It's funny how supporting Wolves can suck the life out of ya !
Reading seek their first win in three games after successive defeats by Championship promotion rivals Huddersfield Town and Brighton.
January's EFL Young Player of the Month John Swift may be recalled, but Reece Oxford (hamstring) will not feature.
Wolves defender Kortney Hause is expected to return after being left out last weekend for disciplinary reasons.
Having slipped to 20th, just two points clear of danger, Wolves hope to avoid a fifth straight league defeat.
None of Wolves' injured players will be back in time for the trip to the Madejski Stadium, but winger Ivan Cavaleiro (knee) is set to resume training next week after a month-long absence.
And Jordan Graham, also disciplined along with Hause by boss Paul Lambert last week, is back in training following 13 months out with a cruciate knee ligament injury.
Reading manager Jaap Stam told BBC Radio Berkshire:
"We need to be realistic in what we are trying to achieve. The thing for us is we need to learn from everything.
"You need to learn to work under pressure, to play in big games against better teams. We need to learn against very good teams to know what do differently.
"I said at the beginning of the season that hopefully we could end up in the top 10. It is in a period of over two to three years that we are trying to build a team to maybe go up to the Premier League."
Wolves boss Paul Lambert told BBC WM:
"In games, we're having most of the ball but we have to finish off. The important thing is to never be frightened to miss.
"Hopefully, after getting his goal last weekend, Nouha Dicko will now go on a run.
"We have to be better in both boxes. But there's not too much wrong. We got there with confidence."
Match facts
Wolves have lost their last four league games, as well as losing in the FA Cup fifth round to Chelsea.
They have not suffered five league defeats in a row since November/December 2014, under Kenny Jackett.
They last lost six matches on the trot in an ultimately seven-match losing run in March/April 2012, when Terry Connor was manager, following the sacking of Mick McCarthy.
Reading are winless in their last three league meetings with Wolves, having failed to score in all three games.
Reading have won eight of their last 10 home Championship games.
Only Fulham (83%) have a better passing accuracy than Reading in the Championship this season (81%).
Live @ http://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewLiveArticle/364114
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Reading v Wolves {live}
posted on 5/3/17
Fosun have had the best of intentions I'm sure, and hardly expected what has happened. I would steer clear of giving them grief as they could yet turn out to be valued benefactors.
I wouldn't be surprised to see us win the next two games. We usually get a point against Ipswich, and they're not doing as well this season. And being at home to Rotherham should be a nailed on 3 points.
posted on 5/3/17
comment by wolfieintheSunshineState (U16306)
posted about 4 hours ago
Shame on them Halfy, as they are the cause of the problems we're having. Too many new players and listening to that money grabber Mendes.
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That's the second time I've seen you refer to "Money grabbing Mendez" but I didn't see any complaining when 'Super agent Jorge Mendez' was bringing in all the exciting foreign talent at the start of the season.
Hindsight is 20:20.
The main problem this season has not been the influx of players but
1.The fact that they were brought in before the manager who had no pre-season to sort out the squad.
2. The new players were never given a proper chance to form a team as both WZ and especially PL have preferred to persevere with the players that failed last season.
posted on 5/3/17
If Zenga had been given a pre-season to work with the players and had started the season with a first 11 of:
Ikeme
Silvio
Batth
Stearman
Borthwick-Jackson
Costa
Oniangué
Saiss
Teixeira
Cavaleiro
Bodvarsson
and a bench of:
Lonergan
Doherty
Hause
Iorfa
Price
John
Dicko
I suspect that we would be better placed in the league table than we are now.
posted on 5/3/17
comment by Dances with Wolves (U18318)
posted 33 minutes ago
comment by wolfieintheSunshineState (U16306)
posted about 4 hours ago
Shame on them Halfy, as they are the cause of the problems we're having. Too many new players and listening to that money grabber Mendes.
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That's the second time I've seen you refer to "Money grabbing Mendez"
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He also took a pot shot at QPR's new manager, Holloway, calling him a "clown". It was inevitable that they then went on to have a good run of results.
Being in our situation, we have little cause to ridicule others.
posted on 6/3/17
Gem, if Jackett or Lambert had a full pre season to work with those players then maybe.
But I see nothing in Zenga's cv to suggest he would have been a success given more time. He has been with 16 clubs in 17 seasons for a reason and it wasn't because they were all desperate to keep him. His regular trips to Dubai between games was not the way to do his job regardless of how affable he was. It was at best a strange appointment and one that surely came from his friendship with Mendes
posted on 6/3/17
comment by Halfmanhalfwolf v1.4 (U11570)
posted about 16 hours ago
Nobody mentioned they were doing it wrong, when they were spending near on £30 million of their own money Sir Wolfie, if I may say so
Although they're advisors obviously have no chumpo experience as you've correctly pointed out
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Such insubordination!
Release the hounds, Wolfie.
posted on 6/3/17
Don't disagree with that DJ and yes, I would have preferred either Jackett or Lambert to be in place for the pre season with those players. That having been said, Zenga started off the season not too badly with 15 points from his first 9 league games and with the team playing more attractive football than we have seen recently.
posted on 6/3/17
interesting reminder that the same players that have been written off as useless and dross (well some of them anyway, depending on different posters' own bias) managed 15 from 9 early doors, as well as beating two prem sides and giving chelsea a major workout.
for me that supports my view that our biggest problem is not the individual players, or any one position in the formation, but something wider which is causing us to fail to motivate or get the best out of what we have. whether that's the coaches, manager, players' egos, wolfhead clouds or complacency I don't know. but until we find someone to correct the general malaise we can swap individual players and managers as much as we like without really seeing the big improvement we need.
at risk of being seen to be on a WUM, or boosting the matchday thread comments, it's the presence of a MM type figure we're lacking. someone to pull the team together to play as a team, stamp a style on what we're doing and stick with it, and find a way to win ugly as well as play short passages of great football. I thought PL could bring that, but so far he is some way off the mark and getting worse, especially with his crazy team selection on Saturday.
posted on 6/3/17
A good manager can indeed make a group of players better than just the sum of its parts. Mick certainly did that. But that is papering over the cracks, its no substitute for good players though.
posted on 6/3/17
I think we have plenty of good championship players goldi
of course, we are short of a few real top quality people and I expect us to sign at least four this summer. but a lot of our current squad are good enough when they can play consistently as results this year and in previous seasons have shown.
we are desperately short of a big goal scoring forward, and even tho both bod and dicko have played well in other aspect of their game, if we can't rely on at least one of them to score 20 goals a season then they are going to have to stick to a more supporting role to a new striker. failing to put away our chances, and to keep the opposition defence nervous, puts the midfield and defence under increased pressure every game.
in midfield we need more creativity at times, and whether that can be achieved through a change in formation or players we will see. in theory, with costa, cavaleiro (or graham, or zyro), dicko or bod, and edwards or mason, we should have a pretty effective front five once we sign a new striker. but in reality, cav has not shone yet, costa can't do it all on his own from one wing because he is easily double marked, mason is too often missing in matches, and edwards ought to be being used more and more as an impact sub...if only there was anyone performing better than him in the squad.
in defence, you'd think iorfa, batth, stearman, doherty, hause, and now coady, should be a reasonable group to choose from. but iorfa has been disappointing for a year, batth seems to have lost confidence, hause has not overtaken any of the CBs yet, and marshall has arrived to displace coady. maybe between them they would look good if the midfield and forward line improved. but more than likely we need a really good experienced defender - in the Irwin or craddock mould - to get the best out of the others.
luckily, we're not badly off for keepers!