Reading

[Peter H]

Nightmare

[Zoo]

I think this will at least give us something to prove next week, Moyes has expressed his anger and this will leak into the players this week I'm sure. Training will get that little bit more intense and the players won't be allowed to forget that they are the only team that Reading have managed to beat this year, this is without doubt an embarrasment but like all things we must take positives from it if we are to succeed. We'll bounce back.

[Quinn31]

Unbelievable. How are we not getting results against inferior sides over the past month to month and a half. We should've piled up so many points over the past month, but we've drawn with teams we should've beat, and now we've lost to the lowest team on the table.

[Dalziel Kane]

Not this year, This season surely.

 

Reading must have won a league fixture this calendar year.

 

It's not that much of an embarrassment as they are another EPL side after all, no side has any divine right to beat another, they did have home advantage today, the referee was sub standard and we missed a lot of chances and did enough to win but couldn't take them, It's not as if they bossed the game or were always in control and we were a collective shambles today. The opportunities were there.

 

Furthermore, is Moyes really capable of 'expressing anger'. That's something I don't believe I've truly witnessed.

[chicagoblue]

Shouldn't take anger to beat sides of Reading's quality. They pretty much rolled over in the first half, we just completely lack that killer instinct at the moment. No way we'll be challenging for Champions league at this rate. Top teams beat those below them and we just aren't doing that consistently. Next week without Felli will be interesting, hope we have a few back from injury, because we need something to spark the season to life again. Can't let this performance drag us down as we head into the sterner tests of the next month.

 

COYB get it together

[Memmaclub]

I want to kill martin atkinson. I am bored of the day light robbery against us as a club when are cunts like him going to be sorted

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

I think people need to get a little bit of perspective here. The first half was as good a performance as Ive seen from an away side all season, we totally dominated the game. Ok we didnt take our chances but if the officials had been anywhere near competent we would still have been out of sight by halt time and should have been playing against 10 men as the handball denied a definite goal and the defender should have walked.

 

Reading came at us in the second half and I think you would expect that from any home side, especially one thats fighting for their lives. A lot of our lads played a full 90 minutes in midweek internationals plus Hitzlsperger was starting his first game in god nows how long and I think they just ran out of steam. The problem is we had nobody on the bench who we could bring on to freshen thins up

 

Yes it was a poor second half but I dont think it quite warrants the reaction of some of our fans. The BU must be overjoyed I bet they are planning their next march down County Road and putting the clown suit into the cleaners as we speak

[Bailey]

I think people need to get a little bit of perspective here. The first half was as good a performance as Ive seen from an away side all season, we totally dominated the game. Ok we didnt take our chances but if the officials had been anywhere near competent we would still have been out of sight by halt time and should have been playing against 10 men as the handball denied a definite goal and the defender should have walked.

 

Reading came at us in the second half and I think you would expect that from any home side, especially one thats fighting for their lives. A lot of our lads played a full 90 minutes in midweek internationals plus Hitzlsperger was starting his first game in god nows how long and I think they just ran out of steam. The problem is we had nobody on the bench who we could bring on to freshen thins up

 

Yes it was a poor second half but I dont think it quite warrants the reaction of some of our fans. The BU must be overjoyed I bet they are planning their next march down County Road and putting the clown suit into the cleaners as we speak

 

I agree with you tbh... apart from that last but as I dont see the relevance and for someone who cant stand the BU you bring them up a lot!

 

Any way, we played pretty well for most parts of the game and I have no idea how we didnt win. We defended well as a unit and Hitzelsperger and Osman bossed the midfield in the first half. We really do need to put away our chances but Jelly should have scored the one that hit the Reading hand, we also had one cleared off the line, hit the post and not to mention another penalty.

 

We were still the better team in the second half but like Dunc says the energy dropped a little probably due to the international break and Hitz not being match fit. I think Moyes could have been a bit more pro-active in his changes when we went to 1-1 but that aside we did all the right things as a team.

 

The frustrating thing about this game, and like several others this season, is that we are making sloppy individual errors every week. Coleman was obviously the culprit for both goals and Hitz also got a little lazy in his marking at a couple of corners. I think Coleman actually did very well for most of the game but he has made two naive & stupid mistakes and it has cost us.

 

We are one of the best teams in the league, I have no doubt about that BUT until individuals stop making silly unforced errors then we will keep leaking goals.

[Romey 1878]

We dominated the first half and were by far the better team and should have been more than one goal up at half time. However, I don't actually think we were all that impressive. I felt that we lacked something, it was all very one paced. If we'd have moved the ball about a bit quicker or had someone willing to try something different (a threaded through ball perhaps?) then I really think we'd have taken them to the cleaners and made our dominance really count. It's only a small thing because we did play well and deservedly took the lead for the first time in a while! For all our pretty play our goal was actually extremely scrappy but a goal is a goal. I was dumbfounded as to how we didn' have more of a lead though; Jelly missed a sitter, Jags had one cleared off the line and quite how we didn't manage to get at least one penalty in that half is beyond me. You can't blame the ref for the first one but the linesman had a clear view of Gorkss bringing Naismith down. You can blame the ref for the second one though. He was looking right at the incident and Morrison clearly had his arm away from his body when the ball struck him.

 

The second half was a complete horror show. Reading were always going to improve in the second half so I was expecting some pressure but that's no excuse for just how badly we performed. Every single player failed to show up. It was a disgracefu performance for a side that is talking about being up near the top of the league. I really can't think of a sinle positive to take out of the second half showing. For some reason we just lumped the ball up, there was no tempo to speak of, the defence went to bits, there was no creativity or any sort of forward play, which all added up to us being very little threat to Reading. Even though Reading were much improved we handed them both of their goals. Or should I say Coleman handed them both of their goals .

 

I hope Moyes mauled them after the game because it was unacceptable. Norwich is even more of a must win game now with our upcoming games and that's not going to be an easy ask.

 

 

Howard - Literally can't remember anything about his performance, oops.

 

 

Coleman - I don't think it was possible for him to have performed any worse than he did yesterday, it was a disaster of epic proportions. He clearly hadn't learnt from costing us two points against Fulham because once again he failed to stay with his man and that left Le Fondre with a free header at goal and he didn't miss. Not content with costing us the equaliser he then goes and makes one of the stupidest decisions he could have made and takes their player out midair without even attempting to go for the ball right infront of the ref. I'd like to know what was going through his tiny fucking mind at this point. Every player makes mistakes but his mistakes are directly costing us goals and points. He didn't even make up for idiocy by contributing going forward; he was poor in that regard too.

 

Jagielka and Heitinga - Both looked comfortable in the first half and snuffed out Reading's attacks with ease. But in the second half the pair of them looked anything but comfortable up against Le Fondre and in particular Roberts. On two or three occasions Jagielka stepped up on his own to play offside only to get it badly wrong, which left the defence having to chase back to prevent Reading getting right in on Howard. Heitinga's lack of pace was really on show due to us holding a high line and he got absolutely mugged a few times.

 

Baines - I don't know what's happened but his deliveries are terrible for the most part lately and yesterday was no different. That's not good when he's used as our main outlet in attack and getting the ball into the box. His deliveries from set-pieces were particularly bad. They were either too short or were hit too long and floaty. There was no pace put on the ball whatsoever. I hate those floaty deliveries!

 

 

Naismith - A much improved performance from him. He didn't give the ball away an awful lot, looked bright and busy, and I like the way he instinctively knows where the balls going to be in the box like he did to get his goal. That's something you can't overestimate. The downside to his performance was that I thought he needed to look to go forward more when he got the ball. Pretty much every time he got it he'd just pass it back to where it came from (even when there were no Reading players near him) rather than looking to turn and go towards the Reading goal.

 

Hitzlsperger - Considering that was his first start in however long and he'll be nowhere near match fit it was an encouraging performance. He wasn't a standout performer but he did what was needed; and that was to keep it simple. He also showed exactly why he's known as the hammer with that rocket of a shot in the first half. Plus, some of his deliveries were outstanding.

 

Osman - I can honestly only remember one thing about his showing yesterday and that was when he brought the ball down, turned brilliantly in the next movement and then had a tame shot on their goal.

 

Pienaar - I thought we were in for a better game from Pienaar after he made a pretty good start to the game, but it wasn't to be. He looked energetic and like he had a point to prove but, once again, his passing was all over the place and he gave the ball away far too often. The more he gave the ball away the harder he seemed to try but the worse his passing actually got.

 

 

Fellaini - Average. I don't think he was all that effective against the Reading defenders for most of the game tbh. Other than the part he played in our goal by making a nuisance of himself I thought they dealt with him well.

 

 

Jelavic - The goal last week does seem to have improved him but he's still not back to how good we know he can be. Highlighted by the guilt-edged chance he blew in the first half. If that had have been last season then he'd have stroked that ball into the back of the net, but instead he snatched at the ball. Unlucky not to win a penalty as well. For me though, he's doing too much work outside of the box with the ball. He needs to be in the box, not running down the channels with the ball.

[Blue 250]

We dominated the first half and were by far the better team and should have been more than one goal up at half time. However, I don't actually think we were all that impressive. I felt that we lacked something, it was all very one paced. If we'd have moved the ball about a bit quicker or had someone willing to try something different (a threaded through ball perhaps?) then I really think we'd have taken them to the cleaners and made our dominance really count. It's only a small thing because we did play well and deservedly took the lead for the first time in a while! For all our pretty play our goal was actually extremely scrappy but a goal is a goal. I was dumbfounded as to how we didn' have more of a lead though; Jelly missed a sitter, Jags had one cleared off the line and quite how we didn't manage to get at least one penalty in that half is beyond me. You can't blame the ref for the first one but the linesman had a clear view of Gorkss bringing Naismith down. You can blame the ref for the second one though. He was looking right at the incident and Morrison clearly had his arm away from his body when the ball struck him.

 

The second half was a complete horror show. Reading were always going to improve in the second half so I was expecting some pressure but that's no excuse for just how badly we performed. Every single player failed to show up. It was a disgracefu performance for a side that is talking about being up near the top of the league. I really can't think of a sinle positive to take out of the second half showing. For some reason we just lumped the ball up, there was no tempo to speak of, the defence went to bits, there was no creativity or any sort of forward play, which all added up to us being very little threat to Reading. Even though Reading were much improved we handed them both of their goals. Or should I say Coleman handed them both of their goals .

 

I hope Moyes mauled them after the game because it was unacceptable. Norwich is even more of a must win game now with our upcoming games and that's not going to be an easy ask.

 

 

Howard - Literally can't remember anything about his performance, oops.

 

 

Coleman - I don't think it was possible for him to have performed any worse than he did yesterday, it was a disaster of epic proportions. He clearly hadn't learnt from costing us two points against Fulham because once again he failed to stay with his man and that left Le Fondre with a free header at goal and he didn't miss. Not content with costing us the equaliser he then goes and makes one of the stupidest decisions he could have made and takes their player out midair without even attempting to go for the ball right infront of the ref. I'd like to know what was going through his tiny fucking mind at this point. Every player makes mistakes but his mistakes are directly costing us goals and points. He didn't even make up for idiocy by contributing going forward; he was poor in that regard too.

 

Jagielka and Heitinga - Both looked comfortable in the first half and snuffed out Reading's attacks with ease. But in the second half the pair of them looked anything but comfortable up against Le Fondre and in particular Roberts. On two or three occasions Jagielka stepped up on his own to play offside only to get it badly wrong, which left the defence having to chase back to prevent Reading getting right in on Howard. Heitinga's lack of pace was really on show due to us holding a high line and he got absolutely mugged a few times.

 

Baines - I don't know what's happened but his deliveries are terrible for the most part lately and yesterday was no different. That's not good when he's used as our main outlet in attack and getting the ball into the box. His deliveries from set-pieces were particularly bad. They were either too short or were hit too long and floaty. There was no pace put on the ball whatsoever. I hate those floaty deliveries!

 

 

Naismith - A much improved performance from him. He didn't give the ball away an awful lot, looked bright and busy, and I like the way he instinctively knows where the balls going to be in the box like he did to get his goal. That's something you can't overestimate. The downside to his performance was that I thought he needed to look to go forward more when he got the ball. Pretty much every time he got it he'd just pass it back to where it came from (even when there were no Reading players near him) rather than looking to turn and go towards the Reading goal.

 

Hitzlsperger - Considering that was his first start in however long and he'll be nowhere near match fit it was an encouraging performance. He wasn't a standout performer but he did what was needed; and that was to keep it simple. He also showed exactly why he's known as the hammer with that rocket of a shot in the first half. Plus, some of his deliveries were outstanding.

 

Osman - I can honestly only remember one thing about his showing yesterday and that was when he brought the ball down, turned brilliantly in the next movement and then had a tame shot on their goal.

 

Pienaar - I thought we were in for a better game from Pienaar after he made a pretty good start to the game, but it wasn't to be. He looked energetic and like he had a point to prove but, once again, his passing was all over the place and he gave the ball away far too often. The more he gave the ball away the harder he seemed to try but the worse his passing actually got.

 

 

Fellaini - Average. I don't think he was all that effective against the Reading defenders for most of the game tbh. Other than the part he played in our goal by making a nuisance of himself I thought they dealt with him well.

 

 

Jelavic - The goal last week does seem to have improved him but he's still not back to how good we know he can be. Highlighted by the guilt-edged chance he blew in the first half. If that had have been last season then he'd have stroked that ball into the back of the net, but instead he snatched at the ball. Unlucky not to win a penalty as well. For me though, he's doing too much work outside of the box with the ball. He needs to be in the box, not running down the channels with the ball.

 

I can't find one word of that I don't agree with!.......and it doesn't make me happy.

 

Ok, probably Moyes wouldn't be able to argue with it either, so, nice team Dave, now stop reading about how good your doing and fucking well get a grip.Two or three more weeks like this and we will be a couple of points above the bottom three.

 

I know a few Norwich fans......and they're not coming up next week for a point!

[Dalziel Kane]

It's the subsequent games that leave a little worry, I.E.

 

Norwich H

 

Arsenal H

 

Manchester City A

 

Tottenham H

 

Stoke City A

 

West Ham A

 

Wigan H

 

Chelsea H

 

Some real nasty and awkward opposition ahead there, and while we have a good side, and we know we can score goals, there's a lot of opposition there that won't be too forgiving if we continue to miss chances and they have some good sides and will cause no end of problems. I estimate right now, out of those twenty-four points available, I can see us only getting maybe half of what's on offer. These missed opportunities just lately to finish teams off or get wins and points that we missed out on, through one fault or another, may really come into focus as we near the end of the above fixtures ahead. Can't be anything other than realistic on this. I wish I could be more hopeful but time will tell.

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

I can't find one word of that I don't agree with!.......and it doesn't make me happy.

 

Ok, probably Moyes wouldn't be able to argue with it either, so, nice team Dave, now stop reading about how good your doing and fucking well get a grip.Two or three more weeks like this and we will be a couple of points above the bottom three.

 

I know a few Norwich fans......and they're not coming up next week for a point!

 

 

Hmmmmm I dont think its David Moyes who needs to get a grip

[marcopaulo]

I can't find one word of that I don't agree with!.......and it doesn't make me happy.

 

Ok, probably Moyes wouldn't be able to argue with it either, so, nice team Dave, now stop reading about how good your doing and fucking well get a grip.Two or three more weeks like this and we will be a couple of points above the bottom three.

 

I know a few Norwich fans......and they're not coming up next week for a point!

 

dear lord........................

[Dalziel Kane]

Having all kinds of technical difficulties this morning. Have fucking Gremlins got into these pages once again, getting quite irritated now.

 

Tried to say, the above did sound like a bit of an exaggeration. It was only a figure of speech, Blue 250 seems upset with some recent fixtures as we all are, and said something anyone could have mentioned, I don't think it was to be taken in the literal sense.

 

And Norwich are a good side, and their supporters (if the fucking tractors are working on day of trip or not hungover from any home made scrumpy) will be coming up quietly confident and one or two may indeed envisage all three points from the Old Lady next weekend. There's no reason why they can't..

[Blue 250]

Hmmmmm I dont think its David Moyes who needs to get a grip

 

Have you not been watching us throw away points, whilst plenty of teams below us are actually winning games.IF Norwich actually beat us they will be three points behind us.You might be happy with that stat.....2nd half at Reading was the worst this team has played, you can trap off about injuries all you want, the players out there on Saturday in the 2nd half let the fans down, Moyes motivates those players, the buck stops with him.What don't you understand about Moyse' job?...who do you think did the half time talk at Reading.

 

So you think we've been getting decent results in the few weeks, I don't.As for getting a grip, I'll make my comments as I please, Prick!

[Blue4Ever]

I agree with you tbh... apart from that last but as I dont see the relevance and for someone who cant stand the BU you bring them up a lot!

 

Any way, we played pretty well for most parts of the game and I have no idea how we didnt win. We defended well as a unit and Hitzelsperger and Osman bossed the midfield in the first half. We really do need to put away our chances but Jelly should have scored

dominating the first half isnt good enough england call up or not ossie goes missing and hitzelsperger isnt good enough another midfielder who can hardly run on old legs can imagine a creative midfield of neville and thomas in the middle in time the only thing which has stopped that is nevilles injury, wouldnt ever wish injury on anyone but phil surely you should give someone else a chance your no giggs or scholes your brother was twice the player and called it a day years ago how long are you planning on going on.

 

we seem to be making to many mistakes coleman has played well the last 2 games but needs to stop diving in at the wrong time, moyes has said the obvious at half time and its come back to haunt us "keep going and the result will come" well it backfired injurys or not reading should be getting beaten.

Edited November 19, 2012 by Blue4Ever

[Bailey]

dominating the first half isnt good enough england call up or not ossie goes missing and hitzelsperger isnt good enough another midfielder who can hardly run on old legs can imagine a creative midfield of neville and thomas in the middle in time the only thing which has stopped that is nevilles injury, wouldnt ever wish injury on anyone but phil surely you should give someone else a chance your no giggs or scholes your brother was twice the player and called it a day years ago how long are you planning on going on.

 

we seem to be making to many mistakes coleman has played well the last 2 games but needs to stop diving in at the wrong time, moyes has said the obvious at half time and its come back to haunt us "keep going and the result will come" well it backfired injurys or not reading should be getting beaten.

 

Never said it was good enough but I dont think they suddenly started playing badly. Even in the second half, when they got on the ball they did well. The problem was Reading gave us less time and the ball went from back to front a lot quicker than it did in the first half. They both understandably faded towards the end of the game but we didnt really have any fresh legs to bring on in those positions.

 

The result wasnt good enough, but the performance as a whole wasnt that bad. We need to start taking our chances, not only with the final strike but also with the final ball. Too often we have failed to shoot when the opportunity was there or made a right horlicks of the final ball (Pienaar is the biggest culprit).

[Sideliner]

i just refuse to be so loyal a supporter to just accept our poor performance (not a single win) against the 3 weakest sides in the league as good enough and above criticism - only fans happy with Everton being a mid-table side would accept that - and any manager of a top 4 side worth his salt would find it totally unacceptable - and has to sort his side out

[chicagoblue]

Hitzlsperger v Reading

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3uvykF6lhc&feature=colike

 

By my count only 3 or 4 misplaced passes all game. Apart from shoddy marking on corners, I thought he looked quite tidy, and definitely an improvement from Neville. If we lack Phil's influence on the field, then I think it's up to our swath of internationals to step up and take on the roll. We know Phil is out for a while now, next few weeks could go a good ways to answering the 'next captain' question.

[Avinalaff]

Hitzlsperger v Reading

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3uvykF6lhc&feature=colike

 

By my count only 3 or 4 misplaced passes all game. Apart from shoddy marking on corners, I thought he looked quite tidy, and definitely an improvement from Neville. If we lack Phil's influence on the field, then I think it's up to our swath of internationals to step up and take on the roll. We know Phil is out for a while now, next few weeks could go a good ways to answering the 'next captain' question.

 

It was certainly an exellent full debut, and the thought of using both him and Gibson is an interesting one.

[Kohen]

Gonna be quite a few down, time for a couple to show why they should be in the starting 11 I think(hope)