Vote For Your August 2024 Reading Player Of The Month
We’ve got four candidates for this month’s award.
August was a good month for Reading. In the first six games of the season, the Royals picked up three wins, just one loss in 90 minutes and two draws, one of which preceded a penalty shootout defeat. Those results left the Royals eighth in League One heading into the international break, out of the League Cup and top of Group P in the EFL Trophy (that’s P for Pizza Cup, by the way).
Performance-wise it was encouraging too. Reading impressed in the league in a tough opening-day fixture at Birmingham City before doing similar at home to Wigan Athletic and Charlton Athletic. The youngsters followed suit with an impressive win over West Ham United’s under-21s. While there were off-days on the road (Colchester United and Wrexham), they weren’t without their positives - Reading ending and starting those games strongly respectively.
So now, you’ve guessed it, we want to know which player impressed you the most individually, for the first TTE player of the month award of the 2024/25 season. Putting together our player ratings, the man of the match awards as voted for by you, and goal involvements, we’ve come up with the following shortlist.
You can vote in the poll at the bottom of the article.
Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan
Average rating: 6.5 / Man of the match awards: 2nd (Birmingham City A), 1st (Wigan Athletic H)
Ehibhatiomhan started the season well, just as he did a year ago, this time enjoying a new role out on the left side. He’s now essentially a wide forward in Reading’s narrow 4-3-3, tucking infield a lot more than the more orthodox winger position he had late season.
This role suits him well, clearly giving him more involvement in the final third, but he’s looked sharper in his own right anyway, registering two goals and one assist.
Ben Elliott
Average rating: 6.33 / Man of the match awards: 3rd (Birmingham City A), 2nd (Wigan Athletic (H)
Elliott’s been a key man in the centre of Reading’s midfield so far, at the heart of so much of the Royals’ play, making attacks look so much more dynamic and free-flowing. Two of those were capped off by Elliott himself, thanks to assists for Jayden Wareham (West Ham) and Charlie Savage (Charlton), while the build-up for Kelvin Abrefa’s goal against the Hammers was also heavily influenced by Elliott.
He’s noticeably sharper and stronger on the ball this season. While he often looked too lightweight even for a wide role in his debut campaign, Elliott has clearly developed his all-round game in 2024/25, and we’re beginning to see why he was so highly rated at Chelsea.
Amadou Mbengue
Average rating: 6.8 / Man of the match awards: 1st (Birmingham City A), 3rd (Wigan Athletic H)
Mbengue picked up where he left off last season, putting in a set of typically committed, solid performances at the back. He was key to Reading only conceding from open play in one of his appearances, and stood out particularly at Birmingham City on the opening day.
Charlie Savage
Average rating: 6.17 / Man of the match awards: 3rd (West Ham United H), 1st (Charlton Athletic)
Who had Savage down to be Reading’s top scorer from the first set of games? Perhaps we shouldn’t be all that surprised - Savage has form for a long-range screamer from 2023/24 and carried that into this campaign, getting the goal of the season nominations up and running with efforts against Colchester and Charlton.
He also showed another side of his goalscoring prowess when intelligently popping up in the area to convert an Ehibhatiomhan cross. Add in his own assist for Abrefa against West Ham and that’s four goal involvements - not bad for someone who was behind Harvey Knibbs in the pecking order originally.
Vote
Who was your POTM for August? Vote below or through this link.