back from the game- cardiff

[melonhead]

bugger

[royalsroyalsroyals92]

don't know what to make of it.
performance wasn't poor but we just don't have the quality in delivery to feed any of our strikers.
dying for some creativity in midfield, Jem shows passion but has a poor final ball, and i don't even know what we can say about ledge at the moment. Really off the ball. Would be interested to see one of them being dropped for maybe Ian Harte. Could perform a Robbie Savage-esque role like at Derby, providing good passes and good balls, operating quite defensively as well.
Shame it seemed as if the ref did spoil the game a lot today.
Got to do better

[melonhead]

dominated the game in terms of possesion and territory, played some nice football, often playing out from the back, much improved delivery and play from the wings, unlucky reading, but need to start making sure of gamnes before refs, and luck play their part.

18 corners, some of which were delivered well for once, 56 % possession, and some good incisive play through the middle and out wide. 11 shots on target, but many of them a bit tame, the rest their keeper played a blinder for.

their goal was a fluke, kebes offside goal i cant tell on, 3 decent penalty shouts.

fed- struggled get back for their 1st, but wasnt expecting it, made a couple of crucial saves - 7
mills- better with every game, good going forward and at the back- 7
pearce and gorkss - had little to do, but did ok -6
cummings - ok but doesnt contribute going forward - 6
kebe- better -scored, and had some good delivery, fell over the ball 1nce crucially though-7
karacan- broke up play well,some lovely passing(really imporoving here)and 1 marauding run and shot that he should have buried -7
ledge- less good today than he has been - 6
mcanuff- worked hard, but struggled to get good ball into dangerous positions - 6
nhunt- some great flick ons, a few decent chnaces and shots, faded a bit- but has to be better than church -7
le fondre - not up to his usual level struggled to get near any good ball we managed to get in the box -6

manset- meh - 6
HRK - N/A

[RoyalBlue]

don't know what to make of it.
performance wasn't poor but we just don't have the quality in delivery to feed any of our strikers.
dying for some creativity in midfield, Jem shows passion but has a poor final ball, and i don't even know what we can say about ledge at the moment. Really off the ball. Would be interested to see one of them being dropped for maybe Ian Harte. Could perform a Robbie Savage-esque role like at Derby, providing good passes and good balls, operating quite defensively as well.
Shame it seemed as if the ref did spoil the game a lot today.
Got to do better

So many of us can see that so why can't the bald one or is it that Madejski won't finance tackling that issue?

[melonhead]

don't know what to make of it.
performance wasn't poor but we just don't have the quality in delivery to feed any of our strikers.
dying for some creativity in midfield, Jem shows passion but has a poor final ball, and i don't even know what we can say about ledge at the moment. Really off the ball. Would be interested to see one of them being dropped for maybe Ian Harte. Could perform a Robbie Savage-esque role like at Derby, providing good passes and good balls, operating quite defensively as well.
Shame it seemed as if the ref did spoil the game a lot today.
Got to do better

agree on th eref and linos, but cant whinge about that

disagree with jem, thought his passing was good today

ledge had a nothing game, but had been back to his best for a few games before that


i see why people want harte in the team, but you cant drop mills, so if he goes in, it means a change in system to accomodate him in the middle, which im not sure about, or dropping mcanuff(captain) or kebe, who was much improved today
could certainly do with his quality on the ball though, and his free kicks, which no one else can seem to hit at the minute

[PieEater]

I think Kebe probably was offside after the flick on but that lino was just useless.

Cardiff were nothing special but solid and to took their chances. The first goal was a fluke but the second was just our really poor defending. We never seem to play well against teams that work hard and close us down. We stand off players but we seem to always have difficultly getting the ball under control and passing.

We missed a couple of great chances, the best was probably Karacan who was 1 on 1 and blasted the ball straight at the keeper, who probably couldn't believe his luck.

I'd have been disappointed with a draw and thought we played well enough to win it, to lose is very annoying.

[melonhead]

don't know what to make of it.
performance wasn't poor but we just don't have the quality in delivery to feed any of our strikers.
dying for some creativity in midfield, Jem shows passion but has a poor final ball, and i don't even know what we can say about ledge at the moment. Really off the ball. Would be interested to see one of them being dropped for maybe Ian Harte. Could perform a Robbie Savage-esque role like at Derby, providing good passes and good balls, operating quite defensively as well.
Shame it seemed as if the ref did spoil the game a lot today.
Got to do better

So many of us can see that so why can't the bald one or is it that Madejski won't finance tackling that issue?

kebe created today, mcanuff didnt out wide, but worked some stuff well through the middle

they both had good seasons last year, so you can see why we didnt want to spend in that area, especially with HRK coming through who WAS looking to have come on alot
taylor is showing signs at exeter too, so signing a long term creative midfielder now would set him back a long while, and mean a total shift in system

i wouldnt tear the team apart though, after what was a good, and unlucky performance today
but ive no doubt if this continues, we'll invest in january, in the middle/out wide, and/or up front

[royalsroyalsroyals92]

i would never drop mills for harte.. especially with the way mills is playing.
as far as I'm concerned Harte has had it as a left back at this level, too slow and gets beaten too often, however i believer we could somehow fit him into our team.
disagree with BBCRB caller who said we should put mills on the left wing and harte at left back and use mills to cover for harte defensively with fast wingers. To put it simply, play with two left backs cause one is fast and one can score a free kick occasionally.

[FiNeRaIn]

We are absolutely awful to put it simply. The chairman has taken a lot of stick for not investing in the team however real questions need to be asked as to why we play some of the least attractive football in the division and now the least effective also - that falls on the manager. He's completely failing to get the best out of what we do have. Some subs today as well...wtf? Other than a sluggish birmingham team with a european hangover we have been abysmal at home this season and it continued again. Aimless balls down the channel, two strikers who may as well not be on the pitch and the midfield having the creativity of a blind man trying to paint. Its painful. First half we huff and puff around their goal for about 25 mins...put some real pressure on without creating a real goalscoring chance and don't score. Cardiff get the ball for 25 seconds...manage to find someone free in the box who heads wide when he should have scored. Its that easy for other teams to create yet we cant.

Alfie and Hunt get no service..but lets be honest they hardly cover themselves in glory when the ball does come near them or they are involved. Neither look to be good enough for a club looking to may its way out of the division, definitely fitting they are plying their trade here. Set pieces? lets not go there, our entire fanbase has been saying how awful it is for the last month...yet we persists with using mills must have had about 20 corners/free kicks 90% of which didn't beat the first man or the keeper casually claimed. Cardiff get a set piece in a dangerous area...what happens? in comes the cross....up goes the roar in the away end when the ball nestles in the back of our net.

Finally everyone is saying " well cardiff are a good side, etc,etc" these are the same people who were laughing at them apparently claiming they'll go " bust" and have to sell their entire squad to survive last summer - absolutely doomed according to some. They didn't....they got rid of some then invested in more.... apparently being in a worse financial position than us. Amazing how these other teams who don't sell players for 12 million can keep picking up good players on free transfers and offering them solid contracts. Thats why cardiff will be up there this season again and we are now fighting at the other end.

Finally, people keep mentioning about last seasons amazing run. After the same amount of games this season compared to last does anyone have a comparison as to how many points we hda? Strap maybe?

Lastly..this harte/mills debate says it all, our team is so bad at creating goals we are suggesting bringing in an ageing left back and hoping to score from his free kicks.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry any more.

[cmonurz]

24 points at this stage last season.

10/11 - P17 W6 D6 L5 F27 A21 Pts24
11/12 - P17 W5 D6 L6 F17 A17 Pts21

From this point last season, we lost only four more league games. We're going to have to score a hell of a lot more goals to get anywhere near that this time around.

[FiNeRaIn]

24 points at this stage last season.

10/11 - P17 W6 D6 L5 F27 A21 Pts24
11/12 - P17 W5 D6 L6 F17 A17 Pts21

From this point last season, we lost only four more league games. We're going to have to score a hell of a lot more goals to get anywhere near that this time around.

So we had 7 points more and scored 10 goals more. Now you take mills from the defence and harte and long's goals...we're doomed.

[Ian Royal]

don't know what to make of it.
performance wasn't poor but we just don't have the quality in delivery to feed any of our strikers.
dying for some creativity in midfield, Jem shows passion but has a poor final ball, and i don't even know what we can say about ledge at the moment. Really off the ball. Would be interested to see one of them being dropped for maybe Ian Harte. Could perform a Robbie Savage-esque role like at Derby, providing good passes and good balls, operating quite defensively as well.
Shame it seemed as if the ref did spoil the game a lot today.
Got to do better

So many of us can see that so why can't the bald one or is it that Madejski won't finance tackling that issue?

It's not the way he has us play. Yes we can see we're in need of some creativity in the middle, but at the same time when we've put it in in the past it hasn't helped because we've just got overrun.

[melonhead]

lol at taking mills from the defence- he was worth another 5 goals a season to the opposition

We are absolutely awful to put it simply.

dont think thats anywhere near true. we played pretty well, and wer eunlucky to lose the game against a top 5 team

why we play some of the least attractive football in the division

much better today, threw out from the keeper alot, looked to knock it around well

[davis69]

Brians tactics are boring and not effective.

[winchester_royal]

Should have been 4 up by half time, just not our season.

In other news, our wingers are fcking appalling. The two best pieces of wing play came from ALF.

[cmonurz]

lol at taking mills from the defence- he was worth another 5 goals a season to the opposition

There's really no hope for some people.

[muddyfeet]

Even though we lost- one of the more entertaining games for me. I'm a fan of Mills but if he overhits one more corner I may cry

We lack creativity and a spark in the final third. Not a great game for ALF but the quality of the balls in is dire

McD says the same thing every week after the match, which basically translates to they're trying really hard but just arent quite good enough

Mind you found his tactics a bit odd today

Pretty sure i saw mr melon dancing to the new drum beat

[melonhead]

Even though we lost- one of the more entertaining games for me. I'm a fan of Mills but if he overhits one more corner I may cry

We lack creativity and a spark in the final third. Not a great game for ALF but the quality of the balls in is dire

McD says the same thing every week after the match, which basically translates to they're trying really hard but just arent quite good enough

Mind you found his tactics a bit odd today

Pretty sure i saw mr melon dancing to the new drum beat

im only dancing ironically!

north east corner- two blocks over from the drummer, middle of row EE
behind the man mountain that is wizard.......

where dyou sit?

[FiNeRaIn]

A lot of people are suggesting new tactics and players,etc

I have a solution. If we start scoring more goals than the opposition we'll win. Lets start by trying that approach.

[melonhead]

have to agree with that