Ruben Selles: Reading’s Blackpool Display Was ‘Not Acceptable’

The manager’s full thoughts after a 4-1 battering in the north west.

It was a disappointing end to a record-breaking week with a 4-1 defeat against Blackpool at Bloomfield Road. Jordan Rhodes scored a hat-trick with Kylian Kouassi netting the other. The Royals got a goal back late on through an own goal.

We remain in the relegation zone with frustrations running high at the end of the game. Manager Ruben Selles admitted that the team were nowhere near their best. Here is what he had to say, he spoke to the official club website.

Selles on the defeat

“It was not good enough. After we conceded the first goal we just started to do things that we don’t do and concede three goals in the first half – this is not acceptable.

“We tried to change things in the second half to go after the game but then we conceded the fourth one – it was not good enough, nowhere near our best from any of us today.

“Besides the first part of the game, the first 10/15 minutes, we were not able to have a lot of the ball, not able to control, to pass, to do the things we usually do.

“We were not able to apply the pressure with the second balls, with the good transitions, and the opposition were able to do it, and we did something radical to change the dynamic of the game.

“I think we got it but we conceded really quick that fourth goal and then it just killed our wish to come back into the game, but we needed to do it.

“We created and we were in a place that we wanted to be, we knew what to expect from Blackpool.

“We had situations early on maybe not to score but situations in the last third.

“It was just one throw-in from them that we go high and press as we usually do, we missed a couple of chances when we can win the ball and then we end up in our box defending where in every part of us we need to be better.

“We need to be more mature as a team and then we need to be able to come back into the game, to take it easy, go and do the things that we know how to. Then we would be back in the game.

“We cannot lose the game because we made one mistake that can make in any game.”

Selles on his side bouncing back

“We have a team with a young age but they are competing every week, last week against Bolton, where the players were almost the same.

“We need to learn from the situations but we are not here only to learn, we are here to win football matches.

“We need to win football matches and we need to be able to say that today we were not good enough.

“We have a lot of good things, today is only 100 minutes that we weren’t ourselves, but we cannot repeat that kind of performance.

“We need to be sure that we perform better in the game, and if we lose it is because the opponent is better and we were doing the things that we know how to do it, not because we stopped playing and stopped doing things together.

“We can have a bad game but we need to be able to avoid those situations.

“We have a week and then after we have three games in seven days so we need to be prepared for the next cycle.

“We need to do as we do every day, we need to train hard, prepare for the next opponent, and then face the situation together and prepare for next Saturday.

“The players and the fans all need to be on the same side and we are all on the same side, and we haven’t given enough today.

“If we could play tomorrow then we would play tomorrow, that is my feeling.”