Set-pieces continue to be the stuff of nightmares for Swansea City.
The Swans' defending once again left little to be desired at Reading as goals from Andy Carroll and Tom Ince earned the Royals a 2-1 victory - with Liam Cullen netting what proved to be a consolation for the visitors at the Select Car Leasing Stadium.
As a result of the defeat, Russell Martin's men are now without a win in their last eight matches. They have not scored the first goal in any of those matches.
The key concern has once again involved set plays. The Swans were alarmingly poor from dead ball situations last season and looked to address the problem by recruiting Andy Parslow in the summer.
Following an initial improvement which saw Swansea surpass the overall total of set-piece goals scored across the entirety of the 2021/22 campaign after just a third of the current season, there has been a significant downturn.
Only Bristol City (11) have let in more than Swansea's tally of 10 set-piece goals conceded so far this season.
"We have a real problem, somehow, still, at defending set-pieces," said Martin after the match in Berkshire. "We give away the least amount of shots in the league.
"The mentality is nowhere near strong enough. That's on all of us. So it's really hurtful. The goals we concede, they're crap, they're rubbish. We don't make teams work for them."
Martin has spoken of the need for players to become more aggressive and "horrible" when defending, which is in stark contrast to the requirement to be calm and composed in possession.
And the 36-year-old admits it was a key area of discussion and training ground work during the World Cup break.
"We trained on pretty much that during the World Cup break," he explained. "We looked at the games, we analysed the season so far and the one thing that's hurt us is that. In normal play I don't think we give teams very much at all, Coventry probably being the outlier on the counter attack in the first-half.
"But, really, we limit teams to very little. When you have to defend, you have to do it properly. It can't be any clearer than that really."
As for the opposite box, Harry Darling spurned a fine chance to head beyond Joe Lumley at the death at Reading while some deliveries from Ryan Manning and Joe Allen, particularly in the first-half, were abject to say the least.
Despite the improvement on the dreadful numbers from last term, this season, only five teams have scored fewer goals from set plays than Martin's men - who have five to their name after little more than half of the season gone.
Swansea dominated possession at Reading and created several clear cut goal-scoring chances, with Ollie Cooper, Joel Piroe, Manning and Darling among those unable to bulge the net.
The January transfer window will be key when it comes to improving the attacking and wing-back positions, although, the business could ultimately count for precious little unless the Swans swiftly find solutions to the set-piece issue that has plagued them for long periods under the current regime.
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