Skip to main content

Reading 0-5 West Ham

 Reading won many plaudits after the game away at Manchester City, but realistically could have been on the end of a similar scoreline had it not been for some wayward finishing by The Sky Blues. 

West Ham cut off options, Fishlock is forced to try a difficult pass out to Woodham on the left (out of shot) and turns the ball over

The Royals have attempted to play out from goal kicks pretty much all year, and Moloney tapping to Fishlock has been used on many an occasion. It's worked before - the team scored against Bristol after a similar move - but it does come with risk associated. There didn't seem to be many options out from the box, and the midfielder's pass was cut out. The ball ended up at the feet of Kenza Dali, with Deanna Cooper standing off her rather than engaging. Still, The Hammers benefitted from a healthy slice of luck as her cross (as it patently was) ended up lobbing Moloney and sneaking in at the back post.

Reading have seven players over, and two by the free-kick. Thomas races out to the opposite side to start the counter.

That led to the floodgates opening. A Reading free-kick on the edge of West Ham's third saw seven hooped shirts attacking the box, with two more stood over the set-piece against the right touchline. Fara Williams delivery was far too simple for the goalkeeper, and West Ham instantly broke down the opposite flank.  A ball to the edge of the box was cut out by Rachel Rowe but miscontrolled, allowing Longhurst to steal possession. She attacked the byline, and crossed to Katerina Svitkova to head in, completely unmarked, at the back post.

Moloney is already on her way down when she could have stayed upright and saved easily - she does have a slight tendency to do this more generally.

It took thirty seconds from the kick-off for things to get even worse. West Ham's press was well-coordinated, and a mistake from Fishlock trying to lay the ball back to James was punished. West Ham were immediately four-on-two, and Dali fed through to Martha Thomas who chipped over Moloney. The woman between the sticks got a palm to it but I think she was expecting a shot across her, and her hand wasn't enough to stop it trickling into the net.

Three goals where West Ham just worked hard. Obviously there is a little more to it than that. They pressed well too, but it was that energy level that allowed them to in the first place, and combined that with a quick counter-attack. A sloppy Reading performance let them get a frankly unassailable lead after just ten minutes.

It wasn't over there, though. They may have navigate a quarter of an hour unscathed - a period where they were actually the better side - but they shot themselves in the foot again. A lazy pass from Rachel Rowe gave the ball to Cecilie Kvamme, who linked with Thomas to play around Woodham. Cooper came across to cover the right wing back, but Rowe couldn't make up the ground to cut out the ball across to Thomas.

Cooper challenges in midfield, and the ball falls to Dali who clips it over the top. Thomas is just quicker than Leine, who doesn't get close in the end.

37 minutes in and West Ham finished their rout. A long ball down field fell to Dali, who lifted over Reading's defence and Thomas completed her hat-trick by lobbing over Moloney from the edge of the box as the goalie tried to come for the ball. Leine looked to have the run mostly covered off, but just went backwards as Thomas breezed past her.

This isn't just a West Ham side that have only won three games all season, but one that - up until the game at the Madejski - had failed to score seven times or roughly 45% of matches.

We're at the point in the season where I can't even be bothered to fully critique the rest of the match. What's the point? Reading played their kick and chase brand of football. The only change made during the match was to bring on Emma Harries at half time. Understandable, and she did provide a bit more of a target but the game was gone.

Likely not the way that Fishlock wanted to end her stint on this side of the pond, and I'm in two minds about how it will affect Reading. She had moments that cost Reading, but that's because everything went through her. Just check out how many stats she ranks in the top 15% of. So it's obviously a blow overall, but maybe it will force a rethink. It will have to next season when both James and Williams have departed or retired.

Next up to watch Reading play 120 minutes with Spurs (it was truly no surprise that they needed extra time to find a winner) in the FA Cup. I will end this on the note that up until this point Reading had played nineteen matches and won four.

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