Back From The Game: Liverpool

[Royalwaster]

Big Ern. Telly on the blink in mexico then?

Mills, although not Baresi, is better than Pearce. He's not played in the first team for bloody months and gets recalled to play against a font line that includes one of the best forwards in the world. I honestly thought he did quite well today. Karacan excellent. And Sig good as ever. Your assesment is not really spot on. In my honest opinion. Although what do I know. I was only there I guess.

Totally agree - was at the game unlike Big Oaf. Thought Mills did fine - delivered some beautiful cross-field balls and added a bit of strength to our back 4. And also thought that Sig was really good. Agree though that Karacan was MOM - but McA was not far off either. Good to see Jobi can do it even without BR. Finally, a mention for the big man - Rasiak - who I thought had a very good game. Won lots and lots of headers and did very well for the goal - pulling it back for Church to tap in.

[Thomas L'Heureux]

Karacan was outstanding playing in a 4-4-2. Although he was always tidy, I thought the holding role he was playing earlier this season under Rodgers really limited him, but today he was dynamic and enthusiastic.

I was very impressed.

[winchester_royal]

Fed - 6 - Should have perhaps stopped Gerrard's shot, suprisingly quiet otherwise.
Gunnar - 5 - God he's sooo fcukin slow, both mentally and physically. Decent defensively though.
Mills - 7 - Impressed me today, kept Torres quiet and showed a turn of pace that has been lacking at CB. Couple of iffy moments, but those should be ironed out the more he plays.
Ingi - 6 - Average
Bertrand - 9 - Fantastic today. Best wing back display seen at the mad stad for quite a while.
McAnuff - 7 - Rinsed Insua a fair bit, but very little final product...once again.
Karacan - 9 - Brilliant display of tenacity, passion, and a bit of quality too. Midfield looks much more solid without Marek in it.
Cisse - 7 - Unlucky to be taken off. Dominant for most of the game.
Sig - 8 - Excellent again. Looks much fitter now than he did under Rodgers.
Church - 8 - Ran all day, and held the ball up well against Carragher. Definitely should be 1st choice striker atm.
Rasiak - 6 - Good assist for the goal, shite otherwise.

Hamer - 6 - Shaky. McCarthy in for the Toon game if Fed can't make it.
Howard - 6 - Did what he had to pretty well.
Long - 6 - Did Ok.

[ZacNaloen]

Mills was just fine, our defense looked more assured than with Pearce and Ingimarsson in there.


However, we seriously need someone to replace Ingimarsson as well.

[PEARCEY]

Glad my kids dragged me to this one. I thought our young guns were outstanding. I've never been a Karacan fan but in the second-half he was absolutely outstanding......a real little tiger. Siggy showed some classy touches and holds the ball with real composure. He is a fine talent.
Bertrand also played well although he was a bit slow to pick up Kuyt in the second-half. Mills did pretty well but needs to be careful as he was fiddling about with the ball and got caught in possession.
Right back is a big problem Gunnar can only be a very short-term stop-gap. We got shredded on that side of the pitch in the last ten minutes of the first half. Cisse despite the chanting of his name looks a little ponderous in midfield.
Was Kuyt off-side for their goal? I thought so.
Either way cracking atmosphere and we can hold our heads up.

[West_Reading]

Just got home about half an hour ago. Delighted with the result and the performance. Liverpool were poor but only because we played at a high tempo and it shows you how dominant our midfield was when Gerrard was almost invisible.

Federici - 6 - Not much to do, maybe should have done better with the goal.
Bryn - 6 - Solid in the air but looked vulnerable on the ball.
Ingy - 6 - Looked very susceptible when Torres ran at him (but who wouldn't?) but solid enough.
Mills - 6 - Again thought he was competent, sprayed some nice balls out to the wings. Sliced some clearances and didn't communicate well with Hamer.
Bertrand - 8 - Excellent going forward and in defence. Even looked ok when Torres ran at him.
Mcanuff - 7 - Excellent against Insua in the first half. I think he struggles by not having an overlapping right back playing with him.
Karacan - 9 - Was everywhere, excellent on the ball too. Totally overshadowed Gerrard.
Cisse - 7 - Covered every blade of grass and strong in the tackle and on the ball.
Gylfi - 8 - Excellent again, great touch and dangerous as always when cutting in to shoot or cross.
Rasiak - 7 - One great flick to Mcanuff in the first half and got the assist with a great reach.
Church - 7 - Got the goal his work rate deserved. Great movement off the ball again.

[PEARCEY]

Fed - 6 - Should have perhaps stopped Gerrard's shot, suprisingly quiet otherwise.
Gunnar - 5 - God he's sooo fcukin slow, both mentally and physically. Decent defensively though.
Mills - 7 - Impressed me today, kept Torres quiet and showed a turn of pace that has been lacking at CB. Couple of iffy moments, but those should be ironed out the more he plays.
Ingi - 6 - Average
Bertrand - 9 - Fantastic today. Best wing back display seen at the mad stad for quite a while.
McAnuff - 7 - Rinsed Insua a fair bit, but very little final product...once again.
Karacan - 9 - Brilliant display of tenacity, passion, and a bit of quality too. Midfield looks much more solid without Marek in it.
Cisse - 7 - Unlucky to be taken off. Dominant for most of the game.
Sig - 8 - Excellent again. Looks much fitter now than he did under Rodgers.
Church - 8 - Ran all day, and held the ball up well against Carragher. Definitely should be 1st choice striker atm.
Rasiak - 6 - Good assist for the goal, shite otherwise.

Hamer - 6 - Shaky. McCarthy in for the Toon game if Fed can't make it.
Howard - 6 - Did what he had to pretty well.
Long - 6 - Did Ok.

Pretty much agree with the above. Jem was my man of the match. Certainly the best I have seen him play.

[towserSL2crew]

They all did well today . (after last game at Plymouth ,)
thought Mills looked a lot more solid than Alex and it was nice to see him play again. Jem was outstanding but well done to all the lads , fetch the black n whites on , we could just be ready for ya.

[Ark Royal]

Watched the game online and restored some of my faith, although I never thought we were going to win it. 1-1 was a fair result. The Bin-dippers were really poor and Karacan had Gerrard in his back pocket for most of the game. A superb performance from him.

Federici 6 - Still gives me the shits every time he goes near the ball. I really think he should have done better for the goal. Chance for Hamer now or McCarthy. Hamer was (understandably) a bag of nerves when he came on.
Gunnarson 5 - Well past it now, but he should play centrally, if at all. Easily forced back and made to play aimless long balls.
Bertrand 6 - Defensively not that hot and definitely better going forward. Dovetails nicely with Sig
Ingi 6 - Slower than Marmite, but won all the aerial battles. I feel more comfortable about him paired with Mills than the spastic Pearce.
Mills 7 - Not bad, but obviously rusty. You can see that there is a really good ball-playing center-half there just waiting to burst out. Tries to bring composure. Hope he gets a chance of a few games instead of that savant Pearce.
Karacan 9 - Superb performance. Broke things up and got us going forward. Gerrard never had a sniff.
Cisse 7 - Put in a shift, but if he could only pass the ball better.
Sig 7 - Started off well and combined well with Plastic, but disappeared. You can still see some class though. Wish he could have had more opportunity from dead balls.
McAnuff 7 - Gave Insua a good rinsing for a while but then the ankle turn seemed to knock the stuffing out of him. Liverpool still had to double-up on him.
Rasiak 6 - Still less mobile than a fully-laden tanker, but gave us a physical presence up front that vanished when ex-footballer Schlong came on. Never gave up on the ball pulled back for Church to score.
Church 6 - Honest display and a poacher's goal. Some good movement and I thought he could have done better with the ball across the face of the goal that Reina gave up on.

Long 1 - Why put on an ex-footballer? Waste of space.
Howard 3 - Did nothing worth mentioning. I would have left Cisse on.

[ZacNaloen]

Cisse limped off and took a knock early in the second half.

[West Stand Man]

For a defence that 'lacked bite' and was 'disorganised' they did pretty well to restrict Liverpool to no shots on goal in the second half. But what do I know, I was only there!

(That was a Liverpool front line worth more than our complete squad, if I recall correctly)

[RoyalBird]

Thought we looked fairly good, but I wouldn't say that should give McDermott the job. I was impressed with McAnuff today and some of the team's attacking moves was nice but with the final pass either going astray or intercepted. Glad to see our set-pieces being dangerous again as well. However, that defence wasn't very good today and it's easy to see why we haven't had many clean sheets. Cisse and Karacan weren't picking some of the runs from midfield, Ingimarsson was very slow, Mills' marking was dreadful, Bertrand kept blowing the defensive line, and Gunnarsson is too slow for a full back. Their didn't seem to be much organisation in the back, which is very worrying and must be sorted out.

You do realise we were playing liverpool today ??

Bertrand & Gunnarsson still played their natural (to get forward) which was pleasing, if they didnt we would had been sitting ducks.

I was pleased that about those two going forward, but was very anxious seeing them in defence. Bertrand played some people onside a few times (looking back on tv confirmed it) and we had to resort to Federici and Hamer scrambling off the line to deal with it. Him/Mills were responsible for Gerrard's goal as they both played Kuyt onside, which put Feds in a horrible position to try and deal with it.

[PEARCEY]

^ RoyalBird was Kuyt on-side when Gerrard shot?

[winchester_royal]

Yes he was.

[Big Ern]

]

Totally agree - was at the game unlike Big Oaf. Thought Mills did fine - delivered some beautiful cross-field balls and added a bit of strength to our back 4. And also thought that Sig was really good. Agree though that Karacan was MOM - but McA was not far off either. Good to see Jobi can do it even without BR. Finally, a mention for the big man - Rasiak - who I thought had a very good game. Won lots and lots of headers and did very well for the goal - pulling it back for Church to tap in.

Nice to see we can agree to disagree in a mature manner...MR POOPY PANTS

[Armadillo Roadkill]

Don't know what Rasiak has to do to get some credit. Created the goal, won his headers, closed down, and only tired towards the end after running and closing down like a trojan. Church also worked incredibly hard.

Mills was solid and his distribution like nothing we've seen for a year from a central defender.

Karacan immense. McAnuff looked like he'd got over losing Rodgers, and ripped Insuias a new arsh0le.

I've almost lost my voice. Just so relieved to have had a Reading performance my Man Utd supporting family (they are moslty from Manchester, to be fair) and Liverpool supporting collegues (plastics) can only admit was excellent.

Common URZ.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Well what a pleasent surprise today, the players were winning their individual battles once again, there were bodies getting thrown in the way and we were well worthy of the win.

If that is the best that "Top Four" Liverpool can offer..........then I fear for them, more than I do for us at the moment.

No one Reading player was deserving of anything less than a "6" today, whilst of course Mcduff and Jem were the stars.


I sincerely hope that there was no single Reading fan, that wanted to attend, but could not attend due to lack of tickets today.................I was surrounded by the "Berkshire" Liverpool Fan Club in the Northstand today .......just like stepping back a couple or three seasons

[PEARCEY]

Don't know what Rasiak has to do to get some credit. Created the goal, won his headers, closed down, and only tired towards the end after running and closing down like a trojan. Church also worked incredibly hard.

Mills was solid and his distribution like nothing we've seen for a year from a central defender.

Karacan immense. McAnuff looked like he'd got over losing Rodgers, and ripped Insuias a new arsh0le.

I've almost lost my voice. Just so relieved to have had a Reading performance my Man Utd supporting family (they are moslty from Manchester, to be fair) and Liverpool supporting collegues (plastics) can only admit was excellent.

Common URZ.

Razzy was a little slow to close down on their defenders...but like you my voice is hoarse and I was a proud Reading fan tonight.

[Victor Meldrew]

Watched the game online and restored some of my faith, although I never thought we were going to win it. 1-1 was a fair result. The Bin-dippers were really poor and Karacan had Gerrard in his back pocket for most of the game. A superb performance from him.

Federici 6 - Still gives me the shits every time he goes near the ball. I really think he should have done better for the goal. Chance for Hamer now or McCarthy. Hamer was (understandably) a bag of nerves when he came on.
Gunnarson 5 - Well past it now, but he should play centrally, if at all. Easily forced back and made to play aimless long balls.
Bertrand 6 - Defensively not that hot and definitely better going forward. Dovetails nicely with Sig
Ingi 6 - Slower than Marmite, but won all the aerial battles. I feel more comfortable about him paired with Mills than the spastic Pearce.
Mills 7 - Not bad, but obviously rusty. You can see that there is a really good ball-playing center-half there just waiting to burst out. Tries to bring composure. Hope he gets a chance of a few games instead of that savant Pearce.
Karacan 9 - Superb performance. Broke things up and got us going forward. Gerrard never had a sniff.
Cisse 7 - Put in a shift, but if he could only pass the ball better.
Sig 7 - Started off well and combined well with Plastic, but disappeared. You can still see some class though. Wish he could have had more opportunity from dead balls.
McAnuff 7 - Gave Insua a good rinsing for a while but then the ankle turn seemed to knock the stuffing out of him. Liverpool still had to double-up on him.
Rasiak 6 - Still less mobile than a fully-laden tanker, but gave us a physical presence up front that vanished when ex-footballer Schlong came on. Never gave up on the ball pulled back for Church to score.
Church 6 - Honest display and a poacher's goal. Some good movement and I thought he could have done better with the ball across the face of the goal that Reina gave up on.

Long 1 - Why put on an ex-footballer? Waste of space.
Howard 3 - Did nothing worth mentioning. I would have left Cisse on.

Pretty much agree with all of that.
The obvious question is how come Jem hasn't had a look in for so long?
Also Mills-how come Alex and Ivar have played so much?
Three other points:-
I disagree with BBCRB that McDermott has now done enough to get the manager's job
Although Church scored I thought he looked slow-his legs go forty-to-the-dozen but he doesn't actually get there.
I heard that Marek is off somewhere

A really good effort by our lads-now show us that this is the real Reading and not the one that failed to turn up at Plymouth (under the same manager).

[The whole year inn]

For the love of God play Karacan

No paragraphs full of shit