Personally I'd be tempted to pretty much play all 4 of the centre backs (or Shorey as one of them) - man mark all of City's front three with a defender and then have a fourth free (Pearce?) covering any gaps that open up (as seen at Old Trafford in 2007.) City's attacking players generally play narr...

According to Fridays_legacy on twitter, Jason Roberts also had a go at McDermott after Saturday's match. Makes you question whether Roberts's absence was an injury or an 'injury'.

What are the chances of no subs being made tonight? Can't imagine McDermott bringing on a young player for their Reading league debut (?) so that's our attacking options gone, when did Bryn last play?, and you imagine there won't be a change at the back unless there's an injury, etc. I really hope t...

Jobi just let Clyne go for the goal there. And Tabb didn't track Puncheon. Plus Morrison didn't come across quick enough to cover his run. And there was nothing wrong with his first goal. But don't worry, we could have had two soft penalties so it's ok. First goal ???????? was there a second ???Typ...

Sunderland (h) - start of Feb

It's a tough one. It looks increasingly likely we'll be playing in the Championship next season and we know McDermott is an effective manager at that level. The key thing for me is what he's learnt from what's happened in the last few months and the things he'd like to do differently if he had the c...

If I remember correctly, the last time we played Manchester UNited at home we'd just endured a rather limp away defeat to Aston Villa in our previous league game. I think there was a lot of negativity ahead of that one but we attacked them (with Doyle on the right and Kitson and Lita up front I thin...

It says on the BBC's live Premier League football page that according to McDermott Gunter was due to play but picked up an injury in training, hence Cummings's inclusion.

Am I right in saying that Gorkss has started every single competitive game Reading have played since he signed? There can't be too many Reading players who have achieved that sort of record. I do think it's time for him to come out of the team, especially as both Mariappa and Pearce have shown reaso...

I also think in a sense it's a bit of a cop-out for a journalist to read questions direct from fans. It almost leads to the defence 'well it's not my question' if the person being interviewed takes offence. Interesting to hear McDermott addressing Gunter and Cummings by their surnames. It seemed a b...

Some of our delivery has been poor but in the last few weeks I can recall a goal form a corner against QPR, and goals arising from crossed free-kicks against Fulham, Everton and Wigan. In our current state, we do need to utilise these opportunities as effectively as possible. But I think there are d...

Some of you are missing the Sunderland away game out aren't you? I was going to ask if this included the away game against Tottenham but I don't suppose it matters; would be surprised to see us pick up anything from that one. I went for 16-20 points, although I think it will be towards the lower ran...

A referee who I've been consistently impressed with when he's refereed Reading in the last few years. Hopefully that will continue tomorrow night - we can't really afford any bad decisions going against in our current situatin.

======================== FEDERICI ======================== CUMMINGS ====== MARIAPPA ======== MORRISON ====== SHOREY ========================= HARTE ========================= MCCLEARY ======= GUTHRIE ===== TABBY ======= ROBSON-KANU ================ LE FONDRE == POGREBNYAK ================ Harte woul...

Regarding the Arsenal game - I think the 18th of December was suggested as one of the possible dates for the rescheduled Sunderland V Reading game. So if that game was played that midweek the Arsenal game couldn't be a Monday night. I'm not sure which would get precedence if it came down to it though?

One of my main concerns about McCarthy in his previous spell in the first team was the quality of his kicking and based on Sunday this still seemed a weak area. He generally looked promising in that run though and now the decision's been made we've got to stick with him for the moment. Hopefully his...