How do we become good again?

[linkenholtroyal]

I call being a midtable Championship club pretty good for a club of our size and fanbase, we are far better off than most all things considered.

I think what isn't good is our lack of identity, we have no idea what we are anymore and that really comes from the ownership and questionable business decisions over the past few years with the Thai's coming in, to Gourlay and to the Chinese owners who by their own admission have no real idea about football so hire people like Kia Joorabchian to look after the transfer dealings of the club. Decisions like that have essentially killed off the "Reading Way" which we all know and love and which was the thing that got us promoted with 106 points. We need to change our business model, we need to get rid of people like Joorabchian who is a self-serving conman who is only involved with the club to gain financially, he has no interest in our success.

We need to get our academy back to the sort of level it was when Eamonn Dolan ran it, invest in that rather than taking punts on players from abroad with no clue about our club who only come here to put themselves on the map. We have started to see this happening with McIntyre, Olise and Osho coming through but I fear in the summer we will be picking up free/cheap players from abroad who will take their places. This simply cannot be allowed to happen but I get the impression that if the club bring in more established players then Bowen will be made to play them, I don't have faith that Bowen makes all the team decisions himself.

We need to get a lot better at scouting. How many players are we missing out on from the lower leagues or players at Premier League sides deemed not good enough. Look at sides like Peterborough for example. They pick up really good young players from non-league/League 1 and they go on to be excellent players who get sold on for huge profit and make the club financially secure. They also pick up players like Ivan Toney who scored buckets of goals this season and is now valued at well over £7m. They got him for just over 600k, scouts identified him. Where are our scouts? What do they do exactly? Lets go back to basics and try to follow a similar model to Brentford and Peterborough.

+1 you wrote pretty much the same as me below (at the same time)

[Simmops]

I firmly believe that relgatoon to ligue 1 would actually give us the boost we need because at the moment we've found out our level. It we go down like Sunderland or et Al, it might be that we have a fire sale, and gain players on loan and from free transfers and then bounce our way back up again to the Premier league slowly.

[WoodleyRoyal]

I think we have to realise that this is our level. We are a midtable championship team, we can aspire to be better but we are probably punching at our weight. It's quite obvious we don't have good enough players to compete at the top. And we cannot afford the players that are going to take to the next level. It needs to be baby steps and a slow and steady build, in a few years, we might get lucky. Until then don't expect to be anything more than a mid-table championship team and stop being entitled to think we are anything more

[Mid Sussex Royal]

That agent guy who's in with the owners has far too much clout. That must stop now if we want to end the mediocrity

[Notts Royal]

Recruitment & not expecting instant success. Build sustainably.

Comes from the top though & with our current owners we’ll keep repeating the cycle we’re on

[tidus_mi2]

I firmly believe that relgatoon to ligue 1 would actually give us the boost we need because at the moment we've found out our level. It we go down like Sunderland or et Al, it might be that we have a fire sale, and gain players on loan and from free transfers and then bounce our way back up again to the Premier league slowly.

Absolutely disagree 100%, there is no guarantee we'll come back up anywhere near challenging for a return to the Premier League, look at Wigan, a club of a similar size who went down to League One and have been nothing more than a lower half Championship club at best since then.

It eventually worked out for Sheffield United but they were stuck in League One for several seasons, Portsmouth and Sunderland equally are finding earning promotion to the Championship far tougher than they would have expected and Ipswich could only manage a mid-table finish.

What if the owners decide the relegation to League One is their limit and they decide to sell? Can we guarantee owners who will come and finance and climb to the Championship and then the Premier League.

[Snowflake Royal]

I call being a midtable Championship club pretty good for a club of our size and fanbase, we are far better off than most all things considered.

I am also fine with this. Happy enough to be sitting around mid-table for a few years with a chance of getting into the play-offs going into the last couple of weeks of the season.

Yes we can be a bit rubbish at times, but we do have it better than a lot of other clubs.

yeah same really. What I'm not ok with is 210% wages to turnover and loads of overpaid wasters hanging around the club

Not sure the club can afford to bar Nobbers from games.

[Notts Royal]

What I'd like to see is our creative players drilled into focusing on, say, two different balls to mainly play in specific circumstances.

So everyone knows where the ball is going and when mostly. No more strikers static because they don't know when to move waiting for some improvisation. No more strikers not knowing where the ball is going to lose their marker No more hopeful crosses to empty boxes or delayed through balls. No more midfielder hesitation looking for the run and missing it.

So what if the defenders know what we'll do. Do it well and it won't matter that much.

This is a really good point & reminds me of players like Shorey who had certain patterns of play as the default if the option was on. Whilst we have skilful players now, there does seem
To be a lack of ideas when going forwards. And some of them do seem to be on different wavelengths to others. Some of them are better at reading the game than others so that helps them get out of trouble. Puscas is a prime example of a player who doesn’t seem to read the game very well, Meite also. But that could be completely down to the coaching

[Emmer Green Royal]

I think what isn't good is our lack of identity...

I was thinking about this earlier today before I saw this thread. I emigrated to Austria 10 years ago having watched Reading since the mid-1980s and had a season ticket at Madejski stadium. Madejski's ownership brought stability and took the club from receivership to the Premier League, and from Elm Park to the Madejski stadium. He was a local man who had the club's best interests at heart.

In order to become an established Premier League club, more money was required than Madejski could (or would) invest. Since then we've had three foreign owners, many managers, and the Reading Way has evaporated. Yes, there are footballing issues to address, but as OMA said, the club needs to refind its identity.

[Forbury Lion]

We need to look to the past, in the current circumstances the old Sir John Madejski "Reading way" of doing things is exactly what we need.

Stability is key - both in terms of personnel and finances, then tactics.

[Snowflake Royal]

What I'd like to see is our creative players drilled into focusing on, say, two different balls to mainly play in specific circumstances.

So everyone knows where the ball is going and when mostly. No more strikers static because they don't know when to move waiting for some improvisation. No more strikers not knowing where the ball is going to lose their marker No more hopeful crosses to empty boxes or delayed through balls. No more midfielder hesitation looking for the run and missing it.

So what if the defenders know what we'll do. Do it well and it won't matter that much.

This is a really good point & reminds me of players like Shorey who had certain patterns of play as the default if the option was on. Whilst we have skilful players now, there does seem
To be a lack of ideas when going forwards. And some of them do seem to be on different wavelengths to others. Some of them are better at reading the game than others so that helps them get out of trouble. Puscas is a prime example of a player who doesn’t seem to read the game very well, Meite also. But that could be completely down to the coaching

Yeah my complaint with Puscas is that he spends half the game on his heels sort of just watching the play pass him by. You frequently fly see him two or three yards of being able to challenge for a header, close down a pass pr make a darting run into space.

Meite is a different problem IMO, he's got the energy and he's always on the move, but his positioning and timing isn't always right.

Ejaria and Swift are particularly good examples of the problem. Both very good players, but they're also very improvisational. They like to twist and turn and see if a defender will make a mistake to get some space. The problem with that is they often don't have a plan ahead of time for what to do with that space and no one else can easily predict when they'll get it and what they'll do with it.

Take the 106ers

Harper mainly fed the wings to get an attack going.

Sidwell hit the box late.

Shorey cut inside and swung in a cross or shot from deep

Little engineered a bit of space and crossed

Murty overlapped and crossed

What's the consistent pattern with any of ours at the moment.

[Millsy]

it does prove my theory on hunger

Absolutely.

Hunger is a must and possibly beats anythingn else,

A hungry trying player >>>> a technically better player who couldn't be arsed.

Give me a team full of Meites over a team full of Pogrebnyaks or Vydras any day of the week.

The thing is these people are all highly skilled highly trained football professionals and as far as I'm concerned the difference between a PL player and a championship player on 10x less salary is often just a split second of pace, or agility or perception etc. The difference between a young hungry player fighting for his pride and someone who's already made it is greater. Hence underdogs often doing better than expected, us doing better in bigger games etc. People like Warnock have tapped into that and are getting aggression and fight from the players and clearly that's what Bowen is focussing on too, but it helps to have a naturally passionate player in the first place.

Some of what Meite does is braindead/not very gifted, but his pure passion in almost every run to the ball, every tackle, every shot, every celebration is a joy to watch and rubs off on others.

Give me a team of young hungry homegrown players, mixed in with hungry passionate players who have experience or credentials but who haven't let it get to their heads and I'll be happy, whatever league we're in.

[linkenholtroyal]

it does prove my theory on hunger

Absolutely.

Hunger is a must and possibly beats anythingn else,

A hungry trying player >>>> a technically better player who couldn't be arsed.

Give me a team full of Meites over a team full of Pogrebnyaks or Vydras any day of the week.

The thing is these people are all highly skilled highly trained football professionals and as far as I'm concerned the difference between a PL player and a championship player on 10x less salary is often just a split second of pace, or agility or perception etc. The difference between a young hungry player fighting for his pride and someone who's already made it is greater. Hence underdogs often doing better than expected, us doing better in bigger games etc. People like Warnock have tapped into that and are getting aggression and fight from the players and clearly that's what Bowen is focussing on too, but it helps to have a naturally passionate player in the first place.

Some of what Meite does is braindead/not very gifted, but his pure passion in almost every run to the ball, every tackle, every shot, every celebration is a joy to watch and rubs off on others.

Give me a team of young hungry homegrown players, mixed in with hungry passionate players who have experience or credentials but who haven't let it get to their heads and I'll be happy, whatever league we're in.

Thankyou my point completely it is not about what league you are in it is about what you go and see on a weekly basis and I want to see the passion to put on a Reading shirt and a team ethic . on this note I am thinking of going to watch a couple of games at Hungerford this season they are close by to me and I think I may enjoy the passion more. I am still a Reading fan and will come see my 10-15 games a season when work doesn't get in the way. But maybe i need a bit of lower league football again to fall back in love with the game. I wish we had enough money at the club to send all the players stated with a god complex above to play at Hungerford for a season and see how special they feel then.

[Forbury Lion]

Where are our scouts? What do they do exactly? Lets go back to basics and try to follow a similar model to Brentford and Peterborough.

As a way round FFP, perhaps the owner may want to start a football talent spotting agency and employ scouts to find players for a club like Reading? This would mean the scouting costs are not part of the club running costs.

[Zip]

Gooding effectively blaming our strikers for our frustrating season. I don’t agree. He refers to Joao being missed but his goals scored per minutes played isn’t very much better than either Puscas or Joao although he is much better at holding up the ball and bringing others into play.

The big problem is surely how slow we are at getting the ball forward. Opponents have time to organise as we dick around with the ball. We desperately lack pace and play too narrow.

So I want to see a change of playing style. More tempo, more width, more pace. We may then get more out of Puscas who spends much of the game with his back to goal. We need players that can play to that style. Instead we have a mish mash of players and the typical unbalanced squad that we seem to have had for years.

So Bowen needs to set out a style of play and bring in players suited to it. He also needs time to do it. Coppell was given time. Bowen needs time too. This endless cycle of hire and fire contributes towards our lack of cohesion.

[Snowflake Royal]

Gooding effectively blaming our strikers for our frustrating season. I don’t agree. He refers to Joao being missed but his goals scored per minutes played isn’t very much better than either Puscas or Joao although he is much better at holding up the ball and bringing others into play.

The big problem is surely how slow we are at getting the ball forward. Opponents have time to organise as we dick around with the ball. We desperately lack pace and play too narrow.

So I want to see a change of playing style. More tempo, more width, more pace. We may then get more out of Puscas who spends much of the game with his back to goal. We need players that can play to that style. Instead we have a mish mash of players and the typical unbalanced squad that we seem to have had for years.

So Bowen needs to set out a style of play and bring in players suited to it. He also needs time to do it. Coppell was given time. Bowen needs time too. This endless cycle of hire and fire contributes towards our lack of cohesion.

Yeah, was thinking earlier that we must keep the ball moving more.

It's much easier to beat someone if you're moving rather than stood still, typically you've gone further and it's harder for your man to recover and get back to you.

Got to keep the pace up and zip the passes when we're attacking.

Yeah it's excellent to be able to slow the game down, and take the sting out, keep possession. But that's for the middle of the pitch, not so much the final third.

The final third should be where we're most explosive. I think it's where we're most sluggish.

[Hound]

yeah, the strikers have actually been reasonably clinical. Meite, Puscas and Joao have all decent goal returns

We just don't create anywhere near enough - I wouldnt blame the CFs for that particularly

[Zip]

yeah, the strikers have actually been reasonably clinical. Meite, Puscas and Joao have all decent goal returns

We just don't create anywhere near enough - I wouldnt blame the CFs for that particularly

Indeed which is why I disagree with Gooding. We simply don’t create much and certainly don’t play in a style that suits Puscas. Far from it. When we play a higher tempo we look good but more often than not our midfielders slow the play down. That’s fine if we are winning but it happens when we are losing all the time.

[Old Man Andrews]

yeah, the strikers have actually been reasonably clinical. Meite, Puscas and Joao have all decent goal returns

We just don't create anywhere near enough - I wouldnt blame the CFs for that particularly

Indeed which is why I disagree with Gooding. We simply don’t create much and certainly don’t play in a style that suits Puscas. Far from it. When we play a higher tempo we look good but more often than not our midfielders slow the play down. That’s fine if we are winning but it happens when we are losing all the time.

Reading between the lines I think Mick, along with the other BBC Radio Berks guys, are blaming Puscas. They have an agenda against him, they do this most seasons with a player they don't take a liking to.

[Zip]

yeah, the strikers have actually been reasonably clinical. Meite, Puscas and Joao have all decent goal returns

We just don't create anywhere near enough - I wouldnt blame the CFs for that particularly

Indeed which is why I disagree with Gooding. We simply don’t create much and certainly don’t play in a style that suits Puscas. Far from it. When we play a higher tempo we look good but more often than not our midfielders slow the play down. That’s fine if we are winning but it happens when we are losing all the time.

Reading between the lines I think Mick, along with the other BBC Radio Berks guys, are blaming Puscas. They have an agenda against him, they do this most seasons with a player they don't take a liking to.

It ignores the reality. We can see for ourselves what’s happening. Puscas hasn’t missed stacks of chances this season. He missed a few early on but by and large he has done fine for a young man in his first season in a foreign League. We rarely create a good number of chances in a game.

When we have players of the technical ability of Swift, Ejaria and Olise then something isn’t right. We play too much down the middle of the pitch and moves end up breaking down. We rarely get it out wide and behind the back of teams. We really do need to sign some wingers this summer especially as Popa, GMac, Masika, Aluko and Barrow have gone/likely to go.