MATCHWATCH : Preston North End (a)

[Snowflake Royal]

Why do refs put up with so much shit from players?

The abuse directed at the lino and ref following the penalty decision was terrible, and probably part of a plan to delay the penalty to put pressure on Joao.

Because they're gutless clowns

[Nameless]

By the way what a pass from Laurent to Ovie at the end. Outside of his right straight into his path. Even had Don Goodman purring

Yes it was and Ovie should have had a shot. He dwelt on the ball and the chance was gone.

No left foot and always has to take a touch and beat his man.

Ovie has the most successful dribbles in the Championship.

[bcubed]

Yep and both players got rightly booked for it as well.

Yep all too late though one of which was Ledson, and I could not believe that it was his first. Should buy a lottery ticket because he’s incredibly lucky.

If the ref had got cards out earlier I’m sure we would have created more chances.

Yep which is what Vic is not appreciating. Ledson repeatedly fouled to the point I mentioned it on here. Within minutes he put in his fifth cynical foul and still no card. By the time he was eventually booked it was too little too late.

Exactly

You can see several of us on the match thread complaining about Ledson all the way through. And as I said he wasn't even attempting to get the ball.

And a raft of yellows at the end of the game doesn't make up for it

[Snowflake Royal]

I am very happy that he is the best goalscorer in the Championship and that he is scoring those goals for Reading but I don’t like Joao.

Forget the penalty misses he is a knob and sets a terrible example to the rest of the squad.

If only we could combine his ability with Baldock’s professionalism and work ethic.

Yet Joao appears to be very popular within the squad.

Surprised at you RR, would have had more respect for this view if raised after he scored rather than after one of the few poor performances he has had this season.

Obvs the original post is nonsense but interesting to see Pauno was basically critical of his body language and partly blamed the pen miss on it

Miss Puscas a fair bit I think at times like today. Has his faults but he is work rate is excellent - like a bigger and better Baldock. And he scores pens

I’ve no doubt Karbota would fully agree

Joao spends most of most games ambling around, looking bored and throwing his arms in the air in exasperation with the odd sulk.

And he scores a shed ton of goals, produces moments of outstanding brilliance and sets up a few too.

He can be as big a twat as he likes as long as he's performing and he's been absolutely fantastic.

Would I prefer him to appear to have a better attitude on the pitch? Yeah, sure. I'm not too worried by it though.

[Zip]

Vic’s point about our being one of the cleanest teams is a good one. We are the second cleanest team in the division just behind Bristol City. Should help us in regard suspensions.

[Snowflake Royal]

Yep a bit odd from Vic. Loads of fouls with many of them cynical. Ledson was a very very lucky boy.

I think you are getting a bit soft in your old age Zip.
IIRC the medical staff didn't get on the pitch for either side -that's usually a reasonable guide as to whether it has been a particularly dirty game.

FYI Vic, dangerous / violent isn't a prerequisite of being dirty.

You can be a completely dirty team without injuring anyone or putting anyone at risk of injury.

HTH

[Snowflake Royal]

I think you are getting a bit soft in your old age Zip.
IIRC the medical staff didn't get on the pitch for either side -that's usually a reasonable guide as to whether it has been a particularly dirty game.

There's a difference between dirty, with the intent of injuring the player, and cynical - fouling as much as you are allowed get away with, to stop a better player.

PNE were absolutely cynical, and the referee let them get away with it.

It's nothing to do with being "soft", there are laws in the game, PNE broke them continously, but because each individual foul wasn't reckless or violent that foul was being looked at on its own, rather than as part of a series.

Poor refereeing.

However, we still should have scored.

Two points - Swift needs to stop handing over the ball to somebody else. His frees were generally excellent, Aluko's was horrible.
And, after two penalty misses in a row - is it time to take Joao off penalties?

The ref gave 4 yellow cards and a penalty against Preston-what more do you want.?
.

Correctly applying the laws of the game would be nice.

[Snowflake Royal]

Yes it was and Ovie should have had a shot. He dwelt on the ball and the chance was gone.

No left foot and always has to take a touch and beat his man.

Ovie has the most successful dribbles in the Championship.

Weird non sequiter

[Nameless]

No left foot and always has to take a touch and beat his man.

Ovie has the most successful dribbles in the Championship.

Weird non sequiter

Not weird
Not a non sequiter

Just a counter to your extremely negative view of him !

[CountryRoyal]

Ovie has the most successful dribbles in the Championship.

Weird non sequiter

Not weird
Not a non sequiter

Just a counter to your extremely negative view of him !

Ovie does what Ovie does. That’s what he’s good at, it’s just frustrating that he tries to do too much sometimes and his decision making leaves a lot to be desired.

But if he had those things then he wouldn’t be playing for us and would cost at least twenty times what we paid for him.

It’s a shame because his end product is good, has a good pass on him and a decent shot but we just don’t see it enough.

[Royal Rother]

Yet Joao appears to be very popular within the squad.

Surprised at you RR, would have had more respect for this view if raised after he scored rather than after one of the few poor performances he has had this season.

Obvs the original post is nonsense but interesting to see Pauno was basically critical of his body language and partly blamed the pen miss on it

Miss Puscas a fair bit I think at times like today. Has his faults but he is work rate is excellent - like a bigger and better Baldock. And he scores pens

I’ve no doubt Karbota would fully agree

Joao spends most of most games ambling around, looking bored and throwing his arms in the air in exasperation with the odd sulk.

And he scores a shed ton of goals, produces moments of outstanding brilliance and sets up a few too.

He can be as big a twat as he likes as long as he's performing and he's been absolutely fantastic.

Would I prefer him to appear to have a better attitude on the pitch? Yeah, sure. I'm not too worried by it though.

Although I think it does need to be addressed because of the vibe it gives off and general example it sets to what is a very young squad I am not TOO worried about it either.

I just don’t like seeing it and I am damn sure Paunovic doesn’t either.

I like his 18 goals + assists, we sure haven’t got anybody else capable of producing that level of stats, but, for me, his attitude when things aren’t going his way makes him very hard to like as an individual.

And on the question of PNE being a very dirty team - absolute one-eyed nonsense!

Did they get away with a few too many fouls? Yeah sure, but that’s coz the ref didn’t produce a yellow card early enough. If they are not booked they’ll carry on with the niggly stuff to break up play until the ref draws the line but I don’t recall a single nasty foul in the whole game.

[Snowflake Royal]

Ovie has the most successful dribbles in the Championship.

Weird non sequiter

Not weird
Not a non sequiter

Just a counter to your extremely negative view of him !

Well it had nothing to do with the incident being discussed, but when you're in this mood there's no point talking to you.

[LUX]

At least spell your Latin pseudo guff correctly to help convince people you know what you are talking about.

[Lower West]

While much improved. Squad is still lacking that cutting edge. Play far too often is to pedestrian.

[Nameless]

Weird non sequiter

Not weird
Not a non sequiter

Just a counter to your extremely negative view of him !

Well it had nothing to do with the incident being discussed, but when you're in this mood there's no point talking to you.

You don’t do yourself any favours do you....

Tulip has already mentioned how you can appear extremely unpleasant and there were people who defended you.
Not sure that defence was easy for them....or successful.

[URZZZZ]

Another good draw for us, and it says something about the mentality of this group of players that we can go to the likes of Middlesbrough, Cardiff, Millwall and now Preston - your typical Championship long ball teams, and still remain unbeaten. I think it’s certainly true that in recent seasons, perhaps less last season to an extent, we lacked the courage and fight to go toe to toe with these types of teams so it’s pleasing to see a change in that regard. Naturally, the signings of both Morrison last season and Laurent this one have brought some of our steel back, which seemed to been lacking for a while now

Onto the game itself, thought we controlled it for the majority of it with the exception of the first 20 minutes, without looking too much of a goal threat. Draw was perhaps the right result, but with us looking the more favourable team to win

Do think our attacking game can become somewhat predictable with only Joao really looking to run in behind. Aluko and Ejaria, particularly, don’t run in behind enough and too often drop too deep to collect the ball. Would like to see them mix it up a bit - Laurent and Rinomhota driving forward into space a bit more, as they have the ability to do so and Aluko/Ejaria moving into space further up the pitch

Of course with Meite coming back, it’s less of an issue, as he moves the defenders around a bit more by trying to run beyond his fullback and he, IMO, has been a huge miss in recent weeks

8 - McIntyre Morrison
7 - Rafael Holmes Richards Laurent Rinomhota Swift
6 - Aluko
5 - Ejaria Semedo
4 - Joao

[URZZZZ]

Hasn't Swift missed a few pens in his time? Thinking that odd season when we scored a few rebounds from pens

Probably. Puscas would be my preferred choice but if he’s not on the pitch......

1 a long time ago if I remember rightly

Correct, Swift has missed one penalty for us, against Fulham back in Jan 2017 but in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter because Beerens tucked in the rebound as MSR alludes to

[Greatwesternline]

The ref can't book players until they've done series of fouls as individuals, unless they are bookable offences on their own. So not sure what more the red can do other than wait for individual players to tot up their fouls.

It's a known problem within the laws of the game that even the best sides exploit, including Barca and Althletico. Watch barca in the CL in a game they are really competing in and many of their players will individually commit 2-3 niggly fouls near the halfway line breaking up promising attacks. Yellow cards they do not make.

[SCIAG]

The ref can't book players until they've done series of fouls as individuals, unless they are bookable offences on their own. So not sure what more the red can do other than wait for individual players to tot up their fouls.

It's a known problem within the laws of the game that even the best sides exploit, including Barca and Althletico. Watch barca in the CL in a game they are really competing in and many of their players will individually commit 2-3 niggly fouls near the halfway line breaking up promising attacks. Yellow cards they do not make.

That’s explicitly a yellow card in the laws of the game:

There are different circumstances when a player must be cautioned for unsporting behaviour including if a player:
...
commits any other offence which interferes with or stops a promising attack except where the referee awards a penalty kick for an offence which was an attempt to play the ball

[Snowflake Royal]

The ref can't book players until they've done series of fouls as individuals, unless they are bookable offences on their own. So not sure what more the red can do other than wait for individual players to tot up their fouls.

It's a known problem within the laws of the game that even the best sides exploit, including Barca and Althletico. Watch barca in the CL in a game they are really competing in and many of their players will individually commit 2-3 niggly fouls near the halfway line breaking up promising attacks. Yellow cards they do not make.

That’s explicitly a yellow card in the laws of the game:

There are different circumstances when a player must be cautioned for unsporting behaviour including if a player:
...
commits any other offence which interferes with or stops a promising attack except where the referee awards a penalty kick for an offence which was an attempt to play the ball

Also ignores the fact Ledson was booked for at least his 4th cynical foul if not 5th / 6th, Browne got away with at least two and the penalty has to be a red.