When Bikey Doesn't Play

[rg6royal]

Dunno how he doesn't get in the side tbh seems mad.

[Platypuss]

I was asked to look up the stats for Reading games with/without Bikey

I'm doing requests now

Make of the stats what you will


P18 W9 D5 L4 25-16 = 32 Points = 1.77 Points per Game Scoring 1.4 Conceding 0.89 WITHOUT BIKEY
P14 W8 D4 L2 33-11 = 28 Points = 2.00 Points per Game Scoring 2.4 Conceding 0.79 WITH BIKEY

W 6-0 WEDNESDAY
W 4-1 Bristol
W 3-1 BURNLEY
W 3-0 Wolves
W 3-0 DERBY
W 2-1 DONCASTER
W 2-0 Sheff Utd

D 2-2 Watford
D 2-2 Cardiff (Bikey sent off after 30 Minutes)
D 1-1 SAINTS
D 0-0 QPR

L 1-2 Preston (unlucky defeat?)
L 0-1 Burnley (unlucky defeat?)

How about bothering to redo it with the proper result for the Saints game then? He played in the home defeat, not the away draw.

[The 17 Bus]

wont that make us look worse when Bikey plays tho??

[brendywendy]

this kind of info is useless without a similarly in depth analysis of all theother defenders at the club
so we can compare and that


get going snowball

[Hoop Blah]

You also have to factor in the opposition and their current form (over 6, 10 and 12 game periods) at the time we played them.

It is interesting that we scored a lot more goals per game whilst Bikey was in the team though. How much that is influenced by Bikey being in the team is very hard to judge and I'd learn towards his presence being a pretty low influencing factor to be honest.

[Woodcote Royal]

I share most of your views on why Coppell has probably had his time here but see Bikey's absence for large parts of the last 2 seasons as a significant part of the reason why.

Having no pace at the back has pushed our central midfield backwards, isolating it from our strikers and resulting in the hoofball that has played a huge part in our goal drought...................and then our manager compounds the problem by dropping "useful in the air" Hunt for Lita.

So, scoring more goals with Bikey at the back comes as no surprise to me.

Furthermore, while others point out that this side will need a lot of additions to stand any chance of staying up, should it get there, the one defender who definitely has what it takes can't get on the bench

Thanks for the wonderful memories, Steve, but if you can't move on from 2005-6 it's time RFC did the job for you (at the end of season)

[brendywendy]

bikey got suspended, and teh two players who came in have done a sterling job since then, looking very solid at the back and getting alot of clean sheets etc
personally as much as i think bikey is the best defender here, i can see why he has to wait till mistakes are made by the current CDs(ie last week vs brizzle)or injuries/suspensions


coppells worries about bikey are his temperament-which is clearly sometimes suspect
and leaving him out after a sending off sends him a message to sort it out.
when he does force his way back in, i think hell be better for it and keep his plac

[Vision]

I think its some fans just as much as the manager that need to move on from 2005/06.

As for Bikey well personally i agree he has all the attributes to be the best defender at this club, however that doesn't always transfer into his actual contributions (see also Matejovsky in midfield ). Until Saturday we'd kept 3 consecutive clean sheets with the central defensive pairing of Duberry and Pearce so it would have been a bit harsh to displace either of those 2 particularly given that the last time Bikey wore the shirt he was pretty poor to say the least.

[Hoop Blah]

I'm not the biggest Bikey fan and I can see why he hasn't got into the side with the two incumbants performing pretty well since he made himself unavailable so that's not a big issue for me.

In terms of the lack of pace meaning our midfielders drop deeper, I'm not sure that follows. If anything the lack of pace could mean the midfielders have to press a bit higher up the pitch in order to restrict the oppositions midfielders time to exploit the apparent lack of pace and the room behind.

There is a trend there, but I'm just not sure that it's Bikey's presence that has caused it. I think the idea that we might play a bit more directly without him in the side stands up to arguement much better than it's down to a lack of pace at centre back.

[Snowball]

Like others, I can see the clean sheets, but are they down to the two CBs or the midfield becoming more and more defensive-minded?


Exactly the same thing has happened at Arsenal this year. The defence started to look very sloppy so the midfield started covering it. They've stopped leaking goals but can't score so well

Their last 12 is 13-7

[Snowball]

My subjective thoughts are "Bikey is indisciplined" but he was unlucky with that red at Cardiff and a quick look at the fouls/cards table doesn't make him look that bad

4 yellows and 1 reds in 31 games (a card every 06.1 games) Liam Rosenior
2 yellows and 1 reds in 20 games (a card every 06.7 games) Andre Bikey
4 yellows and 0 reds in 29 games (a card every 07.1 games) Chris Armstrong
4 yellows and 0 reds in 32 games (a card every 08.0 games) S Hunt
2 yellows and 1 reds in 31 games (a card every 10.3 games) Jimmy Kebe
3 yellows and 0 reds in 32 games (a card every 10.7 games) Kevin Doyle


or maybe it does when games-played is factored in

[Huntley & Palmer]

Bikey loses concentration too much and plays the game at his own pace, which is great when it works but not when he gets caught out. It stuns me even further when people still insist he can play central midfield

[Woodcote Royal]

I think its some fans just as much as the manager that need to move on from 2005/06.

As for Bikey well personally i agree he has all the attributes to be the best defender at this club, however that doesn't always transfer into his actual contributions (see also Matejovsky in midfield ). Until Saturday we'd kept 3 consecutive clean sheets with the central defensive pairing of Duberry and Pearce so it would have been a bit harsh to displace either of those 2 particularly given that the last time Bikey wore the shirt he was pretty poor to say the least.

What good are clean sheets if we can't score at the other end? We're not fighting relegation we WERE favorites for promotion.

No other player's absence demonstrates better why either Coppell or RFC needs to move on.

Does anyone really think we would have conceded our first goal on Saturday with Bikey marking Adebola?

Now, the run of clean sheets has come to end but not the goal drought.

Having dropped Hunt for a phantom injury, it wasn't too hard to make a case for keeping Lita in the side after a reasonable performance at QPR but how many goals did this produce? After 2pts from 3 games Hunt will return with our league position significantly diminished. The only person to blame for this is Steve Coppell.

Likewise, Doobs and Pearce have done OK at the back but the team as a whole has hardly produced a good performance since Bikey's dodgy red card at Cardiff.

Pace at the back has a big impact on how a team performs. Sonko pre-injury (for all his other faults) allowed the attacking side of our game to devastate the opposition and we haven't been the same attacking force without Bikey.

This is the same player who couldn't get off the bench during or after Coppell's favourites shipped 7 at Portsmouth. Along with his pathetic refusal to address the issue of Shorey wanting to be anywhere but here for more than a year, this a significant reason why I lay the blame for our needless relegation firmly at Coppell's door.

Whist I respect the views of others and never wish to undermine the 2 wonderful seasons that Steve Coppell produced for this club, I remain firmly in the camp that says he has made far too many mistakes in the last 2 seasons, brought on largely by misplaced loyalty and too much faith in 4-4-2, and that this should place him in the last chance saloon whether he likes it or not.

It came as a relief after Saturday's dreadful display to read that I'm not alone in finding our tortuous performances increasingly difficult to watch.

[Great Knolly]

Bikey and Matejovsky are the most talented players in the club. They both have their quirks, but there should be a way to get them in the starting 11. I don't know what's going on with Bikey in particular.

[Vision]

I think its some fans just as much as the manager that need to move on from 2005/06.

As for Bikey well personally i agree he has all the attributes to be the best defender at this club, however that doesn't always transfer into his actual contributions (see also Matejovsky in midfield ). Until Saturday we'd kept 3 consecutive clean sheets with the central defensive pairing of Duberry and Pearce so it would have been a bit harsh to displace either of those 2 particularly given that the last time Bikey wore the shirt he was pretty poor to say the least.

What good are clean sheets if we can't score at the other end? We're not fighting relegation we WERE favorites for promotion.

No other player's absence demonstrates better why either Coppell or RFC needs to move on.

Does anyone really think we would have conceded our first goal on Saturday with Bikey marking Adebola?

Now, the run of clean sheets has come to end but not the goal drought.

.

I'm not convinced that restoring Bikey to the starting line-up will see us back to the free scoring team we were earlier in the season. Equally I don't see it as the single defining factor in our season particularly as indications are that we haven't produced any better results this season with him than without him.

FWIW I like him and if were picking my best 11 players then he'd be in my team alongside Pearce but to hold him as a saviour when the evidence frankly doesn't support it is bizarre in the extreme.

EDIT. Actually in fairness it should be pointed out that certainly our better performances this season have included him and at his best I'd agree he's a shoe-in. Maybe its just my memory but in my opinion that his performances leading up to the sending off were pretty poor. Equally his chance to prove a point came in the cup game at Cardiff and he was truly dreadful.

[Woodcote Royal]

Whilst I'm happy to conceded that Bikey has his fault, and have no problem with Doobs and Pearce as individuals, it's the former to whom he should be directing more perseverance rather than certain favorites and I believe past performances support this view.

[Vision]

Whilst I'm happy to conceded that Bikey has his fault, and have no problem with Doobs and Pearce as individuals, it's the former to whom he should be directing more perseverance rather than certain favorites and I believe past performances support this view.

Actually in fairness it should be pointed out that certainly our better performances this season have included him and at his best I'd agree he's a shoe-in. Maybe its just my memory but in my opinion his performances leading up to the sending off were pretty poor. Equally his chance to prove a point came in the cup game at Cardiff and he was truly dreadful.

[Huntley & Palmer]

Whilst I'm happy to conceded that Bikey has his fault, and have no problem with Doobs and Pearce as individuals, it's the former to whom he should be directing more perseverance rather than certain favorites and I believe past performances support this view.

He isn't consistent enough, he suffers rather large lapses in concentration and his lackadaisical style can cost us if the opposition are good enough. For all his faults, Doobs does not usually commit much in the way of gaffs and his experience is invaluable to us. If Pearce is to become the future of this club then he needs a steady head next to him, not a defender that is liable to make his own decisions from game to game and leave him exposed.

[Alan Partridge]

Whilst I'm happy to conceded that Bikey has his fault, and have no problem with Doobs and Pearce as individuals, it's the former to whom he should be directing more perseverance rather than certain favorites and I believe past performances support this view.

He isn't consistent enough, he suffers rather large lapses in concentration and his lackadaisical style can cost us if the opposition are good enough. For all his faults, Doobs does not usually commit much in the way of gaffs and his experience is invaluable to us. If Pearce is to become the future of this club then he needs a steady head next to him, not a defender that is liable to make his own decisions from game to game and leave him exposed.

Correct Hunters.

It's a big decision for Coppell whether to go with Pearce or Bikey, that should be the conundrum. For me Duberry doesn't come into it, he on the whole has had a decent season. He should be the captain of the side when Murty isn't playing.

Personally I would actually play Bikey alongside Doobs with Pearce as my back up. It's crunch time and your best players should be playing, Bikey is an international defender who on his day is probably one of the best defenders in the league. The lack of faith shown in him by Coppell really is amazing at times sometimes makes me think that there is maybe something we don't know about Bikey off the pitch?

Said it elsewhere though I don't think Bikey will make the signficant difference that others are saying. The team had been keeping clean sheets for fun in the main, defensively strong throughout the back 4 leaving Federici with precious little to do in the last few games. But if you aren't scoring the pressure on the back 4 increases just that bit more and eventually you are going to conceed.

He needs to shake up his midfield and I would bring Noel Hunt back in now up front. I like Lita, I think given a decent service he will score goals for anyone, I think he has outperformed Doyle in thelast few games but Doyle and N Hunt work. It's been proven this year and they should start Saturday with Lita being the able deputy on the bench. That is still a very strong 3.

The problem area is the midfield, it's too defensive in the middle and both wingers are haplessly out of form. If Coppell had some true guts he'd drop 3 or even all 4 of them. We all know though that it won't happen.

[Woodcote Royal]

Agree with Bikey and Doobs.

As much as Pearce should have a terrific future in the game, Duburry IMHO has been seriously under rated throughout his time here.

Ingimarrson should consider himself very fortunate to not have had a tougher fight for his place from a former £4m defender.