Reading v Aston Villa - Match Thread - Sat 2nd Feb, 3pm | Page 14 | Vital Football

Reading v Aston Villa - Match Thread - Sat 2nd Feb, 3pm

Langoe66 said:
If we'd have taken one of our chances, the tone of the thread would be completely different. Started well, two good chances, one for Tammy following up and Elphick's header which hit the bar, then faded a bit towards the end of the first half with one excellent save from Kalinic. We then completely dominated the second half not making many chances admittedly but we pressed, won the ball back high up the pitch and for me played with the kind of intensity we witnessed at the likes of Derby and M'bro without being clinical in front of goal and often disappointing end product from the likes of Albert and El Ghazi. Yes, disappointed with only drawing but to hear some of the comments on here I'm clearly in the minority with regards to the overall performance. After being there and witnessing it first hand, I didn't think it was that bad. A quick word on the defence today, Kalinic did well, feel he's starting to settle, Mings looks very comfortable on the ball, Elphick alongside had a good game and even Taylor did alright as well. Four points off the play offs.....it was five before the weekend started so still all to play for despite the fact that.....'Smith is talking out of his arse'......'Smith has lost his bottle'.......'Smith has morphed into Bruce'......'Wenger should be appointed when Smith leaves'....'We will get hammmered on Friday'......and to top it all...'At this rate we will get thrashed by Blues'......honestly if someone read some of the comments without knowing any results from the season, they'd think we were in the bottom 3 and facing certain relegation!
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As always I agree 100% .I saw someone deriding Smith for praising our performance levels. There was a spell for 25-30 mins in the second half where we were winning the ball very high up the pitch continuously and it reminded me of Derby and Middlesborough but without the quality in the final third .
 
sirdennis said:
Just got back and flicking through the comments and I agree 100% with Smith. We dominated the first 20 mins Tammy missed what looked like a sitter and we hit the bar, they came back into the game and Kalanic made 2 good saves but in the second half there was only one team in it and my only criticism is that we lacked quality in the final third. Albert was awful El Ghazi did some great bits and some daft bits but contrary to the knockers opinions was miles better than Albert and Tammy had an indifferent game , probably should have scored with another header but their keeper made a terrific save.

There is what I will call a few lazy posts on here where some posters go with the perception of a player rather than the evidence of how they played today. For instance a few posts saying Taylor is shit etc and I agree he has been , but today he had a decent game. I know he is not the answer but in isolation I repeat he had a decent game today .

On todays evidence Mings looks a top signing , massive unit and it was great to see a left footer on the left hand side of defence we looked so much better balanced. He won all the physical battles and not only that it was very noticable that he is very vocal and even after a couple of minutes was telling the other where they should be etc. I don't think it was coincidence that Elphick had his best game since he came back and that Taylor had one of his better games for us.
Hourihane was poor as was Whelan and if we had a midfield of any note we would have won that comfortably.

I see some are writing Carroll off already and if they can form a judgement on 15 mins off the bench then I reckon thats genius.
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Fair post. Remember we were playing mighty Reading, bottom 3 blah blah blah. No wonder Kodgia fecked off to France to try and engineer a move
 
pvb1968 said:
I thought elphick and mings were spot on today with defending and passing. The goalkeeper looked solid with a couple of good saves. If we have any hope of the play offs we simply can't play whelan and hurry up. I made a point of specifically watching hurry up, he is so slow and the amount of times he gives a pass away is unbelievable. Super John mcginn works his nuts off, Adomah was poor as well so maybe a draw is a good result today.
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Hourihane had a great shooting opportunity in the second half when he was 10 yards out on the left hand side and he played it back to El Ghazi.

Ridiculous .
 
Fulford said:
Back to how he wants us to play.

Did he watch a different game to me.
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What a ridiculous comment from Smith.

Surely should he saying he is disappointed players didn’t step up and take their chance. They have decided to revert to accepting average is good enough. Our keeper kept us in the game against a bottom 3 team. Players need to decide if they want to stay in the team and play. Kodgia should feel disappointed he didn’t start, he will start the next game. Overall a poor display with a couple of missed chances
 
tarzansbrother said:
What a ridiculous comment from Smith.

Surely should he saying he is disappointed players didn’t step up and take their chance. They have decided to revert to accepting average is good enough. Our keeper kept us in the game against a bottom 3 team. Players need to decide if they want to stay in the team and play. Kodgia should feel disappointed he didn’t start, he will start the next game. Overall a poor display with a couple of missed chances
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Our keeper kept us in the game. ?

Now that is a ridiculous comment.
 
He made 2 good saves which you would have expected him to make , but so did their goalie whose save in the second half was terrific so who kept who in the game ?

Depends what narrative you are sticking to I suppose.
 
sirdennis said:
Lol. So that meant he was engineering a move ?
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Come on it’s bloody obvious he ain’t happy and wants to play football and in his correct position up front.

Plenty of paper talk especially from his homeland and previous club. And yes he did feck off back home on match day
 
tarzansbrother said:
Fair post. Remember we were playing mighty Reading, bottom 3 blah blah blah. No wonder Kodgia fecked off to France to try and engineer a move
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If you're going to criticise at least use evidence based on fact rather than fantasy. I haven't heard any stories about Kodjia trying to engineer a move away and unless he's spoken to you personally I'm sure you have no evidence to back up your claim. And even if it was true, until he starts consistently having some impact when coming on from the bench or when he's selected to start, nobody will be too interested in buying him anyway.
 
tarzansbrother said:
Come on it’s bloody obvious he ain’t happy and wants to play football and in his correct position up front.

Plenty of paper talk especially from his homeland and previous club. And yes he did feck off back home on match day
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He was injured. Grealish was at home today , does that mean he is engineering a move ?

Lets stick to the facts please.
 
sirdennis said:
He made 2 good saves which you would have expected him to make , but so did their goalie whose save in the second half was terrific so who kept who in the game ?

Depends what narrative you are sticking to I suppose.
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My narrative is not good enough and disappointed with the display, team and Smith comments.

Having said that I fully respect your thoughts and narrative.
 
Langoe66 said:
If you're going to criticise at least use evidence based on fact rather than fantasy. I haven't heard any stories about Kodjia trying to engineer a move away and unless he's spoken to you personally I'm sure you have no evidence to back up your claim. And even if it was true, until he starts consistently having some impact when coming on from the bench or when he's selected to start, nobody will be too interested in buying him anyway.
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El Ghazi and Adomah were poor today. I fully expect Kodjia to replace one of them next game
 
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