Back from the game: It was better...

[runrunrunrungilksey]

Terrible first half, better in second half. Trouble is, we made Ipswich look quite good. Let's not forget though, they're bottom. If we can't beat these types of teams, what hope do we have? Can't stand up for Marek today, though I normally do, I thought he looked slow and not his usual self for whatever reason.

Bringing on Long is just laughable. I would have stuck with what we had up front, which is still worrying.

BR is going to spend the next two weeks "reflecting". I can tell him already what needs to be done, stick with that same set of players, as much as is possible, because we're not going to bringing many, if any, in (though a striker is an absolute MUST imo), don't bother substituting anyone for Long, he really isn't the impact sub some people seem to think he is, don't fanny about with these short corners, get the ball in the box and at least give us a chance of one of our players getting to it/oppo player making a mistake, go back to basics on the training field, get rid of Lampard Sr for a start, bring in a Wally Downes type person to really work on our defence, keep your head down, do a "Coppell" and play down our chances of moving up the table, stop talking about a top six place/promotion or whatever. Thanks.

And to the absolute mong of a woman sat behind me who thinks "Long is our best striker" get down to specsavers love. Mind you, this was the woman who told Kitson to "go back to stacking shelves, you're rubbish" a few seasons ago.

GREED! First half was absolute shite, we looked nervous and made Ipswich look like a decent team. Good pressure in the second half with an early goal and should have had a penalty! I personally wouldn't have brought on Long, he gives away too many silly freekicks especially when we are in the middle of a decent attacking spell which breaks up the momentum. On another day we could have won by 3 or 4 but while I think Church is coming on I do think we need a striker, someone who is going to stick the ball in the back of the net!

[CMRoyal]

People seem to be forgetting that we DREW at HOME to the BOTTOM side. Does no-one else share my view that we are right royally in the poo if we can't beat these sorts of teams? The only good thing to be taken from recent games is that, finally, Rodgers appears to have settled on a team, and we've managed to get 4 points from 2 games in a 2 game run! We're still in trouble at the moment, and the closer it gets to Christmas, the more worried I become...

The fact that we are in the poo is a given. I really can't see the point of banging on about it in a thread dedicated to an individual match when there are 999 threads elsewhere devoted to that fact.

[Victor Meldrew]

I would like Brendan to make some of our defenders take a look at what Premiership defenders do.
Players like Carvalho,Terry,Carragher,Nelson,Turner (how come we never bought him from Brentford?)Vidic,etc-they block things.
It's as if their life depends on it as they throw their bodies in the way and take command of a situation-our guys just stand and wait and see what happens and when it is all too late look around to see who should have been doing something.
Brendan-have a word with your old Chelsea chums and see if they will let Carvalho come down and do a teach-in with Ivar,Mills and Pearce,it could be a couple of hours well spent and might eventually earn us the point that saves us from relegation.

[rhroyal]

People seem to be forgetting that we DREW at HOME to the BOTTOM side. Does no-one else share my view that we are right royally in the poo if we can't beat these sorts of teams? The only good thing to be taken from recent games is that, finally, Rodgers appears to have settled on a team, and we've managed to get 4 points from 2 games in a 2 game run! We're still in trouble at the moment, and the closer it gets to Christmas, the more worried I become...

Somebody else on here has pointed out that Ipswich have only lost 1 game in their last 7 now. They're improving all the time and don't expect them to be in the bottom 3 come May. In fact don't expect them to be in the bottom 3 come Christmas.

Okay, so where do you expect us to be come Christmas?

Somewhere from 12th - 18th

[PEARCEY]

Pearce is better than Ingimarsson - Ivar should be dropped and Mills or O'Dea should come in. The goals against per game and where they've come from say it all unfortunately, he's not in the same class as he used to be and he was 'steady' rather than 'outstanding' at his best.

Agreed.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Howard's growing on me.

Not sure why Cissse came on instead of Karacan, saying that he didn't seem to bad from the telly, but Karacan is far better in every way, but height.

Cisse is a good player. He is the only one, who seems to put a tackle in.

[Terminal Boardom]

Having let the dust and red mist settle, and having seen the lowlights on tv, WTF was going on in the second half when Priskin was given the freedom of Whitley in our 6 yard box? Defensively, we are a shambles and I hate to think what a more clinical side would do to us. Oh... just remembered, WBA and QPR gave us a good spanking. Or will it need a thorough tonking at home for SJM to DO SOMETHING?

Without investment in the team we are doomed. Simple as! Get some quality loan players in and get some experienced coaching and scouting staff on board. Without either we can kiss goodbye to this division for a few years.

[Victor Meldrew]

People seem to be forgetting that we DREW at HOME to the BOTTOM side. Does no-one else share my view that we are right royally in the poo if we can't beat these sorts of teams? The only good thing to be taken from recent games is that, finally, Rodgers appears to have settled on a team, and we've managed to get 4 points from 2 games in a 2 game run! We're still in trouble at the moment, and the closer it gets to Christmas, the more worried I become...

The fact that we are in the poo is a given. I really can't see the point of banging on about it in a thread dedicated to an individual match when there are 999 threads elsewhere devoted to that fact.

I think she WAS commenting on yesterday's game and looking beyond the hype of us getting 4 points from 2 games when we also have just got 4 points from our last 6 games and a pathetic 7 points out of a possible 48 from our last 16 home league games.
It shouldn't be as you put it "the fact that we are in the poo is a given"-people were saying let's look at things after 8 games when we started poorly,then it was 10,12,15 and now after 16 we are in the bottom 3.

Like RL and Strap I felt very low after yesterday's game because when I looked at our 11 starters I thought there is nobody there who I feel that is better (apart from Bertrand who doesn't belong to us) than players I have seen recently turning out for Leeds,Charlton,Norwich and Huddersfield and those clubs are in the 3rd division of English football.
Was it really only a 2 or 3 years ago that we managed 3 draws in 2 years v Man Utd,we beat Liverpool,we drew at Chelsea and lost by the odd goal at The Emirates as well as drawing at Everton and beating Man City?
It must have been a dream-we can't really have been at that level and now down to this rubbish in such a short time can we?

[Terminal Boardom]

People seem to be forgetting that we DREW at HOME to the BOTTOM side. Does no-one else share my view that we are right royally in the poo if we can't beat these sorts of teams? The only good thing to be taken from recent games is that, finally, Rodgers appears to have settled on a team, and we've managed to get 4 points from 2 games in a 2 game run! We're still in trouble at the moment, and the closer it gets to Christmas, the more worried I become...

The fact that we are in the poo is a given. I really can't see the point of banging on about it in a thread dedicated to an individual match when there are 999 threads elsewhere devoted to that fact.

I think she WAS commenting on yesterday's game and looking beyond the hype of us getting 4 points from 2 games when we also have just got 4 points from our last 6 games and a pathetic 7 points out of a possible 48 from our last 16 home league games.
It shouldn't be as you put it "the fact that we are in the poo is a given"-people were saying let's look at things after 8 games when we started poorly,then it was 10,12,15 and now after 16 we are in the bottom 3.

Like RL and Strap I felt very low after yesterday's game because when I looked at our 11 starters I thought there is nobody there who I feel that is better (apart from Bertrand who doesn't belong to us) than players I have seen recently turning out for Leeds,Charlton,Norwich and Huddersfield and those clubs are in the 3rd division of English football.
Was it really only a 2 or 3 years ago that we managed 3 draws in 2 years v Man Utd,we beat Liverpool,we drew at Chelsea and lost by the odd goal at The Emirates as well as drawing at Everton and beating Man City?
It must have been a dream-we can't really have been at that level and now down to this rubbish in such a short time can we?

Well, we are and it is down to a basic lack of investment in maintaining our newly found status. We were looking at Europe and expansion of the Stadium. Unfortunately, SJM bottled it and panicked. The sooner he sells up and goes the better for all concerned. All his mismanagement is doing is taking us back from where we came. Yes he has provided us with a stadium we can all be proud of. Yes, we fluked 2 years in the prem on the back of some shrewd signings and clever management. Those days are long gone. We are now looking doen both barrells at away games against Oldham, Crewe and Gillingham. I can't wait

[Royal Lady]

Thank you Victor - this is the hardest thing for many of us to get our heads around, we were capable only a couple of years or so ago of competing with the best teams in this country - some of it was down to tactical genius, some of it was down to the players really gelling as a team, not much of it was down to spending large sums of money on players, although I accept our players were paid relatively well for their troubles. Suddenly, we get found out on tactics, our chairman won't put any more money in and we get relegated. Last season we gave it a real go but towards the end we made the mistake of loaning in Kitson and Little imo, if we'd managed to get in a new striker and another decent winger, we could well have gone up - this season any good that has been done over the last few years has been completely undone. Those of you with RTGs may wish to look upon a win away to Coventry and a draw at home to Ipswich as "on the up", but unless the team starts gelling and playing for each other and helping each other along, unless we put some money (by no means a large amount) into getting in a striker and maybe another one or two players in key positions, we're going to end up fighting for survival in this division. If that's what Mr Madejski wants to happen, so we're "self sufficient" or whatever, I wish he'd just say so.

[Sarah Star]

Thank you Victor - this is the hardest thing for many of us to get our heads around, we were capable only a couple of years or so ago of competing with the best teams in this country - some of it was down to tactical genius, some of it was down to the players really gelling as a team, not much of it was down to spending large sums of money on players, although I accept our players were paid relatively well for their troubles. Suddenly, we get found out on tactics, our chairman won't put any more money in and we get relegated. Last season we gave it a real go but towards the end we made the mistake of loaning in Kitson and Little imo, if we'd managed to get in a new striker and another decent winger, we could well have gone up - this season any good that has been done over the last few years has been completely undone. Those of you with RTGs may wish to look upon a win away to Coventry and a draw at home to Ipswich as "on the up", but unless the team starts gelling and playing for each other and helping each other along, unless we put some money (by no means a large amount) into getting in a striker and maybe another one or two players in key positions, we're going to end up fighting for survival in this division. If that's what Mr Madejski wants to happen, so we're "self sufficient" or whatever, I wish he'd just say so.

I think we've got until Christmas to move up the league or something will be done... barring anything major like losing touch with the teams above us.

Be fair though, the team are starting to gell and performances are better than a few months ago.

[Terminal Boardom]

Thank you Victor - this is the hardest thing for many of us to get our heads around, we were capable only a couple of years or so ago of competing with the best teams in this country - some of it was down to tactical genius, some of it was down to the players really gelling as a team, not much of it was down to spending large sums of money on players, although I accept our players were paid relatively well for their troubles. Suddenly, we get found out on tactics, our chairman won't put any more money in and we get relegated. Last season we gave it a real go but towards the end we made the mistake of loaning in Kitson and Little imo, if we'd managed to get in a new striker and another decent winger, we could well have gone up - this season any good that has been done over the last few years has been completely undone. Those of you with RTGs may wish to look upon a win away to Coventry and a draw at home to Ipswich as "on the up", but unless the team starts gelling and playing for each other and helping each other along, unless we put some money (by no means a large amount) into getting in a striker and maybe another one or two players in key positions, we're going to end up fighting for survival in this division. If that's what Mr Madejski wants to happen, so we're "self sufficient" or whatever, I wish he'd just say so.

I think we've got until Christmas to move up the league or something will be done... barring anything major like losing touch with the teams above us.

Be fair though, the team are starting to gell and performances are better than a few months ago.

I thought that we played really well against Forest with plenty of passing, movement and cohesion. The only thing lacking was a goal. Against Sheff Utd we again played really well until they equalised. Unfortunately, we have not built on this and we have gone in a rapid decline ever since.

Beating a Cov side with 8 or 9 first team players missing is not something to crow about. Neither is drawing 1-1 against a very ordinary Ipswich side. The team is not gelling as there is no team. They are 11 individuals and play like it. The crisp passing has also vanished. We are not playing good football.

[CMRoyal]

People seem to be forgetting that we DREW at HOME to the BOTTOM side. Does no-one else share my view that we are right royally in the poo if we can't beat these sorts of teams? The only good thing to be taken from recent games is that, finally, Rodgers appears to have settled on a team, and we've managed to get 4 points from 2 games in a 2 game run! We're still in trouble at the moment, and the closer it gets to Christmas, the more worried I become...

The fact that we are in the poo is a given. I really can't see the point of banging on about it in a thread dedicated to an individual match when there are 999 threads elsewhere devoted to that fact.

I think she WAS commenting on yesterday's game and looking beyond the hype of us getting 4 points from 2 games when we also have just got 4 points from our last 6 games and a pathetic 7 points out of a possible 48 from our last 16 home league games.

etc

All fine points, but my reply was just to say that I see no reason why people like me should comment on things in general when the thread is about an individual match. I watch 90% of our games live, and am happy to discuss general issues elsewhere. If my coments are broadly pro-ish, that does not mean I am turning a blind eye to the overall situation. I'm sure that goes for everybody who comments on matches in isolation.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

The general feeling a few weeks back was if he makes it through the international break he'll get to the end of the season.

Could be an interesting week...

[I was there at Elm Park]

Thank you Victor - this is the hardest thing for many of us to get our heads around, we were capable only a couple of years or so ago of competing with the best teams in this country - some of it was down to tactical genius, some of it was down to the players really gelling as a team, not much of it was down to spending large sums of money on players, although I accept our players were paid relatively well for their troubles. Suddenly, we get found out on tactics, our chairman won't put any more money in and we get relegated. Last season we gave it a real go but towards the end we made the mistake of loaning in Kitson and Little imo, if we'd managed to get in a new striker and another decent winger, we could well have gone up - this season any good that has been done over the last few years has been completely undone. Those of you with RTGs may wish to look upon a win away to Coventry and a draw at home to Ipswich as "on the up", but unless the team starts gelling and playing for each other and helping each other along, unless we put some money (by no means a large amount) into getting in a striker and maybe another one or two players in key positions, we're going to end up fighting for survival in this division. If that's what Mr Madejski wants to happen, so we're "self sufficient" or whatever, I wish he'd just say so.

I think we've got until Christmas to move up the league or something will be done... barring anything major like losing touch with the teams above us.

Be fair though, the team are starting to gell and performances are better than a few months ago.

Exactly, the last three performances have improved (though they had to) and now Rodgers has got two weeks to build on that. Hopefully we'll get a striker on loan. You only have to look at Watford to see how loan players can improve you. If we had Landsbury and Cleverley instead of them than I reckon there would be a decent chance that we'd swap positions.

Rodgers and the team deserve some credit for having a very mini revival and deserve the benefit of the doubt at the moment but they must get a decent points total from the games we have till the end of the year. 7 games left in 2009 and I think the team have/should get either 3 wins and 2 draws or 2 wins and 3 draws. We must not lose more than 2 games!

[Sarah Star]

I thought that we played really well against Forest with plenty of passing, movement and cohesion. The only thing lacking was a goal. Against Sheff Utd we again played really well until they equalised. Unfortunately, we have not built on this and we have gone in a rapid decline ever since.

Beating a Cov side with 8 or 9 first team players missing is not something to crow about. Neither is drawing 1-1 against a very ordinary Ipswich side. The team is not gelling as there is no team. They are 11 individuals and play like it. The crisp passing has also vanished. We are not playing good football.

Hmm, I'm not so sure. There used to be plenty of passing getting nowhere and often intercepted, now it's a mix. They do play more like a team in that, for the most part, the regulars can pass to where the other will be which wasn't always evident before - it's only really Church and Rasiak I noticed that didn't quite seemed to be on each others wavelength yesterday, but I'm expecting that to get better the more they play with each other.

I prefer watching the team now knowing they won't crumble under pressure and or behave like 11 individuals the way did in some of our defeats.

[Ian Royal]

It's misleading to just look at Ipswich as the bottom team, (not just because they aren't anymore). They've not been playing that badly recently and they are in better form than us, as well as having taken the no wins monkey off their back.

They've lost once in their last six games, we've lost four times. Of those last six they've been conceeded equalisers in injury time twice and a winner once. They've conceeded 5 goals in the last 10 minutes of a match this season.

They're problems are similar to us in that they're defensive concentration and quality finishing. Keane has got them improved from the start of season and they could be on the edge of turning their corner. Rodgers has only really just started to address our problems in the last couple of games.

We dominated Leicester and conceeded an unlucky goal from a corner to lose, missing loads of chances. We beat Coventry comprehensively. We drew with an Ipswich team that were always going to be highly motivated and difficult to break down, again we had a lot of chances we couldn't quite put away.

Since Rodgers has introduced a consistent eleven and started playing 4-4-2 we have improved and we're on the edge of putting a decent run together. It's early enough to give him a chance to dig us out of the hole I consider to be his making, where there is evidence he is having a positive influence. And I believe there is.

We desperately need another striker on loan. Long has been woeful, Church has a lot of potential but is struggling to find his range and Rasiak is ok, but a bit average. We need a decent striker to either come off the bench who can score goals, or to take Church's place and let him be an impact sub.

[rhroyal]

It's misleading to just look at Ipswich as the bottom team, (not just because they aren't anymore). They've not been playing that badly recently and they are in better form than us, as well as having taken the no wins monkey off their back.

They've lost once in their last six games, we've lost four times. Of those last six they've been conceeded equalisers in injury time twice and a winner once. They've conceeded 5 goals in the last 10 minutes of a match this season.

They're problems are similar to us in that they're defensive concentration and quality finishing. Keane has got them improved from the start of season and they could be on the edge of turning their corner. Rodgers has only really just started to address our problems in the last couple of games.

We dominated Leicester and conceeded an unlucky goal from a corner to lose, missing loads of chances. We beat Coventry comprehensively. We drew with an Ipswich team that were always going to be highly motivated and difficult to break down, again we had a lot of chances we couldn't quite put away.

Since Rodgers has introduced a consistent eleven and started playing 4-4-2 we have improved and we're on the edge of putting a decent run together. It's early enough to give him a chance to dig us out of the hole I consider to be his making, where there is evidence he is having a positive influence. And I believe there is.

We desperately need another striker on loan. Long has been woeful, Church has a lot of potential but is struggling to find his range and Rasiak is ok, but a bit average. We need a decent striker to either come off the bench who can score goals, or to take Church's place and let him be an impact sub.

+1. Anybody who hasn't noticed the improvement in the last 3 games is too blinkered to look at the facts. We're the closest we've been to getting it right so far this season, we just need to start taking chances and concentrate for the full 90 minutes.

[Terminal Boardom]

I do accept that the performances have got better with the return to 442 and the introduction of a settled team. However, compared with a backdrop of dire and utter shite that we produced against WBA, QPR and Middlesbro', improvement was hardly difficult.

A level of perspective needs to be maintained.

[winchester_royal]

LOL @ Noel's twitter entry.

'we are getting closer cant believe what some ppl text in radioberks they need to have a look at themselves muppets!!come on boys!!!!'

http://twitter.com/boyhunt