Holmes_and_Watson

He does offer some thing the other 2 CBs don't. I can see advantages when we need someone to provide defensive cover but also drive from deeper positions or add options to midfield when we're needing a push. I can also see him at full back, in that they're inverted anyway. Definitely good to have in the squad. And there's the qualities given above he brings to the team anyway. However, if we had a full strength team, doing well, it would be difficult to start him. But he's versatile, and we have developing players whose form can dip, or injuries like Downes. So plenty of starting opportunities, but not necessarily every game.

Now, how could a book depository possibly become part of a conspiracy theory? 🙂

The first debate where voters will be swayed by the performance of their carers, wheeling them on, prompting them and wiping away the drool. 🙂

McCarthy would have been managing on a 50p budget for some of those years, while Norwich were bouncing up and down with their parachute payments. Which reminds me, after our opening spell against Liverpool, they set up as a pack to counter our passing out from Has. It was exactly the set up that sides used against Farke's Norwich team. He didn't switch it up and came badly undone as a result. We've seen Baz having a good range and weight of pass. We've also got Sule to get behind a defence and Aribo/Adams who are physical enough to hold up a longer ball. If we were to go up, hopefully we'd be bearing those options in mind.

Nothing will incentivise the team more to get promtion, than knowing the club will be selling their organs if we don't go up, to make up the shortfall. 🙂

Thanks for that. An interesting, if disheartening, read.

Poltergeist

My first thought was the length of contract Wednesday might have given him. I can't imagine it being for mor than 3 years. But perhaps at least half of the out time was being paid for. I'd forgotten he'd been at quite so many clubs already. You will now be glued to that L1 relegation battle. 😀

Hadrian's wall was only the first "I" in "I luv Antinous" that was going to be scrawled over Scotland.

Agree with much of this. Physically, he doesn't look like he's a tough combative DM type of player. That said, it's yet another part of the game he's got better at. There was chat about it earlier in the season, and in the next game he got in a couple of good challenges. Even if it's just getting a foul in, to take a card if he has to sometimes. I can't think of games where he's taking it by the scruff either. But he was involved with more than 1 of our goals at the weekend. That isn't the first time. I'm pretty sure if I looked back at other games, it would be Will involved in a move to get it to our game changers like Fraser. Also protecting the spaces behind them. On his tracking back, I'm just aware of the ground he already covers each game. With changed responsibilities without Downes, that could partly just be adjusting to manage his game. I see a lot of players make a short run, pass and then urge the play to go down the other flank because they're done. Will's pretty much always on the move somewhere. If he's asked to be more of a DM, it might have to at the expense of him being elsewhere. As people have mentioned about other players, if you were to add tough tackling midfielder or game changing box to box player, he wouldn't be with us. He'd have been snapped up last summer. Broadly, it's the same as the start of the season. He's not our best DM. He's not our best AM. But he does things neither of those positions do, and adds quite a lot more. But it really clicks when he's got a very good specialist partner.

Arsenal showing they are just a smidgen more clinical. But Martin would be looking at that, wondering just how much bettercwe'd have been with a working striker and replacing Tella in the summer.

Tater at 5-0 said Arsenal' xG was 1.86. So they aren't all that. 🙂 We'll see if Arsenal continue this demolition, or if it will fizzle out with lots of subs and a slower pace.

Passed them apart.

Sadly, only a day after reading this, and realising he should be very careful, he accidentally fell from a window, being poisoned on the way down.

Musical

Another left back walked past. Good to see Martin instilling the same regime right across the club.

The last set of mindfulness things I listened to, all began with "As long as you are breathing, there's more right with you than wrong with you." Which I took issue with, my mild grumpiness ruining the start of every session. 🙂

An ex-plyaer rather than an ex-manager, but that's another connection running a club in League 1, with him being hired as Cambridge manager. Reading - 16th Charlton - 18th Cambridge - 19th

Board

Whether there was a shout was what crossed my mind when I saw it. I didn't think Bednarek was going to get near it, so Manning positioned himself to cover. Perhaps Bednarek going for it, let alone getting to it, it took Manning by surprise, and he didn't shout as a result. If he didn't, it's a lesson in being more vocal. If he did shout then either Bedders didn't hear, or thought he was in control of it. An odd goal to give away, so one to learn quickly from and move on. Manning has some serious competition from Bree to get into the side. But it's not a traditional system, he is also doing other things in it, and other players right across the side can be made to look vulnerable. One of the biggest weaknesses, and has been right from the start, has been the exposed full back positions. Martin wants those numbers in midfield, supporting to create passing angles and passes for chances. Martin is counting on opponents not being able to exploit it, or finish their chances when they do. He also supports the players who have been well drilled in getting back into position. Running back to defend adds to the difficulty of it. So with that, and the narrowness, Manning is going to be open to attack. KWP doesn't have the same issues because simply he's a much better player, we have games where he's even further forward and we compensate for it, and opponents know to go after the gap where they are more likely to get an outcome. Someone a while back made the point that, at Swansea, Manning wouldn't be the one compensating for a KWP. The team would be supporting Manning to be getting into those advanced positions. So, like everyone else in the side, Manning is having to pick up new responsibilities and develop his game.

Orsic too... what a mess...

Noes! I noticed it and went to edit....but too late!!!! Lawton, as those who take an interest in football history will know, received a 3 year ban after it was revealed he wasn't overweight. He was concealing a man named Brian under his shirt, who he would raise above him for high crosses. 🙂

I still treasure the old Charles Buchan Football Monthlies. Stanley Matthews talking about health tips that have provided him with such a long career. "I felt that passing out blind drunk after snorting a nosebag of coke might impede my performance." Or Tommy Lawton on the secrets of his striking prowess. "Confidence is vital. I'd fancy my chances of scoring against any defence. People see the centre forward as being physical. But there's more to it than that. The use of xG has shown me how to use my brains to pick out where the best chances are."

With their owner defaulting to HMRC, everyone connected to the club will be hoping that there are no further points deducitons to drag them back into it. With us, he had been part of two failed regimes. To varying degrees, but still at the club. He did try his tactic, but it wasn't working and he was reduced to making sure all his post match interviews sounded the same ahead of his next job. It needed an overhaul and there was no time left to do that. Ironically, the consistency in his approach to disaster is a plus point at Reading, where disaster coems form many sources. His background should make them a bit tighter at the back. He's got a decent coaching background so no reason why he can't do well at that level, and maybe higher.

On the one hand you’ve a guy who has worked hard since he was a kid to fulfil his dream of playing football to the highest level he can. He’s committed to his club. Where there have been low points, he’s continued to work as hard as he can. The result is that he’s been a key part of Martin’s system all season, and the manager probably couldn’t believe his luck to have the likes of Will, AA and Baz already at the club, to fit his system. On the other hand, you’ve an emotionally stunted irrelevance typing any old uninformed rubbish. That’ll show those professional footballers! Well done, there. There have been games where Smallbone has been absolutely everywhere. Available for the pass out from the CBs, helping to build up our attack, covering for our inverted full backs, being available at the edge of the box for cutbacks. He’s been asked to learn Martin’s systems for a number of positions. While, he’s going to be better in some than others, you can see his improvement across them all throughout this season. It’s been lovely to watch. He, and we as a team, struggle without a strong enough midfield. Smallbone is asked to pick up different duties when we don’t have a JWP or a Downes, and that’s when he looked weakest. He’s also had to adapt when Stephens has come into the team, and looks to push past Smallbone’s usual positions. Martin is well aware of this, and really values the contribution Will makes under those circumstances, knowing those games don’t suit his strengths. Would he be as good in other systems? Perhaps not. Is he a really good fit for Martin’s? Yes he is. It’s a shame that the worst of social media has had an impact. If you stand out in your chosen field, there will never be a shortage of people, with so few positives in their own lives, with nothing to offer but hate. Hopefully our, and all other players, are trained and supported in this area.