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Most managers are tasked with thinking outside the box in their quest for success, but perhaps Reading’s terrific start to the season is down to boss Veljko Paunovic thinking within it.
Liam Moore, Michael Morrison, Josh Laurent and Andy Rinomhota have formed a box between central defence and central midfield that seems almost indestructible and is the foundations the Royals have built their so far successful campaign on.
Collectively, they have missed just 241 of a combined 5760 minutes this season, starting 14 of the 16 possible league games, with Moore’s ankle injury keeping him out for the back-to-back home defeats to Preston and Stoke.
They have lost just two games when starting together, keeping seven clean sheets and conceding 13 goals in 14 matches. Reading have also picked up 30 points from those 24 games, which is 2.14 points per game. It’s a sensational record and it’s certainly no coincidence.
Moore and Morrison – or M&M as most some a few fans are referring them as – have formed a solid partnership since the latter joined the club on a free transfer from Wednesday’s opposition Birmingham at the start of last season.
Both have come under scrutiny, especially last season, for their lack of mobility but, the way Paunovic has got Reading playing, that hasn’t really been an issue. Moore ranks 13th in the division for blocks, with Morrison not too far behind in terms of blocks and clearances.
Their priority is to defend, and boy do they do that. The duo just ahead of them have formed a bromance of sorts since Laurent joined from Shrewsbury in the summer and, since then, it’s hard to think of a better central midfield than these two. Whilst, in some ways, they are similar, they compliment eachother and, watching them it feels like they’ve played together for years, not months.
Both of them are in the division’s top 20 for tackles, with Rinomhota in ninth (just behind Reading left-back Omar Richards who sits in seventh), and when you watch they’re incredible tenacity and work rate, it’s not hard to see why.
But why is Reading’s ‘box’ so key to the way they play? Well, when you look at the rest of the Reading side, you have the likes of Richards, Michael Olise, Ovie Ejaria, Yakou Meite and Lucas Joao, who you don’t want to burden with two much defensive responsibility. These flair players have clearly been told to go and express themselves and are clearly encouraged to take risks, on and off the ball.
So, ‘the box’ provides that security when, if all else fails, they are there to provide solidity and hopefully steady the ship.
This isn’t groundbreaking stuff we’re talking about, here – some of the most successful teams in football history have built their success upon a solid centre-back partnership and a diligent midfield pivot.
But the reason why this is so noteworthy is that ‘solidity’ and ‘reliability’ are two words that you would not have been able to associate with this football club in recent years. But, as we head into the halfway stage of the season, it looks as though this simple but effective tactic might have has finally changed that.
You can expect to see Reading’s box-office football continue as long as these four are around.
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