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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 20:56 - Sep 29 with 3156 viewsAntti_Heinola

Well, come on, five wins in a row was never going to happen was it?

1. RESPECT: Once more, I thought Warburton's comments after the game were pretty much spot on: from the start I felt we paid them too much respect. In fact, I'd go further and say we looked a bit frightened. In a way, I don't blame them. I saw Albion last week and felt that to get anything at all out the game we'd have to score twice, such is our accident-prone defence this season. And we looked like we knew that. We looked terrified of their pace down the wings and their ability to attack quickly on the break. Mix this with the added extras of a place on top of the league and also a game on Sky after getting rave reviews recently, and we felt a bit like a deer in the old headlights.

Against Luton, the passing from the go was magnificent - crisp, incisive, attacking. Against Albion it was tentative, much slower - we were afraid to make a mistake, and because of that, we *did* make mistakes. Kane, Eze, Wells, Cameron - all gave the ball away early on in siutations when really they were not under significant pressure. Wrong decisions were being made, we looked jittery and with each bad pass, only came more jitters and so more bad passing. It was like a cricket match where two players drop catches and suddenly the whole team stiffens and forgets how to field.

However, I also thought that by half time we had calmed down a bit and just before the break twice we could have done better when we got ourselves into good areas. We were well in the game, as we were at the start of the second half, until some very poor defending from the front right to the back allowed the admittedly excellent Ferguson to grab his goal. But, we are a new-ish team against a good side. A side that will be in the play-offs this season at a minimum, unless something drastic happens. A side that can afford to leave expensive striker Zohore on the bench for the whole game. It wasn't an unexpected result, we didn't do ourselves justice, but we must learn from it in the future, have more belief, and know that we can hurt even the better sides in this division.

2. BARBET: I think The Beard is starting to look better in the three at the back, and I actually thought he had one of his best games for us on Saturday. He made some crucial blocks, an excellent one on Austin, and also threw himself into some headers from dangerous crosses. His passing was, as usual, reliably good. On first impressions on Saturday, I was a bit annoyed at his red card challenge. I feel in those siutations you are almost always better off allowing the forward the run - there's no guarantee he'll score and that late in the game, it feels stupid to me to risk a red card and a ban. Rob Green's brainless one against Forest the other year was one of the worst I'd seen (just let him score, FFS), Gary O'Neil in the play-off final a little more understandable in such a big game. But here, I thought it was clumsy. Having seen the replay, though, I have some sympathy for Barb. The Albion striker was undoubtedly, and weirdly, considering he was clean through, looking for a touch as an excuse to go down, it does look accidental at worst, and possibly there was not even a real touch - not enough to send him down, anyway. So, I feel for him a bit. But he can sit out Cardiff, Wallace will get a baptism of fire, and Warbs will have a decision to make next week in the QPR 0 Blackburn 2 (Dack 2) match.

3. CHAIR: I only become a bigger fan of the Moroccan Messi with each passing game. Other than Hugill, who refused to be bullied and worked as hard as he could for very little reward, I thought Chair was our only offensive player who met the challenge as if it were any other game. As usual, he barely gave it away (that boy really takes care of the football), and all our best moves involved him, even if he should have done better when he raced into the box, left two players on their arses, and then failed to find the killer pass or shot just before half time. He didn't have an amazing game, but I thought it was a good sign Warbs noticed his performance and kept him on, having faith in him to play first wide and then off Hugill.

4. LEISTNER: Just a quick word on the BFG. We are all saying how well he's done to et back in the side and play so well, but we do need to keep some clean sheets somewhere. The two on Saturday had little to do with Leistner, however and once more I thought he played very well. The myth that he can't pass seems to have finally faded, which is perhaps the best news. I always think the key to passing from the back is not how good your defenders are at passing, but what options they are given from the players in front of them. That was the main problem last season, and it's much better this season, making it easier for everyone. But mostly he was what he is - a hard as nails centre half making sure Charlie Austin knew exactly where he was at all times with a whole gameful of crunching tackles, that the ref was sometimes too quick to penalise. Glad to have him back, although I thought the back three missed the moderate pace of Hall - Cameron looked slow again to me.

5. AUSTIN: Seemed like a typical early season Charlie performance to me - not quite at full fitness yet. The movement in the box was occasionally there, and he always showed for the ball on Albion attacks, but in truth he was fairly easily dealt with by Leistner. Yes, he still had a couple of good efforts, but he'll do that in almost any game because his movement, willingness to shoot, and accuracy is so good. I was glad at the ovations he received and I'm sure he appreciated it too. I was less impressed by the pathetic booing of Phillips, but that's just me. I agree that sometimes he didn't seem to put in his all, and Clive will no doubt cite the Blackburn away game. But equally, he stood up at times, particularly the end of our relegation season, when others didn't even give the slightest toss. He wasn't a playboy, a drinker or anything. He provided loads of assists, scored some great goals, and we sold him for a profit. I'm really not quite sure how all that justifies a booing, however tongue in cheek it might be.

6. PATIENCE: I don't want to harp on about our fans, but I will a bit. It won't make a blind bit of difference me writing this here, but a bit more patience for a new team would be nice. We won 3 in 23 at the end of last season (or something), we had a huge turnover in personnel and a new manager, we've had a start absolutely no one predicted. And at the game people were getting really quite angry. I had people around me demanding we 'go long' after about 20 minutes of the game because they were so frustrated that we weren't, I dunno, already 2-0 up. We were beaten by a better, stronger, bigger side in a game we deserved to lose, for sure, but not a game in which we were out-classed until, perhaps, we were down to 10 late in the game when Lumley had to pull off some fine saves. And I get back and find, of course, far more messages on here than there were after the Luton game, with a decent portion of them accusing us of being 'awful.'

Now, I'm not saying we were good. But 'awful'? Surely we can just find a bit of moderation, a bit of understanding here? It was 2-0. Two preventable goals, for sure, but it was 2-0 against a side unbeaten in the league this season. Do we need to get better at the back? Yes. Can we play a lot better? Yes. Were we 'awful'? No, come on. 7-1 atb theirs last season was 'awful'. Losing at home in quick succession to teams that would go down weeks later, was awful. It's semantics, I know, but I also think it's worth being a little moderate in our views sometimes. I remember we lost to Norwich 1-0 last season and there was a similar reaction on here. They then went on to walk the league and in retrospect, we actually did ok in that game. This season will not see us challenging for promotion - let's just all understand that. Let's still have high standards, of course, but let's also be reasonable. No one was not trying, no one was not working hard, no one was not caring. We will do better - and, sadly, we'll probably do worse, before this season is out.

Bare bones.

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 21:13 - Sep 29 with 2673 viewsBazzaInTheLoft

Good stuff Antii.

Don't want to be that guy, but in regards to number six it felt like praise has been forced through gritted teeth over the last four games and Albion was an excuse to revert to type for some on LfW at least.

As you say we weren't awful, just frit and a little bit mistake prone. It felt to me that fans left disappointed but not angry on Saturday which shows some maturity and understanding from those that attend regularly. We are overachieving and losses to teams full of premiership talent should be expected.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 21:13 - Sep 29 with 2672 viewsdaveB

On Phillips I had no real issue with him and quite liked him when he played for us, at West Brom last seaaon I am many others warmly applauded his name being read out and were rewarded by him cupping his ear to us several times during the game and generally acting like a prat.

So I had no real issue with the boos he got which was half hearted at best. For me if a player wants a warm reception o his return then leave with the kind of dignity and respect that Furlong and Austin showed who both thoroughly deserved their ovations yesterday

Do agree with the rest of your points though, I thought the Barbet red card was a dive but as soon as he gives the foul he has to send hm off.

Frustrating day, they were a lot better than us and thought they had tactics spot on in shutting down space when we had the ball, Lumley and the back 3 had very few options so Eze & Chair were coming far too deep to receive the ball and then closed down. Fair play to West Brom they did their homework and with the quality they have in the side it was hard for us. It was good to see us keep going though and I did feel we had a goal in us but lacked a bit of self belief.

Not the end of the world though, maybe a slight wake up call as to how good we are
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 00:13 - Sep 30 with 2478 viewsFDC

"5. Austin.... Yes, he still had a couple of good efforts, but he'll do that in almost any game because his movement, willingness to shoot"

Brings back memories, I *loved* the fact Austin used to look to get a shot away at any given opportunity. Can't remember another striker to have had as many attempts at a sniff of a chance for us in recent history, Les maybe?
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 08:39 - Sep 30 with 2245 viewsconnell10

Agree with a lot you say but the scoreline flattered Rangers could have been 5 or 6 if joe didnt make some good saves and we didnt have a shot on target, so for me WBA did outclass us.

AND WHEN I DREAM , I DREAM ABOUT YOU AND WHEN I SCREAM I SCREAM ABOUT YOU!!!!!
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 09:21 - Sep 30 with 2190 viewsrobith

Re: Phillips, a man who I supported through thick and thin whilst he earned astronomical wealth despite phoning it in at one point turned unprompted to the paddocks and shouted "what's the score" at us.

Absolute melt
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 09:35 - Sep 30 with 2164 viewsdavman

Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 00:13 - Sep 30 by FDC

"5. Austin.... Yes, he still had a couple of good efforts, but he'll do that in almost any game because his movement, willingness to shoot"

Brings back memories, I *loved* the fact Austin used to look to get a shot away at any given opportunity. Can't remember another striker to have had as many attempts at a sniff of a chance for us in recent history, Les maybe?


Nah. Les was a Finisher and the best I have seen. It was about getting quality finishes off with him, not playing the percentage game. Loved Charlie, but no-one in the last twenty years has got anywhere near Sir Les for me...

Can we go out yet?
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 09:51 - Sep 30 with 2146 viewsenfieldargh

as for people calling to go long did you see the size of their 2 centre backs. Made BFG look like Chair. They were athletic as well and playing it long would mean sending high balls to Hugill was is at least 5 inches shorter than these two.

The only way WBA will loose matches is if they become complacent, they will get better and have more resources player wise than most.

As for us I also felt there was a little lack of belief from our guys, but hopefully they will learn from this.

Great NJ's as always

captains fantastic
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 10:11 - Sep 30 with 2110 viewsloftus77

Thanks Antti — agree with all of that.

No ‘problem’ — in losing to West Brom; a shame but totally expected against a team patently wealthier and stronger then we are. ATM.

Every ‘problem’ — if we allow such a defeat to turn into a tail-spin resulting in defeats to Blackburn, Reading etc (the teams that ‘matter’). This, in a nutshell, is what this season depends on.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 10:40 - Sep 30 with 2069 viewsDorse

We have got a lot right this season: tactical flexibility, attacking intent, prepared to take risks away from home, making full use of the squad etc. The route from U23 to First Team is open and there are exciting prospects coming through. It's a good time to be a QPR fan.

We lost against a team that was better than us. Compare that to last season when we regularly lost to teams that were clearly worse than us! Rotherham? Seriously?

I wanted us to win and honestly thought we had a chance but they had worked us out and beat us. At some point, we will play better than this and still lose! Things are so much better than last season. We're disappointed not to go top, for Pete's sake! Compare that to us being disappointed we missed out on going 16th. I know which one I'd rather be.

'What do we want? We don't know! When do we want it? Now!'

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 11:08 - Sep 30 with 2023 views1MoreBrightonR

Completely agree on no.6. as i left the ground and looked at some of the comments online, i was really surprised by the 'awful' comments. We werent great but some of them were way over the top given who we were playing against, and no, im not normally one of the happy clappers!
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 11:26 - Sep 30 with 1992 viewsCamberleyR

Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 10:11 - Sep 30 by loftus77

Thanks Antti — agree with all of that.

No ‘problem’ — in losing to West Brom; a shame but totally expected against a team patently wealthier and stronger then we are. ATM.

Every ‘problem’ — if we allow such a defeat to turn into a tail-spin resulting in defeats to Blackburn, Reading etc (the teams that ‘matter’). This, in a nutshell, is what this season depends on.


Disappointing though the result was, I would take losing to West Brom if we could get our first home win in 26 years and 10 games against Blackburn next Saturday. It really boils my piss that we can't seem to beat them, especially at home.

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 11:31 - Sep 30 with 1980 viewsjonno

Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 09:21 - Sep 30 by robith

Re: Phillips, a man who I supported through thick and thin whilst he earned astronomical wealth despite phoning it in at one point turned unprompted to the paddocks and shouted "what's the score" at us.

Absolute melt


Phillips has always been a t*at in my opinion. He can be a decent player but is lazy and with us stopped bothering a long time before he left, a point I made on here regularly at the time. Agree with pretty much all of Antti's other points though. No surprise to me that we lost - I predicted as much before the game - because WBA have better quality players than we do currently. The hope is that we'll improve as we progress through the season and I think under MW that is likely. Meanwhile we need to keep supporting the team and not slag them off for defeats against obviously superior teams.
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(No subject) (n/t) on 11:37 - Sep 30 with 1977 viewsBazzaInTheLoft

Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 00:13 - Sep 30 by FDC

"5. Austin.... Yes, he still had a couple of good efforts, but he'll do that in almost any game because his movement, willingness to shoot"

Brings back memories, I *loved* the fact Austin used to look to get a shot away at any given opportunity. Can't remember another striker to have had as many attempts at a sniff of a chance for us in recent history, Les maybe?


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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 11:58 - Sep 30 with 1946 viewsAntti_Heinola

Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 11:26 - Sep 30 by CamberleyR

Disappointing though the result was, I would take losing to West Brom if we could get our first home win in 26 years and 10 games against Blackburn next Saturday. It really boils my piss that we can't seem to beat them, especially at home.


Has it been that long? 1-0, wasn't it, an own goal, that I swear Les scored.
Walked out of the Loft that day and it was the one and only time I have ever felt that we could win the top division. We were that good around then.

Bare bones.

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 12:11 - Sep 30 with 1928 viewsCamberleyR

Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 11:58 - Sep 30 by Antti_Heinola

Has it been that long? 1-0, wasn't it, an own goal, that I swear Les scored.
Walked out of the Loft that day and it was the one and only time I have ever felt that we could win the top division. We were that good around then.


Yeah, an OG credited to Hendry but like you I thought it was Les's. As you say, at that point that season we were irresistible, Les and Ray were on fire (reminiscent of Gerry and Stan), we'd just outplayed Newcastle at SJP and thrashed Cov 5-1. The following week after the Blackburn game we destroyed Everton at Goodison for the second season running. And then the wheels started to come off at Swindon...

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 12:26 - Sep 30 with 1910 viewsCiderwithRsie

I see both sides of this.

If we'd won we'd be top of the table today. I can understand why people would get ratty at seeing us 2nd best from the get-go, at home, when that was on offer. In some ways it's good fans think we should be beating WBA

OTOH we're way ahead of where we thought we'd be, in the season that I'm told is the toughest one for us under FFP. We aren't in a rush to get promoted before parachute payments end, some of us are in two minds about whether we even want to be in the Premier. We've got time and common sense says a new manager and team need it.

We should be setting our sights high but should be building for next season IMO - anything sooner is a bonus.

(Though shouting to "go long" with the team we've got is bloody stupid)
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 12:47 - Sep 30 with 1872 viewsCamberleyR

Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 12:26 - Sep 30 by CiderwithRsie

I see both sides of this.

If we'd won we'd be top of the table today. I can understand why people would get ratty at seeing us 2nd best from the get-go, at home, when that was on offer. In some ways it's good fans think we should be beating WBA

OTOH we're way ahead of where we thought we'd be, in the season that I'm told is the toughest one for us under FFP. We aren't in a rush to get promoted before parachute payments end, some of us are in two minds about whether we even want to be in the Premier. We've got time and common sense says a new manager and team need it.

We should be setting our sights high but should be building for next season IMO - anything sooner is a bonus.

(Though shouting to "go long" with the team we've got is bloody stupid)


Don't want to be the bearer of bad news but the parachute payments have already finished. Last season was the last the of four seasons we got them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_League_parachute_and_solidarity_payments#P

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 13:41 - Sep 30 with 1787 viewsPinnerPaul

Can't agree with the Barbet challenge.

Look again - its a trick professionals use all the time.

No he might not have deliberately tripped him (not that it has to deliberate to be a foul) but he did make sure he was running close enough behind to ensure there would probably be contact. He actually looks down before the contact if you look at the highlights.

and sorry, definite contact there.

BTW I thought you were saying no more about Mr Phillips - told you he would get booooooooooed!
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 15:52 - Sep 30 with 1669 viewsCiderwithRsie

Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 12:47 - Sep 30 by CamberleyR

Don't want to be the bearer of bad news but the parachute payments have already finished. Last season was the last the of four seasons we got them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_League_parachute_and_solidarity_payments#P


Exactly my point - they aren't running out, they already have done. So financially we aren't going to be any worse off next year and there's no special rush to get promoted before the excrement hits the rotating blades. In fact we should be better off next year as we'll be past the worst of the FFP restrictions.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 15:58 - Sep 30 with 1656 viewskensalriser

First game this season so not much to benchmark against, but little to disagree with here. I thought we did OK and felt the game was heading for a 0-0 until the usual error in giving away the first goal. They were just a bit too good for us and had done their homework in how to nullify our attacking threat.

Overall we just look so much more competitive this year and I'm happy enough with that.

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 16:21 - Sep 30 with 1630 viewsCamberleyR

Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 15:52 - Sep 30 by CiderwithRsie

Exactly my point - they aren't running out, they already have done. So financially we aren't going to be any worse off next year and there's no special rush to get promoted before the excrement hits the rotating blades. In fact we should be better off next year as we'll be past the worst of the FFP restrictions.


Fair enough CWR, just re-read your post and can now see the point you were trying to make.


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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 18:04 - Sep 30 with 1501 viewsWren67

Thanks for an excellent report Antti although I didnt see a WBA that were that much better than us on the day bearing in mind the 2 goals were soft.

Agree we were nervous, indecisive and paid WBA too much respect. We failed to move the ball around as quickly as were have done in previous games. In fact both teams appeared early on to be wary and cautious of each other, possibly because both have failed to achieve a clean sheet so far this season and both aware too that the other could score goals.

I found this a frustrating game because it looked like we lost belief and ran out of ideas when pressed.

I am not too despondent though, we are much better than last year and better than I thought we were going to be.

On Leinstner, he has been a real stalwart in defence this season, he is commanding in defence, his heading outstanding, his short and long passing accurate and now he carries the ball with manace (although he failed to shoot twice on saturday after good runs), so I really can't understand why we continue to concede soft goals.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 22:22 - Sep 30 with 1349 viewsLblock

Sorry but I just don’t buy this agenda that a noticeable number of fans are spoilt brats who are quick to moan
Now I can be one of the worse and a bit reactionary but everyone is entitled to call it as they see it. I wasn’t at the game but within my circle I’ve seen “awful” stated through to “just not at their level”
I think it was probably a mixture of lots of views.... and true enough we’ll have all sorts of performances this season

Cmon u R’s

Cherish and enjoy life.... this ain't no dress rehearsal

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 00:18 - Oct 1 with 1260 viewsJAPRANGERS

Thanks Antti, excellent analysis. I really enjoy reading your well written opinions on matches! Please continue!
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Albion 2 on 13:39 - Oct 1 with 1048 viewsBenny_the_Ball

Thanks, Antti; very enjoyable. Bit surprised Furlong didn't get a mention. He's grabbed his opportunity with both hands and doesn't look out of place in a very good West Brom side.
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