Former Reading winger Jobi McAnuff has urged Ovie Ejaria to show his quality on a more consistent basis for the Royals now this season after he produced match-winning moments of quality at Fulham.
The Royals went into their game at Fulham not expected to pick up all three points against a side that had gone back to the top of the table after their 4-1 win at Birmingham City in their previous fixture.
However, Reading produced an excellent away performance at Craven Cottage. They were able to take advantage of the chances that they created against Fulham to pick up an excellent three points to continue their recent improvement.
Ejaria proved to be the difference for Reading at Fulham with the midfielder curling in an excellent finish to give the Royals the lead inside the opening 19 minutes. While the 23-year-old then produced a cool finish to make it 2-0 on 53 minutes after good work from Alen Halilovic.
Speaking on EFL on Quest, via Berkshire Live, McAnuff insisted that he wants to see Ejaria providing more moments of match-winning quality for the Royals now. He wants him to continue to step up and keep making a difference for them in the final third.
He said: “Ovie Ejaria, someone I really enjoy watching.
“He’s just silky, so smooth he glides. For me, he should be doing more of this, he’s got fantastic quality.
“Look at that touch there, brings it down, left foot finish.
“They’ve had to do without Lucas Joao and Yakou Meite this year so a lot of goals and those guys have had to step up.”
The verdict
Ejaria is undoubtedly one of the most gifted players in his position in the Championship, but at times he does not affect games as much as he probably should be doing given the quality that he possesses.
There are a lot of players like the 23-year-old that produce moments of sheer quality at times that have supporters scratching their heads over why they can not see that from them on a consistent basis.
That is sometimes the case with Ejaria so you can understand McAnuff’s assessment here.
If Reading are going to continue to improve following that 4-0 loss at Huddersfield Town a few weeks ago, they need Ejaria to keep on producing performances like he did at Fulham.
Of course, it will not be expected that Ejaria scores week in week out. However, he should be producing moments of quality consistently and upping the amount of goals and assists that he gets from the middle of the park.
If the 23-year-old can do that, then there is every chance that he can help Reading climb the Championship table further in the coming weeks.