Boss
Brendan Rodgers is positive about the Royals' chances of success this season.
After seeing his team pick up their first win of the campaign at Barnsley this weekend, Brendan said, "My players have been fantastic since I came on board and I thought it was only a matter of time before we got that win. I always had confidence we would score because of the goalscorers in the group.
"We've had a difficult fixture list but some periods of really good work. I've always said that good things come to those who continue to work well. We will only get better.
"I'm delighted for the supporters as it's been a big change for them. We want to give our players confidence to play, people say you can't play in this division but that's not true.
"I always felt this was the last day of our pre-season, it's five games in and it was very good. It's been a hard pre-season in that respect, this will give them chance to recover, they have a couple of days off and some are away on duty of course. We'll have a practice game on Friday behind closed doors, then we'll look to recover well and really push on for Doncaster, which is another hard game. Our form is going to be important.
"We are in transition, but I have always said it's about ambition as well. I've signed for three years, lots of players have left but there is a new group coming through, lots of terrific talent. I want to give them an opportunity but I know they need surrounding with experience.
"From day one I didn't want to sit comfortably and say 'this is only a transition year.' I wanted to be up there fighting, that's the reason I came here. I want to be in and around the top six, and that is the ambition of the players. We are very positive we can do well this year.
"If your ambition is to stay in the league, you will [only] stay in the league. I know there's a lot of money in the division this year, but our group will only get better, I am not frightened to say we want to be in and around the top six. If we just fall short it won't be too far short hopefully. Ambition is a great start point. It's very early yet but we will fight in every game."
