MATCHWATCH : Derby County (h) sponsored by a new hope

[Franchise FC]

Your comment was the mildest. Still you should ask why Mick Gooding made him MoM

Mick Gooding is one of the biggest talkers of shite I've ever had to listen to. Last night he wouldn't shut up about Swift "not closing players down" which was usually followed up by Swift being in a perfect position to aid the counter attack.
He just seems to love an old school, charge about player full of "pashun" which is why he liked Jvdb.

Gooding was one of the best players ive seen wear the hoops.

True but that doesn't make his opinion any more or less valid.

[leon]

Mick Gooding is one of the biggest talkers of shite I've ever had to listen to. Last night he wouldn't shut up about Swift "not closing players down" which was usually followed up by Swift being in a perfect position to aid the counter attack.
He just seems to love an old school, charge about player full of "pashun" which is why he liked Jvdb.

Gooding was one of the best players ive seen wear the hoops.

True but that doesn't make his opinion any more or less valid.

It means he understands a bit about football

[NewCorkSeth]

Gooding was one of the best players ive seen wear the hoops.

True but that doesn't make his opinion any more or less valid.

It means he understands a bit about football

Yeah ok... I guess that means Michael Owen is actually a genius pundit.

[Zip]

When I looked at Derby's line-up and our own, I feared the worst, but we played well and Derby were Stam-awful for most of the first half. We held a team expected to challenge for top three to ZERO shots on target in the whole of the first half. Where was that 0-5 drubbing some Nobbers predicted?

I thought the back four collectively were excellent. Yiadom is so much more positive than Gunter and Richards did not look out of place at all and should rapidly improve. Gonna be a very good player. Did people hear on TV that Premiership Clubs have been sniffing round him?

I dearly hope the two FBs avoid injury and keep Gunter out.

The CBs were up against some class players and acquitted themselves very well. The one goal was almost totally done to a Mannone blunder, the winner was awesome and out of the blue. We will win 3-0 and 4-0 playing like that against bottom-half sides.

Meyler was mostly excellent and does the Elwood job well, breaking up the opposition play. We look so much better with him in there

Barrow's speed is frightening, and with a little more luck he might have made 2-3-4 goals rather than the one. Best I've seen Aluko play but he needs half-a-dozen games of that quality before we can start to forgive last season.

Kelly was solid without being brilliant but did feed Barrow nicely

Bod and Swift had to do a lot of work and began to look leggy second half, but the work they did worked very well defensively and with the rub of the green might have been worth more than one goal.

I still think Swift is short of his Reading best. Don't know if McNulty or Baldock could play that role as well. Presumably they'd be better at taking what chances came, McNulty especially.

When Meite came on he just looked so raw. I find it hard to ever imagine him as a regular. I am only judging him on the Palace game and this sub appearance, but I would have been a lot happier if McNulty had come on instead of him.

First goal was Baaaad, but the second was freakish, a brilliant cross, a very clever header, and (IMO) no chance for Mannone.


Had that made it 1-1 at the death we'd've just shrugged and said we were mostly the better side and denied the 3-points by a moment magic, but the Mannone blunder really turned the game on its head. I miss having a keeper who actually saves games.

Some good, positive comments there Snowball. However you like so many others are rewriting history regarding Mannone. You say you miss a keeper who actually saves games. Mannone actually won us two games against Leeds and QPR with vital penalty saves. It’s all very well posters saying he should be dropped. That means Walker gets a chance but how many on here know if Walker is any better?

What if Walker doesn’t step up? What then? We all know Jaakola is not up to it

[Victor Meldrew]

Agree with most of the comments and a draw would have been about right on the balance of play;we were better in the first half and they were better in the second.
Lampard hasn't really addressed Derby's biggest problem-central defence.
Just as Gunter has been poor for us yet always selected, the same goes for Keogh who gave us the ball at least 3 times when under no great pressure.

I said in the Walker topic that I felt Mannone and Jakkola are just not good enough and although I don't agree with those that feel he was at fault with their second goal last night and Mannone made one great point-blank save once again he did what we used to call a Shredded Wheat attempt to save (TV advert)-he is just too slow in getting down from a great height too often.

Most fans leaving last night felt that there was no lack of effort from any of the outfield players and I agree but we are still lacking quality in so many areas.
This was a Derby with last year's moderate defence and old man Nugent up front-they have signed a few more players such as Marriot so may do all right but I think we will come up against a number of sides better than them this season.
The next week of the end of the transfer window is important and what we do will probably dictate whether we become a mid-table side or one in fear of relegation.

Not wishing to end on a downer-it was good to see the effort and determination last night, even at times from Aluko-may that continue for the rest of the season.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

RE: Aluko. I didn't think he was bad last night. He looked motivated, ran with purpose. He got lucky with the break of the ball at times but he looked positive.

"greed. Just a shame that positive was never down the wings, supplying crosses or in any way setting up attacks.

[biff]

Your comment was the mildest. Still you should ask why Mick Gooding made him MoM

Mick Gooding is one of the biggest talkers of shite I've ever had to listen to. Last night he wouldn't shut up about Swift "not closing players down" which was usually followed up by Swift being in a perfect position to aid the counter attack.
He just seems to love an old school, charge about player full of "pashun" which is why he liked Jvdb.

Gooding was one of the best players ive seen wear the hoops.

correct in his criticism too, Swift shirked closing down in the attack for the first.

[Denver Royal]

Some very good summaries, thoughts, and opinion in this thread (shame Snowball call's people out). As everyone says, didn't deserve it, but as we know, you don't always get what you deserve. Wazzock makes good point, need to learn to win, and quickly.

Good opportunity, playing at home vs. very young rookie manager with no experience in his first game. Looked more drilled and organized compared to last year, but it's how we compare against opponents this year that will matter. Early pressing was effective (last night), but hard to keep that up all game. Started well (as you'd hope, being the home team) and in control til keeper did 'first shot on frame is a goal' routine. Didnt get much done afterwards, and in fact, rarely troubled Carson all night long.

Mannone, someone in here said he's top 6 in league? Wonder if keeper should have been more priority in off season, hope it doesn't bite us. With everyone watching, he will now see plenty of shots. Not sure how much he really wants to be here(?)
McShane did well overall. Defense gave Mannone little to do, and was better than our Offense, in general.
Richards did well, but at fault for winner, imo. 10 secs to go, see it out, don't let player get behind you and get cross in...from a throw in on half way line. Foul out there if need be, stall the game, then defend very long free kick, game over.
Aluko had a good game, unexpected bonus if it continues
Yiadom, good shift and energy. Can be beat and leaves holes. Might have done better for winner, impede the player/header more
Meyler, good addition, smarts, broke up plays. Slower than I hoped but steady, albeit pretty deep and next to McShane at times as we backed off. D-mid's can still get forward, esp at home
Kelly, good hustle and effort, and more involved in the dirty stuff. But his long passes don't come off, which Clements' system requires
Swift, playing fresh, was improved, but very long season and much hard work lay ahead for him, hope he's up for it
Bod ran around as usual, missed crucial chances. Nice headed goal, hope it continues, but hadn't won many header's prior to that, if any. Good energy and was more physical (as, of course, he needs to be in this div)
Barrow good 1st half, less so 2nd. Should have drawn more fouls from their RB who was playing on yellow from very early doors
Baldock, not the impact we wanted/needed last night, but more to come. Not sure of position(?), looks like he'll need a lot of service. Ran around, but ultimately very few touches
Meite kept McNulty on bench and was an immediate nuisance. Competition up front interesting
Clement, got the starting line up right. Good game plan, will need more of those. Subs didn't work as well as he'd have hoped/expected. Much work lays ahead in season. Needs to pick team up for Forest

[Snowflake Royal]

True but that doesn't make his opinion any more or less valid.

It means he understands a bit about football

Yeah ok... I guess that means Michael Owen is actually a genius pundit.

Mick Gooding played intelligently in midfield for years, one of the best for Reading. He's managed at Championship level and has been a co-commentator on Reading for about a decade.
He's good at his job, insightful and knowledgeable. Of course, he's not perfect and he may occasionally get things wrong.

In comparison, I'm struggling to think of anything you've got going for you. You're certainly not right about how we're playing and the qualities of the various players as much as Gooding. Though I'll concede you're not as bad as Dellor.

[Snowball]

When I looked at Derby's line-up and our own, I feared the worst, but we played well and Derby were Stam-awful for most of the first half. We held a team expected to challenge for top three to ZERO shots on target in the whole of the first half. Where was that 0-5 drubbing some Nobbers predicted?

I thought the back four collectively were excellent. Yiadom is so much more positive than Gunter and Richards did not look out of place at all and should rapidly improve. Gonna be a very good player. Did people hear on TV that Premiership Clubs have been sniffing round him?

I dearly hope the two FBs avoid injury and keep Gunter out.

The CBs were up against some class players and acquitted themselves very well. The one goal was almost totally done to a Mannone blunder, the winner was awesome and out of the blue. We will win 3-0 and 4-0 playing like that against bottom-half sides.

Meyler was mostly excellent and does the Elwood job well, breaking up the opposition play. We look so much better with him in there

Barrow's speed is frightening, and with a little more luck he might have made 2-3-4 goals rather than the one. Best I've seen Aluko play but he needs half-a-dozen games of that quality before we can start to forgive last season.

Kelly was solid without being brilliant but did feed Barrow nicely

Bod and Swift had to do a lot of work and began to look leggy second half, but the work they did worked very well defensively and with the rub of the green might have been worth more than one goal.

I still think Swift is short of his Reading best. Don't know if McNulty or Baldock could play that role as well. Presumably they'd be better at taking what chances came, McNulty especially.

When Meite came on he just looked so raw. I find it hard to ever imagine him as a regular. I am only judging him on the Palace game and this sub appearance, but I would have been a lot happier if McNulty had come on instead of him.

First goal was Baaaad, but the second was freakish, a brilliant cross, a very clever header, and (IMO) no chance for Mannone.


Had that made it 1-1 at the death we'd've just shrugged and said we were mostly the better side and denied the 3-points by a moment magic, but the Mannone blunder really turned the game on its head. I miss having a keeper who actually saves games.

Some good, positive comments there Snowball. However you like so many others are rewriting history regarding Mannone. You say you miss a keeper who actually saves games. Mannone actually won us two games against Leeds and QPR with vital penalty saves. It’s all very well posters saying he should be dropped. That means Walker gets a chance but how many on here know if Walker is any better?

What if Walker doesn’t step up? What then? We all know Jaakola is not up to it

I didn't call for him to be dropped, but Vito is very "vanilla", sort of "just there". Watching, you don't really expect a worldie save. As others have pointed out, a few worlds balance out the occasional cock-ups

[NewCorkSeth]

It means he understands a bit about football

Yeah ok... I guess that means Michael Owen is actually a genius pundit.

Mick Gooding played intelligently in midfield for years, one of the best for Reading. He's managed at Championship level and has been a co-commentator on Reading for about a decade.
He's good at his job, insightful and knowledgeable. Of course, he's not perfect and he may occasionally get things wrong.

In comparison, I'm struggling to think of anything you've got going for you. You're certainly not right about how we're playing and the qualities of the various players as much as Gooding. Though I'll concede you're not as bad as Dellor.

From my quick re-reading of your BFTG there wasnt too much different in our opinions but thats not a surprise as it was fairly obvious how the players performed so I'm not getting your attack on my opinions. I'm not paid to do it.

I may be in the minority here but I dont think he is good at his job. He is slow to respond to questions, often gives no insight beyond a vague or boring statement (like when asked about Yiadom in the first he said "I like him, he's fast"), frightfully dull in his apres-match analysis (imo seemingly picking the first player to come to his mind when selecting his MOTM), overly critical of seemingly random and often innocuous incidents and most annoyingly completely against any tactics or players that dont fit into his expectations of a footballer. Its like listening to all those pundits calling Ozil shit because he doesnt run really fast. Anelka and Berbatov dealt with it too. Not every player has to run about like a lunatic, pressing everyone near the ball.

In fact if you re-watch the match both the first and second chance were created specifically because Swift was not closing down, he was lurking seemingly out of harms way waiting to pounce on a bad pass which he did to great effect. For the first chance the pass would never have been made if Swift was up in his mans arse pressuring him. Just a shame Bod was a bit short in the stretch for that one.

I know you missed the first 35 minutes so I'll let you know he spent the first half saying Bod shouldnt be playing only to change his tune at the end of the game with the benefit of hindsight. Cracking insight there. The player I said was shit scored our only goal so I guess hes my MOTM.

And I'm not just picking on him for this game. I have never liked his punditry. It's like listening to a less volatile John Giles.

[Denver Royal]

Early doors, but some interesting results today, and some teams picked to struggle did ok...

Bolton won at West Brom
Birmingham conceded in final secs, still held Norwich
Millwall did same, but still held a strong Boro side
Blackburn did same, still drew at Ipswich
Wigan won

[tidus_mi2]

Judging by today's results, looks like Rotherham are bankers for 24th again.

[linkenholtroyal]

The Mannone question maybe answered agains brum, notoriously over the years we play second choice keeper in the cup, would give us an opportunity to have a look at Walker then. At the end of the day it is either him or Mannone and we will have a better idea after that game

[Snowball]

Mick Gooding is one of the biggest talkers of shite I've ever had to listen to. Last night he wouldn't shut up about Swift "not closing players down" which was usually followed up by Swift being in a perfect position to aid the counter attack.
He just seems to love an old school, charge about player full of "pashun" which is why he liked Jvdb.

Gooding was one of the best players ive seen wear the hoops.

True but that doesn't make his opinion any more or less valid.

I can see it now. Discussing my brain tumour with (a) a recently retired brain surgeon OR a random Nobber.

It’s just opinion innit?

[NewCorkSeth]

Gooding was one of the best players ive seen wear the hoops.

True but that doesn't make his opinion any more or less valid.

I can see it now. Discussing my brain tumour with (a) a recently retired brain surgeon OR a random Nobber.

It’s just opinion innit?

I reckon surgical practices and neurology changes quite a bit in 20 years. If the surgeon retired 20 years ago from some middling hospital rather than a state of the art specialty surgery I'd suggest a second opinion.

[Gunny Fishcake]

Your comment was the mildest. Still you should ask why Mick Gooding made him MoM

Mick Gooding is one of the biggest talkers of shite I've ever had to listen to. Last night he wouldn't shut up about Swift "not closing players down" which was usually followed up by Swift being in a perfect position to aid the counter attack.
He just seems to love an old school, charge about player full of "pashun" which is why he liked Jvdb.

Gooding was one of the best players ive seen wear the hoops.

Hear hear, legend

[Hound]

Actually one thing I forgot - out set pieces were terrible again. Why is Aluko taking them?

Also didn’t realise until yesterday just how 1 footed he is. Think that’s why he drifts infield so much

[Millsy]

Many good opinions here but it all boils down to Mannone's cock up which changed the game. That aside, we'd be v happy.

So how much can we read into that? Not much, apart from yeah it seems we're doing ok and the only talking points are why do we not wrap up games where we go 1 up and do we need another keeper?

Wrapping up games.. can't comment until we see more of our strike force. Do we need another keeper? That's the big question. Unless we just say well people make mistakes and he'll be fine from now on. Al Habsi was an error prone shite before we learned how good he was. A good keeper is worth several points per season and seeing us lose 1-3 points last night because of a keeper error makes this the main discussion point of the match. For me, if he shows more dodginess in the next few games I'd say a new keeper is an absolute priority. You can be as good as you like but if you have a Karius between the sticks you're ****ed.

[Royal Rother]

JDB is a League 2 Player.

He's had 45 minute preseason. oxf*rd off back to your pub team.