What Do Reading Do With The Returning Harvey Knibbs?
Finding a role for the returning Knibbs will be a good problem for Ruben Selles to have, and Alex has a suggestion on what it should be.
Us Reading fans are cast surprisingly far and wide. Some even live in Reading.
As for myself, I’ve been away from Reading for a long time now so I have very few opportunities to really have an in-depth discussion about the football team I love and support with my friends where I live. I don’t even have the chance to do this with friends who still live in Reading, because they either don’t follow football or they support Chelsea, which is probably leaning more towards not being a football fan as opposed to being a fan of the circus.
Instead, I have TTE to discuss my opinions and thoughts. Except they are published, and I leave myself open to any manner of potential ridicule for said silly opinions. Which is really my own fault for having some silly opinions, which I am quite sure Sim will use this an opportunity to link that sentence to one of my previous articles to demonstrate the point.
That long introduction leads me to a new opinion that has formed in among the tumbleweed blowing around inside my head.
“Great, Alex, so are you going to tell us what this is?” I can hear both of you reading this say. Well – the basis of this starts from the question: what are we going to do with Harvey Knibbs when he returns from injury?
We all know Charlie Savage is a very good footballer. Yep, these are the hard-hitting takes that you get from this writer. However, it’s only recently since the move to a more traditional 4-3-3 set-up that it seems he has found a home in the team, coming into the left side of the midfield three when Knibbs picked up an injury, and since then, has been fantastic for us.
Indeed, so much so, it seems that the once-undroppable Knibbs - who was so central to how we played last season - will not actually come directly back into the starting XI on his return - expected to be on Saturday against Leyton Orient. Which is high praise for Savage and the work he has done in the role.
But this is a problem, albeit a welcome one, because (spoiler alert: another hard-hitting opinion is about to drop) Knibbs is also a really rather good footballer. And it’s good to have your really good footballers playing football, is my in-depth tactical analysis which Ross and Tom will undoubtably be proud of.
However, I believe this presents an opportunity for us to do something differently, which leads me to the aforementioned possibly silly idea/opinion. What if we used Knibbs as a number 9?
Hear me out: Sam Smith is an excellent striker, even if he has had something of an auspicious start for us this season, though I’d bet my hat that he’ll still hit 15+ league goals for us this season.
The interesting thing is the change in his role with the new 4-3-3 system, where Smith tends to drop deeper to win the ball and play it out to the buccaneering wingers to make direct runs at the defence. Some call it playing as a 10, others a false 9, but this is a role that Knibbs has the skill, energy, aerial presence and ability to play. Indeed, playing as a 10 is his natural forte. Imagine having someone with the ability to press like he does leading the line, to force the errors. He’s got a good shot on him, too.
Certainly the feeling is that if we lose Smith to an injury, we are quite vulnerable because Jayden Wareham, a capable deputy, is still a bit green behind the ears with first-team experience and is probably a couple of years away from being ready to be a starter.
This is no criticism of him: he’s young, talented and learning. It’s all perfectly normal. However, Knibbs is in the here and now and could give us an option to lead the line and not so greatly feel the effects of missing Smith, or even give Smith a bit of rest once in a while.
It’s going to be interesting to see what happens when Knibbs returns, but I am quite keen to see how a midfield three of Savage, Lewis Wing and Ben Elliott would look when lined up behind a front three of Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan, Knibbs and Adrian Akande, Mamadi Camara or Chem Campbell (delete as applicable for the right wing).
It feels like an exciting possibility, right? In common football parlance, it’s a good headache to have for Rubén Selles.