Reading 1-2 West Brom: Player Ratings

Rafael: 7

Kicking was again up and down, but he made some key saves to keep the score down. Stopped the first shot well for the equaliser, but couldn't do much with the rebound, or the winner.

Andy Yiadom: 5

A tough evening defensively for Yiadom's return, and he did struggle at times. On the whole he didn't get forward as much as he usually does, and I'd have liked to see him be more positive in possession. He's good dribbler, but for me he played the ball backwards too much.

Michael Morrison: 5

A tough evening for Morrison who had to deal with the trickery and interplay of a very good attacking side, and the task wasn’t helped by his lack of mobility. He also had trouble when playing out, with WBA pressing him in the knowledge that he didn’t have the technical ability to play forward.

Liam Moore: 6

More assured performance than his centre-back partner. Pretty solid defensively, and went close in the second half with a header over the bar.

Jordan Obita: 5

Caught ball-watching for the equaliser. Initially had his man, but didn't react to Rafael's save, allowing space for the tap in. Offensively, he got forward pretty well down the left from his left-back spot and provided width, without troubling WBA that much. Had a few inswinging corners which were much more difficult to deal with than Swift's.

Pele: 7

I was torn between a 6 and 7 for Pele, but opted to round him up. Although he didn't always get it right, and was sloppy on the ball a few times, he again gave Reading presence in midfield, winning the ball back well on various occasions. Even did a few driving runs forward past a few defenders to put Reading on the front foot, but without an end product.

Yakou Meite: 5

Am awkward performance to grade really. On the whole he was fairly anonymous and didn't get involved in the final third enough, but on the occasions he did get on the ball, he looked pretty bright.

Had a goal disallowed for Puscas apparently being offside, set the Romanian up for a decent chance after getting in behind, and went close himself with a curled shot past the post. But, given his overall lack of involvement, I can't give him higher than a 5.

Felipe Araruna: 5

Played in the middle this time, ahead of Pele but not as far forward as Swift, and struggled to impose himself on the game. It's clear that he'll take some time to get used to English football - he wasn't strong enough off the ball or quick enough in possession.

John Swift: 5

Another one of those days when Swift was poor overall but still contributed to a goal - in this case it was his corner that was handballed for the penalty.

However, his corners were otherwise poor, and the rest of his game was sloppy. As with Ejaria below, we needed Swift to really step up and take charge in the second half, but he didn't do that, and was even subbed off when Reading were chasing the game.

He looks tired at the minute and could do with a game or two out of the first team as a rest.

Ovie Ejaria: 5

In the first half he looked brighter than in recent games, having been restored to his (in my view better) position on the left. But he lacked cutting edge in the final third, needing to be much more decisive in shooting or passing, and faded after the break into anonymity.

It's at that point in a game, when WBA were in the ascendancy and Reading needed a spark, that Ejaria had to step up, but he seemed cowed as his teammates were. Needs to be more influential to genuinely change the course of a game.

George Puscas: 5

Almost certainly the most controversial player to rate from the game. I've seen/heard plenty of comments about him being 'awful', but for me he was mostly average and lacked service.

He buried his penalty well, and also horribly skewed a difficult - but good - chance in the second half from Meite's cross. Put himself about better in the first half, but looked evermore isolated in the second half. Both his quality and effort levels seemed to drop the more the game went on, and the less involved he was.

For me, he’s still the right player to lead the line going forwards, at least in Joao’s absence, but he’s got a lot of getting used to this system to do, and has to increase his work rate. The lack of that annoyed plenty of fans in the home end on the night.

Subs

Andy Rinomhota: 6

Replaced Araruna to give Reading more energy and physicality in the middle in the second half, and showed why he probably should have started in the first place. Although he was sometimes a bit sloppy, on the whole he toughened the midfield up, and could well have created a goal when rounding the Baggies’ ‘keeper, only to take the ball too wide.

Charlie Adam: 6

Could well have had a brilliant assist had Meite’s header (from his deep pass) not been chalked off for offside. Otherwise, he lined up fairly deep in front of the defence in an attempt to get Reading playing forwards more quickly, but he was closed down too readily by West Brom to be able to properly pull the strings.

Sam Baldock: N/A

Not on the pitch long enough to have an impact.

Average: 5.53/10

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