Reading FC 0-1 Wigan Athletic: Player Ratings

Before I start, this piece needs a bit of a disclaimer. For most games, rating the players is relatively straightforward as you can mark them on what they have or haven't done. Against Wigan, particularly in the second half, everything was so ridiculously lifeless that such a process becomes difficult.

As such, there's largely little to write for most of these players beyond "they had all the footballing nous of a box of vegetables." With that in mind, I'll crack on.

Adam Federici - 5

An uncharacteristically poor night from Federici, who can count himself at fault for the Wigan goal. Caught dawdling by Leon Clarke and was lucky to shepherd the ball out for a corner. From the resulting set piece, he flapped pretty weakly at a header allowing Jason Pearce to bundle the ball home. Not troubled apart from that incident, but his kicking wasn't at a great standard either.

Stephen Kelly - 5

As average as everyone else, but gets an extra mark for being one of the couple of players at full time that bothered to applaud the fans.

Nathaniel Chalobah - 4

Looks so uncomfortable at centre back. Probably not any worse than anyone else on the night, but his unfamiliarity with his new position didn't help. His loose passing made me think of the Michael Hector we had a few months ago, when his inexperience really showed. Went close with a header early in the second half.

Alex Pearce - 4

Dealt well enough with the limited Wigan attacks that came his way, but they were so poor that it's not really a compliment. Would have had a torrid time had it been a better opposition, so can maybe count himself lucky.

Jordan Obita - 4

Anonymous at left back, and added little apart from skipping past a Wigan full-back late on in the match, but nonetheless failed to create anything.

Garath McCleary - 4

Minimal end product beyond a hopeful cross-shot from a tight angle that came relatively close to beating Ali Al-Habsi at his near post. With 11 minutes added on to the end of the game, the Jamaican went on a quick toilet break mid-way whilst play went on. Sums up his performance that I had to count the players to notice that he wasn't on the pitch.

Danny Williams - 5

Far from the dogged, scrappy, tenacious display we've come to expect from the American in recent weeks. At his best, Williams breaks up the play before bursting forward with the ball to start an attack - none of that happened against Wigan.

Oliver Norwood - 5

This would easily be the same 4/10 that others got, except for a few half decent set pieces that gave Reading their best opportunities of the match. Whipped in a corner in the first half that was only just blocked on the line, and fed Chalobah just after the break from a similar scenario.

Hal Robson-Kanu - 6

Maybe a bit of a kind mark, but I thought he was one of our better players in the first half, and was unlucky to be substituted in the second. Is growing in confidence every week, and was arguably one of the few with the desire to attack the Wigan defence.

Pavel Pogrebnyak - 4

Added little to the attack throughout, and his link-up play in deeper areas had little effect. With the defence increasingly resorting to speculative punts up the pitch in the second half, he barely seemed to want to challenge for said long balls. Should have had a penalty late on in the match when a Wigan defender had hold of enough of his shirt to open up a second hand clothes shop.

Simon Cox - 4

Minimal contribution to the attack, but it probably should have been the Pog that made way for Yakubu rather than Cox.

Subs

Yakubu Aiyegbeni - 4

Didn't do anything.

Nick Blackman - 5

One of those nights when I'm marking up a player for almost getting a shot away. Nothing else to speak of.

Hope Akpan - N/A

The star man of the evening, as he didn't have enough time to make the same terrible impact as everyone else. As a side note, the fact that he was introduced as an attacking sub for Danny Williams shows just how awful this performance was.

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