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Burton Albion 3-2 Reading: Tactical Analysis

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A closer look at what went wrong defensively for the Royals on Tuesday night.

Although we haven’t reached ‘Shrewsbury Town away’ levels of meltdown, it seems the fanbase is rapidly approaching it. And that’s just on-the-pitch matters, never mind the events of the past couple days off it.

Look, this was a very disappointing loss, but I don’t think it’s Noel Hunt’s fault at all. There’s so much context around the game - Burton were just hitting good form as Reading were on the decline, Jon Dadi Bodvarsson scoring seemed inevitable whatever the performance, and we were still suffering from notable absences due to injury. Key players who dictate Reading’s games are missing.

You can question Hunt’s game plan, but in a way, the game plan went as expected. A first half when we failed to dominate and create many chances and try to weather the storm, then grow into the game after the break, to hit a relegation-threatened side hard with an energetic showing to grind out a positive result on the road.

Against Cambridge United away on New Year’s Day, that’s exactly what happened. Undoubtably an underwhelming performance but we got the three points - same thing to secure a draw at Charlton Athletic. And guess what, every fan in the comments section of those games is very happy with the result, as they should be.

It’s easy to forget we went over a year without winning away from home, a large chunk of which was under Ruben Selles, and even after we won, results on the road continued to be disappointing. Fans clamoured for a more streetwise, pragmatic approach to away matches, which we’re now seeing, yet still kick off when everything doesn’t go our way on a matchday despite the change in style.

Let’s look at the goals that cost us against Burton, because for me, it’s hard to blame the man on the sideline for any of them.


The first goal we conceded is defensively horrific. Firstly, the defence is out of position, with Harlee Dean on the right and Michael Craig in the middle. Tyler Bindon, having chased a loose ball, is the man sliding in near the ball on the picture here, meaning we’ve left ourselves essentially no centre-backs in defending the box. Chem Campbell is in the bottom right here, and despite Burton having a few players on that near side, he fails to chase back.

This leaves us with a defence that is nowhere to be seen, and a midfield/attack not especially willing to chase back either.

Instead of choosing to stay in their makeshift positions, Craig returns to the right while Dean heads more central, which leaves us with no one anywhere near Jack Armer, the number 17 on the ball, just about to cross it in the picture below.

Inside the box, we’ve got Andre Garcia marking eventual goalscorer Rumarn Burrell, while Bodvarsson lingers around the back post ready to tap it in. A half-decent delivery here and it’s as good as a goal, and it was indeed a good cross by Armer. Burrell makes a late run to get in front of Garcia and nods in to give Joel Pereira no chance.

The second Burton goal came from a free-kick around halfway that was very fortunate to be given, and it was well offside. However, the assist was a flicked-on header, which was uncontested from the free-kick.

This is the standard of officiating we’ve come to accept in League One, but it’s still very annoying given the importance of that goal.

The third we conceded was so unbelievably preventable - I can’t quite believe it happened. It started from Pereira. He was good on balance on Tuesday, and did his part in getting the away end a little more pumped up when returning from half-time shortly before we scored two, but he unfortunately played his part in Burton’s third.

His passing was very good that night to be fair, completing every single one. From literally every goal-kick or whenever he had the ball at his feet, Pereira played out, as shown by the pass map below.

This is clearly something he had been instructed to do, given that usually under Hunt he has tended to go long a lot more. However, against weaker opponents who didn’t have much of a press, this decision made sense.

However, there is one long ball on this graphic, which was a goal-kick deep into added time. Like usual, Burton aren’t pressing too high, and alongside Pereira is Bindon in plenty of space, ready to receive the ball and restart some of the passing patterns we’ve seen, as seen here.

At this point it’s looking like the home side were willing to settle for a point, and so was I personally. Coming back from 2-0 away from home, no matter the opponent, should be considered a bit of a lucky escape really.

Instead, we go long from the goal-kick, despite having a ridiculous amount of space between midfield and defence. Despite winning the first ball, we mess around far too much and lose out. This is the state of affairs when possession turns over.

We have the numerical advantage going forward, and if we were just a bit more clinical I could easily be writing about a win now, as Burton had hardly made themselves defensively secure here.

But no, they go straight down the other end and score. It’s Burrell to grab a brace as he tapped in at the back post.

There are so many things wrong with that goal for Reading: Craig gets drawn out way too easily away from his position, allowing Burton to deliver an inch-perfect cross; both centre-backs are on the front post; and Kelvin Abrefa at left-back is in the wrong position to get the ball away.

Charlie Savage didn’t seem too happy with Abrefa after the goal went in, and I noticed him giving a talking-to towards Garcia when he was on the pitch earlier in the game.


Scoring two goals away from home ain’t too bad by Reading’s standards, but we had the real problems at the other end of the pitch. With this set of players, I don’t think Hunt can do much more than he is doing. This is one of those games where the officials cost us one goal, but the players cost us two more. We were set up with the ability to win the game, and failed to.

There’s also a massive element of bad luck to our recent form. The Leyton Orient loss was painful but they’re in unbelievable form, and Burton have been improving recently too.

Big players who’ve carried us a little in the past have failed to perform too. I thought Lewis Wing was very poor on Tuesday to be honest, trying way too many risky passes which went straight to a Burton player, and not being effective out of possession. Sam Smith also had a couple of chances to get goals back for Reading.

We’re stuck in a rut at the moment, but we still have quality in the squad and loads of potential.

Keep the faith with Hunt for Bolton.

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