MATCHWATCH : Sheffield United (h)

[Sutekh]

When : Tuesday 23rd November 2021, 8pm
Where : SCL Stadium, Reading, RG2 0FL
Capacity : 24,161


The season continues with a visit from Slavisa Jokanovic’s Blades next for another hard duel.

United aren’t having a good time of it so far as their malaise of last season’s relegation from the PL has continued to plague them into what they were no doubt thinking would be a more successful season at a lower level.

Form has been poor and it took 5 league games to record a win (6-2 v Peterborough), since that win things have picked up slightly but it’s still been very changeable and at the moment it’s a run of 2 draws and 2 defeats from the last 4 games.

Wolves loanee Morgan Gibbs-White seems to be the biggest nuisance to opponents so far alongside perennial thorn and one time Reading loanee Billy Sharp. The pair have struck 8 of United’s 22 league goals while another 3 have come from Lys Mousset in 4 starts so Reading will need to be alert if he gets any game time. Oliver Norwood will be returning to RG2 and will presumably get a decent welcome from the Reading support.

United will not have the services of 4 players due to injury; Sander Berge, Jack O’Connell, Oliver McBurnie and Robin Olsen. In addition Tony Currie retired a while ago.

The “will he, won’t he” fitness game continues at Reading with the possibility of some players making a return to the matchday squad. Given past experience I would suggest taking the “won’t he” option over the “will he” though it is quite amusing to think this is the game that will see Rinomhota return or that someone might actually spot Araruna in a Reading shirt.

Referee

Referee

Andy Davies

Previously

16 Oct 21 > Reading 1-0 Barnsley
20 Oct 20 > Reading 1-0 Wycombe Wanderers
07 Mar 20 > Birmingham City 1-3 Reading
08 Feb 20 > Reading 1-1 Hull City
18 Aug 19 > Reading 3-0 Cardiff City
09 Mar 19 > Reading 3-2 Wigan Athletic
26 Dec 18 > Millwall 1-0 Reading
02 Oct 18 > Reading 0-1 Queens Park Rangers
28 Feb 18 > Reading 1-3 Sheffield United
19 Sep 17 > Reading 0-2 Swansea City (LC)
07 Mar 17 > Reading 0-0 Newcastle United
26 Dec 16 > Reading 3-1 Norwich City
29 Oct 16 > Reading 2-0 Nottingham Forest
06 Aug 16 > Reading 1-0 Preston North End
15 Sep 15 > Reading 0-1 Derby County

Historically

Reading have shared 20 seasons with the Blades since the first game the two clubs played against each other at Bramall Lane in October 1979.

Overall home form against the red half of the “steel city” is not impressive at all. Reading have the edge but only by 10 wins to 9 and have lost every one of the last 5 home league games played since “Gillespiegate” in 2007 by an aggregate of 4 goals to 14, so I spy a trend that rather desperately requires some bucking.

How to follow the game

1. Get a ticket and travel to the ground
2. Listen to Radio 5 Live and/or a myriad of other radio stations for score flashes
3. Ring/text a mate for updates
4. Red button
5. Use a RoyalsTV subscription
6. BBC Radio Berkshire (FM : 104.4, 104.1 or 95.4 depending where you are in the area)

[Snowflake Royal]

...................Southwood
Yiadom, Holmes, Laurent, Rahman
.........Drinkwater, Dele-Bashiru
Camara, .......Swift, ................Ejaria
........................Puscas

Laurent has been best at CB. TDB best in the centre. We can't play both in central midfield, and TDB is poor wide right. For me, this gets the most out of most players, but RW is a concern. Obviously no way Laurent plays cb ahead of Moore or Dann but he was light years ahead of both.

Ideally we'd have a RB to free up Yiadom for the wing. Where are you Araruna?

[scumbag]

It's on Sky Sports Arena so not red button.

[Snowball]

what is sky sports arena?

[Royals and Racers]

what is sky sports arena?

SKY 408

[Hound]

what is sky sports arena?

SKY 408

nice, should be a better quality picture in that case. Do they do the whole presenter thing, or will it just be the single commentator? Suppose we'll soon find out

[Hound]

...................Southwood
Yiadom, Holmes, Laurent, Rahman
.........Drinkwater, Dele-Bashiru
Camara, .......Swift, ................Ejaria
........................Puscas

Laurent has been best at CB. TDB best in the centre. We can't play both in central midfield, and TDB is poor wide right. For me, this gets the most out of most players, but RW is a concern. Obviously no way Laurent plays cb ahead of Moore or Dann but he was light years ahead of both.

Ideally we'd have a RB to free up Yiadom for the wing. Where are you Araruna?

Don't disagree with Laurent and CB, but as you say it won't happen. Hoping Halilovic, Tetek and Hoilett possibly may be back knocking around - AH would be ideal in your right mid spot

Assuming Dann and Moore play, we really should be causing havoc from set pieces, esp once Carroll comes on.

Swift and AH aiming for Holmes, Carroll, Dann, Laurent is pretty tasty - and there are a few other reasonably good in the air/tall players like Moore, Puscas and Ejaria knocking about as well. Expecting it to become a big source of goals

[NathStPaul]

Sheffield United are a bit low on confidence, would be wise to try and hit them hard early in the game. If we can get an early goal their heads might go. They've been massively unimpressive this season, thought they'd be right up there fighting for automatic promotion.

[Millsy]

We should destroy them.

We're a good side playing well and we now have Carroll.

Don't deserve to be where we are.

[tidus_mi2]

Saw a pretty tragic youtube video by a couple of Sheffield United fans who said amongst other things "We should be beating teams like this" and "They have the worst xG Against in the division"

Actually falling massively out of love with xG, of course Reading always rating very poorly in that measure might contribute to it but I feel like it overvalues poor quality chances and undervalues high quality chances, so for a team like us who clearly don't like to take on low percentage chances, our xG ends up looking pretty terrible.

[Pepe the Horseman]

We're 3/1 to win this tonight, which is quite frankly ridiculous.

[Stranded]

We're 3/1 to win this tonight, which is quite frankly ridiculous.

Given our recent record against them is 1 draw from the last 8 games and I think 5 straight defeats outscored 13-3, I can see why we may be fairly long to win this one.

Along with Boro, one of our real bogey sides of late but we managed to beat Boro, so who knows tonight.

[Snowflake Royal]

Saw a pretty tragic youtube video by a couple of Sheffield United fans who said amongst other things "We should be beating teams like this" and "They have the worst xG Against in the division"

Actually falling massively out of love with xG, of course Reading always rating very poorly in that measure might contribute to it but I feel like it overvalues poor quality chances and undervalues high quality chances, so for a team like us who clearly don't like to take on low percentage chances, our xG ends up looking pretty terrible.

It's the most accurate stat for predicting results, but it's still not actually very good at it, qnd the bar is very low. And it's horrendously overemphasised and misused.

[leon]

We're 3/1 to win this tonight, which is quite frankly ridiculous.

What does that mean?

[Pepe the Horseman]

We're 3/1 to win this tonight, which is quite frankly ridiculous.

What does that mean?

It means if you put £10 on us to win, you'll lose £10. Looool. Jk.

The bookies have got Sheff Utd as massive favourites, despite only winning one of their last six games.

[Pepe the Horseman]

I realise we've also only won one of our last six, but the odds should be a hell of a lot closer than they are imo.

[leon]

We're 3/1 to win this tonight, which is quite frankly ridiculous.

What does that mean?

It means if you put £10 on us to win, you'll lose £10. Looool. Jk.

The bookies have got Sheff Utd as massive favourites, despite only winning one of their last six games.

Well we are shit?!

[Pepe the Horseman]

What does that mean?

It means if you put £10 on us to win, you'll lose £10. Looool. Jk.

The bookies have got Sheff Utd as massive favourites, despite only winning one of their last six games.

Well we are shit?!

Yeh but so are they.

[AthleticoSpizz]

What does that mean?

It means if you put £10 on us to win, you'll lose £10. Looool. Jk.

The bookies have got Sheff Utd as massive favourites, despite only winning one of their last six games.

Well we are shit?!

but only when we lose, just like a HNA ‘we are sh1t’?

[Sutekh]

Azeez, Halilovic, Tetek back on bench.

Holmes dropped for Dele Bashiru!