Match Report: "WE GAVE EVERYTHING". It's Reading. No we didn't.

[Olé]

Apologies for the slow despatch from that mecca of football in a car park just off the A33, but as I made the depressing Alan Partridge style walk down the edge of a non-descript dual carriageway in Berkshire and away from the Madejski Stadium, passed silently by streams of faceless fans in cars (uniquely in the English game Reading is like a trip to B&Q), in my anger I really contemplated avoiding comment altogether so as not to spoil the remainder of your Saturday or mine.

At least when you lose at Wigan or at Millwall your frustration and despair is more than matched and reflected by the excited chatter and sense of reward for home fans. At Reading you are confronted by indifference and indicator lights. And that makes it a lot harder to deal with defeat because you know you’ve just wasted 3 points and ruined the best day of your week for literally no ones visible benefit. And WASTE is exactly the word to describe City’s naive, regressive display.

But having made the decision to write-off the write-up (in fact even alcohol lost its appeal last night after this performance) I couldn't sleep as I contemplated two troubling takeaways: 1. There probably needs to be some record of this match as a cautionary tale so that no one allows it to happen again. 2. The official record is pushing a “WE GAVE EVERYTHING” narrative, a vacuous comment from Dean Holden after a game in which we huffed and puffed and blew ourselves over.

We did not give everything. To give everything is to apply yourself relentlessly in a manner required to achieve your goal. Some of our players ran around a lot but what they were doing to win a football match is anyones guess. Reading were a poor side but you could see exactly how they approached it - run at defenders and shoot. There are only two players in our side who’ll run any distance with the football. Webster is a centre back and Diedhiou has little idea what to do next.

City got the ball in midfield and players took it in turns to control and pass. Control and pass. Control and pass. It’s wonderful two-touch training ground stuff but this religious quest for the killer pass is not half as good at breaking the lines as simply running at people. Where Reading’s direct running allowed them to meet our back four and score three times, we generally played from behind two lines of four and eventually punted it at Eliasson and asked him to get it on Diedhiou’s head.

Of course the plan, I think, is to create overloads: passing brings more of the team into the game, and if you can get Hunt overlapping a more compact Brownhill on the right, and the technically skilful duo of Eliasson and De Silva combining on the left, you will have numbers to play through them at will. And we did so for both of our goals. But while Walsh is a revelation, it relies on a quality of passing we simply don’t have, most of it in deep areas, followed by a 50-50 punt over the top.

Someone said to me of Lee Johnson in the summer that we are naively trying to play Man City football with Bristol City players. At Reading I’m not certain what we were trying to play, but the vast majority of the time our style of passing produced far less clear opportunity to get our head up around the box with an opportunity to shoot, than Reading produced from just 3 or 4 direct runs out of midfield. Instead most of our effort resulted in a desperate attempt to get it on Famara’s head.

The tone was set almost immediately as City strung a few passes together inside their own half while Reading instead ran at us with their first opportunity. It drew the free-kick, and from the resultant set piece, the ball was half cleared out of the box, but the hosts second attempt to slip the ball into the box was met by an oddly nervous looking Kalas 12 yards out, and his scuffed clearance fell tamely for Meite on the edge of the box to rifle a low shot back past him and into the bottom corner.

Reading had their tails up almost immediately and would push forward several more times, aided by early uncertainty from the likes of Kalas and De Silva. It wasn’t until nearly the midway point in the half that City found their range. Walsh brilliantly releasing Elasson down the left, and his wicked cross caused panic, and while Reading scrambled the ball clear, the clearance fell straight to Hunt in space, he dropped a shoulder to shoot, then slipped a brilliantly weighted ball into Pack to finish.

Now City would settle and take control of the game. Or so we thought. Hunt and Eliasson’s attempts to get in behind Reading on either flank looked best placed to cause problems and it was Hunt again who got clear down the right with teammates charging into the box. City would have several chances to apply the finish before the ball broke to counterpart Eliasson racing in beyond the far post, from where his low shot was beaten away. Play like this for the rest of the game and we’d win.

Next Walsh would again show his class in midfield to make room to feed Diedhiou, who in an uncharacteristic moment of decisiveness, quickly turned his marker 25 yards out and flashed a rasping, dipping shot just over the bar. But aside from set pieces - and City didn’t win many - too much was played deep in midfield, and when Reading raced upfield on another break before halftime, they took advantage of stand-offish defending to contrive an unlikely but well taken 25 yard second.

To City’s credit, the indignity of having gone behind for a second time to a clearly struggling side appeared to sting City into action - particularly at that crucial time before the half-time team talk - and led by Eliasson they would come storming back immediately, the winger creating all sorts of problems from the left. Given space to cross he gets balls into positions City players can attack, and he'd get two chances to do so, Brownhill eventually bundling home after head tennis in their box.

Even the most paranoid of City fans might have assumed City would put things right during the interval and emerge after the break to take control of a game they could and should have comfortably dealt with. But while the early exchanges in the second half proved promising - Eliasson a constant nuisance winning a succession of corners (and blazing wildly over with sight of goal), and all-action Walsh twice wide from range, City’s quality and invention was getting progressively worse.

By now City’s two-touch passing routine on the halfway line was wearing thin for all - including apparently even the massively out of form Pack, who alongside the brighter Walsh, was retreating to his old routine of needing to turn backwards and regroup before finding a pass. With Brownhill playing compact on the right (his energy largely wasted there), City were reduced solely to punting balls over the top for Eliasson, or directly onto Taylor or Famara’s head. It was so easy to deal with.

So instead Reading, anonymous in a poor second half, could not believe their luck when they went back to their playbook for a third time and raced upfield once more from City’s right - again faced up by standoffish defending - as Kalas hesitated to intercept the first pass, the second one back across goal was ignored by City midfielders again, the hosts yet again given space and sight of goal to gratefully accept the invitation to rifle home. It made City’s huff and puff seem rather shallow.

City threw on the more combative Weimann, followed by Kelly (to go 3 at the back) and Paterson (presumably Eliasson was exhausted as it’s still a miracle to me that Paterson has to get a go every week), but by now City’s hour long insistence on methodical passing had been reduced to what this football really all just leads to in its basest form: punting in at Diedhiou as our only goalscorer and hoping that he does something. For the one millionth time this is not his game - and it shows.

Everything was aimed at Famara’s head and while he has somehow managed to produce some wonderful headers - Hull, QPR last season - it was all so predictable that he was closely marked, and expected to convert increasingly tame, lightweight crosses into finishes past both marker and keeper. Unsurprisingly it didn’t happen. His preferred game is getting the ball outside the box and running at them. He'd get one chance to do so and like much of his day, he’d make little of the chance.

Nonetheless it was the direct aerial stuff into Diedhiou centrally that created City’s only two chances to draw level, his first header on falling to Brownhill at the far post to fire against the post from an acute angle, and then in an almost carbon copy another header down was into the path of the onrushing Weimann, who had easily our clearest sight of goal, but a first time shot was straight at the keeper and beaten away. In between, both Brownhill and Walsh would fire free kicks just over.

And that was it. Faced up by laboured and largely predictable second half football from City, in truth Reading didn’t have to do too much to hold onto an unlikely result, and bar one shameful bit of injury play acting on the right touchline to take the wind out of City’s sails after a sublime touch from De Silva won a dangerous throw in, the hosts to their credit didn’t need to engage in gamesmanship or time wasting to see out the result. City were easy to defend and even easier to attack.

Yet Dean Holden says we gave everything, because we dominated possession and had lots of chances. By that reckoning 80 minutes of passing around inside our own half and 10 minutes of hammering it at Diedhiou on the edge of the six yard box would make us world beaters. No we did not give everything, because to do so produces results. There was no quality in forward positions besides Eliasson and tactically our football was laboured and lacking in initiative. Reading showed plenty.

Having produced moments of real encouragement this season under Lee Johnson - Swansea away, Sheffield United at home - it’s hard not to reach the inescapable conclusion that he has one training-ground honed style of play that when all the parts are in tune works perfectly, but the slightest adjustment to the team (for example to rightly accommodate Walsh) and players out of form (Pack, Diedhiou) and the whole style of play and strategy to win games falls apart like a cheap suit. 

When Reading fans - among the most silent and humourless in the country - are provided THREE separate opportunities to pipe up with “how shit must you be, we’re winning at home”, we should be ashamed that our tactical approach is so fallible that it cannot out manoeuvre a struggling side unless all the players are on their game. You can’t help but wonder whether the net return from these players would be any worse (or better) with a Ron Manager type playing simple kick and rush football.

O’Leary 5 - Hard to say he is at fault for any of the goals, but I guess you’re looking for a flash of brilliance to stop something
Hunt 6 - Great going forward, less convincing defensively, tough for him given he was being asked to overlap Brownhill too
De Silva 5 - Poorest game yet, not in the game first half, some nice combinations towards the end when in 3-5-2 but not enough
Webster 6 - Turning into the anchor of our defence, looks very composed and more initiative to run with the ball than most
Kalas 4 - For me his worst game for us, looked nervous early on, did not attack the ball or the player as he has done before
Pack 4 - Ignore the goal, he’s bang out of form, has been for weeks, can’t play him and Walsh and Walsh is the better player
Walsh 6 - Classy and hard working going forward, confident passing (not just the Pack long diagonal) a bit exposed defensively
Brownhill 6 - Energy wasted on right, attacked the box, but less defensively - are we brave enough to play him and Walsh central?
Eliasson 6 - Most of our best stuff went through him, unsure why he is always withdrawn, attacking is one dimensional without him
Taylor 4 - Didn’t really get in the game which was played largely aerially by City, we don’t really play to any of our strikers strengths
Diedhiou 4 - Reaction to him is overdone, service was poor and he did his best in the air, but can’t escape he is not suited to style

Weimann 5 - Brought some directness to the forward line and chases down defenders, but in form he’d have buried his chance
Paterson 5 - One cross for Famara which produced Brownhill's chance, looks utterly lightweight though, no better than Eliasson
Kelly 5 - Wasn’t enough time to really have any impact with Reading defending, got clattered by Sammy Baldock for good measure

[054123]

Just a boring narrative now about this being a competitive league and anyone can beat anyone, so you’ve got to expect defeats against Stoke and reading.

seems strange that we shouldn’t expect more 

[JBFC II]

10 minutes ago, 054123 said:

Just a boring narrative now about this being a competitive league and anyone can beat anyone, so you’ve got to expect defeats against Stoke and reading.

seems strange that we shouldn’t expect more 

Of course we should hope for wins, but we can't 'expect' to win every game, football doesn't work like that... 

[RedRock]

...... and repeat. 

We’re reaching the point where either LJ goes or he develops a different game plan based on the player’s strengths.

Clearly, he’s seriously misjudged the players strengths and capabilities that he’s bought in. 

Depressing stuff. 

[Fordy62]

It’s just remarkable that we seem to be shit so often. Yes we lost Bryan, Reid & Flint, but how are we so far away from the delights of the silky one touch that carved teams open in the first half of last season?

[KeepUpLino]

18 minutes ago, Moor2Sea said:

...... and repeat. 

We’re reaching the point where either LJ goes or he develops a different game plan based on the player’s strengths.

Clearly, he’s seriously misjudged the players strengths and capabilities that he’s bought in. 

Depressing stuff. 

Yeah I totally agree, where are we seriously going under LJ?  What’s the plan? 

Depressing indeed!

[Aizoon]

I used to say I wouldn't cross the road to see Reading play. I never did, although I must have visited Elm Park a couple of dozen times. I lived just round the corner, and literally didn't have to cross the road.

 

The Madjeski is the face of modern football and I HATE it. I would quite honestly rather go to the County Ground or the Memorial Swamp. We can only be grateful that we didn't build a new stadium five miles down the A38.

[Der no.2]

Good summary Olé.

We looked disjointed yesterday and agree did not give all. Attacking forward passes from midfield have to come through Walsh, with Pack sitting defensively covering the defence, thats his strength. 4 for Tays a bit harsh, he didn’t receive many good passes, not his fault.

For me going forward, Weimann & Taylor upfront who need service on the deck. This will also mean we can press from the front.

[Red Exile]

Sad to say it's an excellent and painfully honest assessment @Olé. I left the ground feeling utterly dispirited. I can't abide the blandness of the Reading experience but we usually go as it's our nearest away match - sadly that depressing walk down the dual-carriageway has been all to regular an occurrence down the years.

Often we've been outplayed but so inept was our failure to defeat a really poor Reading side that I left yesterday wondering where the pleasure is in watching the current City set up. We're regularly paying to see the talents of highly paid professional and skilful athletes being squandered by an inept management team. Johnson and co have the air of spectators, not men dictating the shape of a game. Paul Clement is having a bad time there...but the merest glance at his CV suggests that as a coach he's light-years ahead of our trio. Why are we stuck with the work-experience crew? The Lansdown project increasingly leaves me cold.

Three points thrown away. 

[Major Isewater]

28 minutes ago, Fordy62 said:

It’s just remarkable that we seem to be shit so often. Yes we lost Bryan, Reid & Flint, but how are we so far away from the delights of the silky one touch that carved teams open in the first half of last season?

My theory , for what it's worth, we overwhelmed teams early on with our energy , pressing and overloads but no one read the story of the tortoise and the hare to LJ as a child and we simply got overtaken by teams who paced themselves better and we ran out of steam.

 

[Thornbury Red]

Great review @Olé

Seems our players are encouraged to pass without purpose, to pass and stand still and pass to a teammate in a worst position as some kind of beautiful football phillosophy. Problem is it works to a degree, as we so create chances, just havent got a striker worthy of the name. I watched Taylor closely yesterday, his first touch isnt good enough at this level and your best asset is that you "run around a lot" says it all really, he gave up possession every time he had the ball in the first half. Famara is not suited to our style of play and because we are training every day on slow ball retention and passing with no purpose we havent got enough guile to change tactics in an effective manner. Weimann looks like he has lost all confidence and Eisa hasnt proved himself at this level.  Its ironic that we get loads of crosses in to the box but seem to lack the phyisicality to get on the end of them, perhaps we miss a player like Duric to mix it up a bit.

No idea what the answer is mind, moving the ball forwards more quickly would be a start i think (controlled not hoofball) but when both your forwards constantly lose possesion i can see whay we play the way we do.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

My theory , for what it's worth, we overwhelmed teams early on with our energy , pressing and overloads but no one read the story of the tortoise and the hare to LJ as a child and we simply got overtaken by teams who paced themselves better and we ran out of steam.

 

Running around with no end product is pointless...

[Tin Soldier]

That is a superb review Ole. Honest and in my opinion accurate.

I find myself asking exactly what direction is Johnson taking us? We have no option B when poor sides like Reading run at our lot, we look really vulnerable.

Find myself trying to give Johnson to Xmas, before questioning him as coach, but we could be in a relegation fight by then. Yes we are only a few points off the playoffs, but we need to see some improvement from Johnson. His tactics are poor, his team selection is poor, his ability to change direction of a game when we are losing is poor. Surely improvement now needs to happen?

Reading are a poor team. 

Worried about the rest of the season!

[Sniper]

Looking at the table after 16 games played and we are 7 points off the drop and 8 off the top. No-one really seems to want it this season and the saying that anyone can beat anyone is bang on.

We may be looking back on this season thinking what an opportunity missed as with a bit of consistency we may not have a better chance of making the promised land.

[And Its Smith]

People maybe starting to appreciate how good Reid is 

[pillred]

12 minutes ago, Sniper said:

Looking at the table after 16 games played and we are 7 points off the drop and 8 off the top. No-one really seems to want it this season and the saying that anyone can beat anyone is bang on.

We may be looking back on this season thinking what an opportunity missed as with a bit of consistency we may not have a better chance of making the promised land.

think that was last season 17 points clear in the play off places at Christmas.

[RedCheese]

To have 60% of the possession every week and only win 2 games in 9 (by a single goal) demonstrates we are working on the wrong part of the pitch. Get it up, get it in

[BTRFTG]

Decent writing as usual from Ole but it's not complex.

We're rank average, with players and management that will struggle to keep us competitive in this league. Reading were rubbish and for the taking, yet out muscled us in every aspect of the park.

We do not have a striker at the club. Taylor again ran the line, found space and pulled their defence around but can't score at this level, so why persist? I've said it before but Diggery is an Eau Bas Savage. Soft in the challenge, non-combative in the air and couldn't trap a bag of cement. Not sure there's any value in him but we should offload. Weimann never was a striker, so bad call again WeeLee if that's why you bought him.

Midfield too elaborate and when Pack's off we're done for. WeeLee's insistence on neat passing triangles is ponderous and non productive as we've no forward-looking creativity. Like snakes and ladders we  invariably end up  back at square one. Eliasson might not have bothered turning up given all he has to offer. Ole appears under the misapprehension Eliasson has the ability to beat people and provide quality balls into the box. He doesn't. But not to blame him as WeeLee's midfielders are all one and the same in his own likeness, interchangable only in they'll bring nothing new to the mix as and when they drop in and out.

A few weeks back I thought the season positive I hadn't expected was we're relatively solid at the back. Wrong. Any talentless lump wants to mix it with us and we're shambolic. Forget the goals and look at the number of times we allowed balls across the box that bypassed our defensive unit.

Few want to hear it but we're going nowhere fast under the current regime.

[Red7]

2 hours ago, Olé said:

I couldn't sleep as I contemplated two troubling takeaways:

We've all struggled to sleep after a dodgy takeaway or two...

I didn't see the game yesterday, so good, balanced reviews like this are much appreciated. Thanks, @Olé.

[Fatalist]

1 hour ago, Major Isewater said:

My theory , for what it's worth, we overwhelmed teams early on with our energy , pressing and overloads but no one read the story of the tortoise and the hare to LJ as a child and we simply got overtaken by teams who paced themselves better and we ran out of steam.

 

An original angle for the GJ bashers?

[Major Isewater]

1 hour ago, RedDave said:

People maybe starting to appreciate how good Reid is 

Any one who hasn't before is surely not going to recognise the fact now .

 

[Major Isewater]

45 minutes ago, BTRFTG said:

Decent writing as usual from Ole but it's not complex.

We're rank average, with players and management that will struggle to keep us competitive in this league. Reading were rubbish and for the taking, yet out muscled us in every aspect of the park.

We do not have a striker at the club. Taylor again ran the line, found space and pulled their defence around but can't score at this level, so why persist? I've said it before but Diggery is an Eau Bas Savage. Soft in the challenge, non-combative in the air and couldn't trap a bag of cement. Not sure there's any value in him but we should offload. Weimann never was a striker, so bad call again WeeLee if that's why you bought him.

Midfield too elaborate and when Pack's off we're done for. WeeLee's insistence on neat passing triangles is ponderous and non productive as we've no forward-looking creativity. Like snakes and ladders we  invariably end up  back at square one. Eliasson might not have bothered turning up given all he has to offer. Ole appears under the misapprehension Eliasson has the ability to beat people and provide quality balls into the box. He doesn't. But not to blame him as WeeLee's midfielders are all one and the same in his own likeness, interchangable only in they'll bring nothing new to the mix as and when they drop in and out.

A few weeks back I thought the season positive I hadn't expected was we're relatively solid at the back. Wrong. Any talentless lump wants to mix it with us and we're shambolic. Forget the goals and look at the number of times we allowed balls across the box that bypassed our defensive unit.

Few want to hear it but we're going nowhere fast under the current regime.

Even if we do go somewhere fast we'd still concede soft goals there. 

52 minutes ago, RedCheese said:

To have 60% of the possession every week and only win 2 games in 9 (by a single goal) demonstrates we are working on the wrong part of the pitch. Get it up, get it in

As the actress said to the bishop. 

[kevinmabbuttshair]

Why is anyone surprised that a side managed by Johnson passes the ball sideways a lot and doesn't create? 

[Bazooka Joe]

The "we gave everything" narrative is wearing thin and patently untrue.

On the other hand, the Reading players (some of whom aren't that good) can justifiably claim to have done just that.

[ChippenhamRed]

7 minutes ago, Bazooka Joe said:

The "we gave everything" narrative is wearing thin and patently untrue.

On the other hand, the Reading players (some of whom aren't that good) can justifiably claim to have done just that.

The media team isn’t helping matters with this sort of propaganda. It achieves nothing other than to create a disconnect between the club and the fans, and foster bad feeling, when they don’t report accurately what happened or make any attempt to judge the mood.

[RidgeRed]

Think the problem is that LJ sets it all up very nicely on the training ground. All set to go on Tuesday night or Saturday but then along comes the dreadful inconvenience of an opposing team/manager that may not let us play & (eventually) score the perfect goal. Well, sometimes an opponent will but maybe less often these days. Textbook stuff, innit? Some of it should stay there, too, and if anyone else says he's still learning..........I shall boo!

[NickJ]

3 hours ago, Olé said:

O’Leary 5 - Hard to say he is at fault for any of the goals, but I guess you’re looking for a flash of brilliance to stop something

I was pleasantly surprised to see him start with Maenpaa fit. Don't want to be harsh but I reckon some keepers may have got the first one.

Great report @Olé

[Aaron-Bcfc]

1 hour ago, RedDave said:

People maybe starting to appreciate how good Reid is 

Quite a few are of the opinion that Weimann is the better player, staggering.

[RedM]

2 hours ago, RedDave said:

People maybe starting to appreciate how good Reid is 

I never doubted what he brought to the team and thought we would miss him that most from our Summer departures. He showed energy and drive and looked to get the ball forward at all times, and his team mates responded. We don’t seem to have much of this now, perhaps Walsh in the limited times we have seen? 

I wasn’t there yesterday, saw the second half though. Perhaps it was one of those games we feel we just have to turn up to win, ‘only lowly Reading’ maybe? I can take losing when we’ll beaten, I don’t like rolling over and surrendering.

[WhistleHappy]

2 hours ago, RedCheese said:

To have 60% of the possession every week and only win 2 games in 9 (by a single goal) demonstrates we are working on the wrong part of the pitch.

**Get it up, get it in

** as the actress said...   frustratingly after Bristol City flop again in another impotent performance.