Skip to main content

Reading 1-1 Bristol City

Reading recorded their fourth consecutive 1-1 WSL draw in a match that should have been an easy win. As in the last match before the international break, Reading lined up in a 4-2-2-2. Brooke Chaplen was replaced by Fara Williams behind the strikers

What can you say about a match that you dominate, but failed to take chances? It's been that way all season. The only time The Royals have scored more than once was against Villa in the second game of the season, but on the flip side they've only conceded more than once on the opening day when Arsenal put six past them.

All of that is a tad irrelevant to this game. To sum up just how dominant the home side were, they had almost the same number of touches in Bristol City's penalty area (59) as the away side had in the whole final third (61), and a third of the Reading's touches were in the third they were attacking (250 / 741). The home side had 71% possession and 33 shots. As I say, dominant.

Harding screws her shot wide after clean through on goal. She'd already missed in a similar position to the right of goal.

The best chances fell to Carter and Harding, who both found themsleves 1-on-1 with the keeper. The former took too long on multiple occasions, and allowed the defence back at her. Yet again Carter gets herself into good positions, but fails to convert. The issue is Reading don't have anybody else to fill that role. As for Harding, she lacked her scoring touch. Two egregious misses to either side of the goal in the second half cost her side the match. 

Salmon slips through Wellings, taking out Bartrip and Cooper. A lack of pace in Reading's defence has been exposed already this season.

In many ways the game is summed up in Bristol City's first goal. A Carter hooked cross ended up falling to Fishlock, whose volley was well saved by Sophie Baggaley. Five touches later and Charlie Wellings was racing clear of the Reading defence. Ebony Salmon, who shone throughout the match, took out both Reading centre-backs with a great pass. Bartrip dived in to win the ball, but to no avail, and Cooper couldn't keep up with Wellings after trying to stand her up earlier in the move. Cooper seemed to think that Bartrip had dealt with the danger - she hadn't. From there all Wellings had to do was slide it across to Emma Bissell and the eighteen year old finished the move off.

Reading's equaliser came from one of the few times Kristine Leine put a ball into the box. Harding ran across the keeper, who made a hash of gathering, and Williams smashed home. There wasn't much nuance to the play, but unlike anything else it actually got the job done. Balls into the box from wide seem to be what Reading are missing. When the forward players get dragged out wide, they rarely end with putting a cross into the box.

As with the men's matches recently, it feels like there isn't much to learn from a match that is unlikely to be repeated. What should be stressed is how poor failing to beat Bristol City is. A team that had conceded twenty-five goals and picked up a singular point in six matches leading up to the match at The Madejski.

One must assume that Manchester United, leaders of the WSL, may break Reading's 1-1 streak and it may be the second time that Moloney's has to pick the ball out of her net more than once.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scout Report: Brentford

It almost feels superfluous to write about a Brentford team who have already been covered so extensively. Famed for their player recruitment the core of their side is a young, attack-minded group of players who seemingly love to play together. They tend to play 4-3-3, with Watkins as the main striker, and Benrahma and Mbeumo attempting to find space to either side of him. The midfield three is given stability by Christian Norgaard in the holding role, while Dasilva and Jensen are free to push on. Even goalkeeper David Raya Martin is crucial to the team's attacking intent. His quick distribution reminiscent of Marcus Hahnemann bowling out to Bobby Convey to set the winger away. That said defensively the Spaniard can occasionally be caught out, infamously allowing Ryan Tafazolli to pass the ball from the halfway line into the Brentford net. That's not the only mistake he's made this year - a missed punch condemned Brentford to a loss at Kenilworth Road, and similarly lead to
Post a Comment
Read more

Reading FC Season Review | 2020/2021

When your season starts with your manager having to watch your opening match from the hotel because he's not been hired in time to beat the quarantine, anything above getting relegated should probably be classed as a success. And Reading exceeded surely even the most optimistic of pre-season predictions. Veljko Paunovic Veljko Paunovic almost exclusively utilised a core group of players in a 4-2-3-1, only changing things when enforced. One of the consequences of that is that Reading had more players play over 3,000 minutes than any other side (roughly three-quarters of the season). That consistency is often seen as a good thing, but in a condensed season, it surely contributed to the injury woes. It can't have helped that the manager also used the second-fewest number of players over the course of the season. His substitutions were often categorised as late (Reading's subs played just 16 minutes on average, only Norwich's played fewer) or non-existent (Reading were 19t
Post a Comment
Read more

If Anything, Reading's Win In Wales Is Just More Of The Same

Paunovic has been under increasing pressure in recent weeks. Last Tuesday he received criticism from all quarters after a dire midweek defeat to Sheffield United, where he changed the shape of the team to nullify the opposition threat. Although there were some interesting takes by those who didn't seem to fully appreciate the formation, it was clear that it wasn't just the opposition's attacking threat that the manager put the mockers on. And yet, one win seems to redeem all. My personal view on The Gaffer is that, given the injuries in the squad, he's doing as well as could reasonably be expected. Obviously he's made errors, but he's also been handicapped by off field matters. The six-point deduction has made the gap to relegation closer than it ought to be, but the team are clearly good enough to comfortably pull clear over the course of the season and, indeed, have been achieving if Reading had started on minus 6.  So my issue isn't with him, but with th
Post a Comment
Read more