August.

After a good second half to last season, and a squad that largely stayed together, it was hoped that Reading would hit the ground running, despite a tough start. That start looks even harder given we've played three of the top 6, thankfully the international break meant our game against league leaders Stockport was moved to late October. Seven points from that run is a great return and we're the only team so far to take points off Birmingham or Charlton.

David Button's form last season left a lot to be desired, and there were calls for Joel Pereira to take his place early on. At the back end of last season he showed himself to be a good shot stopper, a trend that's continued into this year, but with a habit of making costly errors with his feet. Thankfully his tendency to give up easy goals has, so far, been left in 2023/24.

I would also say that while his shot stopping has been good, Opta have him as fourth best in the league for goals prevented, it can occasionally be overstated by fans. Taking the most recent game against Charlton, he made important saves at the end of both halves, but they were saves that he should be making. Reading have not had a reliable goalkeeper between the sticks for a few seasons at this point, and if he makes that benchmark I think we'll all be happy.

One of the surprise changes over the summer was Michael Craig being moved to right back, mainly out of necessity after injuries to both Yiadom and Abrefa. The fact that he's kept the spot after the latter came back is testament to how well he's playing. 

His inverting into central midfield has been well discussed - the function seems to be to allow Lewis Wing to get onto the ball in the first phase of build up, while keeping numbers in the middle of the park. At times this can seem more of a rotation than an inversion (we can debate the differences). Wing drops into the back line with the other defenders shuffling around him to maintain a shape that looks very similar to the 4-3-3 that we begin with.

One area he could do with improving is his impact in the final third, his crossing from deep seems to be a little short at the minute. It's unsurprising for a man that hasn't played right back before, but it does negate some potentially dangerous situations.

You may know what you get with Wing, the two either side of him had their opportunity to stamp their mark. The easier one to analyse is Ben Elliott who just looks like he's going to grow into a scary player. Wyscout has him 5th in the league for both 'smart' passes - a pass that breaks lines and gains significant advantage - and deep completions - passes into the zone 20 metres from goal.

Meanwhile he's deceptively strong, able to hold off players and keep the ball in ways that he wasn't doing last season. He's attempting 4 dribbles a game and completing over half of them. Even going the other way, he's top 10 for defensive duels and winning 65%. To summarise: he can pass, he can dribble, he can tackle. He's not quite mastered shooting yet but it feels like a matter of time.

Next to him Charlie Savage is a lot more complicated. Granted, he has important goals already this season and replacing Knibbs' output while he's injured is a huge win. The issue is that defensively he is still somewhat problematic. For a couple of Wrexham's goals he either picked the wrong defensive option, or was chasing the ball like a headless chicken. Charlton's best chance came when he recklessly dived in and subsequently failed to stop a cross coming in.

It's also frustrating with his tendency to clear the ball under pressure, rather than retain possession. It's not always egregious, but his role in the team requires more. He has clearly taken some of his father's footballing ethos to heart. And maybe his last name is colouring my vision slightly - he is still 21 with only 3,500 senior league minutes, he should still have plenty of improvement in him. When he does have time on the ball you can see that there's a lovely passer there, and if he keeps up his goal output he might have enough credit in the bank either way.

Obviously Sellés deserves praise for almost everything that happens on the pitch, but one place that his coaching really seems to have had an effect is with Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan. I discussed on Reading Between the Lines that we're setting him up to do more 'Kelvin' things this year, and just giving him the ball more is certainly helping. He has also just simply improved his skillset as a winger.

Where previously he reminded me of a mini-Joao up top, he's now converted himself into something akin to Jack Clarke. He's cutting back onto his right foot consistently, but the defender isn't able to fully commit to that side lest he goes to the byline. I am also certain that we'll score more goals off his crossing. He has work to do with his left foot, but his crosses to the back post with his right are dangerous - it's almost a shame that it's only the height of Akande and Camara coming in off the right.

He's also cut down on the number of times he loses the ball. 14 per 90 last season, just under 10 this season, and a lower percentage of those are in his own half. Now most of the time he loses possession is trying to force things in the final third - exactly as it should be. 

The final player I wanted to touch on was in the one who has big boots to fill in Adrian Akande. My podcast co-host, Jordan Cottle, has been high on him for some time and I think we're seeing why. His off the ball movement is tireless. He is always looking to run in behind, which is something this team has often lacked. He also has the nous to drop into the space he creates to receive the ball if necessary.

We saw his crossing create for Smith against Charlton, and it seems to be a fairly consistent part of his game. He's different to a Kelvin or Femi because he's not always attacking the box, often he's taking the ball wide to create enough separation, and putting a cross in at the first opportunity. With Smith and Knibbs on the pitch, it's not a bad plan and has the added bonus of being what fans often call for. The Reading Way was built on crossing after all.

He is still slightly raw, as to be expected. While he's strong and not easy to push off the ball, he has a tendency to be a little untidy in possession. In his first start, up against a rather combative James McClean, he only won 3 of 14 offensive duels (where an opposition player tried to dispossess him). Charlton was a more respectable 50%. Obviously we're working with incredible small sample sizes here, and you'd expect someone just coming through from youth football to take a little bit of time to understand what works at the senior level.

The worry with the squad as a whole is that it is still so threadbare. Chem Campbell helps bolster our forward options, but there's still little cover at left or centre back. Hopefully Yiadom and Abrefa will be back soon for the right side of defence. Cover at centre midfield is okay but looks a lot lighter without Knibbs, and Craig is currently occupied elsewhere. If the takeover gets done we can still sign frees, and we will probably have to.

Post international break is not a doddle either. Yes up next are a Leyton Orient side without a point, but followed by play-off final losers Bolton and 5th placed Huddersfield. I'm sure this means it should get easier at some point soon, right?

All clips and data from Wyscout unless specified