On Tuesday evening, the Royals succumbed to a 3-1 defeat against high-flying Brentford under the Mad Stad lights.

A closer look at the statistics shows what went wrong for Reading and why the evening panned out the way it did:

Paunovic lined up his side in their preferred 4-2-3-1 formation, but the Serbian was forced to re-think his line-up with John Swift and Yakou Meite ruled out through injuries prior to the game.

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The Royals performed relatively poorly when in possession; attacking trio Ejaria, Olise and Semedo gifted the ball to the opposition on eight occasions between them.

Alfa Semedo failed to make any real impact on the game before his substitution in the 76th minute.

The Portuguese loanee only registered 43 touches, whilst also ranking the lowest of all Reading players for pass succession (62.1 per cent).

However, Michael Olise and top scorer, Lucas Joao performed well for Reading.

Reading lost to Brentford during the during (PA)

Reading lost to Brentford during the during (PA)

The youngster’s agility shone through, completing the most dribbles (four), and drawing more fouls (three) than any other player on the pitch. The only player to match Olise’s dribbling statistics was teammate Lucas Joao; the Royals’ main man provided the opening goal of the night from the penalty spot and finished the evening as the highest-rated (7.33) Reading player.

Omar Richards spent large spells of the game as a pivot-point for the Royals with the focus of Reading’s attacks coming down the left side again. Richards took more touches than any of his teammates against Stoke (76), as well as the most (76) of all 27 players that featured on Tuesday night.

The Royals finished the game with eight attempts to the Bees’ five.

READ MORE: 'Predictable' Royals need to score more goals against the top sides, Paunovic says

The visitors seemed to find more space in the box whilst the majority of Reading’s efforts came from further out (38 per cent).

Lucas Joao took nearly half of the hosts’ shots (three), despite taking the least touches (32) of all the outfield players to finish 90 minutes on Tuesday.

All in all, the Royals’ performance was a valiant one but Brentford’s attacking threat proved too much for Paunovic’s side, who capitulated in the final five minutes.

The Bees prepared well for Reading and contained the creativity of the midfield, preventing the likes of Ejaria and Olise from impacting the match as much as they would have liked.