Match Day Thread Reading 0 v 2 Swansea City

Reading v Swansea City

Competition - Football League Cup Third round
Date - Tuesday 19 September 2017
Time - 20:00
Venue - Madejski Stadium, Reading

After Saturday evening's battling and determined performance to earn an away point against Spurs, the Swans' next match is away to Reading in the League Cup.

Reading also drew on Saturday, securing a 1-1 away draw at Brentford in the Championship. After falling behind in the first 45 minutes, the Royals improved in the second half and levelled through Liam Kelly's penalty after Rico Henry pushed Tyler Blackett to the ground from a free-kick.

Whilst Swansea and Reading have played each other on 76 occasions, with the Swans winning 29, Reading 33 and 14 draws, undoubtedly the most famous and most important of those previous matches was the 2011 Championship Play-Off final at Wembley when the Swans ran out 4-2 winners to claim a place in the Premier League:

With an important home PL match against Watford coming up just 4 days later, I'm not sure how many changes to his starting XI Manager Paul Clement will choose to make, but Angel Rangel, Wayne Routledge, Leroy Fer and (surely) Roque Mesa could all be in the team. I'm hoping for a good run in both Cup Competitions this year, so I'm going 2-1 to the Swans

 

Like Taff I am not sure what stating line up PC will go for but I expect those mentioned above to play plus possibly Bony.
I am looking to extend my season's unbeaten Swans watching run played 2 W1 D1 and to keep a clean sheet so 2-0 to the Swans

 

I'd like to see a midfield trio of Leon, Sanchez and Mesa with Bony up front.

 

The under 23'splay on Monday so can't see many of them featuring but would like to see a young RB on the bench. Surely Mesa, Sanches . Bony and Narsingh must feature with Narsingh playing the Ayew role. Not sure about Leon these days as I think we need to look at the future.

 

Leon is still our best midfielder on the ball. Playing him with Mesa and Sanchez might help them with their confidence and development etc. Best way for them to learn off Leon is by playing alongside him on the pitch.

Once all are up to speed/form etc, I'd then like to see a midfield trio combo of Mesa/Carroll/Ki/Sanches.

U23s playing the night before a league cup game is utter bollocks though. How the hell are these kids supposed to get some sort of first team experience if they have to play the night before? There shouldn't be any u23 games played when there are cup fixtures on during the week. They'll never get a chance otherwise

 

Fab
Naughton . Fernandez , VDH , Olsson
Routledge , Carroll , Sanches , Clucas , Ayew or Narshingh
Bony .
Fernandez as Captain
3 - 1 Swansea

 

Reading win...2-0

 

Surely Mesa has to play?

 

By Christmas he'll play semi regular I think

 

I want us to play proper football with a lot of attack by using the wings more.....Oh and a good game plan and not everyone doing their own thing that always ends up giving the ball away.......Until i see some proper organisation in the team then i can't have any confidence in Clems ability...

 

The League fixtures for the U23s were produced well before the cup and it could have been we didn't reach this stage so although I understand your point it's a case of it's down to the clubs concerned on how they manage their fixtures and who they use

 

Fingers crossed for a win to (a) ensure more game time for our squad players and (b) establish a winning mentality. Reading will have other ideas and I expect a tough contest.

1-1 then extra time. Tammy to score the winner after 117 mins.

 

All true.
But at the moment we need players who can perform now.
I don't buy the 'looking to the future' argument we are being sold by the club when we are struggling in the present. If we really are looking to the future we use our development players not do Chelsea and Bayern's job for them. If Mesa isn't up to Leon's standard, we play Leon and bring our newcomers on at a pace they and the team can manage.

I would prefer to pay £30 million for a player with a sell on value of around £22 million after a year (or stay on) than pay £8 million to loan a player who we will develop for another club.

 

I would prefer not to pay out 15 million on a player and watch him being unused all season only to watch him get loaned out the next season either . Ill wait before making judgement on Sanches 's expensive loan myself but am happy to outright buy Bony

 

Unfortunately we haven't really got wingers anymore which is why I prefer the 5-3-2 at the moment as long as the wing backs make more forward runs

 

From the way Clement transferred , I don't think wing play is high on his agenda . Anxious to see what formation we settle on by the middle of October .

 

This is why it was so important to get a Naughton replacement (or indeed an Olsson backup) tbh - wouldn't mind seeing Narsingh/Routledge/Dyer given goes at wing back at some point.

 

That's what was missing from last Saturday a bit of organisation

 

Nordfeldt, Rangel (C), van der Hoorn, Mawson, Olsson, Roque Mesa, Sanches, Fer, Narsingh, Routledge, Bony.

 

USA Goals are listing that they have 4 stream for the match - I wouldn't expect anyone to have streams as it's league cup, but you never know.......