Stam: Reading FC Could Have Played A Lot Better

It's been a good start to the season for the Royals with back-to-back wins. Last night, Plymouth Argyle were the visitors to the Madejski and Jaap Stam saw his side progress to the next round of the EFL Cup.

It was a convincing 2-0 win with goals from Joey van den Berg and Roy Beerens. Manager Stam was a happy man, but had reservations, when he spoke to the official club website.

"I was pleased with the result, very happy. But with how we played... I think we could have done a lot better."

"We didn't play badly of course. We had a lot of possession for example and the whole team pressed well. But I think we can improve. We took a few too many risks and lost the ball too early and too easily in the second half sometimes when, if you keep it simple, keep playing possession you'll create chances.

"Instead we let our foot off the gas a little bit in the second half and , as a team, you make it difficult for yourselves if you lose the ball - you give the opponent a small chance or they get the ball into the box, and suddenly you never know what might happen.

"At half time I said to the players we could be a bit more aggressive and they tried to do that at the beginning of the second half. But eventually you see players getting tired as well - because a lot of them played on Saturday.

"We want to press high up the pitch if we can - if you wait too long to press then they're in front of your goal and something might happen, a mis-kick, or someone heads it wrong and the opponent scores. And the players dropped in a bit and waiting a bit longer to press. But that's how it goes."

Confidence

Stam praised the players and believes that our good early season form will help build confidence.

"Winning games is good for the confidence - and every game that we have to play we want to win. That's how I was as a player, and I want my team to think like that as well."

"We're in the cup, so we want to win the next one. But it's very early in the season - only the second game! We've got a long way to go. But we'll keep on working on our system, try to keep improving on what we do and see where we end up.

"We are looking forward to next weekend now at Wolves. It's going to be interesting, they've got a new manager as well - we know a little bit about the style they are trying to play because we've seen clips of course, so it's going to be good to see how our players respond to playing away from our own stadium for the first time this season."

Is Stam right to demand better performances from his players? Comment below.