How impressed are you with BMcD's return to the club?

[leon]

Yep, and that's what McD is good at - given a little time.

Clarke, on the other hand, was a pretty good coach but pretty rubbish when it came to motivating players and blending a winning team.

Nonsense

No Kes he's spot on. Clarke was a shit manager. Good coach. Different roles. But you'd know that being such an experienced football fan.

[leon]

Yep, and that's what McD is good at - given a little time.

Clarke, on the other hand, was a pretty good coach but pretty rubbish when it came to motivating players and blending a winning team.

Nonsense

And how long have you've been a reading fan? Out of interest.

[CountryRoyal]

Yep, and that's what McD is good at - given a little time.

Clarke, on the other hand, was a pretty good coach but pretty rubbish when it came to motivating players and blending a winning team.

Nonsense

No Kes he's spot on. Clarke was a shit manager. Good coach. Different roles. But you'd know that being such an experienced football fan.

Agree with this. Once things weren't going our way Clarke didn't have it in him to turn things round, as he also demonstrated at WBA.

[Royal_jimmy]

I can see this ending in tears. Our style of play is getting worse and results are no better than under Clarke.

[paultheroyal]

I can see this ending in tears. Our style of play is getting worse and results are no better than under Clarke.

Amazing the paragraph you can create when you throw a few words together.

[KC Royal]

Amount of threads that actually come round to my original thoughts at the time etc

Antonio will go down as Reading's biggest transfer mistake and mis-judgement of ability since I have been supporting Reading from 1979. Majority of that is at McDermott's door however I am pleased he is back here and the club have made significant progress since his return.

That's rubbish !
For a start we let Charlie Austin walk away from the club !
But apart from that the Antonio situation was really not that different to the Sidwell one. Player was not interested in signing a new deal and moved on, at least in Antonio's case we made a decent profit on him

He wasn't signing because he wasn't playing! Bloke had undoubted potential and needed the run in the team, his loan spell at Southampton proved that.

Profit lol!!

This is an interesting one. Don't we have a sell-on clause? If so, his moves in the last couple of years have probably helped us bring players in.

[Winston Smith]

He wasn't signing because he wasn't playing! Bloke had undoubted potential

Smacks of being wise after the event

MA was absolutely abysmal for us. There was always a groan around the stadium when he came on and was getting booed he was so bad. The guy spent most of the game tripping over his own feet.

[RoyalBlue]

He wasn't signing because he wasn't playing! Bloke had undoubted potential

Smacks of being wise after the event

MA was absolutely abysmal for us. There was always a groan around the stadium when he came on and was getting booed he was so bad. The guy spent most of the game tripping over his own feet.

Not sure about that. Seem to remember he went out on loan and came back a much better player. He played in the pre-season friendly at Kingston, looked good and starting to show some of the outstanding potential that he has now realised.

[Maneki Neko]

He wasn't signing because he wasn't playing! Bloke had undoubted potential

Smacks of being wise after the event

MA was absolutely abysmal for us. There was always a groan around the stadium when he came on and was getting booed he was so bad. The guy spent most of the game tripping over his own feet.

Not sure about that. Seem to remember he went out on loan and came back a much better player. He played in the pre-season friendly at Kingston, looked good and starting to show some of the outstanding potential that he has now realised.

But looking good against Kingston, and starting to show potential wasnt going to get him a starting place, and rightly so

[ILoveMoonPig]

Whilst it was undoubtedly effective, I've never been a fan of the way that Brian gets the team to play. It's a shame because under Clarke, we were starting to play some really good stuff: pass-move football, with players creating space for each other and really good one-touch passes, to get through on goal.

Sadly, we've lost that now. Everything just feels slow and predictable, like it did under Adkins. You can tell where the ball is going long before it's kicked.

And Brian also seems to struggle with man management; the falling out with Guthrie, Sa etc.

Either way, he's in charge now and not being behind him is a waste of time. We surely don't have the cash to change managers again. He's affordable and knows the feel of the club. We can at least believe that he won't want to leave for a club offering him a bigger budget.

[Maneki Neko]

Judging oyr style on a backs to the wall cup tie is mental.

Pkayed loads of nice passing football since he came back. Just never for more than 45 mins

[Ian Royal]

Nonsense

No Kes he's spot on. Clarke was a shit manager. Good coach. Different roles. But you'd know that being such an experienced football fan.

Agree with this. Once things weren't going our way Clarke didn't have it in him to turn things round, as he also demonstrated at WBA.

+1 Why anyone would defend Clarke given his awful record is beyond me. Took over a good West Brom side, honeymoon period then shit. Took over an underperforming Reading side and made them worse. Got heavily backed in the summer, then contrived to mismanage a flying side into freefall and go look for other jobs.

[Ian Royal]

Judging oyr style on a backs to the wall cup tie is mental.

Pkayed loads of nice passing football since he came back. Just never for more than 45 mins

Agree, the next few weeks are a test of him for me though. Persist with both Hector and Norwood in midfield, and Kermie upfront alone and it's not a great sign.

The problem (as fricking always) seems to me that we have most of a team to play one way, but not quite the whole, the remaining pieces fitting a different style. Will Vydra take Kermie's place or will we change shape to accomodate him?

We've got to add goals to our league game, which means midfield supporting attack (Williams back in), John stopping showing off and starting to deliver and a striker who'll really threaten the oppo defence not just act as a lonely hopeful target. We can't rely on frustrating and capitalising on mistakes because our conversion of chances is so poor.

[sandman]

Go back to 442 with a more high tempo style and get accused of being a footballing luddite. Play one up front, passing the ball from the back, using a defensive midfielder and get accused of being negative.

The poor man can't win with you dickheads.

[Lower West]

And Brian also seems to struggle with man management; the falling out with Guthrie, Sa etc.

Vydra, John, Gunter, Cooper etc suggest otherwise. Far more of a team bond than under Clarke.

[The Cap]

Brian's expression in this pic is FAF. And then we have Pards saying something like, "Blimey Bri, that moisturising lotion you use on your head's lovely mate. It don't half make it nice and smooth. Fortunately I won't be needing any for quite a while".

[Longhorn1970]

No Kes he's spot on. Clarke was a shit manager. Good coach. Different roles. But you'd know that being such an experienced football fan.

Agree with this. Once things weren't going our way Clarke didn't have it in him to turn things round, as he also demonstrated at WBA.

+1 Why anyone would defend Clarke given his awful record is beyond me. Took over a good West Brom side, honeymoon period then shit. Took over an underperforming Reading side and made them worse. Got heavily backed in the summer, then contrived to mismanage a flying side into freefall and go look for other jobs.

not a Clarke fan then ! As McShane said players let SC down, Fulham approached us, board agreed they could speak to SC, not other way round ..

[Longhorn1970]

Go back to 442 with a more high tempo style and get accused of being a footballing luddite. Play one up front, passing the ball from the back, using a defensive midfielder and get accused of being negative.

The poor man can't win with you dickheads.

I'm not sure playing little triangles at the back had any impact, playing Cox as a lone striker had no impact as the service to him was nil. I think you can count the number of touches Cox had on one hand, no shots on goal ?

[quickwingerswife]

Cooper is a liability, proved again last night, no pace and windmill arms. He could have been taken aside ages ago and told about the shortcomings but Mc Dermott doesn't seem that sort of manager and here we are out of the cup. McDermott talks a good job but is he any better than Clarke or Adkins, I don't think so. Wife away, this is me Dave, funk off oxf*rd Royal.

[Longhorn1970]

Cooper is a liability, proved again last night, no pace and windmill arms. He could have been taken aside ages ago and told about the shortcomings but Mc Dermott doesn't seem that sort of manager and here we are out of the cup. McDermott talks a good job but is he any better than Clarke or Adkins, I don't think so. Wife away, this is me Dave, funk off oxf*rd Royal.

I've not heard him talk a good job either ? Cooper will be sold, he's done enough to attract a few other clubs ..