The One Thing Missing?

[tomrfcurz]

Seems like the one thing missing for us is creativity in the middle of the park. With got a very high quality finisher in Le Fondre; a player who, may not be the best, but is certainly in high confidence (vital for a striker obv) in Simon Church and also a real hard worker in Noel Hunt.

In addition to this we seem to have a very solid defence (perhaps small doubts over Pearce, but that will im sure vacate as he plays with Gorkss) and we know two very talented wingers on their day in Kebe and Jobi Mac. But having the primary choice of Jay Tabb / Mikele Leigertwood / Jem Karacan to play in the middle seems very, very defensive. Brian Howard could perhaps be the answer but he does sometime seem a liability against a good attacking side.

Are we missing a good creative midfielder who could break forward, chip in with a few and assist a bunch - i know, i know that Gylfi Sigurdsson fella did it quite well, didn't he? It seems although after a very good season last term we do actually still miss the creative side of someone like Gylfi; that's not saying we need to go out and spend £7.5mil on someone to do it. Gylfi was incredibly good at it - in the words of Big Mac, we can't directly replace him, he is irreplaceable but we need someone similar who someone who could just add that creativity.

Sorry for the essay. Thoughts?

[chilipepper91]

As I've been saying for a while, seems our tactics under McD is to play two holding CMs. I question that we need to play two, and I've always thought that if we played Ledge/Kara with one more attacking minded such as Howard we'd be a force to be reckoned with. I reckon we need a midfielder who has those defensive instincts but can also bring the ball out and play the balls through the midfield and to the attack, otherwise we literally have 6 men holding back and 4 in attack. It's a transitional team game, not one with distinct forward and back phases.

[fester_royal]

I think this is one factor yes, however it's not the only one and that's the crux of it all.. There's a number of things that aren't quite right.

Last year legs came in looking like the 'get stuck in' midfield general we'd been missing since sidwell. Because of that jem could play with freedom.

Our strikers knew each other well and their work rate complimented each other (church n alfi may be early stages but look potentially good)

After kebes good form last year he is systematically marked/ kicked out of every game which leaves 'us' with plan b.. To hoof it!!

And dispute all the negatives off mills, he was committed and his passion I think wore off on others, I'm not saying jobi isn't passionate but when the chips are down I don't see him picking the team up and dragging them over the line

[fester_royal]

I think this is one factor yes, however it's not the only one and that's the crux of it all.. There's a number of things that aren't quite right.

Last year legs came in looking like the 'get stuck in' midfield general we'd been missing since sidwell. Because of that jem could play with freedom. This year by his own admission he's not been at the races and that's being kind!

Our strikers knew each other well and their work rate complimented each other (church n alfi may be early stages but look potentially good)

After kebes good form last year he is systematically marked/ kicked out of every game which leaves 'us' with plan b.. To hoof it!!

And dispite all the negatives off mills, he was committed and his passion I think wore off on others, I'm not saying jobi isn't passionate but when the chips are down I don't see him picking the team up and dragging them over the line

[fester_royal]

I think this is one factor yes, however it's not the only one and that's the crux of it all.. There's a number of things that aren't quite right.

Last year legs came in looking like the 'get stuck in' midfield general we'd been missing since sidwell. Because of that jem could play with freedom. This year by his own admission he's not been at the races and that's being kind!

Our strikers knew each other well and their work rate complimented each other (church n alfi may be early stages but look potentially good)

After kebes good form last year he is systematically marked/ kicked out of every game which leaves 'us' with plan b.. To hoof it!!

And dispite all the negatives off mills, he was committed and his passion I think wore off on others, I'm not saying jobi isn't passionate but when the chips are down I don't see him picking the team up and dragging them over the line

[fester_royal]

Stupid iPhone posting three times.. Sorry chaps

[Man Friday]

It's alright.

[Man Friday]

It's alright.

[Man Friday]

It's alright.

[Pete10]

One thing is a lack of investment. A and a ball player.

[Tamworth_Royal]

One thing is a lack of investment. A and a ball player.

R I P Reading FC with Made J Ski in charge of this club

[Friday's Legacy]

One thing is a lack of investment. A and a ball player.

sorry what? lack of investment?

£800k - £1m leigertwood
£900,000 - gorks
£350,000 - le fondre
£???,??? - bongani (loan fee)

improved contract for mcanuff and others.

over £2m in transfer fees. that's quite a significant investment for a club that is tighter than most with the purse strings!

[Tamworth_Royal]

One thing is a lack of investment. A and a ball player.

sorry what? lack of investment?

£800k - £1m leigertwood
£900,000 - gorks
£350,000 - le fondre
£???,??? - bongani (loan fee)

improved contract for mcanuff and others.

over £2m in transfer fees. that's quite a significant investment for a club that is tighter than most with the purse strings!

Long £ 6.5 M Mills £4.5 m
Your £8m short sunshine let alone Sig's £7.5 CASH transfer last season FA CUP and Play off final where's the money all gone ??????? Madejski hasn't a clue, because his back pocket has a hole in it

[Basingstoke Royal]

Anyone slagging off madejski needs to get real and look at the last few seasons. The best in our history. The knob with "madejski out" on his shirt needs a serious word or just go back to Chelsea.

Im happy with our signings - forgetting the prices, we have replaced mills with a better player and le fondre is a good effort in looking to replace long. Yes we could spend more but do we need a squad of 50.

[Friday's Legacy]

One thing is a lack of investment. A and a ball player.

sorry what? lack of investment?

£800k - £1m leigertwood
£900,000 - gorks
£350,000 - le fondre
£???,??? - bongani (loan fee)

improved contract for mcanuff and others.

over £2m in transfer fees. that's quite a significant investment for a club that is tighter than most with the purse strings!

Long £ 6.5 M Mills £4.5 m
Your £8m short sunshine

and you're living on another planet, sunshine! you can't expect us to spend even double what we have just because we sold some players for exceptionally high prices. wake up! what we've spent this summer by our standards is very ambitious.

[grey_squirrel]

Are we missing a good creative midfielder who could break forward, chip in with a few and assist a bunch - i know, i know that Gylfi Sigurdsson fella did it quite well, didn't he? It seems although after a very good season last term we do actually still miss the creative side of someone like Gylfi; that's not saying we need to go out and spend £7.5mil on someone to do it. Gylfi was incredibly good at it - in the words of Big Mac, we can't directly replace him, he is irreplaceable but we need someone similar who someone who could just add that creativity.

Sorry for the essay. Thoughts?

Not again I think everybody knows this!

[Terminal Boardom]

Playing with 2 holding CMs does not seem to affect Man City's play these days. Buth then we don't have the likes of Aguerro, Silva, Nasri and Szeko in the forward positions

[Simon's Church]

Loan?

[floyd__streete]

One thing missing? Apart from a goalkeeper renowned for his poor positioning, a flat-footed defence capable of conceding the softest of goals, a strikeforce who are only prolific in missing penalties.....yeah, the one thing missing apart from all that is a creative midfield.

[NR_Royal]

Every team seems to have a creative player apart from us. We're missing a Sidwell or Sigurdsson.