MATCHWATCH : Manchester United (a)

[karbota]

1-3 is ok. Some positives to take

Baba and Loum were pretty dreadful but otherwise all did ok against a quality side.

I would also add that Joao was bloody awful.

[Snowflake Royal]

Hope Mbengue starts v Watford, ahead of Dann.

I'm far from Mbengue's biggest fan, but he does add some pace at the back.

Hard to drop any of the 3 from tonight, but maybe Hoilett could use a rest and Mbengue could slot in with Yiadom wide.

Dann shouldn't step on the field except in an injury crisis or to defend a lead late on with 4 CBs.

This season ending has so many positives. Moore millstone gone. Rahman gone. Dann gone. Probably Ejaria gone. Can't wait.

Ha, depends who we bring in….

We'll get at least a few games.out of them before we've grown to hate them.

Can I just point out, never rated Rahman, didn't want him back. Totally right.

[karbota]

The 2 Toms have been f*cking brilliant tonight.

Yeah fair play to them, both done very well

Agree.

[SCIAG]

Good performance, as others have said, from the three Toms and Yiadom.

Decent from Hoilett and Rahman, as well as Long when he came on.

Rest of the team had a night to forget. Difficult circumstances of course. Casemiro is an incredible player - possibly the best midfield performance I can remember against us, and certainly the best that wasn’t Fabregas.

[Snowflake Royal]

Good performance, as others have said, from the three Toms and Yiadom.

Decent from Hoilett and Rahman, as well as Long when he came on.

Rest of the team had a night to forget. Difficult circumstances of course. Casemiro is an incredible player - possibly the best midfield performance I can remember against us, and certainly the best that wasn’t Fabregas.

[3points]

Shane Long brought more to the team on his own than Carroll and Joao did. Poor selection up front for today. Think I’d have been tempted to go with the Long / Meite combination as Meite would have offered Rahman a bit. Ore protection down the left than Joao will ever be able to (and I’m not getting at Joao there, but tracking back isn’t what he’s good at)

[Plymouth exile]

Shane Long brought more to the team on his own than Carroll and Joao did. Poor selection up front for today. Think I’d have been tempted to go with the Long / Meite combination as Meite would have offered Rahman a bit. Ore protection down the left than Joao will ever be able to (and I’m not getting at Joao there, but tracking back isn’t what he’s good at)

What is he good at?

[Zip]

Shane Long brought more to the team on his own than Carroll and Joao did. Poor selection up front for today. Think I’d have been tempted to go with the Long / Meite combination as Meite would have offered Rahman a bit. Ore protection down the left than Joao will ever be able to (and I’m not getting at Joao there, but tracking back isn’t what he’s good at)

What is he good at?

Scoring goals. His scoring record for us at this level is right up there with the best we have had but we don't have the midfielders to link up with him in the way Olise and Swift did

[blythspartan]

Proud of the lads today. That was a decent performance against a star studded United side. Tom Holmes is really improving and I liken him to watching Neil Webb and Adie Williams develop into crucial members of the team.

I really don’t understand the negativity as United are on fire atm and a 3-1 defeat exceeded my expectations.

[Millsy]

No surprises.

After our 4-0 defeat with players possibly keeping themselves for this game I was hoping this would be the game where we'd see the real fight, but oh no. Worse than usual and all our usual frailties plain to see.

Concentrate on staying up.

'Well done' United.

Special well done to Mbengue to score against United away.

[Royal_jimmy]

My thoughts...

3-1 is no disgrace against a strong Man Utd side who will finish top 4. It could and should have been a lot worse as they battered us throughout.

I don't think we played that well. Defended ok but midfield we were completely overrun. Man Utd looked like they had 3-4 more players on the pitch than us. We couldn't hold the ball up and some of the back passes weren't necessary.

[Franchise FC]

Sorry, I'll ask again. What did you guys expect?

And how exactly were a cheaply assembled Reading side, meant to "go for it" against an in-form, full strength United at Old Trafford without getting absolutely fcuking annihilated?

That’s exactly it.
We ‘go for it’ get spanked for 8 or more against the second best form team in the top division in the country and it would’ve been ‘well, we should’ve played it tighter’

[Franchise FC]

The 2 Toms have been f*cking brilliant tonight.

There’s 3 on the pitch though.

Ah indeed. The three Tom's and Andy Yiadom have a been fantastic. Our four best players tonight.

The four ‘oms

[Notts Royal]

Shane Long brought more to the team on his own than Carroll and Joao did. Poor selection up front for today. Think I’d have been tempted to go with the Long / Meite combination as Meite would have offered Rahman a bit. Ore protection down the left than Joao will ever be able to (and I’m not getting at Joao there, but tracking back isn’t what he’s good at)

Exactly this. We were never going to win the match, but Long competitive up top, closed their defence down and physically won a few battles.

Playing him from the start would have helped alleviate pressure, enabling the team to progress up the pitch. Instead we played Joao & Carroll very deep and inevitably they were going to be ineffective.

Has he ever started Long & Joao together? I’d prefer Carroll off the bench.

[Notts Royal]

Really looking forward to seeing the back of Rahman now. The guy just can’t give a toss whenever he’s on the pitch, and offers nothing. NGW at least provides intelligent forward play.

But we say this every season don’t we about players leaving. We’ll still have players who are no good

[karbota]

Shane Long brought more to the team on his own than Carroll and Joao did. Poor selection up front for today. Think I’d have been tempted to go with the Long / Meite combination as Meite would have offered Rahman a bit. Ore protection down the left than Joao will ever be able to (and I’m not getting at Joao there, but tracking back isn’t what he’s good at)

What is he good at?

Scoring goals. His scoring record for us at this level is right up there with the best we have had but we don't have the midfielders to link up with him in the way Olise and Swift did

Remind me again, when did he last score? and how many goals? how many assists? this season. He had the ability but is now past his peak just not interested.

[Mr Optimist]

My thoughts...

3-1 is no disgrace against a strong Man Utd side who will finish top 4. It could and should have been a lot worse as they battered us throughout.

I don't think we played that well. Defended ok but midfield we were completely overrun. Man Utd looked like they had 3-4 more players on the pitch than us. We couldn't hold the ball up and some of the back passes weren't necessary.

Totally agree with you Jimmy, I thought United had the measure of us in the first five minutes and knew they were going to win in second gear so why bust a gut, they were always in control. We could, maybe should, have suffered a morale zapping pounding but thanks to some notably good individual performances, we came away without being embarrassed and retained some pride, which was all I was hoping for beforehand. As soon as we drew United away that was the end of any cup run.

[stealthpapes]

They [RFC strikers] all look individually useful options but not really gelling at all

Fully agree with this. Think Carroll and Joao really don't gel but I think are individually the best two bets in terms of creating something from scraps, I've been impressed with Long's workrate but it's often away from goal. Not sure I've really seen owt from Meite this season tbh.

Would like to know more about a 5-6-0 formation.

[South Coast Royal]

Why do our two full-backs tuck in when we are already playing 3 at the back?.
It resulted in an easy cross field pass to a free Anthony that led to the first Casemiro goal and before that Yiadom was too far in for the disallowed Rashford effort.

On reflection,£1 million or so for one night's work and back to the important job of avoiding relegation and we won't have to listen any more to hours and hours of Ince's time at at Old Trafford.
I would have preferred to have seen highlights if possible of our 1-1 FA Cup game there and the fabulous game in the replay that ended 2-3 after the dire start.

[Mr Optimist]

In my lifetime the only time we have got close to United in a game was the 1-1 league game at home and that is with our best ever team in our best ever season in terms of league position, 2006-7. We haven’t got close to laying a glove on them since.

That is what supporting Reading is all about, on the rare occasion when we do give a member of the footballing elite a bloody nose it makes it that much sweeter, that is our footballing world!