Reading 2012/13 General Chat & Starting X1 Thread

[Hogmeister]

Can he run? (I am being serious )

Yes, it's a deadly serious question! He is a bit of a liability at the back tbh - even last year in the Championship he had problems when facing any kind of pace, and it is a concern. Having said that, he's clearly seen off Shorey during pre-season, so he will at least begin the season in the starting XI.

From a fantasy perspective, it doesn't matter whether he has problems, it's more to do with whether Reading can keep clean sheets - and the defence was our strength last year (20 clean sheets).

And don't underestimate the percentage of deadballs that Harte takes when on the pitch... something like 100% of free-kicks (Guthrie's arrival may reduce this, but not much - Harte is deadly!), 50% of corners, and takes penalties too. Plus the wingers frequently try to create space and pass back to him to cross, so there can be assists in open play too. Last year he got 4 goals and 8 assists from 30 starts.

[blahblah]

My point about his pace, relates to the CS's, as teams will go for him and his lack of pace, surely.

Then he gets dropped and Shorey comes in?

[Hogmeister]

My point about his pace, relates to the CS's, as teams will go for him and his lack of pace, surely.

Then he gets dropped and Shorey comes in?

Yes, understood. I was saying that despite his lack of pace we had 20 CS's last year, and despite his lack of pace he has held off Shorey in pre-season, so right now McDermott thinks Harte is the best choice.... despite his lack of pace.

That decision may or may not be proven to be right or wrong, and yes, he has a ready-made replacement in Shorey.

FWIW, my call is...

In FPL I would have Harte in like a shot (he's clearly the best fantasy pick of our defenders), if our opening fixtures were better. The fixtures are tough, so I'm not picking him.

In TFF this year I'm only running two teams (ignoring the teams that have constraints like the Egg Cup and Block teams) and feel Harte is too risky (see above) to be a season-long pick. If I was running more teams I would take a punt on him in one or two of them.

[blahblah]

It is definitely something to watch, I just sense the Prem is too big a step up for Harte nowadays. (Not that I saw much of Shorey last season.)

[murf]

Reading 2 Palace 0

Goals from Pog (assist from McCleary after a defence-splitting pass by Leigertwood) and Alfie (assist from Robson-Kanu after a defence-splitting pass by Pog). 2 excellent second-half goals inside a minute, rest was pretty tame pre-season friendly fare.

Starting XI:
Federici
Gunter - Gorkss - Pearce - Harte
McCleary - Guthrie - Leigertwood - Robson-Kanu
Pog - Le Fondre

No subs were made by Reading until about 20 minutes to go, the changes were then:
Pog and Alfie off, ......

Who is Alfie?

(too many people picking up blah's traits of using unknown nicknames!)

[Hogmeister]

Reading 2 Palace 0

Goals from Pog (assist from McCleary after a defence-splitting pass by Leigertwood) and Alfie (assist from Robson-Kanu after a defence-splitting pass by Pog). 2 excellent second-half goals inside a minute, rest was pretty tame pre-season friendly fare.

Starting XI:
Federici
Gunter - Gorkss - Pearce - Harte
McCleary - Guthrie - Leigertwood - Robson-Kanu
Pog - Le Fondre

No subs were made by Reading until about 20 minutes to go, the changes were then:
Pog and Alfie off, ......

Who is Alfie?

(too many people picking up blah's traits of using unknown nicknames!)

Sorry ....Adam Le Fondre

[murf]

Wondered if it might be LF but didn't even know if he was an A!

[Ironfist]

Where has McAnuff disappeared in all this?

[skittlez]

Gunter played the game against Palace then - are we assuming that the RB spot is his now?

[Hogmeister]

Where has McAnuff disappeared in all this?

He missed the Palace game due to a "slight hamstring injury" and is expected to start against Stoke. If fit, he will be a nailed-on starter (he's also the club captain).

Gunter played the game against Palace then - are we assuming that the RB spot is his now?

Gunter played because Cummings was ill. I'd say it's now 50-50 between them for the first match.


My predicted starting XI for Stoke was earlier in this thread.

[Ironfist]

Where has McAnuff disappeared in all this?

He missed the Palace game due to a "slight hamstring injury" and is expected to start against Stoke. If fit, he will be a nailed-on starter (he's also the club captain).

I certainly hope so... he's my single Reading bet for the DGW1...

[kai_ballz]

is guthrie a sure starter? there's 4 reading midfielders 5.0 and above..

[Hogmeister]

is guthrie a sure starter? there's 4 reading midfielders 5.0 and above..

Yes he is. Barring injuries, there are only three serious contenders for the two central midfield slots - last year's first picks Leigertwood and Karacan, and the new boy Guthrie.

Karacan was injured against Leeds (glad we're not seeing that lot again this season ) and missed the end of last season with a broken ankle. He's now back in training and has played with the development squad in the last couple of weeks, but aside from that played no part in pre-season and (confirmed again in today's local paper) "ruled out of Saturday's match against Stoke".

Meanwhile Guthrie has been one of the stars in pre-season and looks like he may well be first pick anyway, even when Karacan is fit again.

Finally, from a fantasy perspective, Guthrie is the more attacking player of the three, and apparently takes the odd free kick too... so is likely to pick up more points.

[kai_ballz]

is guthrie a sure starter? there's 4 reading midfielders 5.0 and above..

Yes he is. Barring injuries, there are only three serious contenders for the two central midfield slots - last year's first picks Leigertwood and Karacan, and the new boy Guthrie.

Karacan was injured against Leeds (glad we're not seeing that lot again this season ) and missed the end of last season with a broken ankle. He's now back in training and has played with the development squad in the last couple of weeks, but aside from that played no part in pre-season and (confirmed again in today's local paper) "ruled out of Saturday's match against Stoke".

Meanwhile Guthrie has been one of the stars in pre-season and looks like he may well be first pick anyway, even when Karacan is fit again.

Finally, from a fantasy perspective, Guthrie is the more attacking player of the three, and apparently takes the odd free kick too... so is likely to pick up more points.

cheers! thanks much for the awesome analysis Hogmeister

[Hogmeister]

No probs... of course when Guthrie turns up on the bench tomorrow, I'll look pretty stupid

[RamR]

As the season draws near who would be the top choice in defence for Reading for the first couple of weeks at least?

[Hogmeister]

As the season draws near who would be the top choice in defence for Reading for the first couple of weeks at least?

Right now Harte best choice due to set pieces. He will start at LB, just be aware that over the course of the season, Shorey may take his place.

[From4corners]

...I thought Harte took them frickin' penalties?! I was so excited to finally see some points heading my way this morning during MOTD, until I noticed this other guy lining up for it... too bad

[TheTon]

...I thought Harte took them frickin' penalties?! :

+1

[Hogmeister]

...I thought Harte took them frickin' penalties?! I was so excited to finally see some points heading my way this morning during MOTD, until I noticed this other guy lining up for it... too bad

To be fair, I never said he takes all penalties.

And don't underestimate the percentage of deadballs that Harte takes when on the pitch... something like 100% of free-kicks (Guthrie's arrival may reduce this, but not much - Harte is deadly!), 50% of corners, and takes penalties too. Plus the wingers frequently try to create space and pass back to him to cross, so there can be assists in open play too. Last year he got 4 goals and 8 assists from 30 starts.

Last year we had 7 pens and missed 5 of them. In one match early on, we had three - Harte missed, Hunt missed, then Robson-Kanu scored! Harte took most of them though, including scoring against West Ham at the end of March and missing one in the very last game against Birmingham. So yes you would have expected him to take a pen yesterday, but maybe they'd decided during pre-season to let Alfie take them this year. Hey, it happens.

On the other hand, Harte took most of the corners yesterday (I noticed Guthrie took at least one btw), threw in some good crosses and was damn close to snatching the winner at the end with a free kick. Put that together with the fact my predicted starting XI was 100% correct, and I think the quality of info on this thread has been pretty good so far?

[From4corners]

I wasn't personal. We're

[TheTon]

Yeah I'm happy with Harte. As long as he keeps his place, he may pick up a few cleanies and a few goals, so for 4.5m, can't complain.

And yes, Hog, top info from you throughout!

Edit - 4.5 FPL price

[Hogmeister]

No probs guys

BTW the threat of Harte losing his place at some time is still there. I'm told that Shorey is taking a while to get up to 100% match fitness.

This may be to do with the fact that Reading are a very fit team - last year, and again yesterday, we routinely dominate teams in the latter stages of games, and score a hell of a lot of late goals. This is not just fanspeak - the stats on our late goals last year were quite amazing.

So if Shorey is not yet up to Reading's required level of fitness, the real decision about who is the long-term starting LB is still to be made.

[rhmd]

I think Harte not taking the penalty was a shock to most of us Reading fans, at least I had Alfie (Le Fondre) in one TFF team

It should be noted Pog had indeed been subbed off by this stage, so we dont know conclusively if Pog is ahead of Le Fondre on pens - or even if Harte just didnt take the pen due to a knock/fitness... it was very late in the game.

Basically, the situation is confusing.

[From4corners]

Talking about Harte, can anybody tell me why he hasn't been in the team for two consecutive gameweeks in a row?

[Hogmeister]

Talking about Harte, can anybody tell me why he hasn't been in the team for two consecutive gameweeks in a row?

Dropped, pure and simple. Shorey is a decent replacement, and has performed very well since coming in, especially at QPR in the League Cup and played his part in today's great team performance against Newcastle. Right now it looks like Shorey is the first choice left back.

[From4corners]

So Harte is dropped that much that he isn't part of the substitute bench anymore either?

[Hogmeister]

So Harte is dropped that much that he isn't part of the substitute bench anymore either?

That's right, yes. We tend to have a very offensive-minded bench (typically try to win at the end of games rather than hold on for a draw), so there's not much room for defenders on the bench (and they hardly ever come off the bench, even if they are included).

In yesterday's match, for example, there was just one defender on the bench, which was Pearce. So other defenders who were previously starters, like Gunter and Harte, did not make yesterday's squad.

One of the challenges of Reading this year from a fantasy perspective is that we do have two players for every single position, and the second XI is almost as good as the first XI. While I'd expect yesterday's team to be pretty much the team that starts the next match, if you look forward any further than that, then virtually every position is up for grabs. Personally, I'd say Leigertwood, McAnuff and Gorkss are (just about) nailed on long-term starters, but everyone else is close to 50-50...

GK: McCarthy/Federici
RB: Cummings/Gunter
DC: Gorkss/Pearce/Mariappa
LB: Harte/Shorey
RW: Kebe/McCleary
MC: Guthrie/Leigertwood/Karacan
LW: McAnuff/Robson-Kanu
SC: Pogrebnyak/Roberts/Hunt/Le Fondre

[From4corners]

Thank you very much for clarifying that

[ctibbits]

Any knowledge on Gorkss? He was sat this week and I need to determine if this is a regular concern or just a one off