how good an impact sub is he really? What's more on the last couple of occasions that he has come on as the impact sub even his previously good work rate appears to have deserted him.

That's teh nub of it - too many people talking about player A is better than player B forget that these are people, with personalities, personality clashes, likes and dislikes, etc.

It remains to be seen if Lita's time at Norwich will sort his mind out and re-motivate him here, or if the relationship between Lita and Reading FC has irretrievably broken down.

My personal view (based on nothing in particular except my feelings) is that it has broken down and that mentally he's moved on.

So in every interview that he gives, Coppell is telling lies about his relationship with Lita, his good attitude etc. ?

[Sarah Star]

Lita seems to score more goals away from Reading than he does with us. There has to be a reason for that.

[rfcjoe]

Might just be the freshness of going to new surroundings thats invingorated(speLOLing?) him?

[SCIAG]

How many penalties has he missed and is his record any worse than the likes of Hunt, Doyle and previously Kitson?

Missed: 2 for us in 05/06, 2 for the under 21s in the Euros (iirc, might have only been 1 actually), 1 for us against Stoke= 5
Scored: 1 for the u21s.

Hunt has missed max 1 and scored about 6 or 7.
Kitson missed two for us and scored a similar amount to Hunt.
Doyle has missed about four for us and scored about 3.

What's more on the last couple of occasions that he has come on as the impact sub even his previously good work rate appears to have deserted him.

Rubbish. His work rate was fantastic last night and sounded good against Preston too.

[Sarah Star]

Might just be the freshness of going to new surroundings thats invingorated(speLOLing?) him?

Maybe he'd do well in away games then - LOL

[Archie's penalty]

I can't wait till Lita goes so these boring threads leave with him.

[working class hero]

How many penalties has he missed

This season I have seen him take 3.
2 against Lewes reserves - missed 1
1 against Stoke - missed 1.

So not a great ratio.

Long worked his socks off against Preston, and I have yet to see him loll about a la Lita.....
I used to defend Lita on here - but of late it has been difficult to support a lazy player with a poor attitude.

[earleyroyal]

Another high impact performance from Long today. And Lita has an attitude problem, so it's best for all parties concerned if we keep the shit one who never scores and they keep the good one who does.

So because Long didn't save the game in the 10 minutes he had, he's now shit? Typical Reading Fan!

Was actually basing that comment on their respective performances since 2005/06 (and Long's general lack of impact every time he comes off the bench) and I thought he was shit before but there you go.

[sam1]

It's 6 and 2 3's. Long coming off the bench and having no impact or Lita on for the full 90 and making little impact

[rg6royal]

It's 6 and 2 3's. Long coming off the bench and having no impact or Lita on for the full 90 and making little impact

Rather have Lita coming off the bench than Long.