Centre midfield

[melonhead]

as disinterested as he apparently is, kebe was probably our best attacking outlet all game


harps wouldnt come back, and it would be a step back for him and us. id be worried he be another kitson/little mk 2

[Extended-Phenotype]

Move Jobi into the middle and give him more than the length of time it takes for a gnat to ejaculate to warm to the position.

Drop the worlds most boring midfielder Jem Karacan and bring on Harte as an anchor/sweeper infront of the back four, with Legs deployed more box-to-box.

Stick Hal where Jobi was, and play Alf up top to spearhead an attacking front three.

That gives us a bit more creative thinking in the middle, and tightens up the back enough to compensate, while of course giving us Harte’s set-pieces which like it or not, we have severely missed.

Either that or take a punt on Taylor. I don’t know why his green colour is an issue considering how delighted we are to be fielding pub team strikers and defenders who didn’t even bother having their names printed on their jerseys last season.


And f// Howard. Long, and slow.

[Barry the bird boggler]

There's another sensible suggestion there well worth looking at. Would love to have the manager give his thoughts on these ideas so we at least understand why they wouldn't be considered......

[marcusopp]

One bad result doesn't mean we need to change the entire team.
We created enough chances, just wasn't our day.
Their first goal (albeit good) is very rare, we'll never see one of those again, so a bit lucky.
We rely on our wingers. Hunt can run the channels, and Le Fondre is the fox in the box.
We've changed a few players and tactics over the summer, it just needs a bit of time to gel.
BE PATIENT!
Consistency is the key. Hopefully we'll keep the same side for a few games, let them settle.
If we're still not improving in a couple of months, then maybe look to change things around.

I do agree we need an in-game plan B though, just in case. At the mo it seems to be take off the right back and put Manset on (3-4-3).

[Hoop Blah]

One bad result?

We're 14th and really struggling to score goals after almost 4 months of the season.

We could turn it round of course, but if we don't do something to spark that off that turn around soon then we're potentially going to be getting dragged into a relegation scare over a long hard winter.

[melonhead]

performances against all the teams up there do seem to point towards tweaking being required not total rebuilds
imo of course

[loyalroyal4life]

maybe delving into loan market before deadline may be an option

[Extended-Phenotype]

Tinkering is what you do when you have a bench.

Last time I looked, Reading's bench looked like the bus stop outside Pets At Home on the Oxford Road.

[melonhead]

agreed on that tbf


but only cos HRK and manset have gone right off the boil. they were looking great impact subs earlier in the season

[Hoop Blah]

Form is temporary, class is permanent.

[thirtyyarder]

bring on Harte as an anchor/sweeper infront of the back four

Bring back the libero!

[Vision]

agreed on that tbf


but only cos HRK and manset have gone right off the boil. they were looking great impact subs earlier in the season

Short memory. Didn't the sub get our winner in the previous game?

As I said on an earlier thread i think the squad depth is actually ok in that we have 18-20 players who are all decent at this level. Trouble is too many of them seem suited to being impact subs rather than starters as is evidenced by our woeful 1st half scoring rate. Gorkks (and to a lesser extent Federici this season) aside there's not a Reading player that would threaten the starting 11 of a top 6 side. Liegertwood,Kebe,Le Fondre and possibly McAnuff at their best have the ability/potential to be that good but are falling well short at the moment.

[Hoop Blah]

Totally agree Vision.

A good team needs to have 2 or 3 players who can drag the rest along a bit and help get the best out of those players. We don't have any of those in the side at the moment.

Even the 'team of no stars' had players who did that (Shorey, Sidwell, Little, Kitson and Doyle). The rest were good but without some key players to make a difference an average group of players always remains an average team over any decent length of time.

[melonhead]

so some of our best players arent performing well this season, but does that mean you drop them all?
ledge was brilliant in the last few games but dipped in the last, same to a certain extent with le fondre
if anything kebe was better than his recent form on saturday
karacan, pearce and mills are improving every game imo, and looking decent at this level at least
gorkss is looking solid
cummings needs to work on his support of his winger
fed is fed, but more than able at this level
nhunt scored teh other day, and was looked decent on saturday, needs a run of games with e fondre to sort that partnership out
just dont see who/youd drop, or why
im not having harte tbf, his lack of pace is too easily targeted at the back, and is also a problem in the middle/on the wing

i think we still have to try and work with our best 11, at least until jan
cos imo its just about finding the right system/formation, and getting players up towards the top of their game to turn this around.

[Hoop Blah]

so some of our best players arent performing well this season, but does that mean you drop them all?

No. To my mind it means we need to strengthen the team and bring in a couple of players that can make the squad better.

Players will always have good and bad games. Good teams carry each others poor performances by being well balanced and having enough good players for the level their playing at. Personally I still don't think we're at that level and too many of our players are in poor form (or actaully average form for them when we need their best) which is more noticable when the rest of the team aren't good enough to make up for it.

A good player has less bad games. Ours have too many because they're not quite good enough and it seems too many of our players average form isn't quite good enough [yet, as some of these might be good enough after playing in a decent side for a season or so].

[melonhead]

so some of our best players arent performing well this season, but does that mean you drop them all?

No. To my mind it means we need to strengthen the team and bring in a couple of players that can make the squad better.

Players will always have good and bad games. Good teams carry each others poor performances by being well balanced and having enough good players for the level their playing at. Personally I still don't think we're at that level and too many of our players are in poor form (or actaully average form for them when we need their best) which is more noticable when the rest of the team aren't good enough to make up for it.

A good player has less bad games. Ours have too many because they're not quite good enough and it seems too many of our players average form isn't quite good enough [yet, as some of these might be good enough after playing in a decent side for a season or so].

yeah, thats why i said until jan.

[Hoop Blah]

Why wait?

We shouldn't really have got ourselves into November until we realised this either.

IMO, and I've said this a few times in the past, we get the summer window wrong. We end up ripping apart a team and not rebuilding it until we're half way through the season and having to play catch up with the rest of the division.

Shipping out those players 'we have no chance of keeping' earlier, or just taking a bit of a punt on getting a replacement in before they've gone might just mean we have a team for a whole season instead of just from winter to spring.

[melonhead]

surely its just pragmatism, since we cant afford loads of new players unless we absolutely have to, to try and build a team/system that works in the first half of the season, and allow the players we do have to grow into it
its worked for the last two seasons, and if it doesnt, then im sure we'll invest then.

its pretty sensible, given we dont have an unlimited pot of money


and unless you believe we have a god given right to go up/be in the play offs every year, i dont see why its so awful to have one season where we are average
& maybe a dull season, will mean no one wants to buty any of our players, and we can then build from a good base next season for once, instead of ripping the team apart in the summer

[Hoop Blah]

But we had players that were apparently certainties to go and we couldn't stop them. We should be planning to replace them or shipping them out under our timescales more than anyone elses.

Yes it might be a gamble, but if it's such a fait accompli that these guys are going to leave then any forward thinking club or business needs to be a bit more proactive in ensuring their adequately replaced.

[Wimb]

But we had players that were apparently certainties to go and we couldn't stop them. We should be planning to replace them or shipping them out under our timescales more than anyone elses.

Yes it might be a gamble, but if it's such a fait accompli that these guys are going to leave then any forward thinking club or business needs to be a bit more proactive in ensuring their adequately replaced.

The problem is that you can line up as many signings as you want but you can only pull the trigger when the funds are available to you. For example if we'd gone and signed Gorkks for £1m before Mills had gone and Mills' move had fallen through, we'd have been left with a big budget deficit.

Similarly we can line up players to come in but they won't sit and wait for us to make our move, it's not like we can put a deposit down on a player

It seems as if the club do do a fair bit of forward planning with signings anyway. Nobody seriously thinks Manset and Morrisson are the finished article just yet, the same way we send players like Taylor out on loan so that they're ready to step in full time next season and beyond.

As Brenders said, I can't see too much wrong with having a fallow season if the players learn from the experience.