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Moving up
the table I’m looking at Reading this week, the team that won the championship
last year, but who are struggling to find form this year and without a win in
their first 10 games McDermott’s side are already looking over their shoulders.
The Manager:
Brian
McDermott has been at Reading for just over 12 years now, occupying all sorts
of positions, and as such knows the club inside out. He has been manager for
little under 3 years since current Liverpool manager left the club and has
overseen a steady increase in the club’s stature. It may seem that with his
only previous management experience at non-league level McDermott might be a
bit out of his depth in the top flight but navigating the minefield that is the
Championship takes a smart man and the fact that the best odds you can get on
McDermott being the first manager to be sacked are 16/1 shows us that, despite
their poor start, it is unlikely that McDermott will be the first out the door.
Will he
be the first manager to be sacked? Almost certainly not, he has the
confidence of the board and seemingly the fans too, despite not having got off
to a good start there seems to be very little disquiet from a fan base who
appear to be patient enough to trust their manager. There are quite a few
others in the Premier League who have much more reason to fear for their job
than McDermott.
Does he
deserve to be sacked? As of yet, no. However the Royals don’t have a win
yet, and it’s not like they haven’t had the opportunity. Losing a lead against bottom of the table
strugglers QPR will have been a massive disappointment, and doing the same
against Swansea and Newcastle similarly so. We sometimes see a knee-jerk
reaction from a chairman backfire when his side are struggling but there have
been success stories too, so despite being quite early in the season McDermott
is no fool and will not be under the misconception that his job is completely
safe.
The Team:
Key Players:
Unlike fellow strugglers QPR and Southampton, Reading did not have the means to
splash out tens of millions of pounds over the summer and therefore had to make
their signings more frugal than ‘marquee’. Nicky Shorey and Pavel Pogrebnyak were both
astute signings on free transfers but you do feel that Reading miss that
creative spark that other teams in and around the relegation zone have.
Jobi MacAnuff
will certainly be a big player for Reading all season through, with 5 assists
already in the league he has been providing decent service and if he repeats
his tally of 5 goals and 11 assists of last season his contribution will be
invaluable.
Always an
important player for a relegation battling club is the goalkeeper. You can look
back at Ben Foster’s performances for Birmingham and West Brom and Chris
Kirkland at Wigan for two clear examples of this. Adam Federici was dropped
after the first 3 league games of the season for poor form so in came Alex
McCarthy. Having only made 12 league appearances for Reading before this season
the 22-year-old is anything but experienced, however it is not unlike Brian
McDermott to give youth a chance and will be hoping that his gamble pays off.
Danny
Guthrie in my opinion is being underused, with only 5 starts so far this season,
and most of them out of position, Reading have a ready-made Premier League
centre midfielder, something that they seem to lack. McDermott should give more
opportunities to a player who, while at Bolton and then Newcastle, proved that
he was up to standard.
Players
who need to do better: The goals have been coming from all around the team
this season, which could be looked upon as a bonus, but this will be worrying
for new signing Pavel Pogrebnyak who has only managed 2 of his clubs 12 league
goals so far. The Russian managed 6 goals in 12 games for Fulham last season
while on loan, which is no doubt one of the reasons he was brought to the
Madejski Stadium, however he will need to seriously improve on his tally so far
if he is to maintain the same strike rate he managed last season.
Verdict
It’s not
looking good for Reading. They seem to lack the quality that you need to stay
in the Premier League and while not having as much money as other clubs in
similar positions is a valid reason for struggling it cannot be used as a
bargaining chip come the last day of the season. Without some seriously good
signings in January or a dramatic improvement in the form of current players I can
see this being a long and difficult season for the Royals. 19th
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