Who Should Start For Reading On The Left Wing?

Alister compares the Royals’ three main options to play on the left.

One of the problems that I think we have struggled with all season is who we start on the left. This certainly has become a recurring problem throughout the season, with multiple players playing in that position.

It’s been a revolving door for a lot of the players and Ruben Selles has never really settled on one. Of course there are mitigating circumstances of why this has been the case, and the lack of ability to get a player that’s fully fit for that position hasn’t been helped by the embargo and the points deductions. Still, I think there are benefits to all of the players that will be mentioned and, hopefully, we can get the best out of what we have.

Option one: Ben Elliott

The first player that I want to talk about is Ben Elliott. He came into the summer as a relative unknown on a three-year deal from Chelsea, coming with good reviews after being highly rated in their youth academy. Elliott has unfortunately been one that has kind of been lost in the formation changes throughout the season and has never really found his feet at Reading. He often came off the bench and played as the left and right attacking midfielder in the 4-2-2-2 and that didn’t suit him.

He also doesn’t suit playing as the left winger in a 4-2-3-1. It limits him to a lack of ability to get on the ball and use his ability to pick a pass and use his vision, which is his best attribute.

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On the left, Elliott struggles to beat his man and in an ideal world we would move him centrally and start him, but it will be difficult for him to dislodge Lewis Wing or Charlie Savage who have strung up a good partnership, so what I would do with Elliott is bring him off the bench as a replacement for Savage late in the game.

We have just seen Ruben Selles deploy Elliott as one of the two eights in a 4-1-4-1. Elliott looked a lot more comfortable being able to get in between the lines and find those half spaces that allow him to use his passing range. The only thing I would like Elliott to improve on is his finishing, and to have in his locker a good long shot. One of the disadvantages of playing Elliott as an eight is that it limits Wing because he has more defensive responsibility.

Option two: Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan

Ehibhatiomhan is a hard one to judge. He has only recently in the last few months come out to play on the left due to the shift in formation to a 4-2-3-1. This is not his best position and, if you asked him, he would almost certainly say that he wants to play as a central number nine, but he doesn’t suit being the lone striker because he can’t keep it and doesn’t have good enough link-up play, although I recognise this should improve in time.

So the first time we saw Ehibhatiomhan on the left was at the Wigan Athletic away game when he came off the bench. That seemed to work because one of the things that let him down as the lone striker was that he struggled against the big, experienced centre-backs. Playing him on the left would allow him to access the space in behind the centre-back and full-back, allowing him to not play with his back to goal.

The negative of playing Ehibhatiomhan on the left is that he often cuts in from the left and yes, he can score some cracking goals as he did against Cambridge United and Northampton Town, but by cutting in sometimes he can enter the number 10 position. This often affects the ability for Harvey Knibbs to get into the game because, with Ehibhatiomhan cutting in, either Knibbs is still in the 10 position and they’re getting in the way of each other, or he’s gone down the left, meaning he’s not close to Sam Smith and doesn’t have the raw pace to beat his man.

Defensively Ehibhatiomhan doesn’t do enough, often leaving his full-back two-v-one on the wings. The most evident example of this is the Bolton Wanderers game where he struggled tracking back and, when he did get the ball, he lost it quite quickly.

Option three: Paul Mukairu

Paul Mukairu is someone who came with quite high expectations after playing against Manchester City in the Champions League for Copenhagen, arriving on loan for the season. He made his debut on the bench in the win against Stevenage in August. Yes it was that long ago!

He’s very frustrating. You will get the odd moment of brilliance and then he will do something that will make you scratch your head. He would be my best option, despite only having six goals and three assists in all competitions, with only three goals in the league.

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It’s just decision-making that is the main thing that lets down Mukairu. Because he has a good athletic presence, he will often try too much and attempt to beat that extra man when he’s in a great position to be able to cross it or get a shot away. To be fair to him, this is a problem that a lot of this squad has a problem with, and we haven’t been able to turn chances into goals.

So you are probably thinking: well, with all that said, why would you start him here? Here’s why: he maintains the width way better than all of the options that I have covered in this article - mainly because that is his natural position and he will stay on the wing and offer a threat.

He also offers way more support to the full-back than Elliott or Ehibhatiomhan so will be more suitable in games where we will be under the cosh.

Conclusion: summer

What do we do in the summer? That’s the question. Well, what I’m about to say all depends on what we do depending on the new ownership coming in, but I think we need to get in a new left winger and most likely two for squad depth that are a similar profile to Femi Azeez, who can beat a man in a one-on-one situation and create and score goals.

I know this is going to be a bit of a stretch given how we will still be under a transfer embargo and be restricted to loans and free agents, but I believe there are teams that have players whose contracts are running down that will be suitable for Reading. We could also go down the tactic of trying to sign players that are young and still in contract, including a high sell-on clause, as we did with the summer with the signings of Savage and Elliott.

In terms of the future of those three players, I would say that Mukairu will not be signed and will be sent back to Copenhagen, with Ehibhatiomhan confirming to BBC Berkshire that his contract is up in the summer. You would imagine that the new owners would want to tie him down and start to develop him as a striker. And then in terms of Elliott, his future will be firmly in the middle after Selles recognised that playing him in the eight or six roles would be the better option.