Are we really going down this season

[Snowflake Royal]

Actually results are bearing out improvement if you don't just focus on the most recent couple.

First six - 2 points
Second six - 7 points
Third six - 7 points
Fourth six - 2 with three to go

Now that will probably dip again, but if we can stop it going down as far in a fairly tough run and then get more than 7 in the fifth six, that's a positive trend.

[Zip]

If injuries are kinder in the second half of the season we have enough to stay up but only just. Our defence is now a big problem and needs addressing in January. I think we need a left back and centre half. If Ezatolahi can string a run of games together he will provide the authentic CDM we desperately lack.

[Snowflake Royal]

Yep.

Get rid of Swift and Meyler, bring in another midfielder to support the other four.

New centre back to improve on O'Shea and McShane.

Assess Obita and Richards... But probably ok at fullback IMO. Yiadom, Gunter and Blackett can all fill in at LB adequately.

If there's an opportunity to flog Barrow for £4m + and we have a replacement scouted out, do it.

I'm reasonably happy otherwise.

[NewCorkSeth]

Yep.

Get rid of Kelly and Meyler, bring in another midfielder to support the other four.

New centre back to improve on O'Shea and McShane.

Assess Obita and Richards... But probably ok at fullback IMO. Yiadom, Gunter and Blackett can all fill in at LB adequately.

If there's an opportunity to flog Barrow for £4m + and we have a replacement scouted out, do it.

I'm reasonably happy otherwise.

Agreed.

[Lower West]

Of course from this point last year we were particularly bad - dire, in fact - and if anything we are now improving very slightly.

I feel more optimistic this year than last. No one wants to be relegated . But someone has to. At least if it did happen the clearout would be accelerated. Prefer there to be 5 or 6 home grown players in the team that played with passion. Once in a rut it's difficult to rebuild. Results rarely change overnight. Unless signings turn out to be game changers.

[windermereROYAL]

Anybody that would pay 4m for Barrow would be off of their trolley, personally I like the guy, got pace and willing to take on his man, he would be my first choice LW every day of the week...but still not worth 4m big ones.

[Lower West]

Anybody that would pay 4m for Barrow would be off of their trolley, personally I like the guy, got pace and willing to take on his man, he would be my first choice LW every day of the week...but still not worth 4m big ones.

If only he could play for longer than sixty minutes.........

[Crowbar6753]

Stated before, Clement needs another window before we get rid, and i truly believe he can turn this around and as mentioned before, this isn't his mess!!
If we can trim the squad in the window (8 to leave at least) and go with a much more compact and competitive squad as well as adding another CM, LB and D i really believe we could survive. The three new additions need to be better than the current quality, which shouldn't be to hard to find. We are not losing games by many which suggests that the squad isn't to bad and only needs a bit of quality and tinkering to turn it around, also a bit of good fortune on the injury front wouldn't go amiss. With Bod and Ezatolahi back the squad will have a better balance with the latter providing that missing quality in the middle. We also need Obita back ASAP, as this position really should be priority in the transfer window.
With Gourley gone their seems to be a much more positive atmosphere around the place and this should also help matters over the second half of the season, keep Howe as CEO until the end of season as this should add to the better feeling around the place and lets hope we can string two or three wins together as i really think confidence is playing a huge factor at the moment.
Whatever its going to be a nail biting second half to the season.

[Zip]

Personally I think we need a left back. Obita is a worry. Not sure we will see him at all this season. Richards is a bit green. Looks good going forward but gets badly caught out of position. Others can fill in I suppose but would prefer an upgrade on what we currently have....unless Obita is somehow back to full fitness in the next couple of months.

[Reading4eva]

A month ago I would have said yes, no hope in hell of surviving. However there is a glimmer of hope now. I think we will be OK but it will be close. We need a really strong month where we can string some results together and pull away. I am thinking February after the window.

Gourlay was really leading this club into League One. Not as dispisable as Samuelson but not far away

[Platypuss]

Yes we deserve to.

Follow question..... would you prefer it if we go down? I know I would.

This is the dumbest thing people keep saying

That isn't even the dumbest thing he's said today.

[ILoveMoonPig]

I think we'll be ok. Its going to be close, don't get me wrong, but i think the belief is coming.

I think the time for anyone else to come in and potentially improve us has gone, pretty much, anyway. I can't see many available managers who I think can do a good enough job in half a season. Although I will acknowledge that my non-reading, football knowledge hasn't been updated since 2006, so this probably says more about me, than the available managers.

I'd rather stick with PC long term and see what he can accomplish given proper time and support.

[RoyalBlue]

So basically we should sack the manager because he inherited an underperformimg squad bereft of confidence?

No we should sack him because from day one he has continued to make the situation worse and shows no sign of turning things around. He has been allowed to sign players and has done a pretty crap job in doing so, typified by the likes of Meyler, O'Shea and Walker - just what have they done to improve the squad?

He is paid to improve things and can't be excused by what's happened in the past (to be fair, it's his supporters, rather than him, who keep going on about the past as an excuse for the present).

If he can't improve confidence then he's neither the right coach nor the right manager for us. This is a man who talks about 'trying to get three points' rather than 'ensuring we get the three points' - hardly the most positive and confidence inspiring statement is it?

People need to wake up, smell the coffee, look at the table this far into the season and realise that if we stick with Clement there is a strong probability that we are going to completely undo everything that was achieved over the last 15 years or so and crash out of the bottom of this division. As for the claim that this would be a good thing for us - absolute b*llocks.

[From Despair To Where?]

He's been in the job 6 months and after 5 years of mismanagement on and off the field I would draw on the analogy of turning round an oil tanker. There is no magic wand, these things take time. Let's not talk about throwing away what the club has achieved in the last 15 years because we've already been unpicking it steadiliy for the last 6. No stability, no continuity and very little common sense from the top down. That's what's fcuking us.

We are playing better than we did under Stam. Yes, some of his signings haven't worked out so far, but some like Yaidom and Baldock have, players like Bod and Meite have stepped up their game, he has brought academy players into the first team who have made an impact and has shown little tolerance for destabilising attitudes.

He as inherited an unbalanced, bloated squad of underperforming players, some of whom we can't even give away and the the underperforming players are largely the ones who were also underperforming under Stam. It's been alluded to in the past that the culture under Stam was quite lax. If that's ingrained, that isn't something you can change overnight and he can only work with what he has.

It's very easy to cherry pick the what fits your agenda but I just don't see how more uncertainty or instability helps anyone. So we hire a new manager. What do we then do in March if we're still sat 1pt above the relegation zone? Sack him and try someone else? It just doesn't make sense to have a revolving door policy. There are plenty of examples to show it very rarely works and is not a recipe for sustained success. Do I believe that relegation would be a good thing? Absolutely not but I also don't believe there is a quick, short term fix to a long term problem.

What do you actually believe is the solution long term?

[Hound]

I look at the team now and see one that has a bright future, a good attitude generally, and are half decent to watch

Clement has generally made the changes that have led that to be the case. Obviously we are a very long way from perfect, and some of his signings were poor (though someone like Meyler looked ideal on paper), but I do think we are moving in the right direction finally.

He has been very brave bringing in Rinomhota and Loader, and should be applauded for doing that

[Vision]

I look at the team now and see one that has a bright future, a good attitude generally, and are half decent to watch

Clement has generally made the changes that have led that to be the case. Obviously we are a very long way from perfect, and some of his signings were poor (though someone like Meyler looked ideal on paper), but I do think we are moving in the right direction finally.

He has been very brave bringing in Rinomhota and Loader, and should be applauded for doing that

Not sure how "brave" he's actually been. Midfield has been woefully misfiring and rocked with injury all season and Rinomhota has only just now been included. Arguably he's already surpassed any other individual midfielders contribution ( Eza excepted possibly) in just 3 games.

Loader demanded selection with his U-23 goals and performances but if Baldock/Bod been fit would he have started at Leeds?

However I do agree that whatever the whys and wherefores post Gourlay there does seem to be a different feel to the team. We're still not very good but there are shoots of something positive .

[NewCorkSeth]

I have my toe back in the "Clement in" door but only will I wiggle it if performances continue to be positive. I still feel the tactical side of his reign is poor.

I feel like those 3 excuses for him get trotted out a lot. He inherited an "underperforming, bloated and unbalanced side".

Were they underperforming? I certainly think so but many users on here often say the team is shit and destined for relegation. So how did they underachieve for those people? Surely they were just playing at their level?

Onto the bloat. It was a bloated squad. For sure. But it still is. Look:

Inherited Squad.
GK - Mannone, Jaakkola
FB - Gunter, Watson, Obita, Richards
CB - McShane, Moore, Ilori, Blackett, Elphick, Holmes
CM - Van Den Berg, Evans, Bacuna, Edwards, Swift, Kelly, Quinn, Clement
FW - McCleary, Aluko, Barrow, Harriott, Popa
ST - Kermorgant, Martin, Mendes, Bodvarson, Smith

30 players so definitely bloated.

Current squad is:
GK - Mannone, Walker, Jaakkola
FB - Gunter, Yiadom, Obita, Richards
CB - Moore, McShane, Ilori, O'Shea, Blackett
CM - Bacuna, Ezatolahi, Meyler, Swift, Kelly, Rinomhota, Edwards, Clement
FW - McCleary, Aluko, Barrow, Sims, Popa, Harriott
ST - Bodvarson, Meite, Baldock, McNulty, Loader

Sooo 31. Would be 32 with Holmes. Still bloated.
Not that we can blame Clement for this entirely. It's presumably the DOFs job to shift players but he swapped out 9 players for 10 in. Why is Stam not excused for the bloated squad? He was not the DOF and presumably had the same say on transfers as Clement does now.

Anyway on to unbalanced.
The side he inherited had 2xGK, 2xRB, 2xLB(including Obita), 6xCB, 8xCM, 5xWM and 5xST.
The side he has now (despite 10 changes to the team) has 3xGK, 2xRB, 2xLB(including Obita), 5xCB, 8xCM, 6xWM and 5xST. So the club didn't do much to balance the squad really. I would hope he had some say in transfers. At least to the extent he could identify target positions. If so did he target the correct positions for improvement? (It's a yes for Yiadom btw)

It just seems all these excuses could apply to Stam as well if someone made them a year ago.

Edit: Forgot my conclusion.

We can't on one hand liberate Clement from blame with these excuses when none of them have been addressed. All 3 excuses still apply.

[leon]

I look at the team now and see one that has a bright future, a good attitude generally, and are half decent to watch

Clement has generally made the changes that have led that to be the case. Obviously we are a very long way from perfect, and some of his signings were poor (though someone like Meyler looked ideal on paper), but I do think we are moving in the right direction finally.

He has been very brave bringing in Rinomhota and Loader, and should be applauded for doing that

Not sure how "brave" he's actually been. Midfield has been woefully misfiring and rocked with injury all season and Rinomhota has only just now been included. Arguably he's already surpassed any other individual midfielders contribution ( Eza excepted possibly) in just 3 games.

Loader demanded selection with his U-23 goals and performances but if Baldock/Bod been fit would he have started at Leeds?

However I do agree that whatever the whys and wherefores post Gourlay there does seem to be a different feel to the team. We're still not very good but there are shoots of something positive .

Totally agree with this. As I tend to with all your posts.

We have to see faster improvement otherwise we will be in trouble. A bad rest of December could blow what fragile confidence we have,

I’ve been critical of Clement, however I want him to succeed. I just hope we get in a supportive CEO. He’s still very much learning his trade, not ideal for the shit we’re in, but it is what it is.

[Theroyalbox]

I think one decent win against a half decent team could really lift the morale and see us go on a decent run.

If you had asked me a month if we were going to go down I probably of said yes, but the general feel and performance are starting to improve but the concern is we are still not picking up points.

Would rather be in a relegation battle than just sat in mid table though...

[Tilehurstsouthbank]

Yes - Ipswich, Bolton, Reading all going down.

agreed.

I actually want us to go down tbh.

Then you're not a genuine supporter of Reading Football Club.