PAUL Clement has warned his Reading FC defenders that nobody’s position is safe.

Royals have conceded two goals in each of their last four league games and 13 in the past six.

Clement’s men have kept just one clean sheet in 17 Championship fixtures and let in two goals in the first 11 minutes of Saturday’s 2-2 home draw with basement boys Ipswich Town.

And Royals’ boss admits the time may have come to shake things up and tinker with his line-up.

Club captain Paul McShane was left out of the squad again last weekend despite having recovered from an injury.

Fellow centre-back Tiago Ilori and full-back Chris Gunter were also left on the bench for the clash against Paul Lambert’s improving Tractor Boys.

Clement is now set for a rethink during the two-week international break before Royals return to action with arguably their toughest run of fixtures yet.

He explained: “A couple of weeks of training means four or five sessions and within that you don’t do two hours of defending. It would be mind-numbing and physically difficult, so you try and get the work in little and often.

“We’ve got try and keep doing it, I can’t let up on this, we have to stick at it.

“If you only keep one clean sheet in 17 games you are going to be in difficulty and we are. We’re right down at the bottom because of that record.”

He also admitted: “The more the goals go in the more I have to look at other options in terms of personnel.

“There’s McShane, Ilori has been on the bench, Gunter hasn’t been involved. I know they are looking at me, for sure.

“We’re still conceding goals and they are saying ‘I’m here, I’m here,’ so I have to look at that.”

Reading and Millwall have shipped 29 goals in the Championship this season, with only Sheffield Wednesday and Preston North conceding more (both 30).

In contrast, Clement’s men have scored 24 league goals, a tally only bettered by West Brom (37), Leeds (29), leaders Norwich (28), Sheffield United, Aston Villa and Brentford (all 27), Preston and Derby County (both 25).

They may be missing Jon Dadi Bodvarsson for six weeks with a broken bone in his back, but Yakou Meite is in red-hot form with six goals in his last five games including a brace against Ipswich at the weekend.

Clement continued: “Not having Jon Dadi around isn’t ideal, but I don’t think our issue is on the offensive side.

“The four games we’ve won this season we scored three goals in. We scored two at Blackburn and Brentford and two on Saturday. We are doing enough on the offensive side to give us a chance to win games.

“But clearly we aren’t doing enough on the defensive side. Whether Jon Dadi is fit or not, it won’t help defensively, we simply have to tighten up in that area.”

Reading were 1-0 down against Ipswich with barely five minutes on the clock as they failed to deal with a long Jonas Knudsen throw-in before Gwion Edwards volleyed home.

Meite pulled one back two minutes later with spectacular overhead kick, but Freddie Sears regained the lead for Ipswich on 11 minutes following a mix-up at the back

Royals struggled to live with the visitors for the remainder of the first half as a furious Clement confessed he would have made up to six changes at the break.

Reading battled back in the second half with Meite’s equaliser six minutes from time snatching a draw that lifted them out of the bottom three.

“Our defence started the game very poorly,” added Clement. “Their first goal you very rarely see in professional football. It might be a goal you see on a Sunday morning park or a school game. It was very difficult to explain.

“Yes, the conditions may have played a part, but for experiences professionals who do this for a job, you have to deal with that, there are no excuses.”