A terrible afternoon dragged Luton and Nathan Jones back to the drawing board

Four goals from Yakou Méïté stopped Luton from sealing their seventh unbeaten match.

Luton Town and Reading approached this match with two different sets of forms. Luton were unbeaten in their last six matches and on a high since Nathan Jones’ return.

On the other hand, Reading’s form was inconsistent as they had not won after returning from the lockdown and came into this match after a heavy 3-0 loss to Brentford.

But it could have been the main motivation for them to turn their fortune around when they travelled to Kenilworth Road and Yakou Méïté’s three early goals in the first half sealed three points for Reading.

Knowing the attacking threat that Ovie Ejaria might have brought, Jones opted to go for the 4-1-4-1 formation that worked the charm for Luton against Swansea.

It was the idea of using Matty Pearson to contain André Ayew’s attacking threat that worked out very well when Luton played Swansea, and Jones had used that idea once again to deal with Ejaria.

Instead, Reading distributed the ball out wide, specifically the right-hand side more often, and it put a lot of pressure on Dan Potts.

Another aspect of play that allowed Reading to score lots of goals was their patience when they had the ball in front of the box.

Luton opted to sit deep and narrow inside their defensive third, which allowed Reading to circulate the ball around the area and attempt to find available space to make through passes.

In total, they registered sixteen shots and ten of them were on target, showing how effective Reading attackers were in front of goal.

Méïté’s third goal was also a clear example of this aspect of play with Luton defenders focused on Ejaria’s dribble, allowing Méïté to enter their blindside to score.

At the opposite end, Reading were also effective in defending compared to how Luton attempted to prevent Reading to score.

Luton pressed high up the pitch and aimed to win the ball high up the pitch, which resulted in them committing fouls often inside Reading’s half.

When the opposition got the ball into their half, Luton players would drop back into a 4-1-4-1 mid-block but stayed compact to force Reading to move the ball wide.

They hoped Reading would cross the ball more frequently when the opposition got the ball from either flank as the centre-backs were decent in the air to clear the ball. It backfired them since Reading only registered eleven crosses in total compared to Luton’s sixteen.

Meanwhile, Reading also sat in a 4-1-4-1 mid-block but did not choose to press Luton’s build-up as they aimed to keep the numbers inside their half. The players swarmed the middle area and prevented the opposition from creating short combinations in between the channels.

While it resulted in them committing fouls often (13 fouls compared to Luton’s 11), they were able to win the ball on more occasions and completed fifteen tackles in the meantime.

Besides not being able to create as many chances as they would have hoped, Luton also faced another major problem in all of the five goals that they conceded.

Their defenders were having a bad day in terms of making tackles to regain possession in front of the 16-yard box. As mentioned, they only completed six tackles throughout the whole match and there were situations that the defenders could have done better in positioning themselves to be ready to act.

Errors from Luton defenders were also the factor that led up to two of Reading’s goals. In their second goal, Sluga did not do well enough to claim the ball and allowed Reading to keep on controlling possession. Their last goal was a result of Sonny Bradley’s bad first touch, which set up a 1v1 situation for Méïté against Sluga.

Luton are still far from surviving relegation as they still need five points to escape the bottom three. The next four matches will be extremely crucial to them, especially given three of those four matches are against direct competitors.

Meanwhile, for Reading, the season is basically done for them. They are mathematically safe from relegation and are heading towards a mid-table finish.

Nonetheless, they would want to put a smile on the fans’ face with eye-catching performances from now until the end of the season.

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