Harper the most wonderful assist man in the world ever!

[boy1985]

Another thread for James 'Scapegoat' Harper

I am not sure what people expect from him? He is a typical defensive midfielder who is supposed to win the ball back and start attacks, and as far as I am concerned that's what he does. The problem is when we play Cisse along side him you don't have much of an attacking threat. Once again we keep a clean sheet and fail to score and people whinge about the defensive side of our team

[Row Z Royal]

Hahnemann's Hairdresser > James Harper

[Huntley & Palmer]

Hahnemann's Hairdresser > James Harper

Why is he wearing MC Hammer trousers? Oh and LOLZ at soft Southerners in gloves and Northeners taking it in their stride

[Alan Partridge]

Hahnemann's Hairdresser > James Harper

1) ponsey under armour - check
2) arms in pointing style - check
3) opposition walking through unchallenged - check
4) armband around the ankle - nope

so that makes HH > JH.

[Row Z Royal]

Hahnemann's Hairdresser > James Harper

Why is he wearing MC Hammer trousers? Oh and LOLZ at soft Southerners in gloves and Northeners taking it in their stride

LOL@ said same Northerners complaining about getting changed outside because it was cold.

[cmonurz]

Double-take here as I thought this was a scene from Karate Kid 4.

[londinium]

I may be covering old ground here but...

I cannot think of a particular moment or game this season where he has made a positive contribution. I honestly can't.

As a defensive midfielder I would say he has had a good season as we have the second best defence in the division, 3 clean sheets in a row too.


Yes when Matty came on Saturday we were more of a goal threat but Matty can't tackle, fowls too much has, no sence of positional play, misplaces passes and gets tackled (all of which the 'unexciting' Harper very rarely does) and was a main part in why Preston had a sitter that they managed to miss the target with.

Yes you need an attacking threat or you dont score goals to win games but if you keep the oposition from scoring then you only need to score one (Man Untd fine example) and we should have enough outlets to score a solitary goal each game without Harper going forward but alas with Doyler not even hitting the target recently let alone looking like scoring we dont. This really isnt Harpers fault.... maybe we can blame Oster or a.n.other RFC scapegoat over the years.

[rfcjoe]

i can

which game or moment was that then?

His through ball to Lita.

Yeah that deflection was good.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

The defensive system we play makes Harper look a poor player as he sit's too deep.

Change the system and get Harper breaking forward and we will see a better contibution and goals from Harps as we did in the premier.

[LoyalRoyal22]

I may be covering old ground here but...

I cannot think of a particular moment or game this season where he has made a positive contribution. I honestly can't.

when he scored against crystal palace. Idiot

[Focher]

I may be covering old ground here but...

I cannot think of a particular moment or game this season where he has made a positive contribution. I honestly can't.

As a defensive midfielder I would say he has had a good season as we have the second best defence in the division, 3 clean sheets in a row too.


Yes when Matty came on Saturday we were more of a goal threat but Matty can't tackle, fowls too much has, no sence of positional play, misplaces passes and gets tackled (all of which the 'unexciting' Harper very rarely does) and was a main part in why Preston had a sitter that they managed to miss the target with.

Yes you need an attacking threat or you dont score goals to win games but if you keep the oposition from scoring then you only need to score one (Man Untd fine example) and we should have enough outlets to score a solitary goal each game without Harper going forward but alas with Doyler not even hitting the target recently let alone looking like scoring we dont. This really isnt Harpers fault.... maybe we can blame Oster or a.n.other RFC scapegoat over the years.

im not blaming Harper for anything, im just saying he has offered next to nothing this season in my view.

[londinium]

The defensive system we play makes Harper look a poor player as he sit's too deep.

Change the system and get Harper breaking forward and we will see a better contibution and goals from Harps as we did in the premier.

The 'defensive system' we play is the second best in the division so I couldnt care less if it makes Harper look bad, he does his 'uninspiring job' very well and thats all I am bothered about.

The thing that strikes me more this season than a few of the others recently is how few 'great safe' Feds and Marcus have actually pulled off, as we seem to limit chances on goal to a minimum. Even in the Champ winning season there was a collection of great saves from Marcus but not so this season which can be acredited to great defensive work.

[Silver Fox]

Hahnemann's Hairdresser > James Harper

What on earth is he doing there? Surely his mobility was affected by wearing 5 pairs of tights?

[londinium]

I may be covering old ground here but...

I cannot think of a particular moment or game this season where he has made a positive contribution. I honestly can't.

As a defensive midfielder I would say he has had a good season as we have the second best defence in the division, 3 clean sheets in a row too.


Yes when Matty came on Saturday we were more of a goal threat but Matty can't tackle, fowls too much has, no sence of positional play, misplaces passes and gets tackled (all of which the 'unexciting' Harper very rarely does) and was a main part in why Preston had a sitter that they managed to miss the target with.

Yes you need an attacking threat or you dont score goals to win games but if you keep the oposition from scoring then you only need to score one (Man Untd fine example) and we should have enough outlets to score a solitary goal each game without Harper going forward but alas with Doyler not even hitting the target recently let alone looking like scoring we dont. This really isnt Harpers fault.... maybe we can blame Oster or a.n.other RFC scapegoat over the years.

im not blaming Harper for anything, im just saying he has offered next to nothing this season in my view.

Our defensive record then proves that your 'view' is wrong.

[TBM]

Matejovsky made more forward passes in the 20mins he was on the pitch, on Saturday, than Harper did in the 70 he was on.....says it all really.

[Hoop Blah]

I'm a real Harper fan but I can totally understand why people get frustrated with the way he plays. As Gooding said on the radio after Saturdays game Harper has so much ability on the ball but we never really see that come out.

For me that's a real shame as he can light up a game at times and he really is good on the ball. Whether or not it's just the system we play and the instructions he gets from Coppell to keep the game simple and get the ball wide whenever possible and not to take too many risks or if it's just his natural game to try and keep the ball instead of take a risky pass on (a bit of his Arsenal pass the opposition to death upbringing coming out perhaps?) I do think we need to unshackle him a bit.

It comes back to the old question of having the right player alongside him really. We've not had that since Sidwell but I do think Harper gets a bad press from Reading fans but it's probably because they can all see he has the ability to do so much more.

Having said that though, i was interesting to compare Harper with McKenna on Saturday. McKenna played just as deep, if not deeper than Harper, and played just as many sideways passes but he also go a lot more involved and was attempting to be a lot more creative around our box than Harper was theirs. His performance yesterday was exactly what I want to see from Harper and was perhaps the best creative holding midfielder we've seen at the Madjeski this season.

[TBM]

I'm a real Harper fan but I can totally understand why people get frustrated with the way he plays. As Gooding said on the radio after Saturdays game Harper has so much ability on the ball but we never really see that come out.

For me that's a real shame as he can light up a game at times and he really is good on the ball. Whether or not it's just the system we play and the instructions he gets from Coppell to keep the game simple and get the ball wide whenever possible and not to take too many risks or if it's just his natural game to try and keep the ball instead of take a risky pass on (a bit of his Arsenal pass the opposition to death upbringing coming out perhaps?) I do think we need to unshackle him a bit.

It comes back to the old question of having the right player alongside him really. We've not had that since Sidwell but I do think Harper gets a bad press from Reading fans but it's probably because they can all see he has the ability to do so much more.

Having said that though, i was interesting to compare Harper with McKenna on Saturday. McKenna played just as deep, if not deeper than Harper, and played just as many sideways passes but he also go a lot more involved and was attempting to be a lot more creative around our box than Harper was theirs. His performance yesterday was exactly what I want to see from Harper and was perhaps the best creative holding midfielder we've seen at the Madjeski this season.

But you have Cisse and Harper in the middle - two holding midfielders......where is the flair, if Harps is holding then Matejovsky should be playing along side him, IMHO

[londinium]

Matejovsky made more forward passes in the 20mins he was on the pitch, on Saturday, than Harper did in the 70 he was on.....says it all really.

Yep and Preston had more clear cut chances in those 20 minutes than they did for the 70 minutes Harper was on....horses for courses... says it all really!!!!

[TBM]

Matejovsky made more forward passes in the 20mins he was on the pitch, on Saturday, than Harper did in the 70 he was on.....says it all really.

Yep and Preston had more clear cut chances in those 20 minutes than they did w for the 70 minutes Harper was on....horses for courses... says it all really!!!!

See my comment above....

[londinium]

Matejovsky made more forward passes in the 20mins he was on the pitch, on Saturday, than Harper did in the 70 he was on.....says it all really.

Yep and Preston had more clear cut chances in those 20 minutes than they did w for the 70 minutes Harper was on....horses for courses... says it all really!!!!

See my comment above....

But we played with Harper and Cisse... so it really isnt Harpers fault... he did 'his' job