MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by Hound » 24 Nov 2021 10:42

URZZZZ
Snowflake Royal Glad more people are finally seeing Ejaria for the pointless joyless show pony with an overall negative impact on the team he is.

Game 2 of actively looking for contributions worthy of praise. Game 2 where his best contribution is someone else capitalising on his failure.

Set up the awful performance by tackling himself in the first minute after nearly walking the ball off the pitch under no pressure and then sulking at the ref for no fk whilst Utd broke on us. Whilst on the RW because we have no shape.

A player of epic talent and the footballing brain of a root vegetable who couldn’t deliver a letter.


If you were actively looking for contributions worthy of praise and couldn’t find any, then you clearly weren’t watching very hard! Was surprised at the number of times he won the ball back in the first half, either through interceptions or tackles

Didn’t do much with it after mind. He’s always frustrated with his decision making and the trend has generally continued this season but think he’s been hurt by a lack of movement up top, in the absence of Meite and even Halilovic running in behind


He's become very negative going forward - constantly turning and making a pass rather than driving into the area. Suspect its a number of things - people being wise to him, loss of confidence and general lack of form

All for giving him a break, but some of the nonsense posted by Ian about him deserves to be called out for what it is

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by URZZZZ » 24 Nov 2021 10:44

Hound As a general comment, thought we were really poor last night. So negative. You can't wait for 60m to try to attack in the game

Very poor team selection with TDB in and Holmes out, continuing to stick with the desperate Moore and not making subs earlier. Days like that which make me lose faith in Pauno. Pretty sick of the basic template of play until Big Andy (who was decent) came on.

I'd be up for changing things substantially - going to some sort of 4-4-2 and starting Carroll. Play more to the wings - Get AH and maybe Hoilett out there, and get crosses in where Puscas and Carroll look dangerous.

Thought Puscas had a good game. Southwood his worst for us. Baba is getting targeting with the cross field ball behind him and not handling it. Moore and Dann weren't good again. Laurent and DD poor games as well. Swift did pretty well but the set pieces weren't too good when they needed to be


Not sure Moore was desperate, although really shouldn’t be in the team ahead of Holmes now who is (A) - younger with a lot more room for development and (B) probably a better defender at this current point in time anyway

Although you’ll notice the defensive side of our games has drastically improved since the early stages of the season (yep, even with Moore in the side). Since Fulham, we’ve conceded 13 goals in 12 games. Attack started the season well but been extremely blunt in recent weeks

Whilst I’ve advocated the 4-4-2 myself and agree with the general comment, not sure about using it against Swansea who are very much keen passers of the ball, think they’d pick us off quite easily, especially as we never seem to press the opponents (aside from Puscas who had no help in doing that last night)

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by Mr Angry » 24 Nov 2021 10:45

That was just such a dull game of football, from both sides, with only a couple of bits of quality which even at this level is simply not good enough.

We look awful at the back, and were lucky that we weren't playing a better/more confident team than Sheff Utd - it would have been ugly if we had been.

Moore is utterly devoid of confidence; Sheffield did a neat passing movement in our penalty area 2nd half (which led to a good save by Southwood) during which Moore looked like a Sunday League defender!

We had zero goal threat, with only a long range effort from Carroll that - to be honest - came totally out of the blue as the only time a goal looked even a possibility; Puskas looks totally lost and I have rearely seen a Reading striker who looks less likely to score since the days of Colin Duncan.

Sheffield were very cynical but effective; every time we got the ball they prevented us from using it, either by aggressive tackling or, if needed, fouls. Not pretty but it had the desired effect. Totally negated anything that Ejaria or Swift tried to do.

As for where we go from here, I genuinely don't know......sacking the Manager is the usual cop out but I don't think that is really the answer here. We need to sort out the defensive frailties and make ourselves harder to score against, because once we concede we just don't have the firepower to be confident of getting back into the game.

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by Royal Rother » 24 Nov 2021 10:54

Hound
URZZZZ
Snowflake Royal Glad more people are finally seeing Ejaria for the pointless joyless show pony with an overall negative impact on the team he is.

Game 2 of actively looking for contributions worthy of praise. Game 2 where his best contribution is someone else capitalising on his failure.

Set up the awful performance by tackling himself in the first minute after nearly walking the ball off the pitch under no pressure and then sulking at the ref for no fk whilst Utd broke on us. Whilst on the RW because we have no shape.

A player of epic talent and the footballing brain of a root vegetable who couldn’t deliver a letter.


If you were actively looking for contributions worthy of praise and couldn’t find any, then you clearly weren’t watching very hard! Was surprised at the number of times he won the ball back in the first half, either through interceptions or tackles

Didn’t do much with it after mind. He’s always frustrated with his decision making and the trend has generally continued this season but think he’s been hurt by a lack of movement up top, in the absence of Meite and even Halilovic running in behind


He's become very negative going forward - constantly turning and making a pass rather than driving into the area. Suspect its a number of things - people being wise to him, loss of confidence and general lack of form

All for giving him a break, but some of the nonsense posted by Ian about him deserves to be called out for what it is


Although he would never admit it, I think it's a response to my calling out of Joao's catastrophically poor performances in the 2nd half of last season which pretty much cost us a place in the play offs.

Thing is, however out of form Ejaria is, it is not on the same planet as Joao's loss of form last season.

There's also a key difference, although he is naturally a very undemonstrative individual, Ejaria isn't flouncing around the pitch waving his arms about like a 5 year old trying to blame everyone else.

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by Royal Rother » 24 Nov 2021 10:56

Mr Angry Puskas looks totally lost and I have rearely seen a Reading striker who looks less likely to score since the days of Colin Duncan.



Colin Duncan played as a striker? I don't remember that!


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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by tidus_mi2 » 24 Nov 2021 11:33

I've been pondering and stewing on last night's performance, 1st half was just about the worst half of football I have ever watched as a spectacle, even when you get battered at least the other team is playing well, 2nd half wasn't much better only Sheffield United managed to find that extra gear and ended up deserving the win.

Overriding thoughts are with Fleck though, I'm sat in Y20 so the incident was basically right in front of me and as a former epileptic it was quite difficult to see another person clearly having a seizure, a lot of us were a bit frustrated with the medical teams who at first didn't seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation but I'm glad everything seems to have worked out in the end and he is recovering well.

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by Snowflake Royal » 24 Nov 2021 11:44

URZZZZ
Snowflake Royal Glad more people are finally seeing Ejaria for the pointless joyless show pony with an overall negative impact on the team he is.

Game 2 of actively looking for contributions worthy of praise. Game 2 where his best contribution is someone else capitalising on his failure.

Set up the awful performance by tackling himself in the first minute after nearly walking the ball off the pitch under no pressure and then sulking at the ref for no fk whilst Utd broke on us. Whilst on the RW because we have no shape.

A player of epic talent and the footballing brain of a root vegetable who couldn’t deliver a letter.


If you were actively looking for contributions worthy of praise and couldn’t find any, then you clearly weren’t watching very hard! Was surprised at the number of times he won the ball back in the first half, either through interceptions or tackles

Didn’t do much with it after mind. He’s always frustrated with his decision making and the trend has generally continued this season but think he’s been hurt by a lack of movement up top, in the absence of Meite and even Halilovic running in behind

For context, I have absolutely no problem with his work rate or defensive work and have rarely criticised it, so it's not really what I'm looking for.

That's also an area where I expect that as standard from everyone so it isn't really praiseworthy unless it's exceptional to my mind.

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by Snowflake Royal » 24 Nov 2021 11:46

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to be fair, he had 100% pass completion, 2nd most dribbles, 3rd most tackles with 3, only lost possession once in the game. Won us a few fouls as well, and generally worked his backside off (ie not a show pony)

he is on poor form and creating nothing, but he still contributes to the game. Which is why I find the criticism like the above both wrong and also a but distasteful

If you want to highlight someone who was really bad last night, have a look at TDB. Awful performance. Had one more touch in his time on the pitch than Halilovic. He shouldn't have been in the side in the first place

You mean like where Ive said TDB is consistently awful when used out wide


hardly matches your anti-Ejaria campaign though does it? I'm not even sure he was outwide last night. 13 touches in 60mins, yet you pile into Ovie

TDB has played a dozen games. Ejaria has been disappointing for three years. Shock horror they receive different levels of patience.

TDB also doesn’t have a horde of fanboys fawning over his every move.

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by hughsies no.1 » 24 Nov 2021 11:48

Firstly, and most importantly - I hope John Fleck makes a speedy recovery, of all my years of going to watch football I have never experienced anything like that from the stands.

Now onto that shower of sh*t we saw last night...

Everyone turned up knowing how Jokanovic likes his teams to play and we had a clear gameplan which was TDB and Swift to man-mark Norwood and Fleck and nullifying their threat as both hold the keys to that Sheff Utd team, letting their centre halves have the ball and make mistakes. To Pauno's credit, that gameplan worked in the first half as it did stop them getting on the ball and Sheff Utd didn't threaten - BUT what annoyed me so much is we set up to stop them - not to win the game ourselves, 'the plan was always to bring Carroll on in the second half and step up the urgency' or something like that he said. Gone are the days are pinging out the blocks, getting at a team devoid of confidence on the back foot. We were playing like the away team.

Like many are saying, I question dropping Holmes after his top display Saturday. I question the switch of formation again. I question the lack of width. We had zero shape in the middle of the park. My final gripe before I suggest what we do moving forward is Yiadom, I know he has stepped-up when needed at centre half this season, I know he played well at Brum BUT I just cannot have him, he should have stopped the cross that led to the goal, he is a headless chicken and he couldn't cross a road when it comes to attacking. For me, last season when he came back into the team and Holmes was moved from the RB position results started to dip. He is so prone to a mistake and I know so many focus on Moore, but for me the big liability for us is Yiadom.

Moving forward - now we have players back, Pauno needs to go back to basics - the way he knows how to play and set-up, we have the personnel now. The Pauno formation is 4-2-3-1. That is where we have had our most success and now we have wingers back fit and a hold-up striker we can play his way and he has to revert back to that, where everyone knows their role.

GK - Southwood

RB - Holmes (yes I want him back in the team over Yiadom, he has proved he can play that role)
CB - Dann
CB - Moore
LB - Rahman

HDM - Drinkwater
HDM - Laurent

LW - Ejaria
#10 - Swift
RW - Halilovic

CF - Carroll


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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by Snowflake Royal » 24 Nov 2021 11:49

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If you were actively looking for contributions worthy of praise and couldn’t find any, then you clearly weren’t watching very hard! Was surprised at the number of times he won the ball back in the first half, either through interceptions or tackles

Didn’t do much with it after mind. He’s always frustrated with his decision making and the trend has generally continued this season but think he’s been hurt by a lack of movement up top, in the absence of Meite and even Halilovic running in behind


He's become very negative going forward - constantly turning and making a pass rather than driving into the area. Suspect its a number of things - people being wise to him, loss of confidence and general lack of form

All for giving him a break, but some of the nonsense posted by Ian about him deserves to be called out for what it is


Although he would never admit it, I think it's a response to my calling out of Joao's catastrophically poor performances in the 2nd half of last season which pretty much cost us a place in the play offs.

Thing is, however out of form Ejaria is, it is not on the same planet as Joao's loss of form last season.

There's also a key difference, although he is naturally a very undemonstrative individual, Ejaria isn't flouncing around the pitch waving his arms about like a 5 year old trying to blame everyone else.


Like you even register. Self importance much? :lol:

Have you not seen Ejaria beg for a fk and sulk every time he's tackled. :lol: :lol:

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by South Coast Royal » 24 Nov 2021 11:59

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Mr Angry Puskas looks totally lost and I have rearely seen a Reading striker who looks less likely to score since the days of Colin Duncan.



Colin Duncan played as a striker? I don't remember that!


I think he may be thinking of Colin Gordon-Duncan was a winger.

Gordon's goalscoring record for us wasn't terrible ;11 in 31for us but he had the job of replacing Terrific Trevor Senior so was never going to live up to the achievements of the great man who, for the record, scored 190 goals in 351 games for us.

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by Royal Rother » 24 Nov 2021 13:26

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He's become very negative going forward - constantly turning and making a pass rather than driving into the area. Suspect its a number of things - people being wise to him, loss of confidence and general lack of form

All for giving him a break, but some of the nonsense posted by Ian about him deserves to be called out for what it is


Although he would never admit it, I think it's a response to my calling out of Joao's catastrophically poor performances in the 2nd half of last season which pretty much cost us a place in the play offs.

Thing is, however out of form Ejaria is, it is not on the same planet as Joao's loss of form last season.

There's also a key difference, although he is naturally a very undemonstrative individual, Ejaria isn't flouncing around the pitch waving his arms about like a 5 year old trying to blame everyone else.


Like you even register.


Oh for sure I do - everyone registers with you.

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by Royal Rother » 24 Nov 2021 13:27

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Mr Angry Puskas looks totally lost and I have rearely seen a Reading striker who looks less likely to score since the days of Colin Duncan.



Colin Duncan played as a striker? I don't remember that!


I think he may be thinking of Colin Gordon-Duncan was a winger.



Ah, I think you're probably right there.


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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by Hound » 24 Nov 2021 13:31

Snowflake Royal Ejaria has been disappointing for three years.

TDB also doesn’t have a horde of fanboys fawning over his every move.


I'm sorry that utter bollocks. He has been excellent at times

And whether he has fanboys or not should have no input into your opinion of him. It just comes over as unpleasant and a bit weird singling him out so often

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by leon » 24 Nov 2021 13:31

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He's become very negative going forward - constantly turning and making a pass rather than driving into the area. Suspect its a number of things - people being wise to him, loss of confidence and general lack of form

All for giving him a break, but some of the nonsense posted by Ian about him deserves to be called out for what it is


Although he would never admit it, I think it's a response to my calling out of Joao's catastrophically poor performances in the 2nd half of last season which pretty much cost us a place in the play offs.

Thing is, however out of form Ejaria is, it is not on the same planet as Joao's loss of form last season.

There's also a key difference, although he is naturally a very undemonstrative individual, Ejaria isn't flouncing around the pitch waving his arms about like a 5 year old trying to blame everyone else.


Like you even register. Self importance much? :lol:

Have you not seen Ejaria beg for a fk and sulk every time he's tackled. :lol: :lol:


Ejaria is frustrating. I think he needs to be coached to harness his ability and work rate into something more productive. However I just don't think he's going to get that at Reading. We look fairly shambolic without any semblance of plan at all. A decent manager and set up would get much more out of these players.

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by Millsy » 24 Nov 2021 13:36

I promised myself I wouldn't make any comment on how bizarre it is that regardless of his political beliefs Puski doesn't take the knee if nothing else just to fake some solidarity with EVERYONE else in his f**king team. Was he literally the only player not to bother?

And so I stick to my promise and this post is just a note to myself for when I look back on this thread in years to come.

Thanks

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by Hound » 24 Nov 2021 13:41

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Snowflake Royal Ejaria has been disappointing for three years.

TDB also doesn’t have a horde of fanboys fawning over his every move.


I'm sorry that utter bollocks. He has been excellent at times

And whether he has fanboys or not should have no input into your opinion of him. It just comes over as unpleasant and a bit weird singling him out so often


just to add some sort of context here - I know it is far from perfect, but whoscored rated him 20th best player in the champ in 19/20 and 14th in 20/21. this when he was between 21-23 years of age.

Doesn't tell the whole story but to say he has been disappointing for 3 years is a ridiculous comment.

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by Sutekh » 24 Nov 2021 13:49

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Colin Duncan played as a striker? I don't remember that!


I think he may be thinking of Colin Gordon-Duncan was a winger.



Ah, I think you're probably right there.


For the record Colin Duncan was a midfielder who played at Reading between 1983 and 1985 I can’t recall him as a winger more of a central player but then I might be confusing him with Glen Burvil :lol: . He played about 60 games I think and scored very rarely (less than 5?).

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by Millsy » 24 Nov 2021 14:06

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Snowflake Royal Ejaria has been disappointing for three years.

TDB also doesn’t have a horde of fanboys fawning over his every move.


I'm sorry that utter bollocks. He has been excellent at times

And whether he has fanboys or not should have no input into your opinion of him. It just comes over as unpleasant and a bit weird singling him out so often


just to add some sort of context here - I know it is far from perfect, but whoscored rated him 20th best player in the champ in 19/20 and 14th in 20/21. this when he was between 21-23 years of age.

Doesn't tell the whole story but to say he has been disappointing for 3 years is a ridiculous comment.


I'm with you.

I think really psychologically disappointment is amplified when someone has great potential and is "epic" (to use Ian's description) and doesn't use it as much as we want in the way we want.

Noone is too fussed when the likes of TDB or Semedo or Gomes weren't absolute world beaters btu this young chap coming from Liverpool showing off his amazing skills won over a lot of fans, and many of us still love him.

I know it's annoying to hear criticism of him as he is still very good and continues to be heavily marked but perhaps see it in a positive light. He's a disappointment compared to what we know he can be.

The likes of TDB playing a shit game. Meh, so what. Who is he.

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Re: MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

by URZZZZ » 24 Nov 2021 14:12

Hound
Snowflake Royal Ejaria has been disappointing for three years.

TDB also doesn’t have a horde of fanboys fawning over his every move.


I'm sorry that utter bollocks. He has been excellent at times

And whether he has fanboys or not should have no input into your opinion of him. It just comes over as unpleasant and a bit weird singling him out so often


It isn’t like we started the season well without him either, 1-0-4 I believe was the record

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