Back from the game - S****horpe.

[SLAMMED]

Don't even get me started on Mills. Money-grabbing c**t who I'd rather never see in a Reading shirt ever again. Contender for the worst centre back I've seen for us in the 15 years I've been going. Played about one good game for us ever, and is a loose cannon. Signing needed.

Just LOL

[FiNeRaIn]

Don't even get me started on Mills. Money-grabbing c**t who I'd rather never see in a Reading shirt ever again. Contender for the worst centre back I've seen for us in the 15 years I've been going. Played about one good game for us ever, and is a loose cannon. Signing needed.

The bit about his ability is utter crap. He's a good player and he showed that last season, he has a lot of talent and had an off day today.

However, I do have question marks about his commitment to Reading, I think he'd rather be somewhere else.

[NR_Royal]

We should really be playing 4-4-2 at home. If we had Long/Church or Long/Rasiak up front I'm sure we can attack better.

Maybe use 4-5-1 against strong opposition, but against Scunthorpe, I'd like to see us control the game.

Hows that midfield gunna work though

Well, I'd play Sig as an attacking playmaker, with Bryn/Howard/Tabb as a box to box midfielder holding the ball and setting up chances.

Then Long can be a poacher, snapping at chances and through balls with pace. Church/Rasiak could work as target men, supporting Long's attacking moves.

[BenReadingFC]

Last time we played Scunny at home

[Southbank Old Boy]

We should really be playing 4-4-2 at home. If we had Long/Church or Long/Rasiak up front I'm sure we can attack better.

Maybe use 4-5-1 against strong opposition, but against Scunthorpe, I'd like to see us control the game.

Hows that midfield gunna work though

Well, I'd play Sig as an attacking playmaker, with Bryn/Howard/Tabb as a box to box midfielder holding the ball and setting up chances.

Then Long can be a poacher, snapping at chances and through balls with pace. Church/Rasiak could work as target men, supporting Long's attacking moves.

Well theres a midfield that will get totally overrun and not get a hold of a game

Sig showed today that he cant play as a midfield two. The couple of times he did it last season he did the same

[Sir Rodger Doyle]

Some points of view:

1. Am I mistaken in thinking that Mills is more a left sided central defender, but had to move to the right side today to accomadate Pearce? Cos Mills was at fault for both goals (let Forte turn him far too easily for the first and was woeful for the 2nd).
You may be right there.
2. We need a new centre half.

3. Williams - didn't go up the line ahead of Jobi often enough, so slowing down the attacks on the left; also looked a little unfit (one run back to his position from deep in Scunny's half was very laboured) but he did show flashes of talent, so I have hopes!
Shorey, Armstrong, Bertrand and Williams. He isn't in the same league, bless him.
4. Karacan got caught out of position a few times, leaving a big inviting hole for Scunny to play through.
Odd, considering we play with three in the middle?
5. Antonio is a raw talent with vast potential.
He's OK, did try a little too hard in places to beat people when a pass was on.
6. Well done to Long staying on when clearly crocked - AND managing to put over a couple of wicked crosses as well!
He played better with the broken ankle, got rid of it quickly.
7. Griffin v 4 Scunny players; superb defending by an expereinced pro.
Mint
8. Sigi will be a Premiership player in 12 months.

By the end of August I fear.

[Ian Royal]

Agree that any midfield four where three are McAnuff, Kebe & Sigurdsson is absolutely powderpuff.

IMO to play 2 up you'd have to go with:
Kebe/McAnuff, Howard/Gunnar, Tabb/Kara, Sig

Which of course loses one of our three best creative attacking threats. Quite like the idea of a Church - Hunt partnership though.

[URZZ]

We need a centre back, whether we can't afford it or not.

That is all.

[leon]

we need a decent centre back - strong with a bit of pace - we looked dreadful at the back today.

Plus either Noel Hunt getting fit - or a striker who can stay in the penalty area and score some goals.

[The Prisoner]

Amazed people are slagging off Williams - he was one of our alright/better players today.

He supported McAnuff reasonably for a first game and would have done better if McAnuff actually been fit - he was injured from about the 30th minute on.

[joe999]

Would be very harsh to slate Williams after one game.

[Davyc]

At the end of the day there are still 45 games to go, we would hav to lose a game at some stage.

[No Fixed Abode]

I didn't even go to the game but I did see Susie Royal. PHWOAR!

[bloody Volvo driver]

We should really be playing 4-4-2 at home. If we had Long/Church or Long/Rasiak up front I'm sure we can attack better.

Maybe use 4-5-1 against strong opposition, but against Scunthorpe, I'd like to see us control the game.

It's not a defensive formation, mate.

It is when 2 of your 3 central midfielders are defensive minded. We were at home to, if you believe the bookies, the worst team in the league and we end up playing that formation. (although credit to Scunny, played a lot better than anyone expected and I do wonder if there wasn't an element of complacency) Similar to Liverpool last year and what a mess they made of things.

Our form after Christmas was based on Mac / Jimmy wide with Tabb as holding midfielder (in my opinion the best player at the club in that role), Howard somewhere between Tabb and Sig pulling strings and Sig where he played yesterday. Worked wonders last year so unless there were other "behind the scenes" reasons why McD changed things around, I (and Tim & Mick) were very surprised at the starting line up.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Replays apparently showed the ref got their first goal spot on. Something about the ball coming off a Reading player and deflecting to their man. This is according to Reading Player and Sky Sports News as well, I think.

Indeed it did.

But I thought a deflection didnt count.... rather that the "reading player" would have to have intentionally struck the ball


Shows what I know

This backs up what I've always thought, which is if a ball in anyway touches an opponent directly before reaching a player in an offside position then that player is not offside. This being the case how come 99% of goals scored in this manner are disallowed?

And how about a new tactic where you stick a player in an offside position and then deliberately try to cannon the ball into his path off an opponent?

[Barry the bird boggler]

Could not belive the inept performance yesterday, moreover I could not believe the inept management which seemed to think that playing 1 midget up front against two of the biggest brick ****houses in the league together with two holding midfielders was a bright idea!

OK so you play the ball to feet, a tactic that could work if Long had a first touch but he doesn't which means you are then relying on wingers to get behind the defence which they tried to some extent - and got some joy - but the lack of anyone to put the thing in the net (or at least get a save out of their keeper) is still with us.

The only positive yesterday was that other, supposed, fancied sides also screwed up games they should have won. Looking forward to the next two games I can't see much hope for any change based on the crap I saw yesterday;

v Torquay with half the "first team" missing (looking forward to seeing Pearce and Gunnarsson being outrun at every turn) thanks to the idiots at FIFA who think an international game in August is an intelligent thing to do (any ideas why we can't postpone the Torquay game?)

v Portsmouth for our usual stuffing to our favourite jinx team

[Barry the bird boggler]

It is when 2 of your 3 central midfielders are defensive minded. We were at home to, if you believe the bookies, the worst team in the league and we end up playing that formation. (although credit to Scunny, played a lot better than anyone expected and I do wonder if there wasn't an element of complacency) Similar to Liverpool last year and what a mess they made of things.

Our form after Christmas was based on Mac / Jimmy wide with Tabb as holding midfielder (in my opinion the best player at the club in that role), Howard somewhere between Tabb and Sig pulling strings and Sig where he played yesterday. Worked wonders last year so unless there were other "behind the scenes" reasons why McD changed things around, I (and Tim & Mick) were very surprised at the starting line up.

Spot on, that's exactly what I would have done based on what I saw of our preseason games :

Federici
Griffin - Mills - Pearce - Williams
Tabb
Kebe - Howard - McAnuff
Sigurdsson
Church

[Royal Lady]

terminal said:

But I did roll my eyes when I heard the boos at the final whistle

Think you'll find these were aimed at the ref.

Misguidedly at the ref. He didn't do much wrong today and get a huge decision correct, even if it didn't go for us.....

Rubbish, he booked the goalie late on for time wasting when he should have been booked or at least spoken to much earlier. He didn't even give us a free kick when one of our players was literally thrown to the ground by the oppo, let alone book or speak to that player. When he did book one of their players, yet again when the player didn't come to the whistle, he went to the player. I booed him.

[Hoop Blah]

This backs up what I've always thought, which is if a ball in anyway touches an opponent directly before reaching a player in an offside position then that player is not offside. This being the case how come 99% of goals scored in this manner are disallowed?

And how about a new tactic where you stick a player in an offside position and then deliberately try to cannon the ball into his path off an opponent?

All depends on the original pass by the attacking player.

In this case he wasn't playing it forward and so nobody could be offside from his pass.

[Sarah Star]

Maybe the idea was that Gunnarsson and Karacan were the tough tackling two in the middle against a beefier Scunthorpe, whilst Sigurdsson could work his way through to be another striker up front if needed?