Regarding the 2 players… I think they will miss the midfielder Banuca the most. The defender will be replaced by OShea (remember him) However they are not very good so I don’t think they will miss either. I hear some on 606 saying rest players? Not for me. Play your best team and get the points. How stupid would it be to rest players, then lose to Reading then lose again at Villa? Been there done that, doesn’t work. No banana skins on Saturday. Reading are a very poor side (the table doesn’t lie). It’s not just this season. They should have gone down last season. That penalty miss by us kept them up. League One is awaiting them although you cant tell their fans that. So I was listening to Berkshire radio the other day and I can see why their fans are so deluded. The presenters were comparing Reading being too good to go down to when ManU went down many years ago. I am not joking. Reading fans think they are a Premiership club and should be there. You cannot tell them that they are relegation fodder. Just reading a few comments on their match thread with some saying they are going to beat us 3-1 As most will know I think Reading are a funny little plastic club with weird fans. Let’s get the 3 points and go into the Villa game after winning 3 on the bounce. You R’s!
I agree that we should play our strongest team. We have a really difficult run of fixtures after Reading, so I think we should try to blow them away in 70 minutes and then rest players. I know it doesn't always work like that, but that would be my game plan. Just replace Luongo with Cousins and leave the rest unchanged.
I don’t think it’s a question of not playing our strongest side. Just that some of them might be not 100% having played almost every game so far and we’ve got these guys like BOS, Chair and Oteh who are fresh.
Really? I didn’t hear any of that thankfully, or I would have been tempted to say something. He didn’t do much on Boxing Day but his class is plain to see. Even if he’s not playing well the opposition tend to have someone marking him full time and somebody else really close. He creates space for others even if he doesn’t touch the ball. Unless he really is knackered (quite possible he’s played a lot of games and is still young) I’d leave him in. I wouldn’t fiddle with anything unless there is no choice, like Luongo. Get the points on the board, don’t worry about games other than the next one.
There was a bloke in front of me shouting "get him off" and "No10 my arse" after about 15 minutes. There were others all around me shouting similar stuff.
At his best, Eze is a joy to watch. All players have off games. I haven't seen a string of poor games from Eze so I'd leave him in if the player himself is up for it and fully fit. As Col says, confidence is vital, particularly for a young developing player and I wouldn't risk denting it by making Chair first choice for Reading.
Sorry you had to sit around such idiots, Col! And they call themselves fans. Eze's a huge prospect but may need to be skillfully handled.
Or Rangel and Cameron. And Hall and Baptiste are edging backwards and forwards through injury We are a little stretched... Sent from my STF-L09 using Tapatalk
Depends who needs it. If there are half a dozen on their arses still when they train today then so be it. You tend to be less tired when winning though.
I think this thread is now at cross purposes with the Matchday thread. I'll see if I can amalgamate them.
I think you're right. It's one of those things... if you focus too much on developing everyone, no one ends up developing. BOS has had more appearances and we've already done more work on him. We should continue with him. This is a shame for Chair but we need to fully develop someone! Mac is not keen on inexperience.
If we win tomorrow we'll go into the Villa game having won four on the bounce Ellers. We've already won our last 3, Ipswich, Forest and Boro. The last time we won four in a row was January 2014, the season we got promoted via the play-offs. ( Doncaster H, Ipswich A, Huddersfield H and Bolton H. )
Like it or not the extended absence of Luongo (coupled with the injury to JC) means a major change for us in midfield and it might have been shrewder on Wednesday to sub him at half time to allow some experimentation. - Cousins is the obvious choice but while he has looked strong in his appearances thus far this season he just doesn't have the creativity so will probably come back in the Cameron role. - If Reading intend to sit back and roll the ball around as they almost certainly will then Scowen simply must play IMO. - I thought Chair made a very strong case for being somewhere in the shake up but probably not as a straight swap for Massimo. - Freeman has everything needed to be the midfield pivot but would need to be more disciplined than usual. - Under other circumstances the manager may have been tempted to rest Eze after his poor showing against Ipswich but that now looks difficult. - Wszolek is now the official talisman of our good run and will play. All in all a tough choice for SM. I think he will be conservative and just swap-in Cousins in the starting XI but I'm not sure this is the best option. But that's why he's paid the big bucks and I contribute to footbal forums
I don't agree that we need someone with creativity to replace Luongo, as I think he is very limited creatively himself. What will be hard to replace is his constant running and harrying imo. Freeman is not a holding midfielder in any shape or form, so I'd simply swap Mass for Cousins (not great!) and leave the rest alone. However, I wouldn't be totally surprised to see Chair in the 10 role instead of Eze. The other alternative would be to play Freeman at 10 and start BOS or one of the other youngsters on the left.
Very interesting alternatives, which, again, shows how much of in the right direction we are going. I would like to see Chair and Eze linking up going forward. They would cause the Fakes so much trouble that we would slaughter them.
