Today consisted of two games. There was the game before the sending off, and the game after. The much more interesting game was the one that took place before the sending off. After the sending off Reading elected to protect what they had, went to two banks of four, with just one up front. They were very disciplined, and consequently, they were very hard to break down. There is no disgrace that our team was only able to accomplish this feat once. The more interesting game was the one until the sending off. It was interesting, but unfortunately, Reading were much the better side during that period. The next section concentrates on why that was the case. Of course, Reading have some very good players, but more to the point they are very quick. But that is not even half the story. The second part of it was the system that they employed. Last season, Wigan bamboozled us with 4-3-3 in our home encounter which we lost 2-0, and Reading did it again. But why? The first part of the equation was that the two wingers occupied our full backs. Not only does that mean that they find it hard to find the room to get forward effectively, it also means that defensively, they cannot squeeze inside in order to protect the centre backs, and therefore there is more space at the heart of our defence. The second problem was that our two central midfield players are up against three opponents. That has not been too much of a problem in other games this season, because the midfield pair has tended to play deep in order to support, and receive support from the central defenders. The difference today was not only that Hourihane and Scowen were allowed more freedom to support the forwards, it was that Reading were so very quick on the break and they ruthlessly exploited the space when our midfielders over-committed to attack. Hecky has commented upon how important that first goal is in this league, and that is the third element in the story. Once our team fell behind, there was no alternative. We had to commit players forward in search of the equaliser, but this over-commitment was just as likely to lead to further Reading goals as it was to produce goals of our own. Actually, I always felt that Reading were likely to open the scoring because of the positions that they were getting into. Although it will be anathema to most on here, even though we were already 2-0 down I had suggested that we change to a 4-5-1 system, just to keep the score down. Seconds later the Reading player pushed over Hourihane and there was no longer any reason for doing so. This defeat is not the end of our season. Today’s results for Barnsley and Wolves show just how matches can turn on very small margins. Not all of our players were firing today, but next week could be very different. Next week it could be us that benefits from an opponent becoming frustrated or over-confident to score a late winner. That is what makes the game so interesting and so hard to predict. Just a final word about my first impressions of two of our new players. I thought that Kpekawa looked very raw. His positioning and reading of the game were not good and he looks a little tall for a full back. He does have pace though, and provided he is willing to learn, he will improve. When Janko came on, we were desperate for width, desperate for a player to take on the full back. He seemed unwilling to commit and as a result we lost our threat on the right side. I hope that he too will improve. Finally, a last word about Andy Yiadom. He was nominated for MotM today, an honour he richly deserved. If Kpekawa and Janko improve the way that Yiadom has done, then we will have some very good players on our hands.
Think that's fair, and agree with it all. I thought we expected reading to sit back more than they did. Given they were meant to be a "tight" team. They caught us on the hop out wide.
