Barnsley 2-2 Reading: Tactical Analysis

Tom focuses on the Royals’ out-of-possession play in the 2-2 draw at Barnsley.

Reading secured safety on a sunny day in South Yorkshire with a well earned point against the Tykes, in a thrilling end-to-end match where both sides pushed all their chips forward in the second half, but neither could find the net for a third time.

It seems almost strange to be describing an ambitious, competitive Royals team away from home after years of foregone conclusions on the road, yet it’s so refreshing watching a group who are willing to give everything for the manager and, more importantly, the badge.

Let’s dissect another gutsy Reading performance.

Before the game, I had a look at how Barnsley set themselves up, and I wasn’t confident. As expected, they went with a back three with two holding midfielders. What’s happened in games against similar systems, for example Fleetwood Town and Derby County, is our front three not knowing whether to all press the opposition’s back three, or to just leave it to Sam Smith. The former would mean Barnsley having a spare man in midfield, and the latter would give them too much space.

What this could look like is shown below, with Reading’s 4-1-4-1 in its most traditional pressing shape being worked around against Barnsley’s 3-4-2-1. Although there is heavy pressure on the defence and holding midfielders, the two number 10s outnumber our sole sitting midfielder, giving them space to drop in.

Bringing a centre-back further forward would make up for that problem, but when facing a striker as prolific as Devante Cole, that isn’t really an option. That’s a trap Reading have often suffered from in the past, but what we did in actuality was brilliant from Ruben Selles.

Smith was used very rarely to press the goalkeeper and centre-backs, and instead drifted just in front of the two Barnsley holding midfielders, cutting off any long vertical balls up to the attack, and helping to prevent them controlling the ball.

When opposition ‘keeper Liam Roberts was on the ball, our front three rested in a relatively flat shape, but as soon as the centre-backs received it, Paul Mukairu and Femi Azeez sprinted towards them immediately. We could afford to leave a free man in the back three, as often opponents are found out of position or simply not confident or skilful enough to knock the ball about the back with enough intricacy to find space in the Reading press.

A graphic showing our attackers’ aforementioned out-of-possession runs is shown here.

The central midfielder on the side the ball is being played down would be on the outside of his man, giving them the ability to press the free centre-back if needed, or make a run down the wing should we win the ball back.

In practice, it looked like this. The goalkeeper rolls it out to middle centre-back Mael de Gevigney, and Jordon Williams on their right side of defence is very wide, seen here on the far left of the picture.

Mukairu knows this and runs more centrally, as shown by the arrow, spotting that de Gevigney is looking for a pass into midfield and heading in that direction, while simultaneously blocking the pass to Williams.

He intercepts the ball with an outstretched right foot, and does well to shield off the Barnsley player, turn away and burst forwards.

As I said earlier, Harvey Knibbs is in a good position to make a run down the wing in support of Mukairu, but the Nigerian opts to take it on himself.

He uses his pace well to beat a defender, but the finish is poor. As Jurgen Klopp said: “No playmaker in the world can be as good as a good counter-pressing situation.” But it’s also worth adding on the end of that to say you must utilise your opportunities to score as much as your use your opportunities to press.

Mukairu has a habit of falling at the final hurdle: he has great acceleration, first touch and the ability to beat a man, yet his biggest downfall is probably selfishness. Not that he seems a particularly self-important player, but he simply needs to get his head up from looking at his tricky footwork and pick out a blue and white shirt around him.

There’s no doubt the 24-year-old has the ability to make a decent pass, however his deficiencies lie in seeing it and choosing to do it.

I was reading an article recently on FC København’s pressing and how their innovative strategies have been used to gain results against teams such as Bayern Munich, and beating Manchester United twice this season.

Their tactics out of possession seemed very similar to Reading’s against Barnsley, and it so happens that the current København manager - Jacob Neestrup - worked in tandem with Ruben Selles as assistant managers in the Danish capital in the 2021/22 season.

The article is very good and in depth, so I’d highly recommend it for any wannabe football tacticos like me, and it could be a sign of potential things to come for Reading under Selles.

The concept of the midfielders going wide in the press to account for a narrow front three, as we did against Barnsley, is also explored well in it.

This is especially important given that, when teams give the ball away in their own half trying to play out, more often than not possession is surrendered in wide areas when a player has been backed into a corner. Reading set up with a good “rest attack”, which means out of possession they have a shape that gives a presser a multitude of attacking options should they win back the ball.

Going back to Mukairu, who is obviously on loan to us from København, there are two sides to whether he fits the system. He’s very energetic, and without the ball is impressive, yet he is wasteful on the ball. I think by now as fans we’ve got a good idea of why he’s gone from Champions League cameos to League One rotation player, but also why Selles brought him over from Denmark.

NB: For more on Reading’s press, see Ross’ excellent piece which details a few more aspects of our match in Barnsley.

Burton Albion away awaits on Saturday, and one might think there’s not much to play for at this point, but I think pride is paramount this weekend, after the Brewers burst our bubble earlier in the week.

It’d be nice to reward a sold-out Reading end with three points to conclude our away campaign this season too.

Safe travels up to Staffordshire!