BFTG Derby

[No Fixed Abode]

Did the 'system' work at Derby? Or is it players being out of form/injured again?

[LoyalRoyal22]

Did the 'system' work at Derby? Or is it players being out of form/injured again?

It was one of our best performances of the season, so yeh I would say the system worked well. We just got punished for individual mistakes

[Ian Royal]

Just watching the highlights, Kelly burst through for Swifts goal was class, he's going to be some player. Like the look of Tiago as well.

One question, I'm not sure I understand the new offside rule, I think Bent is in an offside position here (and for the sake of the question lets assume he is goalside of Gunter), is that still the case under the new rules or is he on side as the ball is not being played to him? (Not having a whinge about the goal, I'd complain about the handball if I was )

There's nothing new about the rule except where a freekick is taken from. You've had to be 'active' and involved in play for years.

If the ball goes nowhere near Bent from that pass, instead going out wide, Bent's not offside as he's making no attempt to play the ball.

There are two different things. Being in an offside position - not a freekick. Committing an offside offence by attempting to interfere in play having been in an offside position when the ball was passed - freekick.

[No Fixed Abode]

Did the 'system' work at Derby? Or is it players being out of form/injured again?

It was one of our best performances of the season, so yeh I would say the system worked well. We just got punished for individual mistakes

So what scenario is there when the system doesn't work? You still conceded three goals and lost the game.....

[10539.4 Miles Away]

Just watching the highlights, Kelly burst through for Swifts goal was class, he's going to be some player. Like the look of Tiago as well.

One question, I'm not sure I understand the new offside rule, I think Bent is in an offside position here (and for the sake of the question lets assume he is goalside of Gunter), is that still the case under the new rules or is he on side as the ball is not being played to him? (Not having a whinge about the goal, I'd complain about the handball if I was )

There's nothing new about the rule except where a freekick is taken from. You've had to be 'active' and involved in play for years.

If the ball goes nowhere near Bent from that pass, instead going out wide, Bent's not offside as he's making no attempt to play the ball.

There are two different things. Being in an offside position - not a freekick. Committing an offside offence by attempting to interfere in play having been in an offside position when the ball was passed - freekick.

Cheers Ian, I must have lived down here for too long, I think my brain has stopped working properly. So, in the picture (assuming he is goalside) he's not actually offside?

[LoyalRoyal22]

Did the 'system' work at Derby? Or is it players being out of form/injured again?

It was one of our best performances of the season, so yeh I would say the system worked well. We just got punished for individual mistakes

So what scenario is there when the system doesn't work? You still conceded three goals and lost the game.....

Have an inferior group of players to the opposition ?

Before Stam implemented his philosophy upon this club, the expectation with these players was mid table at best

[Ian Royal]

Just watching the highlights, Kelly burst through for Swifts goal was class, he's going to be some player. Like the look of Tiago as well.

One question, I'm not sure I understand the new offside rule, I think Bent is in an offside position here (and for the sake of the question lets assume he is goalside of Gunter), is that still the case under the new rules or is he on side as the ball is not being played to him? (Not having a whinge about the goal, I'd complain about the handball if I was )

There's nothing new about the rule except where a freekick is taken from. You've had to be 'active' and involved in play for years.

If the ball goes nowhere near Bent from that pass, instead going out wide, Bent's not offside as he's making no attempt to play the ball.

There are two different things. Being in an offside position - not a freekick. Committing an offside offence by attempting to interfere in play having been in an offside position when the ball was passed - freekick.

Cheers Ian, I must have lived down here for too long, I think my brain has stopped working properly. So, in the picture (assuming he is goalside) he's not actually offside?

Offfside position but no offence as he's not active, so not offside.

[muirinho]

Could put McCleary on one of the wings as a wing-back, which Stam did against QPR (after Williams had a go there for half an hour or so). The shambles at QPR wasn't on that side, it was down the middle and on the other side, with Moore again a bit uncertain, and Joey and Obita having shockers.

I didn't think either Williams or McCleary played as a wing-back against QPR. Looked to me like we played a 4-4-2 diamond with Williams on the right in the first half, then a more conventional 4-3-3 in the second half.

i think we started the QPR game as a 4-3-3 but there was definitely a point when Gunter stopped hugging the touch line and became the right sided of three centre backs. At that point Williams went very wide and Beerens became more central and McCleary went up front much closer to Kermogant. It lasted for about 15 minutes before Williams came back inside and Gunter pushed into a more orthodox right back role

Don't want to belabour this too much, but it was a lot longer than 15 minutes. Have a look at the heat maps - both Gunter and McCleary are very different in the QPR match from where they were against, say Derby, Bristol or Blackburn. McCleary is a lot further back than normal, and Gunter doesn't have his normal two-hotspot pattern - it's a continuous blob that doesn't go much beyond halfway.

[billybraggsbeard]

That's alright Old Woman. Better late than never. We were waiting patiently for your input.

I agree with you. We need Evans or Joey in the defensive midfield role. That player makes our team tick and drives us on. I only realised how important Evans or Joey is in the system when they were taken out of the system and we lost 2 games on the spin without one of them.

Totally agree we need Evans or Joey in the team protecting the defence, Evans in particular picks some great passes.

Talking to some Derby fans on the train home and they thought we were worth a draw.

Would have been very annoyed to lose 3-1 , but Meite's goal showed we had a bit of bottle and could well have equalised

Very impressed with Ilori on his debut ( good song as well)

Roll on Tuesday and Fulham

[BR0B0T]

That's alright Old Woman. Better late than never. We were waiting patiently for your input.

I agree with you. We need Evans or Joey in the defensive midfield role. That player makes our team tick and drives us on. I only realised how important Evans or Joey is in the system when they were taken out of the system and we lost 2 games on the spin without one of them.

Totally agree we need Evans or Joey in the team protecting the defence, Evans in particular picks some great passes.

Talking to some Derby fans on the train home and they thought we were worth a draw.

Would have been very annoyed to lose 3-1 , but Meite's goal showed we had a bit of bottle and could well have equalised

Very impressed with Ilori on his debut ( good song as well)

Roll on Tuesday and Fulham

What's the song?

[Top Flight]

Did the 'system' work at Derby? Or is it players being out of form/injured again?

It was one of our best performances of the season, so yeh I would say the system worked well. We just got punished for individual mistakes

It was a good performance at Derby. No doubt about that. But it is not the sign of a good team that plays well and loses. The sign of a good team is one that plays badly and wins.

Did our system change though at Derby? Did we play with a defensive midfielder? All three goals that we conceded at Derby looked soft to me. They all looked preventable with better organisation and shape. Our shape has changed in the QPR and Derby games. We have moved away from the system that was successful and that is why defensively we were poor and we have started losing. Isn't that the case?

I think particularly Derby's second goal. Had Evans been playing as a defensive midfielder, I think he would have been closer to Moore and would have picked up the ball from him and we wouldn't have got into such a mess.

In any case. I have felt that we have been riding our luck for a while now. There have been numerous games where we have got away with it. Our luck was never going to last. We need to improve and be up there on merit. Not just on luck. Having said that, the progress and improvement that Stam has made at RFC this year is fantastic and long may that continue. As long we finish 4th from bottom, I am happy. That was my pre season expectation after all.

[mambo3]

If you let in 3 or even 2 every game it don't matter how good your strikers the chances are you will either lose or draw most of them.
if defence isn't the problem then something is wrong with midfield.
If Yann has to play a defensive role for most of the game then the whole formation needs to be re examined

[CountryRoyal]

If you let in 3 or even 2 every game it don't matter how good your strikers the chances are you will either lose or draw most of them.
if defence isn't the problem then something is wrong with midfield.
If Yann has to play a defensive role for most of the game then the whole formation needs to be re examined

We defended well for most of the game, but two sloppy mistakes and a fortunate rebound were capitalised on.

Conceding 3 shots on target away from home against a team with Derby's attacking quality hardly constitutes "bad defending". They were clinical, it happens.

[No Fixed Abode]

If you let in 3 or even 2 every game it don't matter how good your strikers the chances are you will either lose or draw most of them.
if defence isn't the problem then something is wrong with midfield.
If Yann has to play a defensive role for most of the game then the whole formation needs to be re examined

We defended well for most of the game, but two sloppy mistakes and a fortunate rebound were capitalised on.

Conceding 3 shots on target away from home against a team with Derby's attacking quality hardly constitutes "bad defending". They were clinical, it happens.

It does. However that's 22 goals conceded in the last 10 games for Reading. When can you call it "bad defending"?

[CountryRoyal]

If you let in 3 or even 2 every game it don't matter how good your strikers the chances are you will either lose or draw most of them.
if defence isn't the problem then something is wrong with midfield.
If Yann has to play a defensive role for most of the game then the whole formation needs to be re examined

We defended well for most of the game, but two sloppy mistakes and a fortunate rebound were capitalised on.

Conceding 3 shots on target away from home against a team with Derby's attacking quality hardly constitutes "bad defending". They were clinical, it happens.

It does. However that's 22 goals conceded in the last 10 games for Reading. When can you call it "bad defending"?

I get that, and we have defended pretty appallingly in recent weeks, I'm just saying yesterday wasn't an example of that.

[Sutekh]

We defended well for most of the game, but two sloppy mistakes and a fortunate rebound were capitalised on.

Conceding 3 shots on target away from home against a team with Derby's attacking quality hardly constitutes "bad defending". They were clinical, it happens.

It does. However that's 22 goals conceded in the last 10 games for Reading. When can you call it "bad defending"?

I get that, and we have defended pretty appallingly in recent weeks, I'm just saying yesterday wasn't an example of that.

Take the ManU game out of it, that's 18 goals conceded in 9 games which is exactly 2 goals every game and is pretty awful. It will lead to relegation form if we start failing to score goals regularly.

[Ian Royal]

Just watched the extended highlights.

We looked excellent to start. Then you've got an unfortunate goal Bent knew nothing about... you've just got to take that on the chin. Derby are a good side and carved a decent chance to cross, getting lucky. The second, well that's a poor pass from Moore, and then desperately unlucky that there's someone behind Hughes to pick up the pieces of his almost excellent challenge, and the rest of the defence hasn't adjusted to cover where he should be. The third, just one of those days when you get punished for not much done wrong, although this one I remember the least about.

Obita's first yellow, was just stupid and unnecessary. His second yellow was totally bought by Hughes. He realises he's had a heavy touch and McShane's going to get there first so he falls over. Obita should absolutely know not to be using his arms under the circumstances, but it looks to me like he was just trying to do the minimum to disrupt Hughes, which wouldn't normally be penalised. He's got to be smarter though. If it was 2-2 or 3-3 fair enough, you stop the breakaway and take the red on the chin. But at 3-2 down, you're damaging your chances in the next game and saving nothing.

Desperately need Evans in there. Kelly looks great and should be the first midfield name on the teamsheet.

[Top Flight]

Great points Ian.

[LWJ]

What's the song?

He's magic you know, you'll never get passed Tiago.

[No Fixed Abode]

What's the song?

He's magic you know, you'll never get passed Tiago.

Just the three times mind.