melmacian_saint

If Gazzaniga does evolve into our future no.1 then I can see Gillingham propelling themselves into an established Championship team thanks to us.

What do you mean by outstanding? Not conceding an own goal? Not giving away a penalty? A goal? Impressive how standards drop when we speak about Hooiveld, yet criticism of Yoshida or even Fonte or any other player on the pitch was almost necessary in every single game.

He didnt get the ball and he did against Chelsea too but was lucky Hazard decided to carry on. Too many lazy legs for which he was getting punished at the beginning of the season and is getting away with them now. We were lucky, but it's part of it. I'd still rather see Fonte in there. About the game, a bit of a copy from the 1st one at SMS. We dominated and apart from scares often caused by us not being as assertive as we should clearing our lines we won the game with no real trouble. Most importantly, I think we're a win away of definitely being a Premier League team next season. This is very good as it gives us a chance of building earlier than most teams, so West Ham could be key. The sooner the better, but I think it's fair to say it's been an exciting first season back! COYR

Hooiveld lucky again.

Pizzi, portuguese winger from Deportivo on loan from Atletico Madrid.

Nothing unknown in the messy Iberia. Knowing the situation of Portuguese football quite well myself, last season in our equivalent of League One, three teams were forced to resign before the start of this season because of lack of funds. The main reason: 90% of their income came from council subsidies. These were PROFESSIONAL teams (albeit competing outside the Portuguese professional league association). And in Spain, the existence of regional governments made it all worse. You check any of the 25 professional teams in admin in the LFP, in many cases public institutions are the main creditors and a lot more money was lost in similar deals to that of Real Madrid and other types of state funding. But fear not, it's tumbling down faster than expected.

Except he has cost us a goal and got extremely lucky for another one in two games. But do carry on.

If it weren't for Fonte's injury against Chelsea so early in January I doubt Hooiveld would've made it past the transfer window in the squad. Also I think Fonte against normal conservative club policy was rushed into the side after the Newcastle 2nd half collapse, and even against Liverpool his knee looked to struggle with the subs warm-up exercises (yet looked every piece of his pre-injury form when he came on). I think it's natural that Pochettino decides to go with Hooiveld in the starting 11 for now given he was forced to do so initially and results weren't bad, though personally I don't feel he has improved that much. He has several problems concerning his mobility that make him struggle under pressure and ineffective with his marking. I doubt he would've had the same ease at dealing with Ba like Yoshida/Fonte found in the Cup. His pinball defending style can either work very well or very badly. He is however much less exposed, just like most of our defenders, both with the introduction of Cork and also with a top class keeper whose fitness and form are out of jail. Basing analysis on results, I think we may look that with Yoshida-Fonte we conceded 8 goals in 10 games and from those games any goal we conceded was either due to decent attacking football or errors from Kelvin/Gazzaniga, and in most games I recall our defenders being forced to their limits to cover for the lack of a commanding voice behind them and effectively protecting the keeper very well. I think Fonte's work has has often been underrated, and his more quiet, secondary role in the defensive partnership has even meant that outside the L1 promotion aftermath he has been ignored. However, he has shown a lot of responsibility and is a far more intelligent defender than Hooiveld and to an extent Yoshida, and technically one of our best defenders. He is also surprisingly comfortable with possession of the ball considering his position and is a plus to our passing game. Also, quite often in set pieces, most CBs often wait for another ball to be launched back at them, but I've seen Fonte being one of the more proactive players whenever a set piece is repelled back. Fonte for me, but injuries can take more than just the recovery time for normal transmission to be resumed. Of course there is the option that the club are looking for some player revenue and hence Fonte may leave by the fact he is our more economically viable defender and one that other PL clubs could possibly look into. I doubt we would be able to strike a fee for Hooiveld unless he goes for a nominal fee to a Scandinavian club.

If we keep Jos and get rid of Jose I will cry.

So far...at the moment a potential win v.Stoke on the last day would still be the greatest.

Great first half, suffered in the 2nd half but we gave our best shot and it would've been cruel if an already known script repeated itself. Full-backs MOM for me but Sir Rickie's goal is what I'll remember better from this one. Onwards and upwards!

Get inn

I hate Chris Hughton so much. Passive manager who has cold feet and his insecurities are too clearly passed on to his players. He just doesn't look composed on the day and nor do his teams.

Hooiveld lucky Hazard's not a *****...

If he's out for the season I will cry.

That's two candidates to goal of the season in a single half.

Why Hooiveld over Fonte???

Could see him retire soon enough. Does his contract end in the summer?

Could see him retire soon enough. Does his contract end in the summer?

About time we drop the Adkins love-in now... He was a good service to our club, seems to be a great person but he had an exceptional backing from the board that is rare at lower league level and he is unproven in the wild. I wish him well but I'm not sure a sub-standard and demotivated Reading is the right job for a manager who is looking to create his own brand in the big lights. Pochettino is our man, Adkins is history. Forget about him, particularly during these crucial months for the club where his squad and him are one of those teams that we have to battle against and defeat.

Eric Dier will be a very good player, but too young to risk any money. He needs at least a full season in the first-team. He also needs to settle in a position first as he's been used at CB, LB and CM. From this Sporting team I would take the keeper, Portugal's no.1 Rui Patricio. Been more than just a lifeboat for the last 2.5 seasons. In fact both him and the sub keeper Marcelo would do well for us. But Boruc is looking better than ever so I'm not sure we need either of them. Other than that, the team has already been badly raided in January so quite frankly not a lot more to take out. Maybe the usual LB Marcos Rojo, who has been in ascending form this season, and is now getting Argentina call-ups. Wingers Capel and Labyad are too unproven I'm afraid, and young Andre Carrillo is pretty much in the same situation as Dier, but mentally less stable.

Are the play-off finals going to be held elsewhere like 2 years ago?

I still keep going back in my mind to that Fulham game in October as the one that triggered the ejection button. Just as we started to settle as a team and defensively as well, and were adjusting. We scored from a corner, and enjoyed a controlled half from then on. Our defensive line rising in confidence was actually at its lowest for most of the game with Richardson stretched off injured early on, Clyne out of the team altogether and Hooiveld (not even Yoshida) covering at RB at least until half-time. Then in the 2nd half, because Fulham hadn't been threatning from the off as expected (yet forced Gazza to an impressive save) and instead of going for the 2nd goal, around the hour mark, Adkins decided to remove both our main offensive threats in Puncheon first and then Lambert for Guly and Chaplow, leaving Rodriguez quite lonely at CF. This backfired as I hadn't seen a tactical decision do it in a long time. The pressure on their defensive unit that was applied by Lambert's presence and Puncheon's ability to run at them vanished, and their defensive units became less worried about duties at the back and all of a sudden they had numbers running at our weakened and still shaken defense. In just 15 minutes we were almost knocked out of a game we could've won without question as it stood when those decisions were poorly made, and were lucky to get a draw at the end. You do those subs at the 80th minute, not with 30 minutes to go. I also think Cortese didn't enjoy the Anfield love-in that Adkins talked about during the times of our visit there in what turned out to be a rather dull and unfocused performance up there, nor did he enjoy our lack of edge against Sunderland at home after a break. Looking at it, it seems that the reasons favouring Nigel's case are more personal/emotional than necessarily rational/factual. Maybe the fact the results have been so similar in such a short period from the change just shows that perhaps Adkins was underperforming with the goods he had in store.

Except he wasn't. He had a good run of games until Fulham were he got seriously injured and was stretched off.

How unexpected is it that a game featuring one of the big 4 is a sell-out?