BFTG - QPR (A)

[PieEater]

Tbh that was a perfect follow on from the playoff final, and summed up a pre season which has been notable only for its total lack of coherency and urgency. At Wembley, we sat back for 120 minutes and created, at best, a couple of half chances. Today was the same, only without the half chances. We can't pass, we can't retain the ball without passing, no one can find space, there's no communication, there's a total lack of effort and, most worryingly of all, no one seems to give a shit. I'm happy to put this down to first day nerves/blues/lack of match fitness/we haven't won an opener in 12 years, but there are ominous signs there we could be in for a long season.

cba with ratings other than to say that Swift urgently needs to sort himself out. A one legged Emerse Fae would have been more use.

Was just about to post the same thing, whoever thought we didn't need preseason games was wildly mistaken, we just weren't up for it whereas QPR were the opposite. Somehow without preseason games we still have a lot of injuries and players who really weren't ready for competitive football.

I was wondering where was JvdB, Quinn, Obita, McCleary. The team we put out on the whole performed woefully, if anything the scoreline flattered us, that could easily of been 3 or 4-0.

Manone made a great save after about 2 mins and another one in the second half, he had no chance with the goal. We've said before that Blackett was not a left back and he proved it again today. The only player I can think of that had any sort of decent game was Kelly, ignoring the backpass/throughball the wrong way.

I thought the ref was pretty rubbish, isn't the new rule that you don't give a red card and a pen for anything other than something that stops a certain goal like a handball off the line? We suffered double jeopardy for an attempted at a tackle that was nowhere near a certain goal.

We had one chance all game when Barrow came on and laid it back to Swift who hit the post, that was it. It's going to be a long season if we can't beat teams as poor as QPR who despite their lack of skill they put in 100% effort.

[Gunny Fishcake]

Shocking performance in many ways and a huge let down for the big loyal Royals travelling support. It was like watching a pub team against a professional team. No point going on about the individual performances , every single one lamentable , though Barrow looked lively when he came off the bench.....it was the attitude and body language. It honestly looked the players didn't give a flying toss. I know we have players out but by god this looked like a team totally lacking in leadership , commitment and effort. Defence was bad beyond belief, midfield shambolic and lacking the remotest iota of creativity and up front , simply nothing. One game I know, please pray it was simply a one off....somehow I regret it will not be based on this.

[Simon's Church]

Luke Freeman (I think) was excellent for them. We couldn't get near him and he beat all 3 of our midfielders on more than 1 occasion

[CountryRoyal]

On Mannone did he not pull off a worldy save from a header? I thought i was a save but it was a goal kick.

offside

Fair enough, he wasn't to know that. Cracking stop.

[windermereROYAL]

Poor Stadium, horrible place with no leg room, looks like its been built with a giant lego set.
Mackie , mouthy little git, but I could do with at least one of him in our team.
Ref , must have left his yellow at home when it came to the home team. but was quick to wave it when we commited our only foul of the first half, but left it in his pocket when Mackie forearm smashed Gunter near the touch line.
the team?
Moore, Mannone. Bod 6 points . the rest 4 and under.

pretty depressing day out . but worried when Fulham and Villa come to town in our next 2 games..

[Royality creeps In]

Just home
Absolutely dreadful. Made the fakes look like world beaters.
Clement and the Icelandic guy WTF
The rest were pretty shit apart from Barrow.

The ref a homer

Cannot be bothered to report anything else.
If the team cant be arsed don't know why I should.

[Snowball]

Mackie (I really dislike him) showed what we lacked: fire in the belly, a bit of nastiness, some old-fashioned "stick"

He committed three flagrant fouls each of which deserved a yellow, yet didn't get booked. Is the ref his uncle?

But QPR deserved to win by three or four goals. They were full of energy, closed down everything, and their wing play, both sides
was excellent. Mackie/Washington were like Long/Hunt, all over defenders, making up for a lack of finesse with sheer hard work.

Our midfield today was terrible. Outfought, out-ran, out-classed. We need an enforcer, a hard man. JDVB manages that on occasion. I like Evans but today he was never on his game.

The 4-3-3 was a mistake, IMO, with QPR playing 4-5-1. Popa barely got a pass in the first 30 minutes and Clement was almost invisible. I just think we were set up wrong. If you play wingers you have to feed them, and Gunter PassBack never showed flair or initiative, never once put Popa away (as far as I remember).

The ex-Wolves guy was OK. Barrow looks like he could be a great player. Manning was not to blame for the goals and made a few good stops.



Frankly, I'm worried. We now have Fulham and Villa at home, Preston and Birmingham away. It's not beyond reason to imagine us losing all four.. I want to be so wrong that I get the piss taken out of me. I hope he plays a strong 11 Tuesday to try to get a solid win.

[CountryRoyal]

It's worrying how easily teams create chances against us, it's hardly a new problem either.

[el_presidente]

From goal kicks they man-marked all 4 of our defenders and no-one had a clue what to do. Only 6 subs is crazy for the first day of the season. Where was Obita? - hopefully "just" an injury and not unsettled by a bid. We move on.

[JC]

On Mannone did he not pull off a worldy save from a header? I thought i was a save but it was a goal kick.

No it was offside. Ref had his hand up before kick was taken

[yuomi]

From goal kicks they man-marked all 4 of our defenders and no-one had a clue what to do. Only 6 subs is crazy for the first day of the season. Where was Obita? - hopefully "just" an injury and not unsettled by a bid. We move on.

This. I spent a lot of last season wondering why teams weren't pressing us when we played the short ball (and proceeded to trundle it sideways and backwards). It was like they thought we had a plan. If we do then the players don't know what it is, and that got shown to a live TV audience at Wembley. Expect to see a lot more teams come at us while we faff this season, with inevitable results.

[biff]

Seems to me the blood, guts and effort required to get somewhere in the Championship is somehow trained out of them/negated by this blind reliance on Stam's system. A lot of "itll come good if we keep passing it" out there, but not a lot of willing to do the dirty work ala Mackie etc today. Passing football is a joy to behold when done well, but we arent capable and should be looking for a decent plan B to eventually become our plan A.

[gazzer, loyal royal]

That was pretty poor all round. No incisiveness and we didn't hold on to the ball well enough

Ilori was awful. Constantly lost his man and twice made passes that put Qpr clean through, one took a brilliant save from Mannone and the other Washington completely fluffed.

Thought Mendes looked lovely when he came on, and probably should have come on earlier in my view

[JIM]

Strongest team in the league, HOLDING ALL THE REST UP.

[Half Horse]

Thought Mendes looked lovely when he came on, and probably should have come on earlier in my view

You're obviously a big fan of Mendes

[tee peg]

A first for me.Left after 65 mins.

[Top Flight]

I feel like the club has been deliberately going for a slow start since we lost in the play-offs. Everything in pre-season seem half arsed from signings to friendlies and an opening display like that was guaranteed. The lack of urgency with signings particularly - it seems like we're waiting for deadline day when in reality surely you want the bulk of your transfers done as early into pre-season as possible so any signings can bed in. Utterly bizarre and I'm not sure what the clubs reasoning is.

If we wait until deadline day we might be able to sign Oliveira for £5million instead of £8million when Norwich realise that we are the only option. Other players might cost considerably less too.

Other than that there is no other reasoning.

[Top Flight]

Seems to me the blood, guts and effort required to get somewhere in the Championship is somehow trained out of them/negated by this blind reliance on Stam's system. A lot of "itll come good if we keep passing it" out there, but not a lot of willing to do the dirty work ala Mackie etc today. Passing football is a joy to behold when done well, but we arent capable and should be looking for a decent plan B to eventually become our plan A.

You have to earn the right to play football.

First you need to have the ball. And that requires winning those tackles and being aggressive against the opposition. Danny Williams was good at that and he will be a big loss.

Whenever we have done well, we have had players that earn the right to assert our game. Players like Leigertwood, Parkinson, Sidwell, Williams. The first priority in football is always defensive, aggression and fight. After that we can play our stuff.

[Longhorn1970]

I don't think ref bashing will improve things, there was no plan A and we looked unprepared. Hopefully things will improve quickly or ....

Tbh that was a perfect follow on from the playoff final, and summed up a pre season which has been notable only for its total lack of coherency and urgency. At Wembley, we sat back for 120 minutes and created, at best, a couple of half chances. Today was the same, only without the half chances. We can't pass, we can't retain the ball without passing, no one can find space, there's no communication, there's a total lack of effort and, most worryingly of all, no one seems to give a shit. I'm happy to put this down to first day nerves/blues/lack of match fitness/we haven't won an opener in 12 years, but there are ominous signs there we could be in for a long season.

cba with ratings other than to say that Swift urgently needs to sort himself out. A one legged Emerse Fae would have been more use.

Was just about to post the same thing, whoever thought we didn't need preseason games was wildly mistaken, we just weren't up for it whereas QPR were the opposite. Somehow without preseason games we still have a lot of injuries and players who really weren't ready for competitive football.

I was wondering where was JvdB, Quinn, Obita, McCleary. The team we put out on the whole performed woefully, if anything the scoreline flattered us, that could easily of been 3 or 4-0.

Manone made a great save after about 2 mins and another one in the second half, he had no chance with the goal. We've said before that Blackett was not a left back and he proved it again today. The only player I can think of that had any sort of decent game was Kelly, ignoring the backpass/throughball the wrong way.

I thought the ref was pretty rubbish, isn't the new rule that you don't give a red card and a pen for anything other than something that stops a certain goal like a handball off the line? We suffered double jeopardy for an attempted at a tackle that was nowhere near a certain goal.

We had one chance all game when Barrow came on and laid it back to Swift who hit the post, that was it. It's going to be a long season if we can't beat teams as poor as QPR who despite their lack of skill they put in 100% effort.

[NewCorkSeth]

Luke Freeman (I think) was excellent for them. We couldn't get near him and he beat all 3 of our midfielders on more than 1 occasion

I thought Luongo looked quite good for them. Wonder what happened to Jordan Cousins? He was supposed to be quite good wasnt he?