Shane Long

[SCIAG]

How was Leroy today? Would NHunt have done better? Would Shane have done better?

NHunt would have done far better. Long wouldn't have done worse, except maybe from the free kick, which wasn't that good anyway.

What a complete and utter load of rollox. Lita made their keeper produce the best save of the game, produced numerous good flick ons and passes and a great cross in the first half when he skinned a defender down the left and unselfishly pulled the ball back into the area rather than going for goal from a tight angle. Long came on, got set free down the right by a great ball from Marek and with plenty of time and space blasted a cross way beyond the far post when there were team mates in great positions given the right ball.

Lita under hit his cross, Long over hit his. Because of the situations they were in, it was better that they did the one they did than the other- obviously not as good as getting it spot on though. That's exactly what I mean- Lita does a poor cross, and it's "a great cross...unselfishly pulling the ball back". Long does a poor cross, and he's "blasted well beyond the far post when there were team mates in great positions". You realise Long skinned a defender before crossing too? And he had less time and space than Lita, though Leroy was battling to keep the ball on the pitch.

Long also forced a save from the goalkeeper, I recall two good passes from him. I remember one from Lita but that's probably just forgetfulness. Good flick ons? Pfft, he spent most of the match being outlept.

[cmonurz]

As they are both technically dwarves, I'd consider any header run by Lita or Long as a bonus, tbh.

[Alivey]

Shane Long will always be a polliwog, never had time to develop and now we are seeing the result. Ship em out. Get someone like Hulse or Blackstock, while we are at ship Lita out as I am tired of him. Scotland or McCormack. Job done. We will have 4 talented and proven strikers. Instead of 2 average strikers and 2 poliwogs who are never going to develop past football's fetal stage.

[Woodcote Royal]

Their are idiots and then are moderators who should have faced a Court Martial years ago (and I'm referring to you and no one else)

Your obsession with me is rather bewildering. It's a bit sad really.

Anywho, Lita played far better than Doyle and indeed forced the keeper into making a really good save in the first half. Those are the sort of balls Lita thrives on, I presume Coppell was obviously wrong and blind to the game in leaving Leroy on and subbing the ineffective Doyle today. Nice to see Shane proving his worth with yet another substitute appearance

I'll try again. We have no shortage idiots here but you fall into the category of those who are supposed to set an example but rarely do.

Meanwhile, Lita' return to the side coincides with the nations top goalscorers suffering their worst drought of the season and, apparantly, he did better than Doyle, who did well continue for as long as he did after being knocked out cold by their 'keeper.

I wonder if Doyle might have gone off earlier had Coppell not been only too aware that Lita currently averages one a goal a season for us and therefore is not due another until August at the earliest...................

[cmonurz]

Doyle has two goals in 1,154 minutes of football. Maybe that is affecting our current goalscoring record.

[tlcs]

With over 80 replies to this thread , the big question is

SNOWBALL......ARE YOU SHANE LONGS MUM ???

[Platypuss]

Meanwhile, Lita' return to the side coincides with the nations top goalscorers suffering their worst drought of the season

Four games without a Reading player scoring, and you blame Lita who only played for 8 minutes in each of the first two? Yeah, Ok.

[Woodcote Royal]

Doyle has two goals in 1,154 minutes of football. Maybe that is affecting our current goalscoring record.

Yet another blank afternoon for Leroy clearly hurt a great deal


PS I hope that wasn't too "aggressive" for you

[Royal Lady]

I presume someone has already mentioned the little fact that the complete lack of service to the strikers doesn't help our strikers to score at the moment?

[Woodcote Royal]

Meanwhile, Lita' return to the side coincides with the nations top goalscorers suffering their worst drought of the season

Four games without a Reading player scoring, and you blame Lita who only played for 8 minutes in each of the first two? Yeah, Ok.

I don't blame Lita entirely but it's no coincidence.

We were well beaten at Swansea and Wolves did the job for us with an own goal but Lita 's played all of the last 2 games and what have we got? Zip in the "goals for" column.

[PEARCEY]

Meanwhile, Lita' return to the side coincides with the nations top goalscorers suffering their worst drought of the season

Four games without a Reading player scoring, and you blame Lita who only played for 8 minutes in each of the first two? Yeah, Ok.

I don't blame Lita entirely but it's no coincidence.

We were well beaten at Swansea and Wolves did the job for us with an own goal but Lita 's played all of the last 2 games and what have we got? Zip in the "goals for" column.

Precisely how many gilt edged chances has Lita missed recently Woodcote?

[cmonurz]

Doyle has two goals in 1,154 minutes of football. Maybe that is affecting our current goalscoring record.

Yet another blank afternoon for Leroy clearly hurt a great deal

As you didn't address my point, I'll take it that you agree.

[Woodcote Royal]

Precisely how many gilt edged chances has Lita missed recently Woodcote?

The problem is that others make their own guilt edged chances in a way that he can't and they also tend to be less selfish, too.

As I've said elsewhere, he needs service whereas Doyle and Hunt can often get by without it.

Look at the goals the others have got and ask yourself how many of those Leroy would have scored.

Perhaps another way of looking at this is that we've missed Noel Hunt in the last 2 games.

This is the guy that most fans wanted in the team at the start of the season but we had to wait for both Lita and Long to have 3 games with Doyle before he got his chance and we haven't looked back since.

Coppell has used injury to sideline 10 goal Hunt and Lita has produced not one goal to justify this.....................the selection for our next match will be "interesting" to say the least

[The 17 Bus]

[quote="Southbank Old Boy"]Bearing in mind you usually need to score more than two goals to win a game, how many times Since Christmas have we scored one than just a solitary goal?

/quote]


Someone should tell Sir Alex that

22 Nov 08 Aston Villa 0 - 0 Manchester Utd
30 Nov 08 Manchester City 0 - 1 Manchester Utd
6 Dec 08 Manchester Utd 1 - 0 Sunderland
13 Dec 08 Tottenham 0 - 0 Manchester Utd
26 Dec 08 Stoke City 0 - 1 Manchester Utd
28 Dec 08 Manchester Utd 1 - 0 Middlesbrough
11 Jan 09 Manchester Utd 3 - 0 Chelsea
14 Jan 09 Manchester Utd 1 - 0 Wigan Athletic
17 Jan 09 Bolton 0 - 1 Manchester Utd
27 Jan 09 West Bromwich 0 - 5 Manchester Utd
31 Jan 09 Manchester Utd 1 - 0 Everton
08 feb 09 West Ham 0-1 Man utd

[PEARCEY]

Precisely how many gilt edged chances has Lita missed recently Woodcote?

The problem is that others make their own guilt edged chances in a way that he can't and they also tend to be less selfish, too.

As I've said elsewhere, he needs service whereas Doyle and Hunt can often get by without it.

Look at the goals the others have got and ask yourself how many of those Leroy would have scored.

Perhaps another way of looking at this is that we've missed Noel Hunt in the last 2 games.

This is the guy that most fans wanted in the team at the start of the season but we had to wait for both Lita and Long to have 3 games with Doyle before he got his chance and we haven't looked back since.

Coppell has used injury to sideline 10 goal Hunt and Lita has produced not one goal to justify this.....................the selection for our next match will be "interesting" to say the least

Doyle makes his own gilt edged chances granted...........but NHunt??

[The 17 Bus]

Surely s hunt makes the chances?? if the others are so selfless, how many assists do Doyle and n Hunt have??

[cmonurz]

Doyle's last three goals (15 league games) have come from crosses from Kebe, Hunt and Rosenior. I'm struggling to see how Doyle is creating his own goals.

[bcubed]

Precisely how many gilt edged chances has Lita missed recently Woodcote?

The problem is that others make their own guilt edged chances in a way that he can't and they also tend to be less selfish, too.

As I've said elsewhere, he needs service whereas Doyle and Hunt can often get by without it.

Look at the goals the others have got and ask yourself how many of those Leroy would have scored.

Perhaps another way of looking at this is that we've missed Noel Hunt in the last 2 games.

This is the guy that most fans wanted in the team at the start of the season but we had to wait for both Lita and Long to have 3 games with Doyle before he got his chance and we haven't looked back since.

Coppell has used injury to sideline 10 goal Hunt and Lita has produced not one goal to justify this.....................the selection for our next match will be "interesting" to say the least

Doyle makes his own gilt edged chances granted...........but NHunt??

I think that statistics aside, the problem with Leroy is
he doesn't gel well with Doyle

(I also don't think he is quite good enough but this is the main problem)

It's not always easy to put your finger on this but a good partnership is vital and I don't see it with Doyle and Lita - basically Hunt is a better all round footballer so there is more chance of one twos coming off and spotting each others runs

Hunt does work very well with Doyle and I agree with WR that he has beeen missed
For this reason I am sure he will be picked next game instead of Lita

[Schards#2]

Whether Hunt should be picked ahead of Lita or not, i'm just happy we've got three decent strikers to choose from now.

[hughsies no.1]

useless again yesterday. i know he didnt have long on the pitch but could anyone honestly say shane long was going to unlock the door? NOPE! the boy has had to many chances. hasnt taken them. surely it would be better having tabb on the bench then long. having the option of putting marek and tabby on the pitch could really help.

Please Coppell. He aint good enough and needs a loan. he is not the impact player that people think he is. I used to always be the opinion that he is an impact player. Hes not.