Reading 2 - 1 Newcastle United - 27/10/07 - Post match reaction from page 10

[KaKa]

Owen just isn't worth keeping around. Not necessarily because I don't think he is a good enough player or anything.

 

The reason is because I don't think Sam is comfortable with the 4-4-2 formation and therefore his team selections for this formation aren't great.

[madras]

yet again allardyce's tactics on the road cost us points,his fetish with clean sheets is beginning to piss me off.

 

the idea is to outscore the opposition not just stop them scoring,for me the best way for a team to defend is to have possession of the ball in the oppo's half.

 

if he'llput out teams like he has for trips to derby and reading i'm dreading going to old trafford or stamford bridge.

[EthiGeordie]

  If we won I am pretty sure Big Sam was the best now just because we lost he is the worst common people have a perspective we are a simple mid table team who have a good potential to be a very good team so lets think about the whole perspective big sam is doing a good job and lets give him time.

[madras]

  If we won I am pretty sure Big Sam was the best now just because we lost he is the worst common people have a perspective we are a simple mid table team who have a good potential to be a very good team so lets think about the whole perspective big sam is doing a good job and lets give him time.

but we lost,like at derby,pitifully and attempting to hold out for a draw.

 

 

for what it's worth i'm pretty sure had roeder won us the league we wouldn't have got shot........IF !

[Mick]

  If we won I am pretty sure Big Sam was the best now just because we lost he is the worst common people have a perspective we are a simple mid table team who have a good potential to be a very good team so lets think about the whole perspective big sam is doing a good job and lets give him time.

 

I don't see guiding us to a defeat against teams like Reading as doing a good job, the last two managers were capable of doing that.

[Rich]

Owen just isn't worth keeping around. Not necessarily because I don't think he is a good enough player or anything.

 

The reason is because I don't think Sam is comfortable with the 4-4-2 formation and therefore his team selections for this formation aren't great.

 

Unfortunately the Owen comment is spot-on and has been my feeling for a good while now.

 

He does not fit into what Allardyce wants to do with this team, away from home in particular, and I'm not sure how much longer Big Sam will stretch to accommodate him while it's costing us points. Say what you will about 4-5-1, but it can't be much worse than what we saw today with 4-4-2.

[Mick]

 

Unfortunately the Owen comment is spot-on and has been my feeling for a good while now.

 

He does not fit into what Allardyce wants to do with this team, away from home in particular, and I'm not sure how much longer Big Sam will stretch to accommodate him while it's costing us points. Say what you will about 4-5-1, but it can't be much worse than what we saw today with 4-4-2.

 

The problem today wasn't 4-4-2, it was the players selected to play in the formation that was the problem.  4-4-2 would have worked if we'd played with 2 wingers and attacked down the flanks from time to time, we would have stretched the game a bit and gave Reading something to think about.

[Rich]

 

Unfortunately the Owen comment is spot-on and has been my feeling for a good while now.

 

He does not fit into what Allardyce wants to do with this team, away from home in particular, and I'm not sure how much longer Big Sam will stretch to accommodate him while it's costing us points. Say what you will about 4-5-1, but it can't be much worse than what we saw today with 4-4-2.

 

The problem today wasn't 4-4-2, it was the players selected to play in the formation that was the problem.  4-4-2 would have worked if we'd played with 2 wingers and attacked down the flanks from time to time, we would have stretched the game a bit and gave Reading something to think about.

 

Not necessarily, nobody can say what "would" have happened if something else had been selected.

 

The issue was Michael Owen in the 4-4-2 more than anything. My personal feeling is that he doesn't offer enough in open play and won't get enough chances away from home to justify selection. I'd rather see him benched in favour of having Viduka/Smith/Martins down the middle with the likes of N'Zogbia/Milner/Martins down the side of them. I do understand we can't ask Oba to play in two positions at once, but I believe he's capable of filling all the forward roles in the 4-5-1/4-4-2 to a decent standard.

 

Fact is we've taken 4 points from 2 games playing 4-5-1 and 0 points from 3 games playing 4-4-2 on the road, rightly or wrongly under Allardyce I can't see the 4-4-2 being a success. People are wanting something that they will never get from him, in my opinion.

[Teasy]

  If we won I am pretty sure Big Sam was the best now just because we lost he is the worst common people have a perspective we are a simple mid table team who have a good potential to be a very good team so lets think about the whole perspective big sam is doing a good job and lets give him time.

 

Totally wrong mate, people have a problem with the manor of the defeat, not the defeat itself.  Had we gone to Reading with our best team out and lost anyway (unlikely) people would be saying "Don't blame Sam, he's only working with the team he inherited, we need better players".  Allardyce has brought the critisism on himself by putting out a poor team with no creativity, apparently in order to try to get a draw from the mighty Reading 

[Mick]

 

Not necessarily, nobody can say what "would" have happened if something else had been selected.

 

The issue was Michael Owen in the 4-4-2 more than anything. My personal feeling is that he doesn't offer enough in open play and won't get enough chances away from home to justify selection. I'd rather see him benched in favour of having Viduka/Smith/Martins down the middle with the likes of N'Zogbia/Milner/Martins down the side of them. I do understand we can't ask Oba to play in two positions at once, but I believe he's capable of filling all the forward roles in the 4-5-1/4-4-2 to a decent standard.

 

Fact is we've taken 4 points from 2 games playing 4-5-1 and 0 points from 3 games playing 4-4-2 on the road, rightly or wrongly under Allardyce I can't see the 4-4-2 being a success. People are wanting something that they will never get from him, in my opinion.

 

We lost today after starting with no wingers, we started against Derby with one winger.  I don't see the formation as being the problem, I see the players selected in the midfield 4 as the problem.  At Derby we stuck with a shocking display from Shola for 90 minutes yet replaced like for like when bringing on Martins for Owen, we took off Geremi and brought on Faye and we took Taylor off for Beye, I don't see any of them changes as being game changing.

 

As for Bolton away, look at the league table.

[madras]

Owen just isn't worth keeping around. Not necessarily because I don't think he is a good enough player or anything.

 

The reason is because I don't think Sam is comfortable with the 4-4-2 formation and therefore his team selections for this formation aren't great.

 

Unfortunately the Owen comment is spot-on and has been my feeling for a good while now.

 

He does not fit into what Allardyce wants to do with this team, away from home in particular, and I'm not sure how much longer Big Sam will stretch to accommodate him while it's costing us points. Say what you will about 4-5-1, but it can't be much worse than what we saw today with 4-4-2.

not necessarily,you can't say what allardyce wants to do.

[Wullie]

We looked all over the place at the back on MOTD, awful. Worlds apart from what we've seen recently.

[Cronky]

Having watched Football First, I didn't think our performance looked much different from many others this season, including Spurs. We don't pass the ball well through the midfield and struggle to keep possession. We therefore weren't able to cope with Reading's high tempo hustling.

 

A related problem is that with Owen and Martins the ball doesn't really stick up front. I can see that Sam wanted to keep the same strikeforce after a 3-1 win, but Smith should have started up front.

 

Barton looked like he really improved as the pace slackened and he had more space. Butt is a lousy passer and this aspect of our game won't improve as long as he's in the side.

[Wullie]

Have we ever played well in white shorts btw?

 

I always think of getting beat at Selhurst Park by Wimbledon every year when I see us in white. Hate it.

[Cronky]

Have we ever played well in white shorts btw?

 

I always think of getting beat at Selhurst Park by Wimbledon every year when I see us in white. Hate it.

 

I agree. It looks very wussy.

[Ant1815]

Have we ever played well in white shorts btw?

 

I always think of getting beat at Selhurst Park by Wimbledon every year when I see us in white. Hate it.

 

My thoughts exactly. You can talk all the tactics and personell you want, but as soon as I saw us on MOTD in white shorts and white socks I had a bad feeling about this game 

[Mick]

 

My thoughts exactly. You can talk all the tactics and personell you want, but as soon as I saw us on MOTD in white shorts and white socks I had a bad feeling about this game 

 

I think most of us thought we'd do OK until we noticed the white shorts on MOTD, I saw them and just knew we'd lose 2-1.

[Numbers]

Exactly the kind of response i expect tbh,give it time for gaws sake,the whole club is being rebuilt...give it time you bunch of tarts .

[Mick]

Exactly the kind of response i expect tbh,give it time for gaws sake,the whole club is being rebuilt...give it time you bunch of tarts .

 

What has 'the whole club being rebuilt' got to do with Allardyce playing without wingers who were on the bench and Newcastle getting beat at Reading?

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

Exactly the kind of response i expect tbh,give it time for gaws sake,the whole club is being rebuilt...give it time you bunch of tarts .

 

What has 'the whole club being rebuilt' got to do with Allardyce playing without wingers who were on the bench and Newcastle getting beat at Reading?

 

Exactly, the club could be turning over a £400M a year profit with the best youth system on the planet and we would of still lost that game today with those tatics and team.

[leazes.ender]

Not sure how many folk who were at the game have got back to post yet but after many beers in Camden i'll have a go.

 

I didn't have a problem with playing a narrow midfield to steady the game. The problem i did have was that when we were chasing the game the wrong players were in the right positions. The best left midfielder we have is the Zog so why did Emre play out there. Why when we changed the shape did Ron go wide when Jimmy is better there. And unless Faye was injured why did Beye go to CB? That was directly resposible for their winner.

 

I'll not even mention taking Martins off when EMO stayed on after doing jack.

 

By this stage i reckon we should have 4/6 poins more based not on performance but on target and we all know what Sam thinks about them. We should be 4 places higher in the league and now need to take full points from Pompey, the Mackems and the scouse to have had a good start. 4 points from those games and we'll have had a bad start.

 

Right now i'm not sure Sam's magic is working.

[Guest Ridzuan]

It was a disappointing performance and disappointing goals to give away.We probably didnt deserved anything out of the game.We struggle right from the start of it but finally woke up when they scored a goal.I dont understand why he decided to play Geremi and Emre on both the left and the right side of the midfield when he knows N'Zogbia and Milner would have done better. dont know what happened to the defence,apart from Faye,all the three looks very poor.We've got to improve our away form if we want to have any chance of finishing in the top 10 of the table this season.

[macca888]

We lost because of a combination of our own tactical ineptitude and Readings determination. We only looked dangerous when N'Zogbia and Milner were introduced and we gained some width. Enrique and Beye rarely ventured forward and there was a total lack of service all over the park to the forwards. You cannot balme Martins or Owen for that.

 

Quite frankly, our tactics left a lot to be desired and Sam has to have a serious re-think about his strategies away from home, especially against lesser teams.

 

I found it difficult to understand why Faye was substituted. Geremi has no impact all and to take off our best defender on the day, was ridiculous. If he had been in the centre, I doubt Reading would have scored the winning goal.

 

Cacapa put in a lethargic display epitomised by the back pass to Given.

 

Unfortunately, Reading thoroughly deserved the win and any other result would have been a total injustice. I felt really sorry for Owen and Martins. All our defence and midfield did all day was pump long balls up to them inthe air.

 

How bloody ridiculous. A blind man could see that this wasnt going to work after the first 20 minutes.

[Conjo]

yet again allardyce's tactics on the road cost us points,his fetish with clean sheets is beginning to piss me off.

 

the idea is to outscore the opposition not just stop them scoring,for me the best way for a team to defend is to have possession of the ball in the oppo's half.

 

if he'llput out teams like he has for trips to derby and reading i'm dreading going to old trafford or stamford bridge.

 

It's very easy to point fingers after a game like this, but how about giving some credit to a Reading team who were unbeliveably good at closing down every player we had on the pitch? Couldn't it be that the Reading players simply had more will to win the game then our players?'

 

Giving Allardyce blame for the defeat isn't fair, as I thought both Emre and Geremi did a good job out wide today. I don't think Allardyce only was in it for one simple point. The scapegoat-hunting is going too far these days...

[Guest rebel_yell12]

I'll not even mention taking Martins off when EMO stayed on after doing jack.

 

The problem with this is, Martins also did jack.  And if we're looking for a last minute pop-up-with-a-goal where-did-that-come-from miracle, leaving Owen on the pitch makes more sense than leaving Martins on, tbh.  Owen's damn near made a career out of those sorts of things (FA Cup 2001, Argentina 2005, two examples).  At least Owen had one chance on goal today (it looked a probable penalty to me).  I didn't notice Martins doing much of anything, and his name was mentioned perhaps twice on commentary --once when he was subbed.  There was f***all service to the forwards today, and neither one can be blamed for the performance.  I can't even say the partnership isn't working based on today's result, the performance from all (outside Given and the forwards) was too poor to tell anything about those three.  

 

One good note taken -- Owen has now played three whole matches in a row for Newcastle, plus two for England, without a niggle or anything.  Five matches...Isn't that some sort of record for his time at Newcastle?  Touch wood.  Long may such a healthful run continue, and Newcastle will start to see why 16 million didn't seem an outlandish fee.  Assuming we get the midfield sorted.