Reading FC

Adam Le Fondre's 10 goals have come thanks to a strike rate of one every 102.9 minutes
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Why Adam Le Fondre is priceless to Reading FC

By Jonny Fordham
February 14, 2013

Reading Post Royals reporter Jonny Fordham analyses the stats behind Reading super-sub Adam Le Fondre’s rise to Premier League prominence

Millions of pounds are the difference between the transfer fees their respective clubs paid for Adam Le Fondre and Robin van Persie.

But to Royals, the value on the head of lethal Le Fondre probably far exceeds the initial £22.5million Manchester United gave Arsenal for their leading man Van Persie.

If the pint-sized poacher’s goals help keep Brian McDermott’s side in the Premier League then the club will already pocket at least £14m in increased broadcasting revenues during 2013/14.

Not to mention the likelihood of being able to build on those foundations and expanding Madejski Stadium to accommodate bigger capacities in years to come.

Premier League survival is worth fortunes to Reading and it could rest on the shoulders of a player they plucked from League Two and paid peanuts for.

Bought for £300,0000 from Rotherham United in August 2011, Le Fondre, last season’s topscorer, has already helped recoup the transfer fee paid to the Millers and more.

Reading, who face United at Old Trafford in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Monday (8pm kick-off, live on ESPN), might be 17 places behind the champions elect, but they look to be stealing a few of their other accolades this season.

Striker Le Fondre, a United fan, is already beating a number of Red Devils legends in the scoring charts.

His 10 goals have come thanks to a strike rate of one every 102.9 minutes. Van Persie (11.4/ 19 goals) and Wayne Rooney (138.4/ 10 goals) are left in the fox-in-the-box’s wake.

Only Manchester City’s Edin Dzeko boasts a better strike-rate than Alfie.

And despite Le Fondre’s frustrations about the super-sub tag, Reading’s top scorer is well on course to break yet more records this season.

Le Fondre’s six goals as a substitute is equal to that of Chelsea’s Tore Andre Flo (1997/98) and Tottenham Hotspur’s Jermain Defoe (2001/02).

Dzeko is hot on his heels this time, with five of his own from off the bench for Roberto Mancini’s title defenders this term.

Famous for scoring late goals, United’s 10 this season has been eclipsed by Reading’s 16.

Royals’ never-say-die attitude helped them clinch the Championship title last year – and it could aid them in their quest to remain in the top-flight this season as well.

A whopping 42 per cent of league goals they have scored in 2012/13 have been in the final 15 minutes of games.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s injurytime, nicknamed ‘Fergie Time’ is in danger of being rebranded ‘the McDermott minutes’ if Royals carry on their late scramble of goals.

Although Reading have only scored 33 goals, the 13th lowest tally in the division, they do top the charts in the most number of passes in the opposition’s half.

Surprisingly, 68.4 per cent of passes made by Reading have been in the other half, and unsurprisingly Swansea City and Liverpool prop up that table.

But come May 19, only one table matters.

The Premier League’s top strikers

Name - Mins per goal - Goals

Edin Dzeko - 99.2 - 12
Adam Le Fondre - 102.9 - 10
Frank Lampard - 103.3 - 11
Robin van Persie - 111.4 - 19
Luis Suárez - 132.8 - 17
Demba Ba - 134.4 - 14
Theo Walcott - 135.2 - 11
Wayne Rooney - 138.4 - 10
Michu - 143.6 - 15
Gareth Bale - 148.8 - 13
Christian Benteke - 170.6 - 11
Juan Mata - 177.8 - 10
Marouane Fellaini - 188.5 - 10
Rickie Lambert - 189.4 - 11
Steven Fletcher - 201.1 - 10
Jermain Defoe - 201.1 - 10

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Pog is quality. It amazes me that some people can't see that the system of bringing ALF off the bench is working quite well...

tokd29
30/04/2013 at 14:58

Cheers Ray, thank you for promoting the FA course.

Hopefully it will encourage more people like yourself and others to go on the course and understand football alot better. You have a great weekend.

cavlad007
16/02/2013 at 19:32

Minor correction required to below - I should have said "completed in two days" not "completed in a weekend" as cavlad007 includes Monday in a weekend.

Ray of the North
16/02/2013 at 10:41

JOC - I haven't heard from poru since he/she predicted a 2 or 3 nil defeat for Reading at Newcastle.

As for cavlad007 my first thought was "what do they teach on these courses" so I looked it up. Apparently it costs less than £100 and can be completed in a weekend! Topics covered include communication on and off the pitch and team motivation - I guess he was asleep by that time. Now, if he said he was a successful manager/coach of a local team that may be different.

Ray of the North
16/02/2013 at 10:21

We seem to have another one who wants to live in a perfect world of football. JOC wait till the weekend and see what happens at the game.

JOC thank you for the compliments and thank you for sharing your kind thoughts about me.

cavlad007
15/02/2013 at 16:46

Go away calad007, you really are a tedious, repetitive bore - and a dim one to boot. Join poru in exile, who has been noticably absent during our run of good form. I think this forum welcomes constructive criticism and open debate, but banging on about the quality of our players or the level of spending (when there isn't anything we can do until the summer) or demanding a return to the tactics that did not work pre-Christmas after one loss since Jan 1st really isn't helpful or insightful. "I have the FA Level 1 Certificate in Coaching Adult Football". Hilarious.

JOC, Newbury
15/02/2013 at 09:33

Smiffy were you watching the Stoke and Reading game? Stoke seemed to be on top of that one for nearly 3 quarters of the game.

McD may have found a way of stemming the tied for the time being. It all comes down to the type of players you got and what we got aren't top flight.

We have a few that are premiership standard, a few that has just managed to hold to the coat tails of the others and just have a taste of premiership football.

cavlad007
14/02/2013 at 18:55

@ Dickemery, we were playing 442 until December and getting smashed in most of the games. The formation we play now may not be entertaining, but it works.

Also Alfie's record when he starts games isn't great.

TilehurstSouthbank, Tilehurst, Reading
14/02/2013 at 15:33

cavlad007 - we have won 6 of our last 9 games - how is that not winning games? You may be a football expert, but you seem to have missed Reading's performances in the past 6 weeks!

Smiffy, Reading
14/02/2013 at 13:38

alfie has got to play with the russian 4-4-2 from the start,we need to win games,and both are finding form,to have any chance of staying up

dickemery, caversham
14/02/2013 at 13:18

What will happens is like most times when Reading sell a player Some club comes in for him, they buy him cheap sell him on for a massive profit And this is where Reading go wrong, they make sure that there is a clause where they also benefit from future sales

Charles Thorn, Tilehurst
14/02/2013 at 13:14

People who can not see why we are playing 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 really are unattached from modern football! The Pog is been great the last two home games as well! Cavlad007, would not boast too much about that certificate you can get it during a 6th form course!

Reading1987
14/02/2013 at 12:56

I thought the term Fergie Time was more down to the magical extra minutes after the actual added-on time should have finished, which United tend to score in, rather than just standard added on time.

Vestan Pance
14/02/2013 at 12:24

If our tactics are that great why aren't we winning more games? Yes Smiffy I do have a bit of a clue about football I have the FA Level 1 Certificate in Coaching Adult Football.

cavlad007
14/02/2013 at 12:19

Smiffy i've given up trying to explain our tactics to people who don't understand the 'start with 4-5-1' formation, and for people slating the Pog he does a good job on his own up top, those of us who attend the games will see this also!