Reading head coach Jaap Stam has said to the club website that he expects a close match against Barnsley.
Many expected Barnsley to be fighting against relegation this season after they were promoted from Sky Bet League One via the play-offs last year, but their early season form has shown they might end up at the other end of the Sky Bet Championship table. They’ve had a very strong start and they currently sit in 3rd place in the table with the same amount of points as Newcastle United after beating promotion hopefuls Wolves 3-0 on Tuesday night.
On the other hand, Reading have had a mixed start to the season when they wanted to be challenging for promotion. They are currently 12th in the table though getting a win over Barnsley may finally kick-start their season and get them moving up towards the play off spots. Potentially, a win could take them all the way to 4th in the table.
But if there is a win for Reading in this game, Stam believes it will only be a narrow one as he expects a close and interesting game. In the pre-match press conference, He said: “We’ve looked at DVDs of the opposition and we will be training hard for Saturday’s game,”
“As a staff we’ll be making clips from the games and showing the players clips of footage of Barnsley on Friday, we’ll be doing some tactical bits in training ahead of Saturday’s match.”
“Barnsley are doing very well,”
“They won their game on Tuesday night and looked impressive. They’ve had a couple of very good results so far this season but that’s what we’re looking to do as well.”
