Impressions on Reading Match

As you know I do like to sit back sometimes & gather my thoughts on our matches.

Having watched the game yesterday I have given certain areas considered thought & opinions.

Brad........................................Not too much to do & mainly what he had to do was competently performed, except for a mistimed kick out there was only one other flaw I picked up with him. When Reading scored I thought Brad was a little slow and flat footed getting back across his goal.

Walker had a pretty good game although not sure about his step overs but great perseverance to set up Bale's goal, Gallas was steady most of the time, I thought Verthongen was excellent and his shooting is great and is bedding in superbly. Naughton still has a lot to learn but a fairly easy debut & he did well.

The midfield did well, Sigurdsson looked great on the ball, he just needs to cut out being too intricate at times. Dembele is settling in & will be a great addition going forward. Sandro was.............well Sandro. Seemed to be everywhere and another good display from him. Whilst they dominated the middle, I did feel that at times it was almost machine like and flairless with no one wanting to make the decision to play a killer pass.

When we did decide to move forward we looked superb & its this area that wins us matches.

Bale is slowly starting to get his A game back & deserved his goal. Lennon still frustrates me, he does some things brilliantly and others not at all. He is not in my opinion good at reading the game & should have learnt by now he needs to get in closer to the far post to meet crosses instead of being in no man's land..............................

Defoe is an enigma to me, clinical striker but oooooh sooo frustrating.

He showed signs of brilliance yesterday, but he shoots from ridiculous angles and nearly always ignores team mates in better positions than him.

I am still not convinced he can do the lone man upfront role, its alright against the likes of Reading, but I think he will have less joy against Chelsea, Arsenal or United & City in that role.

I would give yesterday's performance from the team as 8.5 out of 10.......it would have been more except we should have had at least 2 more goals & Reading should not have scored.


Good platform on which we can move forward & I will only mention AVB in saying I am very pleased for him & it was nice to see him learning not to play 2 defensive midfielders!

COYS