JAAP STAM says Reading “totally dominated” their contest against Aston Villa on Tuesday evening.
Royals sealed their first league win of the campaign with a 2-1 win thanks to Mo Barrow’s first goal for the club after a Glenn Whelan own goal had broken the deadlock.
And the boss was delighted with what he saw.
On the win…
It was very pleasing. From the start we were very aggressive, sharp, concentrated in everything we’re doing and showed a lot of quality on the ball as well. Our movement made it very difficult for the opposition.
We gave the first chance away ourselves by losing the ball and then (Andre Green) ran through and Vito made a crucial save for us. After that I think we totally dominated the game in possession and in creating opportunities as well.
We should have scored more goals, eventually in the second half we scored two good goals. Then you need to keep your cool, keep possession and not give goals away. That happened eventually and then it’s a difficult time. We should have made it a lot easier for ourselves by scoring more in the game.
On dominating the game…
We knew from last season that the players that we have and how we want to play can make it difficult for a lot of teams. We are looking to play well, entertain the crowd if that’s possible but also ourselves and win games for ourselves.
On if a lack of recognised striker is hindering them…
Other big teams who have got strikers like Barcelona and Real Madrid two days ago had lots of opportunities but didn’t finish them. I think they had a lot of strikers on the pitch there. Everybody misses opportunities. Yann is still out which is a pity, Jon Bodvarsson is still out but the squad is looking better and better.
On Mo Barrow scoring his first goal…
Mo is a quality player with his pace and one v ones. He is very comfortable on the ball, a threat going forwards and can score goals as well. I spoke to him a couple already in the short period he’s been over here and sometimes he wants to create opportunities for other players but he is the type of player I find can score more goals and he needs sometimes to be a bit more selfish in how he plays. He is trying to do that. You can see that with having a couple of shots from the edge of the box and that’s what he needs to do because he’s a very good player.
On transfers…
We are still looking for players, I can tell you that but I don’t know if they’re going to be in within a couple of days.
On injuries…
Jordan Obita is working with the physios outside, not with the team training yet. Callum Harriott is also outside training individually, doing a lot of work. He’s working very hard. It’s not going to be long until he can join in the group again and work on his game fitness.
Jon Dadi Bodvarsson has been running outside as well. He’s feeling well. I think it’s going to be another couple of weeks.
