Tactical musings with Kevin Doyle

Its been a little while since my last post on the blog and things are looking a lot better now to say the least! The 2-2 draw with Sheffield United started something very special and the win at Wolves was just what the doctor ordered. The most important result without a doubt was the victory over Watford, bringing the two sides level on points and putting a bit more breathing space between the Pilgrims and the bottom three.

If the Wolves and Watford games were shaping up to be the start of a run it is probably a bad time to play Reading. They've drawn a lot of games recently but they ended all that with a fight-back from a goal down to beat Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough. Before that though they just seemed unable to score and Reading striker Kevin Doyle said that teams had been 'frustrating' them by playing an extra man in midfield, which is exactly what Argyle will have to do. Doyle has hit the nail on the head there and I think a lot of teams have worked them out. For me Reading are easily the side with the most quality in the league and to try and match them is probably not the best idea. However, all that quality doesn't count for anything if there isn't the space to use it and getting a result out of them is not impossible. It would upset the sports betting odds but Argyle should go into this full of confidence to be fair and thanks to the last two games the pressure is off (to some degree anyway).

There probably isn't much point doing an analysis on Reading because they're pretty much the same side that got relegated last year. They do have some very good players like Doyle, Hunt, Gunnarsson etc but as Doyle said, that doesn't matter a great deal sometimes if the tactics are right and Sturrock will have to work this one out. I quite rate Leroy Lita, despite his inconsistency, but whether he'll get in the team or not is anyone's guess. I’m going to leave it there but if you're going to be doing any betting this weekend I like the look of Preston away at Palace and Swansea away at Forest, perhaps not bankers but if you’re looking for decent odds these are two to look at.