MATCHWATCH : Norwich City (h) sponsored by as tough as it gets

[royalp-we]

As weird as it sounds I think the best player that is fit and able to hold the ball up bringing others in to play and also hands down actually beating a player in front of him is Ejaria. Probably an awful idea playing him up top but he’s wasted on the wing at times.

[tidus_mi2]

As weird as it sounds I think the best player that is fit and able to hold the ball up bringing others in to play and also hands down actually beating a player in front of him is Ejaria. Probably an awful idea playing him up top but he’s wasted on the wing at times.

I do agree with him being great at holding up the ball and bringing it under control, maybe play him in the 10 role behind Baldock.

[Snowflake Royal]

As weird as it sounds I think the best player that is fit and able to hold the ball up bringing others in to play and also hands down actually beating a player in front of him is Ejaria. Probably an awful idea playing him up top but he’s wasted on the wing at times.

Too weak. He can't win headers or hold people off from chesting it.

McIntyre would be the option if that's what you want. But you'd be making a mistake IMO.

Baldock did a pretty good job. The team needs to adapt to his strengths that's all. He'll never be as good, but he can do a job for a while if we play right.

[JR]

Slightly odd how this ref’s first 9 Reading games were all away from home.

Could be unique in that respect

[SCIAG]

I think this will be Baldock’s sort of game. Without knowing much about how Norwich play, let’s try to set up to counter attack on them. With that in mind it should also be a sort of last-chance saloon - if it doesn’t work then we need to look at other options, whether that’s Melvin-Lambert or McIntyre.

Rafael
Holmes, Morrison, Moore, Gibson
Rino, Laurent
Olise, Semedo/Aluko, Ejaria
Baldock

Subs: Southwood, McIntyre, Dorsett/Abbey, Bristow, Esteves, Tetek/Lawless, Aluko/Semedo, Onen, Melvin-Lambert

[Hound]

Chance of swift being on the bench maybe?

If Aluko plays, I’d rather see him central and Semedo or Olise out wide

[NewCorkSeth]

For a player with Baldocks speed and drive did anyone else find it odd he didn't get on either of those crosses put across the goalmouth? Thought he was more of a sit on the shoulder of the last defender, tap in sort of player.

Maybe he's just rusty?

[NewCorkSeth]

Chance of swift being on the bench maybe?

If Aluko plays, I’d rather see him central and Semedo or Olise out wide

Olise does pretty well out wide but I would not be averse to:

Olise---Ejaria---Aluko
--------Baldock

Reason being Aluko does quite well at getting back and helping out his defender. Guarding LB is important with the barely tested Gibson set to start and with Ejaria you don't get the most active player in terms of tracking back (although he seems to do well enough).

Another thing to note is that we concede quite a lot of goals from crosses and long shots. Aluko, for all his faults, does chase players around like he has a point to prove. Could be invaluable right now.

[Snowflake Royal]

Chance of swift being on the bench maybe?

If Aluko plays, I’d rather see him central and Semedo or Olise out wide

Olise does pretty well out wide but I would not be averse to:

Olise---Ejaria---Aluko
--------Baldock

Reason being Aluko does quite well at getting back and helping out his defender. Guarding LB is important with the barely tested Gibson set to start and with Ejaria you don't get the most active player in terms of tracking back (although he seems to do well enough).

Another thing to note is that we concede quite a lot of goals from crosses and long shots. Aluko, for all his faults, does chase players around like he has a point to prove. Could be invaluable right now.

Aluko has no positional discipline. He frequently doubles up on someone to leave another player free or just ball chases.


Him and Esteves are a nightmare together in that regard for example.

I'd rather have him in the middle than on the wing, where he can enthusiastically run around like a headless chicken closing down without doing much damage.

Gibson doesn't need that sort of 'help'

[WestYorksRoyal]

This is the first in a tough run with an injury ravaged squad. If we can be 3 - 6 points off the playoffs at the end of it I wouldn’t be too disappointed, as I'd back us to make that up when players return and with some astute strengthening in January.

Clean sheets will be key, given goals will be tough. We can nick the odd goal through set pieces or moments of inspiration, as we did yesterday. But if we consistently need 2 or 3 goals to win games I can't see it happening.

[Sutekh]

Think the key to this will be Reading’s midfield keeping Tettey and Skipp busy and stopping them from playing their game. Do that and service into the likes of Vrancic and Pukki should be drastically reduced.

[bcubed]

Chance of swift being on the bench maybe?

If Aluko plays, I’d rather see him central and Semedo or Olise out wide

Olise does pretty well out wide but I would not be averse to:

Olise---Ejaria---Aluko
--------Baldock

Reason being Aluko does quite well at getting back and helping out his defender. Guarding LB is important with the barely tested Gibson set to start and with Ejaria you don't get the most active player in terms of tracking back (although he seems to do well enough).

Another thing to note is that we concede quite a lot of goals from crosses and long shots. Aluko, for all his faults, does chase players around like he has a point to prove. Could be invaluable right now.

Aluko has no positional discipline. He frequently doubles up on someone to leave another player free or just ball chases.


Him and Esteves are a nightmare together in that regard for example.

I'd rather have him in the middle than on the wing, where he can enthusiastically run around like a headless chicken closing down without doing much damage.

Gibson doesn't need that sort of 'help'

Nicely summed up. Much more succinctly than I tried to say in QPR thread.

He IS the ultimate headless chicken. Here there and everywhere. You simply can’t have Esteves playing behind him. It’s a disaster waiting to happen. It’s not much better with Holmes. So I agree play him somewhere else, ideally the bench.

I also wondered on match thread if anyone knows how/where his previous teams played him? You simply can’t afford to give him defensive duties. He could turn up anywhere!

[SCIAG]

Fulham played him as the right forward in a 3-4-3, which doesn’t have much responsibility.

First time I heard of Aluko he was playing as a striker for Hull in a 4-4-2.

[Hound]

Olise does pretty well out wide but I would not be averse to:

Olise---Ejaria---Aluko
--------Baldock

Reason being Aluko does quite well at getting back and helping out his defender. Guarding LB is important with the barely tested Gibson set to start and with Ejaria you don't get the most active player in terms of tracking back (although he seems to do well enough).

Another thing to note is that we concede quite a lot of goals from crosses and long shots. Aluko, for all his faults, does chase players around like he has a point to prove. Could be invaluable right now.

Aluko has no positional discipline. He frequently doubles up on someone to leave another player free or just ball chases.


Him and Esteves are a nightmare together in that regard for example.

I'd rather have him in the middle than on the wing, where he can enthusiastically run around like a headless chicken closing down without doing much damage.

Gibson doesn't need that sort of 'help'

Nicely summed up. Much more succinctly than I tried to say in QPR thread.

He IS the ultimate headless chicken. Here there and everywhere. You simply can’t have Esteves playing behind him. It’s a disaster waiting to happen. It’s not much better with Holmes. So I agree play him somewhere else, ideally the bench.

I also wondered on match thread if anyone knows how/where his previous teams played him? You simply can’t afford to give him defensive duties. He could turn up anywhere!

He tries at the defensive side to be fair to him. He just isn’t very good at it

[bcubed]

Aluko has no positional discipline. He frequently doubles up on someone to leave another player free or just ball chases.


Him and Esteves are a nightmare together in that regard for example.

I'd rather have him in the middle than on the wing, where he can enthusiastically run around like a headless chicken closing down without doing much damage.

Gibson doesn't need that sort of 'help'

Nicely summed up. Much more succinctly than I tried to say in QPR thread.

He IS the ultimate headless chicken. Here there and everywhere. You simply can’t have Esteves playing behind him. It’s a disaster waiting to happen. It’s not much better with Holmes. So I agree play him somewhere else, ideally the bench.

I also wondered on match thread if anyone knows how/where his previous teams played him? You simply can’t afford to give him defensive duties. He could turn up anywhere!

He tries at the defensive side to be fair to him. He just isn’t very good at it

He does try but he so unpredictable

[bcubed]

Fulham played him as the right forward in a 3-4-3, which doesn’t have much responsibility.

First time I heard of Aluko he was playing as a striker for Hull in a 4-4-2.

And I'm sure as right forward he had some cracking performance against us

[Snowflake Royal]

His only role is really as a free roaming attacker with little responsibility. He's at least started to put the effort in and chase down, which is good for harrying defenders into a mistake, but not so great for stopping a chance.

Unfortunately, for a free roaming attacker, he simply isn't good enough at creating chances. Yeah he's scored a goal, and done some nice hold up play, turned a few people and put in some decent crosses, but very little he does actually ends in a good chance. His crosses rarely pick anyone out.

He's got no assists, averages half a key pass a game and 80% of his crosses don't reach a Reading player.

[SCIAG]

His only role is really as a free roaming attacker with little responsibility. He's at least started to put the effort in and chase down, which is good for harrying defenders into a mistake, but not so great for stopping a chance.

Unfortunately, for a free roaming attacker, he simply isn't good enough at creating chances. Yeah he's scored a goal, and done some nice hold up play, turned a few people and put in some decent crosses, but very little he does actually ends in a good chance. His crosses rarely pick anyone out.

He's got no assists, averages half a key pass a game and 80% of his crosses don't reach a Reading player.

Olise’s cross completion stats are similar, which to me suggests that maybe set pieces are skewing the result. But they should also mean you create more chances (because the number of balls you put in goes up) but that hasn’t been the case for Aluko - his delivery has been poor.

[Sutekh]

He's got no assists, averages half a key pass a game and 80% of his crosses don't reach a Reading player.

No key passes yesterday from what I can recall so looking good for Wednesday night.

[Hound]

His only role is really as a free roaming attacker with little responsibility. He's at least started to put the effort in and chase down, which is good for harrying defenders into a mistake, but not so great for stopping a chance.

Unfortunately, for a free roaming attacker, he simply isn't good enough at creating chances. Yeah he's scored a goal, and done some nice hold up play, turned a few people and put in some decent crosses, but very little he does actually ends in a good chance. His crosses rarely pick anyone out.

He's got no assists, averages half a key pass a game and 80% of his crosses don't reach a Reading player.

He has done ok in parts this season. I’ve liked his attitude and he has had a couple of good displays. But realistically you don’t want him having too big a part if possible