How Much Of Reading’s Drop-Off Is On Leam Richardson?

NB: The following article was predominantly written before the Doncaster Rovers defeat.

Player improvement

Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan is the obvious choice here: six goals in six games over March and looking like an actual striker with striking instincts now, scoring a mixture of goals, thanks to his work with James Beattie and the other coaches.

Jeriel Dorsett has made fair improvements, but still has a way to go.

Other than this, it’s very much ‘this is my system and I’ll try to force what players I’ve got into it but in reality a few don’t fit so will only play if necessary and a big window is ahead’.

Paddy Lane and Matt Ritchie would probably fall into this category. Saying this, I could see Ritchie as a left-wing-back next season. Lane however really needs to be playing on the wing in a team that sets up in a 4-3-3, on the shoulder of the defenders.

Signings

Benn Ward has been a fantastic signing, the same with Haydon Roberts. Ryan Nyambe is a solid option and Kyreece Lisbie would’ve also been brilliant.

Kadan Young should be given more of a chance, especially in the final four games, but it’s clear the players we are signing now have a lot more of a plan in terms of a style of play and physical profile. Add into that the exciting Randell Williams and I do trust the club this summer, but please no more Will Keanes.

The summer signings weren’t awful: Daniel Kyerewaa, Jack Marriott, Paudie O’Connor and Derrick Williams were all very good. However, Lane and Ritchie can probably be expected to leave.

Mentality

The big one. How much can he be expected to change? He’s clearly recognised the club was fractured, players were unfit and absolutely clueless on the pitch. This has no doubt improved, but should we be better off? It’s hard to tell.

Some days I think we’ve done as well as we can with the group of players we’ve had and the fact that, when you look at this squad (mainly following the summer window), there is no coherent style of play.

As I mentioned under ‘player improvement’ there are a few players who don’t fit his system. If Roberts, Nyambe, Kyerewaa and Randell Williams were available all the time and simultaneously, maybe we’d be getting more consistent performances, rather than constant injuries and chopping and changing to manage minutes among new signings.

Can we really play well for 90 minutes with Ehibhatiomhan up top and no real back-up? With forcing Kamari Doyle out wide or subbing him off after 60 minutes before bringing on a defensive player because we simply have no other creative attackers?

With having to play Roberts and Nyambe every game until they get injured, then having to start Andy Yiadom and Jeriel Dorsett in key matches? Or even subbing them on with 10 minutes left to avoid unnecessary injuries?

If you’ll pardon the pun, Richardson is certainly hamstrung with this squad, despite the obvious quality. Yes we have Lewis Wing and Charlie Savage in the middle, but when they go missing, who do we actually turn to? Liam Fraser is a decent player but he won’t change the game.

We’re pretty set at centre-back and do have a decent defensive record, but issues with depth at full-back and errors from Joel Pereira have undermined that this season.

It’s absolutely criminal that we are effectively relying on one proven striker in the team. Despite injuries, we should always have at least three or four options up front, and players more between the ages of 21 and 28.

Starting the season with Mark O’Mahony, Ehibhatiomhan and Marriott and ending it with Ehibhatiomhan and Keane simply isn’t good enough, especially with the majority of our strikers being over the age of 30. Next season, Marriott, Ehibatiomhan and two strikers of ages in-between should be more sustainable for a whole season.

Style of play

Why do we sit back so much?

Our fitness can’t be tip-top, despite improvements since the Noel Hunt era.

I think in general it’s easy to make black-and-white statements. On the one hand we’ve been absolutely horrendous in many a game under Richardson, and yes we sit back and protect what we have far too often.

But on the other, the points total does not lie, nor does the fact that there has been improvement since Hunt.

The main question is: how much improvement has there been – and, more importantly, has there been enough in comparison to what other managers could’ve achieved? Of this second point we cannot know, but the main criticism levelled at Richardson has to be the cluelessness of the players.

“I’m sure every Reading fan will implore him to at least make these final few games exciting”

I understand that, with this group of players, it’s hard to eke out 90 minutes of performance, but I’m sure teams down the bottom of League One have had this problem perennially. What they do have is a solid game plan geared towards their players.

Yes, it’s hard to see exactly what style we should be playing and we’re limited by lack of quality depth in certain positions, but the players should still know EXACTLY what to do when on the ball – whether it’s to play through the thirds or hit long diagonals. Too often the attacking players remain stationary while the defence, with the ball, stand with their hands up in the air.

I can understand sitting back on a lead, even though Richardson himself has said his team shouldn’t be that deep, but I can never understand the players not knowing what to do with the ball.

In the end, Richardson surely wants to see this season out before a new start in the summer. With this, I’m sure every Reading fan will implore him to at least make these final few games exciting. Perversely, if we’d gained fewer points under him we may have seen that already, as being in a playoff race has only piled the pressure on this squad to keep getting results.

Should Reading give Richardson time?

Very few of Lincoln City’s players are actually in their first season at the club. The Imps have multiple players who are in their second/third seasons, with some of their squad in their fifth.

They have someone they didn’t play for six months to let him adapt. They loaned out players to return to become key personnel for them. They replaced other first-team options with solid back-ups.

You build over time but you also see signs of progress. We’ve seen some signs but, whether they are good enough with what we’ve got is hard to tell. The key will be in the summer, and we need to see the signs early in the form of signings and style of play.

Lincoln are a grade-A example of how you must build a club over time, especially given the recent off-field mess we’ve experienced. The real question is: are our strides in that direction being taken quickly enough? Or should fan noise be blocked out?

Quite simply, if you’re not enjoying it then what’s the point? Even if you don’t play total football you still want some sort of plan and control on the game, not coming out of it thinking about how lucky you were and unsustainable a watch it was.

That’s why this summer is so important. We need more performances like the Wigan Athletic match and we need to start seeing them in these final three fixtures or at least in pre-season, with a whole load of exciting, shrewd and coherent signings preceding those early July fixtures.

What’s the point in having a process if you’re not enjoying it? That needs to start in the summer, when there will be no more excuses.