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Well that wasn’t very fun, was it? We’ve had bad games this season - most notably at Rotherham United and Sheffield United - but Wednesday night was the worst of the lot.
I just have no idea where it came from. We were all over the place from start to finish. We couldn’t pass the ball, we couldn’t keep the ball, we couldn’t defend, we couldn’t attack, we couldn’t press, we couldn’t sit in and hold shape.
The players look disorganised, tired and low on confidence - which is crazy considering our recent form and the fact they’ve just had 10 days off.
Here’s how the fans reacted to one of the worst performances in recent memory. Warning: it’s not a pretty read...
The defence
Realistically, the defenders are never going to come out of a 3-0 loss smelling of roses and popular with the fans. And they don’t deserve to be after that showing. The lack of organisation was baffling.
Andy Yiadom had his worst game in years, Tom McIntyre and Tom Holmes really, really struggled and we looked like conceding every time Sunderland went forward.
The fans were fuming with the defending, and rightly so...
BREAKING: Out of respect for the Queen, Reading have cancelled defending. Respect. #readingfc
— Greg Double (@Dubstep1988) September 14, 2022
Somebody tell our defence that football is a contact game. #ReadingFC
— Sam Michael (@SamMichaelUK) September 14, 2022
Can someone please enlighten me as to who is meant to be defending on our left side?! Have our defenders been told to stay off the dodgy grass?! #readingfc
— Andy C #FBPE (@AndyRFCCharman) September 14, 2022
Shocking defending #readingfc https://t.co/LBnnes42Gl
— Andy (@Brownie1871) September 14, 2022
What is Yiadom playing at this game? Looks like him being dropped from international side has really effected him. #readingfc
— Royals Stu (@RoyalStu1871) September 14, 2022
Am I the only one who thinks Tom Holmes' best position and spell was his first season covering RB? As a centre back I'm not totally convinced. Sure he's young but we desperately need Sarr back fit to switch to four at the back and maybe give him a break. #readingfc
— Blue & White Jester (@bw_jester_rfc) September 15, 2022
Shocking from McIntyre on the left. Literally had their main goal threat taken off and we concede. Typical #readingfc
— Harry Sands (@SarryHands) September 14, 2022
The midfield
Yes, a lot of the blame lies on the defence, of course it does. But the guys in front of them didn’t do them any favours.
Individually they were all really poor, particularly Mamadou Loum - who got dragged off at half time - and Jeff Hendrick - who has failed to make any kind of impression so far. But the most worrying thing was the collective performance. They struggled to string two passes together, lost so many 50/50s and allowed their opposite numbers to carve through them at ease.
The fans were certainly not impressed with what they saw...
Fornah and Hendrick are being completely controlled tonight. It's as if we don't have a midfield.#ReadingFC
— FPL Observer (@FPLObserver) September 14, 2022
Unpopular opinion Fornah was more at fault than Hendrick last night, Hendrick ay least tried to create but his passing was shocking #readingfc
— Olly_URZ (@OllyURZ) September 15, 2022
Hendrick and Loum have had 45 horrible minutes. Mistake after mistake. Transitions between defence and attack and vice versa have been so slow…#readingfc
— Nick Knight (@NJK20171) September 14, 2022
Midfield atrocious. Loum is a headless chicken. Only Fornah is anywhere near good enough. #readingfc
— Phil Crowther-Green (@Clonebattalion) September 14, 2022
#readingfc need to get a new midfield my god that is one of the worst midfields i’ve seen
— travis (@Cfctraviss) September 14, 2022
Correct in taking Loum off. Cant wait to actually have some options off the bench after the international break so that when we are playing poorly we change the game. Not got much to work with #readingfc
— Max Howard (@MaxHoward_15) September 14, 2022
When it rains, it pours
The most frustrating thing at the moment for me, and for most of the fans judging by the tweets below, is that when it rains, it absolutely pours.
When it’s good, it’s great, but when they perform like they did against Sunderland, we could get steam rolled by any team in this division. Honestly we are the most Jekyll and Hyde team I’ve ever seen at the moment.
I mean, I’d rather be inconsistent than consistently bad, but that doesn’t make watching performances like that any easier or more enjoyable...
When we're bad, we're very very bad. #readingfc
— Anthony Kendrick (@AJKendrick) September 14, 2022
Jekyll and Hyde #readingfc. Saw the bad side again tonight, what happened to the high energy/press we saw against Blackburn?
— Richard (Dougal) (@F8RDR) September 14, 2022
When we play like this we are seriously void of any ideas it’s scary how bad we look… #readingfc
— Guilty i support #Readingfc (@royalmint90) September 14, 2022
Worst performance so far this season...shocking all over. When we're bad we are very very bad. #readingfc
— Melvir (@Melvir88) September 14, 2022
Well when we’re crap, we’re really crap. From tactics to passing to energy, everything was off. Holmes & McIntyre back to looking like deer in headlights, Fornah & Loum making bad decisions & Joao look disinterested, shall we just say all round bad day at the office? #readingfc
— Matt Williams (@mattwilliams100) September 14, 2022
Our fans are very reactionary. We’re either up or so far down, no in between. Picking out individual players when not one took ownership. Stray passes, no communication. A poor TEAM performance. When we go bad, it is very bad #ReadingFC
— Tony Dempster (@DempsterTony) September 14, 2022
When we're bad, we're really bad. Simple as that #readingfc
— Dom (@domwindle) September 14, 2022
Conclusion
I can’t take many more performances like that one. There were no positives from to take from that performance. Not a single one. Yes we’re still fourth and Yakou Meite is back etc etc. But in terms of the performance, I can’t think of one single good thing or moment. It was that bad.
Luckily, we’ve been quite good at reacting to bad performances so far this season - my God do we need to see that again on Saturday.
URZ
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