BFTG - Baggies

[Cape Town Royal]

Well that was my last game before I emigrate to Japan so was hoping for a win as a send off..

Sadly they just looked sharper across the pitch and we look like a team that is work in progress.

They pressed as a group, were happy to play in tight spaces, linking 2-3 quick passes to create shooting chances and for me were much more cohesive, when someone had the ball, players went to him to link their play. Our seem to run away and we looked more like a team of individuals.

I genuinely feel sorry for Puscas (and all our forwards), that goal against Cardiff where he got across the front of his man shows he knows how to make runs, but we are so slow going forward and never seem to get around the back of teams so it must be so frustrating knowing if you are lucky you might get one chance a match... We are just not quick and clinical in creating chances.

That said, I leave thinking we are not that far from being a good side. We have a good goalkeeper, defensively I think we are okay and with a couple of additions and a few tweaks we could do okay next season.

My first game was in 1978 so as most Reading fans accept there will be good and bad times. The last few years have been difficult but I enjoyed last night, seeing where we are against the top side in the division and what it showed me was I think if you analyse last night's game you can see what we need to improve on. We have some good players so for all of you who can watch them week in week out going forward, get behind them. Its a great club i'm proud to support and I will miss travelling up from Exeter to watch our heroes..

My new local team has Iniesta, Podolski and Vermuelen, but they will never be the hoops..

Always believe...... C'mon Reading!!

[Old Man Andrews]

Well that was my last game before I emigrate to Japan so was hoping for a win as a send off..

Sadly they just looked sharper across the pitch and we look like a team that is work in progress.

They pressed as a group, were happy to play in tight spaces, linking 2-3 quick passes to create shooting chances and for me were much more cohesive, when someone had the ball, players went to him to link their play. Our seem to run away and we looked more like a team of individuals.

I genuinely feel sorry for Puscas (and all our forwards), that goal against Cardiff where he got across the front of his man shows he knows how to make runs, but we are so slow going forward and never seem to get around the back of teams so it must be so frustrating knowing if you are lucky you might get one chance a match... We are just not quick and clinical in creating chances.

That said, I leave thinking we are not that far from being a good side. We have a good goalkeeper, defensively I think we are okay and with a couple of additions and a few tweaks we could do okay next season.

My first game was in 1978 so as most Reading fans accept there will be good and bad times. The last few years have been difficult but I enjoyed last night, seeing where we are against the top side in the division and what it showed me was I think if you analyse last night's game you can see what we need to improve on. We have some good players so for all of you who can watch them week in week out going forward, get behind them. Its a great club i'm proud to support and I will miss travelling up from Exeter to watch our heroes..

My new local team has Iniesta, Podolski and Vermuelen, but they will never be the hoops..

Always believe...... C'mon Reading!!

Best of luck with the emigration. Japan will be some change!

[Platypuss]

They pressed as a group, were happy to play in tight spaces, linking 2-3 quick passes to create shooting chances and for me were much more cohesive, when someone had the ball, players went to him to link their play. Our seem to run away and we looked more like a team of individuals.

This, totally this.

No one-twos
No running past the man with the ball to overlap
So slow to release to runners.

[Cape Town Royal]

Well that was my last game before I emigrate to Japan so was hoping for a win as a send off..

Sadly they just looked sharper across the pitch and we look like a team that is work in progress.

They pressed as a group, were happy to play in tight spaces, linking 2-3 quick passes to create shooting chances and for me were much more cohesive, when someone had the ball, players went to him to link their play. Our seem to run away and we looked more like a team of individuals.

I genuinely feel sorry for Puscas (and all our forwards), that goal against Cardiff where he got across the front of his man shows he knows how to make runs, but we are so slow going forward and never seem to get around the back of teams so it must be so frustrating knowing if you are lucky you might get one chance a match... We are just not quick and clinical in creating chances.

That said, I leave thinking we are not that far from being a good side. We have a good goalkeeper, defensively I think we are okay and with a couple of additions and a few tweaks we could do okay next season.

My first game was in 1978 so as most Reading fans accept there will be good and bad times. The last few years have been difficult but I enjoyed last night, seeing where we are against the top side in the division and what it showed me was I think if you analyse last night's game you can see what we need to improve on. We have some good players so for all of you who can watch them week in week out going forward, get behind them. Its a great club i'm proud to support and I will miss travelling up from Exeter to watch our heroes..

My new local team has Iniesta, Podolski and Vermuelen, but they will never be the hoops..

Always believe...... C'mon Reading!!

Best of luck with the emigration. Japan will be some change!

Thanks OMA, watching last night felt a little weird in truth... Made me think of all the great and bad games I have seen at Reading, some of my favourite players etc. I think my favourite in each position (not necessarily the best) would be as follows: -

Steve Death (Hahnemann was close)
Murty
Shorey
Steve Wood
Ingimarrson
Glen Little
Jimmy Kebe
Gylfi
Neil Webb
Doyle
Kitson

So difficult to choose.. Sidwell, Senior, Richardson, Gilkes, the list goes on... It's great supporting Reading... So many memories and so many opinions... Enjoy the games!!

[NewCorkSeth]

Tough game, good effort towards the end and unsurprising but disappointing result.

Missed the first 15 minutes but:
Cabral - 6 fine. Missed his alleged clanger early on and have much less issue with him for the goal than everyone commenting on the match thread.
Yiadom - 7 good return
Obita -7 good corners and did ok otherwise
Moore - 6 ok
Morrison - 6 ok
Araruna - n/a didn't really notice him, think I struggled to differentiate between him and Swift sometimes.
Pele - 7 good, particularly some driving runs later on
Swift 5 not enough coming off from him and slowing things down a bit much
Ejaria 5 worse than Swift first half, did pick up late on and do some good stuff
Meite - 6 seemed a threat and put the ball in the net but not enough service
Puscas - 6 missed the pen, didn't do a lot but got little service

Rino 7 made some errors, but mostly made up for them. Totally changed the tempo of our play. Must start.
Baldock - 6 didn't get a lot to do
Adam - 6 daft shot, set up Meite that was ruled out.

You weren't alone in mixing up Araruna and Swift. Dellor did it twice to my recollection. The easy was to tell is Araruna is about 4 or 5 inches shorter than Swift.

[URZZZZ]

Swift and Ejaria can sit on the bench for a bit. And take Puscas with them

Watching Ejaria play on the back of listening to the BBC Berks podcast interview with James Harper made me wonder if something Harper said could apply to Ejaria.

Harps said he had to not play at his best so that the team played better, that is he had to stay back in midfield and not attack/do fancy stuff. In one game he charged forward ran past the opposition and slotted it in the top corner of the goal. Coppell said well done, now don't go forward again.

He said he enjoyed playing in our relegation season the most because he played as an attacking midfielder and he had some great games but the team lost.

It's great to watch Ejaria do his trickery with the ball, but is this at the expense of the result? - I don't know, just putting it out there.

I feel this was slightly applicable to Rino earlier in the season. With Yiadom and Obita/Richards playing so far up and Swift and Ejaria in midfield with him, the duty of the defensive work was on him and restricted his strengths which was running forward with the ball with purpose

He’s had a poor couple of months but I think after today and the Cardiff cameo, he’s due a run of games again, preferably with Pele but I wouldn’t be against resting Pele on Saturday just for one game because he’s played a lot of football recently

[Snowflake Royal]

Tough game, good effort towards the end and unsurprising but disappointing result.

Missed the first 15 minutes but:
Cabral - 6 fine. Missed his alleged clanger early on and have much less issue with him for the goal than everyone commenting on the match thread.
Yiadom - 7 good return
Obita -7 good corners and did ok otherwise
Moore - 6 ok
Morrison - 6 ok
Araruna - n/a didn't really notice him, think I struggled to differentiate between him and Swift sometimes.
Pele - 7 good, particularly some driving runs later on
Swift 5 not enough coming off from him and slowing things down a bit much
Ejaria 5 worse than Swift first half, did pick up late on and do some good stuff
Meite - 6 seemed a threat and put the ball in the net but not enough service
Puscas - 6 missed the pen, didn't do a lot but got little service

Rino 7 made some errors, but mostly made up for them. Totally changed the tempo of our play. Must start.
Baldock - 6 didn't get a lot to do
Adam - 6 daft shot, set up Meite that was ruled out.

You weren't alone in mixing up Araruna and Swift. Dellor did it twice to my recollection. The easy was to tell is Araruna is about 4 or 5 inches shorter than Swift.

As long as they6standing next to each that's fine.

This Araruna is close
That Swift is far away.

[NewCorkSeth]

Tough game, good effort towards the end and unsurprising but disappointing result.

Missed the first 15 minutes but:
Cabral - 6 fine. Missed his alleged clanger early on and have much less issue with him for the goal than everyone commenting on the match thread.
Yiadom - 7 good return
Obita -7 good corners and did ok otherwise
Moore - 6 ok
Morrison - 6 ok
Araruna - n/a didn't really notice him, think I struggled to differentiate between him and Swift sometimes.
Pele - 7 good, particularly some driving runs later on
Swift 5 not enough coming off from him and slowing things down a bit much
Ejaria 5 worse than Swift first half, did pick up late on and do some good stuff
Meite - 6 seemed a threat and put the ball in the net but not enough service
Puscas - 6 missed the pen, didn't do a lot but got little service

Rino 7 made some errors, but mostly made up for them. Totally changed the tempo of our play. Must start.
Baldock - 6 didn't get a lot to do
Adam - 6 daft shot, set up Meite that was ruled out.

You weren't alone in mixing up Araruna and Swift. Dellor did it twice to my recollection. The easy was to tell is Araruna is about 4 or 5 inches shorter than Swift.

As long as they6standing next to each that's fine.

This Araruna is close
That Swift is far away.

Have you written a letter to the club asking for the players to all get different and easily identifiable haircuts? I'll cosign if so.

[Snowflake Royal]

You weren't alone in mixing up Araruna and Swift. Dellor did it twice to my recollection. The easy was to tell is Araruna is about 4 or 5 inches shorter than Swift.

As long as they6standing next to each that's fine.

This Araruna is close
That Swift is far away.

Have you written a letter to the club asking for the players to all get different and easily identifiable haircuts? I'll cosign if so.

My sense of self importance is insufficient to trigger that request.

[NewCorkSeth]

As long as they6standing next to each that's fine.

This Araruna is close
That Swift is far away.

Have you written a letter to the club asking for the players to all get different and easily identifiable haircuts? I'll cosign if so.

My sense of self importance is insufficient to trigger that request.

I find that hard to believe

[morganb]

Have you written a letter to the club asking for the players to all get different and easily identifiable haircuts? I'll cosign if so.

My sense of self importance is insufficient to trigger that request.

I find that hard to believe

It might be a bit tricky to find 20+ different haircuts but are players allowed to wear wigs (or hats) on the pitch? You'd only need 11 and when someone is subbed off they could swap headgear like when a subbed captain hands over the armband. They could also sell replicas in the club shop.

[RoyalBlue]

You weren't alone in mixing up Araruna and Swift. Dellor did it twice to my recollection. The easy was to tell is Araruna is about 4 or 5 inches shorter than Swift.

As long as they6standing next to each that's fine.

This Araruna is close
That Swift is far away.

Have you written a letter to the club asking for the players to all get different and easily identifiable haircuts? I'll cosign if so.

You mean like the badger that appeared on the head of one of our midfielders once? Can't remember who it was. Norwood? It was another skilful player who got crucified by some of our fan base and then went on to bigger and better things to prove them wrong. - Just remembered it was Danny Guthrie and he didn’t go on to bigger and better things!

[NewCorkSeth]

My sense of self importance is insufficient to trigger that request.

I find that hard to believe

It might be a bit tricky to find 20+ different haircuts but are players allowed to wear wigs (or hats) on the pitch? You'd only need 11 and when someone is subbed off they could swap headgear like when a subbed captain hands over the armband. They could also sell replicas in the club shop.

We wouldnt need 20. For instance if Charlie Adam and Pele both shaved their heads at the same time, we would know who is who. But I like the idea of headgear.

[Hendo]

Tough game, good effort towards the end and unsurprising but disappointing result.

Missed the first 15 minutes but:
Cabral - 6 fine. Missed his alleged clanger early on and have much less issue with him for the goal than everyone commenting on the match thread.
Yiadom - 7 good return
Obita -7 good corners and did ok otherwise
Moore - 6 ok
Morrison - 6 ok
Araruna - n/a didn't really notice him, think I struggled to differentiate between him and Swift sometimes.
Pele - 7 good, particularly some driving runs later on
Swift 5 not enough coming off from him and slowing things down a bit much
Ejaria 5 worse than Swift first half, did pick up late on and do some good stuff
Meite - 6 seemed a threat and put the ball in the net but not enough service
Puscas - 6 missed the pen, didn't do a lot but got little service

Rino 7 made some errors, but mostly made up for them. Totally changed the tempo of our play. Must start.
Baldock - 6 didn't get a lot to do
Adam - 6 daft shot, set up Meite that was ruled out.

Pretty sure he scored it

[Sutekh]

I find that hard to believe

It might be a bit tricky to find 20+ different haircuts but are players allowed to wear wigs (or hats) on the pitch? You'd only need 11 and when someone is subbed off they could swap headgear like when a subbed captain hands over the armband. They could also sell replicas in the club shop.

We wouldnt need 20. For instance if Charlie Adam and Pele both shaved their heads at the same time, we would know who is who. But I like the idea of headgear.

Isn’t headgear also traditional, seem to recall many early team photos back in the Victorian and Edwardian eras featured players donned in caps.

[NewCorkSeth]

It might be a bit tricky to find 20+ different haircuts but are players allowed to wear wigs (or hats) on the pitch? You'd only need 11 and when someone is subbed off they could swap headgear like when a subbed captain hands over the armband. They could also sell replicas in the club shop.

We wouldnt need 20. For instance if Charlie Adam and Pele both shaved their heads at the same time, we would know who is who. But I like the idea of headgear.

Isn’t headgear also traditional, seem to recall many early team photos back in the Victorian and Edwardian eras featured players donned in caps.

#BringBackCaps.

[East Grinstead Royal]

2021 being the club's 150th anniversary would be a good time to bring back caps as part of the kit.

Shirt numbers you can actually see from a distance of more that 40 yards might be an idea...

[NewCorkSeth]

2021 being the club's 150th anniversary would be a good time to bring back caps as part of the kit.

Shirt numbers you can actually see from a distance of more that 40 yards might be an idea...

Asking a bit much there.

[Hendo]

2021 being the club's 150th anniversary would be a good time to bring back caps as part of the kit.

Shirt numbers you can actually see from a distance of more that 40 yards might be an idea...

Asking a bit much there.

Nothing wrong with the numbers IMO. Especially when you compare them with WBAs last night, those were a struggle!

Reminded me of an early 2000s kit where we had black number with no panel. Almost impossible to read.

[Forbury Lion]

Nothing wrong with the numbers IMO. Especially when you compare them with WBAs last night, those were a struggle!

+1 At one point I thought two players had the number 3 shirt on, I'm guessing one was an 8 or a 13, Very difficult to read.