Richardson out

[blythspartan]

I want Leam fired, but he’s clearly going nowhere. I am going to switch off from all things Reading, enjoy the summer and watch England flatter to deceive in the World Cup.

I just hope that the owners have the right support to make good footballing decisions. All the improvements behind the scenes are great, but this is a massive summer for them. Hopefully, we make some decent signings and I’ll be chomping at the bit to watch games again in August, full of false hope.

[Hound]

I want Leam fired, but he’s clearly going nowhere. I am going to switch off from all things Reading, enjoy the summer and watch England flatter to deceive in the World Cup.

I just hope that the owners have the right support to make good footballing decisions. All the improvements behind the scenes are great, but this is a massive summer for them. Hopefully, we make some decent signings and I’ll be chomping at the bit to watch games again in August, full of false hope.

Yeah this pretty much though quite ambivalent on Leam really. Otherwise pleased to not think about it much for 3 months

[WestYorksRoyal]

Presuming he stays, I wonder if by the end of July fans will be excited for the new season. I suspect they will be; a few decent signings and a couple of decent pre season performances will ensure it.

The current toxicity will dissipate to an extent if recruitment goes well.

[Brogue]

Presuming he stays, I wonder if by the end of July fans will be excited for the new season. I suspect they will be; a few decent signings and a couple of decent pre season performances will ensure it.

The current toxicity will dissipate to an extent if recruitment goes well.

I agree, time heals

[Silver Fox]

Ridiculous comment about shooting from 50 yards, are you accepting that's as close as we ever get to the goal? It's not the stats, just would be nice to get the ball and players in the box more, especially at home.

My point is people can cherry pick stats easily to make their point.

We had fourteen shots in total against Blackpool; nine from inside the box. We just didn’t hit the target with any of them. We had twenty-two touches in their box, compared to their twelve in ours.

Against Cardiff we had fifteen shots; eleven inside the box; seven on target; twenty-four touches in their box (they had twenty in ours).

We’ve been getting into the box and having shots (at least in home games). It’s often been the quality of finishing and decision making that’s been the problem.

The manager can’t do much in the short term to resolve that.

Thanks for this, it's what I've been saying for a while now and while I got a bit drunk on Saturday reading about how we had no attacking intent at all because we didn't manage a shot on target got me all confused

[Royalwaster]

Nice to read some sensible posts ... you've restored my faith in the sanity of this message board and some fans.

[MR. CYNICAL]

Nice to read some sensible posts ... you've restored my faith in the sanity of this message board and some fans.

Assume you consider my posts not being sensible. Thanks for that.
We are all entitled to our opinions on here and what's 'sensible' and not is indeed a matter of opinion.

[PieEater]

Ridiculous comment about shooting from 50 yards, are you accepting that's as close as we ever get to the goal? It's not the stats, just would be nice to get the ball and players in the box more, especially at home.

My point is people can cherry pick stats easily to make their point.

We had fourteen shots in total against Blackpool; nine from inside the box. We just didn’t hit the target with any of them. We had twenty-two touches in their box, compared to their twelve in ours.

Against Cardiff we had fifteen shots; eleven inside the box; seven on target; twenty-four touches in their box (they had twenty in ours).

We’ve been getting into the box and having shots (at least in home games). It’s often been the quality of finishing and decision making that’s been the problem.

The manager can’t do much in the short term to resolve that.

I agree that the manager cant help the fact that the player's shooting skills were diabolical during a game, so picking that stat doesn't give a true reflection of the game, but maybe they could practice more shooting in training. Take a note of each player's skyed shot and replay that in training till they get it on target.

Maybe I'm over simplifying, but doing generic training doesn't hack it if it turns out that shooting practice doesn't include volleys.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Presuming he stays, I wonder if by the end of July fans will be excited for the new season. I suspect they will be; a few decent signings and a couple of decent pre season performances will ensure it.

The current toxicity will dissipate to an extent if recruitment goes well.

Can’t say I’ve had any excitement for the club for about the last decade

[morganb]

My point is people can cherry pick stats easily to make their point.

We had fourteen shots in total against Blackpool; nine from inside the box. We just didn’t hit the target with any of them. We had twenty-two touches in their box, compared to their twelve in ours.

Against Cardiff we had fifteen shots; eleven inside the box; seven on target; twenty-four touches in their box (they had twenty in ours).

We’ve been getting into the box and having shots (at least in home games). It’s often been the quality of finishing and decision making that’s been the problem.

The manager can’t do much in the short term to resolve that.

Leam has been employed by Reading for over 6 months now (over half the season so not exactly short term) and surely it is his responsibility to put things right - to train, coach, encourage, manage, etc his players (professional footballers not binmen and builders) at our state-of-the-art training facility (not down the local park) to improve their decision making and finishing? If it was his first game in charge then it would be understandable but not so much after all this time in charge. By this stage training should be little tweaks not major surgery after each game.

Yes, people can cherry pick whatever stats they like (shots in total, shots/touches inside the box, etc) but I guess people just expect one of our players to muster a single shot on target in a 90 minute long match, in the final game of the season against another struggling mid-table side? Do the stats show that there are plenty of other League One sides that pulled off this feat too?

The only stat that really counts is points on the board and we've managed 2 from a possible 18. Some people may think that's good enough, others won't so as this is a discussion forum let's discuss some more - we all know it won't make any difference and he'll still be in charge come the first game of next season by which time people will have forgotten about this season's results, they will renew their season tickets, some new players will arrive others will depart, excitement will build until that 3 o'clock in August comes and we can do it all again

[MR. CYNICAL]

My point is people can cherry pick stats easily to make their point.

We had fourteen shots in total against Blackpool; nine from inside the box. We just didn’t hit the target with any of them. We had twenty-two touches in their box, compared to their twelve in ours.

Against Cardiff we had fifteen shots; eleven inside the box; seven on target; twenty-four touches in their box (they had twenty in ours).

We’ve been getting into the box and having shots (at least in home games). It’s often been the quality of finishing and decision making that’s been the problem.

The manager can’t do much in the short term to resolve that.

Leam has been employed by Reading for over 6 months now (over half the season so not exactly short term) and surely it is his responsibility to put things right - to train, coach, encourage, manage, etc his players (professional footballers not binmen and builders) at our state-of-the-art training facility (not down the local park) to improve their decision making and finishing? If it was his first game in charge then it would be understandable but not so much after all this time in charge. By this stage training should be little tweaks not major surgery after each game.

Yes, people can cherry pick whatever stats they like (shots in total, shots/touches inside the box, etc) but I guess people just expect one of our players to muster a single shot on target in a 90 minute long match, in the final game of the season against another struggling mid-table side? Do the stats show that there are plenty of other League One sides that pulled off this feat too?

The only stat that really counts is points on the board and we've managed 2 from a possible 18. Some people may think that's good enough, others won't so as this is a discussion forum let's discuss some more - we all know it won't make any difference and he'll still be in charge come the first game of next season by which time people will have forgotten about this season's results, they will renew their season tickets, some new players will arrive others will depart, excitement will build until that 3 o'clock in August comes and we can do it all again

No other home team in league 1 that day had zero shots on target incidentally.
Interesting stat at Rotherham the week before, We only had 6 shots but 3 were on target!

[Hound]

We don’t make a lot of chances generally though do we? May have had 10 Shots or whatever but not many were ones where you think we should have scored

It’s why Marriott was so good this year tbh - he didn’t just score tap ins; he was converting the one or two half chances that came his way

We don’t keep good possession in the final third, don’t put good balls into the box very often. Kelvin and Marriott actually converted a high percentage of their chances when they came along

Wing scored a lot of excellent goals from places where you really wouldn’t expect a normal player to score from

[Lower West]

My point is people can cherry pick stats easily to make their point.

We had fourteen shots in total against Blackpool; nine from inside the box. We just didn’t hit the target with any of them. We had twenty-two touches in their box, compared to their twelve in ours.

Against Cardiff we had fifteen shots; eleven inside the box; seven on target; twenty-four touches in their box (they had twenty in ours).

We’ve been getting into the box and having shots (at least in home games). It’s often been the quality of finishing and decision making that’s been the problem.

The manager can’t do much in the short term to resolve that.

Leam has been employed by Reading for over 6 months now (over half the season so not exactly short term) and surely it is his responsibility to put things right - to train, coach, encourage, manage, etc his players (professional footballers not binmen and builders) at our state-of-the-art training facility (not down the local park) to improve their decision making and finishing?

Have you ever been parachuted in and managed a large team of human beings in your walk of life ? These days there's no end of fantasy football armchair managers who think it's an easy job. Management these days is such a highly underated skill.

[Royalwaster]

Nice to read some sensible posts ... you've restored my faith in the sanity of this message board and some fans.

Assume you consider my posts not being sensible. Thanks for that.
We are all entitled to our opinions on here and what's 'sensible' and not is indeed a matter of opinion.

Your last comment stating that the toxicity around the manager (whether you agree with it or not) is potentially a reason to sack him is similar to a point I made - I also fear that just a few bad results could spill over into extreme negativity. However, let's hope we bring in some good signings, have a good pre-season, and start the season with a few confidence boosting wins and/or good performances to bring people onto his side - because surely that's all that we want!? I definitely think that pure negativity as exhibited by the fans in the last few games is the worst possible tonic for a team to play well ... so let's back the boys and make some (positive) noyzzzz!

[West F]

He is what he has always been as a player and a coach. Solid, fit, dogged and organised. He is rightly terrified of counter attacks from the team pushing too high up the pitch. His problems are the same as Noel’s problems. All of the centre backs are dog slow. It is primarily why he signed Ward in January. The way we have tried to play this season has left the striker or front three isolated from the midfield. The reason why Wing and to a lesser extent Savage sit so deep is to limit the counter attacking threat and space in front of the defence.
Teams with pace at the back can push up the pitch to sustain attacking threat or press high. Teams with no pace have to sit deep or they give up chances.
Richardson wants his midfield to sit in to screen for the back four, with the fullbacks ‘encouraged’ not to commit beyond that line. The end result is a game where you hope to nick a goal and then sit in that defensive shape to see it out. It is not a good watch, but he isn’t here to entertain anyone. He is here to grind out points and he has his own way of doing that.
Maybe once he has confidence at the back we will see us push forward a bit more. Take a few calculated risks.

[Vision]

He is what he has always been as a player and a coach. Solid, fit, dogged and organised. He is rightly terrified of counter attacks from the team pushing too high up the pitch. His problems are the same as Noel’s problems. All of the centre backs are dog slow. It is primarily why he signed Ward in January. The way we have tried to play this season has left the striker or front three isolated from the midfield. The reason why Wing and to a lesser extent Savage sit so deep is to limit the counter attacking threat and space in front of the defence.
Teams with pace at the back can push up the pitch to sustain attacking threat or press high. Teams with no pace have to sit deep or they give up chances.
Richardson wants his midfield to sit in to screen for the back four, with the fullbacks ‘encouraged’ not to commit beyond that line. The end result is a game where you hope to nick a goal and then sit in that defensive shape to see it out. It is not a good watch, but he isn’t here to entertain anyone. He is here to grind out points and he has his own way of doing that.
Maybe once he has confidence at the back we will see us push forward a bit more. Take a few calculated risks.

It was pretty noticeable when Roberts and Nyambe first came in (despite everyone saying they don't cross the half way line) that they had plenty of attacking intent and for a few brief period we looked better going forward and results reflected it. Unfortunately injuries again put a stop to that. You can't expect Dorsett to replicate Roberts. Randell Williams was ok as a hybrid but then he got injured and with him went the energy and purpose down the left hand side.

It's not just the centre backs that lack pace but we lack it all over the pitch. That's why I think we should give the guy a chance to rectify that in the summer window. Roberts and Ward (and Lisbie if Colchester's prospective owners didn't put the kibosh on it) fit exactly the sort of player profile we need to be looking at.

What we can't afford however is Couhig and JJ playing their 3 levels of transfer window bullshit again. Identify the areas and the players you need and get them in early so your team is set to go in August.

[stealthpapes]

I think he even identified lack of pace in his first Q&A session.

There was a telling quote in his end of season review that he was looking for players robust to the challenges of the league.

[Brogue]

I think he even identified lack of pace in his first Q&A session.

There was a telling quote in his end of season review that he was looking for players robust to the challenges of the league.

That’s right. Like will Keane

[Vision]

I think he even identified lack of pace in his first Q&A session.

There was a telling quote in his end of season review that he was looking for players robust to the challenges of the league.

That’s right. Like will Keane

And the reason we took him was desperation in the January window due to the poorly thought out summer window. It was evident the likes of Marriott and O'Mahony weren't up to challenges of a sustained League campaign so you end up with what's available to try and cover.

I'm not convinced about LR myself but if you want to see what he might do with a summer window, it seems more sensible to look at the players he bought in permanently in January to build for the future (Ward, Roberts, potentially Lisbie) rather than the loan players who are dragged in last minute to temporarily plug a hole.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

Some people on here seem to think a transfer window is like a trip to Tescos. You just pop in with your list and buy whatever it is you want.

For Reading last summer it was more like popping in to the supermarket in the GDR, when all the good stuff has already gone to the Intershop for party members. With a limited budget and a limited supply, you get what's available.

The club knew in the summer they needed more strikers to convert chances in to to goals. They missed out on a few targets. Same thing in January. So we got Will Keane. More Dresden, less Dortmund.

We actually do get the ball forward, we do create opportunities in and around the box, it's just that only Marriott is regularly able to turn them into shots on goal.

There's lots of very well argued analysis on here of how the shape of the team is hindering the ability to score goals. I also fully understand the Tilehurst End's Ross' point about having no "patterns" or pre-planned routines in the middle third to open up defences. Both are made much worse by not having a target. You can't pass the ball forward to someone who's in the wrong position.

Incidentally, letting Wareham go looks like a worse and worse decision every time you look at it; it hasn't turned out well for him either.

Richardson will be defensive if he hasn't got enough attacking resources on the pitch.

I think that our overall performance will be better served by really going after at least two more good strikers as a priority rather than seeking a change in manager. If Richardson gets the resources he needs and doesn't impose results, then he will have to go.