Reading 3-2 Blackpool: Tactical Analysis

Tom unpacks the Royals’ impressive win over the Tangerines.

I’m not sure how, but this season has simultaneously been the most overwhelming and underwhelming in memory. Never has a campaign that left us 17th in League One been celebrated so vehemently, yet it seems there have been few better cases for celebration in Reading’s recent history, given the remarkable team spirit that has been fostered around the club from our lowest-ever point.

And it seems fitting to end a year of frustration on and off the pitch with a box-office win against Blackpool, a team that tore us to shreds in the reverse fixture. We started as a team destined for the drop, then became the great escapees, but are now capable of going toe to toe with the league’s best. Make no mistake: we’ll be the team no-one wants to play on match day one this August.

Right then, time to look at how the Royals pulled the plug on the Seasiders’ playoff push.

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Blackpool played in a 3-5-2 shape, with the two outside central midfielders often staying high when in possession. With the wingers up too, problems could be created for Reading in the wide areas.

Against back threes, we’ve moved towards our wingers pressing the centre-backs and Sam Smith either closing down the goalkeeper or blocking passes into midfield, which is an effective system, but does mean we lose a bit of strength in defence, particularly in the full-back areas.

Below, goalkeeper Daniel Grimshaw is on the ball, and on the left wing the two strikers are both making the same run in the same area. Dangerman Karamoko Dembele, who was played on the right side of the central midfield three, occupies the space on the opposite side of Reading’s defence.

It’s also worth mentioning Blackpool were down to 10 men at this point, with a player on the sideline waiting to be called on.

A long ball is hit over our defence towards Blackpool’s left, and because we have to adjust to that side, Tom Beesley has the time to get behind the ball and control it with ease. The Tangerines’ striker won a total of nine aerial duels on Saturday, three more than Reading’s forward line combined.

This situation was in the build-up to the opening goal, and although Dembele’s strike wasn’t directly influenced by our lack of awareness in positioning as detailed here, it paved the way for the passing move and goal that followed.

When we play against a system like we did, it can be difficult dealing with overloads in the wide areas, as we struggled with Blackpool’s long balls, particularly in the opening period. Watching the game in the ground, it’s a fair assumption to say that Reading grew into the match, and after a slow start for a few minutes after the break, we controlled the game much better.

You’d think this would come in the form of more possession for Reading, but it was actually the opposite. In the first period we managed 22 more passes than Blackpool, yet in the second had 82 fewer, with the key thing being that we limited those largely to the opposition’s own half.

On later goal-kicks, Blackpool almost played into our hands, by splitting their centre-backs much more than previously and playing it short, even when they had success going long before.

The 4-1-2-1-2 pressing shape for Reading, as was beginning to be introduced against Barnsley a few weeks ago, is getting exercised once more as shown here.

Although out of possession our opposition sat in with their back three, wingers coming deep and three in midfield, on the ball the goalkeeper became the third centre-back, while another defender went high and wide.

Ex-Celtic wonderkid and Blackpool 2023/24 player of the season Dembele floated in between the midfield and defensive lines, a position where he was pocketed by Lewis Wing, while the other two midfielders in George Byers and Sonny Carey were man-marked by Harvey Knibbs and Ben Elliott respectively.

Going forward, it looked like we had made some changes to our set pieces too. While Amadou Mbengue’s long throws give us a brilliant outlet to create some scoring opportunities, they don’t quite possess the flatness and pace of a prime Rory Delap, so a little bit of inventive movement in the penalty area is needed.

So many corners, and indeed throws, at this level are easily knocked away at the near post by a defender, but here Tyler Bindon wrestles his man away from that area.

This creates the space for Knibbs to get around his marker, and direct a header towards the far post into oncoming traffic, but the goalkeeper unfortunately collects it without too much difficulty.

We also tried a variety of tactics from corners, one of which is pictured here.

We have five players in the six-yard box, and as soon as Femi Azeez takes, Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan, Sam Smith and Jeriel Dorsett make runs towards the front post, while Bindon and Wing stay relatively close to the goal line to prevent the ‘keeper catching the cross.

Elliott is employed closest to the taker here, not to act as a passing option but more of a visual block to further impede the Blackpool defenders from latching onto the flight of the ball in an already congested box.

We’ve never been the most physical team this season, so it makes sense to direct the majority of our corners towards the front post, which we successfully did at the weekend, where the ball is in the air for less time, the space is more easily manipulated and the opposition tend to put their tallest players at the back post.

It’s a real breath of fresh air from the set pieces we’ve endured watching in years gone by, which have tended to revolve around launching it in Andy Carroll’s general direction and praying for a lucky deflection.

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It’s been a real pleasure writing these match analyses throughout the season, during the bad times and the good, and I hope you have enjoyed reading them just as much.

With no games to review now, all we can hope for is a positive transfer window and maybe a bit of movement in the boardroom too, ready to beat Wolverhampton Wanderers’ League One points record of 103 when the season restarts in August.

Have a great summer!