The Alternative View: Blackpool 4-1 Reading

Following on from the midweek tonking of Exeter City, Reading made the journey up to Blackpool, the Vegas of the UK (!) to take on a Blackpool side that probably hasn’t lived up to their preseason billing and, like Reading, are suffering the hangover of relegation.

You know though, every team has a team they can’t beat - normally for Reading that’s anyone who has Jordan Rhodes in their team. A quick scout around and it seems that we are third on the list of teams he loves playing against.

Let’s not beat around the bush. For 20 minutes we looked ok, maybe even half decent. As soon as Sam Hutchinson basically lost his mind and committed hari kari on the Blackpool forward, it was game over. For a player of his stature and experience that was a brain explosion. After that, this team lacked leadership, guile and impact. It was a bad day at the seaside.

Twitter

Surprisingly there’s not a huge amount on Twitter but here are the best bits!

Just chill out…

Reading FC, the gift that keeps on giving

Always need a hero

FIFA cheat codes

Week on week…

Seriously…

Oh lucky pants!

Manager’s thoughts

Media

Right, brace yourself, stats of the day. The BBC come up with two gems: that’s Rhodes’ first hat-trick in four years and we haven’t won in Blackpool for over 22 years. Both are equally as poor as each other. If you want to read the report it’s in the link above, however let me summarise it. The Beeb call it Reading misfiring. Translating that, it actually should say “garbage”.

If you truly are desperate for something to watch then the lowlights can be found on Sky - if you truly want to put yourself through it again!

Obviously the local media are a) positive on Blackpool and b) negative on Reading – you don’t have to try hard to understand the general gist of what they are on about.

From the Blackpool side they have a piece on the stats of the game, none of which are particularly good reading for a Reading fan, but there’s stuff we can work on.

Over at the Reading Chronicle and James Earnshaw is slightly more conservative, and to be fair is factual rather than emotional and called it as he saw it.

Summary

Yes it was poor, yes the senior pros didn’t play, Ruben Selles may have got the game plan wrong, it may have been just the wrong time of year, and whatever it was that led to the defeat on top of the now 16 away games without a win... one thing to be sure of is that, given the age of the team, the inexperience and lack of leadership, this result will happen again this season.

What I cannot accept though is the below-par play from the senior pros. Hutchinson had a nightmare. Andy Yiadom was off the pace badly. But we need to play them - there’s crucial positions in this team that just aren’t happening. We need to fix our full-back issues as we were getting hammered from the wings. We need a defensive midfielder to break up play and quarterback us.

We don’t have an option apart from keeping the faith. The manager has changed the team up and it’s sort of worked at home. Away from home we could have Lionel Messi up front and still lose. That hoodoo needs breaking and quickly.

Burton Albion at home on Saturday brings new challenges. We will be expected to win by the pundits and the fans, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see Selles switch it up a bit. BBC Radio Berkshire seem to jump on agendas: one of these is to bring Tom Holmes back into the side.

Now, I don’t think this is a terrible idea, as I do think he’s been a scapegoat for a lot of the poor displays from Reading. But I think it needs to be in a three, which means a new tactical setup, but Selles has tried to stick to his guns on this.

Anyhow, I suppose that’s what we pay the manager for, but mid-table is critical for us this season to allow us to rebuild. A drop to League Two or a relegation battle might just be the last straw for this club. We need confidence and just that little bit of luck... hopefully against Burton!