Yes many big PL sides can pay more. But the pitch is the same one that’s been used since Adam was a lad - you won’t get much playing time at Liverpool/City/Utd etc come to us you’ll get plenty of time on the pitch, which is better for your development, and when the time comes we’ll help you move on and up.
More than a little surprised at some of the carping on here. We have just won a match which, if you were a neutral and particularly in the first half, was an exciting end-to-end encounter. It puts us 12 points clear in second place and in a wonderful position for automatic promotion. There was some high-quality football from both sides. Give Reading some credit - Watford's defence has proved its quality at this level already and Reading have some very good midfielders and a clever coach to test it so creditably. I would put it this way: 'There you go, Brentford - this is what you're up against'!
Thank god for that. Felt sick most of the day and the last 20 mins of the first half didn’t help. Two superb goals from Sarr. Second half was an advert of how to see out a game when you’re two up superbly marshalled by Sanchez. I thought we were excellent second half, should have scored more goals and barely gave Reading a sniff. Bachman. Best performance so far and looks to be growing in confidence. Femenia. Been great all season but today was great at both ends of the pitch. Masina. Not always convinced by him but decision making today was spot on. Wonderful ball for Sarrs offside goal. The Bloke from Chile. Imperious. Nothing else needs to be said WTE. Defends well but I panic every time he gets the ball. Will always be grateful for getting the players together after Coventry but he’s worse passer of ball than Doyley. Chalobah. Struggled all the way through first half. Sanchez was brilliant without doing anything spectacular. Zinc. I thought he did well. Even defensively he put a shift in which is not his game. Plenty of energy which is incredible as he had already played a full season before joining. Hughes. With Chalobah struggling he got through a lot of work first half and second half him and Sanchez seemed to be playing with Reading Sema. I didn’t think he was as bad as some have mentioned. Not great but put in a shift. Pedro. Very poor again and think the season is catching up with him. Terrible challenge which should be red card Sarr. ******* love him Over to you Swansea and Brentford.
People questioning Sarr's value tonight after that performance really need to give their lives a wobble. One great display from him. Two glorious strikes. Three points.
I did think it was play-off time after Bournemouth away, Swansea were ready to overtake us with 2 games in hand until Big Nige's Bristol City came back from a goal down to beat them! I too was nervous, tonight even in the second half, but that was more of a reflex action, we really did see it out well, they didn't really threaten us once Sanchez came on to shore up the midfield. Hughes and Sarr are two of the very best in this division, lucky to have them, think you're a bit harsh on Success, I thought he did well when he came on to help us see the game out. A derby is still a derby, but I'm certainly looking forward to our trip to the Kennel than I was for the first fixture early in the season!
Did anyone else see Deeney totally demolish that apple in about two bites? He was chatting with Cleverly at the time.
I think that’s the point. I didn’t want an exciting end to end encounter, just three routine points to calm my already shredded nerves.
We have not been playing well as a team since the international break. Neither Brentford nor Swansea have been playing well lately. The difference, despite not playing well - we are winning, Brentford are drawing, and Swansea are losing.
Sarr absolute class we shouldn’t accept anything less than 70m if he is to go. Pedro absolutely terrible a league 1 striker at best. He is given a free pass by fans because he is young, but has been terrible apart from his early season form. We are pretty much playing with 10 men with thus dud.
I must confess I was distracted by the hideous LV top he had on but yes,he consumed it quicker than the birds do in the garden! In a closing pastiche to Lord Tennyson I offer... That which we are we're Sarr One equal team of heroic harts,made weak by time and Nate Yet strong with Will To strive,to seek,to find And not to yield ( to biscuits).
Partly because our players have less minutes in their legs and since the Cov horror show we've developed a much stronger mentality.
Am I right in saying Zinc has the most assists? He's still extremely indecisive, but his quality does occasionally shine through. I feel this half a season in the Championship was exactly what he needed, and will be a big asset in the Prem imo
He reminds me of Miguel Layun, the type of player that you know there a player in there somewhere it’s just a case of using his strengths to the best of his ability and for the benefit of the team! we couldn’t do that with Miguel Layun who has had a successful career (before and after us) hopefully we can do it with Zinckernagel!
Last night reminded me of when smaller teams go up against a prem team in the cup. Plucky Reading gave it a good go but we had too much quality and them kept them at arms length. I’d say the second half was a very professional performance by a superior team.
I did notice that, however he wasn’t talking with Cleverly as that would have been rude at the same time as eating haha!
Or, if we'd invested 35m in 2 centre backs and a half decent striker we might still be in the PL, so 100m better off.
Was the Sanchez sub forced by a knock to Chabs? Have said it before, but I'll say it again, he's massively underrated. Very tidy player in the middle and despite his age, well worth keeping in the squad even at the higher level IMO.
Pedro started the season like a house on fire, but after that his goal scoring record has been Troy like about 1 in 8 from open play. He gets a free pass on the basis of his age, and hopefully he will get miles better next season
In fairness our attack was woeful last season, imagine how bad it would have been without Sarr. It's all well and good pointing the finger at Sarr, or even Dawson, saying our attack or defence wasn't good enough, but when you neglect both sides of the pitch for so long, there's only so much you can do
According to the young lad on WD18 who was at the game as a reporter, and asks Xisco a few questions post match, Chabolah is muscle strain and Troost is very minor injury wise. Both should be OK for Scum.
I wonder if Sanchez and Cathcart have given Xisco something to think about? Sanchez superb when he came on, Cathcart cool and composed, certainly didn't give me a heart attack like WTE did in possession
We had a really bad patch 25/30 minutes after we went two up where we were very wasteful, but we were superb second half and it wasn't anything like as nerve-wracking as I feared. An credible performance from Sarr, all over the park. He looks like the real Sarr, whereas for the past 12 months he was a mere shadow of himself, an ugly shadow at that, where he was falling over at every opportunity and never taking people on, or shooting with any conviction. And it is all down merely to a change in his attitude, the ability was always there. I think that, providing we keep our heads, we are up. And I believe, being only 5 points behind Norwich we can stlll catch them up! As a general observation... We now have the lowest goals conceded per game in the entire league, I believe. I have said before you don't have to spend much money to improve the defence if it is well organised and if the team has a positive attacking philosophy. Our defence last season was, I believe, mid table quality but was made to look worse by our total lack of a goalscorer and mobility up front which basically meant that opponents could attack us with impunity meaning our average defence was fighting a rear-guard action for most of a game. No defence of average quality can survive such onslaughts unscathed. Remembering we played absolutely appallingly for the last nine games of the season but still only went down by the skin of our teeth on the last day where 2 goals in our favour on the last day would have meant us staying up. What our defence needed was an average attack in front of them, then we would have survived easily
It's not just the big clubs we need to worry about, it's everyone in the whole division who can offer the same if not higher wages, and who wouldn't be in such immediate relegation danger
We will not get £70m for Sarr. I can promise you that As for JP, he's 19 years old. This is his first full season in English football and he's been thrown into a league that's intense, physical and that requires him to play twice a week. He needs a long rest this summer and for the fans to be patient. I'm sure this will do him that world of good.
There was such a difference between us with Sarr and Deulofeu together last season (who I believe only started together for 12 games last season-a crying shame!), and us with at least one of those out, even with the static blob that is Troy Deeney leading the line... Geri's gone (and truth be told might not be up to Prem level anymore even if we did fancy taking him back), getting a good left-winger could be as important as getting a good striker (is Cucho up to either of those roles?)
Agree entirely about the defence, I’ve been banging on about that for a long while. We’ve always had a ‘moneyball’ approach to defence, we’ve never had exceptionally good ones, but they all still did well enough for four seasons, nothing changed drastically going into our fifth. The main issue was buying a dud in Gray and also relying on a declining striker in Troy. It finally caught up with us last season with the injury to Gerry the final nail in the coffin.
He was injured against Wednesday. He's basically a false 9. A Firmino type player (as pointed out in the WD18 fan channel). Only 4 players have played more minutes than him this season. If anyone is starting an anti JP campaign to get Troy back in the team, I'm calling the men in white coats right now!
If you keep a record of the number of goals conceded in our recent run next to you when you feel a heart attack coming on, it might be better for you than any medication!
Haha, WTE is an excellent defender at this level, but he should have been at fault for at least one Reading goal!
