Reading FC

Brian McDermott insists he is the right man to lead the Royals to safety after his side’s abysmal 5-2 defeat at the hands of Arsenal
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McDermott: I'm the right man to get Reading FC out of trouble

By Jonathan Low
December 17, 2012

Brian McDermott insists he is the right man to lead the Royals to safety after his side’s abysmal 5-2 defeat at the hands of Arsenal at Madejski Stadium.

Santi Cazorla bagged a hat-trick for the Gunners as Arsene Wenger’s side ran out comfortable winners to leave Reading rooted to the bottom of the Premier League.

But McDermott remained defiant afterwards saying: “I am the right person for the job.

“I felt I was the right person to get the side out of the Championship, the right man to get us to two FA Cup quarter-finals and the right man to get this side to a play-off final.

“So I feel I am the right man to get us out of trouble from where we are. I’m not enjoying the results, but I am enjoying the challenge.”

He added: “I thought we had a chance at 4-2 but we came up against a side at the top of their game.

“We had a good response in the second half and that was key. But I think Arsenal would have beaten most teams on the night.

“We’ll keep going though and I’m convinced something will break for us.”

The manager also confirmed what he is going to be looking for in the January transfer window.

“I think we need some players in January with Premier League experience,” said McDermott.

“If we can, they’re the kind of players we should be aiming for."

Lukas Podolski opened the scoring for the visitors and Santi Cazorla then scored twice in three minutes as Arsenal were three up by half-time.

Cazorla then netted his treble and his team’s fourth with a simple finish past Adam Federici, before Royals threatened a sensational comeback.

Substitute Adam Le Fondre rounded Wojciech Szczesny to give the home side hope on 66 minutes, and then Jimmy Kebe slotted home just six minutes later as Arsenal appeared rattled, momentarily.

However, the feel-good factor would not last as Theo Walcott settled any nerves when he scored his side’s fifth 10 minutes from time and Arsenal held out for the win.

Royals fans have had more than their fair share of entertainment this season when Arsenal have come to the Mad Stad, with 19 goals in the two games played between the sides, but it is scant for McDermott’s relegation-haunted side.

Meanwhile, McDermott also confirmed Jem Karacan and Danny Guthrie will be playing for the reserves today in a behind closed doors friendly against Bournemouth.

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Firstly can we get rid of that dreadful 'Dream the impossible dream' song? Ironic or what? Like many of the posters below, I think we've had it and relegation is certain. But at least let's make an effort to go down with some fight and spirit. I couldn't believe Gorkss was back in the side! HRK gave Arsenal a bit to think about for a while. Feds had a decent game and prevented a cricket score. As for January, is there any point wasting any money on new players? Part of me says yes to give the present squad a bit of a shake up and perhaps a morale boost (for the fans too). Part of me says no because who wants to come to a struggling team, even on loan, and are we / they throwing money away on a lost cause? 17th is looking a long way off ...

Uncle Buck, Reading
19/12/2012 at 10:23

I love Brian to bits and think he has been marvellous for the club, but he really needs to go to Specsavers and get his glasses replaced or get someone in to help him out.

It's easy to say this as a fan, but our tactics need serious looking at, we definitely aren't working to our strengths and ability. And I'm struggling to understand why Brian can't see this or do anything about it.

Abu Dhabi Dave, Reading
19/12/2012 at 08:04

I like Brian McD and have no desire to see him ousted from his job but in reality he is making himself, and RFC, a laughing stock. PL matches are shown across the world and his tactics must be creating as much hilarity for other coaches as it does embarrassment for us. McD says he is still the man to keep us up..if only! The D in McD stands for deluded!!

Haggerty F, Haggerty R, Wallingford
18/12/2012 at 23:07

I do not see us improving much. We will not attract much in January (the budget might be there but so what). Good players are not going to join a doomed club. Perhaps we can attract older PL pros who have 1 or 2 seasons left max. For example Lampard.. but even he might want to stay at Chelsea until the summer and then shove of to sunnier shores.

For us to survive (minute chance) we would need to bring in Lampard quality players. We need to probably win 8 or 9 of our remaining 22 games... We have only won 1 and we struggled to win that! We will not get anything at city certainly if we are to stay up we would have to beat West Ham and Swansea at home.. Nothing I have seen all season suggests we can do it. The odd 15 minute good spells in games have always been spoiled by a similar poor spell.

However, TSI and the club owe the fans to give it a go! They will not spend big but they surely have the funds to splash a bit.

So long as we go down fighting AND trying to play football then fans can accept the drubbings. At the moment we are doing neither.

poru, Bournemouth
18/12/2012 at 21:09

Just a tip for when you do get money to spend. Dont buy any old players like Roberts who only wants to play when he wants and when he does he dont score.

We need hungry youthful legs.

All Reading fans want is 11 players fighting to the end of the game, not headless chickens who give up.

Reading fans dont expect to win all the time but what they have always wanted was to see honest hard working players thats all.

Get beat 5-0 but if you play with honest commitment and be seen trying thats good enough.

I say again Roberts hit the net prove to us you still got it.

Charles Thorn, Tilehurst
18/12/2012 at 20:41

Sorry Brian, your past achievements for us have been great and suppporters should always be grateful for that. However, like the majority of our players you have now shown that you are completely out of depth in the PL.

You caren't the man to save us as evidenced by your appalling tactics last night. Why oh why did you think it would be a good idea to try to match up poor old Legs and Tabb against the superbly talented Arsenal midfield. They were always going to be outclassed but you made matters far worse by deciding to leave them outnumbered too!

To make matters worse, you waited until we were four goals down before rectifying your dreadful mistake. Yes, I heard you say we scored three goals against Utd that way but did you really fail to spot that they scored four and should have had a lot more.

We were given an absolute hiding last night and the only reason that is not truly reflected in the score is that the much-maligned Feds had a great game, Arsenal took their foot of the gas and also conspired to miss a number of great chances.

Please to the honorable thing and resign before the supporters finally have enough of watching the team's weekly suicide mission and start to turn on them and you.

HARB
18/12/2012 at 20:08

We are in limbo! We can't do anything until January and all know that Saturday will be like the Somme. Brian has done a great job but without the backing in the transfer market, and none of us know what the budget was he can't possibly win. Blame has to go to Sir John Madejski for selling the Club to a penniless Russian who is all talk,talk talk. He is only using Reading F C like Sir John did to boost his ego! Best we will do in January is to get loan players in.

Tilehurst Ender, Spencers wood
18/12/2012 at 20:06

I follow Reading every game from here in Canada and up until last night had remained positive. But that sounded truely atrocious last night. Now in an ideal world we would have our three main injured men back, Mccarthy who will be world class and Jem who never gets the credit he deserves and Sean Morrison who has to be the find of the season! If we could get Alex Pearce playing and back to his best we would have a great spine, McCarthy, Pearce,Morrison, Karacan. Play Kebe up front down the middle (as Mick Gooding has been saying for ages) and we would have a starting point. But you have to agree that a few injuries make a huge difference with a small limited squad that Reading have? I for one will never stop foloowing Reading, whether it is in the Premier league or the championship or lower! If it's in your blood then you've just got to go with the flow? Come on U R'Z Stewart (Kelowna, Canada)

Royal_in_Kelowna, Kelowna, BC, Canada
18/12/2012 at 19:08

Good News for Reading

http://www.thefa.com/England/mens-u19s/News/2012/goalkeeping-camp-squads-181212.aspx

Congrats Lewis Ward and good luck..

A. XYZ
18/12/2012 at 18:06

Due to the level of performance against Newcastle, in which we unluckily dropped 2 points due to a handballed goal, I have been in the camp that has advocated giving the regime the time needed for everything to click ito place. Even as recently as the spirited, albeit losing display against United, it still gave cause for hope.

Since then, however, it is apparent that the disunity behind the scenes is beginning to bite in hard.

Last night, our manager put two limited midfield players up against 3 very classy opponents. Quite apart from being tactically naive and footballing suicide, it is also bordering on being downright unfair to the two players involved. Hiding to nothing springs to mind.

Blimey, if Guthrie really wasn't fit, at least put freakin Brynjar in there in his mobility chair. It would be another body in Arteta's way!

Seems to me that if an engineer sat in row z can work this out, then I have little doubt that the two players involved will also point this out forcefully to the manager, next training session.

I strongly suspect that if Brian hasn't already lost the dressing room completely, he's about to. For this reason, Brian should go.

The club now needs to play the long game. Not long ball, but long game in respect to the future. As a premier club, (well, for a few more months)we are an attractive proposition for an up and coming manager in the lower leagues. Once we return to the championship, that advantage is lost. Act now. Prepare for the future. Don't waste millions in January on mercenaries. Build properly next season. Merry Christmas.

ray northstander
18/12/2012 at 17:28

Why o why does nicky Hammond constantly escape any form of criticism ?

This guy lurks in the weeds with his head up sir johns backside and only comes out when it's a good news story. Get rid of him and let mcd build a proper back room team

Jake The snake
18/12/2012 at 17:15

Smiffy, Reading - some good news at least.

Would welcome back Jem in the team asap. In my humble opinion, I would replace Gorks, McAnuff & Legs with Pearce, Hal or McCleary and Jem asap. Perhaps have Hal on the left and starting with Kebe on the right, but have McCleary as a replacement? Maybe drop the Pog with Guthrie in midfield and try Roberts up front on his own, but with Alfie waiting on the bench - for Man City. Not trying to tell Brian how to run his team, but I think someone needs to.....

Also, when is McArthy back?

Southbank Dave
18/12/2012 at 16:01

On the plus side the reserves won 3-0 today and Jem scored.

Smiffy, Reading
18/12/2012 at 15:48

I was in the keep McD camp before last night. However the team selection (Gorkss again!!!) was a suicide note, and to top it 4-4-2 against Arsenal? Enough is now enough. It will be 7 straight defeats come Saturday (sorry is that being pessimistic, or just realistic)? BTW Brian, if Gorkss was meant to surprise us with how good he really was, boy did he just prove 100% of the fans right and you wrong! Please, please note he just is not good enough - accept it and play someone else!

Also Brian, you can't have it both ways. We "move on to the next game, as we can't affect the past", but we "must remember and be grateful for the fact we are better off now than 3 years ago". Which is it reminisce or move on?

I think the best hing we can do is get in a few loan signings and pray hard! We don't really want premier league mercenaries on huge salaries in the championship.

I don't know about others, but I am actually looking forward to being relegated and starting again next season in a league we can compete in. This is just humiliating!

GwentRoyal, Pontypool
18/12/2012 at 13:58

I watched the game from behind the sofa, I was just praying for full time before things got worse. Bottom line most of the players are not Prem quality. There must be some reasonably priced players out there which can compete with the bottom ten in this league. Thing is it works like this, you get rid of players and bring in new. This to my mind needs to happen quick. No good kidding you self. I feel for the fans who pay to watch. Roberts seems to play when he wants. Wheres your bottle Roberts prove us all wrong BALL IN NET