Reading (A)

[Dr. Feelgood]

54 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

I'm Toal's biggest fan but if there's a positive from his sending off it's that it's now time for Forrester to get a chance. Once he's in I'm confident he'll stay in and that will improve our defence and distribution IMO.

 & to be a bit controversial I think Toal could some day, be a great defensive midfielder. A bit off the wall today maybe but ...

[Dr. Feelgood]

49 minutes ago, desperado said:

Toal .... no argument over his bookings. Can understand his frustration but arguing like that was always a yellow and awful timing for his challenge on the 2nd.

Any booking for dissent, kicking the ball away, taking the shirt off etc. is unforgivable. It puts you one mistimed tackle or petulant referee moment from a red. It gains you nothing and restricts the way you can play for the rest of the match.

Edited September 17, 2023 by Dr. Feelgood

[Leyther_Matt]

At half-time it was in the bank that ‘one pint per person’ would comfortably be the worst decision of the day. And then Evatt made those substitutions. Good Lord. Five strikers on the pitch during the course of the game and there’s only Charles who has anything about him, and even then he missed a sitter, too. I’m still very much in the ‘Evatt in’ camp but chucking away three points is 100% on him which he needs to accept and remedy. Fast. 

[Tonge moor green jacket]

Matt, I think part of the issue is that he knows the strikers aren't backing up Charles, and he is protecting him. 

He's fucked now anyway, so he is going to have to find another approach to goals.

Can't imagine the same set up with simply another cab off the rank up top will be particularly successful, though we just never know 100%.

[Farnywhite]

1 hour ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

Any booking for dissent, kicking the ball away, taking the shirt off etc. is unforgivable. It puts you one mistimed tackle or petulant referee moment from a red. It gains you nothing and restricts the way you can play for the rest of the match.

Player should be fined by the club and that goes for the manager only way to stamp it out 

[L/H White]

Can't believe I'm writing this but, Jerome & Nlundulu are downgrades on Baka and Kachunga ffs

[Farnywhite]

24 minutes ago, L/H White said:

Can't believe I'm writing this but, Jerome & Nlundulu are downgrades on Baka and Kachunga ffs

Think one of the problem is when he brings them both on together they they both want to play with there back to goal . It’s going to be a big problem if they both have to start if Charles is out for a while 

[Mounts Kipper]

14 minutes ago, Farnywhite said:

Think one of the problem is when he brings them both on together they they both want to play with there back to goal . It’s going to be a big problem if they both have to start if Charles is out for a while 

One can’t run and one couldn’t trap a medicine ball, you can’t play them both together, in fact I’d rather play Bod on his own and one extra in midfield running from deep to get alongside perhaps Dempsey and Sheehan in the hole. 

[radcliffe white]

44 minutes ago, L/H White said:

Can't believe I'm writing this but, Jerome & Nlundulu are downgrades on Baka and Kachunga ffs

You mean our Ivan Toney 

[Dr. Feelgood]

1 minute ago, Mounts Kipper said:

One can’t run and one couldn’t trap a medicine ball, you can’t play them both together, in fact I’d rather play Bod on his own and one extra in midfield running from deep to get alongside perhaps Dempsey and Sheehan in the hole. 

Is Mendez Gomez supposed to be a forward.

Have to ask as I'm uncertain.

[Mounts Kipper]

Just now, Dr. Feelgood said:

Is Mendez Gomez supposed to be a forward.

Have to ask as I'm uncertain.

He can play wide up front in a 3 but we don’t play that perhaps as a 10  and also as attacking midfield. He’s injured though. 

[captainmed]

1 hour ago, L/H White said:

Can't believe I'm writing this but, Jerome & Nlundulu are downgrades on Baka and Kachunga ffs

Quite correct.

To actually find ourselves in this situation is farcical. 

If Charles is out for any substantial amount of time we are in big big trouble.

[Tonge moor green jacket]

Reading the comments today in the BN, I reckon Charles' injury may not be quite as bad as first thought.

Evatt has said he doesn't know if Charles will be fit for Saturday, which isn't a definitive ruling out. 

[Farnywhite]

41 minutes ago, Mounts Kipper said:

One can’t run and one couldn’t trap a medicine ball, you can’t play them both together, in fact I’d rather play Bod on his own and one extra in midfield running from deep to get alongside perhaps Dempsey and Sheehan in the hole. 

That’s what I would do .
Not sure if bod is physically ready to play up front on is own yet and for the size of dan he doesn’t play physical, victor doesn’t win anything in the air back to goal and Jerome doesn’t have the engine . Between the lot of them there is nearly a player there 

Edited September 17, 2023 by Farnywhite

[desperado]

Winning goalscorer can do one as well. Don’t care whether he’s a young up and coming talent. C. Vickers - always thought he was a bit of a twat (granted you’d need to know me to get that one 😉)  

[Tonge moor green jacket]

Carter-Vickers.

May not be relevant to your point, but what a weird history he has with regards to making debuts against us!

[Johnnyrotten]

3 hours ago, L/H White said:

Can't believe I'm writing this but, Jerome & Nlundulu are downgrades on Baka and Kachunga ffs

Its also hard to make a case for Vic being any better than those two. For a player that starts every game he's available (unlike the other 4 you mention), I'm struggling to think of many worse in recent times.

[Eddie]

7 hours ago, 1969 said:

Rightly or wrongly, I'm beginning to sense a feeling of discontent towards IE which if not addressed will snowball.

Sometimes you've got to swallow your pride and change for a better outcome,something I think he will have to do.I'm not talking about ripping everything up and starting again but to carry on regardless is either stupidity or plain stubbornness 

I think this is the reason for most people’s frustration - it’s not the fact we lost, it’s the fact that this season is already showing that we have the exact same problems that we did last season.

I’m a big fan of Evatt but he is clearly a stubborn bastard and I think it’s his biggest weakness and could be the thing that holds him back from getting to the top.

It’s all well and good having your style, formation, philosophy etc. but sometimes you have to be flexible, move things in a different direction, play a different way, sign a different type of player, give yourself options and a genuine plan B. He’s not done that and has instead backed his decisions to come good - how we’ve come out of this window with that front line and no options at wing back is crazy, never mind the lack of different options in centre mid.

I still think we’ll be up there at the end of it, but we should be. This season it’s more of a case that promotion is expected and not getting promoted would be failure - I don’t think it’s unfair looking at the league this season and the resources he has but it means he’s definitely under more pressure than he ever has before (Barrow small crowd and no expectation, L2 promotion no crowds, a couple of seasons of low expectations with fans understanding the rebuild). Seeing how he deals with the added pressure as we move through the season will be interesting but I reckon he’s the type of character that will just double down on his methods rather than flex where necessary - which will cause a lot of frustration in the crowd and it won’t take much of a bad run for things to turn.

[Dr. Feelgood]

Thing is, when, due to absences, he's actually been forced to reshape we've done well. Almost like a ready made Plan B which he just doesn't want to play.

I'm not natural a 5 at the back fan, but admire it when it works. What I really find excruciating to watch is the slowness of build-up from the back. It's OK having 65-70% possesion but that passing along the line has to, now & again, lead to a burst forward. It happens sadly rarely.

I'm a very, very long way from 'Evatt Out', but he needs results & needs players he's hung his hat on to return the favour & I'm not convinced they can.

[Johnnyrotten]

7 hours ago, desperado said:

Always said 10 games in. That’s not changed for me. 

After we've played 12 games I think I'll still find it hard to make a realistic judgement any more than now.  4 more home games, v Posh and the 3 promoted teams, only 1 away (Vale).  7 out of our 1st 12 games are (strangely) against the current bottom 7,  that's not a list of fixtures that will answer the questions most fans have.  Yes 15 points from the next 5 is possible, the table would look great and we'd love it, no win is taken for granted by me, but these are games we should be winning and most of the time we do.  8 home and only 4 away in the first 12 assuming Barnsley is off, I'm not sure what they will tell us that we don't already know.   For me a great opportunity to be comfortably in the top 2 and realistic assessments can come later when the fixtures get harder.

[desperado]

11 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

After we've played 12 games I think I'll still find it hard to make a realistic judgement any more than now.  4 more home games, v Posh and the 3 promoted teams, only 1 away (Vale).  7 out of our 1st 12 games are (strangely) against the current bottom 7,  that's not a list of fixtures that will answer the questions most fans have.  Yes 15 points from the next 5 is possible, the table would look great and we'd love it, no win is taken for granted by me, but these are games we should be winning and most of the time we do.  8 home and only 4 away in the first 12 assuming Barnsley is off, I'm not sure what they will tell us that we don't already know.   For me a great opportunity to be comfortably in the top 2 and realistic assessments can come later when the fixtures get harder.

I disagree

You can make it out to mean anything you want. After 10, We could conceivably be sat top having beaten a couple of teams who were supposed to be challenging us (Derby Peterborough) and 2 teams in the top 6 (Stevenage & Port Vale). 

So then you’re searching for some other team/scenario to say it’s not a good judgement. 

Crazy, that at that point you are saying well being top after 10 games tells us nothing because we haven’t played Exeter away! 🤣

[Johnnyrotten]

3 minutes ago, desperado said:

I disagree

You can make it out to mean anything you want. After 10, We could conceivably be sat top having beaten a couple of teams who were supposed to be challenging us (Derby Peterborough) and 2 teams in the top 6 (Stevenage & Port Vale). 

So then you’re searching for some other team/scenario to say it’s not a good judgement. 

Crazy, that at that point you are saying well being top after 10 games tells us nothing because we haven’t played Exeter away! 🤣

Like I said I'm not demeaning any win, if we beat Posh that would be a great win, as it was twice last season.  But I'm not judging us after 4 away games, especially when none are in the category of a Pompey, Derby, Barnsley, Wycombe and yes Exeter.  I'm only talking about my own view here, if anyone else wants to judge after 2 games or 8 that's upto them, I'm just waiting for a bit more evidence that things are improving from last season, if that's the benchmark we're looking for. 

[Traf]

I'm not that arsed we lost now. We're still in a great position without playing well.

It's how we lost that pisses me off. Wigan were (IMO) better than us, Reading weren't.

[Traf]

PS Vale (A) will be fucking tough. 

And if the tide starts to turn against IE, we're a tough bunch to re-convince.

[desperado]

6 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Like I said I'm not demeaning any win, if we beat Posh that would be a great win, as it was twice last season.  But I'm not judging us after 4 away games, especially when none are in the category of a Pompey, Derby, Barnsley, Wycombe and yes Exeter.  I'm only talking about my own view here, if anyone else wants to judge after 2 games or 8 that's upto them, I'm just waiting for a bit more evidence that things are improving from last season, if that's the benchmark we're looking for. 

Fair enough.

And FWIW I don’t envisage us winning the next 3 and me coming back on here saying everything’s ok we are top and there’s nothing to be concerned about. 

I just think that at near on a quarter of the games there’s a bit more substance and realism to the judgments we make, positive or negative.