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Danny Williams was a solid Bundesliga player for a couple seasons, holding down the center of the midfield for Frieburg and then Hoffenheim. He covered plenty of ground, tackled well and while nobody would call him overly technical, he was a decent enough passer in his own half who could use his athleticism to cause problems in the opposing team's box.
Unfortunately for Williams, it all came apart last season.
Williams was downright bad from the beginning of the season to the end. By the end of March he had been benched and without him, Hoffenheim went on a run to avoid relegation. Williams' athleticism was still there, but he did a poor job remaining disciplined so he took himself out of position too much and his passing was very sloppy. He didn't deserve his spot in the team, even on a bad team like Hoffenheim, and he was rightfully dropped.
One of Williams' strengths was his awareness of his limitations. He wasn't a world class player, but he was solid and dependable. He didn't make the spectacular play, just the necessary one. Last season, Williams lost that and got caught being too ambitious too often. If he can get back to his simple style of play, he can be good again and help Reading get back into the Premier League, but whether he does play simple and find his form of old remains to be seen.
RR
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So while Williams may not have been in the best of form last season, here's hoping it was just a blip for Williams and that a change of scenery rejuvenates the midfielder.
His signing would also likely mean the exit for one of our current midfielders, with Jem Karacan still linked with a move to Turkey and Mikele Leigertwood also rumoured to be on his way out of the Madejski.
Signing Williams seems a typical Reading signing and I don't mean that in a bad way. He's got a point to prove, is young, hungry and improves on what we've got, so far Adkins has pulled off three good signings and I suppose the only lament is that we weren't signing these types of players when we were actually in the Premier League.
Still, welcome to Reading Danny and the best of luck!