Ovie Ejaria Is Your October Player Of The Month

In a complete non-shocker, you’ve named Ovie Ejaria as your player of the month for October - the second time he’s won the award this season. The attacking midfielder has been hugely impressive since joining on loan from Liverpool, and last month was no exception.

Ejaria was the highest-rated played in the squad in October, going by our average player ratings. He was one of only two squad members to get higher than 6/10 - he finished on 6.5/10 while Andy Yiadom came pretty close on 6.25/10.

He played every minute of every game in October: Fulham at home and Bristol City away under Jose Gomes, then Preston North End at home and Queens Park Rangers away under Mark Bowen. Ejaria would almost certainly have played at the City Ground had Reading’s match against Nottingham Forest not been called off.

The new manager also gave him a slightly different tactical role, pushing Ejaria up into the most advanced position of a three-man midfield with John Swift and Pele/Andy Rinomhota playing deeper. That got more out of Ejaria attacking-wise, with the loanee standing out for his forward runs against Preston and QPR.

That second match featured a gorgeous assist from Ejaria, who used his strength well to hold onto the ball before playing in George Puscas with a defence-splitting pass.

Bowen has also been full of praise for Ejaria. In his weekly chat with the local media, he said the following (via The Wokingham Paper):

“He’s on a journey of becoming a top player, there’s a lot more still to come. He’s had a few plaudits, we were delighted to get him and I’ve looked to push him further forward. He rarely gives the ball away and if he has one or two things to work on, it’s how many goals he notches and creating goals. If he can keep going the way he is and continue improving then we’ve got a special player.”

In total, 70.1% of you named Ejaria as your player of the month. That was some way ahead of Yiadom on 19.4%, Matt Miazga on 9% and Yakou Meite on 1.5%.

Congratulations Ovie!

The Tilehurst End Player of the Month winners 2019/20

August - Ovie Ejaria (58%)

September - John Swift (59%)

October - Ovie Ejaria (70%)