Liam Moore says Reading’s players should be “embarrassed” at the club’s decline over the past year.
Stand-in captain Moore played a huge role in taking Jaap Stam’s Royals to the Championship play-off final in 2017, but it has been all downhill since.
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Stam lost his job in March this year and while new boss Paul Clement did manage to keep Reading in the Championship, he has overseen just six wins in 25 games in charge and his side currently sit in the relegation zone ahead of tomorrow’s clash with Bristol City at Madejski Stadium (3pm).
“It’s been difficult,” said centre-back Moore.
“I’m someone that takes football home, it’s my life. It doesn’t just affect coming in 9 till 2 or 9 till 3, it affects day-to-day.
“I honestly couldn’t put my finger on one thing to say exactly what’s been going wrong but it’s clear to see that there are things going wrong.
“Maybe we need to take a step back, reassess and look deeper into a combination of things that is going to help us progress and move forward.
“As a player you lose games, you win games, you draw, you play well and you play poor. But as professionals we’ve got to be disappointed and it’s a harsh word but I’d say embarrassed to go through a 14-15-month spell that we have and it keep happening.
“We need to change it, we have to change it.”
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Moore, 25, joined Reading from Leicester City in the summer of 2016 in his first permanent move away from his hometown club.
And he says the Royals need to rediscover some of the core values which tempted him to make the switch to Berkshire.
“I think something that’s been said for a long time is that the talent is there, but for me that’s kind of irrelevant now because we’ve spoken about it for 12-14 months,” said Moore.
“It’s about trying to do things as a team, technically, tactically as a unit. As a club we need to maybe reassess and maybe restart a little bit.
“We need an identity.
“When I joined Reading it was a big step for me because I’d only ever been at Leicester permanently.
“I did research on the club, did research on the identity of Reading and it was always passion, fight, determination, youth, togetherness with the crowd and the fans.
“I know all about Reading and their history and at the minute there’s a bit of distance between us and the fans.
“Obviously results help but I feel other things can come into play and kind of get that relationship back. It’s something I want to try and take on myself as well as stand-in captain at the minute to try and do that.
“We need to start giving people performances to be proud of. I think that’s the main thing.”
He added: “Teams go through bad stages but you can’t tell me on paper, which again is irrelevant, that we’re one of the worst three teams in the league.
“I don’t think anyone would say that but as a team, and performances state over the last 12-16 months, we are one of the worst three teams in the league.
“I think it’s better that we’re honest with ourselves rather than try and sugar coat it. We need to change it.”
Paul Clement is set for a selection headache with as many as 10 first team players set to miss the visit of the Robins after Anssi Jaakkola, Andy Yiadom and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson joined the injury list, but Mo Barrow is back in contention.
Follow @TomJCrocker on Twitter for live updates from Madejski Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
