Jaap Stam has shown he’s very much an advocate of a patient approach during his time as Reading boss so far. He believes this patience paid off against Norwich in the end on Boxing Day.
It’s very much – well, apparently so too – the Dutch way not to rush things.
Stam has spoken about being more than happy to bide our time at the Madjeski Stadium as this eventually brought us a 3-1 win against Norwich – speaking post-match he was quoted by the BBC as saying.
‘I like to have patience when we have the ball a lot. You don’t want to rush things in terms of creating chances. Norwich started the game aggressively in going forward, sometimes pressing us one-versus-one all over the pitch.’
Yann Kermorgant had headed Reading into the lead but a Nelson Oliveira effort saw Norwich level with the Canaries then getting the upper hand. Well, until Jonny Howson saw red for handling on the goalline.
Kermorgant – who could have easily bagged a hat trick on the day – put his resulting penalty against the crossbar but Garath McCleary scored with the rebound. Callum Harriott secured the points in added time.
Stam went on to admit we hadn’t – this has become a common theme too of late – created much in the first half and was expecting Norwich to pose a threat they did in the second period.
However, the sending off and penalty changed the game and turned it in Reading’s favour. The boss finished.
‘We didn’t create a lot of chances in the first half and we knew Norwich would press us even more in the second half. But after the sending-off and the penalty, it meant that the spaces would open up even more and they did when scored the third.’
