Not a great second half of football. Seemed to keep our shape well for defending, but Burns was a point of weakness. Great goal from Lane - I like the look of him. Shame Marriott was debuted at the moment we decided to entirely give up on the attack - never keen on seeing us park the bus to protect ...

HT Positives: - Kyerewaa. Quick, fearless and creative. Fun to watch. - Lane. Has a bit of pace about him too, and seemed to be highly involved. - MoM. Defended from the front, found and created space, held the ball up well; lacking the goal that would keep him in contention for the start - I can se...

Related - feels like we've not got anyone that can really change a game or do the unexpected. Hmm. Surely Wing fits that category. But if you mean from the bench, yeah - I see a lot of solid like-for-likes which is great. But maybe not a wild spark that you can’t wait to see come on. Perhaps that w...

Lol, it’s funny how often two people can watch the same matches and get completely different takes. To me, Elliott looks like a player who keeps the midfield three ticking over while two more creative players take their chances. Fraser seems to fit that mould, and I’m not sure I’d want a midfield wi...

Yeah, Elliott/Fraser and Doyle/Savage are clearly interchangeable. It’s nice to have options there which wouldn’t disappoint if their names cropped up on the starting lineup. Decent backup in defence, out wide, and even up front now. I think the only thing we need now is time and consistency. A bit ...

People tend to think the dynamic third mid in a 4-4-2 comes from the 2, but it can come from the wide men too. That’s why you often saw a right-footed CM play wide on the left, as they could cut inside when out of possession or storming forwards, with the FB keeping the width. Wasn’t always very pop...

Difficult to say how much weight to give last nights game in terms of monitoring progress; cups can yield result outliers with their different pressures and team selections from both sides, but at the very least win with a changed lineup demonstrates we actually have a bit of strength in depth for o...

Think our two best performances were Lincoln and Wycombe, Elliott started both.. giving us a properly balanced midfield. Which does make it pretty bonkers that Hunt chose Fraser, completely throwing things off, for the intervening 3. If we'd played like that against Bolton and Wimbledon we'd have d...

As good a performance today was it concerns me that we have played well a couple of times and we've not won. If we had a decent forward we'd have scored a couple more and killed the game off. Really need a win next week. 4 consecutive home league defeat run needs to end. I think if you get your per...

Positives: - Didn’t lose, picked up a point away - Hunt made the required changes - Midfield looked more balanced - MOM is showing a bit of promise - Performance was there, just need to keep the consistency of it up While not as big as we’d have liked, a step in the right direction. Think our two b...

Positives:
- Didn’t lose, picked up a point away
- Hunt made the required changes
- Midfield looked more balanced
- MOM is showing a bit of promise
- Performance was there, just need to keep the consistency of it up

While not as big as we’d have liked, a step in the right direction.

It’s worth remembering the pressure managers are under to hit the ground running each season. You can forgive the temptation to call the tactical element “job done” and crack on with fitting the players into the system, especially when you are under the impression that the new players were acquired ...

People copy it because what ever “it” is, tends to be countered best (or simplest) by the same thing.

It’s not that shocking tbf. In defence Burns and Strickland don’t come forward with the ball. In midfield Wing is nowhere near the final third, Savage has been poor and Fraser isn’t creative. Out wide Kyerewaa can’t keep the ball and Doyle/Kelvin/Garcia aren’t wingers. And upfront MOM can’t win a ba...

Possession football, midfield control, the press, specialised midfielders etc. All work better with the extra man in the middle.

It would obviously be a stretch to say Hunt is a top tier tactician. But I think it would be foolish to ignore the qualities he does bring to the table. He adores the club, and that breeds a valuable loyalty and sense of duty that would be difficult to replace. He is also incredibly personable and t...

Feeling weirdly confident for this one, while the first 70-75mins against Bolton were pretty terrible, we defended well and might have found a good defensive 4. Then that late rush that got the equaliser hopefully opened Hunt's eyes in regards to who should be starting and how we should play. So I ...

I really liked Hunt as a player and think he is a fantastic guy who obviously holds Reading close in his heart, but he is not the right manager for me. I felt when he took over that it was a cheap short term solution and that he probably wouldn't have the managerial nous to take us forward and it s...

I really don’t think playing Wing deep works without Bindon/Mbengue as CBs. He’s too deep and we have oxf*rd all receivers to play with a quarterback. We need him closer to the action to make through balls for MOM or take a shot himself, not sit around in our own third pinging hollywoods at pipsquea...

Yeah, I'd go along with this (said very similar on the Hunt thread; I promise I wasn't cribbing). I also added that sometimes a ship seemingly full of holes has only one, and that little fix makes a surprising difference. With the right balance in midfield (Elliot/Doyle for Fraser) and/or with a de...