McDermott’s
Madjeski Magic
A month ago Reading were second bottom in the Premier League
with 13 points and 5 away from safety, now at the beginning of February, they
sit in 17th place with 23 points and 2 clear of Wigan Athletic and Aston Villa
below them after a 2-1 home victory over Sunderland on Saturday. While they are
certainly not out of danger, the past month has seen a huge change in their
fortunes and I feel most of the credit for that has to go in manager Brian
McDermott’s direction. This is his first season managing in the Premier League
and up until the New Year it wasn’t proving to be a very fun experience for him
as his Reading side had only managed to pick up a dismal 10 points in their
first 19 league games. But somehow since the turn of the year he has managed to
revitalise Reading and has got them picking up points again. Credit should also
go to the Reading board for sticking with him while they were struggling and
giving him the chance to turn it around.
With regards to the squad, Reading signed 4 new players in January, defenders Daniel Carrico and Stephen Kelly, midfielder Hope Akpan and striker Nick Blackman. While Carrico is still settling in after his move from Portugal and Blackman only moved at the very end of January, Kelly and especially Akpan have both made impressive starts to their Royals careers having featured in the team’s most recent successful matches. Key performances and goals from existing players Jimmy Kebe and Pavel Pogrebnyak have also really helped them this month, but it would be fair to say that most of their points this month have come through the goals of striker Adam Le Fondre who’s got 5 goals in his last 4 games and believe it or not he’s actually got most of them after coming off the substitutes bench. Looking at their last 4 games, McDermott seems to prefer starting with a 4-5-1 formation playing Pogrebnyak as the lone striker and he often brings Le Fondre off the bench with 20 minutes to go for one of the midfield players to change to a 4-4-2 system in the hopes of grabbing some late goals and it seems until teams can find a way to stop Reading from doing this, they’ll keep scoring late goals and snatching more points. It is still too early to say whether or not they will go down this season as you can never tell when things like injuries and suspensions come into play, but all I can say is that if you were to have asked me the question “Will Reading stay up?” today and on January 4th, you would of gotten two completely different answers.
With regards to the squad, Reading signed 4 new players in January, defenders Daniel Carrico and Stephen Kelly, midfielder Hope Akpan and striker Nick Blackman. While Carrico is still settling in after his move from Portugal and Blackman only moved at the very end of January, Kelly and especially Akpan have both made impressive starts to their Royals careers having featured in the team’s most recent successful matches. Key performances and goals from existing players Jimmy Kebe and Pavel Pogrebnyak have also really helped them this month, but it would be fair to say that most of their points this month have come through the goals of striker Adam Le Fondre who’s got 5 goals in his last 4 games and believe it or not he’s actually got most of them after coming off the substitutes bench. Looking at their last 4 games, McDermott seems to prefer starting with a 4-5-1 formation playing Pogrebnyak as the lone striker and he often brings Le Fondre off the bench with 20 minutes to go for one of the midfield players to change to a 4-4-2 system in the hopes of grabbing some late goals and it seems until teams can find a way to stop Reading from doing this, they’ll keep scoring late goals and snatching more points. It is still too early to say whether or not they will go down this season as you can never tell when things like injuries and suspensions come into play, but all I can say is that if you were to have asked me the question “Will Reading stay up?” today and on January 4th, you would of gotten two completely different answers.
Premier League –
Weekend Review
Manchester United had a 10 point gap at the top of the table
ahead of rivals Manchester City on Saturday after picking up a 1-0 win away at
Fulham thanks to Wayne Rooney’s goal 10 minutes before the end of play. The
next day the lead was cut to 9 points after City’s 2-2 home draw with
Liverpool. City took the lead through Edin Dzeko, but two wonder goals either
side of half-time from Daniel Sturridge and Steven Gerrard gave Liverpool the
lead, but The Reds couldn’t hold on and 5 minutes after Gerrard scored, Sergio
Aguero scored another impressive goal from an audacious angle despite some
dodgy goalkeeping from Pepe Reina. So while a 9 point lead is certainly a big
one, given that last season United were 8 points clear in April and didn’t
manage to win the title, City shouldn’t be ruled out of it at this point in the
season. It is without question a big ask for any team to try and reduce that
kind of deficit, but given the quality that City have and with the bonus of
players returning from injury and African Cup of Nations duty, it should help
make this tough challenge a little bit easier.
In the fight for survival, bottom side Queens Park Rangers
could only manage a 0-0 draw at home to Norwich City. While QPR were solid at
the back and did a good job keeping Norwich out, the absence of striker Loic
Remy through injury didn’t help matters up front and Harry Redknapp’s men had
to settle for a point. They sit 4 points behind Wigan and Aston Villa who also
both drew on Saturday. Wigan were held to a 2-2 draw with fellow relegation
battlers Southampton while Villa were incredibly unlucky not to grab all 3
points in a very entertaining match at Goodison Park against Everton where the
score ended 3-3 after Marouane Fellaini rescued at least a point for The
Toffees in the dying minutes of the game. It is still tight at the bottom, I’m
hoping that some of the mid-table sides have some slip ups this month and next
so that the teams below them can start picking up more points and make the
battle to stay in the league more interesting with more teams involved.
February is the shortest month of the year and while nothing is normally
decided at this time of year, the results that teams get from now until March
and April can help make or break a season.
Newcastle enjoyed their first back to back wins of the
Premier League season after a late goal from new signing Moussa Sissoko helped
them to a big 3-2 victory over Chelsea and help do some real damage to The
Blues bid to stay in the top four. Sissoko scored twice in the game and it
appears to have increased the pressure on Rafa Benitez. His Chelsea side now
haven’t won in 5 games in all competitions. The lead on 4th placed Tottenham
was reduced to just a point after Gareth Bale’s 20 yard strike earned Spurs a
1-0 win at West Bromwich Albion on Sunday. Arsenal beat Stoke City 1-0 at The
Emirates from a deflected Lukas Podolski free-kick to leave them 4 points off 4th
place. The final game of the weekend took place at Upton Park where West Ham
United defeated Swansea City 1-0 thanks to a second half header from Andy
Carroll. 13 games left until the season reaches its climax and now that all the
transfer business has been wrapped up until the end of the season, now is the
time for all the players to show their worth to their teams and play to the
best of their abilities. Some big gaps have been established in different parts
of the league table, but I am certain that because this is the best league in
the world, those gaps are going to get smaller and smaller within the coming
weeks.
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