Team for Preston (A)

[John Smith]

It's so evident that there's something going on higher up that Clement is forced to play these players.

We're bottom of the league, and yet he's being forced to play players? Doubt this is true. (If it is, he should quit.) But for sake of discussion...Is this a new club directive aimed at this particular manager? They sat him down at the interview, and said 'Well, you can have the job, but sorry, we'll be picking the teams'?Or he never knew about it when he signed on here, and was sold down the river by his buddy, Gourlay?

And yet he calls me an imbecile?
Mind you Denver he did say we were "safe" 5 games from the end of last season and said we wouldn't be in any danger of relegation.

Can you please explain to me what your username means?

[Denver Royal]

It's so evident that there's something going on higher up that Clement is forced to play these players.

We're bottom of the league, and yet he's being forced to play players? Doubt this is true. (If it is, he should quit.) But for sake of discussion...Is this a new club directive aimed at this particular manager? He never knew about it when he signed on here, and was sold down the river by his buddy, Gourlay?

1. Do you think Clement can see something else in Aluko?
2. Clement was out of work and had to take the Reading job.

1. Prolly, as did Aluko's previous club managers, and the people who brought him here, most likely. That's sometimes how it is, vis- a-vis fans. (Not that I care much for him myself, though I've seen much less of him than Clement has, obviously). Given his fee, I'd imagine they'd like to make it work if they can. But there's a leap from there, to saying 'he is being forced to play players (plural)'.
2. That's news to me, but you may know more than me about that, John, and that's fine. Didn't even know he was out of work, actually. Thought he was working in the US?

[Victor Meldrew]

In what way does Blackett "add balance to our team in the full back positions"?

The fullbacks weren't the problem last game - quite the contrary. Could see Yiadom being rightly miffed if we're saying - yeah, you were one the best players last game, so as a reward we'll play you out of position next game.

I can see the logic of looking for anybody to play in CDM. But we shouldn't weaken one position to strengthen another.

Tbh CDM is more like central defence than it is like full-back. Try Ilori there, and put Blackett (or McShane) in as a central defender? That makes more sense to me.

Left footed, when he gets it right he does put some great deliveries into the box. I’d rather see a left footed left back but that’s just my opinion.

With Yiadom I think if you’re looking for someone to get stuck in and do a job on someone he has all the attributes to perform in a CDM role. Certainly at the moment unless performances improve it’s worth a try

It depends on the type of CDM. Yes you could put another CB there who sits in front of the defence as extra cover (which in fairness we could do worse things than try once - just for shits we lose anyway). Obviously you’re then compromising ball playing ability but if your role is just to tackle break up play and then play a simple 5-10 yard pass then ok.

You could have your Pirlo type CDMs (poor version: Norwood, Guthrie etc), doesn’t offer a lot of defensive contribution or protection but can pick the ball up and aim to start attacks from deep.

You’re box to box midfielders you just play slightly deeper. Or in Reading’s case your shit centre mids who aren’t good at anything and hope to god you can find a way of playing to their strengths (which you can’t if they don’t have any).

The case for Yiadom at CDM is a decent one tbh. A good all round fullback should be good at going forward and defending with an emphasis on the latter - though it will change from team to team but traditionally. Yiadom has shown he’s pretty good at both and is neat and tidy in the ball in small spaces so on paper he should have the ability. Not necessarily knowing the position could be a problem, positionally/discipline.

BUT, I’ve spent over half a decade watching the decline of Reading with the almost one ever present constant weakness being our Mr. Reliable, Chris “Can’t stop a cross” “Great Athlete” Gunter. The only good thing to come out of this season is, in Andy Yiadom, finally a genuine replacement and significant upgrade, which should have signalled the end of Pcunter’s time at right back and hopefully the club. I’ll be fcuking damned if I’d willingly move our best player in place of a shittier undeserving one.

You must have read my similar post last season about the one consistent factor and with the signing of Yiadom I thought that could be the end for our soft excuse for a defender (he has a trillion caps for Wales you know so he must be fantastic).
No, there he was on Saturday once again contributing so little to the cause-I am now tempted by the bookies' offer of 11/8 for us to be relegated now that another manager can't see that this player should be on an athletics track rather than a football pitch.

One bit of joy though-Pearson, Preston's decent playmaker, got sent off at the end of their last game so shouldn't be available for ours.
This means that (unlike last Saturday) our manager and staff don't have to concern themselves with being made to look foolish again for failing to address the problem of an opposition player dictating the game.
On the other hand our players never seem to have a clue about the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition.
This really is a depressing time in our history and I am fed up with people asking "why is your team bottom of the league?"

[Hound]

Some horrible, dirty, physical direct northern team against our bunch of spineless southern wimps on no doubt a shit pitch in horrible weather.

Only going to be one winner whether they have lost their decent midfielder or not

[CountryRoyal]

Imagine if we win 4-0 and it’s the catalyst for an unbeaten run of 25 games on our way to the title with over 100 points.

Would be jokes.

[Crowbar6753]

Walker
Yiadom Moore Ilori Blackett

Frost Bacuna Rinomohta Barrow

Loader Baldock

We need some fresh impetus in this squad and bringing in Loader, Rinamohta and Frost from the u23s should liven things up a bit. These youngsters are performing at a great level and yes i know its a step up in quality but really, i would prefer to see a team with players giving 100% and not full of mercenaries stealing a living like Aluko and Myler.

[Zip]

It's so evident that there's something going on higher up that Clement is forced to play these players.

We're bottom of the league, and yet he's being forced to play players? Doubt this is true. (If it is, he should quit.) But for sake of discussion...Is this a new club directive aimed at this particular manager? He never knew about it when he signed on here, and was sold down the river by his buddy, Gourlay?

Rather than ask that, ask yourself why Aluko (for example) is playing. Do you think Clement can see something else? A coach with experience at one of the biggest clubs in the world? This wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened at Reading, let alone football in general. We had to play Vydra even though he was the worst player ever to wear the hoops purely because of the fee spent on the ridiculous loan deal. The same situation is happening here now. There's no 'selling down the river' situation here either - Clement was out of work and a Championship club came knocking. Look how hard it is for even the most experienced managers to get back into work - he had to take the Reading job. He probably realised he's bitten off more than he (or anyone really) can chew once the transfer window shut and we were still unable to get rid of the dross we have now and have since recruited more dross in a failure from Brighton, an Iranian and a Southampton reserve.

I bet he doesn’t start Aluko for a while now after that excuse of a performance against Wednesday

[CountryRoyal]

Dunno it seems like a Clement thing to do.

[TheBaldOne]

Walker

Yiadom Moore Ilori Richards

Kelly Bacuna Swift

Aluko Loader Barrow

[JR]

Does it even matter what combination of 11 players we put out?

It will be just as inept as the one before and the one after.

It’s about time we had a team selection thread! This forum has been taken over by prediction threads that are pointless / depressing so this is a breath of fresh air!

[JR]

-------------------Walker----------------
Yiadom---Moore---Ilori---Gunter
--------Ezatolahi------Bacuna--------
Sims--------------Swift----------Barrow
---------------------Bod------------------
Subs:
Mannone
Blackett
O'Shea
Kelly
Clement
Loader
McNulty

I don't think I can stomach us having 2 strikers on the pitch wasting chances anymore. Bod has the better work rate and conversion rate. Play him and make the others work harder for it.

Get Aluko and Meyler out until they remember that they are supposed to be footballers. Sims can play until then and anyone but Edwards should be ahead of Meyler till he pulls his thumb out.

Swift ahead of Kelly because Swift is actually capable of free kicks and despite performing well below what he is capable of is much less of a disappointment than future England star Liam Kelly. In an advanced role with 2 Cms behind him he might actually be able to float in that transitional area we often leave totally empty without having to worry about the gap between defense and midfield.

Loader on the bench because he might actually be more capable than Baldock at hitting the target. Harsh I know but for all his rushing about Baldock has shown himself to be incapable of doing the one thing we need him to do. Score.

I agree with all of this - well said!

[CountryRoyal]

Does it even matter what combination of 11 players we put out?

It will be just as inept as the one before and the one after.

It’s about time we had a team selection thread! This forum has been taken over by prediction threads that are pointless / depressing so this is a breath of fresh air!

I’d argue to that discussing a possible line up is even more depressing.

[Snowflake Royal]

Does it even matter what combination of 11 players we put out?

It will be just as inept as the one before and the one after.

It’s about time we had a team selection thread! This forum has been taken over by prediction threads that are pointless / depressing so this is a breath of fresh air!

I’d argue to that discussing a possible line up is even more depressing.

Yep, you only ever get these threads when there's no consensus about what the best XI is and some of the players are putting in turd performances.

[Snowflake Royal]

Thought I'd take stock of everyone's thoughts....

We've had 17 people express a preference for a first XI so far, so lets see what the wisdom of crowds gets us.

'Votes'
Walker - 13
Mannone - 4
Gunter - 12
Yiadom - 17 (2 in midfield)
Blackett - 7 (split between CB and LB)
Richards - 2
Ilori - 16 (1 in midfield)
Moore - 17
McShane - 1
O'Shea - 0
Bacuna - 14 (clearly I'm about the only one deeply unimpressed by his recent performances)
Swift - 14
Kelly - 2
Meyler - 2 (WTAF?)
Ezatolahi - 8 (symptomatic of our issues in midfield, I think)
Rinomhota - 3
Frost - 1
Barrow - 17
Sims - 13
Aluko - 1
Meite - 0 - (life is harsh if Meyler, McShane and Aluko are both getting more picks than this guy)
Bodvarsson - 15
Baldock - 5
McNulty - 0 (see Meite)
Loader - 2

This gives us:

..................Walker
Yiadom, Ilori, Moore, Gunter
Sims, Bacuna, Swift, Barrow
..............Bodvarsson

And then a tie as to whether we play Blackett in defence or Ezatolahi in midfield.

Given we haven't won or kept a clean sheet in the league yet... that's quite a vote of confidence in the defence, and in general a pretty consistent set of selections.

[CountryRoyal]

But despite our situation our our actual back 4 really is the least of our concerns, in the right system it should be quite solid. Since we’ve gone to 4-4-2 in the league (Blackburn away) we’ve lost all kinds of protection and are far more open. Despite looking even less likely to score I think we should go back to one up top in some capacity and really try to build from the back.

I don’t think it matters because looking at the squad I struggle to see anyway we could be successful (avoid relegation) but it might be worth a try. Whilst I appreciate not tinkering all the time I don’t get the notion of persisting with a broken formula. Our best performances we’re probably our first two but confidence and morale, what little existed, has probably completely evaporated anyway. As I’ve said already, can’t we just end the season now and be done with it?

[Lower West]

Meyler - 2 (WTAF?)

That's harsh. In his time at RFC JVB was a walking red card or gifted goal. Meyler is a step up.

[SCIAG]

Meyler - 2 (WTAF?)

That's harsh. In his time at RFC JVB was a walking red card or gifted goal. Meyler is a step up.

Joey was good for most of his time here, once he got over that difficult first month he was a real asset until things went downhill midway through last season. Meyler hasn't shown anywhere near the same ability yet (he hasn't even looked as good as Joey did in his first few appearances), but it's possible he'll show a similar level of improvement.

On McNulty and Meite vs Meyler, McShane, and Aluko - there isn't really any reason why you'd pick McNulty ahead of Baldock and certainly I don't think anyone's keen to see them play together again. Meite hasn't shown himself to be as good as Aluko and the only reason they're getting different levels of criticism is the vastly different fees paid for equally useless players. They have to compete with Barrow, who is our best player, and Sims, who is untarnished. Meyler's our only known defensive midfielder with any physicality. McShane offers something different to Moore and Ilori, who many people have reservations about.

[Denver Royal]

In his time at RFC JVB was a walking red card

Joey was good for most of his time here, once he got over that difficult first month he was a real asset until things went downhill midway through last season. Meyler hasn't shown anywhere near the same ability yet (he hasn't even looked as good as Joey did in his first few appearances).

Yeah, Joey and his red cards. How many times was he actually sent off for us?

Walker

Yiadom Moore Ilori Richards

Kelly Bacuna Swift

Aluko Loader Barrow

Not a fan of our recent signings then? Baldock, McNulty, Sims, O'Shea, Meyler, Iranian guy? No wonder it will take another 3-4 windows

[Snowflake Royal]

Meyler - 2 (WTAF?)

That's harsh. In his time at RFC JVB was a walking red card or gifted goal. Meyler is a step up.

I don't really understand why you'd make a comparison with Berg who has gone... surely we're dealing with the present rather than caring about the past - the only relevance are the players Meyler is competing with now. In saying that though, I'd take Berg every day of the week over the Meyler of Bolton and Wednesday. As for walking red card? Berg played 63 times for Reading in the league and got sent off once ffs.

[sandman]

He was walking yellow card then. Man was a oxf*rd loon.