MATCHWATCH : Bolton Wanderers (a)

[West F]

Kelvin out for 3 weeks with a groin strain so MoM will be getting a few more minutes yet…

There will be even more pressure to sign a striker with him out. Do you know how far away Tuma is?

[Snowflake Royal]

This is very much a process and tonight will help with the confidence.

I have to say that I do enjoy reading the same old comments again and again over the years. It doesn't seem to matter how much football you've watched, or how many times you've seen the same scenario play out - fans always assume that we're playing badly because of either the manager or 'bad attitude' from the players. No one seems to accept the realities involved in rebuilding your team with limited resources.

+1

[Royal Rother]

MoM has touched the ball 53 times in 5 matches so far

And I honestly doubt a Reading player has received the ball after any of those 53 touches in the attacking half.

[Snowflake Royal]

MoM has touched the ball 53 times in 5 matches so far

And I doubt a Reading player has received the ball after any of those 53 touches.

Whoscored gives him 28 passes, 17 successful. Which isn't too bad a % for a striker.

[Royal Rother]

I did a quick edit there!

(He’s better in the defensive half than attack.)

[windermereROYAL]

I don`t give a flying one how bad a player is, the pelters a certain player is getting on X and here now is absolutely appalling, I thought some of the posters on here were above that.
He`s young, and he very probably reads it, that`ll do his confidence a world of good won`t it?

[windermereROYAL]

MoM has touched the ball 53 times in 5 matches so far

And I doubt a Reading player has received the ball after any of those 53 touches.

Whoscored gives him 28 passes, 17 successful. Which isn't too bad a % for a striker.

Over to you Brogue.

[traff]

I don`t give a flying one how bad a player is, the pelters a certain player is getting on X and here now is absolutely appalling, I thought some of the posters on here were above that.
He`s young, and he very probably reads it, that`ll do his confidence a world of good won`t it?

Can give him all the confidence in the world but if he can't play football to the required standard, it will make no difference whatsoever.
This isn't Saturday morning football where 9 year little Marky is protected by his Mum, so far he has looked beyond poor.
This is pro sport where we are paying good money. If he isn't good enough we are not here to accept crash dummy's from Brighton so they can sort the wheat from the chaff.

[Hound]

Done OK to restrict a decent side to zero shots on target so far

Disappointing offensively of course but let’s not forget this is still a side who have been playing together for no more than two weeks. Difficult to build patterns of play, relationships etc at this stage without a pre season

Would like to see more from Dorsett who is far too stand off ish and any form of composure from Wing + Savage wouldn’t go amiss but not playing as bad as being made out IMO - something in this for us

They’ve had a few preseason and 4 other games

It generally takes a lot longer than that! Also half the outfield XI out there tonight didn’t play much of a role in pre season for us. Williams, Fraser, Doyle, Kyerewaa and from memory Dorsett didn’t feature much

I’m sure Hunt will be disappointed with how toothless and disjointed we’ve looked but when you lose the spine of a team and replace them with players who most likely aren’t quite as good (two signings from relegated Crawley as an example) in the last week prior to the season starting, this was always going to be the most likely outcome

No one knows how it’s going to end up under Hunt but we had 11 points after 16 games under Selles and he’s doing OK for himself!

Every team in the league has a host of new players. And Hunt could be playing those that have been here all pre season or last season if that was the worry - ie Garcia, Rushesha, Camara etc

Tbf Selles is starting to look like not a great example either

[Hound]

I don`t give a flying one how bad a player is, the pelters a certain player is getting on X and here now is absolutely appalling, I thought some of the posters on here were above that.
He`s young, and he very probably reads it, that`ll do his confidence a world of good won`t it?

I actually through he did ok. He’s being completely hung out to dry but the system Hunt is playing. The amount of ground he’s being asked to cover is ridiculous and he seemed to be playing CM as much as he was CF.

Kelvin also looked woeful there on Saturday.

He needs to play as a CF not as some
Workhorse trying to press all over the pitch. And fair play he didn’t stop running or helping out with the defence right until the end

[JedMaxwell]

We're clearly very low on confidence and having brought in so many players, some late in the window, we're again playing catch up trying to get the right XI. Up until about when Bolton scored, I thought we were shit but I'll give the players credit for the way they kept going and got us a very decent point in the end.

Positives - Williams looked very good and I think he's an astute signing. The experience calmed us down a lot at the back. Garcia looked good again, decent goal and always looking to play positively on the turn. Obviously Elliott made us tick and for the life of me I don't know why he's not playing, unless they're still being careful after his injury.

Negatives - the midfield balance was all wrong. Savage has hardly got going this season and I though Wing had probably his worst game for us barring his first few appearances in '23 when he looked absolutely lost. He has to play higher and we need to find a way to get him in behind the striker because him playing Hollywood balls from between the centre-halves, or just playing five yard sideways passes, is a waste of his talents. Fraser needs to play as the deepest of a three if he's going to play, but Wing is absolutely wasted playing where he is.

Also, did anyone else want Kyerewaa to just push the ball and run whenever he got it? I feel like he could cause some real trouble by doing that every now and then.

[Mr Angry]

Classic smash and grab to get a point, but you can’t polish a turd, we looked like a pub team most of the game , not clue looking at the players how it’s going to change. God help us if we lose Wing .

The problem is wing. And it’s not his fault. But this all stems from Bindon and mbengue going. The pair of them were able to bring the ball out from the back. We’ve lost that now. Wing is playing far deeper this season because he is having to take the ball from the CB’s and bring it out. There is then too much of a gap between him and the CM. Which is causing pockets of space for the opposition to get into. Means wing can’t get the ball through to the CM so he had to go long all the time. Hopefully with Williams at the back ( who had an excellent game btw) and PoC to return he might be able to sit a bit higher up the pitch.

Spot on; more insight in a single paragraph than from the combined might of BBCRB for the last 10 years!

Bolton looked world beaters against us last night because of all of that space in the midfield; Wing needing to drop deeper has impacted Savage as well, who is a shadow of last season's player. And I was mightily impressed with Williams.

[Hound]

It’s a much Savage and Fraser playing far too high and wide as it is Wing dropping deep, but yes agree the wide open spaces in midfield and lack of connection between the 3 is the main problem with the side

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that 3 good players in Wing, Savage and Fraser have just had 2 very poor games in a row

Can’t fault their effort tbf; or anyone else on the side for that matter

[Sutekh]

Kelvin out for 3 weeks with a groin strain so MoM will be getting a few more minutes yet…

There will be even more pressure to sign a striker with him out. Do you know how far away Tuma is?

8 weeks 2 weeks ago so guess it’s now down to about 6 weeks - so October really and then he’ll be needing to catch up on match fitness.

[Sutekh]

MOM is looking poor because he’s getting sod all help. He is NOT a Forster type who can lead the line and create chances on his own, he looks like someone who needs someone to play off.

[Snowflake Royal]

Kelvin out for 3 weeks with a groin strain so MoM will be getting a few more minutes yet…

There will be even more pressure to sign a striker with him out. Do you know how far away Tuma is?

8 weeks 2 weeks ago so guess it’s now down to about 12 weeks - so November really and then he’ll be needing to catch up on match fitness.

[Snowflake Royal]

MOM is looking poor because he’s getting sod all help. He is NOT a Forster type who can lead the line and create chances on his own, he looks like someone who needs someone to play off.

I don't think it's just that.

He looks utterly lost. He clearly doesn't know what he's supposed to be doing. He doesn’t press hard. Savage, Kyerewaa and Doyle to a lesser extent were flying round the pitch into closing down, he had nowhere near their energy at any point. To the point other people come and pressed his man for him.

He drops back into midfield. His challenges for balls up to him are lacklustre and half hearted. When he does win a header he's trying to flick it on to no one. When we do clear the ball, usually to fairly typical areas, he's never near.

We put crosses in, and he's never making the right run and its often not fully commited.

He got the ball down facing goal once that I could see in the game in a potentially promising moment... what did he do? Blasted a shot from 25 yards directly into the defender 3 yards in front of him. Moronic.

[morganb]

He got the ball down facing goal once that I could see in the game in a potentially promising moment... what did he do? Blasted a shot from 25 yards directly into the defender 3 yards in front of him. Moronic.

Remember that incident well as a huge cheer went up in our house as he'd actually had a shot on goal!

When I first saw Wareham come on against Sutton I said he "ran like a striker"

MOM does not run like a striker. He runs like someone who doesn't normally play football but you've invited him along to make up the numbers

[Brogue]

He got the ball down facing goal once that I could see in the game in a potentially promising moment... what did he do? Blasted a shot from 25 yards directly into the defender 3 yards in front of him. Moronic.

Remember that incident well as a huge cheer went up in our house as he'd actually had a shot on goal!

When I first saw Wareham come on against Sutton I said he "ran like a striker"

MOM does not run like a striker. He runs like someone who doesn't normally play football but you've invited him along to make up the numbers

yes i referred to him as a competition winner a couple of pages back and i stand by that. he will never make it as a footballer

[WestYorksRoyal]

Maybe we should have offered Wareham more than 1 year. He'd have started every game so far.