BFTG - Burton

[John Madejski's Wallet]

While he has been my absolute favourite player for a couple of seasons, I do think Williams is currently the weakest link in this new formation. When Swift is back, it would be Williams who I'd drop from yesterday's line-up.

Luke Moore is just f*cking quality


For those being down on the team right now, what makes you think we can't happily end up in the playoffs? I don't think our footy is all that brilliant and we're 3rd. Talk about over-hyping the oppo. Very few other teams have actually impressed me this year

[windermere_royal]

Eh? Midfield!? Really? Swift, Van Den Berg, Evans, Williams, Quinn and Kelly? I'm really not sure what more we could ask for.

Beerens 8 best game for a while
Samuels 10 easily the best thing that has happened to this football club in a decade

I think you are getting a little over excited. to give Samuel 10 is to say he was faultless. he was good i agree. but nowhere near a 10. and Beerens continues to disappoint given his high profile, but he just IMHO.

[Ian Royal]

As a bit of an outsider looking in this season (although I've been able to watch a couple of games and seen plenty of extended highlights) I'm baffled by some people's determination to be negative.

I'm not seeing anyone seriously claim we're brilliant, or title contenders. Everyone is aware we're a work in progress. But a work making very strong progress. We have some weaknesses, but we're working round them.

How anyone could want to moan about going from 17th and utterly lost to top six with a clear plan and a general trend of improvement is beyond me.

I know we've had some phenomunal success in the past, but honestly, better than this is the exception. If you can't fully enjoy a season where we're looking comfortably top 10 during a rebuild, then you're going to spend 90% of your time following football unhappy.

There's no need to try to bring people back to realism. No one has lost their head. As others have said, enjoy it while you can. And

[Royal_jimmy]

Was a good win yesterday, we didn't really get out of 3rd gear and always felt we could have upped the tempo. Needless to say, we got the job done and defended well v Burton side who looked threatening going forward at times.

Jaap Stam is doing a brilliant job at the moment and if we can get 9 points or more in a tough looking December then we will be in contention for the top 6.

I still think we are a striker light and I think it wouldn't be foolish trying to find a similar player to Swift even if it's on loan. I just feel that we may be lacking creatively without him.

Bristol City will be far tougher with a large away support and our back 5 will have a tough job keeping Abraham out

[Silver Fox]

No there wasn't anybody at all in about 6 rows in front of me.

This is not surprising

I thought we did a thoroughly efficient job of disposing of Burton yesterday, as we seem to doing on the regs of late. There's a reason we're where we are in the table

[Berry]

Thought I'd take a peek to see how happy people were that we have won 4 in a row without conceding and are 3rd in the table but no the usuals still moaning lol....2020 Reading win Champions League....Dont like the shade of our away shirts!!!

[NewCorkSeth]

How many of the players you named (currently) have the ability to impose themselves and dictate a game?

As yet we don't any sign of a partnership of the Harper/Sidwell ilk.

Well VDB def imposes himself and Swift can dictate a game. Add to that the experience of Quinn, the potential in Evans and the effort of Williams and I reckon were set.

We've had a run of 4 games against teams in the lower echelons of the league. May not have conceded a goal in these games but we've certainly rode our luck at times. Not the time to get carried away.

Who is getting carried away though? Most frequent contributors on this are just, understandably, happy we've won 4 in a row without conceding. I don't think anyone has said with any serious intent that we are going to win the league.
What's wrong with being happy while the team is performing?

[Lower West]

For those being down on the team right now, what makes you think we can't happily end up in the playoffs?

Certainly not down. To see the club on the up once again is exciting. Having watched the last 4 games. I'm waiting a while longer before I'm going to get carried way. Hence my earlier comment. There's still room for improvement in certain areas of the squad. Yesterday Williams and Evans started, with Kelly on the bench. That was the depth of the midfield options. Very limited.

[Ian Royal]

For those being down on the team right now, what makes you think we can't happily end up in the playoffs?

Certainly not down. To see the club on the up once again is exciting. Having watched the last 4 games. I'm waiting a while longer before I'm going to get carried way. Hence my earlier comment. There's still room for improvement in certain areas of the squad. Yesterday Williams and Evans started, with Kelly on the bench. That was the depth of the midfield options. Very limited.

Who'd have thought when you have three injuries in one position you might start getting down to limited options.

How do you think we'd have looked with Sidwell, Harper and Gunnarsson injured at one time in 05/06?
Or Karacan, Leigertwood and Tabb?

Can you explain why you feel the need to talk about not getting carried away? Who is getting carried away? How are they getting carried away?

[royalp-we]

Luke Moore is just f*cking quality

Sorry jmw... You surely can't be thinking of the ex villa striker that never lived up to early promise

Ours has far Moore potential.

Thank you, Thank you

[Stranded]

Even if we collapse to picking up 1 point a game for the rest of the season, we will get 60 and be in the top 10. If we only pick up around 1.3 points per game on average, we are looking at the playoffs.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Luke Moore is just f*cking quality

Sorry jmw... You surely can't be thinking of the ex villa striker that never lived up to early promise

Ours has far Moore potential.

Thank you, Thank you

lol well pointed out

Awful pun!

[Royal_jimmy]

Even if we collapse to picking up 1 point a game for the rest of the season, we will get 60 and be in the top 10. If we only pick up around 1.3 points per game on average, we are looking at the playoffs.

60 points will get you a finish between 12th and 15th usually. 1.3 points per game would get us 68 points which has only got a team a top 6 finish once (Leicester a few years back). A safer shout would be a 1.5 PPG rate (74-75 points) to get top 6.

[Lower West]

Who'd have thought when you have three injuries in one position you might start getting down to limited options.

One position. We normally play with a midfield three.

Yesterdays formation may not have been tactical. But the best option given the players available.

[RoyalBlue]

Eh? Midfield!? Really? Swift, Van Den Berg, Evans, Williams, Quinn and Kelly? I'm really not sure what more we could ask for.

How many of the players you named (currently) have the ability to impose themselves and dictate a game?

As yet we don't any sign of a partnership of the Harper/Sidwell ilk.

I'm not sure we ever will. I'm not even sure any Championship team ever will. Williams and Swift works quite well for now, though.

Today was good. We kill games off quite well at the moment with our control of possession when everybody might otherwise be getting nervous. It took a while to work out the formation - I presume had Stam worked out where all the goals would come from beforehand.

Al Habsi 7 + 1 for the ED Stand fanclub
Obita 8 really good as a wing back
Moore 7 solid
McShane 7 OK
Blackett 8 crunching tackles at key times
Gunter 6 a bit lost at times - not as well suited to the wing back role as Obita

Evans 7 improving all the time
Williams 8 crucial to everything good

McCleary 8 he's back to his best
Beerens 8 best game for a while
Samuels 10 easily the best thing that has happened to this football club in a decade

Really?! Take 10 years away from 2016 and you end up with? Can't have seen much of Reading, particularly in the earlier years of that decade if you really do think that is true!

[paultheroyal]

Who got the official man of the match yesterday?

[harry]

How many of the players you named (currently) have the ability to impose themselves and dictate a game?

As yet we don't any sign of a partnership of the Harper/Sidwell ilk.

I'm not sure we ever will. I'm not even sure any Championship team ever will. Williams and Swift works quite well for now, though.

Today was good. We kill games off quite well at the moment with our control of possession when everybody might otherwise be getting nervous. It took a while to work out the formation - I presume had Stam worked out where all the goals would come from beforehand.

Al Habsi 7 + 1 for the ED Stand fanclub
Obita 8 really good as a wing back
Moore 7 solid
McShane 7 OK
Blackett 8 crunching tackles at key times
Gunter 6 a bit lost at times - not as well suited to the wing back role as Obita

Evans 7 improving all the time
Williams 8 crucial to everything good

McCleary 8 he's back to his best
Beerens 8 best game for a while
Samuels 10 easily the best thing that has happened to this football club in a decade

Really?! Take 10 years away from 2016 and you end up with? Can't have seen much of Reading, particularly in the earlier years of that decade if you really do think that is true!

A decade that started by finishing 1 point off qualifying for Europe, beating West Ham 6-0, Gylfi, Shane Long, a 2nd promotion, an FA Cup Semi final, several QFs, a play-off final, beating Liverpool at Anfield, Ullyses De La Cruz's goal ...

[marlowuk]

I enjoyed the game. Burton showed plenty of attacking intent and the game was pretty open for most of the time. 3 - 0 probably flattered us slightly as Burton did have good chances that they squandered but so did we. It's difficult to find a MOTM or a scapegoat since everyone played pretty well and no-one played dreadfully. As has been mentioned before we are a work in progress. The system is working and the players are getting better at using it. We still make silly individual errors but the system is working!

Random comments ...
AAH is doing great for us but his distribution could be improved. He is also slow to release the ball when the opponents attack breaks down. When that happens we need to get the ball quickly to our wingers who can use their pace to launch a meaningful attack. Any delay just gives them the opportunity to regroup and get back into position.

Blackett played better than I have seen him do previously. He looked composed and effective

Obita did well as did Evans, Moore and Williams.

I liked the look of Kelly when he came on. He is small in stature but fights hard for the ball and is composed in possession. Meite also looked like a good asset and was constantly looking to make forward runs.

Samuel also looked good and was unlucky, I thought, to pick up a yellow card.

Of course we are playing more lowly opposition now since, as was noted, we faced the top teams very early in the season. But we are up to 3rd and on a run of four wins with no goals conceded. Let's just enjoy it.

[Schards#2]

3rd place is way beyond my wildest expectations for this stage so well done to all concerned for that, however........just putting this out there, is anyone else really bored or is it just me?

I don't think it is, as the stadium is as silent as I can remember it in a decade or more despite our being on a good run. I guess the style of play is just passionless and that seems to transmit to the crowd. For want of a better description, I don't see or feel any "buzz" there at all. It worries my that new younger fans won't get gripped by the theatre and drama of it all as, well, there just isn't much

Does it matter if we keep winning?

[Stranded]

3rd place is way beyond my wildest expectations for this stage so well done to all concerned for that, however........just putting this out there, is anyone else really bored or is it just me?

I don't think it is, as the stadium is as silent as I can remember it in a decade or more despite our being on a good run. I guess the style of play is just passionless and that seems to transmit to the crowd. For want of a better description, I don't see or feel any "buzz" there at all. It worries my that new younger fans won't get gripped by the theatre and drama of it all as, well, there just isn't much

Does it matter if we keep winning?

Is the problem twofold - firstly fans being slow to come back after a couple of barren years or still being wary - expecting a fall from grace like last seasons implosion.

Plus, the way we play, we aren't giving the oppostion much chance to get in the game. For an atmosphere to build the game often needs to be end to end, we aren't letting teams hurt us at home - shown by the fact we have only let in 6 goals in 9 games (4 of those were against Villa and Brighton - so only 2 in the other 7). We are also more patient than we have ever been but it appears that the cutting edge is coming along and we are converting more chances.

The 106 season was dull at times, as a fan, it got to the stage where the only discussion was will we win by 3, 4 or 5 today. Once we got a goal or two up, the crowd would sit back relax and enjoy. We are starting to look very good at home and we at a stage where the opposition don't often look like scoring, so once we get ahead it is almost certainly game over.