Spike

All this Pearson talk, we would have struggled under Pearson today too, a counter-attacking game against this Leeds, they'd have soaked it up all day and used it against us. I mean it wouldn't have been worse but it wouldn't have been any better. Todays performance has been crap, no denying that but some people are talking like we're this bad every week which we are not. One thing I will say is two up front against a team with as much quality as Leeds, bad choice, the only thing that concerns me is the slow reaction to the issues.

Max saving the game there. Another piss poor bit of defending.

Manning has to take the blame for not changing up the shape at half time, we weren't even in the game in the first half and he's sent them out the same way, what did he expect?

Awful defence in so many ways, not a surprise at all

Watching back that penalty call, I'd have to say we're very lucky not to have given away that penalty. What's frustrating is seeing how easily they are stringing passes together in our area. Our biggest issue is that we can't hold onto the ball without going backwards and Leeds have pace so they are closing down fast forcing us to lose the ball, essentially they're using our own tactics against us but doing it a lot more effectively. I know our fans want a front two but it seems pointless when we can't even get the ball up the pitch, I'd much rather see us have a 5 and get a hold of the ball in the second half.

Oh I agree but it's a hard one for some fans to swallow when it's such a stupid statement, I'd imagine they want to hear from him again on the subject and see if he still thinks the same.

Why would the club kick out paying customers? Like they could kick them out and then the seat doesn't sell and then it's not even creating income.

I mean we only have Lansdown to blame, you make a stupid comment that is deluded in football and the fans won't forget it.

Max with a huge save again

I've lost count of how many times I've said Vyner is not suited to a back 3 and every time I'm told how great he is and how improved. He improved because we stopped playing a back 3, since we've gone back he's a shadow of the player he is in a back 4. He's just not got the ability to play in a back 3, it doesn't suit him. I'm sure I'll get rubbished again but it's true.

Agree but from a neutral point of view it's a team fighting for promotion with a strong history vs a team who have never been in the Premier League and are midtable with the former creating chances and we're not creating anything. Might change if we started taking control of the game but they're having the much better of it so far.

Max super cool and composed there, stops Leeds taking the lead.... crap mind he is

This is deffo something we've missed too, like when was the last time anyone remembers us scoring from a direct free kick? As a teenager I remember seeing Mickey Bell, Tinnion and numerous others scoring from free kicks, now when we get one I don't get excited at all, would be nice to get a permanent threat on direct free kicks, also allows us to threaten the opposition by running at them if they fear giving away free kicks.

Reading there is an option to buy makes this a worthwhile deal, glad to see that otherwise it would seem a little bit of an odd one. I hope he proves to be exciting.

He's not as bad as people make out and I'm very interested to see if the club agree and most importantly if they can deliver a better quality keeper than Max in the Championship. The kind of keeper we need isn't an easy find, then you have to convince them this is the right club for them, then you need to beat the competition etc all whist goalkeepers are like gold dust. I'd be interested to see who we can get that will be a solid shot stopper, capable of commanding his area, able to play long and short passes under pressure and sweep up long balls that get in behind us all for the same wages Max is on.

But this includes long kicks where for the most part we have no one to aim for as very few of our attacking players have the strength and size to take the pass. I've been saying for ages that Maxs passing has been improving but the issue is we don't have the right players to revive a long high kick and so more often than not a defender will win the challenge. This is one of the reasons we try to pass the ball around rather than lump it up the pitch. If we had a center back playing the passes instead of Max they'd probably have a massive drop in their completed passes too. Max is going to be another one of these players who leaves us and the replacement will struggle to play as a sweeper keeper and we'll be on here having a discussion on "why did we let Max go?", "he could play the sweeper role" "why is it so hard to find a good shot stopper who can also play the sweeper role?". The simple fact is that if there is a great shot stopper who can command his defense and has great distribution he's most likely playing at a higher level or will be soon enough. I used to be a goalkeeper and it genuinely irks me how some fans seem to think it's a perfectly simple task to play like an outfield player whilst also having a totally different set of skills that no other player needs to develop and being the single most criticised player the second something goes wrong. Every time Vyner makes a mistake our fans say "oh but he's improved so much" and whilst they are not wrong the difference is that a defender can make a mistake and still get bailed out so they get a pass unless it becomes consistent. A defender can also be dropped and given time to work on their game and allow them not to feel pressured, meanwhile goalkeepers who get dropped sometimes never find their way back into the team and what's worse in our situation is Max couldn't have a game or two off to refocus himself if he wanted to because we don't have anyone who is anywhere near his level at the club to take his place. I get our fans are frustrated when he does make a mistake but it's already at a point that he gets the blame for many things that are not his fault so when he has a bad game our fans are frothing at the mouth to lay into him. I do hope he leaves at the end of the season, not because I don't rate him but because I feel like he'll never get the support from our fans and he will be more valued elsewhere. I do hope we find a suitable replacement but if I were a keeper who isn't comfortable in every aspect of his game and skilled in all of them too I wouldn't come near this club.

Could have been a big win and absolute sloppy defending has cost us. How do we go from not being able to score to scoring 2 and forgetting how to defend!? So frustrating

Well, nope he can't haha

People keep saying this but how many chances did we create for Conway and how many do we ever? I don't think it's down to his positioning either, I don't think any striker would thrive as we're playing at the moment. I agree with many in that we're playing better football to watch, we look more organised and we're definitely looking better at the back but when did Conway ever have a good pass to run onto or a cross that he could have connected with, same with Wells. I think our best chances rarely come to the strikers and in all fairness to Conway he finishes as many as he misses. I think that's our weakest part of this new football, supply to the striker and I honestly think we could spend a fortune on a marquee striker signing and still not see goals from that position if the play were not to change. I saw suggestions of a big strong striker to hold up the ball, which would definitely benefit us compared to the current strikers we have, but then we'd have to rely a lot on the players around this strong striker to score the goals as he'd end up dropping into that deep 9 position with runs coming off of him. There is no easy answer IMO, big, strong strikers who are also able to convert are not cheap or easy to find, it's one of those positions that usually set you back a pretty penny or just don't have all the abilities that you need for that kind of lone roll. We're definitely going to have a lot of competition for those types of players.

The thing is we see a lot of people talk up players only for those players to go on to not do much, the whole "could have got him for less back when" discussion means nothing really because it's pure "what if" as he could have joined us back then and not developed for numerous reasons. Someone else could have got Alex Scott but maybe without our solid youth focus he may have not developed into the player he is today. I hate the whole "we should have got him back then" argument, too many factors and if it was obvious there was a real talent and that he was interested I think a lot more clubs would have got involved back then. I think our youth system has a good eye for when they can bring a player in and develop them and the earlier you bring in a player the more work you'll have to do, for all we know we looked at him and said "he's too raw, we don't have the time to invest" whereas the route he took they did have that time. All of that aside it's now and here that matters, we didn't sign him and if the price is £5m and the club feel that is too steep then that's the situation and we need to look elsewhere. I feel the club better knows it's financial limits than any of us fans do and are in a better place to make a decision on whether he's worth it or not.

The thing is we have TGH so does he lose more game time for this lad and potentially he ends up not getting enough time and doesn't want to join because of that? I don't like loans unless they have solid deals in place to become permanent unless they are emergencies due to injury. If we had a lot of long term injuries in a certain position then fair enough but for me we should be looking to loan out more than loan in.

I'm genuinely surprised to see the views on Tommy on here. The issue isn't Tommy, the issue is we don't provide enough opportunities for a lone striker and haven't done for some time. Doesn't matter who we have in that role atm, you can only do so much when you have very little service. We've had Tommy, Bell, Wells and Cornick play that role, none of them look prolific and that's because they simply don't get the supply they need. I think we could take any striker and put them in this team as that central striker role and they'd struggle.

Full time, absolute credit to the team for that performance, grit by the bucket load, amazing periods of play, nothing to feel bad about in that performance at all.

That cross from Cornick was into such a great area, shame we didn't have anyone there in time.

Great delivery that, unfortunately, the head was so poor.