Look at the top 3 clubs - Derby, Bournemouth and Boro. All have very positive goal difference balance sheets, and even Watford in 6th are into double figures. Was an opportunity lost last night to get some more on the board? Reading down to 10 men for Slade's half time team talk, and whilst winning it and securing all three points must have been the priority, anyone think that Slade missed a trick? Not just the goal difference tally, but also a confidence booster. We hear about how it's difficult to break down a side when they re-group after getting a man sent off, but I don't buy that last night. At 0-2 down Reading had to do something special to get anything out of the game and the opportunity was there to take them on. I don't know if anyone remembers the Sunderland game last year under Kerslake. We went 2-0 up after about an hour and were playing them off the park. We then dropped back to defend it with disastrous results - and that was against a full 11 oppostion players. Last night with them down to 10 men at half time, Slade should have pushed on and gone all out for the 3rd goal. If we'd got that the game would have been over and we could have gone on to get a few more instead of playing out the last 10 minutes s**tting ourselves waiting for the whistle. I know most of us would prefer the result rather than just the entertainment and it may seem to be just moaning after getting 3 points, but sometimes we seem so uncertain of our own ability.
We should have buried them after Pearce was sent off, but I was even more surprised that we allowed a 10 man team to pull one back.
second half reading had two banks of four i was personally surprised at the amount of chances that we had and couldn't put away
Yep 4ever, I agree that we had enough chances in the second half to have won more comfortably. The fact is though we didn't open them up with agressive attacking, the chances we got were more or less gimmes from Reading - they were very poor defensively. Another side would have really punished them. When you go two goals up first half through an own goal and a penalty on the stroke of half time and they get a man sent off as a result, you need to take advantage. Set up and go out to kill them off second half. I'm convinced that Slade would have been happy to see out that half time score until the end instead of getting the side to play some "total football" against 10 men who were there for the taking. As it was we could have easily dropped two points.
Going in to today's games the 5 teams directly above us and standing between us and the playoffs were all playing at home this afternoon. Norwich, Wolves, Charlton, Blackburn and Watford had a great chance to pull back away after we closed on them last night. You've really got to win your home games to get anywhere - so what happened? Blackburn were the only winners beating Leeds at Ewood (big deal ). As for the others, Charlton and Norwich only managed draws against lower opposition at their own grounds, and both Wolves and Watford got beat at theirs. Perhaps that win last night wasn't all that bad eh?........
We've been standing off the opposition even during Dave Jones reign and it has never worked. I don't know what Slade must have said at half time but clearly it didn't work. Even during the first half when we were two up the BBC stats showed that we had only 31% of the possession. There is something seriously wrong with either the players or managerial selection and tactics. Either way we were poor and a complete rethink is required. 4-4-2 isn't working and sorry to say but ALF is not doing it for me. He works hard, has good movement but fluffs any chances he gets. He could have scored a couple against Reading but couldn't even hit the target. I'm for playing one up front especially away from home. By flooding the midfield we might create a few more chances and hopefully put some of these away.
I can't disagree with the comments about ALF. Given the chances he's fluffed, he couldn't complain if he was benched for a while, but as an outlet for Whitts and being a nuisance to defences, he's a far better option than Macheda. I can't argue with the respective goal tally so far of the two, but I've watched more attacking positions break down through Macheda's inability to keep the ball and pressurise defenders. He's very poor in the air for such a big guy and Jones' presence up front would be an advantage to anyone who played off him. As for Macheda, and whether you agree with it or not, I saw this written in a Reading fan's blog after the game: - "Indeed, the Bluebirds' attacks were often wasteful- Federico Macheda ran at a backing-off Hector to fire high and wide and remind us all why he's a 23-year-old journeyman." I think he's right.
Point taken Sparks and I agree we need better than Macheda but the comparison of KWJ running at defenders.....
Bluey - Kenwyne doesn't attempt to run at defenders, he'd need the runway at Heathrow to get going............ I don't see Jones and Macheda as anything like the same sort of player, and are completely different options up front. Macheda has got some decent close control (in fact much better than ALF), but he's actually quite slow over the ground and often seems to run out of ideas - in the air he's next to useless. Disappointingly, Kenwyne seems very lazy and often disinterested on times, though that could be just an impression he gives due to his sheer size. On the other hand I'd back him to cause opposition defences far more problems with his presence and could bring A N Other (insert name here) into the game in a way that Macheda doesn't. Playing him at the sharp end would be a way of putting an extra man in midfield - something that is glaringly obvious that we need by just looking at this season's poor possession stats. To be honest I've not been a fan of playing just one up like last season when Campbell was sacrificed so often without support, but there is clearly need for a plan B, particularly away from home as long as that front man is supported and not isolated. 4-4-2 is not the only way to set up.
I dont think it was a missed opportunity. We simply are not good enough. Only positive is we have much better players on the bench. Will he pick them though. 451 away is a must. Time to use Ravel as well.
That's all a bit Irish - if your second sentence is correct, then the first one can't be. It was obviously a missed opportunity. He should have played those "better players" in the second half and sent them out with a more positive attitude.
Does anyone recall when City played Reading in the Dave Jones era at Ninian when we were 2-1 up against Reading with 10 men for about an hour but could only draw 2-2. That City team contained some of City's best and quickest forwards ever seen probably - McCormack, Routledge, Chopora, Bothroyd. Reading had the 3 Irish forwards - Doyle, and the Hunt brothers. That was 6 years to the day virtually - 25 November 2008.
