Match Day Thread Reading vs QPR

'I must be more clinical in from of goal.
I must be more clinical in front of goal
I must be more clinical in front of goal
I must be more clinical in from of goal.
I must be more clinical in front of goal
I must be more clinical in front of goal
I must be more clinical in from of goal.
I must be more clinical in front of goal
I must be more clinical in front of goal

Couple of thousand times should do it.

Should have / might have / could have won it 3:1. We lost 1 nil to a great strike that he won't replicate for ages.
On to Hull.

 

MW interview same what I have watched for a lot of the season we do not play for full 90 mins and that's MW fault

 

Hugill should have taken one of those chances, gutted to lose to them tossers

 

A pretty good summary!

All I can add is that the substitutions were pretty effective, including bringing on Wells. But why leave it so late?

 

Absolutely appalling for 65 minutes then carved them open at ease without being anywhere near our best. Neither team deserved to win IMO but we’ve thrown away the soft run of games now completely.

I’m sure from what we’ve been told by fans of his former clubs that Pugh is a top bloke, great influence etc. but again he was absolutely **** when Chair or Wells could have had that spot. A bit like when we had Park Ji Sung and you were just happy when he didn’t give the ball away.

The really criminal part of our play though is the lack of movement and players in midfield showing for the ball. That’s Amos’s role and he’s taking the easy option time and time again rather than driving us forward.

Very frustrating again to get a worse result than we should have against yet another mediocre side.

 

Their keeper was really fortunate not to concede today!

 

Yep. In a division full of nonce teams, Reading are by some distance the nonciest. On the bright side we’ll almost certainly get to visit again next year and the year after and the year after.

 

Was at the game tonight, fair play to all those who travelled considering the transport restrictions.

Poor first half, fortunate to not go in behind. No real tempo, a lot of passing the ball backwards. This continued until Reading scored, great strike but we could have got out to Swift quicker, Leinster ambled towards him.

Then, to put it bluntly, we went through the gears and it was a miracle we didn’t score. Chair had a superb effort come off the bar, a couple of point blank saves, Eze pirouetting through their defence and having his toe poked effort blocked off the line.

We deserved at least a point, wasn’t our night in the end. Couldn’t fault the effort for the final 35 mins or so.

Positives:

It’s genuinely nice to see us actually play some good football and try and create our openings that way rather than hopelessly punt it long.

Ilias Chair really injected some pace and urgency into the game, Luke Amos got stronger and more influential as it went on and Hugill battled away as he does. Credit to Joe Lumley as well, he had a good game.

Negatives:

Mark Pugh was absolutely dreadful, offered us no width, no pace, basically zero threat.

Bright Osai Samuel looked knackered by HT, I’d have brought Wells on sooner.

Difficult for me to criticise him as he has these moments of magic and there’s just so much talent, but on that evidence Eze would get chewed up in the Prem, too inconsistent tonight.

 

Thought we deserved a point from our 2nd half performance. Unlucky not to get one when their Keeper stopped Hugill's shot with his face which I doubt he saw until it hit him, when ChaIr hit the bar and post, and when Eze shot was cleared off the line. But I wonder why it took so long for us to get at them.

 

Just watched the video of the game. When Hugill's shot smashed Raphael in the face, the commentator called it a world class save lol!

 

Eze looked class last night.
He can't carry the this very average side on his own.
I think the opposite would happen in the Prem, where he'd have much better players all around him.
May find out soon.

 

Yep. My lad was watching with me and he was pointing out what the midfield (his position) should have been doing.
You would have had a better view of it than us watching on TV, but it was obvious that no one was dropping into the space in midfield to receive the ball from the centre backs or full backs.
It's not an easy thing to do and quite scary to get the ball there, but if playing out is how we're going to play they've got to do it.
Smith started doing it when he came on.
Players like Winks are excellent at it.
Agree on Pugh. Absolutely awful, along with Manning and, apart from one great cross Kane.

 

I'd love to see him in the Prem and see how he fares, Col. As much as I love him, the fee is probably badly needed right now. Come the end of the season we'll lose all the loanees and I'd personally prefer that we bought or developed rather than borrowed going forward, although accept one or two loanees are inevitable.

 

You might be right on the Prem point, but last night wasn’t one of his better games. Had some isolated ‘class’ moments but was diabolical in the 1st half along with the rest of the team. Will enjoy him while we have him though, that’s for sure.

 

That's right, but the defenders have also got to be encouraged to give the them the ball when they drop into those positions. There have been times this season when Eze and Chair have done just that but have been consistently bypassed by the defenders. Both are good enough to receive the ball in those areas, even if they are ostensibly marked.

 

Yes, on the Commentary I had he said something like that 4 times until I gjess he actually looked at the replays and said it hit his face.

 

Warburton seems to have drifted into ludicrous degrees of caution. He seems happy to have the team piss-ball about with pointless passing along the back line for long periods of the game. And then, once the now customary goal of the season/totally against the run of play/first goal in 200 hours of football/etc. goes against us he is aghast that we can't convert the chances the team is capable of creating once we finally commit to going forward. Yes, we are probably the most unlucky team in the division of late but why not just give the players their head from the kick-off and outscore the opposition rather than trying to bore them to death. This is what we seemed to be doing successfully earlier in the season but caution is now firmly in charge.

 

Yesterday we started the game unable to pass to each other at all hardly, so when after 20 minutes or so of giving it away, I thought MW told them to just at least keep it in our own half a bit, and build from there. It took a long time.....

 

I always feel that Warbutons selections are a game behind. Last night was crying out for 2 strikers and the games he plays 2 in are crying out for the 3 behind the 1. I think we could still be playing now and wouldnt have scored yet. I would much prefer to see Ball play over Cameron any day of the week. Pugh, apart from a tap in has done **** all apart from run in massive circles!
I like Kane but he really does seem to struggle with an easy pass. No way would he ever have made it at chelsea. Eze now, we should really enjoy this lad while we have him. I honestly believe this kid could play in any league in the world. To create space in the championship is no easy task, this lad does it with ease.