BFTG Huddersfield (H)

[LUX]

Took my wife and two kids.
They prolly enjoyed it more than me.

[Ian Royal]

Atrocious first half caused by poor managerial decisions. Much improved second but too much to do.

Al-Habsi 7 made himself number 1
Gunter 6 ok
Obita 6 looked involved in their first but attacked well
Ferdinand 4 looked to be at some degree of fault for both goals. Missed Hector
McShane 7 not at his best but pick of the defence.
Norwood 7 lucky goal and a bit slow moving the ball but so few options
Williams 5 lost
Piazon 3 waste of space today
Vydra 6 tried to be too intricate
Blackman 7 a bit lost in a front 2 and tried to be a bit too intricate. Our most dangerous though.
McCleary 5 poor

Fernandez 7 looked very tidy
Sa 6 it's not quite happening for him
John 8 rescued us. Super sub, wouldn't start him.

[LUX]

Relieved with the draw tbh.
First reflection, loads of nice play around the box, but not enough penetration. Blackman excellent, always a threat, Mcshane masterful, although having said that I did not see who screwed up for their goals.

[CountryRoyal]

No plan B, too few crosses in the box. I know it's a cliche but sometimes just get it in there, they are more likely to make a mistake and something might drop for one of our players. Instead it's constant passing around the box looking for an opening before either getting a shot off which inevitably gets blocked or goes wide, when it is on target it's usually tame.

We need to have more urgency and more variation.

[DaddyKuhl]

Obita 6 looked involved in their first but attacked well
Ferdinand 4 looked to be at some degree of fault for both goals. Missed Hector

I would say Obita was at fault for both. Sloppy touch completley wrong footing ferdinand and he was 2 yards behind ferdinand and kept Wells onside

[windermereROYAL]

Obita 6 looked involved in their first but attacked well
Ferdinand 4 looked to be at some degree of fault for both goals. Missed Hector

I would say Obita was at fault for both. Sloppy touch completley wrong footing ferdinand and he was 2 yards behind ferdinand and kept Wells onside

+100

[Pepe the Horseman]

Sick of the one touch football around the box. Trying to be too cute. Just take a touch and hit it.

Looked like Ferdinand was keeping Wells on for the second (although others have said it was Obita). Thought he played well second half though, not that he had much to do.

Piazon was awful. McCleary was pretty non-existent. Vydra tried hard but nothing really came off and his touch looked a bit off. Williams looked a bit off the pace. We really do miss Quinn.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

Obita 6 looked involved in their first but attacked well
Ferdinand 4 looked to be at some degree of fault for both goals. Missed Hector

I would say Obita was at fault for both. Sloppy touch completley wrong footing ferdinand and he was 2 yards behind ferdinand and kept Wells onside

+100

Agreed with this - plus, he was so busy appealing for an offside that he didn't even track back, leaving their guy an uninterrupted route through on goal. He was poor all night. Some on BBCRB thought somehow that the excellent Ferdinand was to blame....

[Ian Royal]

Wrong end for me, but I thought it was Ferdinand who stopped playing to wave at the sky.

I'll watch to goals tomoz or thursday, but feel. Free to tentatively consider my Obita and Ferdinand scores switched.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

I'll cut Williams some slack - it just wasn't his evening, Vydra worked hard but was as guilty of over complicating things as anyone else. The ball bounced off McCleary.

Plus points - the right changes and nice and early - been a long time since a Reading manager made two changes at half time. Fernandez looked as good as Piazon was poor. Sa looked petulant and short of ideas. Blackman tied everything but can't win games singlehandedly. McShane, Gunter, Al-Habsi, Norwood all OK without being brilliant.

I absolutely love the intricate passing through the middle, but the boys have to be able to vary it a bit.

Credit to Huddersfield - the time wasting was no worse than we would have done. They took their chances. At 2-2 they were still prepared to move the ball around and get bodies forward. They should be OK.

The first half was the worst I've seen from us all season - the second half better, but we need to use the width to change the approach.

[harry]

I thought it was Obita playing him on for the 2nd

[Ginger Ninjas]

Definitely Obita at fault for the second and also in part responsible for the first; I make that four goals he's had a hand in conceding in 90 minutes of playing time for him :/

Overall a very frustrating display, struggle to highlight many positives but John looked lively when he came on. Need to get something out of Cardiff on Saturday or could be 9th going into the international break...

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Piazon & McCleary awful
Vydra ran around but really lightweight
Blackman played far, far too deep

We created chances the odd time we went up the wings, so the continual 1-2s and chip passes through the middle were really frustrating. And stupid as Huddersfield were packing that area

I really like the look of Fernandez

[blueroyals]

Our crossing was abysmal as usual. Our play through the middle is excellent it just needs to be quicker and sharper to have an end product. We've been too pedestrian for the last 4 games. SC has work to do.

Ferdinand was no worse today than Hector has been for the previous two.

Norwood, Fernandez, McShane and Blackman good

Rest were crap

[Snowball]

Seems to me that recently opposition attackers are getting a free run at the CBs

Is there a bigger than normal gap between the back four and the midfield 3/4?

Probably "orders" but I thought Gunter was flat tonight, playing a little too safe,
never going for broke. Too often the ball was going back and forward between
Gunter and McShane.

Having said that he tried a few runs (as did Blackman) almost all ignored.

Thought Obita did very well as the overlapping FB. McShane not too bad, Ferdinand
looked like he needed the game. Had he just played six games he might have stopped
one of tonight's goals. Al Habsi fine.

Piano almost invisible again. I don't think we can afford to play Piazon and Vydra
together as neither are exactly robust. McCleary looks a shadow of his former self
and his replacement Ola John looked far more enterprising and deserves a run out

A few poor passes from Norwood, but overall he was a 7. Williams not up to pare today
and I think I'd prefer Fernando who was solid for his 45 minutes.

Blackman another very decent game. I think, though he needs someone else to look
seriously threatening and getting goals. (Sa? Hydra?)

[3points]

We need a right back. Williams has the touch of a tractor. McCleary - really? Come on, you've got to try harder. Taylor back in for Obita. Piazon - what is the point?

We needed to try a different approach with bus parked. Hit the balls down the channels and turn their defenders. Al Habsi never once kicked the ball long - everything was slowly built up from the back. I thought I was watching us under Adkins again

Expect McShane to be out for Saturday. He could hardly move in the last 5 minutes.

[PieEater]

Ferdinand - I think it was his first touch was a misplaced pass that set up their goal. 'greed about Obita, was playing Wells onside by yards for the second, Piazon awful again and rightly subbed, McCleary beat his man once but was otherwise poor.

Clarke got the starting line up completely wrong, we can't play Piazon and Vydra, we just lose midfield. Second half was better with Fernandez on and Williams pushing forward but he was poor. We lost all width and relied on Obita and Gunter to get wide and put crosses in, that didn't really work and we ended going through the centre. We're not Arsenal.

We miss Tish or Quinn to add something to midfield.

The ref was great in starting the game before the buffoon on the PA got around to playing Sweet Caroline, generally OK except when he stopped play for some reason and completely lost control. Should have booked for timewasting and added on more time. Not that it would matter but it's really shit game to watch when teams get away with tactics like that.

Also I think we're scared of bright kits.

[72 bus]

Fernandez needs to get a run of games, better player than Williams by far, Williams offers little apart from head down forward runs directly into the nearest group of opposition players.
Sadly, Mcleary is pretty much finished at this level and needs shipping out in January.
Piazon needs extraditing to Canada or sending back to Chelsea ASAP if we are to make the play offs, absolutely not up to Championship football.

[CountryRoyal]

Did anyone think Al-Habsi could have done better for the first?

[sandman]

Slow and predictable and for the love of God will someone please have a shot instead of doing a poor impersonation of Arsenal.

Al Habsi - Good save at 1-0, made a clanger in the second half that we were lucky to get away with. 6
Gunter - You can go forward Christopher. I know he's not the best around the opposition's box but at least he used to try and get up there. 6
McShane - Solid as usual and got forward well a few times as well. 8 MotM
Ferdinand - Not a great return for Anton, along with Obita he got caught badly for their second. 5
Obita - Dreadful pass to Ferdinand to allow Uddersfield in for their first, when you're centre back has just come back from a while out probably not the best idea to give him a hospital pass when he's rusty. Given no support on the left but got forward well. 6

McCleary - Not good enough, surprised he started after Saturday and would be even more surprised if he started this Saturday. 5
Norwood - Lucky with his goal, poor pass in the lead up to their second and his passing was more than a little off in the first half. 6
Williams - Another one who was not his usual self, lots of heavy touches and didn't really get into the game. 5
Piazon - Missing for most of his time on the pitch. Lightweight and no heart. 3

Vydra - Needs to buck his ideas up, caught in possession numerous times, heavy touches and like Piazon was on the periphery of the game. 4
Blackman - Doubled and sometimes tripled up on, did at least try to make things happen. 6

Subs:

Sa - Didn't do much wrong, didn't do much at all really, gave us a bit more shape though. 5
Fernandez - Played his best game so far, hardly misplaced a pass and had a shot that he was unlucky with. 7
John - Made a bit of space and had a shot, perhaps his team mates could learn from him in that respect. Should have played Blackman through instead of playing a cross field pass just after his goal. 7

As an aside are the people who text BBCRB completely wasted? some gems including:

"This team won't even finish in the top half"

"Wasn't expecting anything from that as Huddersfield are a great side"

"Not sure what Clarke was thinking with his substitutions" Yep that's why John and Fernandez were probably the best players on the pitch in the second half and john scored the equaliser.

"Referee wasn't even that bad today. Typical our fans point the blame at the ref every week" Err people can criticise the referee for being absolute crap without blaming him for the result.