After A Recent Blip, Reading Should Worry But Not Panic
12/23/2024 09:59 AM
Alex has seen some concerning signs from Reading in recent games, but is still backing Noel Hunt to turn things around.
I think anyone taking over from Ruben Selles would have had big shoes to fill. Generally, it seems, Noel Hunt being given the role was met with a nod of approval from the fans. We've seen him lift the mood in a caretaker spell and develop an exciting group of academy players who have had a relative amount of success, qualifying for Europe last season.
He gets the club. He's one of our own. Loved as a player by many, further admired for his coaching work, it just felt like the natural progression for him to get the reigns. Indeed, it always seemed that he was being prepped as the successor for Selles, one way or the other.
The thing is… he is quite inexperienced at this level. We haven't really seen his coaching credentials tested to know if he is ready for this step up. Despite a creditable draw in his first game as caretaker, a 0-0 against league leaders Burnley, this was largely the high point of his first reign and results in other games didn't follow.
Similarly, in his first game in charge on a permanent basis two years or so later, we saw a spirited effort from the team, away to league leaders Wycombe Wanderers, delivering another draw, this time by the scoreline of 1-1. A solid start.
We've had three games since then, all of them losses. Now, no tears were really shed during the loss in the EFL Trophy because of the concerns around fixture congestion. However, something like a home banker against Blackpool - a game we had our sights on winning - saw us get taken apart 3-0, and last weekend saw us turn in a... well, performance isn't quite the word. It was something, whatever it was. Not a very good something, and very far removed from the standard level of performance that we have grown used to.
It's a bit bleak right now, as Ben rightly wrote about after the 2-0 loss at Lincoln City. Should we be worrying? Yes, perhaps. But panicking? No, not yet. It's far too soon to begin drawing conclusions on Hunt's tenure and what the future will hold with him at the wheel.
However, it does mean that the next game on Thursday is now massive, with a lot more pressure due to the poor recent form of the team. A win here will ease concerns. A loss and/or another performance akin to Saturday's will raise further concerns within the fanbase.
Perhaps improving the performances is a longer-term piece of work - after all, it's a small squad that's been missing players, whether it be through injuries or other reasons. And this leads into one of my two major concerns right now: the red cards.
I know there is always a little more detail or commentary to the statistics than meets the eye, but, in four games under Hunt's leadership, we have lost three and drawn one. Or you could say lost two and drawn two, with one of the draws leading to a loss on penalties.
In those four games, we have also seen three red cards. That's more than the number of goals we've scored in the same period of time (two). Conceding seven times isn't a great look either.
The red cards are a problem. I just don't know why this is happening though. A saying I like to use, and have used before, is that 'once is never and twice is always'. If we are seeing players get sent off this regularly, something ain't right, and it's not like we have regular offenders or repeat offences happening.
But something is off here. How can we go so long under Selles with a relatively solid disciplinary record and then it crumbles when Hunt comes in? What is he doing so differently that is leading to this happening?
Maybe it's all just a very unfortunate coincidence, but perhaps there's something else at play here. Let's review a selection of Hunt's post-match comments from each of his three league games in charge, courtesy of Sophie's excellent regular columns.
"I thought maybe every little decision went the way of the home team but that can happen, and you can feel a little hard done by. It was a tough condition to ref."
"If you look at their goal, the lad is offside from the goal kick and it's not given."
"The pen is a pen. It was a stonewall penalty. I don't understand what he's seen. The fourth official said it to me and their manager said it's a penalty all day. I don't get how these big decisions don't get seen and it cost us a chance in the game to get one back and be in the ascendancy."
2-0 away loss to Lincoln City:
"We were in their final third a bit more but big decision, like the handball when Sam [Smith] was turning it around the corner, stops him going through on goal."
"The penalty shout, I cannot fathom how he hasn't given the penalty. That's the second one in the last two weeks. Those things aren't going for us at the minute…"
I think you can probably see the point I am making here, but this one quote really sums everything up here, also taken from the Lincoln loss:
"It's not as if they're hard decisions, they're clear-cut. I don't understand how they can get them wrong, everyone else sees it. Their manager said it was a stonewaller, same as last week.
"I'm sick of us seeing it, I want the officials to be good enough to see it. It is a really important part of the game because it's a turning point in the game."
One of the things that I really liked about our former manager - and yes, I am mindful that I am talking far too much about him when I should be focussing on the here and now, my apologies - is that never once, no matter how contentious the decision was (and my word, have we had a few of those in our League One era), he would never focus on them.
It was always about the actions that the team could do to change the situation - whether it be a mistake a that led to the decision being give that we had the power to control, or the ability to affect other moments in the game to make sure decisions didn't impact the overall result.
Hunt, on the other hand, is taking a different approach. Well, I've got news for you Noel my old son, this is League One. The refs are not going to do us any favours here.
The worry for me is that the siege mentality that Selles fostered for us was based around it being us against the world - but that we have the power to make our own destiny. However, when we start to blame others, the introspection is taken away from the players, coaches, whomever.
Everyone there knows that our circumstances are unprecedented, and we are fighting every day for every minute to bring the fight into the next game. Playing the blame game isn't going to help us, and I wonder whether this mentality has seeped into the mistakes we are making and the no-shows we are seeing.
I believe in Hunt. He's still learning on the job, but I'm confident he has the tools and skills to make a success of this tenure.
I believe he has the backing of the players and the fans and we all want him to do well, not just because he manages Reading, but also because he is so closely connected to our identity as a club. I am also a big fan of his loyalty to the academy players he has been working with, and I am excited to see players like Jay Senga make the bench more often, as an example.
However, something needs to change and we need to see that change happen in what should be a favourable circumstance - a home match against a Northampton Town side hovering dangerously close to the relegation zone, having just been thumped 5-0.
If we can't deliver a performance and result in this game, then we really might be in trouble. And it's not even January yet.
