MATCHWATCH : Birmingham City (a)

[Westwood52]

Worse than Wycombe that was for me - slow, pedestrian football around the back, not getting anywhere with it, before an aimless hoof and pretty much repeat

Key partnerships around the pitch didn’t work - the CB’s, particularly Moore were bullied throughout and Joao and Meite had little cohesion together. We didn’t seem to adapt to the conditions of the pitch too well either, too many loose touches and loose passes

Then there’s the subs which were atrocious. Game was crying out for a change in formation and Rinomhota at half time or at the very least minute 60 ish but he waited until we conceded to bring him on? At which point he probably wasn’t needed. Again, just like in the reserve fixture against Birmingham, he made a sub two minutes after each other and wasted a sub window. What’s the point in us having five subs if they’re not going to be used? I’d count Aluko as rather unlucky who’s had two lively cameos in his last two appearances and albeit with a general lack of end product, tries to beat his man on the outside occasionally (when he plays on the left) whereas Ejaria was never going to contribute much where there was no space between the lines. Awful in game management from Paunovic tonight

6 - Laurent, Yiadom
5 - Rafael, Holmes, Richards, McIntyre, Semedo, Olise, Meite, Rinomhota, Puscas, Ejaria
4- Joao, Moore

Still, you have to appreciate the position were in and we still have a very strong chance of hitting the top 6. There were a lot of similar calls of “we’ve blown it” etc after Wycombe and we responded with 3 wins from 3 so no need to go overboard yet

Thought Laurent was very ineffectual.Agree that Yids was our best player

[Hound]

Laurent hasn't been the same player since his injury imo. Sure nothing lasting but he hasn't shown the superb form he had earlier in the season

[Cripple Creek]

[quote="Hendo"]Yes, it was poor last night and yes it would be incredibly frustrating for us to miss out on the play-offs but;

a) it isn't over yet, there are still 27 points to play for, which is loads. Yes, it is probably going to be a lot closer than we'd like but that's football, it doesn't always go your way and it would be boring if it did.

b) I'd much rather be in a position where a result last night is surprising and comes out of nowhere rather than previous seasons where most of us would've been expecting a loss anyway - that is when it is really bad.

c) Reading have [u]always[/u] played better against the better clubs, we've never really been one to smash our way past teams on bad runs. Been supporting the team for 20+ years and its always been the same, so the remaining fixtures don't worry me too much.

I'm still confident we'll finish in the top 6, but if we don't we don't. It won't be the end of the world and it'll certainly be a vast improvement on the last few seasons and I think puts us in a strong position to kick on next season with hopefully a couple of new faces.[/quote]


Exactly.

[South Coast Royal]

After a couple of minutes last night I was dismayed to see Moore send an aimless lofted ball forward for their central defenders to easily nod away.
That became the pattern for the game and, when not giving the ball away with another inaccurate pass, he sent the ball aimlessly forward on at least 6 or 7 occasions with the same result.
That ball is fine from Rafael when we are looking to break quickly but not when tall defenders are set and in position.

I don't want to see Moore as our playmaker-his job , when not defending that well, should have been to move the ball on to those that can play.

Reading's best play this season has been with the midfielders moving the ball between themselves and Richards , getting upfield and into the danger areas.
The best way to beat teams like this is IMHO to outpass them but last night even the midfielders looked to lob the ball into the box-easy meat for defenders unless the keeper completely loses the ball in the air (he won't do it every time).

The other thing that hit home last night, and mentioned already by Zip and a couple of others,was our failure to bring in a pacey winger during the window-a winger getting behind defenders and pulling the ball back is so much harder to defend against.
Surely that would have been the option with 30 minutes left last night if we had that type of player but no, from a position of strength back around the New Year, rather than add any further different option the club decided to go with what we already had and that may well cost us in the final outcome.

All is not lost, even if today it feels like it, but we all know that if we don't make at least the play-offs this season we will lose our best players-it's the way football works in England and that is why results like last night hurt so much-not just because of the result and wimpishly failing to compete enough but knowing that this could well turn out to be a fantastic opportunity lost.

Yes, this squad is nowhere near good enough to compete at Premier League level but the hope has been that the ambitious and wealthy owners would find a way to back the manager with funds if we were to make it-who knows if their interest will continue if we "fail" this time round.

[Crowbar6753]

I really hope Swift is back soon....we just arn't the same when he's out injured. I know we're all going into panic mode but i actually think having such a tough run in will play into our strengths.
Whenever we play these so called lesser teams we really struggle, yet the better teams play football and don't shut up shop and i really think this will help.
We need to get something out of QPR though and i really think they might get the better of us also.

We just won three on the bounce without him. ANd most of our amazing start was withing him.

Yes we did, but the balance is so much better with him in the side, and not to mention the set piece plays would improve drastically. We will win games without him and be a good middle table team, but with Swift in the side i would put us as a very good play off bet.

[PistolPete]

I really hope Swift is back soon....we just arn't the same when he's out injured. I know we're all going into panic mode but i actually think having such a tough run in will play into our strengths.
Whenever we play these so called lesser teams we really struggle, yet the better teams play football and don't shut up shop and i really think this will help.
We need to get something out of QPR though and i really think they might get the better of us also.

We just won three on the bounce without him. ANd most of our amazing start was withing him.

Yes we did, but the balance is so much better with him in the side, and not to mention the set piece plays would improve drastically. We will win games without him and be a good middle table team, but with Swift in the side i would put us as a very good play off bet.

I agree with you strongly that we're better with Swift, but Olise's set pieces are insanely good right now.

[Snowflake Royal]

I really hope Swift is back soon....we just arn't the same when he's out injured. I know we're all going into panic mode but i actually think having such a tough run in will play into our strengths.
Whenever we play these so called lesser teams we really struggle, yet the better teams play football and don't shut up shop and i really think this will help.
We need to get something out of QPR though and i really think they might get the better of us also.

We just won three on the bounce without him. ANd most of our amazing start was withing him.

Yes we did, but the balance is so much better with him in the side, and not to mention the set piece plays would improve drastically. We will win games without him and be a good middle table team, but with Swift in the side i would put us as a very good play off bet.

He'll certainly improve us.

Our set pieces are already amongst the best in the division. I think the Commos said we'd scored the third most goals from them in the Chump.

[Zip]

Embarrassingly I missed the starting lineup and didn't work it out during the game as I was too busy wondering wtf was going on with Brum being better than us. I honestly didn't even notice Rino was playing till like the 2nd half.

Did Pauno actually NOT use the Laurent-Rino pairing in front of the defence this game?

Rino didn’t start. He came on with only about 5-10 minutes left. We must go back to 4-2-3-1 with Rino and Laurent the 2.

[Zip]

After a couple of minutes last night I was dismayed to see Moore send an aimless lofted ball forward for their central defenders to easily nod away.
That became the pattern for the game and, when not giving the ball away with another inaccurate pass, he sent the ball aimlessly forward on at least 6 or 7 occasions with the same result.
That ball is fine from Rafael when we are looking to break quickly but not when tall defenders are set and in position.

I don't want to see Moore as our playmaker-his job , when not defending that well, should have been to move the ball on to those that can play.

Reading's best play this season has been with the midfielders moving the ball between themselves and Richards , getting upfield and into the danger areas.
The best way to beat teams like this is IMHO to outpass them but last night even the midfielders looked to lob the ball into the box-easy meat for defenders unless the keeper completely loses the ball in the air (he won't do it every time).

The other thing that hit home last night, and mentioned already by Zip and a couple of others,was our failure to bring in a pacey winger during the window-a winger getting behind defenders and pulling the ball back is so much harder to defend against.
Surely that would have been the option with 30 minutes left last night if we had that type of player but no, from a position of strength back around the New Year, rather than add any further different option the club decided to go with what we already had and that may well cost us in the final outcome.

All is not lost, even if today it feels like it, but we all know that if we don't make at least the play-offs this season we will lose our best players-it's the way football works in England and that is why results like last night hurt so much-not just because of the result and wimpishly failing to compete enough but knowing that this could well turn out to be a fantastic opportunity lost.

Yes, this squad is nowhere near good enough to compete at Premier League level but the hope has been that the ambitious and wealthy owners would find a way to back the manager with funds if we were to make it-who knows if their interest will continue if we "fail" this time round.

Agree with a lot of this. In the players defence it was a poor old pitch last night and not one conducive to passing. However we really did hoof it forward far too often and it was meat and drink for their centre backs.