Back from the game - Burnley Away

[Pseud O'Nym]

Howard was sitting deeper than Tabb, who was playing just off Long for most of the game. Howard was holding things in midfield with Karacan. When one went, the other stayed....(see Frank and Stevie, it IS possible)....Tabb was always pushing forward and quite often was the only support for Long.

I've been getting a bit confused by this. I'm sure the original team sheet showed Tabb in front of the back four, Howard playing off the striker. After the match McD said how well Tabb had done playing just behind Long, and when I checked the team sheet it had changed.

The commentator on the Royal Box seemed fairly sure we were playing Preston, whereas the woman in the studio thought it was Barnsley, futher adding to my confusion.

[sandman]

How are any of you surprised that someone who loves German football prefers an efficient 1-0 win to a 4-0.

[Kitsondinho]

Howard was sitting deeper than Tabb, who was playing just off Long for most of the game. Howard was holding things in midfield with Karacan. When one went, the other stayed....(see Frank and Stevie, it IS possible)....Tabb was always pushing forward and quite often was the only support for Long.

I've been getting a bit confused by this. I'm sure the original team sheet showed Tabb in front of the back four, Howard playing off the striker. After the match McD said how well Tabb had done playing just behind Long, and when I checked the team sheet it had changed.

The commentator on the Royal Box seemed fairly sure we were playing Preston, whereas the woman in the studio thought it was Barnsley, futher adding to my confusion.

Tabb was playing off Long. HTH.

[working class hero]

I thought it was a great win - but a middling performance.

I don't believe it was a penalty and have seen photos proving the tackle was outside the area. Still such is football and you take the ones you shouldn't be given - as long as you are accepting of the bad decisions against you!

If it wasn't a penalty then it wasn't a booking... so not a sending off.

The gods favoured us.
Burnley were dismal [and we were better than them] and I think we deserved to win.
4-0 was very flattering and I had to laugh at those who felt it was 'us showing how well we can play'. Very easily pleased if you accept that was the best we can play!

We will play better than this and lose.

It was a step in the right direction. For me this team needs to be allowed a couple of sesons on the fringe of the playoffs before we are ready. There are lots of younger players who will be excellent by then.

If by some fluke we go up this season then we will need to be prepared for humiliation in the PL - or to splash a fortune to stay up.... And I can't see the latter option happening.

Accept it for what it was; a good result on the road - but keep some perspective.

[rhroyal]

I thought it was a great win - but a middling performance.

I don't believe it was a penalty and have seen photos proving the tackle was outside the area. Still such is football and you take the ones you shouldn't be given - as long as you are accepting of the bad decisions against you!

If it wasn't a penalty then it wasn't a booking... so not a sending off.

The gods favoured us.
Burnley were dismal [and we were better than them] and I think we deserved to win.
4-0 was very flattering and I had to laugh at those who felt it was 'us showing how well we can play'. Very easily pleased if you accept that was the best we can play!

We will play better than this and lose.

It was a step in the right direction. For me this team needs to be allowed a couple of sesons on the fringe of the playoffs before we are ready. There are lots of younger players who will be excellent by then.

If by some fluke we go up this season then we will need to be prepared for humiliation in the PL - or to splash a fortune to stay up.... And I can't see the latter option happening.

Accept it for what it was; a good result on the road - but keep some perspective.

Did you watch the game? I didn't but I saw the highlights, and it was a 100% nailed on penalty. Even if it was outside the box, it would still have been a yellow/red card.

Kind of agreed on perspective, it is only 1 result. However, I said that at the start of the season we're not going up, not going down. I stand by that. If we are to be a dull mid table side, surely I'm allowed to enjoy a 4-0 away win when it occurs? I know it doesn't turn us into promotion contenders, but I'm going to enjoy a great result when it happens. There's unlikely to be too much to get excited about this season, so do we really want to dismiss results like this when they occur?

[Arch]

Kicker-style ratings, 1-6 -
Fed 4 (couple of fumbles, tipped an easy ball away when a clean save would've been fairly easy)
Griffin 3
Mills 2
Khizanishvili 2,5
Harte 3
Karacan 3
Howard 3.5
McAnuff 2,5
Tabb 2
HRK 3
Long 2
(Church 3,5; Antonio 4)

Kicker ratings WTF are they?

Week in, week out, there is always someone on this site that wants to say 'look at me, i've been to the game', or 'look at my knowledge of the game, i am very tactically aware', or 'look at me, i am so on the wavelength of the present manager, if i wasn't so busy with my job as a street cleaner i could spare some time to help and advise him on team tactics,etc.'. These sort of people are also seen on the touchlines Sunday mornings at under 10's football games imitating Barry Fry, Neil Warnock, and worst of all, Alan Pardew, with the latest 'inn' slang such as 'Kicker Ratings' to impress unsuspecting normal folk.
Beleive me, there will be another 'HNA Super Pundit' again next week, the week after, and so on.

Maybe, but that person isn't Prostak. Who the fcuk are you, by the way?

[Aeroguide]

My ratings

Feds 45.7
Griffin 3
Mills 69009
Kish qf564555
Harte onion.turnip
Tabb 8.97sqired
HRK 45frefret345
McAnuff )%**%*%*%)*(
Howard
Long hallo wie geht's dir?
Karacan zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Based on the standard Outer Mongolian Pearson coefficient paired Wilcoxon sine wave coefficient rating system of 1934.

HTH

Don't think I would have gone as far as giving Mills 69009.

69008?

Possibly

[Kitson12]

I despair sometimes when reading "Back from the game" posts. Some people are intent on picking holes in very good performances, and wins by more than a 1-0 margin.
I was one of the lucky ones who watched the game yesterday, and it was a fantastic performance, there were some things we could have done better, but you can't take anything away from the system or the way we played for 90 minutes. It was clear that Tabb made a huge difference, his positive passes, through balls towards Long were a delight to watch, as was the total job that Long did on Bikey, he was fantastic and Bikey was pretty awful to be honest.
One for prostak, how was that a clueless performance? How? The system we played worked, everyone knew, and did their job very well in my opinion, I know quite a few of you think differently.
No, it doesn't paper over the cracks of the last two games, but it goes a serious way to showing that we can get better, and we can challenge the top teams in this division, and to say we didn't show that shows you either weren't watching the game, or you are determined to pick holes in absolutely everything.
Our support, for a couple of hundred fans was very good, and I can't think of many (away) fans who went away thinking they hadn't got value for money.
By the way, I also think 4-0 didn't flatter us, we could easily have had more, we seemed to make far more chances in yesterdays game hence 10, yes 10 shots on target, for an away side.

So stop being pessimistic, yes we can still improve, and it wasn't 100%, but come on, give the team and the manager some credit.

[Stranded]

Kicker-style ratings, 1-6 -
Fed 4 (couple of fumbles, tipped an easy ball away when a clean save would've been fairly easy)
Griffin 3
Mills 2
Khizanishvili 2,5
Harte 3
Karacan 3
Howard 3.5
McAnuff 2,5
Tabb 2
HRK 3
Long 2
(Church 3,5; Antonio 4)

Kicker ratings WTF are they?

Week in, week out, there is always someone on this site that wants to say 'look at me, i've been to the game', or 'look at my knowledge of the game, i am very tactically aware', or 'look at me, i am so on the wavelength of the present manager, if i wasn't so busy with my job as a street cleaner i could spare some time to help and advise him on team tactics,etc.'. These sort of people are also seen on the touchlines Sunday mornings at under 10's football games imitating Barry Fry, Neil Warnock, and worst of all, Alan Pardew, with the latest 'inn' slang such as 'Kicker Ratings' to impress unsuspecting normal folk.
Beleive me, there will be another 'HNA Super Pundit' again next week, the week after, and so on.

I could be wrong, and Prostak can correct me if he wishes but:

Prostak lives in Germany. One of the main football magazines in Germany is called Kicker. I would assume he is a regular reader and they score in this fashion so has followed that for this game. Don't see the issue myself.

[SLAMMED]

Either that or he's taken the scoring system from ice skating.

[floyd__streete]

I notice from many reports on here that when Reading win it seems to be due to the complete ineptitude of the opposition and whenever Reading lose it because of their own ineptitiude.

Must be a really crap league this year for us to be on the fringe of the play-offs again.

Well, as you never attend any Reading games ever why don't you take onboard the comments of someone who was actually there rather than post a sneering reply?

Fantastic result on paper, I wasn't in attendance either but this win reinforces two things in my mind: (a) Tabb and Howard are two of our more accomplished players who should be accomodated wherever possible and (b) this is a rather bizarre league and Reading are one of many teams who could look lightweight for two games in a row and then go and spank someone, anyone in the division. The latter point all seems to indicate a midtable finish, which given the apparently diabolical financial situation the club has found itself in must be seen as a decent achievement.

[RoyalBlue]

I thought it was a great win - but a middling performance.

I don't believe it was a penalty and have seen photos proving the tackle was outside the area. Still such is football and you take the ones you shouldn't be given - as long as you are accepting of the bad decisions against you!

If it wasn't a penalty then it wasn't a booking... so not a sending off.

That really does not follow! If a player is tripped/fouled when breaking forward towards the edge of the box and well positioned to shoot, why wouldn't the ref be justified in punishing the offender with a yellow card? I suspect the majority of refs would book the offender, regardless of whether the offence took place inside or outside the area.

It was a step in the right direction. For me this team needs to be allowed a couple of sesons on the fringe of the playoffs before we are ready. There are lots of younger players who will be excellent by then.

Provided, of course, they haven't been sold to fill another mysterious black hole.

[Svlad Cjelli]

I thought it was a great win - but a middling performance.

I don't believe it was a penalty and have seen photos proving the tackle was outside the area. Still such is football and you take the ones you shouldn't be given - as long as you are accepting of the bad decisions against you!

If it wasn't a penalty then it wasn't a booking... so not a sending off.

That really does not follow! If a player is tripped/fouled when breaking forward towards the edge of the box and well positioned to shoot, why wouldn't the ref be justified in punishing the offender with a yellow card? I suspect the majority of refs would book the offender, regardless of whether the offence took place inside or outside the area.

Correct - the decision to issue a caution is based on the offence committed, not where on the pitch that offence occurred.

[Royal Rother]

Floyd, you put the sneer in there fella, it was justan observation I made with a hint of irony.

I take on board all comments but plainly one that suggests a 4-0 victory away from home at a team in great form of late was in some way inept is likely to be received with a degree of surprise.

[Millsy]

Long was outstanding up-front, .... he probably deserved one from open play such was the effort.

***criiiiingeeee***

Long-apologists scraping bottom of the barrel now! Got to be embarrassing for the lad

Although I understnd next season the FA will be bringing in the rule that it's not just goals that count, it's strikers' effort too. They'll have a panel of RTGs at every game who'll score players on effort and if they hit certain threshold (yet to be decided) that team will be awarded a goal.

Seriously though your post is a good one. I just cut out the good bits and thought I'd be facetious. Long is yet to score from open play and no matter how it's dressed up it's extremely embarrassing. I don't dislike him - he works his socks off and has won us now three penalties IIRC, scoring two himself. But nothing changes the fact that when it comes to open play he can't score in a brothel.

Are you watching Madejski?

We just won 4-0 btw.

Bananas are apparently a herb btw.

[SpaceCruiser]

Bananas are apparently a herb btw.

Ooooh, careful, you'll have RR frothing at the mouth.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

Not really sure at how people can get worked up by some peoples posts.

Sure most of us have seen enough football that u can come away from a 4 0 win and wonder how on earth wenwon that game 4 0, just as u walk away from others wondering how u lost that game 4 0.

If a back from the game thread isn't the place for giving an opinion on a performance then what is? Picking holes in something is what the internets for.

And u can't takethe high ground when posting on the net. We are all losers!!

[Wycombe Royal]

Personally I think the foul for the penalty was marginally outside the box, however at full speed it looks well inside. Very difficulty one for the officials to get right.

[gazzer, loyal royal]

nice to see a result when players aren't being played out of position. Everyone back to their natural position and we played a lot more fluently because of it

[Maguire]

Shock result of the weekend for me. I though we'd lose and we end up spanking them.

Obviously I didn't go but I can't believe anyone could complain about a 4-0 win anywhere, let alone at Burnley. Cracking result and i'd take that any day of the week.

Simon Church's goal looked like a suspiciously good finish. I'm not convinced that was Simon Church.