Reading Between The Lines

I had already thought about writing something about Reading’s new coaching staff as part of my musings from afar but I was cautious about jumping to any conclusions from a few interview snippets from Leam Richardson right at the start of his tenure. However, over the last few days Reading have done a series of short interviews with all the first team coaches so I now feel we have some more clues to the makeup of of the coaching team.

Looking back over my time following Reading, I seldom remember hearing much about who does what as part of a team of coaches. Some of it is more self explanatory, Goalkeeping coach, Fitness coach and the more modern Set Piece coach, but I wouldn’t really have been able to say what specifically Nigel Gibbs was responsible for when he and McDermott took us up to the Prem. Now that is in no way a critique. I imagine the role of a coach is a) far more broad than any label can do it justice and b) not always neatly defined.

We did learn a little more under Ruben Selles. James Oliver-Pearce revealed that over time the dynamic established that Ruben focussed on the out of possession work, that certainly defined his brand of football, while JOP focussed on the in possession plan. With them was Tobias Loveland, technical coaching assistant, and while it’s probably unfair to guess, Tobias’ prior roles as a technical analyst perhaps point towards individual player development moreso than tactical input.

With this series of interviews with Rob Shay, Rob Kelly, James Beattie, Mikele Leigertwood & Danny Schofield we have been given some glimpses into what these individuals bring to the table and also where their responsibilities may lie.

Rob Kelly brings huge experience and I think it’s a glowing recommendation that several managers have sought him out to add to their coaching staff. The fact that he has had spells abroad again speaks highly to his coaching ability for it to be relied upon when not working with native english speakers. In terms of his remit and role, it has not been clearly defined to us but he himself has said it’s not his tactical insight. I imagine he is both a good technical coach as well as bringing his experience and I really liked his comment about match day where he explained that he likes to remove himself from the other staff when watching the game so he can deliver his insight unaffected by what the other coaches have been discussing.

It’s easy to take tiny morsels of information and dream them up into a full meal but Danny Schofield seems to be more of a cerebral coach. Degrees in both Sport Science and (in the next 6months) Sport Physcology both have pretty obvious benefits to the group. Good credentials at youth and senior level working alongside Carlos Corberan, it’s easy to imagine him having a big input on both tatical direction and individual development. Crucially I think it’s really interesting that he has been brought into the group for this job having known a long time but never worked with Leam Richardson before. Smart managers build coaching teams that support them, challenge them and bring strengths to the group that it is lacking.

Perhaps the coach with the clearest directive seems to be James Beattie. He and Richardson have more or less said that he is there to work with the attackers at the club. Which given this career makes a tonne of sense and in his interview he seemed to suggest he is there to pass on his experience as a player and his work as a coach to develop our STs.

Of the coaches retained from Hunt’s spell I imagine Rob Shay’s is the least impacted. He of course has to work with a new manager and understand what is important to him but I suspect plenty of his work continues as before. Mikele Leigertwood is hard to say. We never really got any insight to his responsibilities under Hunt so impossible to say how they may have changed or not under Richardson. I think it’s great we have kept him, continutuity can helpful and I’m sure he has played an important role in what has been a pretty smooth transition from one manager to another. He is also a well respected coach that was here long before Hunt’s short time in charge and I’m sure has plenty offer and there were comments to that affect by some of the new staff. Him staying does mean the coaching staff is quite large at 6 but give our track record of staff cuts over the last few years it makes quite a nice change.

Maybe behind the scenes it’s totally different but under Richardson it doesn’t appear as though coaches are responsible for phases of play in the way they were under Selles. Instead Richardson has assembled, and inherited, a group of coaches with broad experiences, insights, interests and strengths which hopefully sets us up well to tackle whatever challenges come our way. Beattie and his impact on the Strikers is particularly interesting, who wouldn’t be excited by that idea.

It’s very early days but I do find myself buying into his impact with recent performances from Kelvin E. When you look his physical profile, his technical ability and his youth scoring record it’s hard not to see him as a player worth making a project of if you were Beattie. I have flip-flopped countless times as to whether I feel Kelvin E can be an effective ST at this level or not and until very recently was firmly in the NO camp. It wasn’t his lack of channel running or his inablilty to hold off burly CBs, which is much maligned on twitter when he plays, that had me thinking he wasn’t really cut out for ST. It was his work in and around the box that concerned me. To be a ST that scores 12-15 goals a season you are going to need to score some easy/scruffy goals following in on other’s shots and finding a yard free in the box and he just never really seemed to have that in in him. Matt and I always used to laugh at his tendancy to pull out to the edge of the box for a pull back as if he was a CAM, it’s not where you get those steady goals. It’s far too soon to say that has all changed under Richardson but I’ve seen more ST behavior from Kelvin over the last 3/4 games than for a long time which is interesting. He’s still not scoring but he’s gone from a player that often didn’t look like a ST to now looking like a ST that’s on a bad scoring run. That doesn’t sound overwhelmingly positive but I’m more confident than ever that a goal is coming because of his repeatable actions in game