Even before friendlies, the p-words have been bandied about: play-offs, promotion and even “preparation”.
It’s all good in generating excitement ahead of our league opener with Luton Town. I’m sure we’ll all agree: the closer Saturday gets, that special buzz will start to creep in. But if like me you’ve read what others have written on TTE this summer, you’ll have noticed an air of caution – even frustration – and, I’m afraid, I’m the same.
Sim’s nearly eaten my sandwiches with his pre-season preview,
but likewise he’s touched on the same issue. The fanbase is broadly united as to Reading’s strongest line-up, which is roughly…
Pereira; Godwin-Malife, O’Connor, Ward, Roberts; Wing, Rinomhota; Lisbie, Stokes, Kyerewaa; Marriott
So, what’s the issue then? Well, it’s concerning that there’s hardly debate on personnel, due to the lack of them. It’s almost as if the club has overlooked probably the most important part of the squad: the bench. So much for preparation then?
Last summer’s takeover hold-ups aside, one of Reading’s biggest issues across 2025/26 was our inability to bring anyone off the bench who could change games. Lincoln City and Cardiff City won promotion doing just that as we saw firsthand. It’s all about options in football these days.
Already, we know the line-up listed above won’t appear at the Select Car Leasing Stadium next Saturday. Jeriel Dorsett will likely cover at left-back. Newbie Jacob Brown already needs wrapping in cottonwool given recent injuries to Marriott and Sean Patton; the latter really needed this summer to look a viable option too.
Therefore, at the time of writing, the strongest bench Leam Richardson can field looks like: Stevens, Ahmed, Fraser, Savage, Williams, Lane and Marriott. That’s one right-back, no centre-back, an injury-prone striker and, beyond them, I don’t think another player at the club has prolonged experience of League One!
How has this been allowed to happen again?
Yes, “Marriott joined us late last summer,” I hear it! What about the five games we didn’t win before he joined? Where would they have put us if we’d won them? You see it now, right?
New season, new start and all that; I’m going to refrain from criticising specific players. But the main cast of last season’s leaky defence are still here. As I said, I won’t be critical, but at least we had Finley Burns and Derrick Williams offering competition!
To be fair, another issue we had was “square pegs in round holes”, or players covering unnatural positions. People then being repositioned late into a match also didn’t help, again due to personnel shortages.
If you’re suitably prepared and stick to a plan, you can expect success. But if you start chopping and changing everyone’s roles when they’re also fatigued, you’ll likely see mistakes, and we saw too much of that. It’s as if the conclusions from last season’s post mortem have been thrown straight in the bin when it comes to Reading’s defence.
Hopefully this season our backline cover themselves in glory. But what about them having any cover at all? That would be nice.
Trying to stay positive, central midfield is pretty much bang on. The ability to rotate Charlie Savage and Lewis Wing could be the difference between promotion and obscurity. If both maintain their fitness from last season, we’ve a chance.
Fitness brings me onto the most physically demanding position where, sadly, injuries are inevitable, and we didn’t get off lightly last season either – wingers. It’s where you’ll always see managers make a call to get a result but, given our shortcomings, you can already sense someone’s lined up to be the proverbial square peg.
Given Richardson’s “more attacking” setup deployed this summer, expecting nearly all the club’s nine or so midfielders to remain fit across 40+ games is delusional. We’ll need at least seven each match, so where is the breathing space coming from?
Recent interviews have alluded towards the academy bearing the brunt of the squad’s gaps. As a Reading fan, of course I’m not going to talk it down, plus I’d love Boyd Beacroft to be the next Tyler Bindon. But for every Bindon there’s a collection of Michael Sticklands or Louie Holzmans who didn’t fare so well in football’s sink-or-swim roulette.
Developing young players is like exposure in a picture. Get it right, and you’ll have something great to behold. Over- or under-expose it, and it’s not great viewing. Richardson hasn’t any reputation doing this, but equally how can he be expected to deliver promotion with an inexperienced squad?
Now for the glaringly obvious.
A fit Marriott across all last season would’ve got us into the play-offs, but therein also lies our problem. It all largely rested on him and still does.
Imagine if he had a strike partner to see games off, not to mention the ability to switch him out ready for the next match. I don’t want to go overboard but have Reading ever sacked someone for not signing a player because who’s scoring us to promotion right now? To paraphrase a famous WW2 film: “I’m trusting in Brown and praying for Marriott.”
Without a strong bench, I don’t see us getting into the play-offs, never mind promotion. If anything, those p-words sound more like the ramblings of the local eccentric you’ll find on a park bench. There’s quite a few phone calls to make, if you ask me.
