Let's be real here. This game was an opportunity for non-first teamers to show what they can do with little emphasis on tactics. So anyone expecting to see an all action performance and the team setup to their tactical best in the space of 2 days is off their head on meth.

Is playing Man Utd ressies in the next game behind closed doors really going to get you fired up?

Sorry to have a moan there but some callers/twitters have got me really pissed off!

1st Half

Luton dominitated. Their movement in midfield was much better than us and is why they were so dominant. A lot of their attacks were coming down Bristow's side becausehe wasn't getting any help from Aluko initially. When Aluko did track back it was half arsed at best in the first 20mins. Going forward we looked lively until the final third where we did nothing. Apart from Tetek the midfield looked like a game of Chess; static and boring.

2nd Half
Better in all areas, but still blunt up top. We had McNulty, Puscas, Aluko and Baldock higher up the pitch yet we still did nothing. McNulty and Baldock were the only 2 slightly out of position but when they did get the ball they did nothing with it. Puscas can not play up front on his own. I can't fault anyone's effort in this half at all but there were only 2 players that looked like they could challenge the 1st team, 1 player that looked ok and 1 that has a very bright future.

Ratings

Southwood 6 - Some good saves but his kicking was a bit suspect. A couple of times from crosses his positioning
looked a little off. He's not first choice but did ok.

Araruna 7 - Struggled for 15mins but after that he was fine. Got forward well, defended better and looked comfortable. I am comfortable having him to replace Yiadom if the latter is injured or suspended. He is 1 of the players that can challenge in the 1st team.

Holmes 6 - Strong and good on the ball. Also clumsy and poor decision making at times. I think this is why we saw him cameo as a DM because his rashness would be too costly as a CB in the Championship. He needs a loan to get some game experience to learn how to deal with different situations better as a Defender that will help him with this decision making.
McIntyre 7 - 1 mistake in each half so I had to knock him down a point but apart from that he was very, very good. He is better than Holmes and I can understand why he was pissed off for being left out on the weekend. I wouldn't say he did enough to displace Morrison or Moore but I would certainly have him on the bench for the next game. He was the final one to challenge for a place in the 1st team.

Bristow 5 - I know he's young but he's not ready to cover at Left Back for Richards. He got better in the 2nd half but he was torn apart in the 1st and couldn't cut out any crosses coming in. I don't think any of his crosses passed the 1st man when he went forward either.

Tetek 8 - This is one with a bright future. I don't know if any of you remember East making his debut last season? but Moore was telling him where to run, how to think and how to play constantly. Tetek did not need any of that today at all. In the first half he was carrying Watson in midfield, he knew where to run into space, he got forward well for a DM, solid on the ball and wasn't afraid to get stuck in. I think with him we should keep him training with the 1st team and look to loan him out in January to a League 2 club if we can. He's got a very bright future this kid.
Watson 4 - Sorry. One caller was playing the violin's for him saying that he hasn't played for 4 years. Hes been on loan the past 2 years or so and hasn't done enough. Regardless, whether a player is playing out of position he looked really poor. Static, misplaced passes and generally disinterested.

Aluko 5 - He annoys me greatly. For someone who we paid and still pay a lot for I am expecting so much more from him. In the game he did some really good things but would then follow up with a crap pass, poor skill or play wrong the ball. I can't fault his effort for 70mins of the game but he is just not value for money. When Meite is available and if we get Riquelme I expect him to drop from the bench.

Baldock 5 - Mick Gooding and Tim Dellor were lauding his work rate and making excuses for his performance as he was not playing up top, but he did nothing when he had the ball. Any player at any level has the ability to work hard so a professional doing it doesn't cut it. If he made more of his runs in between Midfield and Attack to offer a forward option and played on the half turn he would have been far more effective in his role.

McNulty 5 - To be fair he did exactly what I criticised Baldock for not doing enough of for the team today. He did play in the spaces and try to offer and outlet. The issue is when he did create that space for him he fluffed his final ball every time. Again like the others I can't fault his work rate. I hope for the sake of his career he gets a move before the window closes.

Puscas 5 - He is not a loan striker at all. The service was pretty awful but he doesn't have half the effect Joao or Meite would up top in that role. Again, I can't fault his effort though. And why the hell did he not try to attack McIntyre's header back into the box. That was a strikers bread and butter!

Subs
Sackey - Looked lively when he came on. Good skills but not ready for the first team. Needs a loan out in League 2/National League
Abbey - Not enough time to comment
Melvin-Lambert - Not enough time to comment

Observations
1) We can't judge Paunovic at all on this as it was clearly an exhibition of youth and fringe players for him to take a look at.
2) Tetek is one to watch.
3) The club need to sell Baldock, McNulty and Aluko asap.
4) Watson needs to move on.
5) Holmes needs a loan out to a League One side.
6) I made some points about squad depth in my last review and I think this game justifies this. We need Cover for Laurent/Rino, another attacking option and it also looks like we need a LB for cover too.
7) I can't see Puscas getting many games this season.

End on a positive. It was nice to see so many of the young players getting a game against decent opposition so the club can asses where they are in terms of development. Tetek was definitely the pick of the youngsters.

Stone cold sober rather than off head.

Learned nothing.

Enjoyed nothing.

£10 down and out of one of three competitions we enter.

No game against MUFC to look forward to.

Why risk first teamers in friendlies and bot play them in competition?

Why pay footballers lots not to play football matches?

The crux of it - we’ve won 2 home games in 15 during 2020. Saying ‘it’s just the league cup’ isn’t a valid excuse looking at some of the effort given.

The youngsters in the back line did quite well. They were cannon fodder at times.

The ‘senior’ attackers that played can hang their heads in shame.

Don’t blame Paunovic for putting players in the shop window.

We need to file that under ‘nights to forget’ and get everyone fired up for Barnsley on Saturday.

Totally agree - I'm certain he was a permanent transfer. £8million or so IIRC.

Agree with most of your post, will only pick on areas I don't agree with i.e Baldock's rating. He's still a cut above the rest. I mean, Puscas stood there picking his nose when the ball drifted in front of him, and other than that I wouldn't have known he was playing, but Baldock gave his all as usual. He's definitely one to hold onto as a supersub if nothing else.

McIntyre - I've never really worked out the love he gets.

Aluko - some shit moments and normally one I love to hate, but actually for most of the game he worked his balls off and looked one of the least bad players. One minute shooting down the right and putting an excellent cross in, the next minute doing the defensive work at LB position where our left back was meant to be. Great stuff. Not enough to justify his wage but good to see.

Will end on a massive agreement though - Tetek looks very special. Screw Olise, Tetek seems exciting. That run where he sliced through their defenders like a hot knife through butter. Wow.

Overall happy with that. Gave the kids a trial, nothing to play for, pornstar learns more about his squad.

I don’t think our strength in depth is that bad. Assuming the same starting 11 as last Saturday the bench for Barnsley will be something like...

Southwood
Meite
McIntyre
Araruna
Puscas
Aluko
Holmes or Bristow

That’s not too shabby.

Totally agree - I'm certain he was a permanent transfer. £8million or so IIRC.

Agree with most of your post, will only pick on areas I don't agree with i.e Baldock's rating. He's still a cut above the rest. I mean, Puscas stood there picking his nose when the ball drifted in front of him, and other than that I wouldn't have known he was playing, but Baldock gave his all as usual. He's definitely one to hold onto as a supersub if nothing else.

McIntyre - I've never really worked out the love he gets.

Aluko - some shit moments and normally one I love to hate, but actually for most of the game he worked his balls off and looked one of the least bad players. One minute shooting down the right and putting an excellent cross in, the next minute doing the defensive work at LB position where our left back was meant to be. Great stuff. Not enough to justify his wage but good to see.

Will end on a massive agreement though - Tetek looks very special. Screw Olise, Tetek seems exciting. That run where he sliced through their defenders like a hot knife through butter. Wow.

Overall happy with that. Gave the kids a trial, nothing to play for, pornstar learns more about his squad.

Thanks for pointing out the typo. I was going to change it now but I think I'll leave it in for the banter as that is about as exciting as this evening will ever get after that game.

Replace Aluko with a better winger and Holmes/Bristow with a new central midfielder and I think our depth is about right.

Holmes spent most of last season on loan.
We have 4 decent centre backs, not sure sending one on loan makes a huge amount of sense !

Holmes spent most of last season on loan.
We have 4 decent centre backs, not sure sending one on loan makes a huge amount of sense !

Ask Snowballs.

First crack in the manager's performance. And it's a fairly big crack.

Not a lot of issue with the back 5, though Bristow, McIntyre, Holmes and Southwood is probably a little lacking in experience to take on a Championship side.

From there though, it's just poor management.
Tetek and Watson 'running' midfield. Feel desperately sorry for Watson being asked to go and impress out of position. It's just brainless selection.

Then you have the senior players in the squad.
Baldock, Aluko, McNulty and Puscas. A less creative bunch you'd be hard pressed to find.

Baldock runs around and works hard, but with a totally pedestrian tempo behind and around him that's not going to do much. Looked thoroughly fed up.

McNulty laughably played out of position again ranging across the front line and obviously not wanted.

Aluko doddering around occasionally having a nice touch.

Puscas standing statuesque watching the game pass him by.

Poor movement from the lot of them. Barely any tempo. Little effort to get at Luton. No one running at space or driving forward until Tom McIntyre in the 86th minute.

And it's all stuff we saw regularly under previous managers who wanted to play out and control the game. Or in other words pass it around slowly in our half hoping it puts the opposition to sleep out of boredom so we can score a Villa vs Leeds esque goal.

No movement. No tempo. No direction. No drive.

Awful team selection. Awful approach.

And Luton weren't even any good.

Southwood - 7 some good saves
Araruna - 7 looks decent back up to Yiadom
Bristow - 6 good player in there, but needs plenty more development
Holmes - 8 looked completely assured
McIntyre - 7 looked ok
Watson - 4 barely noticed him, shouldn't have been played in midfield
Tetek - 5 showed some good touches, but like Bristow in need of development and IMO further off
Baldock - 5 worked hard didn't threaten
Aluko - 5 flattered to deceive but delivered nothing s usual. Should be causing Luton & especially Colchester serious problems. Didn't.
McNulty - 4 totally misused again. Why send him out to fail
Puscas - 4 offers absolutely nothing if the team aren't creating.

Your chess reference doesn’t really work. The reference to a nuanced game of tactical complexities doesn’t equate with your assertion that the midfield was immobile and lacking creativity.

At least it emphasises the need for a midfielder to drive forward in possession

Personally, Rinomhota is the single most important player in this squad (along with Joao) although I haven’t really seen Laurent properly yet so can’t tell how close they are

At least it emphasises the need for a midfielder to drive forward in possession

Personally, Rinomhota is the single most important player in this squad (along with Joao) although I haven’t really seen Laurent properly yet so can’t tell how close they are
Laurent is a less accomplished Rino. Similar attributes, bit less awkward, bit less smart and good.

They work really well together and I think we need them both desperately. Rino in particular. He epitomises everything important about Championship football.

Quick, energetic, direct, simple, purposeful, hardworking, efficient, aware, clever, brave, determined.

At least it emphasises the need for a midfielder to drive forward in possession

Personally, Rinomhota is the single most important player in this squad (along with Joao) although I haven’t really seen Laurent properly yet so can’t tell how close they are

Glad someone else has realised how important Rino is...whilst all the mention goes to the twinkle toes in front of them, he’s the real driving force behind and should be the 1st name on the team sheet. Exciting to see Laurent complimenting that.

Which is why I hope we sign a decent DM but not to replace either player necessarily.

I've seen a few points on here and on twitter of people moaning about the team selection and tactics today, which I respect but I have to disagree with. I think you might be missing the bigger picture a bit.

We played Derby 2 days ago up to the game against Luton yesterday with our strongest 11. An 11 that if any of those guys (except for defence maybe) got injured we would cursing our luck to replace with anyone else at the moment based on ability or how they fit in tactically.

After the Derby game Laurent had cramp, Rino looked absolutely spent, Ovie had a knock, Swift is Mr Glass 2.0, Olise looked shattered and Joao is our only striker available who can play the hold up role in our best formation. Do you really want to risk any of those guys playing in a cup game that I imagine the club have little priority with this season? If any of those guys played and got injured yesterday I would be fuming with the club. Our squad is fragile and top heavy at this early stage so we need to manage that.

The other thing to consider is that Paunovic made it very clear when he first joined he wanted to give everyone a fair chance and also work closer with the youngsters. He's not had a full pre-season to assess these guys and training can only reveal so much about a player. The game against Luton was the perfect opportunity to protect the first 11's personnel and formation whilst assessing the rest of the squad. It's not like we were the only or the minority of teams to make wholesale changes yesterday.

Paunovic played all of the academy lads ( I exclude Watson as he's 23 and has played enough games on loan) in their best positions to show what they can do. Not just by giving them a fleeting 15mins but by actually giving them a full game against a competitive team. Is that not the best way to assess and give them a chance?

He expected the more senior pros to step up regardless of their position and lead by example, which they did in effort but not in quality. We are top heavy up front and that is an inherited issue that Gomes and Bowen have not been able to deal with but is now Paunovic's problem. We have Baldock, Puscas , McNulty and Smith who are all players that need to play with another striker up top but our best formation doesn't allow for that. Puscas being the better of those guys and maybe can fit in, but from what I've seen he doesn't look comfortable with 1 at top. We dont have balance at top for the aforementioned reasons and need another Joao type striker, that is an inherited issue and the club had been trying to address that with Mendes. Let's hope we have other targets lined up.

We don't have any back up central midfielder's to cover Laurent or Rino either, which I know the club are trying to address with Loans. Although if Tetek continues to impress he may get bigger opportunities to do that with us later in the season. But the now lack of midfield cover defensively is again an inherited issue and 100% needs to be addressed.

Let's give the guy more than 2 games before planting the seeds of doom and gloom. I know a lot of us, myself included, were pissed off with what happened to Bowen and were looking forward to seeing what he can do with the team this year but there is no reason to take that out on Paunovic. Direct that at the owners. So far he's beem clear and honest in the style he wants, giving everyone a fair crack and has had little to no time to assess the squad himself.

Let's hope that now he's been able to see everyone he wants play we should start seeing the positions we need cover for filled up and address the lack of balance up top with our attacking players.

Good post.

Sorry Snowflake but your diatribe just smacks of someone who has decided they dislike everything about the club and are going to find a way to attack it whatever.
That was not poor selection, that was the only selection.
It was treated as a train8ng exercise (which you could criticise, but I’d suggest there was logic to doing so).
Once it was decided not to use the first team it became a question of giving anyone who didn’t play on Saturday a game (McIntyre, Puscas, Araruna, Southwood), let youngsters show whether they can step up (Holmes, Tetek, Bristol) and let players who probably aren’t going to feature make a last claim to be involved or move on (the rest).
Unfortunately that lot don’t nicely make up a team with everyone playing in their preferred position, and lack players with a bit of drive and leadership.
The game was probably as could have been predicted. Disjointed, shapeless, decent defensively, blunt going forward. We got some good results from the performances of Holmes, Southwood and Tetek. The first 2 are definitely first team squad ready, the third might just be our next breakthrough player.
So alternatives to this dismal management failure ?
His only option would have been to stick first team regulars in. Given we know we’re currently lacking cover what would that have bought us ? Rino or Laurent play and get a niggle, what does that do for Saturday ? Olise could have played perhaps as Meite is back Saturday but would h have made the difference ? Ejaria had a minor knock, Joao needs protecting so really the arguement comes down to whether Swift should have played instead of Watson....

Well it was a game of little quality, on both sides, and given how we set up that was hardly surprising. I thought Holmes looked good, Southwood good but poor in distribution, Araruna looked decent, Tetek was good in the second half. Thats it I think.

Big question is: Did Pauno play Watson in midfield to give Araruna more time playing RB with Yiadoms injury last season in mind or does he just think Araruna lacks the qualities required to play CM?

He was attacking the manager throughout the game and kept changing his name in an attempt to be humerous. Foreign manager being mocked for having a different name, is that acceptable?

Puscas is one of Europe's best young forwards. I bet he honestly cannot believe what has happened to him since he came here. He might as well not have played last night. Bet he can't wait to leave, and I would not blame him at all.

He was attacking the manager throughout the game and kept changing his name in an attempt to be humerous. Foreign manager being mocked for having a different name, is that acceptable?

It’s not really an issue is it ? You’d have to have a pretty petty vendetta against someone to make a big thing of them making fun of a name. It’s not like people don’t do it with non foreign names....

Yes he was poor but what exactly do you expect from him? To both fashion his own chances and score them too? If he was capable of doing that he wouldn't be in the Champiobship. He had no service and was playing in front of 2, out of form, strikers. Where exactly do you expect the chance creation to come from.

Its all too easy to blame a striker after a loss like this but the blame, if it is even fair to blame anyone given the obvious reason for the starting XI, lies with our illustrious attacking 3 behind him who all squandered opportunities to contribute anything significant.

The attitude towards Puscas is becoming a real problem amongst Reading fans. If Joao had played that game there would not have been such a strange attack on his ability. People would, correctly, identified the issues in creation in the final third.

He gets next to no service week in week out. He is still learning and is improving. He could be an important part of our season.

He was attacking the manager throughout the game and kept changing his name in an attempt to be humerous. Foreign manager being mocked for having a different name, is that acceptable?

It’s not really an issue is it ? You’d have to have a pretty petty vendetta against someone to make a big thing of them making fun of a name. It’s not like people don’t do it with non foreign names....
It is an issue. The manager has been here 5 minutes and is already being mocked for having an unusual, foreign name by xenophobes. You carry on defending that though yeah.

It’s not really an issue is it ? You’d have to have a pretty petty vendetta against someone to make a big thing of them making fun of a name. It’s not like people don’t do it with non foreign names....
It is an issue. The manager has been here 5 minutes and is already being mocked for having an unusual, foreign name by xenophobes. You carry on defending that though yeah.
I have some really high shelves here that need some dusting. Can you help me out?

I think it has been decided that Araruna is a right back who can cover CM if we really need him to, rather than the other way round - I would guess he has had more time there then in midfield since he joined and always looks better there. What yesterday showed is that I would not be upset with any of that back 5 having to step in for a few games and some could challenge to be first choice sooner rather than later.

Tetek looks like he will be a big player for us in the next few years, confident, skillful driven - again if he had to step in for a game that would not be a concern, even at 17.

For me, that was absolutely the right call last night, games are coming thick and fast at the moment and Paunovic now knows he has a decent back up, back 5, a very promising midfielder and question marks elsewhere. There are no more chances for Baldock & McNulty now so imagine one or both will be off over the next fortnight and if Riquelme and Semedo do sign in the coming days, we look a lot stronger in the midfield area and not as dependent on those who started at Derby. Puscas has the ability to score a shed load so unless a monster bid comes in, he'll be in the plans next year but they really need to work on his ability to play on his own else admit that he can only play in a plan b, with 2 up top. The way we are set up allows that switch pretty easily.

All in all, a lot of positives to be taken - a lot more known about the squad and pretty happy we avoid having to play next midweek as well in a hiding to nothing game against Utd - there are going to be very few empty midweeks this year and gives the squad the whole week to focus on the trip to Cardiff.

What was actually the point of fielding last night’s side?

Was he hoping to discover an entire 2nd team made up of kids that could compete in the championship?

Surely he’d learn something fielding a team that had a remote chance of progressing.

So that then he had another chance of learning about certain young/fringe players in the next round. And possibly (you guessed it) learnt more in the round after that.

That’s how you use cups. Not fielding a team ridiculously out of its depth.

It’s really not difficult chaps.

It was a shit decision that achieved very little and the apologists and part time edgelords aren’t going to disabuse me of that opinion in a million years.

It’s not really an issue is it ? You’d have to have a pretty petty vendetta against someone to make a big thing of them making fun of a name. It’s not like people don’t do it with non foreign names....
It is an issue. The manager has been here 5 minutes and is already being mocked for having an unusual, foreign name by xenophobes. You carry on defending that though yeah.

It’s only an issue for you, and only because you’ve decided it’s funny to be gratuitously offensive about people you disagree with.
The name stuff is a bit childish, but it’s not a racially motivated hate crime....

I think the aim was to be knocked out of the competition and have a break next Tuesday. If that was the aim then it was a job well done.

I understand your opinion but don't accept your hard line stance on it. You must see some value surely?

For me the value comes from the new manager both checking out players to see how they step up, such as Holmes, Southwood and Tetek, while also being able to present his opinion of our weaknesses to the owners.

For example I thought our Left Back was quite poor, we need cover with more experience and now he has shown that it is essential we get someone in.

I am also surprised you weren't pleasantly surprised by Tetek who, while not getting ahead of myself, looked rather tidy and mature in his performance.

I tend to agree with the big picture view that our league form is all that matters this season and we have several key players who are either injury prone or looks shattered after the Derby game, we cant ask Rinomhota to do what he does for 50 games a season.