Reading are ready to welcome back up to six players for the LIVE Sky TV game on Tuesday (27th) Kick Off 5.15pm. Naby Sarr and Tom McIntyre are back in the Reading fold and with Scott Dann, Tom Holmes, Sam Hutchinson and an outsider in Femi Azeez - Royals boss Paul Ince could be facing a selection dilemma.
Scott Dann will be most welcome, even at thirty five he is still considered a worthy inclusion in the Reading side. Sam Hutchinson now thirty two could mean a stronger back line for Reading who do ship goals. They have a minus seven goal difference so far this season. Having said that they have been a tough nut to crack since winning at Wigan in mid September and have recorded wins against Huddersfield, Hull, Bristol City and Coventry. The swans beat the royals 3-2 in October at the swansea.com, coming back from two down with goals from Jay Fulton, Harry Darling and Ollie Cooper to grab all three points.
It was one of those games where the swans had a 90% accuracy rate on their passing from 700 passes and scored three goals from their five on target shots. Reading were well behind on 245 passes and only 26% possession. It was again one of those Swansea games which really could have gone either way. Despite the territory gained and a multitude of corners the swans lived dangerously at the back, and that’s something that’s fast becoming a theme this season.
Paul Ince will know this and his son Tom with five goals and three assists this season will be one to watch. He scored one of Reading’s two goals in October. Lucas João Is also on five goals but his conversion rate is pretty decent at around 41%. Yakou Méïté who scored the Reading opener at the swansea.com is getting regular game time still as is Andy Carroll who has two goals to his name this season - from the bench mostly. Another name to look out for is Shane Long who has just the one goal this season, but the old boys in this Reading side do have some pedigree. Carroll has 87 career goals from 382 games, most of those goals scored against Swansea !
Andy Carroll has scored a few against the swans
It’s going to be a tough battle as we saw from the game at the same ground last season. The swans threw away a 4-1 lead to draw 4-4 with their hosts. Russell Martin is desperate for a win, and none in seven is his recent record, Paul Ince over the same amount of fixtures has won two, lost four and drawn just the one game. This will be an interesting marker for Martin to lay down before Watford visit the swansea.com on the Friday after this game ( Dec 30th ) Kick Off 7.45pm which is another LIVE Sky TV game.
Swansea Independent are running a charity day LIVE from the Reading v Swansea City game, please click here for information on how you can support the brain tumour charity this Christmas.
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