A right Royal piss up! - Reading (H) 02/04/16

[Enoch]

In mitigation for Jiminho

Oh do give over.

[Prufrock]

Nah you're right, he's a cnut an' all

[Worthy4England]

We must be the most hard done to fans in football. There cant be a team with a worse record in the last 5 years can there?

This got me thinking...So I had a look at a few candidates - and I suspect these ain't the only ones. I only looked at league games.

Our record P215 W59 D63 L93 (W% 27 D% 29 L% 43) - we're missing a percent coz all three just happen to round down

First out of the hat, I figured Fulham were pretty much mirroring us, one relegation so far, and not having a great season. They've not seen their side win as many, or draw as many and they've lost the same amount. But they spent longer in the Prem (less games played), so mathematically, they a couple of percent higher on win rate than us...and 4% higher on losses.

Blackpool are almost identical too P225, W61, D68, L96 (W% 27, D% 30, L% 43)...

So the search went on - I looked at those pretend Wanderers, but they had a promotion season thrown in and I looked at some pie chuckers they're doing ok this season, so I was running a little out of inspiration. I checked Pompey - a team with similar problems to ourselves - but they've had a couple of mid-table seasons, so are slightly better off. Yeovil, couple of demotions, but one promotion too - so they're W 29%, D 25%, L 46% - so lost more than us percentage-wise.

Then I thought of Sunderland - they've only won 23% (43 games), drawn 32% (58) and lost 45% (82) they're worse off than us on losses and no better on wins - that set me thinking a bit further - so I had a peek at Aston Villa They've only won 22% (40), drawn 28% (51) but they've lost 93 (51%) - these ones all round up...That's every other game...So the "I'm fcking off to pub, then I'm going home to kick the cat award" goes to Aston Villa fans, I think.

So unless anyone can come up with any other league candidates - Villa currently have a clear lead...We wouldn't beat Villa for "shiteness" if they won all their remaining games and we lost all ours - although it'd be a lot closer...If anyone has any other candidates, I could look 'em up.

[officer_dibble]

Only others that crossed my mind were tranmere and hartlepool?

Good work by the way - I knew someone would come up with the goods on that one!

[Worthy4England]

Only others that crossed my mind were tranmere and hartlepool?

Good work by the way - I knew someone would come up with the goods on that one!

I did a couple of others after posting, including Hartlepool, QPR and Donny. They were:

Hartlepool: W 28%, D24%, L48%, QPR despite a promotion W 29%, D26%, L45% without the promotion season they're on a par with Villa. Donny not quite as bad as I thought W 31%, D 25% L 44%, Oldham W 29%, D 30%, L 41%.

Tranmere...You're hoping against hope mate - they're 4th this season and mid table 4/5 years ago...(but I'll check anyhow) - W 32%, L 26%, D 42%

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Before the red card it was a back four. Derik and Vela holding in midfield. Dobbie, Pratley and Clough behind Woolery.

That's how I saw it as well. We started in a 4-2-3-1 formation; with Derik and Vela as the midfield two, Clough, Pratley and Dobbie as the three further forward, and Woolery up front on his own. When Holding was sent off, Derik moved to centre-back and Trotter came on for Dobbie a few minutes afterwards.

Confirmed by JP in BN:

Derik came to the club as a centre-back but I sat him in front of the back four on Saturday thinking he might have given us a bit more defensive stability as he is a good ball-playing centre-back.

[LeverEnd]

He started very well there and also defended well once in the back 4. Worth another go there like his hirsute predecessor Ivan.

[thebish]

He started very well there and also defended well once in the back 4. Worth another go there like his hirsute predecessor Ivan.

surely that qualifies him for Bolton player-of-the-decade!

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Well it looks like he'll be playing at the back tonight with Wheater, which can be a mixed blessing. Although I'm glad JP had the Allardycian awareness to try him out further forward, I would expect that Derik and Holding are pencilled in as next season's centre-back pairing, unless the younger man is pinched by a richer club.

[BWFC_Insane]

Well it looks like he'll be playing at the back tonight with Wheater, which can be a mixed blessing. Although I'm glad JP had the Allardycian awareness to try him out further forward, I would expect that Derik and Holding are pencilled in as next season's centre-back pairing, unless the younger man is pinched by a richer club.

Derik and Holding could be inspired. Could also be a league one disaster waiting to happen. For me I'd like a bit more experience at that level at the back. Holding plus someone who has been around a bit. Derik will be useful in midfield in my view.

[Hoboh]

Well it looks like he'll be playing at the back tonight with Wheater, which can be a mixed blessing. Although I'm glad JP had the Allardycian awareness to try him out further forward, I would expect that Derik and Holding are pencilled in as next season's centre-back pairing, unless the younger man is pinched by a richer club.

Derik and Holding could be inspired. Could also be a league one disaster waiting to happen. For me I'd like a bit more experience at that level at the back. Holding plus someone who has been around a bit. Derik will be useful in midfield in my view.

Not Wheater mate!

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Well it looks like he'll be playing at the back tonight with Wheater, which can be a mixed blessing. Although I'm glad JP had the Allardycian awareness to try him out further forward, I would expect that Derik and Holding are pencilled in as next season's centre-back pairing, unless the younger man is pinched by a richer club.

Derik and Holding could be inspired. Could also be a league one disaster waiting to happen. For me I'd like a bit more experience at that level at the back. Holding plus someone who has been around a bit. Derik will be useful in midfield in my view.

I agree that we could use an experienced spine; while advocating rejuvenation I'd usually prefer the youth to be mixed with an older head at centre-back, centre-midfield and possibly centre-forward, although it doesn't have to be that way: for example, back in ye 1970s Peter Thompson and Tony Dunne added nous from wider positions.

Ideally you'd like a wise tough guy alongside either Derik or Holding, but then you're either sidelining a mid-range wage-earner or ignoring a fine young player. I'm not sure either makes good financial sense, and that will dictate a lot of team decisions.

[BWFC_Insane]

Well it looks like he'll be playing at the back tonight with Wheater, which can be a mixed blessing. Although I'm glad JP had the Allardycian awareness to try him out further forward, I would expect that Derik and Holding are pencilled in as next season's centre-back pairing, unless the younger man is pinched by a richer club.

Derik and Holding could be inspired. Could also be a league one disaster waiting to happen. For me I'd like a bit more experience at that level at the back. Holding plus someone who has been around a bit. Derik will be useful in midfield in my view.

I agree that we could use an experienced spine; while advocating rejuvenation I'd usually prefer the youth to be mixed with an older head at centre-back, centre-midfield and possibly centre-forward, although it doesn't have to be that way: for example, back in ye 1970s Peter Thompson and Tony Dunne added nous from wider positions.

Ideally you'd like a wise tough guy alongside either Derik or Holding, but then you're either sidelining a mid-range wage-earner or ignoring a fine young player. I'm not sure either makes good financial sense, and that will dictate a lot of team decisions.

Derik as holding midfield player. He looked comfortable there briefly on Saturday.

[TANGODANCER]

Derik as holding midfield player. He looked comfortable there briefly on Saturday.

Will he be in disguise?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Derik as holding midfield player. He looked comfortable there briefly on Saturday.

I'm glad he impressed you in his 20 minutes, but even after the summer midfield cull we'll probably still be oversubscribed next season for central midfielders: we're still contracted to pay (in approximate order of likelihood to still be here) Vela, Trotter, Pratley, Spearing and Davies until summer 2017, or in Pratley's case 2018. I'm sure we'll be trying to get some shifted on loan or permanent deals, but it's still well-staffed compared to other departments.

Here are the players "in contract" after summer:
GK: Ben Amos
DF: Lawrie Wilson, Francesco Pisano, Dorian Dervite, Derik Osede, Dean Moxey
MF: Darren Pratley, Jay Spearing, Liam Trotter, Mark Davies, Josh Vela, Filip Twardzik
AT: Zach Clough, Gary Madine, Max Clayton, Conor Wilkinson

Then again, I guess it depends who we offer contracts to. I really doubt we'll keep biger earners like Wheater and Feeney (and possibly Danns given the contracted central options), but there are a number of Academy lads we might renew, and most of them are defensive – Rob Holding, Niall Maher, Oscar Threlkeld, Hayden White, Alex Finney, Quade Taylor (others further forward are Jordan Lussey, Tom Walker, Tom Eaves and Kaiyne Woolery).

I know that having more young heads at the back isn't always what you'd want - particularly not if you're Italian - but I think our shopping list might be somewhat dictated by our empty purse and existing overheads, such as contracts for experienced full-backs Moxey and Wilson, both of whom have played 200+ league games. It's not ideal, but neither is the situation, and the resources are finite.

Also worth noting that Threlkeld has been getting good reviews since moving to the same defensive-midfield slot, so I wouldn't be astonished to see us try him there. I'm all for positional flexibility so if both he and Derik can fill both roles - and in Oscar's case maybe also the right-back slot - that might help us spend our precious pennies elsewhere.