Alex LovellWed, December 3, 2025 at 1:30 PM UTC·13 min readIt’s definitely getting colder but, fortunately, we always have football to warm the cockles. Except… we didn’t really have much football in November, did we?
We somehow conspired to only have four – count ‘em, four – actual football matches in all 30 days of last month. Can you remember such a sparse fixture schedule for Reading before? Answers on a postcard please.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHowever, despite the lack of games, there’s always something to talk about when it comes to Reading Football Club, due to our commitment to always making life more difficult for ourselves than we need to, and to being a continual parody. Marvellous.
The knee has jerked, after being thawed out to create the movement, and here is what has fallen out the other side. For a nice change, I am going to bookend this article with nice things.
Andy Rinomhota
Call him The Terminator, because he’s back! Or maybe we’ll just stick to calling him Rino. Probably for the best. On November 12, seemingly out of nowhere, it was announced he would be with us until the end of the season, to give us a bit of additional midfield depth.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOn paper, this is something of a coup. A player who has a proven track record at a level higher, coming off the back of a season when he won the players’ player of the year award for Cardiff City (despite relegation), being picked up on a free transfer.
It’s strange that, despite leaving Cardiff at the end of June, it took four and a half months for him to find a club. Should that be a concern to us? Or was he just holding out for a return to “his” club? Time will only tell.
It’s an interesting move for Reading: we are presumably not flush with available places within the squad, nor the finances to bring in players to flush out the team, and midfield isn’t the immediately obvious area where we could do with a bit more strength in depth (striker, followed by left-back, being the two key spots) and yet, here he has arrived.
It’s a beard-scratcher because maybe it demonstrates some insight into Leam Richardson’s thought process.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementDoes he think we lack depth to cover for Lewis Wing in a deep-lying midfield role? Or, indeed, does Richardson see Wing’s role further up the pitch in the future? Is Liam Fraser’s injury longer-term than initially suspected? Is there a concern with over-exposure/readiness for first-team action for the likes of Tivonge Rushesha and Shay Spencer?
Whatever it is, it’s nice to have Rino back and the feels we get from this are seasonably warm and fuzzy. His game time has been limited so far, as you’d expect, given the limited number of matches in November and his likely lack of fitness, but it’ll be exciting to see him break through into the first-team squad again.
Welcome back, Rino!
Randell Williams
Of course, Rino wasn’t the only player to join us in November. In fact, he wasn’t even the first. That honour belongs to Randell Williams, who has joined us on a short-term deal until January, on a free transfer.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementLike Rino, he fits the model of a player who has experience at this level, so it gets the nod of approval for smart business. The main bonus for his signing, and that of Rino, is that it fills a gap in the squad dynamic that our summer business wasn’t quite able to address: bringing in players in their prime years, as opposed to younger players or older pros.
Williams wasn’t an obvious choice for a player for us to bring in, despite the need for some extra impetus in the wide areas. Unlike last year, we’re quite flush with left-footed wingers these days: Matt Richie, Paddy Lane and Andre Garcia are all in that mould, and – helpfully – cover a nice spread of age. Williams gives us more depth than we’ve had in many a year – we’re almost spoiled.
This leads to two possible conclusions.
Perhaps Williams represents some additional attacking depth in the number 10 role, which makes some sense given Doyle seems relatively unchallenged for this position. However, my initial reaction to this signing was that Richardson sees Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan as a striker, not a winger, and Williams is effectively a replacement for him to allow Long Kelvin to move centrally.
With Daniel Kyerewaa and Mamadi Camara the right-footed wingers, as well as the likes of Jeremiah Okine-Peters and Basil Tuma being able to play there too, it’s a shrewd move to add depth to the forward line where it’s harder than ever to find affordable quality when it comes to strikers/goalscorers in this modern market.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt shows an adaptiveness to work with the existing resources from Richardson, which was a trait that served Ruben Selles very well in his time with us too.
As for Williams, it’s a free hit for him. Do well and he wins a longer contract. If he doesn’t hit the ground running, then at least he’s built up some match fitness and put himself back in the shop window for another move in January. It feels however that the pressure is more on Long Kelvin to deliver in these months.
Williams has had a reasonable start based on his performances so far, and it stands to reason that there could be a star in the making there for us.
It’s odd though that he’s pretty much immediately gone into the starting line-up, even with the injuries in wide areas taken into consideration, given his lack of match fitness/training. If Richardson has the confidence to do this, then that speaks volumes about the fitness levels of the existing squad for Williams to be considered more or less on a par.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementInjuries? MIAs? Or both?
The treatment room at Bearwood is an enigma, shrouded in mystery, wrapped in a riddle. A number of players have disappeared out of sight lately and there hasn’t really been much news or noise as to why. It’s hard to ascertain if they have succumbed to injuries or are just unfavoured by Richardson.
“How fortunate we are that the squad has more depth this year, when injuries are so rife”
In the last month or so, Finley Burns, Matty Jacob, Ben Elliott, Kyerewaa, Camara, Mark O’Mahony, Lane, John Ryan and Ashqar Ahmed have all just sort of disappeared out of sight, for one reason or another. Some are injured, joining Fraser and Jack Marriott in the treatment room, but what of the others?
Kyerewaa and Camara have returned of late and played. Burns appeared on the bench, but you get the sense he may be unfavoured. Certainly, you have that feeling of Jacob and Elliott, because their disappearances coincide (possibly coincidentally) with Richardson’s arrival. Ahmed travelled to Blackpool but wasn’t in the squad.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe likelihood is that any absences are injury-driven rather than anything else, which plays into the rhetoric that Richardson has spoken of related to fitness within the squad. How fortunate we are that the squad has more depth this year, when injuries are so rife.
The football
Right, so I should probably start talking about the football. What’s it been like since Richardson has arrived? Mostly “meh”. Is that his fault? For the most part, no. But results will have to arrive soon, at least on a more consistent basis to that of last Saturday (more on this later).
For now, we have to seek solace in the differences in patterns of play between Richardson’s Reading and Noel Hunt’s Reading.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe early signs are good – not overwhelmingly positive – but we are seeing the progression in the more clearly defined style of play within the squad, most notably how the defensive line takes shape when we have the ball (Jeriel Dorsett dropping inside to make a back three and allowing Kelvin Abrefato go on a run up the right, with the right-sided winger cutting in to join the midfielders).
Doyle seems more invigorated, and more involved too. The defence seems more sturdy, but then that’s likely helped by having Derrick Williams and Paudie O’Connor both fit at the same time. Certainly, Abrefa seems to be relishing this.
Charlie Savage is still doing what he does best, but has decided to remember he likes to score worldies with his right foot, so has now decided to party like it’s 2024 again with two such examples arriving in November. Speaking of which…
Charlie Savage
Ross said it best in the pod that most footballers’ ‘weaker’ foot is probably 20 times better than our ‘stronger’ foot. However, I think it’s becoming a moot point to refer to Savage’s right foot as his ‘weaker’ right foot. It deserves its own billing: Charlie Savage’s Right Foot. Or his “Second Left Foot”.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWhatever it is, he’s got an excellent weapon there to complement his work rate and technical skills, and his ability to read the game is improving month on month too, as he seems to have gotten better at knowing when to drop deep to support, or push up as part of the press to win the ball back, as well as reading the game to understand when to provide an overlap on the left and when to drop inside to drag the opposition defence out of shape.
This time last year, he was just finding his way to becoming part of the starting XI. A year on, he’s probably one of the first names on the team sheet. He’s certainly becoming more effective than his partner in the midfield double pivot.
Lewis Wing
It’s a phrase spoken of as “The Lewis Wing Problem”. I sent a question to the pod to discuss this, but here is my slightly longer take on it: it’s essentially like Bruno Fernandes at Manchester United, where the best player in the team is not suited to the role he is being asked to perform.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementI get that Wing has done a reasonable job in this role last season, but I’m not analysing this from the lens of last season: this is coming from the lens of this season. And this season, he is dropping deeper and deeper, and the deeper he goes, the further away from the attack he is. And the further away he is, the less damage he can do to the opposition and the less influence he is able to have on the game around him.
I have these images of the Rotherham United game burned into my mind, when he would literally be stood two or three metres in front of O’Connor and Williams, collecting the ball and trying to play it forward. The thing is, this doesn’t work for two reasons:
When he drops deep, it means the two centre-halves have to drop deeper themselves to stay behind him. So you find yourself in a situation where three outfielders, sometimes four, are behind the halfway line, because the centre-backs cannot push up and overlap into midfield to provide a passing option, so they become redundant in the attacking progression. Why?
Because if the centre-halves had the ball – think Amadou Mbengue last year, who would dribble forward with the ball, or Tyler Bindon, who would spray passes forward – this means Wing would need to be the one to push up into the midfield. And why does he need to do that?
He needs to do that because there is a MASSIVE space in the middle of the park where there is no Reading player present.
“The closer [Wing] is to goal, the more likely he is to positively effect the attacking phase of play with an out-ball to the wingers, a line-breaking pass or a cross into the box”
The wingers can’t drop inside until the full-back or Savage provides an overlap. Doyle in the number 10 role needs to stay close to whoever is leading the line to stop them becoming isolated and Savage can only cover so much ground, and even if he is pushing into the space where Wing should be, he’s then surrounded by anywhere between two to four opposition players.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWing needs to be in that space, to then bring others into play. The closer he is to goal, the more likely he is to positively effect the attacking phase of play with an out-ball to the wingers, a line-breaking pass or a cross into the box. Hell, even a shot. He can’t do any of this from his own half, and he also leaves a gap in the midfield and blocks our defence from stepping further up.
This is why it is “The Lewis Wing Problem”. How do we solve this? Can we push him into a number 10 role? Maybe?
Though there are questions about his legs, the reality is we have no idea because Wing’s performances have always been, for us, about pulling the strings in the middle and not about running with the ball, so we just don’t know if he has this in his arsenal. Could he be a false nine? Maybe, as well. Holding up the ball and bringing others into play is his forte, after all.
It’s something Richardson needs to tweak to get the best out of Wing, which will help get the best out of Reading.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBlackpool
To end on a positive: three goals – the most scored by us in a league game this season, a clean sheet – the fourth in the league this season and the first away from home. Doing this on the road, at a location famous for bringing bad results? Yes thank you to all of those things.
“The reality of the nature and location of the win is a huge positive”
I mentioned in the October knee-jerks that Richardson has had an unusually long amount of time on the training ground since taking over. Yes, Blackpool are in the relegation zone and struggling, but they have been picking up points since their own management change, and the reality of the nature and location of the win is a huge positive, with something like a nine-day gap to refresh, go again and see if we can make it stick.
The challenge for Richardson this December is to keep that level of performance as a constant, rather than an exception to the rule, and to do so in a slightly more congested month of footballing fixtures, but still not an unkind number of games to face (five). However, this is the kind of performance we as fans have been crying out for all season, with the players we have at our disposal.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWe have reason to go into December optimistic – we might only be in17th but we are also only six points away from the playoffs, given the congested nature of the league. A run of good form over December can drastically change the outlook of how we go into 2026. Bring it on!
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