If there was a league for playing slow side to side and backwards football we would be the European champions. Against Fulham we finished the final quarter of the game well. Today JFH decides to drop our player of the month and our two goalscorers from the Fulham game as well as our motm Washington. If you keep chopping and changing the side it prohibits continuity and establishing your best Xl. He split up our midfield and our centre back pairings when he should be trying to fashion the spine and core of the team which we don't have. I really don't get the resting of Luongo after being on International duty, it's not as if he's travelling cattle class. Tennis players travel the globe all year and compete in intense matches in arduous conditions every two days or so. I'm beginning to wonder if it's the club doctor and medical team picking the side such is the supposed advancement in sports science. As for the game, we started slowly and finished slowly. You could swap slowly for negatively in that last sentence, the players didn't appear to have the correct mindset to compete in a professional football match. We hardly strung three passes together in the first half as ball retention was forsaken for the tactic of pump it up to Polter and the ball spent 50% of the first half in the air. Some positive points were Shodipo's pass to Wszolek which was sublime as was the finish. Smithies had a good game and did a good impression of Manuel Neuer as he played sweeper for most of it. And that's it! The rest of the game and its points have been well documented above so it's pointless me reiterating. The only other thing I'd like to mention is the substitutions. The Caulker for Hall was enforced due to injury so fair enough, as was bringing on Sylla and Washington. But he replaced them at the expense of our width, and as our full backs can't get forward because they're not full backs so we had zero width, but we had two holding midfielders on the pitch. So with three forwards on we had to resort to medieval football. Bang it forward and hope Sylla or Polter can knock it down for each other or for Washington or Chery. The problem with that was we were sat so deep we couldn't get any possession to try and create anything half decent. In fact we were worse after the subs and there was only one team who looked like they were going to win all three points and it wasn't us. Henry who had a poor game should've made way as should've Perch who didn't do one single thing right all game. We can't be as poor as this on Tuesday night surely? I've yet to see us win at home this season.
Succinctly put as always, Mr 9s. I was also going to point out the inane team line up and drop offs to the bench. Yes he did bring in Washington but for the wrong man. Did we change formation? If they tried, then obviously it didn't work for scoring, it was meant to see the match out but we barely hung on. At least get the front guys to try to hold the bal up better and give them flank support but more diagonal back passing nearly cost us. I've never been one for JFH as you know, so there must be some backroom stuff going on that we don't know about that we're subjected to watching this drivel
With the scores locked at the predictable 1-1 ................... can we assume that Mackie scored at both ends?
Nope - Perch RB and Lynch LB Ned and Hall as CBs until Hall went off injured to be replaced by Caulker
I was also there Wszolek Man of the match for me not sure why he was taken off Borysiuk was quiet for me but then playing alongside Henry is impossible Henry was terrible Lynch is a good lad and has talent but is not a left back Him and shodipo is not a good left sided mix defensively BFG got better last 30 mins sorighrightlyhas to stay on maybe meaning sylla didn't get a game Reading were not that good so as every one says why be so negative Shodipo is still a last 30 mins player in my opinion .he needs time Perch has never had a good game on th right for us but has on the left Of the current available player I,d have perch on the left Henry on the right and caulker plus 1 in the middle Any 2 central Mid from 4 and see how they go without karlos to shackle them Central mid is lifeless and we probably have the players there plus wszolek wide to do something now Frustration is setting in
Getting relegated is not the answer. What fan would want his team to go down? The idea is to win and go up not down. JFH has proved this season (with his own team) that he will not take us forward. The football is dross and the fans are unhappy. It's not just yesterday it has been all season.
Henry's negativity yesterday epitomised the failure to offer a real threat in the second half. The problem was, while Reading were playing like an integrated unit by the end, we had a big hole where the midfield should be, and faced with it, Henry went backwards. Do we blame the player or a manager whose fear of failure seems to limit the extent of his ambition as doing no worse than Chris Ramsey?
Who said anything about wanting us to go down? He hasn't proved to me that he will not take us forward. I've seen much worse football at Rangers and OK I accept some 'fans' are unhappy, but I don't believe that changing the manager again is the answer or do you think that all of our managers have not been up to the job? Under the constraints of what the club are trying to achieve I think that JFH is doing a better job than Hughes and Redknapp did with much better players. I can't think of a manager (who might want the job) who would suddenly get us winning and take us up. I get frustrated when things don't go well and I wish we would start putting the ball in the box more often, but I believe every player is giving his all at the moment and it's been a long time since I believed that.
