| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 11:02 - Nov 20 with 2216 views | Antti_Heinola |
It's hard to say this was disappointing, as it was all so predictable. Thought the boys battled well, but Villa were just better everywhere, except maybe in goal. Overheard a Villa fan on the tube after syaing it was the best they'd played away all season, particularly second half, so that's annoying - particularly as, although they were decent and should challenge for promotion, I didn't think they were amazing.
1. BACK THREE: I won't spend ages on this as I'm sure Clive has covered it expertly in his report already. But Ollie now has a definite problem with the three at the back system. For a while it was working. And working very well, especially at home. Maybe it was adrenaline - Robinson playing his socks off, Baptiste providing experience and knowhow, Lynch good at shouting at Bidwell etc.
But the game that turned it was Sheffield United - a little strangely as that was one of our very few clean sheets - when they found space behind our wing backs and with a roving number 10. Ollie fixed it by putting Furlong at full back and making sure Scowen got a grip by sitting deeper, and we won well in the end. Since then, Forest hammered us by spotting the same weakness and then Villa did it again, with the irritating Snodgrass and the excellent Adomah running riot on both flanks all afternoon. Of course, we won't come up against this quality every week. But we need a different plan. Maybe it could work with Onuoha as the right-sided centre half because of his lightning pace, but at the moment, he might need to consider switching at a 4-3-3 because it's becoming too easy for teams to attack us at the moment.
2. LYNCH: On paper, Lynch should be exactly what we require. Tall, strong, decent in the air, loud, a bit of a LEED-AH. And at times he is just that. But at others he is not and I'm starting to get exasperated with his individual mistakes that are costing us. He did it against Fulham and it happened twice again on Saturday - indecision. The worst one was when he made a decent interception in his own box in the second half. He had two clear choices - a quick pass back or a safety first clearance. He did neither, and instead dribbled towards his own goal, coming perilously close to causing us to concede as he was hunted down.
He needs to be better than this. I don't understand why he does this in most games. It's almost like having won the ball he has no awareness that he might be tackled or might lose it. It's where you want the Clint Hill mentality to kick in - just get the thing out the danger zone. No one's asking him to be Clive Wilson and be perfect on the ball in those situations and execute a nice one-two to get out of trouble. But this hesitancy is no good for anyone. I've kind of lost patience a bit, I think, and he still has 18 months to run on his contract.
3. MACKIE: A few weeks ago, near the start of the season, I wrote a jerk saying that Mackie was in the team on merit and how much his all round game has improved as his pace has slowed. There was little sign on that on Saturday. I love him and always will, but too many times his first touch let him down and in truth, although he scored, Villa always looked confident dealing with him. We're into late November now, and while we know what our defence would be if everyone was fit and the midfield three pick themselves, we're still no closer on the front two or three. One thing I do know is that it should probably never be Mackie and Smith. As always, Mackie did his best for the team,. played in two or three positions, never stopped working, but the guile wasn't there, and it just wasn't enough on the day.
4. CARRYING PLAYERS: Which leads us onto this point. On Saturday, we simply had too many players not at their best or not fit enough and there weren't enough subs allowed to fix it all. I thought Luongo was no worse than anyone else before the break, and we certainly looked worse without him afterwards. But we couldn't afford to 'waste' a sub on him like that. Cousins can't last 90. Smith did last 90, but can't really. Mackie was ineffectual. There were too many areas that needed surgery - it was like a Redknapp team. Had we been able to make four or five changes, we might have been able to put some proper pressure on at 2-1 down with 10 minutes left. But we couldn't, and in the end Ollie was just throwing on forwards and hoping.
What was the answer? Maybe not starting Luongo? Putting Cousins in the centre and Pav as the wing back? ~Then bringing Luongo on with about 25 left as they did with his fellow Aussie, Jedinak? That might have been smarter, but if Luongo thought he could play, and he did train on Friday, I can't blame Ollie too much. Should Furlong have come on at half time for Luongo? Then Cousins goes infield? Switch to four at the back and play Bidwell left midfield for a bit? You wouldn't want to make two changes at half time. Too much needed doing, and in the end the changes that were made had almost no effect.
5. SMITH: One thing I felt Ollie did get right was playing Smith. He tied Samba up all game in both boxes, actually dominating him in the second half until Bruce brought Jedinak on to stand in front of Smith and stop him winning about 90% of headers. And what a sad shadow of a player Samba is now compared to that absolute beast that one looked like he might score about 6 when we played Blackburn at LR a few years ago. Smith, I felt, did his job. Defended well, won his flick-ons, had a good first tiem shot go just wide, a header he should have done better with and an unexpected volley go straight at the keeper. But he needs someone better around him. Ollie played Mackie to make up for Smith's lack of mobility, but maybe Sylla would have been a better choice. OK, he doesn't chase and harry, but if Smith could keep Samba busy, maybe Sylla would have found some space.
6. ADOMAH: Albert, if you're not going to celebrate, because we all know that clearly you didn't want to score against your own team, why not try harder to miss the penalty? I know you were hoping to hit the post on your second, but if you're going to do that, do it right, and make sure in future. Also, fancy a pay cut? |  |
| |  |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 11:10 - Nov 20 with 2187 views | davman |
No. 6 my favourite.
He calls himself a fan to anyone who will listen, so why doesn't he prove it by coming here on the cheap? We could do with another Winger...  |  |
| |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 11:20 - Nov 20 with 2164 views | paulparker |
5/ do what , smith won fark all against Samba especially the 2nd half , it was non stop hoofing it was meat and drink for him dealing with that , |  |
| And Bowles is onside, Swinburne has come rushing out of his goal , what can Bowles do here , onto the left foot no, on to the right foot
That’s there that’s two, and that’s Bowles
Brian Moore
|
| |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 11:43 - Nov 20 with 2124 views | Antti_Heinola |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 11:20 - Nov 20 by paulparker |
5/ do what , smith won fark all against Samba especially the 2nd half , it was non stop hoofing it was meat and drink for him dealing with that , |
He won nearly everything in the air against Samba, mate, not sure what you were watching. It may not have gone anywhere when he did, but that's another argument! Also did really well defending against him from their set pieces. Jedinak went on almost specifically to sandwich Smith between himself and Samba to stop him flicking the (agree, dreadful hoofs) and it worked perfectly. Bruce saw it, I saw it. Everyone around me was saying Smith was winning more of the ball than usual. So, you're wrong, there, but agree with your broader point! Samba didn't deal with it though - thought he was really poor all game. | |
| |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 11:59 - Nov 20 with 2092 views | paulparker |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 11:43 - Nov 20 by Antti_Heinola |
He won nearly everything in the air against Samba, mate, not sure what you were watching. It may not have gone anywhere when he did, but that's another argument! Also did really well defending against him from their set pieces. Jedinak went on almost specifically to sandwich Smith between himself and Samba to stop him flicking the (agree, dreadful hoofs) and it worked perfectly. Bruce saw it, I saw it. Everyone around me was saying Smith was winning more of the ball than usual. So, you're wrong, there, but agree with your broader point! Samba didn't deal with it though - thought he was really poor all game. |
the 1st 30 minutes maybe, as we approached the game like a cup game and gave them a going over before they took over and started stretching us with their width
im not knocking smith at all who battled well but the 2nd half the ball kept coming back to us as samba won everything , manning, lynch, scowen baptise were awful and all they did was hoof it either into touch or onto sambas bonce
that 2nd half was back to the dark days of Holloway lumping it to a santos & not knowing what to do | |
| And Bowles is onside, Swinburne has come rushing out of his goal , what can Bowles do here , onto the left foot no, on to the right foot
That’s there that’s two, and that’s Bowles
Brian Moore
|
| |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 17:28 - Nov 20 with 1745 views | PinnerPaul |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 11:59 - Nov 20 by paulparker |
the 1st 30 minutes maybe, as we approached the game like a cup game and gave them a going over before they took over and started stretching us with their width
im not knocking smith at all who battled well but the 2nd half the ball kept coming back to us as samba won everything , manning, lynch, scowen baptise were awful and all they did was hoof it either into touch or onto sambas bonce
that 2nd half was back to the dark days of Holloway lumping it to a santos & not knowing what to do |
???????
2nd half he had the half volley just wide after lovely build up play by us and also a free header that went straight to keeper |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 17:53 - Nov 20 with 1714 views | stevec |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 17:28 - Nov 20 by PinnerPaul |
???????
2nd half he had the half volley just wide after lovely build up play by us and also a free header that went straight to keeper |
By and large, Samba was all over him. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 18:19 - Nov 20 with 1670 views | BklynRanger |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 17:53 - Nov 20 by stevec |
By and large, Samba was all over him. |
He's usually all over the people he's marking but not to any useful effect. In that game when John the Kunt went off injured the opposition scored almost immediately after he came on. #bambionicetastic |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 18:38 - Nov 20 with 1640 views | Pommyhoop |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 17:28 - Nov 20 by PinnerPaul |
???????
2nd half he had the half volley just wide after lovely build up play by us and also a free header that went straight to keeper |
That was a peach of a cross from Manning.
Mackie put a beauty straight on his head early doors too. [Post edited 20 Nov 2017 18:38]
|  |
| |
Login to get fewer ads
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 20:39 - Nov 20 with 1502 views | HantsR |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 18:38 - Nov 20 by Pommyhoop |
That was a peach of a cross from Manning.
Mackie put a beauty straight on his head early doors too. [Post edited 20 Nov 2017 18:38]
|
Mackie put so much pace on that 'cross' it was more of a shot and although straight on his head, it would have been a remarkable goal if Smith had scored from it. I thought Smith had a reasonable game, even as you say, in defence. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 20:51 - Nov 20 with 1481 views | flynnbo |
Sylla does chase back but shouldn't have to and is still miles better than the immobile Smith. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 21:11 - Nov 20 with 1453 views | bosh67 |
I think the point people are missing is that we have a squad of decent mid table players that play as well as they can. In a system that sometimes works and then doesn't against teams that know how we play.
That's what we are and that's what we've got. Sadly we are no longer one of the better teams in this division, but we can hope that we hold our own, battles hard and don't drop into trouble. |  |
| |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 21:43 - Nov 20 with 1408 views | Harbour |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 21:11 - Nov 20 by bosh67 |
I think the point people are missing is that we have a squad of decent mid table players that play as well as they can. In a system that sometimes works and then doesn't against teams that know how we play.
That's what we are and that's what we've got. Sadly we are no longer one of the better teams in this division, but we can hope that we hold our own, battles hard and don't drop into trouble. |
Survival in the championship this season and continuing to balance the books will be a good outcome in my opinion. The development of young players continues we have made good signings a mid table finish would be a very good outcome | | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 22:46 - Nov 20 with 1332 views | TacticalR |
Thanks for your knee jerks.
Personally I was quite disappointed, as we started off well and could have got something out of the match, particularly as I didn't think Villa were that impressive. They only got going when they got the penalty.
1. BACK THREE
We can all see it's a mess and now in every game a gap opens up where the wing-back should be. This reminds me of the time when Onuoha was shifted out to right-back and never quite seemed to be in the right position (drifting too far towards the centre or too far forward).
4. CARRYING PLAYERS
Yes, too many had a bad day. The only way we are going to get anything against a side like Villa is if all our players have a good day. The frustrating thing was that we had a half a game of good football in us.
5. SMITH
The only thing I would add is that as he doesn't get that many chances (or we don't create that many for him), he has got to take the chances he does get. [Post edited 20 Nov 2017 22:48]
|  |
| |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Villa 2 on 13:37 - Nov 21 with 1126 views | enfieldargh |
Cousins
We all hope that we have/will see the player who dominated against us for Charlton a season or so back.
So how does he regain fitness if not by playing him? Frustrating but I think he needs game time so if it means carrying him then thats what we have to do.
Play him centre mid tonight might help |  |
| |
| |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
