MATCHWATCH : Bristol City (a)

[Hound]

Yep nice post and good read

[Snowflake Royal]

It seems obvious that players at the very peak of fitness and conditioning, playing at the tempo and pace you often see in the Championship, combined with it's physicality are going to be affected by playing three games in 8 days regularly.

[Westwood52]

I spent years playing CB. ,with the occasional CDM.There were games I found it so easy at CB,that I became bored.I then put my hand up to play RB against the Gurkhas somewhere near Wycombe;after about ten minutes going up and down,I thought I was going to die.

Did you used to go up for corners?

Nope.I took the view at my level,that on my teams corners ;represented a good opportunity for the opposition to breakaway and score.So my emphasis was on keeping the back door shut.As a CB I rarely crossed the half way line.

[bcubed]

I spent years playing CB. ,with the occasional CDM.There were games I found it so easy at CB,that I became bored.I then put my hand up to play RB against the Gurkhas somewhere near Wycombe;after about ten minutes going up and down,I thought I was going to die.

Did you used to go up for corners?

Nope.I took the view at my level,that on my teams corners ;represented a good opportunity for the opposition to breakaway and score.So my emphasis was on keeping the back door shut.As a CB I rarely crossed the half way line.

Quite right too!
Eye brows would have been raised had you done so

[NewCorkSeth]

Personally I'd love to see some of the performance data over the last few games - we have had 4 games in 11 days, and 6 outfield players have played nearly every minute (Ejaria, Joao, Olise, Rinomhota, TMac and Morro have all played 355 or more). That's a huge athletic load, and fairly unique to this season; in 2018/19 (the last "normal" season) there were only 2 occasions when the preceding 12 days featured 4 league games (Xmas period), last season it was 8 occasions (Xmas plus 6 after restart, but this season its set to be 25 - 12x the 'normal' amount.

The literature supports 72h being insufficient to fully recover and in-game injury frequency being 10x training injury frequency (referenced here, original source unclear). Other research (1 and 2)suggests the load varies by position, with average sprint distance longest for centre forward (double that for CMs) and wide midfielders, and more turns for wide midfielders and full backs. All of this points towards the need to rest Joao, Olise and Ejaria, or risk another injury to a key player.

I agree with a lot of the points Hound raised about a first XI player at 80% being a better option than a youngster at 100%, and agree with the idea that the performance analysts and sports science team have access to the meaningful data and should be feeding it to Pauno. However, I doubt the analysts have the power to overrule the manager in team selection (especially as the vast majority of players want to play, even when unfit), so the lineups will always be a function of the Manager's own risk tolerance - essentially he could be ignoring a recommendation to rest various players. Of course, this isn't a fair trade-off, as Pauno resting or subbing off a key player costing a game directly reflects on him (e.g. the largely unfair criticism after Holmes was subbed off against Millwall), but he won't get much support (aside from me) for successfully rotating and having a stronger squad available for the run in (especially in the absence of a counterfactual). It seems to me that the rotation we have seen so far has largely been tactical (CBs as full backs vs Millwall) or forced (Pauno said Laurent was "rested" yesterday due to an accumulation of injuries - if he was fit enough to play but being deliberately rested then surely he would have been on the bench, so really I think he was injured)

All-in-all, I just think Pauno is at the different end of the spectrum to me, preferring to pick and leave on key players to chase individual results and risking longer term squad fitness/availability. It's telling that compared to the rest of the league we have used the fewest players this season (24), have the second lowest avg mins per sub (17) and the 4th highest unused subs (156). I would expect a team with an injury crisis to have used an above-average number of players. I think my preference for a fully-fit inferior player over a tired superior player comes much earlier than Pauno's, especially for the attacking players - in our last 6 games we haven't scored a second half goal, so its not like the kids+Aluko+Baldock could be doing worse at killing off games...

Good post this.

[Zip]

Personally I'd love to see some of the performance data over the last few games - we have had 4 games in 11 days, and 6 outfield players have played nearly every minute (Ejaria, Joao, Olise, Rinomhota, TMac and Morro have all played 355 or more). That's a huge athletic load, and fairly unique to this season; in 2018/19 (the last "normal" season) there were only 2 occasions when the preceding 12 days featured 4 league games (Xmas period), last season it was 8 occasions (Xmas plus 6 after restart, but this season its set to be 25 - 12x the 'normal' amount.

The literature supports 72h being insufficient to fully recover and in-game injury frequency being 10x training injury frequency (referenced here, original source unclear). Other research (1 and 2)suggests the load varies by position, with average sprint distance longest for centre forward (double that for CMs) and wide midfielders, and more turns for wide midfielders and full backs. All of this points towards the need to rest Joao, Olise and Ejaria, or risk another injury to a key player.

I agree with a lot of the points Hound raised about a first XI player at 80% being a better option than a youngster at 100%, and agree with the idea that the performance analysts and sports science team have access to the meaningful data and should be feeding it to Pauno. However, I doubt the analysts have the power to overrule the manager in team selection (especially as the vast majority of players want to play, even when unfit), so the lineups will always be a function of the Manager's own risk tolerance - essentially he could be ignoring a recommendation to rest various players. Of course, this isn't a fair trade-off, as Pauno resting or subbing off a key player costing a game directly reflects on him (e.g. the largely unfair criticism after Holmes was subbed off against Millwall), but he won't get much support (aside from me) for successfully rotating and having a stronger squad available for the run in (especially in the absence of a counterfactual). It seems to me that the rotation we have seen so far has largely been tactical (CBs as full backs vs Millwall) or forced (Pauno said Laurent was "rested" yesterday due to an accumulation of injuries - if he was fit enough to play but being deliberately rested then surely he would have been on the bench, so really I think he was injured)

All-in-all, I just think Pauno is at the different end of the spectrum to me, preferring to pick and leave on key players to chase individual results and risking longer term squad fitness/availability. It's telling that compared to the rest of the league we have used the fewest players this season (24), have the second lowest avg mins per sub (17) and the 4th highest unused subs (156). I would expect a team with an injury crisis to have used an above-average number of players. I think my preference for a fully-fit inferior player over a tired superior player comes much earlier than Pauno's, especially for the attacking players - in our last 6 games we haven't scored a second half goal, so its not like the kids+Aluko+Baldock could be doing worse at killing off games...

Good post this.

Yes it is. Interesting we have used the least players this season. I would like to see more of Tetek. He is another one out of contract this summer.

[NewCorkSeth]

The board need to get off their asses and give oit some oxf*rd contracts.

[Cape Town Royal]

I will no doubt incur fury for saying this, but Morro's goal was not a wonder goal.

He does really well to push forward, see a gap, pass to Joao and continue his run. However, once he gets it back, it's a lucky ricochet and a deflected finish. I'd say a good goal for a CB overall, but Morrodonna he is not.

Pearce's stopovers at Doncaster and the Brynaldo cruyff turn at Anfield score higher.

He has the wherewithal to pick up the loose ball, try to beat his man, recover the block and then lob the keeper whilst stumbling. It's a great goal.

It's not pretty, but it's brilliant.

Morro kept going and stayed calm when it got tight so a very good goal for me.

Throw another in the mix... Adie Williams chipping the keeper from 5 yards out at Sheff Utd was beautiful to witness!

[Millsy]

Here we are congratulating the boys on a measly 2-0 win, when they were on a losign streak, huge injury woes, imminent manager departure, and Watford were able to put 6 past them. Should we have done a lot better?

[Pepe the Horseman]

Here we are congratulating the boys on a measly 2-0 win, when they were on a losign streak, huge injury woes, imminent manager departure, and Watford were able to put 6 past them. Should we have done a lot better?

The first two could also apply to us. We could've done a lot better, but given the importance of the win, there was nothing wrong with playing it safe and seeing out a comfortable win.

[Who Moved The Goalposts?]

Here we are congratulating the boys on a measly 2-0 win, when they were on a losign streak, huge injury woes, imminent manager departure, and Watford were able to put 6 past them. Should we have done a lot better?

I'm happy we did a professional, comfortable job without breaking sweat and never looking like conceding. All without adding to our injury woes. Not sure away days get better than that, regardless of who you are playing.

[Nameless]

Here we are congratulating the boys on a measly 2-0 win, when they were on a losign streak, huge injury woes, imminent manager departure, and Watford were able to put 6 past them. Should we have done a lot better?

I think Westwood52 must be your grandad with the common ability to pluck only negativity from a positive situation !
It’s a huge luxury to be able to write off a convincing 2-0 away win as ‘measly’.....’

[Coppells Lost Coat]

Here we are congratulating the boys on a measly 2-0 win, when they were on a losign streak, huge injury woes, imminent manager departure, and Watford were able to put 6 past them. Should we have done a lot better?

I am not sure we could of got more than the 3 points on offer. Did Watford get more points for scoring 6 goals? If it comes down to GD at end of season, we would be looking at the games we drew not this game.
As mentioned by another poster, an easy 3 points, no more injuries, a great confidence boost. Everyone put n a great shift, we had chances to make it 3 and looked like we had extra few gears if needed. Great away performance. Stop looking at the negatives!

[windermereROYAL]

In form Cardiff won there by the same score, I`ll pop over to their forum to see if they are moaning about not smashing them.

[South Coast Royal]

Personally I'd love to see some of the performance data over the last few games - we have had 4 games in 11 days, and 6 outfield players have played nearly every minute (Ejaria, Joao, Olise, Rinomhota, TMac and Morro have all played 355 or more). That's a huge athletic load, and fairly unique to this season; in 2018/19 (the last "normal" season) there were only 2 occasions when the preceding 12 days featured 4 league games (Xmas period), last season it was 8 occasions (Xmas plus 6 after restart, but this season its set to be 25 - 12x the 'normal' amount.

The literature supports 72h being insufficient to fully recover and in-game injury frequency being 10x training injury frequency (referenced here, original source unclear). Other research (1 and 2)suggests the load varies by position, with average sprint distance longest for centre forward (double that for CMs) and wide midfielders, and more turns for wide midfielders and full backs. All of this points towards the need to rest Joao, Olise and Ejaria, or risk another injury to a key player.

I agree with a lot of the points Hound raised about a first XI player at 80% being a better option than a youngster at 100%, and agree with the idea that the performance analysts and sports science team have access to the meaningful data and should be feeding it to Pauno. However, I doubt the analysts have the power to overrule the manager in team selection (especially as the vast majority of players want to play, even when unfit), so the lineups will always be a function of the Manager's own risk tolerance - essentially he could be ignoring a recommendation to rest various players. Of course, this isn't a fair trade-off, as Pauno resting or subbing off a key player costing a game directly reflects on him (e.g. the largely unfair criticism after Holmes was subbed off against Millwall), but he won't get much support (aside from me) for successfully rotating and having a stronger squad available for the run in (especially in the absence of a counterfactual). It seems to me that the rotation we have seen so far has largely been tactical (CBs as full backs vs Millwall) or forced (Pauno said Laurent was "rested" yesterday due to an accumulation of injuries - if he was fit enough to play but being deliberately rested then surely he would have been on the bench, so really I think he was injured)

All-in-all, I just think Pauno is at the different end of the spectrum to me, preferring to pick and leave on key players to chase individual results and risking longer term squad fitness/availability. It's telling that compared to the rest of the league we have used the fewest players this season (24), have the second lowest avg mins per sub (17) and the 4th highest unused subs (156). I would expect a team with an injury crisis to have used an above-average number of players. I think my preference for a fully-fit inferior player over a tired superior player comes much earlier than Pauno's, especially for the attacking players - in our last 6 games we haven't scored a second half goal, so its not like the kids+Aluko+Baldock could be doing worse at killing off games...

Good post this.

Yes it is. Interesting we have used the least players this season. I would like to see more of Tetek. He is another one out of contract this summer.

It is interesting , so are we to assume that our injury "crisis" is not such a crisis when compared to other teams?
Presumably also as a team maybe there are fewer changes because we are winning more games than losing- we have a settled squad but when teamsare losing changes need to be made.

Good post BT-just one thing.
Your preference for a fully-fit inferior player over a tired superior player is a valid point when there is not such a gulf as we have in some positions, e.g between Joao and Baldock or between Olise and Aluko.

Even in these enlightened times it is apparently common for most sportsmen to be carrying an injury ( Djokovic?) and yet carry on playing for many reasons such as keeping your place, money, the manager or coach pushing you etc.

[South Coast Royal]

Here we are congratulating the boys on a measly 2-0 win, when they were on a losign streak, huge injury woes, imminent manager departure, and Watford were able to put 6 past them. Should we have done a lot better?

Suffice to say that it might well have been a good time to play them.
If it all comes down to goal difference at the end of a season the team having a worse goal difference doesn't deserve to be any higher.

Points are what matter and Tuesday's was almost the perfect performance being a stroll where our players did not end up tired.

[lolwut]

Sam Smith scored for Cheltenham tonight and getting some great reviews by their fans one of whom referred to Reading as a “great club”. I hope he can help them go up and join them in League One next season.

No fans is shit. I'm only 5-10min walk away from Whaddon road.

I am also only 5-10 min walk away from Whaddon Road.

NEIGHBOURS OXOXOXO

[Zip]

Sam Smith scored for Cheltenham tonight and getting some great reviews by their fans one of whom referred to Reading as a “great club”. I hope he can help them go up and join them in League One next season.

No fans is shit. I'm only 5-10min walk away from Whaddon road.

I am also only 5-10 min walk away from Whaddon Road.

NEIGHBOURS OXOXOXO

Whaddon? Prestbury?

[Franchise FC]

No fans is shit. I'm only 5-10min walk away from Whaddon road.

I am also only 5-10 min walk away from Whaddon Road.

NEIGHBOURS OXOXOXO

Whaddon? Prestbury?

I live within 15 minutes walk of Stadium MK.
Lockdown is absolutely gutting as my refusal to entertain going there is being misconstrued as complying with lockdown rules

Forget pubs and schools, open up football stadia so that my protest can be seen for what it is

[Millsy]

Here we are congratulating the boys on a measly 2-0 win, when they were on a losign streak, huge injury woes, imminent manager departure, and Watford were able to put 6 past them. Should we have done a lot better?

I think Westwood52 must be your grandad with the common ability to pluck only negativity from a positive situation !
It’s a huge luxury to be able to write off a convincing 2-0 away win as ‘measly’.....’

Hehe, fair comment, although you hopefully have had the misfortune of reading enough of my posts to know a) I often put out discussion type points as devil's advocate as I like (respectful) discussion and b) I've come to blows here with a couple of people for being allegedly overly optimistic having banged on incessantly since that 3-0 Cardiff win about how we're a "very very good side". Put my money where my mouth was with a bet (I lost, but hey ho).

So my views absolutely echo the excellent replies I have got, yes this was obviously a great win and performance and you can only play the team in front of you and when you're 2-0 up and comfortably no point risking injuries... but also not to get too complacent and over-confident, a longstanding common problem for Reading hence struggling against nobodies like Millwall. That will be our downfall.