Victor Meldrew Heard our manager say on the radio what a good job Long did up front on his own.
I agree-the question is in my mind should he have to battle away on his own and is that progressive football?
A good result but it does cocern me that this is now the Reading way-hit teams on the break at home.
Except he's not 'battling away on his own', in theory at least. It's Kébé's and McAnuff's job to back him up, treating him as a fulcrum for attacks. Watching St Pauli earlier today, it struck me that both them and Reading now play in very similar ways. It's the same formation and basic mentality as that employed by all semi-finalists at this year's World Cup, except we second-tier teams haven't the skill to employ short passing.
Where would you take a player from to employ a second striker? Take away one of the two deeper midfielders and we're short of defensive cover. Take away the central attacking midfielder and the only option is lumping it to the wing.