Rip It Up and Start Again

By: Rob | September 21st, 2007

Well Reading’s recent fortunes and my blogging abilities have been directly proportional these last couple of weeks, to say the least. After successive 3-0 losses, one hoped that the international break would snap the Royals out of their funk, but a shockingly listless 2-1 loss to Sunderland Saturday has Reading in 18th, with an ugly -7 goal differential. Meanwhile, I haven’t made a post since 8/29, and if The Offside has a relegation zone, I’m surely deep in it.

But I’m happy to say I’ve now completed a move to a new home that comes equipped with Setanta and a DVR, so keeping up with all things Reading just became a whole lot easier (and less Bit Torrenty). So, with a renewed commitment to blogmenship, let’s try to lift Reading out of this early season funk and get them playing the spirited, gutty football they were beloved for last season.

In order to fully purge ourselves of the first month’s nasty toxins, let’s do a bit of a rundown of what is keeping Reading firmly rooted in the basement:

1) Lack of Offense

Last year, Reading were commended for coming up to the Premiership and showing an ability to hit the back of the net. This year…not so much. 3 goals in 6 games is simply brutal, and the fact that only one of those goals has been scored by a forward - and all 3 on set pieces - is scarier still. The three-headed monster of Kevin Doyle, Leroy Lita, and Dave Kitson haven’t yet hit their stride, in part due to injury, silly red cards, and lack of service. Last year it was a bit of a relay race, where Doyle carried the scoring the first half of the season, then passed it off to Lita for the second. Somebody’s got to step up as a viable threat, but quick.

2) Injury

As is often mentioned, the downfall of most small-market teams is the injury list, as they can’t afford to keep the absurd depth of a bottomless payroll side like Chelsea. Last season, Reading bucked that trend by responding to injury surprisingly well, with early losses of Kitson and Bobby Convey dealt with in nearly seamless fashion. However, this young season quickly wiped out our entire right-wing depth chart (Glen Little, John Oster, Seol Ki-Hyeon) and hasn’t been kind to our defense either, with Ibrahima Sonko still ailing from last year’s late injury, and Michael Duberry, Graeme Murty, and Nicky Shorey all missing time. All these players went down early enough to shake a replacement or two out of the transfer market, but Steve Coppell was either financially unable or tactically unwilling to do so, making only the strange move of trading Seol for Fulham defender Liam Rosenior, deepening one hole to fill another.

3) International Duty

This is Coppell’s favorite bugaboo so far this year, and there may be something to it: the wear and tear of fulfilling one’s patriotic duty surely stresses Reading’s shallow depth as much as the injury bug. With at least 10 players representing 7 different countries, international breaks have been anything but vacations for the Royals. Of course, practically every other Premier League team has to deal with the same stresses (save maybe Derby County), so it’s a little bit of a nit-pick to put the blame here. But would the Reading fans have chanted “Shorey for England” so enthusiastically last season if they knew it would keep him out of a very likely relegation-relevant match with Bolton and attract the “derisory” interest of West Ham?

4) Second Season Syndrome

Whereby the mystical gods of English football cast curses upon any lower-league upstart that dares stick around the top flight for more than a brief sniff. Or something, I’m still learning the mythology. The brave draw against United and the respectable match with Chelsea chased away the SSS advocates for a little while, but the struggles since have gotten every writer back on the “told you so” bandwagon.

5) Sidwell

It’s painful to admit, but the Steve Sidwell shaped hole in midfield has apparently caused more damaged than predicted. While it was hard to quantify exactly what Sidwell provided for Reading, and I admittedly thought he didn’t do much as far as the attack was concerned, the team continues to look a shell of its former self, especially going forward. James Harper has come along well, but new signings Kalifa Cisse and Emerse Fae haven’t yet settled into the system, and aren’t filling Sidwell’s shoes. Furthermore, it was correct to guess that the redhead wouldn’t get much time at Chelsea (though maybe he’s been cozying up to Avram Grant and it’s about to pay off), so both sides of the summer’s biggest spat in Reading-land have come out for worse.

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But looking forward, this weekend holds a very winnable home tie against Wigan. Hopefully, the team will be refreshed after their first full week off between games (probably for the best we just missed out on that UEFA Cup slot, eh?), and Wigan without Emile Heskey looks slightly more beatable. It’s still early enough in the season that one win can completely change the weather, moving us out of the danger zone and into a solid mid-table position.

Of course, now that I have every soccer channel available in the US and the ability to DVR at will, the game is not being broadcast. But I’ll be back with a post-game as soon as I can see some highlights.