Season 20/21: The Reading v Swansea City Match Thread

[Londonlisa2001]

Grimes always looks so much better when we start playing like this. I honestly don't think he'd look out of place in a Rodgers/Martinez type Swansea team. Not a superstar, but a good player who always looks better when the players around him give him more options.

It’s tactical - we’ve shown multiple times we can play football but we set up not to.

Oh and grimes under potter was brilliant

Ah yes. Potter the genius.

10th under him. Play offs both seasons for the utterly crap Cooper with worse squads. Strange isn’t it...

And yes, I preferred the style of play under Potter as well. But Cooper is getting such flak it’s unbelievable given where we’ve finished for the two seasons he’s been here.

 

[Captain_Sham]

It’s tactical - we’ve shown multiple times we can play football but we set up not to.

Oh and grimes under potter was brilliant

Ah yes. Potter the genius.

10th under him. Play offs both seasons for the utterly crap Cooper with worse squads. Strange isn’t it...

And yes, I preferred the style of play under Potter as well. But Cooper is getting such flak it’s unbelievable given where we’ve finished for the two seasons he’s been here.

St Potter blew our best chance of going up, sauntered of to Brighton and retained folk hero status. Fk him.

 

[The.Alpine.Shrew]

Why do we retreat so deep with 5 minutes to go? We invite too much pressure, when we decided to play football from 60 mins to 88 mins we looked good.

They can't score if we have the ball in their half.

 

[The.Alpine.Shrew]

Why do we retreat so deep with 5 minutes to go? We invite too much pressure, when we decided to play football from 60 mins to 88 mins we looked good.

They can't score if we have the ball in their half.

 

[scorcher]

Liam is a far better striker than Ian Walsh

ITs a shame he didn't score with the header.It would have done wonders for his confidence.

 

[eteb]

It’s tactical - we’ve shown multiple times we can play football but we set up not to.

Oh and grimes under potter was brilliant

Ah yes. Potter the genius.

10th under him. Play offs both seasons for the utterly crap Cooper with worse squads. Strange isn’t it...

And yes, I preferred the style of play under Potter as well. But Cooper is getting such flak it’s unbelievable given where we’ve finished for the two seasons he’s been here.

all i said was grimes was superb under potter (which he was), you fucking plum

 

[Londonlisa2001]

Liam is a far better striker than Ian Walsh

ITs a shame he didn't score with the header.It would have done wonders for his confidence.

He only scored a few days ago. His confidence should be fine.

 

[Londonlisa2001]

Ah yes. Potter the genius.

10th under him. Play offs both seasons for the utterly crap Cooper with worse squads. Strange isn’t it...

And yes, I preferred the style of play under Potter as well. But Cooper is getting such flak it’s unbelievable given where we’ve finished for the two seasons he’s been here.

all i said was grimes was superb under potter (which he was), you f*****g plum

I know you did, I was just reminded of the genius of Potter.

 

[eteb]

the premier league manager, unlike your hubby eh mrs cooper

 

[Londonlisa2001]

the premier league manager, unlike your hubby eh mrs cooper

“The squad is not particularly good with lots of average players and no real creativity”.

“You must be married to Steve Cooper”.

That the way it works?

The bloke has achieved two play off positions in two seasons when every player worth a few bob has been sold.The football is not great, but the way we played today was entertaining enough, particularly in the second half.

People are genuinely mad. It’s not like we are going to get Klopp if he goes. He’s not my favourite manager but he’s a long long way from being the worst. Even in the past decade we’ve had several that I regard as worse.

 

[scorcher]

Yes ,I agree,we should look more at the owners not Cooper.Although Potter could alter the formation and totally confuse the opposition ,but we did have McBurnie and James .

 

[monmouth]

all i said was grimes was superb under potter (which he was), you f*****g plum

I know you did, I was just reminded of the genius of Potter.

Well yes, but I think if Potter had stayed we would have been promoted last season not needed a million to one chance to come off to even get in the play offs. We’ll never know of course. If we blow it again in a few weeks, all Cooper has really achieved is ‘saving’ us from relegation. He has certainly laid no foundation to build anything good.

 

[mrploppy]

the premier league manager, unlike your hubby eh mrs cooper

“The squad is not particularly good with lots of average players and no real creativity”.

“You must be married to Steve Cooper”.

That the way it works?

The bloke has achieved two play off positions in two seasons when every player worth a few bob has been sold.The football is not great, but the way we played today was entertaining enough, particularly in the second half.

People are genuinely mad. It’s not like we are going to get Klopp if he goes. He’s not my favourite manager but he’s a long long way from being the worst. Even in the past decade we’ve had several that I regard as worse.

The voice of reason.

 

[Londonlisa2001]

I know you did, I was just reminded of the genius of Potter.

Well yes, but I think if Potter had stayed we would have been promoted last season not needed a million to one chance to come off to even get in the play offs. We’ll never know of course. If we blow it again in a few weeks, all Cooper has really achieved is ‘saving’ us from relegation. He has certainly laid no foundation to build anything good.

I’m not sure about what would have happened. He didn’t want to find out.

As for foundations, to some extent I disagree. We have a youngish squad and players on the fringes coming through.

Foe next season we have a back line of Roberts, Cabango, Cooper, Latibeaudiere, Manning, Bidwell, Benda in goal. We have Oli Cooper coming through, Whittaker and Cullen both young (as I say, I don’t think either are there at the moment but they hopefully may develop), Grimes, Dhanda and Fulton going nowhere I suspect. Lowe out wide.

We just need a few genuine ‘stars’ to add to it. Probably by way of loan. MGW would have made a big difference. We need creativity in the middle, and some creativity out wide. And we could do with some bloody pace. Look at what the introduction of Sinclair did, and Borini as well, to the Rodgers team.

As I have said, the ‘average’ players need just a few sparks amongst them to make the team tick. It’s the sparks that have been missing for the second half of this season. Remove them and you’re left with quite an ordinary bunch. Capable of being good, but no real consistency and capable of making mistakes too often. But solid enough to raise up in the event of a couple of real quality being added.

The big disappointment foe me has been Hourihane- he doesn’t stand out at this level in the way I thought he would. And Ayew is always infuriatingly inconsistent. Better at this time of year when the sun is shining which hopefully will work to our favour over the next few weeks.

Cooper himself of course is young and learning. I share the doubts, but I am hugely doubtful we’d appoint anyone significantly better. It would certainly be a lottery.
In the past few seasons, I’d not swap him for, obviously BB, but I wouldn’t swap him for Clement or Carvalhal either to be honest. Probably not Monk either having seen what he’s done in this league.

 

[eteb]

I know you did, I was just reminded of the genius of Potter.

Well yes, but I think if Potter had stayed we would have been promoted last season not needed a million to one chance to come off to even get in the play offs. We’ll never know of course. If we blow it again in a few weeks, all Cooper has really achieved is ‘saving’ us from relegation. He has certainly laid no foundation to build anything good.

i am 95% certain we would have been promoted in potters second year, which was part of the reason i was gutted when he left