Pretty Football - Can our squad adapt?

[yappy]

I reckon Karacan could work in a 4-5-1. I remember in the early days of Rodgers, Karacan would play as the holding midfielder, closing down play & playing short simple passes. Similar to the Leon Britton role. Playing that little bit deeper would give him that extra bit of room to pick out passes.

[SCIAG]

They can all pass with the requisite ability. It's the movement that's key. Equally though, passing for passing's sake and losing sight of the actual aim, which is to create goalscoring opportunities was the lesson that Rodgers hadn't yet learned at the point of his sacking. He'd certainly realised it by the time he got to Swansea though which is why it makes me laugh that Reading fans think it was such an easy job to take them up.

It's nothing new though. It's still "pass and move". It just seems people tend to overlook the importance of the "move" part of it.

I agree that movement would be the main issue.

If Poyet comes, I'd like Liam Bridcutt to follow. He'd be dreamy alongside Guthrie, or alternatively Leigertwood.

Then I'd like us to add an attacking midfielder, maybe Robert Koren at the fiftieth attempt. Other options there are Akpan (is his movement good enough?), McAnuff (would mean playing McCleary regularly on the left, or HRK, who is one of the few who I think would struggle in such a system), or Tanner (excellent movement and dribbling, but might not be ready for playing at this level). D'Ath would also be an option but he's more of a central midfielder. Taylor is probably never going to be good enough.

All our youth teams play short passing styles, so it might become easier to promote young players. I'd be fairly disappointed if we signed anyone except guaranteed starters.

[Ian Royal]

The other key things are knowing what you want to do with the ball before your first touch, and having a good first touch.

Somethings I think we've really struggled with along with movement this season. Except if you consider knowing what your going to do with ball before your first touch is 'hoof it upfield'.

[Royalwaster]

The other key things are knowing what you want to do with the ball before your first touch, and having a good first touch.

Somethings I think we've really struggled with along with movement this season. Except if you consider knowing what your going to do with ball before your first touch is 'hoof it upfield'.

Agree that's been Legs big problem - simply not having the time to think what to do after he gets the ball has meant that hoofing it has been the default mode ...

[JS28ZoD]

No unfortunately it can't, it would require wholesale changes to the squad.

We have so few players who are comfortable in possession of the ball. So many of the players simply wouldn't be able to do it. In my opinion this is why Brian did so well compared to Rodgers, in the sense that Brian realised early on the squad couldn't play that way where as Brenden insisted in going for the 'long term' project.

It will take a lot of time to turn our team into one which at least tries to dominate the ball, but given the game evolving into a more patient, skillful one, we won't be able to compete at the top level without changing our style in order to actually get and keep possession of the ball.

[Maguire]

IMHO this isn't really about what you tell the players to do, it's about how good they are.

Every player knows how to pass a football - they've been doing it all their lives. Likewise everyone knows to try and move into space if you can, even people at Football For Fatties do that.

How easily you can do this is limited by your fitness, your close control, your instinct, your innate ability as a footballer, basically. Obviously there's a difference between telling your side to pass it around the back four forever or drop it into the channel - that is a tactical decision - but to suggest there's a whole new style of football out there that the Reading players have never seen strikes me as a bit barmy.

[melonhead]

agreed- just part of the modern trend of seeing only one way to play the gamebeing to be like barcelona and swansea(what a pairing)

[leon]

What is it with all this Swansea bollocks?

Trying to achieve 80% possession through passing the ball around our back 4 doesn't really do it for me. It's just a bit dull.

The best team I've seen this season was Dortmund. They play a pressing, very quick close passing and urgent counter attacking style.

[melonhead]

What is it with all this Swansea bollocks?

Trying to achieve 80% possession through passing the ball around our back 4 doesn't really do it for me. It's just a bit dull.

The best team I've seen this season was Dortmund. They play a pressing, very quick close passing and urgent counter attacking style.

yeeees!THATs what we want!

[ZacNaloen]

What is it with all this Swansea bollocks?

Trying to achieve 80% possession through passing the ball around our back 4 doesn't really do it for me. It's just a bit dull.

The best team I've seen this season was Dortmund. They play a pressing, very quick close passing and urgent counter attacking style.

yeeees!THATs what we want!

It's what we were trying to do against Man U, except better, whoever we get in this is the style our players are actually most suited for and we should aim for a manager who can give us that.

Barcelona, Swansea etc. That stuff can just oxf*rd off. It might be effective, it's also boring.

[Maguire]

For all the talk of "hoofball" on here (and anyone who uses that phrase is a helmet), I guarantee you if you're at a game and Reading pass the ball about for a minute the crowd will start getting disgruntled and shout "get it forward".

[BR2]

McGhee actually got Steve Richardson to pass a ball along the ground out of defence to one of our own players.
If it was possible to get him to learn a passing game anything is possible.

[BR2]

For all the talk of "hoofball" on here (and anyone who uses that phrase is a helmet), I guarantee you if you're at a game and Reading pass the ball about for a minute the crowd will start getting disgruntled and shout "get it forward".

So what?
The players have never taken any notice of the crowd before so why should they start now?
You underestimate our fans,much in the way that you regularly deride posters on here.

[melonhead]

For all the talk of "hoofball" on here (and anyone who uses that phrase is a helmet), I guarantee you if you're at a game and Reading pass the ball about for a minute the crowd will start getting disgruntled and shout "get it forward".

So what?
The players have never taken any notice of the crowd before so why should they start now?
You underestimate our fans,much in the way that you regularly deride posters on here.

dont think so. has happened aroumnd me at every game ive seen where we try and take a longer view tactically

[Royal91]

I've said before Swansea are an absolute 'extreme' in terms of passing, they're at one end of the spectrum and we are at the other end.

Reading can still play our dangerous counter attacking style but with a bit more passing. That should be the aim, not to completely redevelop our whole footballing philosophy.

We need to strike a balance of ugly effective football and passing.

The passing should come in to slow the game down or regain control of the match.

The problem this year is when we have taken the lead we still try to attack. Against Villa we should dropped into a 4-5-1 and started to just pass the ball for 5-10mins.

So to answer the question yes from a technical perspective they could pass the ball but from a mental perspective NO. The team collectively don't have the intelligence or movement to shift into pockets and get between the lines.

Our style should be based on a shit man utd. Two fast wingers, overlapping fullbacks, we can still have the two CDM's to tick things over, but we need to start playing with a number 10 who can have a free role.

[ZacNaloen]

Fans at the mad stad always sigh/mutter etc at backward passes. Personally, if there is nothing on, I'd rather see a backward pass than a percentage ball that loses possession and gives the opposition a chance at goal.

This is entirely different to a cross not coming off, or an ambitious through pass in the attacking third not coming off etc etc

[Maguire]

For all the talk of "hoofball" on here (and anyone who uses that phrase is a helmet), I guarantee you if you're at a game and Reading pass the ball about for a minute the crowd will start getting disgruntled and shout "get it forward".

So what?
The players have never taken any notice of the crowd before so why should they start now?
You underestimate our fans,much in the way that you regularly deride posters on here.

It's not about whether the players take notice of it, it's that for all the "we should play like Swansea" stuff on here the reality is that the ground is full of people who lose patience after c. 10 seconds of no forward pass.

If anything I'm too kind to our "fans".

[creative_username_1]

IMHO this isn't really about what you tell the players to do, it's about how good they are.

Every player knows how to pass a football - they've been doing it all their lives. Likewise everyone knows to try and move into space if you can, even people at Football For Fatties do that.

How easily you can do this is limited by your fitness, your close control, your instinct, your innate ability as a footballer, basically. Obviously there's a difference between telling your side to pass it around the back four forever or drop it into the channel - that is a tactical decision - but to suggest there's a whole new style of football out there that the Reading players have never seen strikes me as a bit barmy.

^^^^

[creative_username_1]

AE regulars leading the way again when it comes to a bit of reasoning.

i often wonder what the profile of the people who have such dogmatic views about things is i.e. if we'd have done this, this would have happened (no way of testing)

Are they regularly in positions where they have to make decisions that are going to affect other people. Are they ever unsure of what to do. Have things
always gone there way and they have been 'right' 100% of the time

[Royal Ginger]

AE regulars leading the way again when it comes to a bit of reasoning.

i often wonder what the profile of the people who have such dogmatic views about things is i.e. if we'd have done this, this would have happened (no way of testing)

Are they regularly in positions where they have to make decisions that are going to affect other people. Are they ever unsure of what to do. Have things
always gone there way and they have been 'right' 100% of the time

It's not making the right decision that counts, it's making sure you've positioned a fall guy to point the finger at when it all goes wrong.