Derby County missed the chance to go top of League One as they put in a dismal performance in a 1-0 defeat against Reading.
Derby have shown signs of fatigue in the past month and this was evident again in their display against Reading.
The Rams were guilty of being caught in possession on numerous occasions and weren’t at the races at all.
Paul Warne’s side allowed the hosts to grab a stranglehold in the contest and they wanted it more, winning every second ball, pressing quicker and ultimately creating the better of the chances.
Reading took the lead through Paul Makairu in the 54th minute and the managers’ response was to make a triple substitution on the hour mark as Corey Blackett-Taylor came on to make his debut.
Although that didn’t change the pattern of the game, one man who was lucky to remain on the pitch for the full ninety minutes was Max Bird.
The 23-year-old has shown signs of his performance levels dropping, which continued on Tuesday night.
He was caught in possession 14 times, completed just 69% of his passes and didn’t leave any imprint on this contest, as per Sofascore.
For a player of his quality, that display is nowhere near good enough, and that has to change for their upcoming fixtures.
Bird’s performance was bad, but Tom Barkhuizen was way worse than him on the night.
Tom Barkhuizen was dreadful against Reading
Starting on the right flank, Barkhuizen would have wanted to cause the Reading defence problems in behind, but the 30-year-old struggled to execute any of his ideas.
According to Sofascore, he misplaced all three of his attempted crosses, made zero successful dribbles and was incredibly wasteful in every department.
Barkhuizen not only lost possession on 11 occasions, but he also completed just 40% of his passes (4/10) and in fact, made fewer touches than goalkeeper Josh Vickers.
The forward was equally non-existent from a defensive department and didn’t track back to help right-back Kane Wilson defend.
He made no attempts to tackle, intercept or block any passes, and this was a barometer for how poor the Warne’s entire side was.
Derbyshire Live’s Leigh Curtis summed up his performance by awarding him a 4/10 match rating, the joint-lowest on the pitch.
He was lucky to make it to the 64th minute without being substituted as new signing Blackett-Taylor made way for him.
Indeed, Warne could now choose to start the 26-year-old ahead of Barkhuizen for Saturday’s clash against Cheltenham and no one would have any complaints.