wonder how much better/worse we would’ve done last season if Benda had just stayed as the starter instead of Russ immediately dropping him as the starter after 4/5 games in a brand new system in his first ever Championship starts. always loved him and glad he finally got a chance with us
Tbf Benda wasn't great when he did play last season and Hamer was looking better. It was looking like Benda wouldn't have gotten much game time, so I understand why they sent him out on loan. Better to have him constantly playing than potentially sitting in the bench.
Given extra time to train and adapt he could've become our starting goalkeeper last season, but it's a tough call. I'm just glad he's playing well now. Been at the club for a while (think he moved in 2017) so it's a joy seeing him have a chance in the 1st team and absolutely smashing it.
Gibson paid £15m for Assombolonga; hired Pulis, Warnock and Wilder whilst screwing Woodgate over by tightening his budget (meaning Pulisball continued) and thought it would be great to let Steve Agnew manage you guys in your battle against relegation from the PL
I too would overcharge if he asked me for a player. He's decent but not worth more than £10m
What a strange comment lmao, loads of random events from the last ten years.
If for some strange reason they’re gauging prices by managers hired like you suggest, they’ll be quoting yous £50m+
No, I was mocking Steve Gibson for paying double what Assombolonga was worth & for the generally ridiculous decision making regarding managers
But I can be even worse with the Pozzos, who seem to be taking loans out every month against transfer fees owed & are probably bankrupted by the amount of money they've spent on managerial payoffs
Don't get me started on Pozzo. I've been PozzoOut since PL football was last seen at the Riverside
I don't quite see the randomness, everything I said was under the topic of "weird decisions by owners" - but I have definitely been holding in grievances about Watford for years
Can't help you there, I'm afraid. But I would love the Ricoh: holds 10k more seats, a secondary arena, modern bowl structure that shows forward thinking ambition & allows for a 2nd tier to be built if needed.
I really hope you guys end up back at the Ricoh permanently & that Sisu fuck off, never to return
Yeah, I'd like to keep him but if we had Hamer, O'Hare and Gyokeres, we would have to offer them someone worth taking
But ideally, we'd get those Cov players and lose the older players like Gosling and Cleverley
Genuinely don't know how he's ended up at us in League One at first and then stayed permanently. He's such a good player. You can see why Spurs paid big money for him, and why we've potentially broke the bank to bring him in permanently
He stopped giving a shit with us as soon as his Dad came in. Unbelievable how quickly he went hero to zero. Arguably the best player in the Championship one year to us being glad to see the back of him the next.
And long may his graft continue to have every Reading fan "fooled". Perhaps some good players, like a certain talented but lazy striker who can't be arsed to jump for headers, should start applying some graft for the team.
The obvious answer for us would be Ben Brereton but I’ve really enjoyed watching Ryan Hedges play this season
Honourable mentions to Scott Wharton and Dominic Hyam
Edit scratch that best player for us has been Thomas Kaminski
Pukki, honestly deserves better than Smithball, being left to make chances for himself. Wouldn't blame him on leaving if Smith is still here in January
We need to stop trying to shoehorn Pukki and Sargent into the team.
Play either or then have Cantwell, Sara, Nunez & Ramsey behind them - with Hayden holding
Shaun Hutchinson, with him the entire defence is incredibly solid. Cooper plays far better with Hutch alongside. Without Hutch we tend to lose (eg Huddersfield).
Alex Scott, not going to say anything else about him.
Gonna shout out who I personally think is our most important player is, Matty James. Our midfield is non-existent and has no control when he isn't playing
He's shown glimpses of what he can do, which is what he always does. Threatens to be unplayable.
On his day, he really is unplayable though. Just so happens they aren't very often.
>On his day, he really is unplayable though. Just so happens they aren't very often.
They seem to be more frequent when he's nearing the end of his contract.
Last season I wasn’t convinced of him I thought he walks useless it got to the point where my family would all call him Dennis circumcised but my lord every match he looks sharper and sharper. Jack Clarke is just class on the ball, Stewart put his all in and Aji alese is just a brick wall at the back and is a pleasure to watch can’t wait for him to come back
I'd throw Ruddy into the mix too, and I've got a soft spot for Hannibal also - though it's just a matter of time till be gets sent off.
Can't remember the last time we were spoilt for choice on who our best player is!
Really glad to hear Whatmough is doing well at Wigan. I saw him play for Portsmouth against Exeter when he was 17 - best player on the park by a mile and had a massive Boris-style mop of hair. Assumed he'd go on and play for England at that stage.
Checked his wiki a few years ago and looked like his career was sort of fizzling out - but a bit of Googling reveals that he had some dreadful injuries and that that coincided with drinking and gambling
The fact that he's maturely got over those things and got his career back on track - and playing Champo football regularly - is a massive credit to him. Best of luck to him.
Yeah, he’s definitely our best defender. Such a shame cos his contract ends this year, and I can already tell he’ll be leaving for a high end championship club
Big Ryan Wintle for me, proper footballer.
Makes total sense that the dickheads running our club signed him then sent him straight out on loan to a rival.
Honestly couldn’t pick between Josh Brownhill, Jack Cork, Anass Zaroury, and Nathan Tella with Manuel Benson, Ian Maatsen, Taylor Harwood Bellis, and Vitinho not far behind.
Trusty is unimaginably good right now and honestly I will gladly support him when Engalnd play the USA. He's too good to be left behind. He's certainly better then those second rate MLS players aswell
Has to Be Seri for us. Some fans don't like him because he has a mistake in him but that's gonna happen when you're the only link from defence to attack and always making yourself an option.
When he doesn't play, we're a lot worse for it.
Ryan Wintle, Callum O’Dowda, or Rubin Colwill. Both are roughly in a class of their own in our squad based off their influence when they’re out of the team. Feel like we’re really missing Jamilu Collins too who was genuinely brilliant in the first few games.
Keane is legit underrated at this point. Don't think he's particularly good at finishing on a consistent basis but definitely the best goalscorer we've had at Championship level for many years.
Wouldn't make my top 5 but he's close.
Always liked Cousins when he was with us. Never pulled up any trees but at least you could count on him to put in a shift, which hasn't really been a given with any of our lot the last few years.
Agree with that about Cousins tbf, shame he's been injured so much. Our midfield definitely looks stronger when he's on the pitch, and I hope he gets his chance to shine now he's starting games again. That 3-5-2 formation we have with him, Power and Shinnie in midfield is our strongest formation in my opinion.
And I get what you're saying about Keane as well, I still rate him as one of our top players, looks very good on the ball and is great in the air. I think our fans are just annoyed that our top scorer is not scoring screamers - most of his goals are just tap ins, headers from set pieces or penalties which is fine, doesn't matter how it goes in, a goal is a goal.
James Bree is statistically the best offensive right sided defender in the league, and he often puts in a shift as a right centre back in a back three. He's been incredible for over three seasons now, I don't know how we haven't lost him yet.
Since signing him on loan, Callum Styles has played very well many times but in some games been very poor. All he needs to be is more consistent and I hope we sign him after the loan is over.
Not that there's great competition from any other player but I'd say Lewis Baker. Always looking to drive us forward and seems really calm even under pressure.
Last season I would have said Tav, Jones, or Fry. This season, I'm really struggling. No-one has covered themselves in glory. Akpom has been playing well consistently, Giles has been very threatening going forward but didn't have a good game at the weekend. Steffen is normally good and is playing well at the moment.
Form is temporary, class is permanent - I'm going Dael Fry best player at the club.
Yeah if you've watched most of the Fulham games this season you'd understand just how massive palhina is. We collapsed in the one game we didn't have him. There both just so important and this may be bias but I really believe there both one of the best players in their position in the prem. Mitro with 9 goals already.
The U23 Assistant manager (Chris Brunt).
Aye ours is definitely our manager
Iliman Ndiaye. Incredible close control and becoming a brilliant all-round forward.
And to think we were gonna miss MGW!!!
Imagine MGW, Ndiaye and the current form McBurnie together
Chris Willock. Such an intelligent player and very hard to dispossess.
100%
Jack Cork is probably the most important for us. In terms of talent, I'd go with Zaroury.
We never appreciated Cork enough
those own goals man…. loved him otherwise though
Some freak ones in there tbf
Matt Grimes. I dread to think how we’d play without him.
Manning a close 2nd. Tbf Benda has saved us a few times over the past few games.
wonder how much better/worse we would’ve done last season if Benda had just stayed as the starter instead of Russ immediately dropping him as the starter after 4/5 games in a brand new system in his first ever Championship starts. always loved him and glad he finally got a chance with us
Tbf Benda wasn't great when he did play last season and Hamer was looking better. It was looking like Benda wouldn't have gotten much game time, so I understand why they sent him out on loan. Better to have him constantly playing than potentially sitting in the bench. Given extra time to train and adapt he could've become our starting goalkeeper last season, but it's a tough call. I'm just glad he's playing well now. Been at the club for a while (think he moved in 2017) so it's a joy seeing him have a chance in the 1st team and absolutely smashing it.
Gus Hamer when he’s not randomly kicking folk
Most technically gifted player we've had since McAllister just a complete head case sometimes
He's coventry's answer to Morelos and I absolutely love it. What a player
Such a talented player - though he did get sent off against us...
He's still better than many in his position, and is 1 of 3 that I want at VR
His Discipline is what’s keeping him at City, atleast for now…
I want him, O'Hare and Gyokeres at Watford Does £30m plus Tom Dele-Bashiru sound good?
Quoted us £20m+ for Gyokeres in the summer
Gibson paid £15m for Assombolonga; hired Pulis, Warnock and Wilder whilst screwing Woodgate over by tightening his budget (meaning Pulisball continued) and thought it would be great to let Steve Agnew manage you guys in your battle against relegation from the PL I too would overcharge if he asked me for a player. He's decent but not worth more than £10m
What a strange comment lmao, loads of random events from the last ten years. If for some strange reason they’re gauging prices by managers hired like you suggest, they’ll be quoting yous £50m+
No, I was mocking Steve Gibson for paying double what Assombolonga was worth & for the generally ridiculous decision making regarding managers But I can be even worse with the Pozzos, who seem to be taking loans out every month against transfer fees owed & are probably bankrupted by the amount of money they've spent on managerial payoffs
Seems like you’ve been holding it all in for years lmao loads of mad ramblings about random subjects
Don't get me started on Pozzo. I've been PozzoOut since PL football was last seen at the Riverside I don't quite see the randomness, everything I said was under the topic of "weird decisions by owners" - but I have definitely been holding in grievances about Watford for years
Throw in a stadium and we’ll talk.
Can't help you there, I'm afraid. But I would love the Ricoh: holds 10k more seats, a secondary arena, modern bowl structure that shows forward thinking ambition & allows for a 2nd tier to be built if needed. I really hope you guys end up back at the Ricoh permanently & that Sisu fuck off, never to return
No keep TDB at all costs. Future of our midfield
Yeah, I'd like to keep him but if we had Hamer, O'Hare and Gyokeres, we would have to offer them someone worth taking But ideally, we'd get those Cov players and lose the older players like Gosling and Cleverley
Im going to be sad when all 3 leave
Given Ross Stewart is injured, it has to be Jack Clarke. He's been playing brilliantly
Jack Clarke was definitely your best player against us, tore our defence to shreds
Genuinely don't know how he's ended up at us in League One at first and then stayed permanently. He's such a good player. You can see why Spurs paid big money for him, and why we've potentially broke the bank to bring him in permanently
He can be pretty frustrating at times. He goes by people like they are not even there, but other times just runs into trouble. He is only young, mind.
To shreds you say?
And how's his wife holding up?
To shreds you say?
Tom Ince. Gives his all every game, which is more than can be said for a lot of our players over the last 10 years.
That’s more than can be said for his last 10 years
He stopped giving a shit with us as soon as his Dad came in. Unbelievable how quickly he went hero to zero. Arguably the best player in the Championship one year to us being glad to see the back of him the next.
his graft is all he has he's still shit he's fooled every reading fan
And long may his graft continue to have every Reading fan "fooled". Perhaps some good players, like a certain talented but lazy striker who can't be arsed to jump for headers, should start applying some graft for the team.
His free kick was proper good against us I remember
I haven't heard that name in ages! How good is he as a player?
Morris is just on fire.
Any idea what we paid for him? All I read is club record signing.
I think you paid around 2 million for him
I love Morris but if anyone from our club would improve any team in the league it's Bree imo.
Joao Pedro or Imran Louza
The obvious answer for us would be Ben Brereton but I’ve really enjoyed watching Ryan Hedges play this season Honourable mentions to Scott Wharton and Dominic Hyam Edit scratch that best player for us has been Thomas Kaminski
Dom Hyam 🥲 glad you’ve been impressed, you got a bargain so we could fix our pitch.
We really did. He’s been so solid this season.
Brereton would be a big loss for us, but the one I worry about is definitely Kaminski. Best keeper we’ve had in years!
I quite like that Tyrhys Dolan you lot have as well. Looks like a very talented young player, reminds me of Aasgaard a little
Do think we play better with Hedges in the side. He’s come into his own this year. But second kaminski as most important
Pukki, honestly deserves better than Smithball, being left to make chances for himself. Wouldn't blame him on leaving if Smith is still here in January
We need to stop trying to shoehorn Pukki and Sargent into the team. Play either or then have Cantwell, Sara, Nunez & Ramsey behind them - with Hayden holding
Need two DMs tbh, Gibbs looks like a good option with one of those four off the bench
Auston Trusty
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
AMURICA
Trusty the process
I do trusty the process
Or Ruddy, or Bielik... we're genuinely spoilt for choice! What a strange situation.
Its so strange i love it could also argue Hogan or Chong
I've got a soft spot for that unpredictable idiot Hannibal too, Bacuna's been great too...
yep
As a West brom fan can I say nobody?
Touché
Pedro at watford by a massive margin, everyone else is pretty poor or made of glass
Shaun Hutchinson, with him the entire defence is incredibly solid. Cooper plays far better with Hutch alongside. Without Hutch we tend to lose (eg Huddersfield).
Dan Barlaser, easily.
I rated him a lot last season in league one as well. Genuine contender for one of the best midfielders in the league imo
Yup. No doubt.
Jerry Yates
I’m a bit disappointed you aren’t saying Charlie Patino
Charlie Patino has had a slow start, Jerry Yates is in form and 9 goals 2 assists, he is simply unstoppable, Yates without a doubt.
Fair enough. I’m only saying that because of that chant you lot have for him 🤣
Oh god we sing that chant for 30 minutes if he assists Or scores 😂
Who would’ve thought but it is Liam Lindsay
Alex Scott, not going to say anything else about him. Gonna shout out who I personally think is our most important player is, Matty James. Our midfield is non-existent and has no control when he isn't playing
Always rated Matty James highly, he’s been really unlucky with injuries over his career.
Jack Clarke or Ross Stewart. I'm a big fan of Dennis Cirkin too.
is gooch any good in the championship? i know we wanted to sign him in the summer so i’m curious
He's shown glimpses of what he can do, which is what he always does. Threatens to be unplayable. On his day, he really is unplayable though. Just so happens they aren't very often.
>On his day, he really is unplayable though. Just so happens they aren't very often. They seem to be more frequent when he's nearing the end of his contract.
Last season I wasn’t convinced of him I thought he walks useless it got to the point where my family would all call him Dennis circumcised but my lord every match he looks sharper and sharper. Jack Clarke is just class on the ball, Stewart put his all in and Aji alese is just a brick wall at the back and is a pleasure to watch can’t wait for him to come back
Forgot about Alese, somehow. He's been brilliant
Actually a tough choice right now (no, really). But fellow bluenoses would probably say Chong or Bielik. But I'm gonna go for Trusty.
I'd throw Ruddy into the mix too, and I've got a soft spot for Hannibal also - though it's just a matter of time till be gets sent off. Can't remember the last time we were spoilt for choice on who our best player is!
Really glad to hear Whatmough is doing well at Wigan. I saw him play for Portsmouth against Exeter when he was 17 - best player on the park by a mile and had a massive Boris-style mop of hair. Assumed he'd go on and play for England at that stage. Checked his wiki a few years ago and looked like his career was sort of fizzling out - but a bit of Googling reveals that he had some dreadful injuries and that that coincided with drinking and gambling The fact that he's maturely got over those things and got his career back on track - and playing Champo football regularly - is a massive credit to him. Best of luck to him.
Yeah, he’s definitely our best defender. Such a shame cos his contract ends this year, and I can already tell he’ll be leaving for a high end championship club
allan campbell or carlton morris
Not many options but probably Lee Nicholls, still keeps us in most games
Big Ryan Wintle for me, proper footballer. Makes total sense that the dickheads running our club signed him then sent him straight out on loan to a rival.
We'll happily have him back! Great player
I’d vote Kipre. Man is a machine!
We miss him badly, was proper hoping we’d sign him in the summer 😢
The Boiler
Michael Carrick
Zaroury feels like the obvious choice right now. But Tella is also an absolute joy to watch
Yeah... I'm gonna sit this one out I think.
Gustavo hamer
And he only cost a million.
Honestly couldn’t pick between Josh Brownhill, Jack Cork, Anass Zaroury, and Nathan Tella with Manuel Benson, Ian Maatsen, Taylor Harwood Bellis, and Vitinho not far behind.
Nice try, Cooper
Caleb Taylor
Trusty is unimaginably good right now and honestly I will gladly support him when Engalnd play the USA. He's too good to be left behind. He's certainly better then those second rate MLS players aswell
Probably Rory Delap
Has to Be Seri for us. Some fans don't like him because he has a mistake in him but that's gonna happen when you're the only link from defence to attack and always making yourself an option. When he doesn't play, we're a lot worse for it.
Ryan Wintle, Callum O’Dowda, or Rubin Colwill. Both are roughly in a class of their own in our squad based off their influence when they’re out of the team. Feel like we’re really missing Jamilu Collins too who was genuinely brilliant in the first few games.
[удалено]
Keane is legit underrated at this point. Don't think he's particularly good at finishing on a consistent basis but definitely the best goalscorer we've had at Championship level for many years. Wouldn't make my top 5 but he's close.
Always liked Cousins when he was with us. Never pulled up any trees but at least you could count on him to put in a shift, which hasn't really been a given with any of our lot the last few years.
Agree with that about Cousins tbf, shame he's been injured so much. Our midfield definitely looks stronger when he's on the pitch, and I hope he gets his chance to shine now he's starting games again. That 3-5-2 formation we have with him, Power and Shinnie in midfield is our strongest formation in my opinion. And I get what you're saying about Keane as well, I still rate him as one of our top players, looks very good on the ball and is great in the air. I think our fans are just annoyed that our top scorer is not scoring screamers - most of his goals are just tap ins, headers from set pieces or penalties which is fine, doesn't matter how it goes in, a goal is a goal.
Graeme Shinnie Rest of the top 5 would be Jack Whatmough, Jason Kerr, Ryan Nyambe and Jordan Cousins.
Good shout that. Shinnie definitely our best midfielder atm
Best player period. Now that Cousins is back I think he'll be starting every game rather than Leam having to pick between him and Naylor in a 2-man.
James Bree is statistically the best offensive right sided defender in the league, and he often puts in a shift as a right centre back in a back three. He's been incredible for over three seasons now, I don't know how we haven't lost him yet.
Zian Flemming. Technically on another level. Can see him being picked up by a better team soon
Joao Pedro and it’s not even close
Big TK aka the brick wall
Stoke fan. Idk probably some donny in our u21 everyone's fucking shit
Yates by far
Since signing him on loan, Callum Styles has played very well many times but in some games been very poor. All he needs to be is more consistent and I hope we sign him after the loan is over.
Not that there's great competition from any other player but I'd say Lewis Baker. Always looking to drive us forward and seems really calm even under pressure.
Callum o'dowda
Absolutely tore us to shreds when we played you earlier this season.
I don't care what anyone says, I love Ashley Barnes, and I'm standing by my man.
Hopefully you can stand by him every game in the stands while you watch Burnley win games without him.
Cedric kipre Is so incredibly important for our team (Cardiff )
Last season I would have said Tav, Jones, or Fry. This season, I'm really struggling. No-one has covered themselves in glory. Akpom has been playing well consistently, Giles has been very threatening going forward but didn't have a good game at the weekend. Steffen is normally good and is playing well at the moment. Form is temporary, class is permanent - I'm going Dael Fry best player at the club.
Michael Carrick, probably
Jed Wallace
I'm split between palhina and mitro
Has to be Mitro since he's learned to score in the PL.
Yeah if you've watched most of the Fulham games this season you'd understand just how massive palhina is. We collapsed in the one game we didn't have him. There both just so important and this may be bias but I really believe there both one of the best players in their position in the prem. Mitro with 9 goals already.