Joel Pereira: 7
On a busy afternoon, Pereira made some strong saves in both halves to keep Reading in the game. I wouldn’t fault him for either of the goals conceded – one from very close range and another blasted past him through sheer power – with the defence at fault. His distribution again wasn’t great, but I did like one really smart low pass through the middle to Lane in the first half, which launched a counter.
Andy Yiadom: 5
Looked rusty and struggled at times against the pace of Wycombe’s attack. Gave away a cheap free-kick in the second half which ultimately led to the visitors’ first of the afternoon, and added little going forwards (although his job today was to be fair primarily defensive). Withdrawn for Nyambe in the second half – a change which will presumably be repeated in Tuesday’s starting XI.
Paudie O’Connor: 7
Didn’t stand out quite so much as his centre-back partner, but did pretty well on the whole and made a whopping 12 clearances on a very busy afternoon for the defence. A fun fact courtesy of Ross: O’Connor winning 10/10 aerial duels today means he’s been perfect in this regard over the last two matches. On the flip side, he let Woodrow in behind too easily from a long ball in the second half, which fortunately came to nothing.
Benn Ward: 7
The best outfield performer in Reading’s defence today, looking assured as the left-sided centre-back. Made a really good last-ditch challenge in the second half when Wycombe countered from the Royals’ corner. Withdrawn for Burns very late on, but not for performance reasons – Ward’s shown twice in a week now just why Reading forked out for him in January.
Jeriel Dorsett: 6
A difficult first half defensively, with Wycombe getting joy down his side, and at one point he backed off far too much to give Junior Quitirna a great chance in the area. Stronger in the second though, enough to push him up to a 6/10 for me.
Lewis Wing and Liam Fraser: 4
I’ve similar thoughts for both of them so I’ll lump them together. Reading badly lacked general presence and defensive protection from the midfield today, with the back four having way too much to do. Neither Wing nor Fraser were able to make any significant progress in getting control on the game, and accordingly, much of the game was one-way traffic in Wycombe’s favour.
As for creativity, Wing put in a really good cross for Young in the first half which the loanee couldn’t get a good connection on. Otherwise… nothing comes to mind. I’d still stick with this double pivot next time out, but they’ll need to really up their game on Tuesday when Bolton Wanderers come to town.
Paddy Lane: 5
A bit better than usual and he seemed more at home today. His role seemed (whether by accident or design) to be more like that of an orthodox winger, rather than playing as a 10 as he’s done previously, and you could tell he wanted to try things, which I’ll give him credit for. His success rate was mixed though, and he was guilty of giving the ball away too cheaply, at one point setting up a Wycombe chance in the first half. Withdrawn for Savage in the 74th minute.
Kamari Doyle: 4
For the most part he had a quiet afternoon, with Reading focused on defending rather than being able to give him opportunities to create. When he did get openings on the counter, he wasn’t able to do much with them (although he did lack support, to be fair), and he should have done better with an opportunity on the edge of the box in the second half when he couldn’t keep his shot down.
Completely switched off for Wycombe’s equaliser, unaware of Anders Hagelskjær’s run into space in the area. Really poor.
Kadan Young: 5
Also at fault for the goal to make it 2-2, losing the run of Hagelskjær, although I’d put more blame on Doyle.
Overall there’s most certainly a talented player in there: Young is adept technically and is confident enough to try things. Sometimes he was a bit too keen to try things – one point very late in the first half when he opted to dribble the ball out of his third summed that up for me. That, a lack of protection for full-back Dorsett and a silly yellow card when he pushed a player over, illustrate his inexperience at this level.
That’s to be expected of someone very new to League One football. Still, I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do in games when Reading have more of the ball and afford him more opportunities to cause danger down the left.
Jack Marriott: 9
The absolute star of the show, this was as good a goalscoring performance as you’ll see from a Reading player. Marriott pulled off three moments of pure class, awareness and technique to net a fantastic hat-trick. Easy tap-ins these most certainly were not.
In fact, this 9/10 means he’s the first player to get an 8/10 or higher in a home game this season. Why not a 10/10? We’re stingy sods basically and, as per long-standing TTE rules, we’ll only give out a 10/10 for effectively a perfect all-round performance, which this wasn’t. Harsh, yes, but it’ll make the 10/10 special when we award it.
Subs
Charlie Savage: 6
A difficult game for him to make a significant impact in all round, given that he came on right as Wycombe made it 2-2 and he was played out wide, rather than in the middle of the park (seriously Leam, why do you keep doing this?). And yet, make an impact he did, playing a lovely pass through for Marriott to make it 3-2. He only managed four touches in 20-odd minutes of football, but that first touch helped win the game.
Haydon Roberts: 5
Brought on for Young out wide, also right after Wycombe made it 2-2, and couldn’t really offer much offensively, with the game generally played down the other end. Nothing jumps out to me about his performance.
Ryan Nyambe, Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan and Finley Burns: N/A
All came on too late to get a grade and didn’t do anything to stand out for good or bad reasons anyway.
Average: 5.69/10
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