Five Things For Reading To Work On During The International Break

The Royals have a fortnight of prep time, so what should Ruben Selles and the coaching staff prioritise?

Another international break then is it? Great. Instead of watching actual football we can treat ourselves to the delights of plodding international games in Nations League match-ups that quite literally no one cares about. Well done, FIFA.

However, proper football will eventually start again and you would imagine that, during the break, Ruben Selles and his coaching staff have been scratching chins and mulling over things to try and stabilise the form and ensure we return to play against Crawley Town in fine fettle.

Because it is never four or six things, here are five things the coaching team could/should be discussing currently. I’m not going to mention takeover-related topics because clearly Selles has no say or influence on these, and transporting myself into his mind, I suspect he will only be focussing his energies on what he can control. Namely, the “on the pitch” stuff.

The Garcia problem

Not insomuch that Andre Garcia is a problem. Anything but, really. However, it is clear that Selles has been managing his minutes carefully to make sure he is not thrust into the dizzying spotlight of top(ish)-level football.

The “problem”, however, is that we don’t have any proper left-backs available. Jeriel Dorsett, the nominal starter, is now injured. Kelvin Abrefa, nominally a right-back, seems to have picked up another injury. In the academy, both Johns Ryan and Clarke - who are left-backs - are out injured too.

Even Andy Yiadom, who could probably do a job there, is out injured too. Abraham Kanu at left-back, anyone? In essence, we’re kind of short of options and Garcia seem to be the last (young) man standing.

How will Selles and the team manage the expectations which will be weighing on his shoulders? Will they look to encourage his marvellous runs and attacking instinct or will they look to coach him into a more safety-first approach and hone in his defensive skills? Will he get the support to develop thicker skin when dealing with League One battle veterans who will be targeting him and ready to wind him up?

It’s a big ask, and one that we have to hope Garcia has the support network around him to deal with. Certainly the talent is there.

What’s going on with Smith?

Perhaps maybe the interview he gave earlier this season where he hinted at the unrest behind the scenes was more telling than we realised. We cannot question his work rate for the team, but for whatever reason, we’re just not seeing the best of Sam Smith this season.

Some have cited the tactical change where he is expected to drop deeper to pivot on the ball and spray it out wide to the galloping wingers as limiting his impact. Perhaps this is it. But, as much as we all like him, his form has been patchy for the majority of the season and, during most games, he seems to go missing.

We haven’t seen anything like the best of him this season, and it is a worry given that he is pretty much our only established striker in the team, the way things stand.

We need Selles and the team to get to the bottom of this mystery. However, time is a precious commodity and we do have options on the sidelines that could provide us with potentially more of an immediate impact on games - ie scoring goals - than we’ve seen from Smith so far.

I’ve said it before, but it feels like Harvey Knibbs is a great option to play as a number nine and we also have Jayden Wareham on the bench. Surely one of them has got to be worth a try while they help Smith rediscover his mojo?

How do we fix the away form?

The second half of last season saw us pick up some nice wins away from home. Particular highlights were the 2-1 at Wycombe Wanderers to break the 378 days without an away win “record” and the 2-0 where we all but confirmed our League One survival against Bristol Rovers.

It seems old habits have crept back in. After a really good performance at Birmingham City, we’ve seen an absolute shocker against Wrexham and then the most recent game against Rotherham United was a bitter pill to swallow. I think we can discount the Bolton Wanderers result due to the off-field distractions.

However, we need to find a way to get the away-day magic back and capture some of the resilience and confidence in our football that we seem to have when playing on our own patch, otherwise we are in danger of making things really difficult for ourselves as the season progresses.

How do we get consistency from Campbell?

By my record, Chem Campbell has bounced around a few different teams now, all with different playing styles. It’s always tricky to hit the ground running in a new team, particularly one where you are literally the only new person and everyone else has had a full pre-season together. On top of that, the other mess of things going on in the background can’t be helping him to feel at home.

His start with us has largely been… OK. Just OK. He has moments of brilliance, but for the most part he seems to lack the final ball or cutting edge to make him an established threat on the right-hand side of the attack for us – the home game against Burton Albion aside. It is worth noting that his work rate is excellent – he is certainly no slacker and puts in the hard yards.

How can the coaching staff find a way to get him playing at that level more regularly, both in the quantity of games and the number of minutes during the game? Especially since not all teams are going to be as generous as Burton Albion.

Does he just need more time? Will the international break allow him the opportunity to get some training-ground minutes to get to work with the team more closely and learn when to make the runs, when to hold the ball up, when to cut inside and when to lay off the through ball?

Let’s hope so, because if you’re going to be the only signing of the summer then – unfairly or not – there will be a lot of expectations on your shoulders to show that you can deliver. Most particularly because he is keeping a particularly lively Adrian Akande out of the side, who many would like to see given a run in the team after some lively performances and direct, threatening runs, particularly after the assist for Smith against Charlton Athletic.

How long can we cope without Pereira?

It seems Coniah Boyce-Clarke is now consigned to the scrap heap after the performance against Leyton Orient, which is a pity. We are now back to David Button, who unfortunately isn’t going to bring much of an uptick in confidence for the back four playing in front of him, nor indeed the fans.

He’s not necessarily a bad keeper – his reflex saves and distribution are notably very good. But he doesn’t inspire confidence as he doesn’t seem to have the ability to position himself well to save shots that are outside of his immediate reach, and he himself is not averse to a clanger.

In summary, we really need to see Joel Pereira back soon, as the only goalkeeper in our ranks that we can have some confidence in. However, how does goalkeeping coach Tony Warner work to fix the gaps in Button’s overall game to make sure they don’t impact us in the meantime?

Or is it a coaching problem? A good coach should be able to improve a player, and the same should be true of a goalkeeping coach with a goalkeeper. However, of all the goalkeepers we’ve had at the club during Warner’s time (Joe Lumley, Dean Bouzanis, Jokull Andresson, Button, Pereira, Boyce-Clarke), you do have to ask yourself: have any discernibly improved during their time with us?

Or are we just reliant on a good goalkeeping coming in and being good? It’s certainly food for thought for Selles.