Ratings...

[B36baggie]

Enjoyed the game and think there's plenty of promise in that squad, we have so many exciting options.
First game this season and actually enjoyed it despite the result.
Mrs Sol's last chemo tomorrow and she's holding up well.

Glad you enjoyed.

All the best to your good lady today.

[steviedm]

The bloke who wrote the BBC match report was clearly watching a different game to me. Weak penalty claims? Krov went down too easily for the pen that was given? We couldn't say their goal hadn't been coming? Eh?

This is the first time I've seen us this season and given I had to stop watching us last season due to pure, utter frustration and wanting to kill Dawson, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

OK, it wasn't perfect but that first five minutes of crisp, direct passing was a joy to watch. Despite Sawyers giving it away far too often in the first half, I thought he was great - he never hid, got us moving forward and will be a key player this season.

Krov is clearly going to be another important player and I like the look of him. I also thought Furlong was solid. I'm not Phillips greatest fan and his performance sort of sums up why. I thought he needed to offer more and didn't want to close down the shot for their goal.

Austin is obviously not match fit and we struggled to break down a well drilled defence but I think there's so much potential there and we really did start pulling them apart towards the end. Pereira has so much talent.

I think it's a testament to Bilic that we're as fluent as we are at this stage of the season given the considerable changes to the set-up.

[Poppy’s dad]

Thoroughly enjoyed the game last night, both teams committed to playing fast fluid passing football, we started superbly, zipping the ball around, to be fair the big lad in midfield for them played very well, on loan from Liverpool I heard, he looks a player, I was impressed with Furlong, Krov Livermore and Sawyers are gelling nicely, I’m not too concerned about the goals tally I think once Austin is match fit he will be fine, Zahore looked lively when he came on, loved Periera’s cameo he I think will be a fans favourite, all in all very satisfied with the start.

[Pontificator]

Think we need to get used to games like this at home. Lots of possession but that cutting edge still deserts us... we probably did enough to win the game, and a decent official would have given at least 1 of the other 2 penalty shouts, but Reading were organised and defended heroically.

For all our control of games, we still don’t quite get the ball into dangerous areas, and against sides that play a little defensively we need to sacrifice one of Krov, Livermore and Sawyers as there just aren’t enough goals in them. 

With Sawyers and Krov  we probably  have enough energy to go 4-4-2, especially as Phillips can tuck in and shift us into 433 if we’re getting overrun. 

As has been said, we’ll probably do a lot better away than at home playing this way, but we need to be a little more clinical.

Johnstone - 7 - no chance with the goal, nice distribution and came off his line!!

Furlong - 7 - I thought he did ok. Created probably our best chance in open play and balanced attacking and defending well. A few sloppy passes but did ok.
Ajayi - 7 composed and kept a tricky attacker quiet 
Bartley - 7 - one sloppy moment thatcould have put us in trouble but otherwise solid.
Gibbs - 6 - Bit of the Dawson from LY about him recently. Looks a little disinterested and looked wound up again after a silly booking.    

Sawyers - 8 - keeps everything ticking over - gave the ball away 4-5 times though! 
Livermore - 6 - game passed him by for spells and was definitely not as fast as the other two in MC. Ejeria gave him a tough day!

Phillips - first half 4/ second half 7 - came to life after a very poor first half.
Krovinovic - 8 - if he can add goals to his game we have a player. Fouled a lot and should have had a couple pens.
Diangana - 7 - tricky and pacy but better as an impact sub at the moment Austin - 6.5 - linkup play isn’t his strong point... we look more dangerous with Zohore. Would have liked to see them have 15 together 


Periera - 6 - frustrating and brilliant. Created 2 greatchances and then missed 2. Entertaining cameo.
Zohore - 7 - the ball sticks up top far better with him. Tidy pen too under pressure. 
Edwards - no time 

Bilic - 6 - thought Diangana went off too soon, Phillips should have gone for me... also would have preferred Livermore for Zohore instead of Austin.

Shame that the ref probably cost us 3 points, but 8 from 4 is a solid start.

Its funny how folk see the game. I thought Sawyers was out of his depth against a very good side. Livermore played well and Philips worked his nuts off defending and going forward and was clearly our best player

[Shabby Russian]

Just a few random thoughts from reading thread.

Don't think you could play Sawyers and Krovonovic together in a midfield 2 to accommodate a 442.

Sawyers was not at his absolute best, but was still very good, thought Livermore had a good game and he and Sawyers work well together.

A lot of the players we have are very easy on the eye to watch. The final ball is very often lacking, perhaps because unlike last season we don't have that many options. Thought Perreria was probably the best at producing that killer ball to make opportunities in the box.

[Malcolm Tucker]

Soap 4- one smart save, made the free kick save look better than it was, stood and watched the goal!

Fuck me

[Midget In A Pinstripe Suit]

Soap 4- one smart save, made the free kick save look better than it was, stood and watched the goal!

Fuck me

I was hoping nobody was even going to respond to such drivel.

[MassDebater]

Zohore to start for definite. Austin looked well off the pace.

Some of you posters were at a different match to me Sawyers well of the boil ,where as Livermore one of our better players and we duly deserved at least a point for our decent second half disp7.

I agree, I'd been bigging Sawyers up to my mate (was the first game he's been able to attend), and then Sawyers was hassled and harried out of it, and I think with him off the boil everyone else was somewhat nullified too. Which is a potential area of concern if stifling him does stop us that much. OR it could be that we've got so used to him never losing the ball, not missing any passes that last night was a blip and just one of those nights?

We played OK, Reading did too. Neither side deserved to win.

[Derek Hardballs]

We played well but unless a midfielder is going to gamble and get in the opposition la box we are going to struggle to score goals. You can’t ping in that amount of crosses with just one man to aim for. If we don’t address this we will look lovely but fail to pick up points we could and arguably should have.

We are fantastic at foreplay but shit at penetration currently.

[MassDebater]

We played well but unless a midfielder is going to gamble and get in the opposition la box we are going to struggle to score goals. You can’t ping in that amount of crosses with just one man to aim for. If we don’t address this we will look lovely but fail to pick up points we could and arguably should have.

We are fantastic at foreplay but shit at penetration currently.

Totally agree, totally.

Trouble is, we don't have any options, unless they really aren't fit / ready and will come good. With our foreplay we should have been winning comfortably...but we seem to be wearing the whole pack of condoms to make sure their bag isn't covered in our goals.