JAAP STAM says he is fully aware that Reading need to start picking up points.
Royals currently sit 18th in the Championship table, albeit with a game in hand, with just eight points from seven games so far.
A 2-0 victory at Birmingham City just before the international break pushed Stam’s men up into the top half, but a home defeat against Bristol City followed by a draw at Brentford has left Reading facing a huge week.
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Royals welcome Hull City to Madejski Stadium on Saturday (3pm) before a trip to Millwall on Tuesday night and then a home game against Norwich City the following weekend.
And Stam knows his side have to get back to winning ways.
“We want to have a result in every game, home or away,” he said.
“In previous games we could’ve had a better result but because of certain reasons we didn’t get it.
“Now with the home games you try to win them and it’s very important for us if you want to make that next step.
“Everybody knows that. The players know that as well.”
He continued: “We speak about it, but it doesn’t happen by itself – it’s not like if you play a certain way, you’ve got a certain ability as a team that the home game is going to be easy.
“Every game is going to be difficult and different because oppositions sometimes do it different than how they’ve played in previous games.
“The players need to react to that and we try to prepare them for that. They know they need to get results.
“We’re aware of that.”
Stam handed first starts of the campaign to Jordan Obita and Roy Beerens during Tuesday night’s defeat to Swansea City, while John Swift also returned from injury.
And the Royals boss is encouraged by the improving health of his squad.
“Swifty, Obita and Beerens have all had problems so physically they came back from injuries and needed to play on Tuesday,” he said.
“Swifty could only play 60 minutes. We knew that from the start so we needed to swap him and that was the same with Jordan Obita as well.
“That’s how you get players back into shape basically, by giving them minutes and in cup games you can do that a bit more than in the league games.”
He added: “Certain players are reasonably close to full fitness.
“We need to have a look at it and then we can make a decision who is going to be in the squad against Hull.”
