First games of the season are notoriously bad parameters for judging the outcome of the season to come, as Reading fans know all too well. 2005/06 saw us lose out curtain-raiser to Plymouth but we didn’t lose again until February and romped to the Championship title. Two years later, an impressive defensive display allowed us to hold champions Man United but come the end of the season, we were relegated. Last season, a defeat to relegation favourites Scunthorpe opened a season which ended with a play-off final.
With that in mind, here are some thoughts from this season’s opener against Millwall.
1. Manset will be more than a handful this year
Mathieu Manset arrived at the Madejski last year on the back of a half-decent half-season at League Two Hereford United. Nicknamed ‘The Beast’, he looked to have the attributes to be a good striker at this level; he possessed strength, aerial threat, good hold up play and a deceptive turn of pace. However, what he appeared to lack was fitness, often not lasting 90 minutes.
However, he looked much more in shape today and with a pre-season behind him, he could prove to be our new secret weapon this year. His hold-up play was fantastic today and, as in evidence a few times last year, he has one hell of a shot on him. With Long, Hunt and Manset as striking options (for now), we appear to have three strikers who could easily each get into double figures this season, each of whom no defence would enjoy facing.
2. McAnuff was the right choice as captain
Alright, there were not many other options for the role but Jobi McAnuff showed today why he was the man to replace Matt Mills as club captain. Whilst not being the vocal type, he leads by example. Not only was he a constant threat on the left-wing, he also showed his worth in a centre midfield role and was desperately unlucky to hit the post midway through the second half after beating two men with a clever shimmy.
Perhaps the best example of his ‘lead-by-example’ captaincy came in the closing moments of the game as he lost possession trying to set Andy Griffin free with a cross field ball but ran back fifty yards to close down the cross.
3. We are a dangerous side
We may already know this but there is a caveat here. For the majority of the second half, we were quite awful with very little attacking threat and looking average defensively, being beaten by long balls for fun.
Despite looking so poor, we still managed to score twice, hit the post and hit the bar. On another day, we might have been able to say “we won when we didn’t play at our best”, the clichéd sign of quality teams. A little bit more luck and the opinions on this game would have been wildly different.
4. Jimmy Kebe remains Jimmy Kebe
Wingers are rightly known as the most frustrating of players and Jimmy Kebe is perhaps the most frustrating of all wingers; stunning on his day, frustratingly wasteful other times. Today was more of the latter than the former. Continually, he would beat his man and put in a poor cross or not beat his man at all.
But, a winger is there to create goals and he did this once again, at last putting a dangerous cross in with the minutes ticking away that Manset headed home. That is why he is in the team, to create goalscoring chances and if he makes an assist or scores once a game, he is worth his weight in gold at this level.
5. Leigertwood is our lynchpin
One of the reasons our season turned around after Christmas last season was the acquisition of Mikele Leigertwood on a loan deal to bolster our centre midfield. He did such a good job he was promptly signed up full time before the end of the season.
He showed today how important he is to the balance of our side as a ball winner and ball player. He plays more defensively than his centre midfield colleague Jem Karacan which allows the Turk to bomb up and down the pitch. Leigertwood’s ability to do the simple things well (win the ball and play it short) but also to play a accurate long pass is the reason why he is so important to Reading’s balance.
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