Back from the QPR game

[chandog]

imo the whole of the midfield was poor - every time one of them got it they passed to a qpr player
bikey was rubbish
rosenior was ineffective
doyle and nhunt didnt have any real supply and what they did do was poor

hahnemann and armstrong were our best players imo
even though USA looked pretty dodgy with long shots

[CMRoyal]

Well, I'm kind of glad we dropped some points there, because maybe SC will now see fit to drop Bryn, who really seemed to be struggling - chasing shadows, too slow on the ball, no energy, never picking up the second ball (something Harper started doing right from the moment he came on) and he's also making Karacan look worse with each game as confidence seeps away from the pairing. We must get the promising Jem/Harps pairing back on track asap. I'm hoping Hunt, S's performance was just down to him 'showboating' for the cameras. He seemed to be back in over-eager puppy mode, trying tricks rather than playing the simple ball and waiting for the opportunity to go past defenders. He made himself look stupid. Talking of trying too hard, I still think Kebe is due a rest - a couple of decent reserve performances and maybe even a goal or two would maybe freshen him up. We've got Henry bursting to be given a try, and if SC is reluctant to break up a decent understanding between Jimmy and Rosey, the bench at least for him must surely be a priority. In defence, Rosey had a rare nervy off-day, Bikey was far far too casual, but Ingi and Stretch were as rock solid as ever. Doyle and Hunt, N beavered away up front but were starved of decent service. I was disappointed with our tactics yesterday, we were far too quick to resort to long ball or try to take players on rather than play football. A nervousness has crept in, and it needs to be eradicated before we get to far adrift of the top two.

Scores:-

USA - 6
Rosey - 5
Bikey - 6
Ingi - 8
Stretch - 7
Kebe - 5
Gunnar - 5
Jem - 6
Hunt, S - 5
Doyle - 6
Hunt, N - 6

[PEARCEY]

Contrary to what some think this is a good thread pointing out where the team need to improve.
I still think we can win this league. Why not? Look what we did to Wolves.
However we need to start playing more football through midfield. We looked disjointed yesterday and whatever his faults Harps does link up defence to midfield and midfield to attack. He should have started ahead of Gunnar yesterday. Gunnar's role should be from the bench as in season 2005/2006 when he would come on in the second half to shore things up.
We also need Matejosky in the side to give the team the quality passing which was woefully absent yesterday. Keep Karacan in the squad but again from the bench when perhaps he can be brought on in the last 20 to energise the team.
A Harper/Matejovsky central midfield partnership is by no means perfect as we will then lack a ball winner which away from home when teams wil attack us will be a problem. I would therefore bring in Cisse ahead of Kebe to provide a more defensive midfield to combat the opposition. I would play Kebe from the start in home matches when we need to be more attack minded.
I repeat though that automatic promotion remains a strong possibility. We have a squad with enough quality to achieve that.

[Norfolk Royal]

Contrary to what some think this is a good thread pointing out where the team need to improve.
I still think we can win this league. Why not? Look what we did to Wolves.
However we need to start playing more football through midfield. We looked disjointed yesterday and whatever his faults Harps does link up defence to midfield and midfield to attack. He should have started ahead of Gunnar yesterday. Gunnar's role should be from the bench as in season 2005/2006 when he would come on in the second half to shore things up.
We also need Matejosky in the side to give the team the quality passing which was woefully absent yesterday. Keep Karacan in the squad but again from the bench when perhaps he can be brought on in the last 20 to energise the team.
A Harper/Matejovsky central midfield partnership is by no means perfect as we will then lack a ball winner which away from home when teams wil attack us will be a problem. I would therefore bring in Cisse ahead of Kebe to provide a more defensive midfield to combat the opposition. I would play Kebe from the start in home matches when we need to be more attack minded.
I repeat though that automatic promotion remains a strong possibility. We have a squad with enough quality to achieve that.

Good post.

[Maguire]

You get games like this every season. Utter poo to watch but not a bad point given how flat we were.

We're not that good anyway - unrealistic expectations given recent home form mean people think we'll batter teams every week. We won't.

[chilipepper91]

Contrary to what some think this is a good thread pointing out where the team need to improve.
I still think we can win this league. Why not? Look what we did to Wolves.
However we need to start playing more football through midfield. We looked disjointed yesterday and whatever his faults Harps does link up defence to midfield and midfield to attack. He should have started ahead of Gunnar yesterday. Gunnar's role should be from the bench as in season 2005/2006 when he would come on in the second half to shore things up.
We also need Matejosky in the side to give the team the quality passing which was woefully absent yesterday. Keep Karacan in the squad but again from the bench when perhaps he can be brought on in the last 20 to energise the team.
A Harper/Matejovsky central midfield partnership is by no means perfect as we will then lack a ball winner which away from home when teams wil attack us will be a problem. I would therefore bring in Cisse ahead of Kebe to provide a more defensive midfield to combat the opposition. I would play Kebe from the start in home matches when we need to be more attack minded.
I repeat though that automatic promotion remains a strong possibility. We have a squad with enough quality to achieve that.

Good post.

+1 but surely a midfield of Cisse-Harper-Matejovsky-Shunt would be misshapen? Though I agree we need Matejovsky.

[Silver Fox]

Dreadful game, but we'll live. My inly point would be that Copps should have noticed a lot earlier (maybe after about 10 minutes) that Boris should have been replaced with Harps. I may have more to add after Goals on Suday show the highlights.

[chilipepper91]

Dreadful game, but we'll live. My inly point would be that Copps should have noticed a lot earlier (maybe after about 10 minutes) that Boris should have been replaced with Harps. I may have more to add after Goals on Suday show the highlights.

Half time I'd have put Harper or Cisse on for Boris. Karacan seemed to be on his own...

Why Long for Kebe?

[Maguire]

Kebe was having a shocker.

[Archie's penalty]

I would have brought Harps on for Boris about 10-15 minutes earlier than Coppell did.

I would like Harps to start against Burnley instead of Bryn. I also think Kebe out for Henry would be a good idea for a couple of games. If Henry fails get Kebe back in. At least then Kebe feels he is in a fight for his place.

The team looked tired yesterday a couple of changes are needed for that reason alone. The players who did so well against Swansea and Wolves have not gone from great to terrible overnight. Have a bit of faith people!

[Chaney]

Kebe was having a shocker.

oh he was the only one?...I thought so!!!

[mr_number]

i thought our central midfield was really anonymous just like on tuesday. we have to change it for next tuesday or we'll be forced to play long again, unless hunt and kebe get back on their games. gunnarsson just doesn't look up to it at the moment, and i know all you lot like jem a lot, but i haven't really seen him do anything of note in the games i've been to this season. he runs around, but doesn't often really pressure the opposition, and i can't remember a decisive pass he's made. obviously, he's got time to improve, but i think harper and cisse should get the starts at burnley.

[Royalscot]

We have a big issue in not being able to retain the ball for any period of time, this was shown through the continual sloppy play of Kebe, Rossienor and S Hunt, though they had precious little help from Bryn who was way off the pace, only Karacan tried his hardest but trying to cover the whole of midfiled on his own is just not going to work.

Karacan is still learning and needs a mentor with him, Harps was doing that very well with him and I would like to see that partnership returned.

It does appear that teams have sussed us out and no doubt Burnley will give us a very hard game come Tuesday, we need to step up a gear or 4 right now all over the park, if this means for a short time, fighting fire with fire then why not go to a 5 man midfield with Marek in the side.

Sorry to say I think the time has come for Bryn to move on he is simply not quick enough any longer, as for Kebe a spell on the bench would do him no harm and let Henry or Long come into the side to play wide right.

Can we have the fast flowing football on the deck again please, instead of the long ball game which is far too easy to defend against.

QPR desrved their point and Doncaster should have gotten a point, just as well neither of those teams could finish.

[S09Royal]

Just a quick question,

WHY is every reporter, QPR fan and sports journalist, saying that QPR have ended our 100% home record?
Are they blind? QPR didn't win, neither did we, they might be the first team this season to take points off of us at home, but we're still unbeaten at home (for how long i don't know) but seriously. Our 100% home record is still intact even if we didnt win. Ga

[T.R.O.L.I.]

Just a quick question,

WHY is every reporter, QPR fan and sports journalist, saying that QPR have ended our 100% home record?
Are they blind? QPR didn't win, neither did we, they might be the first team this season to take points off of us at home, but we're still unbeaten at home (for how long i don't know) but seriously. Our 100% home record is still intact even if we didnt win. Ga

Try again you plank

We have picked up 19 points out of a possible 21 at home - that is now a 90% home record.

[S09Royal]

Right, but the whole thing of 'bringing our run to an end' makes it sound like we lost.
Let's win next week and the week after and the week after that and....etc

[LoyalRoyalFan]

A Repeat of Tuesday night. Ineffective in midfield and up front for a second game. The midfield pairing of Gunnarson and Karacan played too deep,so when we counterattacked there was only Doyle and Hunt up front. Gunnarson was terrible. I don't have a clue why he was still on the pitch in the second half. Stephen Hunt looked like the player we bought from Brentford. Got nowhere and did nothing all throughout. Kebe was asked too much of again by our midfielders and Rosenior. The ref had a shocker of a game. From my sit it was clear that we should of had a pen or even two and that Cerny crossed the line with the ball in his hands. QPR didn't play that well. They were in the same boat as us. Both of us didn't get anywhere.

Ratings :

USA : 6 - Solid
Rosenior : 6 - Got caught out several times
Bikey 5 : Made causal mistakes
Ivar : 6 - Any team with a pacy striker can get past him
Armstrong : 6 - Not much of him today.
S.Hunt - 5 - Very ineffective. Convey should get a chance
Kebe : 5 - Never got a chance.
Gunnarson - 3 - Dropped.
Karacan - 5 - Closed down well.
Doyle - 6 - Was brought out of position to many times by the wingers
N.Hunt - 6 - Not much of him as well.

Subs :

Harps : 6 : Better than Gunnarson
Cisse : 6 : Good chance at the end. Deserves a chance
Long : 5 : Not enough time.

[Handsome Man]

I quite enjoyed it, but the weaknesses we showed on Tuesday night were still there and cost us points.

USA - 7 a bit more confident than of late
Rosey - 6 good defending, wingplay didn't work
Bikey - 7 all-energy, but not his smoothest performance
Ingi - 6 ok
Armstrong - 5 ok defending, but didn't attack or support Hunt
Kebe - 6 nothing came off, but it was a good effort
Gunnar - 3 waiting to be subbed and dropped
Jem - 3 outmuscled and out of his depth
Hunt, S - 7 kept running into players, but beautiful corners
Doyle - 8 quite impressive
Hunt, N - 1 missed his chances and just looked wrong today: SPL to the Championship is too big a jump.

Harper will start in the next game, but I think Bikey and Marek could be the pair to take us to promotion. To achieve this, we must also keep Doyle or get something out of Lita from January onwards.We have a potential Tottenham situation if we let Lita go off to Norwich permanently, then recieve a big offer for Doyle late on in the transfer window.

[Terminal Boardom]

1. QPR defended well - however, they always kept 4 back and their full backs did not push forward. Very disciplined performance from them.

2. They passed the ball nicely but as has been said elsewhere - no cutting edge.

3. Has Coppell heard of Plan B? Plan A just did not work and there was no invention or creativeness out there. Once that option failed to work what else was there? Too one dimensional.

4. If we had played like that thorughout last season we would have been challenging Derby for bottom spot.

[Wax Jacket]

1. QPR defended well - however, they always kept 4 back and their full backs did not push forward. Very disciplined performance from them.

2. They passed the ball nicely but as has been said elsewhere - no cutting edge.

3. Has Coppell heard of Plan B? Plan A just did not work and there was no invention or creativeness out there. Once that option failed to work what else was there? Too one dimensional.

4. If we had played like that thorughout last season we would have been challenging Derby for bottom spot.

agree on everything there.

the newer players who've started the season so well all looked a bit shaky - Karacan was over-run, N Hunt was chasing shadows, Armstrong did OK but a little less confident looking than normal. the midfield as a whole was terrible.