Fulham vs Reading: Preview and Predictions

Fulham vs Reading
England – The Championship Play-off 2016/17
Date: Saturday, 13th May 2017
Kick off at 17:30 UK/ 19:30 CET
Venue: Craven Cottage.

We are almost ready to close the curtains on another season in The Championship. Before we can do that we need to find which team will join the ranks of the Premier League. This has already been done by champions Newcastle and runner ups Brighton as they won an automatic promotion in the regular season. The third team will have to fight its way through. The opening game of the play-offs features Fulham taking on Reading at Craven Cottage.

Fulham

Fulham’s spirit and late season form granted them the 6th and final place in the play-offs. Cottagers were considered having an outside chance for reaching the play-offs but Slavisa Jokanovic’s boys proved many people wrong. The team is on top of the from table with19 points from 8 games. This and the huge drop of form by Leeds United were the main factors behind the success.

The most notable part of Fulham this season was their impressive goalscoring potential. They are joint top scorers in the league with Newcastle and Norwich all 3 with 85 goals. That’s roughly 1.85 goals per game as seasonal average. The other feature of Fulham this season was their away games.

When we turn to the home and away games tables we clearly see that the team enjoys playing away from Craven Cottage. On the road Cottagers have the second best record in the league right after the champions Newcastle. At home though the team struggles sometimes and has only 10 victories in the 23 home games this season occupying 13th place in this table. That is a bit of concern as Jaap Stam and his boys may take advantage.

Fulham: Predicted Starting Line-up (4-2-3-1)

Slavisa Jokanovic has a clean bill of health and has all of his players available.

Bettinelli – Malone, Ream, Kalas, Fredericks – McDonald, Johansen – Sessegnon, Cairney, Aluko – Martin.

Reading F.C

Reading started this season a bit shaky and everyone started doubting their chances for a successful campaign. Still the Royals come into the play-offs from 3rd place into the regular season. Apart from a few slight drop of forms Jaap Stam’s team showed consistency throughout the season. They are the second best home team in the league behind Brighton and produced a lot of entertaining games.

Reading as we mentioned were an outstanding host this season. Still their away form and some of their results on the road raised some eyebrows. The team has won just 10 of its away games this season losing 11. That’s not a form to be proud of when you are a promotion candidate.

The main problem of The Royals away from home this season was their defence. Only rock bottom Rotherham has conceded more goals away than Reading this season. Reading’s defensive line conceded whooping 48 goals in their 23 away games averaging 2.09 goals per game.

The only reason Reading were winning some of their away games was their amazing attack compensating for the troubles at the back. Half of their games on the road finished with both teams finding the net and 16 climbed above the 2.5 goal line.

Jaap Stam has some concerns about his team selection. Gareth McCleary is likely to miss the game while Joey van den Berg and team captain Paul McShane returned to action last week but are not yet fully fit. The duo played 45 minutes against Burton after returning from injuries and the Dutch head coach will be hoping that they can handle 90mins. Stam will probably field again his team with 3 at the back as he did last 2 away victories against Burton and Aston Villa.

Reading: Predicted Starting Line-up (3-5-2)

Habsi, Blacket, McShane, Moore, Obita, Kelly, Williams, Evans, Gunter, Kermorgant, Mendes.

Fulham vs Reading: Head to head

Fulham have the edge in terms of head to head clashes with 5 wins of the last 10 games. Reading have 3 wins and the other 2 games were draws.

At Craven Cottage Fulham have won 4 and lost 1.

The 2 games played in the regular season finished with impressive 5-0 victory for Fulham at home and minimal 1-0 victory for the Royals at Madejski.

Four of their last 5 games at this stadium saw both teams on the score sheet and over 2.5 goals.

Fulham vs Reading: Prediction

Fulham’s overall home seasonal record may look bad but that’s mostly because of their early games this season. The team started with 6 games winless streak at Craven Cottage but immensely improved as the season progressed. Fulham will dominate the game controlling the possession and trying to break Reading. If they do it early the game may turn ugly for the visiting fans.

Reading will try and avoid letting an early goal. Jaap Stam will most likely field his team with 3 at the back again hoping to withstand Fulham’s pressure. The team is conceding too much on the road and going against a free scoring team like Fulham won’t be an easy task. If the defensive line fails though Reading will go forward in search of an away goal opening the game.