SONE ALUKO admits he did not expect Reading to be struggling down the wrong end of the table when he joined from Fulham over the summer.
A penalty from captain Grant Leadbitter, coupled with Britt Assombalonga’s second-half header handed Middlesbrough a 2-0 victory at Madejski Stadium to heap more misery on the Royals, who also saw Tiago Ilori taken to hospital after a sickening collision with team-mate Liam Moore.
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And Aluko says there is only one way to get out of the slump Reading find themselves in.
“When I came here I didn’t expect this,” said the forward.
“But I’m not that surprised by anything in football.
“Especially in this league you have to work and fight for every point.
“All the teams improve and get stronger so there’s no guarantee that because we were third last year, you are going to have the same season next year. Nothing’s given to you in this league.”
He added: “The only way out of this is working hard and focussing on our gameplan and executing that well.
“The manager said keep believing in it, keep working hard and that you don’t become a bad team or a bad player overnight.
“Confidence can dip but you have to be brave, brave on the ball, going forward and taking risks and it will come. I believe it will.”
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Aluko swapped west London for Berkshire in a big money move over the summer and always cited Jaap Stam as a big reason for making the switch.
And the Nigeria international is adamant he remains the right man to find the winning formula.
“He (Stam) was a big factor in me coming here,” said Aluko.
“That’s always a knee-jerk reaction in football, when a few results don’t go your way, just change the manager.
“There’s no guarantee that’s going to change things.
“You can see the players are still working hard, still playing for the manager and we’re still very much behind him and believe in what he’s doing.
“I’m not sure that (sacking him) would be the right decision to be honest.”
Royals have already lost three league games at the Mad Stad this season, having lost just twice at home in the whole of last season.
And Aluko says home form will be crucial to Reading have any type of success this season, starting against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday evening (8pm).
“If we want to do anything in this league we need to have good home form and then you focus on picking up some points on the road,” he said.
“Home form is crucial. Reading last year had unbelievable home form.
“That was the basis of them coming third. We know what we need to do, we need to turn it around and I think we will do and I believe we can do.”
