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Boro v Reading (A) 0-2


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Reading v Middlesbrough

 

So Boro are in 7th Heaven with a bizarre win at home against Dirty Leeds, which was only our second win against them on home soil in 23 years. BOOM another hoodoo smashed. Now I called it a ‘bizarre’ win as Boro didn’t really win the match as Leeds throw it away, and throw it away spectacularly. To win 3-0 with only 2 shots on goal couldn’t happen to a nicer team :) I can understand that some people on here weren’t overly impressed with the performance, as I was one of them. But it’s hard to get into full swing when the opposition are as bad as what Leeds were in terms of pressing. Once we were

2-0 up I get the impression the lads thought ‘Job done’ and just concerned themselves in containing Leeds’

However we are not going to have that luxury this Saturday with Reading finding a rich vein of form themselves. This brings me onto……

 

The Opposition

 

Reading are a few peoples dark horses this season with most of their key signings coming late on transfer deadline day, with Piazon and Vydra being the more notable of them. In the last 6 in the league they have won 4 lost 1 and drew 1. The defeat came at home to Derby after Orlando Sa getting himself sent off late in the 1st half and conceding to a single goal from Tom Ince. Apart from that little blip Reading have been flying high with wins away to Brentford and Burnley and a resounding 5-1 thumping of Ipswich in front of the Sky TV cameras. So confidence will be high and they certainly won’t sit back against Boro.

Key players for them are:

Nick Blackman     With 8 goals all competitions 6 league and 2 Cup

Paul McShane      Their rock in defence basically Readings ‘Ayala’

Matej Vydra         Needs no explanation, deadly at this level                

 

 

The Boro

 

Obviously Boro are flying high with 7 straight victories on the spin. A feat that hasn’t been replicated in almost 20 years to the month at the Riverside, When Bryan Robson’s Boro beat QPR to secure 7 straight wins back in 1995. As mentioned in the opening paragraph, I doubt very much that goals will come as easy as they did against Leeds. Reading is another ground that has been stingy in the results department with the last victory at the Madjejski stadium came exactly 6 years to the day as we meet the Royals this Saturday. A 2-0 win with goals from Sean St Ledger and Leroy Lita. A similar score line would send the Boro into orbit with excitement into the international break.

So who do we start? Will the fact that Reading are at home, therefore obliged to attack play into our counter attacking style of play? Do we start Nando over Gibbo or Nsue over Kalas I would love to see Adomah back on the right push Downing on the left and Stuani behind Nugent as our attacking line? Everyone else is pretty much set in stone Dimi, Ayala, Friend Leadbitter and (Quickly becoming my new favourite) Ads Clayton. With a bench of Mejias, Fabrini, Di Pena, (Defender not starting) and Kike. Should be strong enough to get a positive result, As long as we put in a performance that warrants it.

Team id like to see

 

----------------Dimi----------------

Kalas---Ayala—Nando—Friend

-------Clayton----Leadbitter----

Adomah----Stuani----Downing

---------------Nugent--------------

 

What the opposition are saying

 

http://hobnob.royals.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=c0a8eaf9af70d9c794eb5cdedb82b815

 

http://royalsrendezvous.co.uk/topic/10367286/1/#new

 

Men in black

 

Referee               Keith Stroud

Assistants            Robert Massey-Ellis and John O'Brien

Fourth Official      Frederick Graham

 

What the bookies think

 

Boro are slight favourites at 6/4 to win and Reading 17/10 with the Draw worth 12/5

BTTS looks good at 4/5

Also Boro are 9/4 to keep a clean sheet

 

Reading------ The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

 

The Good… Pippa Middleton (Along with her Bum) was born in Reading Suppose its worth mentioning her little sister Kate was born there too.

The Bad… It is the home of the Little Chef, Yes those overpriced, under staffed epicentres of crying kids and greasy food started off in Reading

The Ugly…Jeremy Kyle. Yes that car crash TV magnate that has amassed a small fortune by filling our airwaves with the suburban underclass’s, who have more children than teeth. Usually trying to defend a set of circumstances with more incestuous twists than a Hillbilly Chuck Berry concert.

 

Anyways Boys and Girls it’s over to you

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Hello, I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Number 13, a visiting fan from Royal Rendezvous, a Reading fan forum. We were originally a breakaway group from the old 606 forums on the BBC website but have since developed quite a decent group of loyal fans on our forum since. If you would like to visit us, our web address is: http://royalsrendezvous.co.uk/index/.

 

We have a large list of other clubs forums, but sadly our previous Middlesbrough one is no longer operational. So I thought I'd reach out to you guys (and/or girls) to begin a new connection. We are a friendly lot over at RR and would love it if you could check out our website as well. 

 

Enough chit chat, on to business. Saturday. I'd love to say we welcome you with open arms, but this is the tastiest tie of our season so far, and we are going for three points I'm afraid. Below is a link to our official match thread, penned by myself:

 

http://royalsrendezvous.co.uk/topic/10367286/1/#new

 

Anyway, I have to be honest I'm not too familiar with the current 'Boro lineup, I haven't really kept up with them since relegation in 2009. I hope my match thread was fairly accurate. Are we looking at a 4-2-3-1 formation again? And who is likely to start for yourselves?

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Welcome Number 13 one of our forum members will shortly be authoring the Reading match thread and I am sure he will find this very useful moving ahead.

 

We have a number of forum members going to the game and we will be having a drink or two before kick off.

 

Once again thanks

 

Had a quick look and because of it was reminded that this is the last game before the next International Break

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I am not a number - I am a free man!

 

Welcome N13. Your match day thread was very good and I enjoyed it. Very insightful and well written. I must say, that I'm relieved to hear that Vydra is out of the game. Very talented player and a shrewed signing. I think most people on here agree that you had a very good transfer window and are outsiders for a spot in the play offs. You've started the season well with a good win at Burnley and that hammering of Ipswich.

 

While I think we have enough in our team to beat anyone in this division I appreciate that this is probably going to be our hardest game yet, as you will be at home and in decent form. If you don't mind, we can merge this thread into the oneBoro matchday thread as soon as it is up and running, and avoid having match discussions in two places.

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I am not a number - I am a free man!

 

Welcome N13. Your match day thread was very good and I enjoyed it. Very insightful and well written. I must say, that I'm relieved to hear that Vydra is out of the game. Very talented player and a shrewed signing. I think most people on here agree that you had a very good transfer window and are outsiders for a spot in the play offs. You've started the season well with a good win at Burnley and that hammering of Ipswich.

 

While I think we have enough in our team to beat anyone in this division I appreciate that this is probably going to be our hardest game yet, as you will be at home and in decent form. If you don't mind, we can merge this thread into the oneBoro matchday thread as soon as it is up and running, and avoid having match discussions in two places.

 

Thank you, Borodane for that. It's always nice to hear appreciation for my work!

 

Don't want to curb your celebrations just yet but I can't guarantee Vydra will be out, but it is more than likely he won't return until after the break. We do have hat trick hero Orlando Sa back though, so we should keep your defence busy hopefully. 

 

Having watched the game on Sunday on Sky Sports, it didn't look like your best performance (meaning I hardly doubt you could play like that week in/week out and be in the position you are in currently) but you were well organised, and Leeds didn't have a lot of time on the ball when in possession. As I said before, I'm not too familiar with your side (other than veterans Stewart Downing and Jonathan Woodgate, of course) but I can only hope for an exciting match at the weekend. A point would do for me in a game like this, just don't want 'Boro getting too far ahead, do we?

 

N.B. For all users viewing this, please feel free to visit our site and, if you like, register as a member. We have several fans from other clubs who have become regular posters for us and we enjoy some hearty banter!

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Personally, I liked the other fans forums' links- especially the ratings in brackets underneath!

As you say in your excellent thread, we'll set up 4-2-3-1 and'll be proud of it: the wingers will play slightly more defensively than in your run-of-the-mill 4-2-3-1(especially away from home), but watch out for Cristhian Stuani, our La Liga standard Uruguayan international who should start out wide but will drift into a second striker style position when our full-backs push on- which is often.

 

Chelsea have handed you one more player than us this season, but what a player ours is - the Czech right-back Tomas Kalas, who loves Boro so much that when his first, 93-day loan ended a couple of games early last season, he refused to come back to Stamford Bridge and instead trained with us and watched all our remaining games. George Friend is the left-back, and is properly brilliant- apparently, we rejected a £4.1 million bid from West Brom for his services this July, and even that would have been a substantial profit on the £100,000 we paid. Also loves the club- an ever-present fans favourite.

 

Also deserving of a mention is our steady, solid midfield duo of Grant Leadbitter and Adam Clayton, rock-solid centre backs Daniel Ayala and local boy Ben Gibson(Steve's nephew), and Ghanaian winger Albert Adomah, who almost left the club in August but remains loyal to the Boro. We'll set up like this;

Konstanopoulos

Kalas Ayala Gibson Friend

Leadbitter Clayton

Downing Fabbrini Adomah

Stuani

Although, with Karanka, it's anyone's guess.

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It's lovely having a Mourinho pal as a manager isn't it - always get a treat from their youth academy!

 

Stuani up front rather than Nugent?

Always rotating, is Karanka- probably Nugent, but really anyone's guess.

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I think Reading are real dark horses for promotion this season if that front line perform throughout the season like they did against Ipswich.

They've made some excellent signings and they're a good team to watch.

They will definitely be our strongest challenge so far this season. I think we struggle against teams with real pace. Thankfully with muff and Watford going up there are not many of those teams in the champ this season.

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Hello number 13 welcome to the forum.

Players summary for you:-

 

defence

Daniel Ayala-he is an absolute rock hes very verbal and commands the defence, we always look vulnerable when hes not playing. i'd argue hes our most important player.

amorebieta/gibson- nando has looked very good when called upon, far from the sloppy mistake prone player he was at fulham. gibson is our gaffas nephew and combines very well with ayala. he has struggled with hamstring injuries this season. he seems to be a player who takes 2-3 games to get back into the swing of it once hes in the team again. could be a sloppy mistake in him.

 

The fullbacks, george friend left and kalas/nsue right. george is a beast of a defender and has a cavalier attacking approach. nsue is really good at pressing forward and linking. kalas is solid at defending and full of energy. all 3 of them will get forward without a second thought.

no real weaknesses across the back 4, they do sometimes make the odd individual error, but they are quite young at that happens.

 

midfield:-

adam clayton seems to get better everytime i see him, he been immense for us this season. leadbitter is mister consistent and another talker who, never stops all game. they are both solid but do lack pace and can be turned. they do cover each other exceptionally well though and if you get past one the other seems to see it and dive in and save the day. adam forshaw is the backup to these two and always looks great when he gets a game but i think AK rates the other two a better partnership. even though forshaw seems to have the most ability(debatable).

 

attacking midfield:-

the 3 behind the striker are key to our success going forward, we can be very disjoined going forward like against leeds but they are are all new into the club, except adomah. we might start to get better as the season goes on in this area. Fabbrini is usually centre of the 3 when he plays, downing is downing never gives the ball away great crossing and passing, hes up and down the pitch and will find the gaps if any appear. Adomah is a headless chicken going forward i dont think he knows what hes doing, very inconsistent player. although hes workrate is always high. Stuani is a CF playing right wing atm. he is never a winger but puts a shift in and is dangerous in and around the box, if he is given time to pick his spot he'll be clinical. very good finisher and hard worker.

 

center forward

nugent is again a grafter and a talker, we look better with him in the team. stuani if played cf is very good in the air and strong in the tackle, look like an old style number 10. kike is a poor compared to stuani and nugent, although if presented with a chance he'll happily slot it home, not a bad player but not good enough to get in ahead of the other 2.

 

The team is generally solid but are prone to rush the ball forwards to quickly and give the ball away. this makes us drop deeper and we seem to get stuck deep and end up on the counter all the time. if we manage to press up the pitch and control the middle we will create plenty of chances and look a better team than the one on the tv sunday. although we barely needed to get out of second gear to beat leeds anyway. lol

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Hello number 13 welcome to the forum.

Players summary for you:-

 

defence

Daniel Ayala-he is an absolute rock hes very verbal and commands the defence, we always look vulnerable when hes not playing. i'd argue hes our most important player.

amorebieta/gibson- nando has looked very good when called upon, far from the sloppy mistake prone player he was at fulham. gibson is our gaffas nephew and combines very well with ayala. he has struggled with hamstring injuries this season. he seems to be a player who takes 2-3 games to get back into the swing of it once hes in the team again. could be a sloppy mistake in him.

 

The fullbacks, george friend left and kalas/nsue right. george is a beast of a defender and has a cavalier attacking approach. nsue is really good at pressing forward and linking. kalas is solid at defending and full of energy. all 3 of them will get forward without a second thought.

no real weaknesses across the back 4, they do sometimes make the odd individual error, but they are quite young at that happens.

 

midfield:-

adam clayton seems to get better everytime i see him, he been immense for us this season. leadbitter is mister consistent and another talker who, never stops all game. they are both solid but do lack pace and can be turned. they do cover each other exceptionally well though and if you get past one the other seems to see it and dive in and save the day. adam forshaw is the backup to these two and always looks great when he gets a game but i think AK rates the other two a better partnership. even though forshaw seems to have the most ability(debatable).

 

attacking midfield:-

the 3 behind the striker are key to our success going forward, we can be very disjoined going forward like against leeds but they are are all new into the club, except adomah. we might start to get better as the season goes on in this area. Fabbrini is usually centre of the 3 when he plays, downing is downing never gives the ball away great crossing and passing, hes up and down the pitch and will find the gaps if any appear. Adomah is a headless chicken going forward i dont think he knows what hes doing, very inconsistent player. although hes workrate is always high. Stuani is a CF playing right wing atm. he is never a winger but puts a shift in and is dangerous in and around the box, if he is given time to pick his spot he'll be clinical. very good finisher and hard worker.

 

center forward

nugent is again a grafter and a talker, we look better with him in the team. stuani if played cf is very good in the air and strong in the tackle, look like an old style number 10. kike is a poor compared to stuani and nugent, although if presented with a chance he'll happily slot it home, not a bad player but not good enough to get in ahead of the other 2.

 

The team is generally solid but are prone to rush the ball forwards to quickly and give the ball away. this makes us drop deeper and we seem to get stuck deep and end up on the counter all the time. if we manage to press up the pitch and control the middle we will create plenty of chances and look a better team than the one on the tv sunday. although we barely needed to get out of second gear to beat leeds anyway. lol

 

Good summery, makes you realise how good our squad actually is, so many options from the bench too which we havnt had for years

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It's lovely having a Mourinho pal as a manager isn't it - always get a treat from their youth academy!

 

Stuani up front rather than Nugent?

 

How has Piazon done for you so far? I know he hasn't played a lot of minutes.

 

Steve Clarke used our cup game against Everton to blood in six new signings over the summer, and I wouldn't say Piazon really shone in that game (although, to be fair, no one really stood out anyway). It was really in the Burnley game where he showed his class, not just cutting inside the box for the goal but he was quite a dynamic presence on the left hand side. And given Chelsea's youth development structure I wasn't expecting much less to be honest, the same as when we got Ryan Bertrand on loan a few years back.

 

I'd imagine we would use him against yourselves, unless Hal Robson-Kanu retains his place. Both are natural wingers who can also play up front, so expect the 'Bale effect', i.e. not just a winger but someone who will run inside and cause problems for you in the box.

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