What Went Wrong For Reading At Stevenage?

Saturday was not a good day for Reading on the pitch, for a variety of reasons. Sim’s match report really gets in the overall feeling regarding the result and the performance we saw unfold in front of us. I myself wrote the Player Ratings, and to let you a little bit behind the curtain of the process, usually Sim has to encourage me to up the numbers for one or two players as I am fairly often quite critical of performances.

The opposite happened on Saturday – we discussed the ratings and why they were a little higher than anticipated, so this article is partly a mea culpa to explain these, but also an opportunity to get more into the gritty details of yesterday and examine what went wrong. If I were going to summarise it concisely, what went wrong yesterday was Leam Richardson. There may be some nodding in agreement at that, and others may question whether there were other factors for the defeat.

However, I am putting the blame squarely at the manager’s doorstep and here is why. Firstly, the starting line-up was wrong. Reading (4-2-3-1): Pereira; Nyambe, O’Connor, Dez Williams, Dorsett; Wing, Savage; Doyle, Keane, Randell Williams; Ehibhatiomhan Will Keane hasn’t shown his best form for Reading since joining on loan, but we know from history that there is a player there.

However, he’s just coming back from injury and not only were the Royals playing him out of position by starting him as a number 10, but also using him when he’s not ready to contribute effectively. The second issue with this selection was that it forced Kamari Doyle out onto the right wing, away from his natural number 10 role. Doing so immediately after a game in which he demonstrated his capability playing in this role – scoring a good long-range effort in the process and receiving praise from Richardson for his performance, is just baffling.