Back from the game

[PEARCEY]

Very frustrated with all that. Cardiff offered precious little and Marshall made a good number of quality saves. We did enough to win the game but have got to take our chances.
For the first 15 in the second half Matejovsky ran the show...sublime..then bang they go up to the other end and score out of the blue and against the run of play.
What worried me after that was the lack of composure that then ensued. The team lost all the momentum.
There were some good performances. Marek was hungry and played well...yes he was a bit too intricate at times but his passing was excellent.
I thought O'Dea looked very composed on the ball...looks a class act. Pearce played well too.
Cummings drove me mad. He was often in acres of space but was totally unwilling to push forward. He certainly does not have a football brain. Howard showed one or two nice flashes of skill but drifted out of the game. Bertrand was a bit hit and miss.
Kebe looked really good when he came on and gave the team the width it desperately needed.
Up front Rasiak won plenty in the air but Hunt was nowhere to be seen..he has badly lost his way.
We should have won tonight.

[floyd__streete]

I had an excellent Mr Cod after the game.

[Whore Jackie]

Up front Rasiak won plenty in the air.

[PEARCEY]

Up front Rasiak won plenty in the air.

He did. His headers on goal were crap and his general all round play was slow but he won enough flick-ons but there was absolutely nobody in the box. Where Hunt was feck knows.

[The Royal We]

Cummings looked very, very short of confidence and was hopeless going forward. I used to moan constantly about Rosenior. I think I'd take him back at this moment in time. I'm becoming the kind of fickle fan I've always hated!

No doubt most of this board will disagree, but I think Kebe should have come on much earlier. There was so much space on the right hand side and their left back was painfully slow. He gave us width, pace put 2 or 3 OK(ish) balls in the box and won some corners. He added something we hadn't all game (in a positive way this time!).

[Whore Jackie]

Agree with much of the rest though. If he's going to persist with the diamond, the full-backs must have licence to push on. What's bizarre, is that's pure Chelsea methodology and yet Cummings and Bertrand are seemingly not allowed to play that way, now they're at Reading.

[PEARCEY]

Cummings looked very, very short of confidence and was hopeless going forward. I used to moan constantly about Rosenior. I think I'd take him back at this moment in time. I'm becoming the kind of fickle fan I've always hated!

No doubt most of this board will disagree, but I think Kebe should have come on much earlier. There was so much space on the right hand side and their left back was painfully slow. He gave us width, pace put 2 or 3 OK(ish) balls in the box and won some corners. He added something we hadn't all game (in a positive way this time!).

Kebe's crosses were spot-on for me. He did well but Cummings isn't up to it. There were so many times when Marek had the ball in midfield and had no option on the right flank because Cummings was frozen on the half-way line. Get rid.

[shaka's shorts]

I thought Rasiak was pants - he is Shane Long without the pace! No first touch, no movement, offside all of the time and won precious little in the air and what he did win did not go to a team mate. Noel was very poor too and deserved to be subbed.

Marek, Sig and Howard created opportunities. Jem was excellent again. the defence looked good. Bertrand was man of the match in my opinion and Cummings improved on saturday, both centre backs did well.

The key statistic is 25 shots, no goals. We need a striker on loan desperately

[sandman]

Cummings looked very, very short of confidence and was hopeless going forward. I used to moan constantly about Rosenior. I think I'd take him back at this moment in time. I'm becoming the kind of fickle fan I've always hated!

No doubt most of this board will disagree, but I think Kebe should have come on much earlier. There was so much space on the right hand side and their left back was painfully slow. He gave us width, pace put 2 or 3 OK(ish) balls in the box and won some corners. He added something we hadn't all game (in a positive way this time!).

Kebe did well but we weren't getting the ball to him quickly enough.

[PEARCEY]

Agree with much of the rest though. If he's going to persist with the diamond, the full-backs must have licence to push on. What's bizarre, is that's pure Chelsea methodology and yet Cummings and Bertrand are seemingly not allowed to play that way, now they're at Reading.

Dont get me wrong about Rasiak...I wasn't impressed but he did win his share of the ball in the aerial battles but offered nothing else.
Bertrand did push forward in the second half but his crosses were poor.

[Readingfanman]

Fed 5 Played ok, but hardly spectacular.

Cummings 3 Really cannot understand the point of him being there, basically like playing with 10 men at points.
O' Dea 7 Cleared everything and is clearly a class above.
Pearce 5 Outshone by O' Dea but didn't play badly.
Bertrand 6 Got forward well, and tracked back following his man well also.

Karacan 5 Did alright, nothing brilliant though.
Matejovsky 4 What did he actually do?
Howard 4.5 Corners weren't that great tonight, all aimed at Rasiak and were never that great.
Siggurdson 7 Looked good, but really plays in the wrong position on the wing.

Rasiak 5 Knocked balls on but never was looking likely to score.
Hunt 4 Looked out of place really, was never in time with Rasiak at all.

Subs

Kebe 6.5 Probably the most effective player for the last 10 minutes as he gave us width.
Church 4 Barely noticed he was even on the pitch.

[Thomas L'Heureux]

Agree with much of the rest though. If he's going to persist with the diamond, the full-backs must have licence to push on. What's bizarre, is that's pure Chelsea methodology and yet Cummings and Bertrand are seemingly not allowed to play that way, now they're at Reading.

The two seasons in which Chelsea's full-backs have had such freedom to get forward, both Bertrand and Cummings have been away from the club...

It has only been since the arrival of Bosingwa, which is more of a coincidence that anything else, that both he and Cole have bee given the instruction to get forward. Before that Chelsea's width came from the likes of Robben, Joe Cole, Wright-Philips, Duff, etc. At that time Chelsea had Paulo Ferreira, who gets a nosebleed every time he crosses the half-way line, and both Bridge and Cole who didn't exactly bomb forward at every chance.

Funnily enough Bertrand was at Norwich last season, and Cummings at MK Dons, so what you've said above is pretty much nonsense in my opinion.

[PEARCEY]

I thought Rasiak was pants - he is Shane Long without the pace! No first touch, no movement, offside all of the time and won precious little in the air and what he did win did not go to a team mate. Noel was very poor too and deserved to be subbed.

Marek, Sig and Howard created opportunities. Jem was excellent again. the defence looked good. Bertrand was man of the match in my opinion and Cummings improved on saturday, both centre backs did well.

The key statistic is 25 shots, no goals. We need a striker on loan desperately

Dont agree about Rasiak in the air he won enough headers but Hunt was simply nowhere to be seen...cant agree about Bertrand as MOTM. He jumped in and was beaten by Burke running past him in the first half and his crosses were poor.

[PEARCEY]

Fed 5 Played ok, but hardly spectacular.

Cummings 3 Really cannot understand the point of him being there, basically like playing with 10 men at points.
O' Dea 7 Cleared everything and is clearly a class above.
Pearce 5 Outshone by O' Dea but didn't play badly.
Bertrand 6 Got forward well, and tracked back following his man well also.

Karacan 5 Did alright, nothing brilliant though.
Matejovsky 4 What did he actually do?
Howard 4.5 Corners weren't that great tonight, all aimed at Rasiak and were never that great.
Siggurdson 7 Looked good, but really plays in the wrong position on the wing.

Rasiak 5 Knocked balls on but never was looking likely to score.
Hunt 4 Looked out of place really, was never in time with Rasiak at all.

Subs

Kebe 6.5 Probably the most effective player for the last 10 minutes as he gave us width.
Church 4 Barely noticed he was even on the pitch.

Marek a 4 He ran the show FFS...He had one feint and shot which had Marshall at full stretch,spread the ball wide whenever he had options, always passed the ball forward and with accuracy to feet. He was our best player tonight.

[londinium]

Fedders - ok
Bertie - good...at least he tried to push on
O'dea - good -- I like
Pearce - shit leauge 1 player
Cummings - No confidence at first, got better as the night wore on
Jem - played holding roll well, and a couple of decent balls, worked tirlessly
Marek - class until ran out of idea/players to make decent runs
Sigurdsson - ok
Howard - tried
Hunt - did he play
Rasiak - won enough in the air,,, nobody getting the knock downs
Church - See Pearce
Kebe - best crosses all game.

No width, not good enough!!!

[Whore Jackie]

Up front Rasiak won plenty in the air.

He did. His headers on goal were crap and his general all round play was slow but he won enough flick-ons but there was absolutely nobody in the box. Where Hunt was feck knows.

With respect, I thought he won very little in the air. Same on Saturday. Given, historically, that's his best attribute, I'd rather a fit Hunt and Long up-front.

[The Royal We]

Fed 5 Played ok, but hardly spectacular.

Cummings 3 Really cannot understand the point of him being there, basically like playing with 10 men at points.
O' Dea 7 Cleared everything and is clearly a class above.
Pearce 5 Outshone by O' Dea but didn't play badly.
Bertrand 6 Got forward well, and tracked back following his man well also.

Karacan 5 Did alright, nothing brilliant though.
Matejovsky 4 What did he actually do?
Howard 4.5 Corners weren't that great tonight, all aimed at Rasiak and were never that great.
Siggurdson 7 Looked good, but really plays in the wrong position on the wing.

Rasiak 5 Knocked balls on but never was looking likely to score.
Hunt 4 Looked out of place really, was never in time with Rasiak at all.

Subs

Kebe 6.5 Probably the most effective player for the last 10 minutes as he gave us width.
Church 4 Barely noticed he was even on the pitch.

I agree with most of this. Think you've been a bit harsh on the midfield though! I thought Karacan had a good game and Marek was useful up until they scored, then he kind of vanished! And I didn't think Siggurdson got in the game at all. Game of opinions I guess! Plus I always favour Marek!

[Maguire]

Thought we played okay but the Cardiff number 5 was IMMENSE. He won everything in the air and took up that near post position which enabled him to clear practically every one of out rubbish crosses. We battered them for 15mins after half-time then they got one chance and buried it.

Betrand had one of his best games for RFC I thought.

Magic is class with the ball but hopeless without it. If he was actually fit he'd be a shoo-in for a starting place.

Not convinced by Cummings at all. He's the most scaredy cat black man ever.

Lacked width but Jimmy The Legend did well when he came on. I said before the game that with Magic-Gylfi-Howard-Karacan we were always going to be beefing about lack of width and so it proved. Not so bad on the left with Bertrand doing well but the right was poor.

Overall - BETTER.

[PEARCEY]

Fedders - ok
Bertie - good...at least he tried to push on
O'dea - good -- I like
Pearce - shit leauge 1 player
Cummings - No confidence at first, got better as the night wore on
Jem - played holding roll well, and a couple of decent balls, worked tirlessly
Marek - class until ran out of idea/players to make decent runs
Sigurdsson - ok
Howard - tried
Hunt - did he play
Rasiak - won enough in the air,,, nobody getting the knock downs
Church - See Pearce
Kebe - best crosses all game.

No width, not good enough!!!

Agree with most of this apart from Pearce. He played well tonight and did very little wrong apart from conceding the odd free-kick.

[londinium]

Fedders - ok
Bertie - good...at least he tried to push on
O'dea - good -- I like
Pearce - shit leauge 1 player
Cummings - No confidence at first, got better as the night wore on
Jem - played holding roll well, and a couple of decent balls, worked tirlessly
Marek - class until ran out of idea/players to make decent runs
Sigurdsson - ok
Howard - tried
Hunt - did he play
Rasiak - won enough in the air,,, nobody getting the knock downs
Church - See Pearce
Kebe - best crosses all game.

No width, not good enough!!!

Agree with most of this apart from Pearce. He played well tonight and did very little wrong apart from conceding the odd free-kick.

Maybe a bit harsh on Pearce ...he only lost his man 4 times rather than the normal 6 or 8... the sooner Ivar is back the better.

By the way... i really think Pearce is shit and has no footballing brain whatsoever...if you hadn't noticed... I loath pearce more than Strap hates Kebe!!!!!!

I still support him for the 90 minutes though.