BFTG Bournemouth - sponsored by no midfield

[Sanguine]

Appalling. In almost every facet of the game we were utterly appalling. I've been to 6 games now this season, and in 5 of them we've had the same problem. There is one guy on the pitch, Danny Guthrie, who understands playing between the lines. And this is actually a problem - we'd probably be better off with two empty-heads in the middle of the park, because as soon as Guthrie wanders, we have but one player filling 25 yards of the pitch.

Ratings, which don't necessarily reflect how poor we were as a team.

McCarthy 7 - didn't do anything wrong, kicking was average, which is good for him, and his save leading up to the first Bournemouth goal was Gordon Banks-like.
Gunter 7 - arguably our best player, didn't stop running, got stuck into tackles and was generally a good, steady and lively option for Guthrie.
Gorkss 5 - Grabban didn't really cause Gorkss any problems, but the guy is a lower leagues defender, looks shaky on the ball, and he is the architect of most of our punts upfield.
Pearce 6 - again largely untroubled, but I couldn't see who it was who stood off Ritchie for their second. Probably both of them.
Cummings 5 - gave the ball away far too much, contributed little going forward.
McCleary 5 - fast joining the likes of Sarr, Rougier etc as players with bags of talent who seem ill-equipped in the head to use it. A couple of times early on we got to see that searing pace, but only as he was released into space. Seems caught in five minds every time he has the ball, unfortunately none of them say to him 'run at the defender and cross it'.
Guthrie 6 - standard metronomic display as playmaker, a few loose passes, but he must get fed up looking up and seeing players standing still.
Williams 4 - very poor, no influence on the game at all, and didn't work in tandem with Guthrie. Took Drenthe about a minute after he came on to start berating Williams for not moving into space.
Obita 5 - lots of energy, but no end product at all.
Sharp 7 - tireless and was a good outlet especially in the first half an hour, but got little to no support.
Robson-Kanu 4 - poor performance, did nothing, easily shrugged off the ball, and despite the fact he played 45 minutes, I've no real idea what position he was in.

Pogrebnyak 5 - not one of those days, unfortunately.
Drenthe 5 - no impact.
Le Fondre N/A - I left before the goal.

As Ian said on the match thread - no movement, no-one offers for a pass, no triangles. Bournemouth were a very, very limited side, who have been very well drilled by Howe, and looked the better team for the last hour.

[St. Brynjar]

Sounds like the Sheffield Wednesday game when we started brightly then conceded two soft goals in succession and struggled from there.

[Barry the bird boggler]

That was utter crap again. Two home games in a row now we've been dreadful. This starts at the top as Adkins' ridiculous messing about with the team selection and formation can only be for the sake of it as the changes made no sense whatsoever. Dropping our big Russian to play one up front and then have three wingers launching the ball into the box form IN FRONT of the Bournemouth defence all the time was ineptitude in the first degree.

In response Reading created nothing whatsoever and I can barely remember any Reading shots or attempts on goal until Le Fondre's consolation in the NINETY FIRST minute.

I can only assume that several members of our squad are not up to the more technical passing game NA wants us to play as the constant lack of thought and creativity and movement is quite unbelievable.

Desperately need a pacey striker a good creative central attacking midfielder not to mention at least one centre back and a left back so with these deficiencies in mind perhaps we can treat it as a small miracle we are we're we are in the league currently.

The only positive from today was the reappearance at last of Drenthe, let's hope he starts next week.

[windermere_royal]

As soon as I saw the starting line up, no Pog, playing one up top against the poorest defence in the league I knew it was a disaster in waiting.
quite simply we didn`t have a clue going forward, and as the game progressed there was more and more long ball stuff coming into our game, more likely out of desperation,
we didn`t have a single shot on goal in the 2nd half until Alf scored and very little to talk of in the 1st half either. hugely disappointing and there is only one way this team is heading under the present leadership and that is down.

[URZZZZZ]

There is one guy on the pitch, Danny Guthrie, who understands playing between the lines. And this is actually a problem - we'd probably be better off with two empty-heads in the middle of the park, because as soon as Guthrie wanders, we have but one player filling 25 yards of the pitch.

had to lol at this, would it not be better to have another half decent player alongside guthrie. some people cant win, now hes a problem for being better than the others. stupid

[Cureton's Volley]

@ the tongue in cheek McDermott/Coppell shouts. Didn't hear anyone disagree...

[Sanguine]

There is one guy on the pitch, Danny Guthrie, who understands playing between the lines. And this is actually a problem - we'd probably be better off with two empty-heads in the middle of the park, because as soon as Guthrie wanders, we have but one player filling 25 yards of the pitch.

had to lol at this, would it not be better to have another half decent player alongside guthrie. some people cant win, now hes a problem for being better than the others. stupid

It was sarcastic, you pillock.

My point was, and it wasn't Guthrie's fault per se, was that when he's the only one in the squad seemingly capable of playing in that way, all you end up with is the middle of the park with no Reading player in it.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Williams looks well capable of playing that way but was not at the races today. Looking forward to next week when Akpan starts instead of Guthrie....

[Royal Rother]

There is one guy on the pitch, Danny Guthrie, who understands playing between the lines. And this is actually a problem - we'd probably be better off with two empty-heads in the middle of the park, because as soon as Guthrie wanders, we have but one player filling 25 yards of the pitch.

had to lol at this, would it not be better to have another half decent player alongside guthrie. some people cant win, now hes a problem for being better than the others. stupid

Irony not your strong point then.

[URZZZZZ]

There is one guy on the pitch, Danny Guthrie, who understands playing between the lines. And this is actually a problem - we'd probably be better off with two empty-heads in the middle of the park, because as soon as Guthrie wanders, we have but one player filling 25 yards of the pitch.

had to lol at this, would it not be better to have another half decent player alongside guthrie. some people cant win, now hes a problem for being better than the others. stupid

It was sarcastic, you pillock.

My point was, and it wasn't Guthrie's fault per se, was that when he's the only one in the squad seemingly capable of playing in that way, all you end up with is the middle of the park with no Reading player in it.

so you was being sarcastic when saying guthrie was actually a problem, not at all

[Cureton's Volley]

Nigel:

We played well... We kept good possesion of the football...


Trotted out every week. We move on?

[Sanguine]

Why the fcuk are you arguing with me?

I like Guthrie, he played alright today, but our midfield was non-existent and, for the hard of understanding (i.e. you) imho that was because of our lack of movement. This was amplified by the fact that Guthrie was (correctly) making himself an option to the defence or to the wingers, but the rest of the midfield was static, which left huge gaps in the middle.

[windermere_royal]

Nigel:

We played well... We kept good possesion of the football...


Trotted out every week. We move on?

is this some kind of sick joke?

[URZZZZZ]

Why the fcuk are you arguing with me?

I like Guthrie, he played alright today, but our midfield was non-existent and, for the hard of understanding (i.e. you) imho that was because of our lack of movement. This was amplified by the fact that Guthrie was (correctly) making himself an option to the defence or to the wingers, but the rest of the midfield was static, which left huge gaps in the middle.

firstly im not arguing with you and if i wanted to i would and also no matter how you put it, in whichever way you was placing it on guthrie, instead of the other useless twats we call a team

[windermere_royal]

Bournemouth were more than happy to let us have possession, until it got to the final third where there was ZERO end product.

[Cureton's Volley]

Nigel:

We played well... We kept good possesion of the football...


Trotted out every week. We move on?

is this some kind of sick joke?

Ask Nigel - but you won't get a straight answer.

[holsgrove breaks a leg]

Blimey nige you cant resist a good tinkering of the squad can you, its all getting a bit brendan rodgers except we apparently have the talent this time round. The performances and cohesion is so overwhelmingly individual its embarrassing. Granted we have had injuries but a combination of nigels plate spinning and poor individual errors serves to remind us that a playoff place even in the championship where you can get away with it is hardly warranted. Id actuall love our posession football to pay dividends but when you have a prima donna in the middle of the park called guthrie its hard to see it through. Just how many bad passes from him are we going to apologise for, his offensive passing is way overarated. Obita bides his time and then gets shoved in thed in the middle to knock any confidence he had grown, mccleary who I rate turns into kebe early 2008 and gunter gets the run around the entire game. Not to mention hal ' i can play as a striker' kanu- well it turns out you cant. Cummings battled valiantly, pog and sharp did there level best with balls from midfield twatted to them at neck level whilst alfie grabs another goal from the bench as a reminder to adkins probably not to pick him. At the other end pearce and gorkks are the few to put up a fight but are cruelly exposed for their lack of pace. Drethes cameo was encouraging but as aluded to before the focus on individual performances is fractured as are the tactics and the general belive and enjoyment of the fans.

[AirRaidSiren]

Well, I'm annoyed by today's lack of performance. When we were at the Open day, Adkins explained in depth what he was trying achieve, with the squad we have, on the pitch. None of this was implemented today.

No passion.
No real urgency.
Lack of quality.
The changes made.
Utter shit central defensive partnership.
No ideas.
Not a lot of chances on goal.
No bottle.

McCarthy 6
Gunter 7
Pearce 5
Gorkss 5
Cummings 6
Guthrie 6
Williams 5
McCleary 5
Obita 6
Sharp 7
Robson-Kanu 2

Subs 5, not much chance to get in the game with exception of Le Fondre who again, scored. 6.

I have no idea what Robson-Kanu is trying to do on the football pitch, it certainly isn't playing football. Our centre backs are a liability, even if Morrison was in the starting 11. I thought Pearce would become a player I could see in a top side in the Premiership, after most of this season, he's lucky to be playing in the Championship. Gorkss? Get rid. His best days are well gone.

Our midfield was none existent. There was nothing there today, a huge void. I'm sure I saw Guthrie booked, that's his 5th isn't it?

Bournemouth are utter shit, on paper we should of battered them, but for the first time this season I will say it is 100% Adkins fault.

Team selection changed again. Why drop Pogs??? You don't drop a player on form.

This team is not implementing on the pitch what they should be and should be ashamed of today's none appearance. In fact, reimburse the fans entrance fee, as it was an embarrassment. [/b]

[Barry the bird boggler]

Is it just me or is Adkins a bit of a plank. He seems totally happy with the performance because we had loads more possession but just didn't get the breaks!

Honestly what is he on, possession means naff all if you don't actually create anything and flooding the midfield with three wingers is bloody stupid way to go about trying to wrest control of a game in the first place.

And that's the next thing shouldn't we be making the opposition have to worry about us and therefore not chop and change all the time to try and counter what they may or may not do. That way you get understanding built up and if you're a half decent team results will start to come.

Rapidly beginning to lose it with our leader.

[Cureton's Volley]

Blimey nige you cant resist a good tinkering of the squad can you, its all getting a bit brendan rodgers except we apparently have the talent this time round. The performances and cohesion is so overwhelmingly individual its embarrassing. Granted we have had injuries but a combination of nigels plate spinning and poor individual errors serves to remind us that a playoff place even in the championship where you can get away with it is hardly warranted. Id actuall love our posession football to pay dividends but when you have a prima donna in the middle of the park called guthrie its hard to see it through. Just how many bad passes from him are we going to apologise for, his offensive passing is way overarated. Obita bides his time and then gets shoved in thed in the middle to knock any confidence he had grown, mccleary who I rate turns into kebe early 2008 and gunter gets the run around the entire game. Not to mention hal ' i can play as a striker' kanu- well it turns out you cant. Cummings battled valiantly, pog and sharp did there level best with balls from midfield twatted to them at neck level whilst alfie grabs another goal from the bench as a reminder to adkins probably not to pick him. At the other end pearce and gorkks are the few to put up a fight but are cruelly exposed for their lack of pace. Drethes cameo was encouraging but as aluded to before the focus on individual performances is fractured as are the tactics and the general belive and enjoyment of the fans.

Great summary