QPR - Back from watching on TV

[brendywendy]

Well Beaten by ten man qpr twice in 1 season.they deserved it in the end,but only on the basis of our awful 2nd half.
Out played out fought out thought and out sung.
But on the bright side qpr are that much better than all the teams in the league. And we could easily have taken points tonight. Even with our long ball and no width. Oh well,3 points at norwich and ill be happy again.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Absolutely - we should have been getting the ball out quick from the full backs and really stretching them down the wings - where we can hurt teams. Mcanuff was really going at them 1st half. But no, 2nd half we bang it long. Honestly I'm struggling to understand the lack of intelligence.

I really don't understand why in the last two home games we haven't used our wings at all in the second half.

There were time when it opened up on the right but Griffin had no-one to pass to as Kebe was in field. Same last home game.
As for the left, we move Jobi into the middle and put HRK on the left....which is essentially the same as having no winger anyway

[PEARCEY]

Absolutely - we should have been getting the ball out quick from the full backs and really stretching them down the wings - where we can hurt teams. Mcanuff was really going at them 1st half. But no, 2nd half we bang it long. Honestly I'm struggling to understand the lack of intelligence.

I really don't understand why in the last two home games we haven't used our wings at all in the second half.

There were time when it opened up on the right but Griffin had no-one to pass to as Kebe was in field. Same last home game.
As for the left, we move Jobi into the middle and put HRK on the left....which is essentially the same as having no winger anyway

For some reason McAnuff does seem to fade badly in matches. In the first half he looked lively and committed. In the second-half he wasn't involved. Kebe barely featured after the reckless challenge on him.

[Snowball]

For some reason McAnuff does seem to fade badly in matches. In the first half he looked lively and committed. In the second-half he wasn't involved. Kebe barely featured after the reckless challenge on him.

The manager needs to do something then

eg bring on Hunt for the faded Kebs

[leon]

Absolutely - we should have been getting the ball out quick from the full backs and really stretching them down the wings - where we can hurt teams. Mcanuff was really going at them 1st half. But no, 2nd half we bang it long. Honestly I'm struggling to understand the lack of intelligence.

I really don't understand why in the last two home games we haven't used our wings at all in the second half.

There were time when it opened up on the right but Griffin had no-one to pass to as Kebe was in field. Same last home game.
As for the left, we move Jobi into the middle and put HRK on the left....which is essentially the same as having no winger anyway

For some reason McAnuff does seem to fade badly in matches. In the first half he looked lively and committed. In the second-half he wasn't involved. Kebe barely featured after the reckless challenge on him.

absolutely - as opposed to the much maligned Steven Hunt who for better or worse used be a pest until the 95+ minutes were up...McAnuff usually does the 1st half, Kebe does the the 2nd. It's not good enough.
I thought our defence was very good against the best team in the league, sadly the rest of the team was very sloppy.

[St Pauli]

Support was excellent first half, and extra thanks go to those standing at the front of Y26 who would not sit down.

2nd half support was worse but that was because of the football, so all in all an enjoyable night for me, and oxf*rd the scoreline.

The weekend has only just started-watching afc wimbledon at home tomorrow then watching the Hamburg Derby in a German pub in lahndan town on sunday.

[prostak]

Derby? I didn't realize Pauli were playing Altona at the weekend?

[Jackson Corner]

Horrible game, against a horrible team, who have a horrible manager, played on a horrible pitch on a horrible night. Febuary wil be the defining month can't see us getting a single win. Season over.

[SLAMMED]

Derby? I didn't realize Pauli were playing Altona at the weekend?

[St Pauli]

Derby? I didn't realize Pauli were playing Altona at the weekend?

Well technically Altona isn't Hamburg, it's a separate Danish enclave. 'We are red, we are white, we are Danish Dynamite!'

[hiro]

This is first time that I can watch Royals game Live on TV(PC) in this season.
I dId wake up 5am (kick off is 4:45AM here) to watch it, and I went to work after the match.
I feel numb.
Better not consider about promotion, because it hurts. I will try to enjoy each game (by listening to World) as they come by.

[UTDSTEVE]

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[General B]

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You are notorious internet helmet STEVESPENDER, aicmfp.

[Hoop Blah]

For some reason McAnuff does seem to fade badly in matches. In the first half he looked lively and committed. In the second-half he wasn't involved. Kebe barely featured after the reckless challenge on him.

absolutely - as opposed to the much maligned Steven Hunt who for better or worse used be a pest until the 95+ minutes were up...McAnuff usually does the 1st half, Kebe does the the 2nd. It's not good enough.
I thought our defence was very good against the best team in the league, sadly the rest of the team was very sloppy.

McAnuff doesn't fade, he gets moved out of position into the centre of the park where he doesn't do the same kind of work. He's done ok in there at times but he only ends up there because we don't have a proper midfielder to do a bit of a more creative job in there.

I've been trying to stay away from commenting too much, but last night was pretty dreadful. Apart from Kenny, Routledge and Taarabt, and perhaps Faurlin, that QPR side is nothing special. It goes to show what a bit of confidence and extra quality from one or two players cam do for a team, and what a good job Warnock has done putting it all into place. They didn't test Federici much no, but they did create a few very good opportunities too (Hulse missed a sitter early on) so to say they didn't create anything is a little churlish.

We are still quite short ourselves, and another loan player or two would still be nice, but as it is in this division we have enough to miss out on the playoffs whilst teasing us that they might be in reach for the next 3 or 4 months of a dull season.

Lastly, on the pitch. It looks shocking, but I really don't think it's effecting the ability to pass as it seems to run true enough. A green pitch looks better but it doesn't necessarily mean the ball rolls better on it. It certainly didn't prevent QPR from passing accurately enough most of the time.

[under the tin]

I thought it was a typical game against a Warnock side.
Loads and loads of minor infringements aided and abetted by a whistle happy referee, which punctuated the game, and prevented the building of any kind of momentum. Chuck in a bit of gamesmanship, time wasting, and an undercurrent of needle, and there you have it.
Say what you like about Warnock, but he is essentially a gritty bloke who goes about getting the job done, and his teams usually reflect this.

Apart from the last ten minutes or so of the first half, we had no momentum whatsoever. Half time came too soon for us.
The whole of the second half was just like the first 30 or so minutes of the first.
QPR had correctly assessed that our threat comes from the wide players, and simply "doubled up" on Kebe and Jobi.
With that threat nullified, we resorted to clueless hoofball, and even with a man extra, didn't look like scoring in a month of Sundays.
From memory, the only time Kenny warmed his gloves in anger was from Church's shot.

I didn't think that QPR were anything special. However; when they knocked it long, it generally went to the feet of that big black lad, and it generally stuck. Our version is to bash it, at pace, head height, towards Shane Long, and generally, it didn't stick.

Yesterday's game, for me, highlights exactly where our problems are.
When "wingers" are crowded out, they need their full backs to support them. Think of Igoe/Murty, Little/Murty etc.
Whilst Griffin does his best, you can't say the same about Harte. I'm not even that impressed with Harte's much vaunted dead ball delivery. Too many corners not getting past the first defender, or being overhit.

In midfield, we do not have a proper playmaker at all. Therefore, if the wingers are struggling, we bash it long. This usually fails, because we don't have big target man up front, either. We are an attacking left back, a creative midfielder, and big front man short of being serious contenders.

[weybridgewanderer]

I really can't believe all those knocking church and HRK, maybe its from those that expected more from the season.

These guys are young players. All players have good and bad spells, but young players are usually more inconsistent.

The team is still going through a transition.

We really need to write off this season, and even next season, keep the bulk of our squad together and build on what we have.

That will be by some younger players getting better and by bringing in some quality, especially if we sell quality.

[weybridgewanderer]

the first half was not as good as some make out

We had a good spell in the last 5 minutes when we had few shots on target and probably came closer in those few minutes than QPR did for most of the game.

But that was our only spell of dominance in the entire 90 minutes

After around 35 minutes there had been no shots on target frome ither team.

At that point of target shot count was also 0 (ie no shots at all) while QPRs was 4.

[Hoop Blah]

I really can't believe all those knocking church and HRK, maybe its from those that expected more from the season.

These guys are young players. All players have good and bad spells, but young players are usually more inconsistent.

The team is still going through a transition.

We really need to write off this season, and even next season, keep the bulk of our squad together and build on what we have.

That will be by some younger players getting better and by bringing in some quality, especially if we sell quality.

Church and Robson-Kanu aren't inconsistent, they're just out of their depth and we're asking too much of them IF we really want to be challenging at the right end of the table.

By writing off this season to give players a chance to progress all we're doing is giving our better performers the platform to sell themselves to prospective clubs. We will sell 2 or 3 of our better players in the summer an then we're into another transitional season waiting for the current squad players to improve (before leaving if they progress enough) whilst again seeing a gradual decline in the overall quality of the side (as we have for the last 4 or 5 years.

[papereyes]

I saw the last 10 minutes of each half due to the 'joys' of Schalke vs Dortmund

Not as bad as "Doncaster away on an iPhone"

still.

Prostak 10
Prostak's Lass 10 - possibly more for the face she pulled over my "is that finnish?" comment.

Game - errr

end of 1st half ... we looked good, they were a man down, a couple of good chances (Mills, Church, someone went close off a volley).
end of 2nd half ... urgh. Proper urgh.

Manset looked lively. He's HUGE.

[PEARCEY]

^ Church didn't look out of his depth last season. He needs to become more physical though as he gets knocked off the ball too easily. He needs to improve his aerial ability as well.The hit and hope football we played last night doesn't do him any favours though.