Reading v Brentford FC - 18.00pm Tuesday 30th June - Madejski Stadium
The first midweek fixture of the mini season sees Thomas Frank and his Brentford side travel west on the M4 to Reading.
Mark Bowen, who previously held the Director of Football role at Reading, took over from Jose Gomes back in October 2019. This isn’t quite the same as Phil Giles or Rasmus Ankerson appointing themselves Brentford head coach, Bowen has lots of coaching and tactical experience having worked as an Assistant to Mark Hughes for much of his career.
A quick look at Reading post lockdown hasn’t told us much more than we already know.
A home draw v Stoke and an away loss to Derby could well proceed a match where they push Brentford all the way yet still succumb to a 1-0 loss late on. One point from nine when we could be looking at five.
One point from six, as it stands, has all but confirmed their place in championship no man's land. They’ll finish having been not good enough to contest the playoffs yet far too good to be spoken about in relegation terms. Which is ok, we think Bowen has done a good job, let’s be clear there.
As we’ll discuss, Reading contest football matches and have a good idea about how they want to approach playing teams that are also good. The next phase for them as a club is upgrading players in key positions and keeping hold of the ones that don’t let them down.
Since the return to football, Stoke will have hurt the more than the Derby defeat, as Reading conceded an equalizer beyond 90 mins making it feel like a loss.
An outswinging corner is curled in and it’s two unchallenged Stoke players contesting the first contact amongst themselves.
The second is Powell, dive stooping to head the ball into the corner where nobody is ever on the far post.
In the initial clip, prior to the corner, we see Reading instead chose a setup that floods the six yard box in a near post defensive arc and waits for the runners without concerning themselves with the runners.
First run movement from Stoke is to read and meet a fairly obvious ball trajectory, which nobody in Blue & White does as Moore gets caught under marking his zone. Secondly, nobody reacts to the knockdown, other than two Stoke runners, one of which is Powell, until it’s too late.
It’s the 90th minute and Stoke are chasing an equalizer with just seven players in the Reading box. It’s certainly on the conservative side compared to Reading’s 9+GK yet they still manage to make a mess by being too wedded to their zones.
Anyhow, we think they’re ok and an interesting side tactically, rather than having huge fundamental problems, so let’s not dwell too much on low percentage set-piece.
What we wanted to do with this preview is look at how they have used two defensive systems this season and how they might try to counteract Brentford’s wide forwards Benrahma and Mbeumo coming inside.
Bowen has shown a favouring of a flat back four rather than the 352 Gomes seemed to prefer.
Reading played their 352 shape v the 433 of Brentford back in the reverse fixture. The game was decided by one goal - a Watkins header where he is passed on to Moore by Richards and the clever forward manages to hang free between the two as neither really want to get involved.
An inch perfect ball to his head allows him to cushion a well taken winner low, but this is the start of a weak left hand defensive area that 352 tries to get to grips with but never fully compensate for. Moore in this situation is deep, very deep. At this moment, would he be that deep if he was part of a back four? Probably not, and it’s the confusion between a defensive back three man marking, being a spare man sweeping up and staying in a zone that rears its head. You’ll have to ask him personally but if you took Moore out of this situation and swapped him with a midfielder, not only is Watkins offside but a midfielder may make it more difficult for Jensen to take aim and pick out a floated ball from eighteen to six yards out.
Let's look at this goal v Leeds which is another stemming from confusion on the left hand side.
This time in a four at the back system, we see Moore dragged too far wide as Bamford pulls right as he often does during Leeds build up with Kalvin Phillips looking long form their own third or a goal kick. Costa rotates and inside, swapping with Bamford and what should be a comfortable bit of play getting the ball under control for Reading and back to the keeper or chipped downfield turns into a mess.
Richards has the ball and without a good angle to feet, loops a poor pass over both Bamford and Moore into the deep left back space.
Klich already anticipates this and reads the problem Moore has got himself into positionally and turns this into a Leeds attack. The situation is on it’s head as there is no centre back insurance behind Moore which there may have been had they been playing the three at the back system. Instead, Swift who is playing as one of two holding midfielders has to react to the run of Klich.
Klich plays the ball inside to Costa who looks like he is about to release Harrison 1v1 but instead rolls the ball backwards to Hernandez. Note Moore (no.6) has had the time to recover his position and become the deepest defender.
Hernandez shoots and Moore makes a block with his weaker right that rebounds the ball straight back to the Leeds attacker. This time he faces up Moore and somehow skips past him as if he is not there.
Moore, again having recovered his position and made a poor block, is now 1v1 against Hernandez and sticks out a trailing right leg, his weaker leg.
It’s an inviting stab which many forwards would be obliged to go over, yet Hernandez ghosts past and fires into the top right hand corner with covering Swift unable to recover.
Leeds are a strong side down their right hand side, we’re not silly, but these left back situations turn into goals too often to not be scrutinised.
Another decider in the first half of the season game v Leeds comes this time during a counterattack, where the left back area never gets close enough to stop a deep cross and the defender on the ball far side gets blindsided by Harrison for an easy late headed winner.
Alioski feeds Costa wide and he gets time as Ejaria and Richards never get close enough to prevent him delivering a deep right footed cross.
What are Reading trying to prevent or do with the two differing defensive formations and do they work for long periods but come unstuck simply due to players within them?
Reading have used a variation of 352 or 3412 a number of times in the early parts of this season. They then switched back to a 4231 or 433 variation as Gunter returned from injury and dovetailed treatment with the attacking wizardry of Yiadom and have flirted with the systems since.
The main point of the 352 formation when facing a team playing with three wide forwards is numerical supremacy. You’re matching up initially playing three centre backs against a front three opponent. We’ll only show Brentford and a forward three without taking into account left back or midfielder rotations.
Add in defensive wing backs to this and you quickly create a back five. This is what Gomes seemed to prefer. He would deploy, from right to left, Yiadom, Miazga, Morrison, Moore and Richards. Moore had the balance of the left foot in possession and added with Richards who should engage the opponents winger first, being able to outnumber the opponent 2v1.
Why we’re seeing Reading have such competitive games with Leeds and Brentford, as Stoke did under Nathan Jones, is the use of the back five. If it stays disciplined it takes care of wide forwards by making it difficult for them to receive the ball in the same spaces a back four would, as well as covering midfield runners because you can still play with a midfield double pivot.
Essentially, you’re filling the right and left half spaces with centre backs, good or bad, making it more difficult for passing lanes and routes to goal to open up. If Moore has less to think about positionally and only covers for his right back or waits for a delayed run from a midfielder, he is an advantage. He can see the game in front and cuts down the space in behind him.
The natural space a back four and midfield four in front creates is prime for wide forwards to exploit when waiting for the ball. Benrahma receives this ball when coming inside exceptionally well.
Flipping between the two formations looks to be part of the problem for Reading. As Bowen has wanted the side to exert more of their own attacking players on games, he has to give up one of the central defenders. At vital moments, there seems to be confusion between what defensive system they are playing.
When playing a back four and having the two designated centre backs, defending against an attacking side like Leeds or Brentford or Brentford with subtle movements across the front three, an effective shape requires greater coordination and fluidity between a midfield and a back four. It places more trust in defenders or looks to wait patiently in rigid shapes or press higher up the pitch to prevent them getting into 1v1 situations.
How Reading have defended from the front playing the 4312 or 352 is impressive.
The first line of defence, looking back at the reverse fixture, was Baldock and Puscas forming a narrow two that splits wide left and right when Brentford full backs receive the ball from the goalkeeper or centre backs. We saw Nørgaard miss the game and Mokotjo deputize and play DM.
We clearly saw the positional intelligence of Ejaria at Griffin Park. Playing as a central 10, he cleverly comes forward and when needed helps Reading form a front three. He pressures the DM or the right centre back, in this case Jansson so that neither get an easy chance to turn out and look forward. Instead, he hopes to force them into passing the ball back first time or out wide without being able to look forward.
Sheffield Wednesday's came to Griffin Park with an ineffective front two and lost 5-0 through forwards not splitting wide or being backed up by the midfield line as Brentford on more than one occasion walk from back to front and score. The front two stay tight but really they're statues, pretending to be doing something. A simple ball is played between the two to the DM and as he turns and the gaps between forward midfield and defensive lines open up, alarm bells are ringing.
Seeing how much recent success Brentford have had against a back fours, will we see Reading return to their 352 formation?
Going with a back four against Brentford in the defensive areas has seen two of the top four sides lose consecutive matches against the Bees. They both chose to keep to their own attacking principles and trust their defenders and midfielders to cope with the movement of a front three and midfielders combining.