Knee-jerk Takeaways From Reading’s February

Funny old month, is February. It’s literally only three days fewer than January but every year, without fail, it just flies by. Now here we are, stepping into March with only 12 games of the season left already. How did that happen?

As ever, I will take it upon myself to review the month that has just passed us by and, as part of the review, I’ll provide some opinions. Mostly ill-informed opinions (because hey, why break the habit of a lifetime?) but opinions nonetheless on what unfolded over the course of the previous month. As such, the knee-jerk reactions element was born.

We finished February sat snugly in seventh in the table, just one place behind sixth-placed Huddersfield Town, and with the bonus of having a game in hand over them. Not bad, right? However, we will need to keep an eye out on Stevenage in eighth – level on points with us but with a game in hand, with away games yet to be played out against both of these sides.

Let’s recap how this all came about then, shall we?

Performances and tactics

Where to start here? In terms of results, over the six games played across February, we found ourselves fifth in the form table, with only one loss sustained, against AFC Wimbledon at the start of the month.

There were a couple of draws too, which we’ll get onto later, but also some significant wins against teams we are directly competing against for a chance to grab a place in the playoffs: Wycombe Wanderers and Bradford City.

However… the mood among fans isn’t great. While the results have been coming, the feeling in the majority of the fanbase seems to be that the results are being achieved in spite of us, rather than through us doing enough to earn the points.

Too often we see the side sitting deep to soak up pressure to protect slender leaders, and struggle to successfully carry out attacking transitions to use the talent we have in the squad to punish the defensive lines of other teams.

Instead, the feeling is that we are all too reliant on Jack Marriott to find a way to score. Five goals in as many games shows that’s not necessarily the worst strategy in the world, but the word that is bandied around is applicable here: sustainability.

This strategy surely isn’t sustainable for much longer. Indeed, now with Marriott out injured, Richardson’s hand will have been forced.

I have had a lot of time to allow these contradictory thoughts and feelings float around in my mind, and I think I have finally arrived at an opinion: are we playing well? No. Does it matter? Actually… probably not.

It feels like the takeaway we’ve had from so many games this season has been that the opposition we’re facing in League One aren’t of the highest standard, which is probably something still said with our Championship-tinted glasses on. Therein, the reality is that we don’t need to be good to win games; we just need to be effective. And, right now, we are being exactly that.

Whether it is sustainable remains to be seen, but the question I asked after December and January was whether the next month would allow us to have a better idea of our playoff credentials. It’s clear now that we’re certainly in the conversation, if we can keep up the results.

I think the worry is that the level of performances we’re seeing the side turn in will get picked apart in the league above – but we need to get there first. And, ironically, our ability to grind out results potentially could count in our favour if we end up in the playoff places by the end of the season. It’s all a bit of a contradiction.

However, if we don’t make the playoffs, questions will be asked about what Richardson will do with a full pre-season and a full summer window of recruitment to not only patch up a squad but rebuild it in his desired image.

It’s a fascinating prospect, and despite my reservations on what we’ve been presented so far, it’s hard to argue he hasn’t deserved a chance to do that, wherever we finish the season.

But that is all for the future. Right now, Richardson is without Marriott – our player of the season – and he will need to find a way to continue getting those results which remain at odds with performances, without one of the most reliable sources of goals in the league. Gulp.

Conceding in the 96th minute

Not once in February, but twice. And we could have really done with those four points.

The reality is that, against Bolton Wanderers, we made that problem for ourselves and frankly, the Trotters can probably feel hard done by that they only left the SCL with a point, after having camped out in our half of the pitch for the entirety the second half.

Bolton are one of the better sides in the division, so despite conceding with essentially the last kick, if offered a point at the start of the game, you wouldn’t have sniffed at it.

However, Port Vale is a whole other story. Away from home or not, and on a pitch in bad condition or not, it doesn’t matter. It’s the same pitch for everyone and Port Vale had only picked up something like 10 points at home all season, prior to that game.

There was, and still is, a reason why they are a side so cut adrift at the bottom of the table that they are 10 points away from safety, and eight from the next team above them.

To turn in a performance of the grading we did was just not acceptable. But we nearly got away with it. Until we didn’t. There were warning signs, and Joel Pereira had to make a smart couple of stops earlier in the game to keep the balance in our favour.

Not learning your lessons and doing the exact same thing as you had done as a unit in the previous game is unforgivably bad. To do it against – with the great of respect to them – the quality of the opposition that we did it against this time around was probably (possibly?) the low point of the season so far.

Those were two points we absolutely threw away, and with them, we’d have briefly been in sixth and put a bit of breathing space between us and Stevenage.

To then follow up those two performances by scoring two goals in stoppage time, the only two shots recorded on target, to beat Bradford City, was the absolute definition of comedic timing.

However, hopefully this is the light at the end of the tunnel for extinguishing that bad habit of conceding late and the start of one when we can be competitive right until the end of the game, instead of camping out in our own half by battening down the hatches and hoping we can repel everything that gets thrown our way.

Injuries

As ever, we’re certainly not making it easy for ourselves. Those currently out injured include: Will Keane, Daniel Kyerewaa, Ben Elliott, Haydon Roberts, Mamadi Camara and Kadan Young. Some big players for us missing, right there.

And possibly to be added to that list: Ryan Nyambe, who didn’t come out for the second half of the Bradford City game.

Fortunately, for the first time in a long while, we have much more depth to help get us plug the gaps in the squad. Added to this, Derrick and Randell Williams have recently returned from injury too, and they are two players who will strengthen most teams in this division, with Matt Ritchie and Paddy Lane also working their way back from injury layoffs.

However…

Jack Marriott

This lad, you might have heard of him? He’s pretty handy to have around and seems to sneeze goals.

We know he’s a goalscorer but my word, that hat-trick he got against Wycombe was sensational. It really demonstrated three of his strengths: 1) the ability to read the game and sniff out the opportunities to make the runs to be in the right place at the right time, 2) his first touch, 3) his vision to craft shooting chances and be so clinical in finishing them. Whatever the angle, whatever the foot, whatever the number of defenders around him.

He’s absolutely been the player of the season for us so far, and it’s a cruel blow to see him out, and for an undetermined amount of time.

However, in a weird way, it’s almost sort of a blessing. Any team that plays against us knows the tactics: sit deep, get the ball to Wing and Wing will send up a long ball to either find Marriott in a half space or a winger on the run, who will find Marriott. Without Marriott, how do teams know what to expect from us?

I’m not even sure Richardson has yet got an answer for this. Having said that, the recall of Sean Patton looks very promising. Meanwhile, let’s hope Marriott will be back with us again soon.

Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan

For now, I think it’s Ehibhatiomhan’s position as the starting nine to lose, but he’s already not far away from losing it. He’s never really convinced in playing as a lone striker – he’s simply not consistent enough. He’s a very streaky player.

The talent has always been there but the frustration, as ever, is that there’s constantly an ingredient or two missing in his game, whether it’s the physicality, the reading of the game, the aggression, the final ball or winning a header.

A question I’ve always asked about Long Kelvin is: is he a striker playing as a winger? Or a winger playing as a striker? The game against Bradford, as well as the body of evidence in earlier months of the season, is that he seems to be most comfortable on the left.

However, he’s not a guaranteed starter and demonstrating his ability to lead the line will get him more game time. He has to take this chance, or you get the feeling that the club will look to move him on in the summer.

Benn Ward

I’ll tell you who I am absolutely sure won’t be moving on this summer: Benn Ward. What a player. He will move onto bigger and better things in the future, but right now, that left side of our defence looks solid with him, Roberts, Derrick Williams and Jeriel Dorsett all active members of the first team. Hell, Dorsett even got on the scoresheet twice in February!

What’s impressed me most about Ward has been his ability to seamlessly transition from League Two football to League One football, and even have the confidence to try to bring the ball out of defence, or keep the ball on the ground when getting it forward.

His versatility in being able to play at left-back has been pretty handy too. One hell of a player, and it’s clear to see why Reading were so keen to pay money for someone whose contract was due to run out in the summer, rather than wait and risk losing out on him.

Andy Rinomhota

He’s still not been able to kick on with his Reading return, but it’s not his fault at all. He’s returned to training and has played for the under-21s, but Richardson shared on Monday that he’s not fully fit.

All going well, let’s hope he will be ready and able to get back up to match fitness in the near future, because he’s quite the player to call upon to help give us a boost at the business end of the season.

Mark O’Mahony

No idea. Honestly. Does anyone know?

We are literally in something of a striker crisis: Marriott and Keane injured and Basil Tuma out on loan. We have Ehibhatiomhan but, well, we’ve discussed the concerns there already. We have Patton, who has looked good in flashes, but is an unknown entity.

Now would be a really good time to find O’Mahony from down the back of the sofa and roll him out. What have we got to lose? If he’s still with us, we might as well use him.

Paudie O’Connor

I always try to finish on a positive. O’Connor’s aerial domination has been spectacular during February. He really does just win anything in the air.

I have heard talk that flights need to be diverted around the SCL, in case he sticks his nut on a low-flying aircraft to get it clear.

Joking aside, he is slowly growing into his role and into the side, and is becoming more of the player we expected to see. Perhaps this is the effect of the early-season injury having taken its toll for so long.

I still wouldn’t necessarily have him as a starter – I think Finley Burns is very unfortunate to have been dropped and I’d rather see him in the starting line-up, but O’Connor is fighting to stay in the starting XI right now and making a decent case of it.