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2026 Pre-Season Thread - fixture list (1st post) - Reading MATCH THREAD Sat 2:15pm (p56)
Comments
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There lies one of the problems with 4231 if you don’t have any mobility or passing quality in the midfield . If out of possession it becomes 442, it means that your wide players end up sitting right in front of the full backs, negating their attacking threat. We have to return to 532 straight away, in my view, as much as it’s terrible to watch. At least we might nick the odd game 1-0.golfaddick said:What concerned (but didnt surprise me) was our lack of striking intent. How many efforts did we actually have on target ?? I remember Leaburn's shot in the 2nd half ...but was that it ? 2nd half we had more possession in & around their box but once again very little to show for it.
Our wing play was subdued - Grant was playing deeper & although sprayed the ball about didnt really run at them. TC got the ball quite a bit in the first half but didnt really produce anything. One early cross which evaded Godden and maybe another later in the half. But as usual TC drives up the pitch but delivers very little.
We seem to play with wingers......but then don't ! I'm hoping that long term Alli will be on the left & Apter on the right. Grant or Godden in the middle. Or go 442 & have both Grant & Godden up top.4 -
Best prices on teams to get relegated , us and the 3 teams just promoted .
That’ll all change when our 4 marquee signings arrive this week 🤥6 -
Agreed mate , as much as people moan and groan about the 532 it’s all we can do unless we sort the midfield out.wmcf123 said:
There lies one of the problems with 4231 if you don’t have any mobility or passing quality in the midfield . If out of possession it becomes 442, it means that your wide players end up sitting right in front of the full backs, negating their attacking threat. We have to return to 532 straight away, in my view, as much as it’s terrible to watch. At least we might nick the odd game 1-0.golfaddick said:What concerned (but didnt surprise me) was our lack of striking intent. How many efforts did we actually have on target ?? I remember Leaburn's shot in the 2nd half ...but was that it ? 2nd half we had more possession in & around their box but once again very little to show for it.
Our wing play was subdued - Grant was playing deeper & although sprayed the ball about didnt really run at them. TC got the ball quite a bit in the first half but didnt really produce anything. One early cross which evaded Godden and maybe another later in the half. But as usual TC drives up the pitch but delivers very little.
We seem to play with wingers......but then don't ! I'm hoping that long term Alli will be on the left & Apter on the right. Grant or Godden in the middle. Or go 442 & have both Grant & Godden up top.1 -
Season wise I think we will be okay. Agree we need at least 2 more CMs. Mwamba should be given a chance as think he is the sort of player who will grasp the opportunity with both hands.
Going off NJs post match about things being disjointed, I wouldn't be surprised if they were told specifically to get fit, don't over do it and really push on first game of the league season.
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If we defend like yesterday we go down and we have to stop conceding corners/freekicks from careless mistakes. Embarrassing at times...4
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hoof_it_up_to_benty said:If we defend like yesterday we go down and we have to stop conceding corners/freekicks from careless mistakes. Embarrassing at times...
Ramsay was shocking yesterday0 -
As concerning as yesterdays performance was, I don’t think we should take too much notice of pre-season, look at other results around the world in friendlies recently tells you they don’t mean much. Seem to remember in some of our promotion seasons we have had shocking results in pre-season that have made zero difference to the season performance.5
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It’s not the results so much as the performances we should be worried about. We appear to be regressing and our transfer activity seems to have left well below what is required.Covered_End_Lad said:As concerning as yesterdays performance was, I don’t think we should take too much notice of pre-season, look at other results around the world in friendlies recently tells you they don’t mean much. Seem to remember in some of our promotion seasons we have had shocking results in pre-season that have made zero difference to the season performance.7 -
I think we’ve already gone too far down the rabbit hole to return to a 352 now. We’ve only played a 4231 for 5 weeks hopefully it will get better I know it was only Colchester but it showed we can physically play that way.NorthStandMillz said:
Agreed mate , as much as people moan and groan about the 532 it’s all we can do unless we sort the midfield out.wmcf123 said:
There lies one of the problems with 4231 if you don’t have any mobility or passing quality in the midfield . If out of possession it becomes 442, it means that your wide players end up sitting right in front of the full backs, negating their attacking threat. We have to return to 532 straight away, in my view, as much as it’s terrible to watch. At least we might nick the odd game 1-0.golfaddick said:What concerned (but didnt surprise me) was our lack of striking intent. How many efforts did we actually have on target ?? I remember Leaburn's shot in the 2nd half ...but was that it ? 2nd half we had more possession in & around their box but once again very little to show for it.
Our wing play was subdued - Grant was playing deeper & although sprayed the ball about didnt really run at them. TC got the ball quite a bit in the first half but didnt really produce anything. One early cross which evaded Godden and maybe another later in the half. But as usual TC drives up the pitch but delivers very little.
We seem to play with wingers......but then don't ! I'm hoping that long term Alli will be on the left & Apter on the right. Grant or Godden in the middle. Or go 442 & have both Grant & Godden up top.The good thing is we know where the weaknesses lie and our 2 signings hopefully solve that3 -
Nothings changed same old same old. Relegation battle for sure.2
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Second season is always the hardest. Anyone who wasn’t expecting a relegation battle was dreaming16
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This is my biggest worry that we've gone too far down the 4231 path that if we start badly and need to go back to 352 it's going to be difficult. Wouldn't want to be ending up with Ramsay or McNamara having to play RWB.Crispywood said:
I think we’ve already gone too far down the rabbit hole to return to a 352 now. We’ve only played a 4231 for 5 weeks hopefully it will get better I know it was only Colchester but it showed we can physically play that way.NorthStandMillz said:
Agreed mate , as much as people moan and groan about the 532 it’s all we can do unless we sort the midfield out.wmcf123 said:
There lies one of the problems with 4231 if you don’t have any mobility or passing quality in the midfield . If out of possession it becomes 442, it means that your wide players end up sitting right in front of the full backs, negating their attacking threat. We have to return to 532 straight away, in my view, as much as it’s terrible to watch. At least we might nick the odd game 1-0.golfaddick said:What concerned (but didnt surprise me) was our lack of striking intent. How many efforts did we actually have on target ?? I remember Leaburn's shot in the 2nd half ...but was that it ? 2nd half we had more possession in & around their box but once again very little to show for it.
Our wing play was subdued - Grant was playing deeper & although sprayed the ball about didnt really run at them. TC got the ball quite a bit in the first half but didnt really produce anything. One early cross which evaded Godden and maybe another later in the half. But as usual TC drives up the pitch but delivers very little.
We seem to play with wingers......but then don't ! I'm hoping that long term Alli will be on the left & Apter on the right. Grant or Godden in the middle. Or go 442 & have both Grant & Godden up top.The good thing is we know where the weaknesses lie and our 2 signings hopefully solve that
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Hoof it.AberystwythAddick said:The lack of any meaningful patterns of play is concerning. Same problems as last season we just don't know what to do with the ball4 -
I posted fhis response to the list of games on the other thread where even our neighbours seemed to have joined those clubs playing overseas clubs yesterday. Reading may well have been a tougher opponent and more appropriate for the coming season.Covered_End_Lad said:As concerning as yesterdays performance was, I don’t think we should take too much notice of pre-season, look at other results around the world in friendlies recently tells you they don’t mean much. Seem to remember in some of our promotion seasons we have had shocking results in pre-season that have made zero difference to the season performance.
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Have we got anyone that can take a corner yet?Crispywood said:
The signings have been decent but just haven’t made enough or in key areas. Get this midfield and winger supported and I reckon we look betterpanther10 said:We are no where ready for the new season ,as for transfer window has been poor tbh where are the goals coming from for this season0 -
Leaburn can hardly be described as short, he's 6'11"Clem_Snide said:Poor footballing performances are tolerable in pre-season.
However, dead on your feet lethargy is a concern this close to the season starting. We have have done it twice in pre-season now. We looked light years behind Reading from a fitness perspective today.
I am increasingly concerned about our ability to keep the ball out of the net. Our whole transfer window has been aimed at switching to 4-2-3-1 and when we play it we look so vulnerable. Full backs are exposed, crosses come into the box far too easily and the total lack of physicality that the two deep lying midfielders possess means we are getting overrun in the centre of the pitch as well
I know nothing about Holsgrove, but looking at his stature and stats I don’t think he alone is going to solve the problem. We need some height, pace and power in there.
It increasingly feels like we are short up top as well. Leaburn has been really poor this pre-season, Godden is not going to last playing every week and no idea how long Kelman is going to be out for. Expect Dykes to come in on a one year deal before the weekend.3 -
After selling Anderson, I sort of hoped they might have a replacement lined up.BigRedEvil said:We've needed midfield reinforcements since around November. Very disappointing we still haven't got any in 2 weeks before the first league game1 -
fenaddick said:Second album is always the hardest. Anyone who wasn’t expecting a relegation battle was dreaming
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Alli put in a couple of decent ones yesterday.CaptainRobbo said:
Have we got anyone that can take a corner yet?Crispywood said:
The signings have been decent but just haven’t made enough or in key areas. Get this midfield and winger supported and I reckon we look betterpanther10 said:We are no where ready for the new season ,as for transfer window has been poor tbh where are the goals coming from for this season6 -
I missed the last 20 mins, how did Alli look when he came on?0
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Anderson was not going to feature for us and we need to shift players out. The deal came along and the club decided to press the button. The intention was always to bring in a new midfield and our targets were already established long before the Anderson sale. His departure hasn’t impacted Jones plans one bit.CaptainRobbo said:
After selling Anderson, I sort of hoped they might have a replacement lined up.BigRedEvil said:We've needed midfield reinforcements since around November. Very disappointing we still haven't got any in 2 weeks before the first league game0 -
Looked lively, lost the ball at one point and battled hard to win it back which was good to see. Gut feeling is he'll frustrate a fair bit.Covered_End_Lad said:I missed the last 20 mins, how did Alli look when he came on?1 -
It looks like we're going to be starting another season with the feeling that we can't afford to buy the players we need to make progress as a club.3
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Morning after the disaster before...for any masochists out there...😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo7Ge8mVjHU 2 -
Basically an exact same copy of TC.Covered_End_Lad said:I missed the last 20 mins, how did Alli look when he came on?2 -
The Cardiff manager was just on 5live explaining the point of pre-season and taking plaudits for their win v Roma yesterday. We couldnt be further away from ready as a 3-0 home defeat shows.Covered_End_Lad said:As concerning as yesterdays performance was, I don’t think we should take too much notice of pre-season, look at other results around the world in friendlies recently tells you they don’t mean much. Seem to remember in some of our promotion seasons we have had shocking results in pre-season that have made zero difference to the season performance.
In 1985 we nearly beat Liverpool in our final pre season match at the Valley. I was straight in the bookies the next morning and got 50/1 on our promotion (Ladbroke eventually paid out at each way odds), but point being it was easy to tell we had strength and cohesion. Currently we do not amd we should have by now.
There must have been other decent pre seasons in the past 40 years. I'd estimate there haven't been many we can say did not matter to the shape of the season to which they relate.0 -
Only watched the highlights.Kaminski is a fraud, but sadly I don’t think he’s a priority to ship out with our glaring CM/RM issues.
All 3 Reading goals could’ve been saved. Proper rank.4 -
No chance with the 1st goal.Laddick01 said:Only watched the highlights.Kaminski is a fraud, but sadly I don’t think he’s a priority to ship out with our glaring CM/RM issues.
All 3 Reading goals could’ve been saved. Proper rank.
Could have at least made a proper attempt to save the other 210 -
No chance with the first , second was poor defending from our own corner the trailist should have done better to stop the cross and free header right into bottom corner again not keeper fault third was a fluke cross .. .. he just got flat footed ..Laddick01 said:Only watched the highlights.Kaminski is a fraud, but sadly I don’t think he’s a priority to ship out with our glaring CM/RM issues.
All 3 Reading goals could’ve been saved. Proper rank.8 -
I don’t get why Kaminski seems to be nailed on starter ? I far prefer Mannion myself. Kaminski terrifies me flapping at crosses all the time and tbh I really don’t think Mannion did much wrong. I think it’s more a case of being able to justify a high wage sitting on the bench if he doesn’t play9
