Skip to main content

Barnsley 1-1 Reading

 A fairly low quality game, where Laurent's late goal saved Reading's season as much as a point.

The one tweak to the shape Ince seems to have made is to push the wingers higher and wider. Reading, however, don't switch play quickly enough to take advantage, and when they do get the ball out wide there are no good crossers of the ball. Tom Ince and Ovie both have to check onto their strong foot, while Yiadom and McIntyre aren't particularly good at putting balls into the box full stop. That can be seen by the fact that they combined for one (or two, depending on who you trust) successful crosses all match, both relatively lucky passes by Ovie somehow finding players around the penalty spot. All exacerbated by the fact that Lucas Joao and John Swift aren't prolific from these situations either.

It's also difficult for Reading to fully utilise the width that they set up to exploit. Holmes, Drinkwater, and Swift have the ability to switch play, but often the side were too slow to move the ball across the pitch. Reading's five most common pass combinations were all among the back five and DD. Ten percent of Reading's passes were between the trio of Nyland, Morro, and Holmes. For the talk of a more direct style, it's not necessarily shown on pitch yet.

And it isn't just the passing that's causing issues, but the movement from those in the middle. On multiple occasions Reading moved the ball around the back from left to right, but only the four 'right sided' players - Morro, Yids, Drinkwater, Ince - were involved in play. That let Barnsley outnumber the away team and win the ball back with relative ease, particularly because Morrison isn't comfortable on the ball and isn't always a legitimate option.

Ince gives the ball away down the line, but Reading are already in a good shape defensively

Some of the movement issues seem to be about keeping the shape for when the team lose the ball and it effectively means that Swift and Joao, as the two players truly in the middle of the park, have to do a lot of work moving side to side. Currently they can be caught on the wrong side of the field when play moves across. One of the solutions is just to play more vertically - something that Holmes and Morrison did attempt toward the end of the first half. Morrison even set up a chance for Swift playing over the top.

Substitutions were again left late and, again, pushed us toward a 4-4-2. There seems to have been some lessons learnt from previous attempts, with Swift pushed out to left wing and TDB - who does have the ability to cover more ground - in the double pivot. Thank goodness we got a goal quickly and Morrison was able to drop back into central defence properly.

Laurent moving further forward also made it much harder for Barnsley to play out from the back. A one man pressing machine in the last ten minutes. We've so often seen those long runs chasing down defenders but leaving a giant hole in central midfield. Solution: just don't put him at CM. Genius. Doubt it'll be the last time we see it.

Ball Recoveries

Danny Drinkwater 22
Tom Holmes 21
Liam Kitching 20
Mads Andersen 19
Josh Laurent 19

Successful Tackles

Danny Drinkwater 9
Callum Brittain 5
Josh Laurent 5
Callum Styles 4
Remy Vita 4

And it must be said that Danny Drinkwater was impressive throughout. His tenacity was crucial in keeping the ball in the attacking third late on - making more tackles and recovering possession more often than any other player. His passing, while still largely conservative, was improved from some of his displays this season. His one successful crossfield pass created a gilt edged opportunity for Tom Ince from Ovie's subsequent cross. The type of ball that Reading fans have been dying to see from a man who came with such a reputation.

There is a rather large caveat to the result - it's against Barnsley. In terms of points won this season they're second worst in the league, eleven points off the next nearest side (Reading). There are still questions over Ince, but that may be a moot point if he keeps us up and departs.

Comments

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

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

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