Coppell !! . . Has he lost it ?

[percy_freeman]

Every post match interview I hear, I think WHAT! He keeps admitting he doesn't know what the problem is but unfortunatly, that is what he is paid to know. So the answer to this thread is yes.
The most annoying thing is watching the Championship and listening to all the players we have either sent out on loan or sold, scoring week in, week out!

[Rex]

Having previously heard comments on BBCRB that the team are not vocal enough on the pitch with each other, and as body language and (where applicable in a match) vocal instruction is a vital element this is an area that does need improving upon. At least once with Kebe feeding a through ball in, anticipating Kits getting on the end, and the Marek pass to Little which ended up as a goal kick are two occasions when the team did not gel. Anticipating a players position, pace and final positioning (in some cases over ambitious) is something that needs to be looked into.
I'm not placing too much emphasis on those two instances (other than Kebe's pass to a missing Kits would have fed him through 1 on 1), but they are clear examples where attacking play broke down due to lack of communication.

[trueroyal1871]

Agree with that Armstrong has been the most consistent player all season definitely gets my vote for player of the season.

The team at the moment look like the team from the end of last season, no guts, no passion, no fight. I was truly embarassed by today's performance and only stayed until the end because of blind faith.

Coppell has to get a grip of things now before the season passes us by and someone else gets promoted and we spend another season in the chumpionship.

[VOR]

Every post match interview I hear, I think WHAT! He keeps admitting he doesn't know what the problem is but unfortunatly, that is what he is paid to know. So the answer to this thread is yes.
The most annoying thing is watching the Championship and listening to all the players we have either sent out on loan or sold, scoring week in, week out!

Spot on. Often managers make comments like this to draw pressure away from the players and onto themselves but I have the impression that SC really does not know. He has no plan B. Matejovsky has been a bit of a disappointment but time and again you see him looking for a runner to pass to and there isn't one! His pass behind the full back would have been better for Kebe than Little but Glen just didn't see it despite the fact that it was the obvious ball to play; he never moved a muscle.

IMHO, we would be in a better position now if more effort had been made to use the younger players like Karacan and Henry and avoid burnout to Shunt and others. We may have no choice soon if, as seems likely, we end up in the play offs and lose to a team with more momentum. The few real Prem quality players will leave.

It looks like a horribly wasted opportunity to bounce straight back up but maybe a younger, hungrier team next year will be more fun to watch? Jeez, I hope so because at times this season it's been like watching a very fit pub team.

[PEARCEY]

Has Coppell lost it? Well does he really have any idea who the first choice central midfielders should be?
Does he know who our best central defender is?

Doesn't look like it to me.

[Woodcote Royal]

If you believe that Coppell has no idea of what is wrong then you misjudge the man.

No. People like you won't accept that any of the reasons for our THIRD slide down the table in 5 years is his fault and blame others when all the evidence points to the contrary.

If he doesn't buy players in the transfer window saying "I'm happy with what I've got" apparently, that means the Chairman won't give him any money even when both he and JM are saying money is available.

If the team he picks from the squad he "wouldn't swap for any other" loses it's third home game in a month, it's because they're not trying rather than Ipswich being the umpteenth team to exploit all the weaknesses some of us have been pointing out for months on end.

There's no lack of effort from our hard working,talented squad just many bewildered faces that mirror those in the crowd as our manager shows week after tedious week that it is he who has become the weakest link.

Much of the damage done over the last 2 season's is now beyond repair in the short term but if he went now we could at least start to prepare for next season.

I didn't join the car park crew because I had reservations even then but the time has come now to start afresh before we lose everything that was achieved from 2 seasons in the top flight.

We need players like Henry back here before he's snapped up like a certain striker at Swindon and we need Steve Coppell out of this club ASAP.

[weybridgewanderer]

no idea why the big surprise

04/05, 3rd at christmas, went on a poor run, coppell couldn't get us out of it, finished outside the play offs

07/08 12th at christmas, went on a poor run after christamas, coppell couldn't get us out of it, relegated

08/09 2nd at christmas, went on a poor run after christamas, coppell couldn't get us out of it, yet to see the outcome

think he did similar at palace when they got relegated

[Schards#2]

If you believe that Coppell has no idea of what is wrong then you misjudge the man.

No. People like you won't accept that any of the reasons for our THIRD slide down the table in 5 years is his fault and blame others when all the evidence points to the contrary.

If he doesn't buy players in the transfer window saying "I'm happy with what I've got" apparently, that means the Chairman won't give him any money even when both he and JM are saying money is available.

If the team he picks from the squad he "wouldn't swap for any other" loses it's third home game in a month, it's because they're not trying rather than Ipswich being the umpteenth team to exploit all the weaknesses some of us have been pointing out for months on end.

There's no lack of effort from our hard working,talented squad just many bewildered faces that mirror those in the crowd as our manager shows week after tedious week that it is he who has become the weakest link.

Much of the damage done over the last 2 season's is now beyond repair in the short term but if he went now we could at least start to prepare for next season.

I didn't join the car park crew because I had reservations even then but the time has come now to start afresh before we lose everything that was achieved from 2 seasons in the top flight.

We need players like Henry back here before he's snapped up like a certain striker at Swindon and we need Steve Coppell out of this club ASAP.

Two weks ago you were saying that only a fool would want Coppell sacked.

Congratulations, for the first time ever, you've provided compelling evidence to support one of your opinions.

[Archie's penalty]

Coppell may have lost it a bit recently but he's still been great for us. I will be disappointed if we don't go up this year but I am now expecting not to go up so if we do it will be a HUGE bonus.

Keep the faith lads and lasses - there is still time for us to turn it around...

[Schards#2]

People slagging Coppell really need to think back at what he has achieved for this club and show some respect.

I've gone through my whole life thinking seeing Reading in the top flight was no more than a fanciful dream. We not only got there, for one season we thrived. We did this on a relative shoestring budget.

It's hard to thing of many parallells to this achievement, Wimbledon under Bassett, maybe Norwich under Walker, possibly Ipswich in the late 90's but that's about it. I would suggest the environment now is more competitive than under these historic examples.

To go forward from here, we need a manager who can create a quality team out of virtually nothing. Coppell is one of only a handful of managers who have a track record of having done this. I'd happily have him at the helm next season though I think it's very unlikely.

Do you bleating idiots genuinely believe in your own head that you know more about football management than Coppell? If not, question his decisions by all means, but don't ridicule and rubbish them. He's earnt the right to be respected.

[Rex]

Fcuking hell.......an oasis in the sh1tstorm.

[Alan Partridge]

Coppell may have lost it a bit recently but he's still been great for us. I will be disappointed if we don't go up this year but I am now expecting not to go up so if we do it will be a HUGE bonus.

Keep the faith lads and lasses - there is still time for us to turn it around...

Could be the key word there. I don't think anyone will argue that Coppell is the best manager Reading have had especially in terms of success and taking us to levels the club has never been. Other managers in the past have had tougher jobs at Reading than the one Coppell inherited so some may argue against him in that way but he's brought unrivalled success here.

I just believe that he will leave regardless at the end of the season, when there is no long term commitment from the main man it definitely can have an adverse effect on players. I don't know I just sense he's lost a lot of heart in it here, happens after you're at the same place for a long time and for him to have in his own words no answer for the current predicament is hugely concerning, especially as it's a situation we've been in on 2 other occasions in recent years.

Listening to him speak yesterday he mentioned that 'unbelivably we're still 3rd, we don't deserve to be there but we are' which says he knows this team isn't that good and that there a big problems here. What I sympathise with him is that just looking at that team we have tried almost everything now from within the current squad. I made a post elsewhere that the squad itself is the problem in that it lacks quality but even so the decline has been extraordinary.

We've tried both goalies, he's changed his wingers, he's changed his midfield, he's changed his forwards. People clamour for Bikey and others, well I am sure he won't be far away the next couple of team selections as we've tried and blamed everyone else. Even though we all know it's Lita's fault.

Sometimes it's not the on field players that are the problem, hearing the same voices and seeing the same faces on the coaching staff can also have a negative effect. We were struggling under Pards one year and he brought in Martin Allen who galvanised everyone at the club and brought a lot of fun, passion and character to the club, it was only ever going to be a short term thing but it worked. Again when it wasn't working he was replaced. Maybe Coppell could shake up his coaching staff or bring someone else in?

Ultimately there is going to be major change at the end of the season both on the playing staff and coaching staff regardless of what league. If Reading go up Coppell will see it as job done, he will know there is next to no chance of survival and will leave a hero. If Reading stay down he will feel he's failed and will leave to give someone else a chance.

[sandman]

For the less cloth-eared among you what Coppell actually said was that a manager will usually look for some semblance of form, even during a bad run of results that helps them pick the team. What he meant by that is that no one is showing sufficient quality to give a basis to pick the team, basically another way of saying that the players aren't performing well enough to know what team is the best to pick without the confidence dropping even further. As Mick Gooding said on the radio yesterday it's not Steve Coppell's fault that our free kicks keep hitting the first man, it isn't Coppell’s fault that players are mistiming their headers, it’s not Coppell’s fault that Kebe didn't pass to Kitson which would have allowed Kits to turn the ball round the corner and put Long Through on goal and it certainly isn't Coppell’s fault that Liam Rosenior lets the ball bounce in his own half instead of attacking the aerial ball. These are basics that the players were taught when they were ten or Eleven years old and the manager can't be expected to teach them things that they should already know. You can talk about tactics all you want but once the players cross that white line it's mostly up to them.

[Archie's penalty]

Coppell may have lost it a bit recently but he's still been great for us. I will be disappointed if we don't go up this year but I am now expecting not to go up so if we do it will be a HUGE bonus.

Keep the faith lads and lasses - there is still time for us to turn it around...

Could be the key word there. I don't think anyone will argue that Coppell is the best manager Reading have had especially in terms of success and taking us to levels the club has never been. Other managers in the past have had tougher jobs at Reading than the one Coppell inherited so some may argue against him in that way but he's brought unrivalled success here.

I just believe that he will leave regardless at the end of the season, when there is no long term commitment from the main man it definitely can have an adverse effect on players. I don't know I just sense he's lost a lot of heart in it here, happens after you're at the same place for a long time and for him to have in his own words no answer for the current predicament is hugely concerning, especially as it's a situation we've been in on 2 other occasions in recent years.

Listening to him speak yesterday he mentioned that 'unbelivably we're still 3rd, we don't deserve to be there but we are' which says he knows this team isn't that good and that there a big problems here. What I sympathise with him is that just looking at that team we have tried almost everything now from within the current squad. I made a post elsewhere that the squad itself is the problem in that it lacks quality but even so the decline has been extraordinary.

We've tried both goalies, he's changed his wingers, he's changed his midfield, he's changed his forwards. People clamour for Bikey and others, well I am sure he won't be far away the next couple of team selections as we've tried and blamed everyone else. Even though we all know it's Lita's fault.

Sometimes it's not the on field players that are the problem, hearing the same voices and seeing the same faces on the coaching staff can also have a negative effect. We were struggling under Pards one year and he brought in Martin Allen who galvanised everyone at the club and brought a lot of fun, passion and character to the club, it was only ever going to be a short term thing but it worked. Again when it wasn't working he was replaced. Maybe Coppell could shake up his coaching staff or bring someone else in?

Ultimately there is going to be major change at the end of the season both on the playing staff and coaching staff regardless of what league. If Reading go up Coppell will see it as job done, he will know there is next to no chance of survival and will leave a hero. If Reading stay down he will feel he's failed and will leave to give someone else a chance.

Good, measured post AP. It's a sad situation at the moment and you're right, there's a very good chance he will leave at the end of the season no matter what.

At the beginning of the season I thought Coppell had lost the drive to succeed but, after the Palace game, he seemed to get it back again and the team drove on with the excellent signings that were Nhunt and Armstrong. It's gone wrong recently but I honestly think we have the players to see this job out. It needs us to thump someone and get the old confidence back - I thought we had done that when we won at Wednesday and that gave us a boost over the next couple of games. We should have beaten Plymouth and then when we didn't scrape that win over Charlton the confidence went again, leading to yesterday's performance.

Doncaster caved in against Brum, maybe due to the fact they had a bit of an Icharus complex - they were flying too close to the sun. I think we will go there and get a win and it will all be back on again. I agree playing away is better for us at the moment - it is clear in the way the staff and players are approaching games.

Back to Cops - for the fans heading up to Doncaster for his 1,000th game in management give the man a great hand. I'm not sure who will replace him but he's given a huge amount of himself to this 'job.' Will miss you when you go Stevie C.

[Man Friday]

We'll never have a greater chance of going up with the league being so poor and us so wellplaced (once). That's the real frustration. However, the slide feels unstoppable and I just don't feel that Coppell can arrest it. After this season, it'll be a long time before we challenge for the PL again IMO.

[Dirk Gently]

At the start of the season there was no other option than Coppell - people may deride the car park thing but if we'd changed the manager then I'm convinced that we'd have not even got close this season. A new manager would have meant a host of new players and starting from scratch, costing at least a year. SC got us into a prime position, to the point where we were everyone's favourite to go up.

But - there's something about the second half of each season that seems to bring problems, and SC's main strength of taking each game at a time and showing loyalty to the players in the team turns into a real weakness when the team is doing badly - I don't think he has a plan B or the ability to arrest a slump when it happens. As we all know, he likes to give players the responsibility to get themselves out of any mess they've got themselves into - well, they've got that responsibility now but they certainly aren't stepping up to the plate to use it.

For me, though, the real low point was last week. Tuesday 10th March was the real watershed day for Reading FC - the day when I knew we weren't going up. I cannot tell you just how much contempt and loathing I have for Steve Coppell's "Blues Brothers" idea of getting the old band back together. It shows utter desperation and is a public declaration that there just no strategy and that the ideas have completely run out. Totally short-term thinking I'm still utterly apoplectic about it 5 days later.

And for that reason alone, I do think the time has come for a change. Not to deride or to ever forget the superb achievements that SC has made here or what he has done for us, but more to recognise that there is a limit to what anyone can do in one role and that sometime the only option is to freshen things up and change the style. So yes, we are eternally in the debt of Steve Coppell and he should be given the freedom of Reading, and we should all offer him our wives/daughters or whatever else we have, as everlasting thanks for the miracles he's performed at Reading FC.

But we all have to recognise that all good things come to and end, and something has to be done to arrest this slump because the only way is down, and it's a sad fact that if we don't get into the PL within the two years of parachute payments then the odds are very much that we won't at all for many, many, years.

[Victor Meldrew]

I think you may have hit the nail on the head AP regarding the coaching staff.
We know that Coppell's approach to management is similar to Brian Clough's in that he doesn't get involved much in day-to-day training but selects the team and dictates tactics.

With Downes as our so-called defensive coach does he actually tell Duberry and Rosenior just to whack the ball forward in the air and hope for some sort of percentage game further forward?
Who tells Hunt to overhit or play corners straight to the first defender?
Who tells Harper,a player very comfortable on he ball,to also smash the ball into no-man's land in the vague hope that somebody will chase and get it?

Most teams outpass us and we are happy to let the opposition come at us and shoot-it caused us problems in The Premiership and has caused us problems again this season as believe it or not Reading coaches some opposing players can actually shoot.
Coppell does seem happiest with people he knows around him whether that be players or coaching staff but sometimes you have to think outside the box and regrettably when it comes to people he doesn't know there are problems,e.g Fae,Cisse,Marek,Kebe et al.

So where do we go from here?
I don't know but a shake-up is needed in the summer across the club.

[Rex]

Listening to him speak yesterday he mentioned that 'unbelivably we're still 3rd, we don't deserve to be there but we are' which says he knows this team isn't that good and that there a big problems here.

You could also take it in the context that our run has been so fortuatous with all teams around us struggling also. Do we deserve to be third - a resounding no. Under normal circumstances we'd have dropped in the league like a stone. He's mixed and matched and shown more adventure this season than previously, sometimes it's worked and other not. Has Coppell found the right blend when able to - clearly not in some games has holding midfield play has been frustratingly bad to watch on occasion. The desire of the players is clearly there - watching Doyles celebration at SW was a joy to behold. Some players are finally finding form - others dropping off. Finding the right level with all the current crop of players is the missing link in a team who have the skill, passion and possible desire to push on. The fact that some players are probably fooked and Coppell is being too consevative to leave them out of the first starting 11 is a problem that only a man of Coppells experience can solve.
Has Coppell lost the desire to manager a team?. Only he can answer that. He's a well respected manager , clearly a thinker (possibly too much), level headed and probably not a hairdryer manager. Those supporters asking for his head are suffering from the memory loss of the fall out of Pardew leaving us managerless, if that happened again you will probably guarantee the team will be out of a playoff place. The team are possibly suffering burn out at a critical time in the season but so are other teams.

[Archie's penalty]

For me, though, the real low point was last week. Tuesday 10th March was the real watershed day for Reading FC - the day when I knew we weren't going up. I cannot tell you just how much contempt and loathing I have for Steve Coppell's "Blues Brothers" idea of getting the old band back together. It shows utter desperation and is a public declaration that there just no strategy and that the ideas have completely run out. Totally short-term thinking I'm still utterly apoplectic about it 5 days later.

The person I feel sorry for in all this is Noel Hunt - how much effort has he put in for the team just for Kits to waltz straight in?!?

I am still happy to see Kits back but am not sure the timing is right for his return.

[Alan Partridge]

For me, though, the real low point was last week. Tuesday 10th March was the real watershed day for Reading FC - the day when I knew we weren't going up. I cannot tell you just how much contempt and loathing I have for Steve Coppell's "Blues Brothers" idea of getting the old band back together. It shows utter desperation and is a public declaration that there just no strategy and that the ideas have completely run out. Totally short-term thinking I'm still utterly apoplectic about it 5 days later.

The person I feel sorry for in all this is Noel Hunt - how much effort has he put in for the team just for Kits to waltz straight in?!?

I am still happy to see Kits back but am not sure the timing is right for his return.

and Long, where my prediciton was utterly correct. The first opportunity Coppell got to put Doyle and Kitson together he did, and Long was one of the few having a decent game. I bet Doyle and Kitson start Tuesday.