‘He who dares wins’…Except when he doesn’t!

In his post-match lament, Barnsley manager Gerhard Struber asked, ‘You have this type of thing in England? With ten men we just waited for something to happen?’

In his post-match lament, Barnsley manager Gerhard Strubher asked, ‘You have this type of thing in England, with ten we just waited for something to happen?’ 

During the post-match interview, I asked the Austrian about his second-half tactics in a 2-0 defeat at Reading that saw two of his players red-carded. Strubher’s solution to playing with ten was to keep two up front, using the red card to Michal Helik, to reduce his centre-backs from three down to two. Barnsley continued to attack and were eventually finished off by two Reading goals and a further red card for Mads Andersen.

Was Strubher Brave? Absolutely. Did his bravery work out today? No. Will his bravery work out in the long term? Who knows, but it’s this approach that has made Barnsley so watchable and Strubher so intriguing. 

His opposite number, Reading boss Veljko Paunovic, sat contently, but with a different dilemma. His Reading side top the table, with two wins from two, though it was obvious to Paunovic, that the game had flowed in Barnsley’s favour until Lucas Joao drew that decisively clumsy foul from Helik just before half-time. 

What Paunovic can take pride in, is how he and his players took advantage of the early exit of the two Barnsley centre-backs. Within ten minutes of coming on, Yakou Meite won and then scored from the subsequent corner that Barnsley couldn’t clear. When Joao played Meite through a minute later, Andersen’s interception ended with a handball, a second yellow for him, and a second red for Barnsley.

An understandably less competitive final twenty minutes was brightened up by a brilliant second goal for Reading. Eighteen-year-old Michael Olise, who had been moved to the centre to accommodate the arrival of Meite, hammered a left-footed volley in after Kilian Ludewig cleared the corner away. Barnsley simply did not learn from their mistakes from the first goal which resulted after they didn’t clear their lines fast enough. The second goal was basically a carbon copy of what happened for the first goal.

Funnily enough, everyone will be interested to see how each manager reacts to their side’s performance. Paunovic, who we know less of in Championship terms, has a wholly different style to counteract, as he looks for a third straight victory at playoff semi-finalists Cardiff. Strubher meanwhile, has a midweek EFL Cup trip to Chelsea and League One winners Coventry at the weekend, although if today is anything to go by, only a seismically disruptive event would force any change of approach from Barnsley.

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