The Cat

There were some funny people in that stand on the right. One bloke spent most of his time doing various types of hand gestures at us while his girlfriend sat there trying to ignore him. I don't think he watched any of the game. Then after Aribo scored a few rushed over to the wall and started gobbing off before some pushing and shoving with the stewards.

Their safe standing seemed to only applied to the bottom part of the stand opposite. And then we had about the back 5 rows in our stand with rails which they just rammed in front of the normal seats. To do it properly you need the seats which fold up flat like they have at Spurs and Arsenal. People were sat down in the their safe standing section. All very strange.

My point wasn't necessarily in relation to that goal, but more generally about his positioning. What we don't know about that incident is whether he gave Bednarek a shout. If he did and Bednarek still went for the ball and messed up the header then it's his fault because he should have left it. Ultimately it doesn't matter though because we won and had a right good celebration in the away end after the game.

I explained that in another post. LB tucks in, as Stephens did defensively at West Brom so KWP can play further forward. Also per my other post on the occasions when KWP is further back he also defends narrow. See the goal against Hull for an example.

You're prescribing the traditional role of a full back to someone who seemingly isn't being told to hold that position while defending. The game has changed, roles have evolved. It's different now. If people have a problem with Manning's positioning then blame Martin, not Manning.

Alcaraz started for Juventus against Napoli. Playing pretty well in the 10 minutes I've watched.

We definitely have the players to do it Bazunu THB Bednarek Stephens KWP Downes Smallbone Manning Brooks Adams Armstrong Or something like that. Only problem with having 3 CB's is that we'd lose an attacking player.

Some goal that. Woke the Man City fans up as well.

Don't they play 3 at the back? Still, amazing numbers. I have no doubt that Manning will overtake them both by the end of the season, all sparked by the world class hat trick he's going to get on Wednesday.

Pretty dull game. No atmosphere at all. It's supposedly a derby but there's more singing in the Family Stand at St Mary's than this.

Stephens spent a lot of time at West Brom playing in midfield. It was interesting to see how we switched to a back 2 on occasions in that game while atracking with him moving in front of the CB's and Walker Peters high up the pitch. Quite often in the game we defended as a 3 with Walker Peters pushed further up. Stephens dropped back and defended narrowly on the left side of the 3. It seems as if our right side player doesn't always defend narrowly, although it does happen. See KWP against Hull when they lobbed the ball down their left and he was tucked inside, they exploited the space and scored. I don't know enough about tactics to work out when it swaps between LB and RB defending narrowly, presumably it's dependent on the situation on the pitch in that moment. However when we play Manning at LB and KWP at RB it's more often than not Manning who is tucked inside nearer the CB's rather than covering the space a traditional winger would attack. I'm sure Martin could explain exactly why we do it.

This is a great video. I particularly like the way the woman supporting Birmingham shouts "SHIT" just before Aribo scores. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4DjZCsvuAr/?igsh=MWtxcGs5aGp6Y3A0OQ==

It's decent considering who they have played in that time and the fact that, like Reading, there's a terrible atmosphere at the club because fans want the owners out. They got draws against Pompey and Bolton and won away at Derby. Probably end up one of those managers who is solid below the top flight. Similar to a lot of players. No disgrace in that, it's a very hard job and only the elite establish themselves as consistently good Premier League managers.

I'm supremely confident that his positioning is such because he's doing exactly what he's told to do. There is no way he would have been playing that way all season for it to be his decision to stand in the places he does. If that was the case the coaches would have told him to stop doing it. If he was continually out of position then not only Bazunu, but Bednarek, THB, Downes etc would be telling him. The fact they don't makes it pretty clear to me that it's tactical.

Keep up. Winning on the internet is so much more satisfying than your team winning on the pitch. Saints may have got 3 points today but somewhere a poster is sat on the sofa basking in the glory of the 4 likes they got for slagging off the manager.

That's because the crowd started doing the "ohhhh" thing expecting him to do it. You conveniently ignored the fact he was pushing Will in front of us to take applause and do the fist pumps as well and then hugging him while we sang his name again?

The bottom half of the league is pretty mental.

Another win today taking Reading up to 16th. Only 3 defeats in something like the last 17 league games is very good indeed considering the absolute state of the club.

That was a LOT of fun. Great scenes at the end with the team applauding us and then pushing Smallbone to the front to do the 3 cheers thing while we sang his name. You could tell how much it meant to all of them. Martin particularly animated when celebrating with Will. Lovely stuff.

From where I'm stood it looked like Manning was waiting for the ball and Bednarek should leave it. He was under no pressure so could have ducked under it. Manning's narrow positioning is what he's told to do. I don't believe he's spent all season defending like that without any of our coaches noticing and pointing this out. I'm not exactly a fan of his but I feel that some people have decided he's shit and just pick on him for stuff that's not his fault.

Are people really blaming Manning for a goal which should have been disallowed for handball and then 1v1 which happened after Bednarek headed the ball backwards over his head? We're done well going forward. Should have scored a couple by now. Do not deserve to be losing. Also comments about Stephens playing - he's been good. Defended well, passed well, stepping out of defence multiple times and started attacks, ran through their midfield a few times and also received the ball and turned into space.

Of course. Silly me. Definitely not buying a ticket to the play off final if we get there and play Hull because it will be a waste.

Really?

Weird that Leeds only drew against a team who only had 10 players for the second half who we scored 5 against when they had 11. Especially strange as there's been so many posts stating Leeds were on an unstoppable march to automatic promotion because they don't drop points against teams near the bottom. It's almost as if winning a football match isn't as easy as people make out.