Reading – Post Match

[Bender]

Its the FA cup FFS. Lower div team do up their games against Premier League teams. Just look at the number of upsets over the years.

Few observations. Gerrard should be dropped for a couple of games for rest as well as a wake up call. Ngog is a good foil for Torres and looks a good holding striker too. A couple of times last night he holds the ball up well. Aquilani needs more game to accustom to the speed of the English game. He was too casual and got caught out a couple of times last night in dangerous areas. We desperately need better quality wingers. Insua is still prone to defensive errors. This might be due to inexperience or lack of concentration or both. Darby despite his mistake against fiorentina is a solid defender - in the Carragher mould. Good time to play him with the Johnson's injury to gain more experience.

Base on current form and availability, I would go for the following lineup

Reina
Darby - Carragher - Agger - Aurelio
Kuyt - Lucas - Aquilani - Benayoun
Ngog
Torres

Rubbish We couldn't beat a championship team at the bottom of their league and who have conceded 11 goals in their last 5 games ...we put out a near full strentgh team and struggle not to loose the game.......

[RoadEnd]

Why do we need to spend millions on a winger. How ****ing difficult is it for Riera and others to take on a man, instead of turning into the middle , turn the other ****ing way. Even Arbeloa could do that. In fact we're missing him at the moment. Johnson had a good start to the season, but he's now no better than what we had last year.

What annoyed me yesterday was how many times we gave the ball away. Even Aquilani when he came on had a passing range of no more than 5 yards with the only direction being backwards.

How can Rafa watch this **** week in week out and say in his post match interview

the most positive thing is that we will play another game at Anfield.

[Bender]

I'll say it again i don't personally think the players want to play for the manager anymore .....hence the poor performances

[Nicey]

I avoided this thread yesterday for obvious reasons but my opinion for what it's worth is - Leave Insua, Darby, Lucas and NGog alone, they are all young players and regardless of how many games they have played they will have ups and downs.

Gerrard was a disgrace. Club captain my ****ing ass. Still now in interviews he'll say he wants to play centre midfield yet we played 4-4-2, so did Reading and he was outplayed, out muscled and out desired (I know that isn't a proper phrase) by the 2 lads playing for Reading. Lucas was miles better than Gerrard, his passing was terrible, workrate non existent, positionally off by yards and the worst sin for me was he didn't provide inspiration, I know he can't do it himself every week but the very least you expect of the captain is to get onto Aurelio and Insua when they were struggling, get in Torres' ear asking for a bit more rather than letting NGog do all the donkey work for him.

Souness was a proper captain, Roy Keane was a proper captain hell even that cunt John Terry is a proper captain.
We have a tempremental prima donna.

World class player but as I have always said not a leader of men .. sure he can turn games around single handily but he cant turn around the performances of his team or does he seem even mildly interested in attempting to do so. But hey he is a once in a generation type player but I have always thought Carra should be captain .. Prima Donna is rough but I do think he needs to get in peoples faces .. although he was so gash last night he was probably too embarrassed to do so

[Nicey]

Rubbish We couldn't beat a championship team at the bottom of their league and who have conceded 11 goals in their last 5 games ...we put out a near full strentgh team and struggle not to loose the game.......

Bollix it was the FA Cup and this kind of **** goes on all the time its part of the Magic of the cup ... I am not bothered in the slightest .. we did just enough ... roll on spurs and let have a ****ing reaction i SAY

[FatTony]

The problem is I don't see constructive criticism, but rather people saying Rafa should be sacked, he can't motivate players (who are paid enough to be motivated on their own), people saying Insua is ****e, Aurelio is ****e, Kuyt is ****e etc ...

How is this constructive?

Anyway, I'm off for a nice dinner. Enjoy the mud slinging.

Those of us who aren't happy with quite a few of our players are fed up with repeating the same **** over and over again, and you are no doubt fed up with repeating the same relentlessly positive spin over and over again.

Kuyt in my opinion has never been good enough, he lacks the pace and he lacks the flair required to be an efective winger.

Insua...I've seen a few flashes of promise now and again but I've also seen far too many mistakes. Take the game against Villa for a start, loads of people were saying man of the match when he made several notible mistakes through the game. Rafa placed Aurelio in front of him for a reason but then playing two defenders on the left against a team placed 20th in the Championship hardly sends out the right message. He's still young though and needs a season or too before he can be judged.

If you don't think premier league players need motivating, then you're wrong. They need more motivation than anyone because they have everything they want on a plate. Its the managers job to motivate, every manager in every walk of life needs to motivate, but its a lot easier to motivate your staff if you can hang the threat of the sack over them knowing they won't be able to pay the bills without a job. Morally, yes, they should be motivated because they earn so much, but thats not realistic. They're pampered premadonnas who live in fairyland and they do need motivation.

Benny should've been playing from the start, how he gets bench so often I just don't understand.

[Bender]

Bollix it was the FA Cup and this kind of **** goes on all the time its part of the Magic of the cup ... I am not bothered in the slightest .. we did just enough ... roll on spurs and let have a ****ing reaction i SAY

this **** has been going on all season .....enjoy your magic

[red g]

Bollix it was the FA Cup and this kind of **** goes on all the time its part of the Magic of the cup ... I am not bothered in the slightest .. we did just enough ... roll on spurs and let have a ****ing reaction i SAY

our season starts here

[red g]

not sure if its been mentioned elsewhere on this thread but i thought darby had a solid game

[Exiled_red]

Bollix it was the FA Cup and this kind of **** goes on all the time its part of the Magic of the cup ... I am not bothered in the slightest .. we did just enough ... roll on spurs and let have a ****ing reaction i SAY

[MrMichael]

Watching that game yesterday I was struck once again by just how predictable and unimaginative our attacking play is. We have no variation and absolutely no spark unless Torres or Gerrard does something spectacular. With one only half fit and the other off form that means we're left with basically no plan at all. Nobody getting in the box, nobody offering inspired movement, no pace, and nobody with any creativity whatsoever. Its quite embarrassing really.

Drawing with a championship team in a hard fought, typically FA cup game I can live with, these things do happen. But that performance was symptomatic of problems we've been seeing for months now, and currently we just don't seem to have the personnel to fix it.

As someone said above, I'd leave the criticism of the younger players; Insua had a torrid time in the first half but kept at it and got absolutely no support from Aurelio, who was awful I thought. Insua's not the quickest in the world, hopefully with experience he'll learn to read the game better and better so that will one day be much less of a problem than it is now. Darby looked predictably shakey but grew into the game, I don't know if he'll make it but he did ok considering. And Ngog, personally I thought he showed some really nice touches in the first half just got crowded out most of the time due to a serious lack of people running beyond him. I think he did alright.

The much maligned Lucas was possibly our best player, not that that's such a great accolade. I doubt anyone playing in that role in that game could have looked much better, his tackling was good and his passing decent, when he ever had anyone to pass to that is.

The rest were pants. We're crying out for a player or two with some spark, some invention, some unpredictability, so much so that in the absence of anyone else in the entire squad (apart from Benny, who can't just carry a team) I'd strongly be considering starting Pacheco in some upcoming games; he may be 5 foot nothing and several years from really being ready, but I don't really see what we've got to lose given the insipid football our senior players are producing at the moment.

[BobTheCharmer]

based on yesterdays game

Reina - couple of flappy moments, I think he could have come for their goal. Panicked when Carra passed it back and scue whiffed it with his left foot. Also couple of poor throws and kicks. Much better second half.

Darby - our best player imo. Got better as game went on and made some good interventions. reads the game well. Must be hard for a youngster coming into this side at present that is so devoid of confidence. And playing next to the sack of **** that is Skrtrel.

Skrtel - another woeful performance. Can't jump won't jump. Will lunge in at tackles won't win **** all.

Carra - steady game. did what he needed to do for the most part. not at his best on the left of the two centre backs. always shouting and trying to organise the defence.

Insua - ****e. I've been one of his biggest fans but he needs a break. he was getting torn a new arsehole by their right winger. did make a good interception at one point and got forward well once too.

Kuyt - i think personally he tried to get a touch on gerrards goal but we'll give him the benefit of the doubt. did ok at times. but as the match wore on his touch and class got worse. he's ****ing frustrating to watch. I loved the comedy moment where he ran with the ball and kicked it ten yards ahead. reminded me of a moment on the old playstation where the button got stuck.

Gerrard - either the injury is hampering him big style or he's had enough of the manager. something is not right. very subdued again.

Lucas - decent first half but was ****e at times in the second, gave one awful pass away when we were in 'the balls a ****ing live hand grenade' moments of play. he doesn't really offer much. he plays it simple but in the present team is that enough? if we had other players moving to make space then he would prove a better asset. why can't he shoot anymore? he scored a blinder against havant & waterlooville and although they were **** the goal was class. yet he doesn't even attempt shots these days. weird.

Auerlio - can't stand him. rubbish. offers **** all. one decent free kick in every 50 games. someone burn him.

Ngog - looks better every game. has a really good touch and works hard. does seem to tackle from the wrong direction though and gives goal kicks and throw ons away with every tackle. one to keep.

Torres - I can't help but feel sorry for him having to chase long ball after long ball. i'm sure his injuries are down to the way we play. he's forever running after aimless punts forward. he spends 70% of his energy trying to win headers. imagine him in a decent team.

Manager - again too much respect for the opponents. why two left backs? why no babel or benni? he looks a dead man walking. i want him to suceed to stick two fingers up to the world. nut if we sign the horse I hope rafa loses his right foot in an alligator attack.

at least we're still in the draw for the next round.

[SK]

In all seriousness, it's the only disastrous season we're having with Rafa in charge. It's all a bit premature to be calling for his head, even more when the best we can hope for a replacement is Jurgen Klinsmann.

first off this is not rafa's first "disastrous" season in charge, his first one (apart from wining the CL) was equally bad, and there are a lot of similarities between that one, and this season, mainly that we don't seem to be able to capatilise on our opponents flaws and poor results. in rafa's first season we've had plenty of oppurtunities to go past everton but we didn't, we will have plenty of chances to go past spurst, villa and man city, but i fear we wont take them

our team seems very poor at the moment, and that all seems more or less down to loosing xabi, but it's rafa's job to see how important a player really is to the team, and when loosing this important player, it's his job to get a replacement, or change the sistem accordingly to suite other players.

it's evitent for a long time, that we lack proper wingers, and there's a serious shortage of creativity in the team, but rafa's unwillingness to address those problems, is disturbing. he's had 6 years to address those problems, but apart from, mark "best player to come from chile in history" gonzalez, and jermaine ****ing pennant, he hasn't tried at all.

and what makes you think the best we can hope for is klinsmann? there are plenty of fantastic manager out there who would like nothing more but to get a go at a big club like liverpool, and not that it everything he's said is to be belived, but hicks also said to klinsmann, there's no chance he'll get the job

[fred_plasticine]

uninspired, lacklustre and dull.
no movement, no pace, no quick passing, just hopeful hoofing of the ball.
we hardly create anything and if we do, well, we don't take the chances. and don't get me started on our defence...
the team look mentally tired and utterly clueless.
in ****ing shambles...

[Vermilion]

Well, i blame the players. oh leeds 1 utd 0.