It's like Deja Vu - all over again
I had to dig deep to remember my password to get back on here, but thought that after yesterday's utterly atrocious performance I owed it to myself to reflect on here about the game.
Bloody hell - we were never in the game at all until the last 10mins, when ironically we could have stolen a point had our wonderful deadball master not slammed a centrally placed free kick on the edge of the box into the shins of the reading wall. More of that later.
We could / should have been one up after about 3mins had Andre Green tied up his shooting boots instead of his shiiting boots when one on one after a mistake by the Reading defence. From that moment onwards we hardly touched the ball. Reading's players had desire, pace, movement, energy - our lads thought they were on the training ground with a command to give away the ball / mis-control / mis place a pass to see how best we can absorb pressure. It was all so familiar, taking me back two years to the dire 2015/16 relegation season. Whenever we managed to get the ball, it was aimlessly pumped forward in the air to either no-one or to Hogan who was always out jumped, and back came the blue & white hoops. Tackling was poor, more commitment to the cause is required. Terry didn't seem to lead or inspire.
In terms of ratings
Johnstone - man of match 8.0 - some fine stops and did his best to clear the goal line technology effort
de Laet - started well, faded a little 6.0 - gave too much width to winger.
Taylor - left his man in too much "zonal" space 5.5
Terry - commanded very little, no pace 4.0
Chester - 5.0, not much to say but frivolous in possession
Hourihane - Ok so he scored and then blasted his ideally positioned free kick into the wall, but error strewn performance 5.5
Whelan - anonymous for the most part 5.0
Onomah - too easily brushed off the ball not convinced he can hack it in the championship 5.0
Bjarnneson - bloody awful all game - not sure why he wasn't hauled off at HT - 3.0
Green - missed a 1 on 1, blasted a cross into touch, some nice jinking runs 5.5
Hogan - limped off, limp performance 4.5
Gabby - showed some energy, laid ball off for the goal 5.5
Hutton - what, brought on after his showing at Cardiff ?
Adomah - brought on and played left side rather than preferred right ? Showed some skills but you can he's still a bit naive.
Bruce says he's still the right man for the job. I agree, but I'm not sure which job he's referring to. I can imagine a lack of patience with results and performances will see him asked to Foxtrot Oscar. What I don't get is that he's had them all summer, and the team churn out that sort of performance when we're supposed to be Top 6. Bottom 6 is more the ticket if we see much more of this.
Vent over.
But it does mean that my cash will be staying firmly in my pocket until i see some sort of turnaround in performance because I'll not be parting with any wonga to cheer our lads on if that's what I get back in return.
