The Royals return to club action with a tricky trip to London Road.
After what seemed like a long international break, club action is back! A return to league football sees two away games in four days for the Royals, starting at Peterborough United.
A slightly stronger squad than we thought would play managed to beat Newport County just before the international break 3-0, with Harvey Knibbs (x2) and Jayden Wareham getting on the scoresheet late on to seal our advance in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.
Peterborough are in some fine form, most recently managing to put six past a struggling Cambridge United. Having reached the playoffs last season, Posh are trying to do the same again, and, with their star winger Kwame Poku, it’s looking likely they might do so.
In this preview I will talk about Poku, his numbers and the type of player he is, what Reading are missing to make us playoff-worthy, positives and negatives about the international break just gone, a small section on Ruben Selles’ interview, fixture congestion and injuries that could be starting to go our way, and finally my predicted lineup.
What? League One matchday 15
Season? 2024/25
Who? Peterborough United
Where? London Road
When? Saturday November 23
Time? 15:00
Opposition manager? Darren Ferguson
Poku managed a total of 11 goals and seven assists in 37 League One matches last season, helping Posh up to a very respectful fourth-place finish. This season he is already on 10 goals and five assists in only 15 League One games. Looking at all competitions he averages a goal involvement every match, which is incredible for someone so young.
Poku tends to play on the right-hand side of the Peterborough attack, running down the channels, trying to find space between the full-back and centre-back to use his skilful dribbling to cut inside and create an opportunity.
Having a left-footed winger on the right-hand side means that 8/10 times they are likely to cut inside to use their left foot, making them very predictable. However, Poku has a fairly strong right foot as well and he isn’t afraid to use it. Having that unpredictability to his game could cause problems for our left-back.
Poku has formed a good partnership with striker Ricky Jade-Jones, with the pair managing 20 goal involvements in League One this season already. They complement each other well: both are very quick and like to have the ball at their feet.
Jade-Jones is actually one of my favourite players to watch outside of Reading as I love the way he is able to glide through players with the ball somehow still sticking to his feet. If he can work on his finishing a little bit he will be a top player one day. They both will be in the future.
First, some positives about the international break:
Charlie Savage being called up to Wales allowed him to get good exposure into high-end football. Wales now play a similar style of football to Reading and him getting this chance solidifies this way of playing.
Basil Tuma also got some game time for Malta on Tuesday, which keeps up his match fitness and raises his sharpness for those matches when we may need him to step in for Sam Smith or one of the wingers in case of injury.
The main takeaway from the international break was that Tyler Bindon managed to get a goal and forced an own goal for New Zealand. This will keep him in good spirits and hopefully allow him to continue that form this weekend. Congratulations Tyler!
Some negatives about the international break:
Bindon didn’t arrive back into the country until Thursday, giving him only two days of training to prepare for this match at the weekend. I doubt he would have gone straight back into training but, if he did, there may be a high risk of injury this weekend and he is someone we cannot afford to lose at the moment.
Another negative to do with Bindon is that, due to his great performance over the break, there has been some transfer interest being shown in him. I have heard rumours that Arsenal are one of the teams monitoring him and could make a move in January. Although we may get some money for him, he is such an important player for us right now and the lack of quality cover we have in that area may cause us to struggle towards the end of the season if we are unable to find a replacement.
In his pre-Peterborough interview Selles talked about how Reading have a few difficult fixtures coming up, as well as injury updates, fixture congestion and some other topics. What I want to focus on is fixture congestion and the injury updates.
I’m glad that this was the last international break of the year as the Royals have had to postpone quite a few matches because of them. This has meant Reading are having to play five games in two weeks, which can’t be good for the players.
With the small squad we have, it’s not beneficial to have so many games risking injuries again and again which could turn out to be long-term.
Selles said: “The schedule is what it is, the only thing we can do is to make the very best out of it… I think we have proven we can be competitive in a variety of scenarios, so we won’t make excuses going into the games.”
This is a great mindset to have. Almost weekly now you see managers complaining about fixture congestion and how Premier League footballers play too many games of football and yet here we are: there are more games to play in our league, an extra two rounds in the FA Cup, another round in the League Cup, and the EFL Trophy as well.
Plus, if any small team gets far in the competition, they may have to postpone games, a bit like Reading in the next few weeks: they will have to play Saturday-Tuesday, Sunday-Tuesday or Sunday-Wednesday for a few weeks running.
But without so many games the clubs don’t get the money they need to run the club in the first place. Not every team has billionaire owners that are 100% committed to the club and sometimes an occasional extra game due to a cup run can be magical for a smaller side.
On a more positive note, Selles mentioned that Smith and Harlee Dean are back from injury and will be available for the match at the weekend. However, Kelvin Abrefa, Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan and Andy Yiadom are still in the recovery progress.
After the international break some players should now be fully rested and fully fit for a tough match this weekend.
In goal will be Joel Pereira. The man has saved Reading so many times this season already and I expect him to have a lot of action in this game as well.
In the defence I reckon there may be a small change. Michael Craig in my opinion is not the best player to play that right-back role against a side like Peterborough, and his replacement should be Ashqar Ahmed.
The young full-back has really impressed me with his recovery time after getting up the pitch and I feel this may help the Royals stay in the game a little bit more. Alongside him will be Tyler Bindon, Amadou Mbengue and Andre Garcia. Similar to the right-hand side, I think Jeriel Dorsett is a similar player to Craig; Garcia has the pace to catch up to Poku and I think that is what we will need.
The midfield three will stay as usual with Lewis Wing, Ben Elliott and Harvey Knibbs making up those three spots. Knibbs looked bright when he came on against Newport and I hope he can bring that same quality again this weekend.
My front three will include the returning Smith, as well as Campbell and Mamadi Camara. Campbell is another one who has really fitted into this system that Selles is playing and I hope we can extend his loan, which is due to run out in January.
Score prediction: 2-0 Posh
I think this will be a game we really struggle in if the players switch off at all.
Good luck to the travelling fans, especially those making trips to both this game and to Barnsley on Tuesday as well.
Come on you Royals!
