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By Simeon Pickup –
AS THE saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
It takes time for a new manager to impose their tactical ideas on a team, certainly to turn a desperately underperforming Reading team into winners once more.
With that in mind, it’s probably understandable that Paul Clement has taken an extremely conservative approach to his first two games as Royals manager, sacrificing almost all attacking intent in lieu of defensive solidity.
Sone Aluko’s goal, a stunning Good Friday strike against Queens Park Rangers, remains the team’s only shot on target in their brace of matches in the Clement era.
In contrast, Vito Mannone has been bombarded by a whopping 55 shots (16 on target). Quite the deluge.
In back-to-back games, Reading have been perfectly happy to sit back and absorb pressure. It’s certainly an austere approach from Clement, who has form for keeping teams up by shoring them up at the back (see Swansea City).
Clement is playing a worryingly dangerous game if he thinks these tactics will pay-off in the long-term.
An impassioned rearguard action handed Reading a win against QPR, but only just – they have Mannone to thank for that, and had pressure heaped on them by a reckless red card from Yann Kermorgant.
Tuesday night saw the same pattern – Reading sitting back and a stupid sending off from an experienced player, in this case Dave Edwards, but to different results.
In the end, Aston Villa’s quality shone through, and the play-off contenders overpowered Clement’s 10 men.
Edwards took plenty of flak on Twitter after the game, quite rightly as a player of his experience should know better, but to make him a scapegoat for the defeat would mean Reading risk failing to learn the key lesson of the last two matches.
A defensive game can be effective, and Clement will be wise to solidify Reading as much as he can, but you always need an outlet.
Even the best backline can only absorb so much pressure until it cracks.
Simeon can be found on Twitter @BucksRoyal and his website’s account is @TheTilehurstEnd.
