Harper and the midfield conundrum

Steve Coppell has a problem. It's the sort of problem, however, that most football club managers relish: he will very shortly have at least five capable midfield players vying for just two berths in his team. At the end of the game against Burnley, Kalifa Cisse replaced a resurgent Bryn Gunnarson and promptly sent a message to the manager with an imposing display of his own. Youngster Jem Karacan has made a very good case for Coppell to continue showing faith in him, and Marek Matejovsky's obvious quality can't be ignored for too long as he returns from injury. 

So what next for James Harper? The twitchy midfielder has long divided opinion amongst the Reading faithful. Now one of the 'old guard' - Alan Pardew brought him in from the Arsenal reserves - he made a name for himself alongside another Arsenal junior, Steve Sidwell, forming one of the greatest midfield partnerships in the club's history. Together they were the lynchpin of the Championship-winning side and continued the success through the first season in the Premier League. When Sidwell left for bench-warming duties at Chelsea at the end of that season, the responsibility fell on Harper to team up with a replacement and try to recreate the winning formula. However replacing a player like Sidwell was never going to be easy and so it proved. Harper and Sids complemented each other perfectly: the incisive tackling and crisp passing of the Ginger Ninja allowed Harps to roam and harry, and chip in with a few important goals. With Sids gone Harper was suddenly thrust into the role of senior partner; it would be up to him to ease in a new midfielder unused to the way the well-oiled machine works. Was Cisse the replacement for Sidwell intended by the manager? If so he too often looked like a player not entirely sure what exactly was expected of him. In any case last season was characterised by an inability to take control in the middle of the pitch; we were overrun and never saw enough of the ball to build a platform or take control of games. Harper obviously cannot be blamed for everything, and he did score two really important goals for us against Liverpool at home and Boro away. Unfortunately he simply does not do enough for me, nobody can question his commitment, but running around a lot is the bare minimum required for a player in that role. He does not make enough tackles and rarely passes the ball forward, maybe that is fine in a slick, functioning midfield in which the roles and requirements are clearly defined, but until recently that has not been the case.

The harsh truth is that, right now, we look better without him. Coppell clearly holds him in high regard, bestowing the captaincy upon him this season, but now the battle for a place is going to be harder than ever for Harper, with the competition for places in a very good side hotting up.