Shane Long

[SteveRoyal]

personnel is now becoming secondary to tactics, formation and strategy.

'Greed.

BUT

The season is not over yet, I'll let everyone whine when we fail in the play offs.

[Alan Partridge]

I never had you down as a Coppell apologist, AP, but now I'm starting to wonder

Your long list of failure above, and the poor decisions that led to them over the last 2 seasons have one common denominator..................Steve Coppell.

Even I can see why he decided to give Leroy another chance but wasting 3 games with it clearly not working was unforgivable and typical of the Coppell stubboness has that has cost us very dearly over the last 2 seasons.

Where we can agree regards Shorey is that he was outstanding in 2006-7. However, he was dreadful last season but never got dropped because our manager elected not to even provide cover for a player who should have had "get me out of here!!" stamped on his forehead. Again, there was no excuse for this and it was a huge factor in our totally avoidable relegation....................Coppell's apologists, however, disagree.

If you cite the fact we were relegated last season as proof that Cisse and Marek weren't good enough, where does that leave those who also played in the season where we finished 8th.....................only a Coppell apologist would attempt to claim that the poor season was all down to the newcomers in the squad.

We go to Portsmouth and a back four of Murty, Duberry, Ingimarrson and Shorey let in 7 and, apparently, this was Gunnarsson's fault It couldn't have been that the back four Coppell picked had no pace whatsoever and that to play the same defense the following week was not only utterly ridiculous, but also the first sign that Bikey was being totally under valued despite earlier performances that had been far superior to anything we had seen from Ivar or Doobs.

I'm delighted that Long has shown why the Lita>Long mantra was never anything more than unjustified hero worship but, as someone else implied recently, personnel is now becoming secondary to tactics, formation and strategy.

Either, Coppell sees the light in the very near future or, we start afresh next season with a new manager and a squad genuinely short on quality desperately trying to return to the promised land before the parachute payments run out....................I can't say I'm looking forward to what I suspect is going to happen.

I can assure you I am no 'Coppell apologist' His loyalty to under performing players drives me insane as well as his fairly woeful transfer dealings of the last 3 years. I admire Coppell's honesty but I doubt he has the courage or the tactical nouse to halt slides in form and results. He has been relegated an awful lot of times for such a 'quality manager' and his words of 'if you want us to stay up this season then the best thing to do is replace me' is hardly the kind of fighting talk i want from my manager.

Now onto the rest of the post

We played that same defense the next week and what happened? Ivar and Duberry have also been the best partnership for Reading this season in terms of results and goals conceeded. I like all of our CB's to be honest, and I like Bikey. I believe Bikey is the best 'footballer' of the 4 of them, he's definitely the quickest and he's as strong as a bull. I would personally have him in the team, but in themain the defense hasn't really been the problem. Thre is only so long you can go not scoring before your defense starts leaking a few, I would be heavily tempted to bring Bikey back but I'm not sure who I'd drop. Duberry for me before Tuesday has done well this season, Pearce has come in and done well as well so it's going to be harsh on one of them.

Wasting 3 games where it clearly wasn't working? I don't really agree with that, 3 games is hardly a lot of games, I would say that's an absolute minimum to constitute a 'run' of games. Again that wasn't solely Lita's fault and I personally didn't think he was even close to being our worst player in any of those games, but we didn't win, he didn't score so I don't think he has any quarrel about the manager looking elsewhere. Again I believe our midfield to be the problem especially our wingers who have been uttery dreadful for months, in fact I can't remember the last time Stephen Hunt put in any kind of good performance, certainly not been one this year.

The poor season was down to a number of things, 1 being his new signings, none of them were good enough. But also the total failure to replace Sidwell, the fact we didn't have a decent right winger and the poor form of certain individuals. We started the season out with Hunt on the left, Oster on the right and Gunnarsson in the middle. 3 players that couldn't get a start with everyone fit in our promotion season. How is that an improvement?

I also feel certain players 'peaked' in the promotion season and the 1 after and have never recaptured that form and never will. Ingimarsson, Harper, Murty, Sonko, Shorey, Gunnarsson and Little, with Kitson as well (last season) although he was injured for the 1st season up. None of those players have pushed on since those 2 seasons, whether it be down to injuries, age or whatever reason.

That's what I'd put it down to, not just the new signings, or in your case it was Shorey's fault. a number of things went badly wrong and Coppell either didn't have the funds or the bottle to change it. Hence why I'm not jumping up and down at the thought of Kitson playing for us again, especially if we go up. Someone who in my opinion has already peaked in his career and if we end up signing him permanent will end up to be a waste of wages and funds which we could have potentially spent on a younger player with more potential. Short term loan? yep fine, anything more then it's a from me.

[Woodcote Royal]

I'm glad to see we have a lot of common ground amongst a number of differences.

You're right that we didn't concede in the next match after Portsmouth but does that really justify sticking with a defence that ships 7 in one game? All it shows to me is just how far Coppell is prepared to go to stick with his favourites regardless whilst ignoring the likes of Bikey, who never got off the bench whilst Coppell's defense was getting roasted alive.........................I'm surprised he didn't put in a transfer request that day

Whilst I said I could understand why Coppell took a punt on Lita, there was little justification for it (and Hunt's phantom injury has never been mentioned since) and given the goal drought that resulted, at the very least, Lita should have been removed after an hour in the last 2 games. In reality, Hunt should have started Lita's third game.

This wasn't Lita's fault, it was Coppell's and it led 2 straight home defeats when 2 wins would have seen us go top of the table............................more poor decision making from Coppell that led to the dropping of what should have been 6 easy home points.

It's not like this is the first time that he's taken too long to reverse poor decisions, he does it all the time.

That was Lita's second spell of 3 games in which he has failed to score this season and the first one was followed by 3 from Long before we finally got the man the rest of us knew would be the right choice, Hunt.

I'm delighted for Long but agree with those struggling to understand what Hunt has done wrong, Despite Long's recent goals, Noel is still Doyle's best partner and the team was performing better before Hunt was dropped

I'm not saying Long should be dropped, just that most of our poor form has been thanks to poor managerial decisions, as has been the case for 2 seasons.

For 2 seasons Steve Coppell's teams over acheived and for the last two they have not performed to their potential..........................he should take the accoldaes in the first instance and the blame in the second.

[Alan Partridge]

I'm glad to see we have a lot of common ground amongst a number of differences.

You're right that we didn't concede in the next match after Portsmouth but does that really justify sticking with a defence that ships 7 in one game? All it shows to me is just how far Coppell is prepared to go to stick with his favourites regardless whilst ignoring the likes of Bikey, who never got off the bench whilst Coppell's defense was getting roasted alive.........................I'm surprised he didn't put in a transfer request that day

Whilst I said I could understand why Coppell took a punt on Lita, there was little justification for it (and Hunt's phantom injury has never been mentioned since) and given the goal drought that resulted, at the very least, Lita should have been removed after an hour in the last 2 games. In reality, Hunt should have started Lita's third game.

This wasn't Lita's fault, it was Coppell's and it led 2 straight home defeats when 2 wins would have seen us go top of the table............................more poor decision making from Coppell that led to the dropping of what should have been 6 easy home points.

It's not like this is the first time that he's taken too long to reverse poor decisions, he does it all the time.

That was Lita's second spell of 3 games in which he has failed to score this season and the first one was followed by 3 from Long before we finally got the man the rest of us knew would be the right choice, Hunt.

I'm delighted for Long but agree with those struggling to understand what Hunt has done wrong, Despite Long's recent goals, Noel is still Doyle's best partner and the team was performing better before Hunt was dropped

I'm not saying Long should be dropped, just that most of our poor form has been thanks to poor managerial decisions, as has been the case for 2 seasons.

For 2 seasons Steve Coppell's teams over acheived and for the last two they have not performed to their potential..........................he should take the accoldaes in the first instance and the blame in the second.

Because we won and kept a clean sheet I suppoe so, although I will gladly admit that at the time I was fuming and I thought Coppell had totally lost the plot.

Otherwise, I agree with the rest

[M U R T Y]

Just an observation from the Palace match - when Shane Long was adjusting his shirt when waiting to come on, he showed the world a flabby, overweight stomach. I was amazed, he's 21/22, a professional footballer playing at a high level and can't keep in trim??

[MadStadLad]

Just an observation from the Palace match - when Shane Long was adjusting his shirt when waiting to come on, he showed the world a flabby, overweight stomach. I was amazed, he's 21/22, a professional footballer playing at a high level and can't keep in trim??

Totally agree, I thought the same thing.

[SteveRoyal]

Just an observation from the Palace match - when Shane Long was adjusting his shirt when waiting to come on, he showed the world a flabby, overweight stomach. I was amazed, he's 21/22, a professional footballer playing at a high level and can't keep in trim??

He can run fast, though.

[boy1985]

Didn't see this, but I can never understand how football players who train everyday can manage to get fat. They must eat a load of shyte when they get home. Fair play to em

[Royal_Belly]

I've seen him out a lot in Reading drinking - chasing the nearest bit of skirt to him! He's got a bit of a beer belly I'd say! However - I wouldn't call him fat or overweight!!!

[boy1985]

I've seen him out a lot in Reading drinking - chasing the nearest bit of skirt to him! He's got a bit of a beer belly I'd say! However - I wouldn't call him fat or overweight!!!

You're not fooling anyone Shane.

[Royal_Belly]

Damn it! Busted! I'm actually a female so that rules me out!

Whenever I have seen him out he is always drunk and always with women... Player!

[boy1985]

fair play t'um

[Royal_Belly]

fair play t'um

She loves the cake!

[loyalroyal4life]

Damn it! Busted! I'm actually a female so that rules me out!

Whenever I have seen him out he is always drunk and always with women... Player!

well he is a footballer, get em all shaney boy!!!

[cmonurz]

Is Snowball dead?

[Upper West Ginger]

Is Snowball dead?

Probably not, but on the basis of his contributions to this and other threads he is the first and only occupant of my "Ignore" list, so he's as good as dead as far as I'm concerned.

[Rex]

Has snowball now become a statistic..

[Gordons Cumming]

This is a Long thread.

[Gus the teenage cow]

Conclusion on shane long: tries hard, good attitude, lacks quality, should seekk football elsewhere to develop any hidden potential he possesses coz the balding guy and the Reading massive can't see it

[MartinRdg]

Conclusion on shane long: tries hard, good attitude, lacks quality, should seekk football elsewhere to develop any hidden potential he possesses coz the balding guy and the Reading massive can't see it

I would agree if it wasn't that he always seems to be improving. Whilst he is improving, I would keep him to see just how much he improves. Then assess him.