Back From The Game - Norwich

[Snowball]

I'm going for a lie down.

[peterroyal76]

Watching this current Reading side might well be the death of me. Defensively we are an abomination; all season I have frozen in terror whenever the opposition cross the half way line, we look likely to concede at any given time. 2nd half today we played with width and when we got the ball into the channels we terrorised (10 man) Norwich but our woeful finishing gives me palpatations.

I watched this afternoon's game from the comfort of Bar1871. Well worth the £10 top-up on my season ticket for a pint from a glass sat at a table watching Soccer Saturday. Although we almost were not afforded the latter luxury thanks to some alpha-female head of a family of four who wanted to know whether "the rugby would be on?" . To be fair, they were thoroughly bloody nice middle-class people who apparently take their young kids up into the Upper West because of the swearing in the East Stand. There was swearing in the North west corner during the first half however after an absolute holocaust of a defensive performance; Bristol Rovers '99 is the only 45 minutes I can seriously think of to rival that first half shambles. Reading were atrocious, Matt Mills if I could spend a month stood on your door-step v-signing you that wouldn't even express half of my contempt for your performance both today and this season generally. We conceded our usual goal from Ian Harte's left-hand side thanks in part to Howard who couldn't be bothered to track his man. Howard was jeered when he was substituted and frankly what is the point in wasting a player of his ability in a side like ours where patient passing is secondary to work-rate and long ball.

I don't really care about the sending off, I frankly couldn't give a monkeys as we had an iffy-decision go against us on Wednesday. Thanks to Harte's quite appaling first touch, Holt was late and clumsy and at 3-1 up and cruising he didn't need to make the 'tackle', so tough-titty Norwich. This gave Reading a thoroughly undeserved life-line and presumably a half-time rocket from McD because second half we pinned them back, moved the ball across the park pretty well and should have won handsomely in the end. Could Antonio be another Kebe? Thrillingly raw, he led Norwich a merry dance and his introduction lifted the crowd no end. Good point in the end, but this Reading side is an enigma; depressingly abject one moment, fast and furious the next.

Floyd I agree with all of this, thinking about that Bristol rovers game makes me shiver!

[Billy The Fish]

Federici – 4 At least partially at fault for all 3 Norwich goals. Distribution poor as ever.
Griffin – 8 (and motm) Murty-esque going forward in the second half, and had a good understanding with Antonio on the right.
Harte – 7 Joint top-scorer?
Khizanishvili – 4 What happened? Didn’t look up for it at all, hardly seemed to win a header.
Mills – 5 Poor pass-back but Fed was also at fault for that goal.
Karacan – 8 Full of industry, would have been man of the match apart from not picking the right ball when in good attacking positions.
Howard – 6 Very inconsistent, but certainly did not deserve to be booed off.
McAnuff – 8 Lots of good possession but failed to find the killer pass.
Hunt – 7 Should be starting at centre forward, docked 1 for missing that header.
Church – 6 I’m not quite sure what position Church was playing, but ineffective anyway.
Long – 6 Works hard but he has to start scoring as well, not just from penalties.

Antonio – 7 Clearly not quite championship standard yet but reminds me of Kebe before he was good, can make things happen. Good to have a long throw available as well.

McDermott – 7 Antonio was a good sub, but I would also have got HRK on for Church in the second half.

Oliver – 1 Quite the most inept refereeing performance I’ve seen at the Madejski, and that’s up against some stiff competition. Lost control from the point of that drop-ball. He shouldn’t be having a discussion with the players what to do with the drop-ball, he should be telling them. Then the Norwich defender was unsure what to do with the ball and Howard tried to win it leading to handbags all round but particularly between Harte and Holt, and that contributed to the sending-off I believe. And then didn’t do anything about the blatant time-wasting from Norwich in the second half. Too Young To Referee.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Mills is a fooking liability. I cannot stand the bloke. Drop him & give the captaincy to someone who actually deserves it. He is a petulant ill tempered arrogant little runt & I am embarrassed that BM thinks him worthy of the captaincy.

A captain is supposed to be an ambassador for the club - he is not. AWFUL AWFUL choice for captain. Griffin should get it. Hopefuly Mills will be banned soon & BM gets the chance to give it to someone else.

No doubt Mills would throw his toys out of the pram & want to leave but f--k it let him go. Tosser of the highest order & I wouldn't miss him.

[andrew1957]

Tend to agree with the consensus view on this one. The first half was so dire that I really began to wonder why I bother suffering the stress of supporting RFC. It was embarrassing to be frank. To those who hate Long I would say he was about the only player that came out of the first half with any credit - as he worked his socks off and was a tad unlucky not to score.

I think we need to make changes in defence. We never looked this suspect when Peace has played this season and I can only think we would be better with Armstrong at the back. We cannot go on conceding 3 match after match. Only Griffin was blameless as far as I can see.

Fed - 5 - should have set the wall properly but later kept us in it
Griffin - 7 - one of the best performers on the night and the only defender to come out of it with any credit
Mills- 4 - truly awful and a desperate back pass
Khiz - 4 - superb on Wednesday but his worst RFC performance to date by a long way yesterday
Harte 6- not great defensively but kept us in it with the goal
McAnuff - 6 - very poor first half but much more effective in CM
Karacan -7 - usual energetic performance and a great assist
Howard- 4 - MOTM for me Wednesday but absolutely dire last night. It annoys me that people say he is always rubbish which is untrue - he ran the game Wednesday, but he was awful last evening. Absolutely no excuse for anyone booing him though. He always gives 100% but was terrible this time.
Hunt - 7 - mixed truthfully but took the goal well and should have scored more
Church 6 - mixed again
Long 8 - our best player yet again - obviously he is by far our most effective striker at the moment - if only he could score more goals!

Antonio - 7.5 - he really made a difference for me. Thought he did well - could have a big future

[RoyalBlue]

Oliver – 1 Quite the most inept refereeing performance I’ve seen at the Madejski, and that’s up against some stiff competition. Lost control from the point of that drop-ball. He shouldn’t be having a discussion with the players what to do with the drop-ball, he should be telling them. Then the Norwich defender was unsure what to do with the ball and Howard tried to win it leading to handbags all round but particularly between Harte and Holt, and that contributed to the sending-off I believe. And then didn’t do anything about the blatant time-wasting from Norwich in the second half. Too Young To Referee.

Not sure it had anything to do with his age. We have seen some equally dire refs who are a lot older. Whilst IMO their keeper was MOTM for the saves he made, his persistent timewasting wasn't just being 'professional' it was done to such an extreme as to amount to cheating. The ref could have made him cut it out completely and immediately by giving him a yellow card and that is what he should have done.

[West Stand Man]

The only decision the referee got right tonight was the Reading penalty.
The sending off alone was a disgrace!

So the other 5 goals shouldn't have stood either? And all the goal kicks, corners and throw-ins were wrong?

You need to develop the art of using the English language in the way it is (even if only vaguely) meant to be used. The ref got many decisions right, he also got a few wrong. But to say the only decision he got right was the penalty is, quite simply, nonsense.

[West_Reading]

The only decision the referee got right tonight was the Reading penalty.
The sending off alone was a disgrace!

So the other 5 goals shouldn't have stood either? And all the goal kicks, corners and throw-ins were wrong?

You need to develop the art of using the English language in the way it is (even if only vaguely) meant to be used. The ref got many decisions right, he also got a few wrong. But to say the only decision he got right was the penalty is, quite simply, nonsense.

Don't take everything so literally. Giving a throw in or a corner are very rarely subjective decisions. Most of the time they're pretty clear cut. Red cards and penalties are however always more contentious and often very close calls either way.

[Once were Biscuitmen]

Were the Stewards being extra fascist at the top of Y26 and who was the Orange Tool in the North Stand?

thankyouplease

[sandman]

Mills is a fooking liability. I cannot stand the bloke. Drop him & give the captaincy to someone who actually deserves it. He is a petulant ill tempered arrogant little runt & I am embarrassed that BM thinks him worthy of the captaincy.

A captain is supposed to be an ambassador for the club - he is not. AWFUL AWFUL choice for captain. Griffin should get it. Hopefuly Mills will be banned soon & BM gets the chance to give it to someone else.

No doubt Mills would throw his toys out of the pram & want to leave but f--k it let him go. Tosser of the highest order & I wouldn't miss him.

Ahhh diddums, did that nasty Matt Mills stick his middle finger up at you last season?

[Royals-lad14]

feds 5

griffin 7
Mills 5
Khiz 5
Harte 5

McAnuff 7
Howard 5
Karacan 6
Hunt 7

Church 6
Long 7

Antonio 6

ref 2

[Row Z Royal]

Mills is a fooking liability. I cannot stand the bloke. Drop him & give the captaincy to someone who actually deserves it. He is a petulant ill tempered arrogant little runt & I am embarrassed that BM thinks him worthy of the captaincy.

A captain is supposed to be an ambassador for the club - he is not. AWFUL AWFUL choice for captain. Griffin should get it. Hopefuly Mills will be banned soon & BM gets the chance to give it to someone else.

No doubt Mills would throw his toys out of the pram & want to leave but f--k it let him go. Tosser of the highest order & I wouldn't miss him.

Ahhh diddums, did that nasty Matt Mills stick his middle finger up at you last season?

A touch extreme but he's not completely wrong. Mills, although clearly a strong and passionate bloke, is short-tempered and petulant is definitely an apt word.

However, he's committed to the cause and will always put his body on the line for the team. That's why he's the captain. However, there's no getting away from the fact that he picks up silly bookings and just needs to learn how to control his agression.

If he learns to funnel his passion in the right ways - and really shows how to be a leader on the pitch - then he could be the solid base on which to build success over the next 5-10 years.

[sandman]

Or perhaps if he changed his name to Phillip Parkinson he might be lauded as a hero. People constantly complain that modern footballers are in it for the money and have no passion yet when someone like Mills shows some they get uppity and say he shows too much.

[Snowball]

I love the range of marks

------------------Min-Max-Avg
5 6 7 4 6 5 4 5 5 == 4 - 7 = 5.22 Federici
6 7 9 7 8 7 8 7 7 == 6 - 9 = 7.33 Griifin
5 6 7 4 3 5 7 6 5 == 3 - 7 = 5.33 Harte
4 4 5 5 4 4 5 4 5 == 4 - 5 = 4.44 Mills
5 4 6 3 4 3 4 4 5 == 3 - 6 = 4.22 Zurab
6 7 8 7 7 7 8 6 7 == 6 - 8 = 7.00 McAnuff
7 7 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 == 7 - 8 = 7.11 Hunt
6 8 9 6 9 7 8 7 6 == 6 - 9 = 7.28 Karacan
0 6 7 5 6 4 6 4 5 == 0 - 7 = 4.72 Howard
6 6 6 7 5 6 6 6 6 == 5 - 7 = 6.00 Church
7 7 8 8 8 8 6 8 7 == 6 - 8 = 7.44 Long

7 6 8 5 7 7 7 8 6 5 8 6.72 Antonio

[Snowball]

AVG
7.44 Long
7.33 Griifin
7.28 Karacan
7.11 Hunt
7.00 McAnuff
6.72 Antonio
6.00 Church
5.33 Harte
5.22 Federici
4.72 Howard
4.44 Mills
4.22 Zurab

[RoyalBlue]

Or perhaps if he changed his name to Phillip Parkinson he might be lauded as a hero. People constantly complain that modern footballers are in it for the money and have no passion yet when someone like Mills shows some they get uppity and say he shows too much.

It would take far more than a name change. Parky rarely, if ever showed petulance and I can't remember him getting in the faces of the officials either.

[Ian Royal]

Or perhaps if he changed his name to Phillip Parkinson he might be lauded as a hero. People constantly complain that modern footballers are in it for the money and have no passion yet when someone like Mills shows some they get uppity and say he shows too much.

Now maybe this is nostalgia clouding my memory, but Parky put in thundering challenges. Mills makes cynical, stupid fouls. And I doubt you'd have seen Parky have a kick at someone for diving. He'd have just taken note and gone through them after he got the ball next time.

Christ snowball did that really need two posts? Ffs you irritating little stat obssessed mong.

[Gordons Cumming]

Christ snowball did that really need two posts? Ffs you irritating little stat obssessed mong.

Brilliant!

[Snowball]

Christ snowball did that really need two posts? Ffs you irritating little stat obssessed mong.

Sorry my radio was on too loud. What was that?


And YES it did, one to show that opinions are so widespread it's laughable

The second to show that Long came out as highest-rated player and that deserves its own post






PS Take a pill, lovey

[cmonurz]

Christ snowball did that really need two posts? Ffs you irritating little stat obssessed mong.

Sorry my radio was on too loud. What was that?


And YES it did, one to show that opinions are so widespread it's laughable
The second to show that Long came out as highest-rated player and that deserves its own post






PS Take a pill, lovey

And therein lies the underlying belief behind your endless analyses.

It isn't, and never will be, 'laughable' that peoples' opinions differ so much.