Nottingham Forest 4-0 Reading: Player Ratings
Sim assesses a very poor all-round performance from the Royals at the City Ground.
Luke Southwood: 4
Should have done better with Forest's third, a shot from range that went under him. Otherwise he didn’t have much to do but pick the ball out of his own net (four of Forest’s five shots on target went in). Sloppy distribution over long range too. While I wouldn’t fault him for all the goals - just the one really - I’d think Orjan Nyland will come in for Southwood in midweek at Bournemouth.
Andy Yiadom: 6
My stand-out, although the bar for that was particularly low. Solid shift, I wouldn’t have him at fault for anything, and he had some really nice moments of skill under pressure. On the flipside he didn’t add much going forwards. Still, it works out to a decent performance, and that’s more than could be said for most today.
Michael Morrison: 4
Wasn’t close enough to Davis for the opener and should probably have scored himself to level it up later in the half, with a close-range effort that was saved by the ‘keeper. Then again, perhaps I’m being a bit harsh on a centre back to not finish that chance.
As was the case with centre-back partner Dann, when the play was in front of Reading, Morro dealt with it pretty well. I’m thinking particularly of the bulk of the first half when the Royals restricted the hosts nicely. But whenever the shape broke down - whether Forest were getting down the sides of Reading (goals one and four) or through (goal two) - Morro and Dann were in trouble.
Scott Dann: 5
Barring what I’ve said just above, Dann was spun too easily for Forest’s second. Davis getting past him opened up the space before he curled the ball home.
Tom McIntyre: 4
Fair play to McIntyre for having to fill in at left back in the continued absence of Baba Rahman, but it’s really not his position. McIntyre again looked uncomfortable defensively, with goals one and four coming down his side, and he adds little going forwards. Not that you’d expect that from a centre back of course. But still, Reading really need Rahman back as soon as possible.
Andy Rinomhota: 5
Sloppier than his usual standard and didn’t have much of an impact in the middle. Still, it was strange to see him be the first one subbed off (on 57 minutes), given how poor Drinkwater had been.
Danny Drinkwater: 3
More of a liability than an asset - gave the ball away numerous times, including one particularly frustrating pass into a channel that contained none of his teammates. Picked up a yellow pretty needlessly too. Added nothing of value, except for the hearty cheers in the away end when he was subbed off.
Josh Laurent: 5
Bright in the first half, with some classic Laurent drives to push Reading forward. However, he should have done better though with a cross from Ince that he could only head wide. Game passed him by in the second.
Tom Ince: 4
That prior-mentioned cross was one of Reading’s best attacking moments all afternoon (one of our only attacking moments): Ince did really well to burst down the left and get a dangerous cross in. Beyond that... not much to write home about.
Yakou Meite: 5
Yaks got the nod up top, playing the full game on his own in Lucas João's enforced absence. That was a little surprising, to me at least, given Paul Ince had said Meite wasn't ready to play 90 minutes yet...
Anyway, Meite was pretty starved of service and thus did no damage. Tellingly, his best moment in the game came at one point in the first half when he chased down his own flick-on and charged down the right wing before winning a corner.
Junior Hoilett: 4
Anonymous and sloppier than we've seen from him before. Eventually withdrawn for Brandon Barker in the second half.
Subs
Ovie Ejaria: 5
Got just over half an hour - first as a central midfielder in a three, then the same role but in a two. Didn’t affect the game in either case but, to be fair, the damage was done elsewhere.
Lucas Joao: 5
Didn’t do anything in his 28 minutes, but add the same proviso Ejaria got.
Brandon Barker: 6
Had a really nice dribble and forced a save with a shot from a tight angle. I’m pretty sure Barker was our biggest attacking threat in the second half despite coming on in the 78th minute and not doing much. That said, a really poor free kick reminded us of why he didn’t get more than 12 minutes.
Average: 4.64/10
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