Alex Pearce..........

[winchester_royal]

But Karacan is consistent. Consistently decent. It's not like he shows glimpses of star quality, he just grafts away, doing a job for the team.

Excellent squad player. Automatic starter for a team chasing promotion? I'm not so sure...

[brendywendy]

i think if you compare any of our players to sidwell theyll come up short and leave you feeling shortchanged.
id rather take the evidence of my own eyes, that the midfield unit seems to be functioning very well at what its asked to do, and that karacan is playing a full part in that.
plus he'll only get better, the more he plays.

is it a midfield that can challenge for the playoffs? - seems to be.

[ZacNaloen]

But Karacan is consistent. Consistently decent. It's not like he shows glimpses of star quality, he just grafts away, doing a job for the team.

Excellent squad player. Automatic starter for a team chasing promotion? I'm not so sure...

His performances certainly never drop below a certain level, but he's shown enough where he is above that level to say that he isn't yet consistently playing at the peak of his potential

[winchester_royal]

But Karacan is consistent. Consistently decent. It's not like he shows glimpses of star quality, he just grafts away, doing a job for the team.

Excellent squad player. Automatic starter for a team chasing promotion? I'm not so sure...

His performances certainly never drop below a certain level, but he's shown enough where he is above that level to say that he isn't yet consistently playing at the peak of his potential

Fair enough. Personally I don't think he'll improve massively from where he is now, and I'd be suprised if he ends up playing regularly in a better league, but we all have our own views.

[Snowball]

I repeat I like Jem a lot and he may well improve.

What the team lacks now is the player who makes the dream pass
and can unlock ever-more-defensive sides coming to the MadStad

Imagine, for example our normal current first eleven with Gylfi in for Hunt.

Elwood and Karacan do a very good job of stopping other sides playing
and Elwood is pretty good when he keeps it simple with a short pass.

But we don't have the rip-the-opposition-open pass unless it's a long(er) ball like Kebe for Long recently.

We either punt it and hope, or it's the two wings. Sometimes the wing-play works but the better
sides have shut them down. We are then down to almost exclusively punting and hoping, or bringing
McAnuff inside in the hope his extra guile can open up the opposition.

For me (and I've said it for ages) the player we really need (and might be expensive) is a
midfielder who can win ball, doesn't go missing, but can manage those special passes.
I'd guess that would not come cheap.

Maybe Jem can add those passes (and some goals) to his repertoire, but I think
it's hard to run around like a man possessed (good) and also find that clinical pass.

He did it for the Hunt dinked-over-the-keeper goal (Doncaster?) and I remember
a brilliant through ball in his early days, but in general he doesn't seem to try these.

[West_Reading]

I love how when we had Matejovsky, he couldn't tackle and gave the ball away too much, and couldn't play as part of a two man midfield. Same criticism is levelled at Howard. Now Karacan doesn't have the 'magic' qualities that we need apparently and is too defensive.

This is the Championship. We are Reading FC. Central midfielders who have all the qualities some posters are after are usually called Gerrard or Xavi.

[Ian Royal]

I love how when we had Matejovsky, he couldn't tackle and gave the ball away too much, and couldn't play as part of a two man midfield. Same criticism is levelled at Howard. Now Karacan doesn't have the 'magic' qualities that we need apparently and is too defensive.

This is the Championship. We are Reading FC. Central midfielders who have all the qualities some posters are after are usually called Gerrard or Xavi.

Difference between Matejovsky and Howard for me, is Howard isn't a yellow card waiting to happen when he makes a challenge and does actually create goals for us. Matejovsky technically better, but less effective and a bigger passenger.

[Hoop Blah]

i think if you compare any of our players to sidwell theyll come up short and leave you feeling shortchanged.
id rather take the evidence of my own eyes, that the midfield unit seems to be functioning very well at what its asked to do, and that karacan is playing a full part in that.
plus he'll only get better, the more he plays.

is it a midfield that can challenge for the playoffs? - seems to be.

Although I'd agree that using Sidwell is an unfair benchmark in some ways I'm not sure I agree with the notion that our midfield is doing all that's asked of them. They're probably doing just about all they can do but I'm sure McDermott would like the unit to chip in with a few more goals and the middle two to offer a bit more of an alternative source of creativity for when teams stop Kebe and McAnuff.

[Ian Royal]

i think if you compare any of our players to sidwell theyll come up short and leave you feeling shortchanged.
id rather take the evidence of my own eyes, that the midfield unit seems to be functioning very well at what its asked to do, and that karacan is playing a full part in that.
plus he'll only get better, the more he plays.

is it a midfield that can challenge for the playoffs? - seems to be.

Although I'd agree that using Sidwell is an unfair benchmark in some ways I'm not sure I agree with the notion that our midfield is doing all that's asked of them. They're probably doing just about all they can do but I'm sure McDermott would like the unit to chip in with a few more goals and the middle two to offer a bit more of an alternative source of creativity for when teams stop Kebe and McAnuff.

Hell yeah to this. Those are definitely weaknesses of our midfield.

[SLAMMED]

I mean I was told by Slammed I couldn't have an opinion because I hadn't seen one game ffs! What a dick.

When was this?