GoalWatch - our defending vs Reading

[Bergen Blade]

Reading hit an inswinging free kick into the box. Mills gets away from Henderson and has a free header.

Henderson is sloppy when he loses Mills, he should position himself goalside of him to better keep track of his movement.

Bunn looks to be on his heels a bit, something Paddy also does sometimes. Does anyone think he should have claimed it?

It's really well fired in though, good pace and dipping at just the right time.

We're still to concede from open play after four games, which bodes well.

 

[Micalijo]

Me - I definitely think a keeper should be attempting to claim a ball in that area.

They may make a mess of it but it is alot better than retreating into the goal in true Kenny style.

Great delivery, and the pace of it causes the indecision (Bunn started to come for it) but way to deep and I stress again he is too small to make it as a top level pro-keeper.

 

[SwissBlade]

Just seen the goals on Blades Player.

Like I said with the Leicester goal, we shouldn't be giving simple goals away on set pieces, we train for these situations, Mills was a target so theres still work to do on the training pitch.

As for Bunn, for me that was his zone, it was edge of the 6yd box and he looked to back off. If he doesn't claim he should at least be trying to punch. That said, he might have been told not to claim anything

 

[Micalijo]

I'm sure it isn't easy to claim a ball delivered like that one and we are talking split second decisions in terms of trying to claim it or not, but I'm also sure that most keepers will think that life is alot easier if they stay at home and let the markers get the blame rather than making a total hash of a punch/catch. I think we concede more than our fair share of goals from inswinging set pieces/crosses like this and alot for me is defenders operating too deep because they know the keeper is not coming

We'll never know what the instructions are but it didn't look good from marker or keepr on Saturday.

 

[i3lade4life]

Bunn made a move for it then changed his mind, maybe he would have been better placed to make a save if he hadnt made the original. But for a young keeper who seems to be doing a good job, we cant really complain.

 

[bladesman3]

hi Bergen,
just watched the goals..I could not work out who had let Mills get free in the box so thanks for the spot...he should not have been free in the area like that!!

 

[Bath Blade]

If he doesn't claim he should at least be trying to punch.

He punched absolutely everything else all game so I'm surprised he didn't try to punch it out.

 

[Maidenhead]

He punched absolutely everything else all game so I'm surprised he didn't try to punch it out.

Agreed. He threw more punches in one day than Joe Bugner did in an entire career.

 

[Grecian2000]

Agreed. He threw more punches in one day than Joe Bugner did in an entire career.

Just the three needed to break that particular record then! Didn't spend as much time on his arse though.

 

[SESKU Blade]

Maybe Bunn thought someone was going to a head on the ball in front of him, it was a good inswinging ball, if the keeper comes and someone gets a flick he'll take a lot of stick for coming and getting no where near the ball.

Personally thought it was a needless free kick monty gave away, too eager to get to the ball, didn't seem to be too much trouble, their guy with his back to goal pretty much facing the touchline.

 

[mattbianco1]

Me - I definitely think a keeper should be attempting to claim a ball in that area.

They may make a mess of it but it is alot better than retreating into the goal in true Kenny style.

Great delivery, and the pace of it causes the indecision (Bunn started to come for it) but way to deep and I stress again he is too small to make it as a top level pro-keeper.

The thing is, it was coming in at such a pace that if he comes any sort of glancing header would have directed it over him and in. On this particular incident i'd blame the defenders. They should attack them balls. If Bunn had come for it and missed, everyone would then be saying - why did he come?

I think it was a good free-kick which is a keepers nightmare. The defenders were at fault IMO.

 

[Linz]

...I stress again he is too small to make it as a top level pro-keeper.

I thought we'd covered this one... he's exactly the same height as Paddy Kenny, Ian Bennett and Simon Tracey at 6 foot tall.

One inch smaller than Shay Given, Carlo Cudicini, Gordon Banks and Bruce Grobbelaar.

Angelo Peruzzi won the World Cup with Italy at 5 foot 11.

The following players are the same height as Bunn or smaller and are listed in the International Federation of Football History & Stats' top 20 goalkeepers of all time:

3rd: Dino Zoff
4th: Sepp Maier
9th: František Plánička (5 foot 8)
13th: Pat Jennings

I don't think you can write off a goalkeeper purely for being no taller than 6 foot

Personally thought it was a needless free kick monty gave away, too eager to get to the ball, didn't seem to be too much trouble, their guy with his back to goal pretty much facing the touchline.

Might have been something to do with his RB going walkabout and the fact that Reading had just had a series of corners go quite close.

 

[Kentblade]

hi Bergen,
just watched the goals..I could not work out who had let Mills get free in the box so thanks for the spot...he should not have been free in the area like that!!

Hi Bladesman3

Good to see you on board, I have not been here long.
No doubt you would have been at Reading.
Another win twice in the same year!
UTB

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

Where were the two centre halfs. Owt on six yard box line should be dealt with by them.

 

[Bergen Blade]

Where were the two centre halfs. Owt on six yard box line should be dealt with by them.

As we man mark on set pieces they had other players to mark. Morgan can be seen realising that Henderson loses Mills, but too late to get a challenge in.

 

[JJ Sefton]

Not sure what to make of that Reading match. First off I have to say how good it was to see us win there and the silence from their uberchavs to our right was deafening after the second goal.

Early on both sides were evenly matched and Id have to say we shaded it. Then they scored and, like at Wembley, we went to bits. We just couldn't get on the ball, every touch was a hacked clearance and Reading worked the ball wide at every opportunity giving Walker in particular a torrid time. We were bloody lucky to go in at 1-1.

Whatever Blackwell said half time worked. Henderson got on the end of everything and Walker tuned in to finally give some support to Ward out wide right. This meant he was no longer being chased up blind alleys and could actually get at a defender and beat him. That's how the second goal came about and he had other chances besides that.

Quinn and Cotterill really started to link up well and the chaos in the full back positions was solved which actually allowed Kilgallon to get forward a bit. Another player who impressed in a cameo was Ryan France who had a couple of decent bursts from midfield the second one almost bringing a goal.

They were all crap in the second half (should Bunn have come for that free kick?) and all better in the second. The only possible exception was Evans. I didn't think he did too bad and did well to close Reading down in midfield and set up the equaliser, but the lads I was with were adamant that he'd been a bit anonymous.

Reading were ok with the ball and put the ball across the box quite frequently but just didn't have anyone to get on the end of it.

 

[Rudders]

v soft free kick in the first place and then they took it from the wrong place (closer to the goal).

Warnock wouldn't have been happy