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Are Reading the WORST team...





Tom Hark Preston Park

Will Post For Cash
Jul 6, 2003
69,880
Love the way everybody's now conveniently clamouring to get on-message condemning Reading to playing like 'Amex-era Poyet'. Bet there's very few on here that would have dared break free from the NSC hivemind during the ACTUAL Poyet-era Amex to express an honestly-held opinion.. It was open season on anyone who actually dare point out the Emperor Poyet's new clothes. Even now, there's few who will admit to the 'Withdean-era Poyet' side playing very much the same way as the 'Amex-era Poyet'. Only difference is we sold our best striker for no real reason at all.

To you Tommy. To you Adam. Repeat twice. To you Casper. HOOF! Nobody else remember that? ???
 
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Don Quixote

Well-known member
Nov 4, 2008
8,352
Love the way everybody's now conveniently clamouring to get on-message condemning Reading to playing like 'Amex-era Poyet'. Bet there's very few on here that would have dared break free from the NSC hivemind during the ACTUAL Poyet-era Amex to express an honestly-held opinion.. It was open season on anyone who actually dare point out the Emperor Poyet's new clothes. Even now, there's few who will admit to the 'Withdean-era Poyet' side playing very much the same way as the 'Amex-era Poyet'. Only difference is we sold our best striker for no real reason at all.

To you Tommy. To you Adam. Repeat twice. To you Casper. HOOF! Nobody else remember that? ???

This. At the time everyone was talking about the 'philosophy' as though we had played that way for fifty years. It was just an experiment that worked up to a level. We needed something else to do better.


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NooBHA

Well-known member
Jan 13, 2015
8,584
"Grabham 1: Got a right charmer here=another one stealing a living."

:lolol:

Might well have had a lucky escape missing out on Mr Grabbing. Wonder how his attitude would sit in the current dressing room?

After CH had left Norwich they signed Grabban. I later had a slightly drunken discussion in a pub in London with David Mc Nally the chief Exec at Norwich at the time(His daughter lives in Hamilton close to my home town and she was there with him) - I told him he had just pissed £7m up against the wall buying Grabban as I had seen him play quite a lot when he had been at Millwall.

Mc Nally said he was a much better player now to which I responded ''He couldn't get any worse'' He might as well have given me the £7m and I could have pocketed £6.9m and got him a better player playing for the pub team that we were sat getting drunk in.
 


Yoda

English & European
There are some people on here with very short memories.

I've just been back looking at the stats from the games we drew or lost under Poyet in 2012/13 (and there were quite a few remember, Drew 19 Lost 10 including playoffs) and in all we out created the opposition 16 times (sometime by even double or more shots at goal).

Of the 13 we didn't, two of the can be explained by the sending off of Dunk at Selhurst & Barnes at Hillsborough (although we equaled Massive in that game). There were two other games were we also equaled the opposition for shots at goal. So in only a third of the games we dropped points in we were really 2nd best.

Turn half those draws to wins, and half the defeats to draws and we would've been champions. Our passing style was penetrative, the only thing we lacked was being clinical in our finishing.

Where Reading are at the moment, are more like our seasons when Gus Poyet took over from Russell Slade and started to introduce his passing style halfway through the season and our first season in the Championship where we were trying to play the same way, but with largely League One players.
 




Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patreon
Jul 23, 2003
33,820
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
This. At the time everyone was talking about the 'philosophy' as though we had played that way for fifty years. It was just an experiment that worked up to a level. We needed something else to do better.


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The point - at the time and now - was that it was an attempt to introduce a continental style "one club" where all the teams play the same way. Success on the park was only one indicator, it was quite clear we were trying to produce decent footballers in our lower down sides. Why? It would eventually get Tony some money back.

This was all conceived before FFP was relaxed and TV money went hyper nuclear. Now he gets his money back if we go up.

When you stick £200 million in you get to choose the philosophy & when you don't, you don't. What NSC thought then - under totally different circumstances- and what they think now is irrelevant.

I agree CMS for Murray was a disaster but many of us questioned that deal at the time.


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Stato

Well-known member
Dec 21, 2011
6,528
Love the way everybody's now conveniently clamouring to get on-message condemning Reading to playing like 'Amex-era Poyet'. Bet there's very few on here that would have dared break free from the NSC hivemind during the ACTUAL Poyet-era Amex to express an honestly-held opinion.. It was open season on anyone who actually dare point out the Emperor Poyet's new clothes. Even now, there's few who will admit to the 'Withdean-era Poyet' side playing very much the same way as the 'Amex-era Poyet'. Only difference is we sold our best striker for no real reason at all.

To you Tommy. To you Adam. Repeat twice. To you Casper. HOOF! Nobody else remember that? ???

I don't know, I seem to remember a fair few threads like this one: http://www.royals.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=135657&sid=a47c126e2d02fad7d1eabdd0a7eb56eb on NSC whenever it went wrong under Poyet.

Deep down, we all knew that team had its limitations, but when it clicked, it was very easy to forget that as they played some of the best football I have ever seen an Albion side play. Remember Vicente and Lua Lua tearing apart Derby? Remember Paul Ince saying it was like playing Barcelona after his Blackpool side got thumped? Stuff like that made it easy to get carried away and think that the style, if perfected, would work in any circumstances, believing the stuffings by the likes of West Ham and Liverpool were due to them having more money and better players, rather than a tactical advantage.

To be fair, while no style is unbeatable, Reading are fifth after struggling last year and if Stam can get the players he needs to play the style, and modify the approach when necessary, I could see it working for them. It got Swansea promoted and we went damned close.
 


hans kraay fan club

The voice of reason.
Helpful Moderator
Mar 16, 2005
61,094
Chandlers Ford
...to have that amount of possession at the Amex?

Excluding us under Poyet and Garcia of course.

I think they created one chance? ONE.

Agree they weren't hugely threatening, but the one chance thing is simply untrue.

Off the top of my head, there was Stockdale's decent save from Beerens with his feet, Duffy's clearance off the line, and no less than three free headers first half - one a foot over the bar (from a corner), one two feet wide of the right hand post, and one straight at Stockdale.
 




Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patreon
Jul 23, 2003
33,820
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
Agree they weren't hugely threatening, but the one chance thing is simply untrue.

Off the top of my head, there was Stockdale's decent save from Beerens with his feet, Duffy's clearance off the line, and no less than three free headers first half - one a foot over the bar (from a corner), one two feet wide of the right hand post, and one straight at Stockdale.

And two free kicks from the edge of the area


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Ernest

Stupid IDIOT
Nov 8, 2003
42,739
LOONEY BIN
Agree they weren't hugely threatening, but the one chance thing is simply untrue.

Off the top of my head, there was Stockdale's decent save from Beerens with his feet, Duffy's clearance off the line, and no less than three free headers first half - one a foot over the bar (from a corner), one two feet wide of the right hand post, and one straight at Stockdale.

They had at least 2 free kicks right on the spot outside the box someone like Knockaert would have loved too
 


LlcoolJ

Mama said knock you out.
Oct 14, 2009
12,982
Sheffield
They had at least 2 free kicks right on the spot outside the box someone like Knockaert would have loved too
Enjoyed the one that Kermitc#nt hit straight into legs of the wall. Truly pathetic effort. My son said he'd hit the wall, I said ten yards over the bar. Happy to be wrong.
 




GT49er

Well-known member
Feb 1, 2009
46,473
Gloucester
Apologies if naively I'm the only person who doesn't know, but what is this 'oxf*rd' that seems to be used as a sort of neo-swear word on the Reading site?
 


sir albion

New member
Jan 6, 2007
13,055
SWINDON
Certainly very similar to poyets dull football.....well mostly dull :)
Was really boring me watching reading in possession and the last time I was bored watching us was under poyet :)
 


Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 11, 2003
73,372
West west west Sussex
They had at least 2 free kicks right on the spot outside the box someone like Knockaert would have loved too

Let's not get carried away here.
The Albion themselves haven't exactly been high scoring when it comes to inviting free kicks.
 




Stato

Well-known member
Dec 21, 2011
6,528
Apologies if naively I'm the only person who doesn't know, but what is this 'oxf*rd' that seems to be used as a sort of neo-swear word on the Reading site?

I think they see Oxford United as rivals. Although, I think Oxford care more about their rivalry with Swindon. I believe that there was a little bad blood after Robert Maxwell's plan to merge Reading and Oxford into Thames Valley Royals in the 1980s.

I get the impression that Reading don't really have any proper rivals and so try to latch onto someone nearby. A bit like Bournemouth disliking Southampton, whilst Southampton and Portsmouth only have evil eyes for each other. Perhaps Reading and Bournemouth should start a rivalry: 'No-one cares about us. We don't like.'
 


DavidRyder

Well-known member
Jul 23, 2013
2,884
Huddersfield could post on their site 'Are Brighton the worst team to visit this year?' - it means nowt, as we are kicking on now and playing well. So Reading had a bad game, their next one could be their best. The Championship eh, like a blooin' roller coaster.
 


theroyal

Well-known member
May 11, 2014
434
I think they see Oxford United as rivals. Although, I think Oxford care more about their rivalry with Swindon. I believe that there was a little bad blood after Robert Maxwell's plan to merge Reading and Oxford into Thames Valley Royals in the 1980s.

I get the impression that Reading don't really have any proper rivals and so try to latch onto someone nearby. A bit like Bournemouth disliking Southampton, whilst Southampton and Portsmouth only have evil eyes for each other. Perhaps Reading and Bournemouth should start a rivalry: 'No-one cares about us. We don't like.'

Imagine the carnage when we signed Reece Oxford!

Historically we had a pretty fierce rivalry with Aldershot FC, but they went out of existence in 1992 and we haven't played the newly formed club yet. Since then we haven't really had any rivals because we just don't play the local sides enough any more since having some success. It's been 13 years since we played Oxford competitively, and 15 years for Swindon.

For some reason, Bournemouth fans really hate us, but we're indifferent.
 


NooBHA

Well-known member
Jan 13, 2015
8,584
Imagine the carnage when we signed Reece Oxford!

Historically we had a pretty fierce rivalry with Aldershot FC, but they went out of existence in 1992 and we haven't played the newly formed club yet. Since then we haven't really had any rivals because we just don't play the local sides enough any more since having some success. It's been 13 years since we played Oxford competitively, and 15 years for Swindon.

For some reason, Bournemouth fans really hate us, but we're indifferent.

I thought that it was because traditional Public School adolescent schoolboys in fee paying schools were taught and encouraged not to swear by Tutors who informed them that swear words were not contained in the ''Oxford English Dictionary''
 




BensGrandad

New member
Jul 13, 2003
72,015
Haywards Heath
On the bus to the ground a Reading fan told me that they have a lot of possession but it is in their own penalty box or half and if you attack them they lose this possession. This turned out to be correct as we let them have it until they reached the halfway line then took it off of them.
 


mejonaNO12 aka riskit

Well-known member
Dec 4, 2003
21,481
England
I don't think I've seen a game at the Amex where the opposition played more into our hands.

We've obviously faced worse teams and score more than 3, but Reading were just SO easy to read.

By default, when we go 1 up in biggish games, we sit back a bit and try to counter attack more. In this game, we went 1 up and just carried on as we had been before.

It was fantastic to watch in WSU. Our midfield and defensive lines could have been joined by a piece of string, perfectly in sync.

And then, every time the ball fell to Murphy (who was brilliant) he clearly had been told to carry it as far as he could. Devastating counter attacking football against a team who had no plan B.
 



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