Without doubt Weighty, Billy has to start in goal. Freddie has normally found himself put out wide after 60 minutes when subs have been made. I think he should play through the middle for the first hour at least. Him and Murphy are more of a handful for defenders than Pitman and McG.
I though McGoldrick had a very poor game, he's quite a selfish player, he tries to do worldy things all the time and when it doesn't come off it usually means we lose the ball. Thought he didn't track back much either
I'm not a fan of Gerken but don't think he could do much with any of the goals bar the 3rd and he made a couple of decent saves. Bart is definitely the better GK but I would say still perhaps not good enough for a team in the top half of the championship.
Very dissapointing for the first game I've seen this season. I don't rate Gerks but as I said bar one goal don't think he could've done much about last night. Don't feel I need to say much about Chambers at RB but both full backs looked like they were CBs when getting forward yesterday, the crosses were terrible & Smiths distribution is terrible, if we're trying to play better football we need the CBs to be more competant on the ball I thought the midfield was pretty non-existant, if we're not getting the rub of the green or the defence is having a mare we don't seem to have a midfield to can play keep ball to take the pressure off the rest of the team. This is probably my biggest criticism of Mick since he's been here, our forward play and defence play (bar friday) has improved greatly since he's been here but midfield needs to take more responsibility on the ball. Upfront I thought McGoldrick was frustrating, on a one man mission which often meant he gave the ball away. I don't think he's an out and out striker but if he's going to drop deep, he needs to release the ball quicker and play the simple pass. Let the ball do the work rather than trying to take the whole team on. Fraser and Sears I thought were out best players, Sears movement is superb, it opens up so much space for the rest of the time. I thought Pitman was pretty anonymous. Whilst I'm quite please with the business Mick done through out the summer, I still think we need to improve the quality in every area to really take us up another level. No doubt we need a better GK and a specialist RB. I feel we also need a CM who can dictate and dominate possession and finally although I think we've got a really good selection of strikers, it still worries me when Murphy is injured that we lack a real target man upfront, someone to hold the line and get on the end of crosses. Especially as we are quite a direct team,but even if we weren't you need that focul point in attack which we lack without Murphy. I think we'll definitely be up there this season, friday was just a blip but it highlighted some of our weaknesses.I think it frustrated us so much because you don't expect to see a McCarthy team to be so poor off the ball and so open in midfield and at the back. We do need to sure up at the back, I just hope Mick doesn't throw the baby out with the bathwater a go really defensive and direct like previous seasons.
Our central midfield was a waste of space, they get rings run around them while picking up a yellow card each every game. We have players coming back from injury here and they sure as Zeus can’t do any worse. I hope Knudson is merely getting used to a new league because if that’s as good as he’s going to be we might as well pay off his contract now and get rid. Risible. Decent going forward, but so is Parr who should now be our regular left back. Our goalkeeping situation is critical. The team, especially the defence, is never going to play at their best if they don’t trust the keeper. Why they’d have confidence in our two I’ve no idea.
It was a horrible result, obviously, but I try and look at it in context: with the budget we have and the issue of so many of the teams in the champ having prem parachute payments behind them were doing well to remain competitive in the top part of the table. Take Fulham, regardless of whether u think it was a good buy or not, they still had the means to blow 13m on Ross McCormack rather than eeek out good performances from a much more inexpensive and, arguably, modest collection of players. Anyway, look where it's got them: throwing money around simply isn't enough. The tactics for this game did seem odd with Sears out wide and a team expecting a promotion push should go to reading and grind out a draw even when they are depleted by injury, you'd think. But that's not how the championship works: poor defending accounts for nearly all the goals in this division (and ours is nothing to write home about), coupled with some decent strikers (of which we have 4 of the better ones, thankfully) with the quality to punish the mistakes and you get these large margins from two, on paper, even-ish teams. Remember, last season: Birmingham were thrashed 8-0 by Bournemouth in October, by December they spanked reading 6-1 so these scores go both ways and are a hallmark of this division I think. So look, were 8th and, as others have said quite rightly, it's better than last year, we have to keep our expectations modest given we all seem to consider we over achieved last year so with this modest, but definitely improved squad perhaps 6th is our best bet given so many better funded and equipped teams are in the mix. Plus we have some important players to come back and a team with Bish, Bru, Murphy, Bialowski could easily be handing a similar defeat out to reading in the return fixture if they arrive with a few men down and get their game plan a little wrong. We've got goals in Us & goals win football matches of course and so I really think we can make the playoffs with a following wind!
Oh, and Kevin Nolan is available on a free, now that is the sort of quality, "been there got the t shirt" player that could provide the passing, creativity that would bring the best out of strikers, be a cool head, a leader on the pitch and really make the team tick. We won't get him of course...
" I though McGoldrick had a very poor game " Seriously? He was made at times to look poor by the statues he had around him but his touch and movement were different class. I thought he was our best player by an absolute mile! Football, a funny old game of differing opinions since it was invented. Last season Mick got slated by many for a midfield of Tabb/ Anderson/ Skuse. Loads of stick, but like that combination or not it was played together pretty much for the 1 defeat in 19. Is our midfield better? Attacking wise light years but defensively, a hell of a lot of work to do. Turning point was the 2-1. After getting back in at 1-1, I was amazed the CMs were flying forward and it wasn't a surprise to see Reading score straight after. Very un Mick like.
