What’s our problem- strikers, midfield, defence, manager? Read on
I’m not going to sugarcoat anything- we’ve been absolutely awful.
We’ve scraped through cup games against what should be inferior opposition. We’ve picked up one point in four games, conceding nine goals.
In all honesty, we should’ve been relegated in 2012 and that has had its effect, but it’s no excuse for us playing like this. Seeing as we shouldn’t’ve been relegated we were looking to bounce straight back up the next year- it didn’t happen. We thought we were in with a shout the subsequent year- we finished in the bottom half of the table. Why are we so poor now?
Ever since the 5-0 thrashing by Stoke we just haven’t looked the same. Reading live text commentary, let alone watching Bolton play is just too painful.
Dougie goes on and on about how he likes playing from the back but is that how we actually play? I have no problem with hoofing the ball up and playing more directly if it wins us matches.
He also talks about how he has a team of fighters who put their body on the line for the team. I understand that players like C.Davies and Spearing absolutely kill themselves running around the pitch. However, I’m afraid that the same cannot be said about some of our other players. Just watch Craig Davies’ penalty against Bury on YouTube, Liam Trotter just stands there after the goal looking down, almost as if he’s angry that Bolton scored because it means he’d have to walk to the other half of the pitch for the centre.
Dougie Freedman seems to have a special ability that makes good players at this level play terribly together. This ability is called poor tactics. Our defence has conceded nine goals in four league games. This defence features Kevin McNaughton (a very experienced player at this level who has spent years flirting with promotion to the Premier League), Matt Mills (a former Reading hero who has played in the Premier League) David Wheater (who was called up to England a few years ago), Tim Ream (Our Player of the Season last year) as well as Dean Moxey (arguably Palace’s best player in the Premier League for the first half of last season) and Dorian Dervite (former Charlton fan’s favourite).
Please tell me how this defence concedes a mean of 2.25 goals a game? I think it’s because they’ve been confused out of their minds by Freedman. If we stop conceding so many it’ll give the team more confidence and maybe we can start playing in a more attacking formation and score more.
I like Freedman but, I’m afraid, I reckon it’s time for him to go. His recent tactics have been bewildering and I really just don’t think he knows what he’s talking about anymore.