Mentality Monsters: Reading’s Psychological Evolution Under Ruben Selles

The season just gone has seen a lot of low points, but we’ve also seen some big moments that demonstrate we are a team on the up. Moments such as the successful integration of academy players into the first team, signings in the summer becoming key first-teamers, the 4-0 and 9-0 wins in the EFL Trophy against Millwall and Exeter City respectively, big league victories against Cambridge United and Bolton Wanderers and the away win against Wycombe Wanderers, which ended the 378 days of winless away games. It’s not been all bad, in truth, despite the plethora of issues that occurred during the season.

One of the other changes we have seen since around the turn of the new year, perhaps even going back to December, is the talk of the mentality shift around the players. In the first part of the season, heads would drop very easily when issues arose on the pitch or things weren’t falling in our favour. I think we all probably have our memories of moments during the season that summarise this, but for me, it is the 4-0 loss to Charlton Athletic, despite being quite dominant for large periods of the game.

However, by the end of the season, we saw such a culture shift with regard to this mentality: we as fans are regularly discussing the side’s mental fortitude and praising them for it. It’s been quite the turnaround and it’s all the more impressive given how gradual it has been, a work in progress that has developed against the backdrop of points deductions, player sales, wages not being paid on time, a proposed training ground sale and redundancies.

It’s been so commonplace that we have seen such resilience from this group of young players and coaches, I feel like we are almost taking it a little bit for granted. Knowing that when we go a goal down, we just know the team will rally and respond to equalise, for example.

As I said before, it wasn’t always this way and it’s so refreshing to see. I want to explore how this change has occurred by contrasting it to what we saw in 2022/23 and in the first half of 2023/24, to try to better understand just how this evolution has developed.

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The first compare-and-contrast example I want to refer to is the pair of defeats to Shrewsbury Town. Both times in the league we lost to them, and both times we as a fan base weren’t really sure how it happened.

The first defeat, away from home, left us without an away league win for over a year and the fan reaction was quite negative, to say the least. Reviewing the excellent regular feature of Fans Verdict compiled by Harry, we can see the topics of discussion are the doom and gloom of yet another loss that left us 10 points adrift at the bottom of the League One table, lamenting on throwing away a 2-0 lead and discussing whether or not relegation to League Two would be a realistic possibility for the end of the season.

As well as this, most fans were questioning Ruben Selles and whether he was fit to continue leading the team, with most seeming to think he was out of his depth and that it was time for him to go.

Later in the season, when Shrewsbury arrived at the SCL, the same scoreline happened: a 3-2 loss for Reading. This after conceding two goals in something like the opening 10 minutes due to sloppy defending. However, we saw the team find a way to pull level again to 2-2, but ultimately lose a game that we realistically should have expected to win. And the reaction from the fan base? Summarily: ahhh that was frustrating but oh well, on to the next one - these things happen. Quite the change in response.

What’s even more interesting than the reactions is the time between the two games in question. The 3-2 loss where we were serious relegation candidates and Selles was out of his depth was on November 11. The 3-2 loss which we just shrugged off as one of those things was on February 24. Around three and a half months between the two, maths fans.

Of course, being out of the relegation zone will help prevent stronger reactions, but the threat of relegation was still realistic in the second fixture, albeit a distant threat - barring any more points deductions. And this is Reading, so you could never rule that possibility out.

It won’t surprise you to know that I’ve never been a professional footballer, but if my day job involved thousands of people shouting at me for not doing what they thought I should have done, using a variety of adjectives that range from “colourful” to “making a sailor blush” to describe my competency, while not being sure if I am actually going to get paid, then I would probably be - at the very least - asking myself why on earth I’m even bothering.

The example that sticks out to me on this topic is the reaction to the defeat at Leyton Orient. Harry’s section titled “The post-match scenes” really demonstrated a club at its lowest, and the abuse the players and staff got post-match was heart wrenching to see. This didn’t strike me as conducive to success in the longer term, or even the short term. What made this worse is that, while we were upset with the results on the pitch, it was really the things happening outside of the pitch that were causing the extreme emotions to boil to the surface.

I feel the match abandonment at home to Port Vale in January really sums up the difference in approach here. This was a very clear attempt at sending a direct message to the ownership. In the tennis ball protests before this game, Sell Before We Dai did their best to communicate that this was not happening as a reflection on our feelings towards the players or coaching team, but the owners of the club. The protest was the most strikingly visual example that we had seen of this, and really captured the nation’s attention.

Consider this for a moment: if you know the thousands of people coming to watch you play at the weekend or on a Tuesday are on your side, how would you feel? It’s no coincidence that we are as close as we ever have been to a group of players. We’ve stood up and made ourselves be heard and made sure they have our support.

In turn, they’ve stood up to be counted on the pitch and regularly come over at the end of games to applaud us and celebrate with us. I’ll forever love Harvey Knibbs for his response to the win away at Carlisle United, as an example of this.

Another example was the win away at Bristol Rovers, this time a staggeringly positive reaction from players and fans alike.

Having the fans visually and audibly on your side can only do wonders for your confidence and most likely even more so as a younger pro.

Using the same theme and going further back, almost a year previous to the Shrewsbury 3-2 defeat in February 2024, under the stewardship of Paul Ince, Reading lost 1-0 at Cardiff City on February 17. This result was galling for a number of reasons, but I think the most concerning was that this was a Cardiff City side also struggling to stay in the division and who ultimately finished only one place above us, five points ahead of us.

The reaction from the fans was understandably grim, with many in particular questioning whether Paul Ince was the right man to be leading the team (spoiler alert: he wasn’t), due to the poor nature of the performance.

Now let’s compare Selles’ post-match comments from November 2023’s defeat at Shrewsbury to the post-match comments made by Ince after the Cardiff loss. Shout-out to Sophie here for putting together this excellent feature, which makes it much easier to review historically. Firstly, the segments from Ince’s reaction:

“It’s a blatant red card. And like any red card decision, it changed the game. The force that he’s gone in on Amadou, if we had VAR in this division it was a blatant, blatant red card.”

“I understand referees make mistakes, we all make mistakes, I make mistakes and you saw my players make enough mistakes tonight. But the big decision like that, they have to get right - especially at the crunch part of the season.”

“However, that doesn’t excuse the way we played. We looked out of sorts, we looked tired, we never really created anything, we kept going long to AC too early and never really got it down and tried to play - and we were very poor from the first whistle to the last.”

“We need to look at ourselves, the players need to see some of the things that they are doing.”

“Cardiff made it difficult for us, but today I can’t back my players. It was a poor game of football, it wasn’t a great spectacle. But I’ve said to the players ‘you’ve got to perform better than that’.”

And now Selles’ reaction:

“We started strong and scored two of our chances. We could have scored at least one more. But then we need to be ruthless in how we manage situations in our box, and how important it is to manage the tempo around our box. That is about us as a team - not being robust enough. And it is heartbreaking at the end. We need to get rid of that feeling because it has really hurt us.”

“So we really need to feel this game. This is one of the most painful situations that we have had. We have to feel that heartbreak and we need to be sure to it doesn’t happen again. It is time to stop complaining or making excuses. We need to go and do it.”

“We need to demand more from each other.”

“I will do something wrong, but I don’t think it was a problem of the structure it was a problem of game management. We were not good; we were bad in game management in the last 10 minutes.”

“I tell you don’t forget the situation we are in. Before those points deductions we were in a good situation. Those elements hurt us a lot. It is not an excuse. We have not been good enough for one reason or another and I am the man responsible.”

“I think it is part of a mentality as a team, which I am the first responsible for. We have a lot of new players so it is about how we create a new strategy to be together in those moments. Every time we go to that situation, something comes against us. We are the only ones that change that.”

There are so many contrasts that can be seen between these statements, but the one very clear thing that jumps out is the ownership of Selles has for the issues. Ince is keen to stress that it’s not his fault: it’s the players who are making the mistakes, not him. It’s the fault of other people - the ref, youngsters (Nelson Abbey is name-checked for a mistake leading to Cardiff’s winner in the full quote), and the attitude and application of the players.

Ince is very quick to distance himself from them and even says as much that he can’t back his players, telling them that they need to do better. Selles on the other hand, while identifying issues, consistently describes issues with a collective “we”. How they can work together to learn from this and improve, discussing issues such as points deductions not being productive but also not being an excuse.

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Imagine being in the two different work environments - perhaps you already have been at some point in your career. Which manager is going to motivate you to do your best? The one who stubbornly refuses to acknowledge or accept responsibility for improvement, throws players under the bus and complains that they aren’t doing what they should be doing, but is unable to effectively communicate what they should be doing or coach them to do it? Or the one who preaches unity, togetherness and the necessity to learn as a group - and removes the need to rely on excuses, instead focusing on removing the mistakes?

It’s refreshing to see and hear Selles regularly discussing introspection and refusing to get caught up in the external factors or things he cannot control. The message to this current group is clear: let’s focus on what we can control, let’s focus on us and support each other.

These are young players. Indeed, the average age of the group is 23.9 years - which is impressive when you consider this includes 34-year-old David Button. Compared to Ince’s 2022/23 season average of 27.1 years old, it’s quite incredible that the older group’s mentality folded when the younger group has grown in strength and learned to cope with adversity and set-backs. Indeed, they are even beginning to thrive. Clearly, the influence of the manager in both instances here is a key factor.

For reference, my count has it at 10 players who were in their first full season of professional football during the 2023/24 season: Ben Elliott, Charlie Savage, Femi Azeez, Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan, Jeriel Dorsett, Tyler Bindon, Michael Craig, Caylan Vickers and Nelson Abbey. You could perhaps even count Dom Ballard here.

It takes an outstanding level of mental fortitude to cope with being a professional footballer. The pressure to perform and being in the public eye constantly must be exhausting. Not to mention all the time away from home to travel and the demands on your lifestyle to be the beacons of health and fitness. What these players have done is nothing short of incredible.

The players themselves have played a huge part in the culture shift. Though Reading are nominally a young team, senior players such as Lewis Wing (28), Button (34), Andy Yiadom (32) and Sam Smith (26) have shone with the extra responsibility of being leaders in this group, even if their performances have not always been at their peak. One player who provides an example of how this mentality is transmitted through the squad is Harvey Knibbs, who just turned 25 at the end of April and is still quite young himself.

During the difficult times in the first half the season, 18-year-old Caylan Vickers was introduced to the side to bring attacking impetus to the team. However, his integration to first-team football and the different style of play was challenging for him. There was one memorable moment during the Exeter City home win when Knibbs jogged over to Vickers, gave him an arm around the shoulder and had a quick chat to explain what he had to do and how they could link up effectively.

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Compare and contrast this to 2022/23, during the more difficult times in the second half of the season, when results were becoming increasingly more difficult to come by and performance levels were visibly deteriorating. Tom Holmes, who at the time would have only just turned 23, was given an earful from senior player Tom Ince, 31 at the time, and also reacted to a wayward pass by booting it out of play.

As Bobbins rightly said in his “Five Things” feature from the game in question:

“As bad as we are, we don’t need this kind of demotivating antics from a senior professional. We’re in a dogfight and everyone needs to be pulling in the same direction - not tearing each other apart. It’s disappointing to see a player act worse than most fans would.”

Quite so.

It’s one thing to get it from the fans and media, but another thing entirely to get it from your own team mate, in full public view. You dread to think how things must have been in the dressing room.

However, as touched upon before, this is where the credit is due to our current crop. There is an absolute togetherness from the squad, a willingness to support and protect each other. Break that trust, then you’re out of the inner circle and you’re not coming back. Just ask Sam Hutchinson, never seen again after his infamous interview at Shrewsbury and released by the club recently.

It requires strong and clear leadership from the coaching team to foster that mentality, allowing the players the time and space to learn and grow from their mistakes and support them not only as footballers but also as humans, as James Oliver-Pearce discussed during his TTE Podcast interview. You suspect that the team didn’t get this level of support or understanding last year during Ince’s time in the dugout.

The term “mentality monsters” was originally coined by Jurgen Klopp, after leading his Liverpool team to second place in the Premier League during the 2018/19 season, despite ultimately finishing with 97 points and competing against one of the best teams in the modern football era: Manchester City. Going toe-to-toe with them in the league was almost guaranteed to end in failure, but they kept going and going and pushing to get there. They ultimately did so the following season.

I liken this to the current crop of Reading players. They are fighting against the beast of Dai Yongge, without the support of the EFL. They’ve had to fight against so much from outside the club, and could easily have felt let down by the club making promises to them it couldn’t keep. But they fought on. What we have seen to help this young squad develop that mentality are the three previously discussed things: togetherness, leadership and fan support.

Having the fans on side, and we very much are, provides a positive atmosphere. The cliché of “the 12th man” rings true, and this is becoming more and more common on the road now at away games, with strong fan turn-outs leading to away ticket allocations being sold out.

The buy-in of the fans comes from watching players give it their all, showing their appreciation by recognising fans at the end of the game and behaving like professionals, seeking to improve and not seeking to rest on their laurels of the available excuses and continuing to compete.

This shift in mentality from the players comes back to the leadership of Selles, who leads by example through his communication and how he carries himself. He doesn’t seek to absolve himself of blame, he seeks to learn. He doesn’t seek to talk down about players, but instead to recognise them for what they do well. He doesn’t make excuses, he encourages results through improvement.

That’s real leadership. That is the root cause for all three factors that have bred our very own mentality monsters. And this is sustainable.