| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site 16:43 - Sep 22 with 2961 views | kernowhoop |
QPR Tactical Review: Everton dominated and defeated
Championship against Premier League. Which one was which?
QPR have averaged an impressive 59% possession this season and managed to better this against their Premier League opponents on Tuesday night.
This leads me onto those who are meant to control the game and dictate tempo, the two central midfielders. Andre Gomes and Tom Davies completed just two tackles between them. If you compare this to our last game against Villa for example, Doucoure and Allan made ten between them. They also made just one interception between them and committed four fouls. They allowed the game to simply bypass them, taking no control and showing very little willingness to make a challenge. This was epitomised by one of the QPR goals, where the winger cuts inside with ease, nutmegging Davies who was made to look extremely silly. Chris Willock, a central player, completed 5 dribbles. He looked like a cut above any Everton midfielder and controlled the game for them.
Defensively, especially in the first half we looked extremely vulnerable. Neither Mason Holgate or Ben Godfrey looked comfortable dealing with the presence of striker Charlie Austin. The QPR man won nine aerial duels during the match, with the Everton centre half pairing only winning three between them. He bullied them all game and was the difference for the home side with two headed goals. This situation wasn’t helped by Everton being poor positionally in wide areas. QPR produced 16 crosses and it took Everton an awful long time to realise this was their main threat. We seemed happy to let them get the ball wide and were very slow to press and allowed them to get the crosses into the box. Holgate and Godfrey, even before tonight, have both shown vulnerability in the air and stopping crosses into the box would have been key to getting a victory.
QPR clearly knew which side was Everton’s weakest, with 44% of their attacks coming down Jonjoe Kenny’s side. As you can see in the image above, Chris Willock, who attempted 8 dribbles with 5 successful, really targeted that left hand side himself, despite being a more central player. Both QPR goals came from crosses from this side and Kenny looked completely out of his depth, not for the first time in an Everton shirt. The home side, who loved to play out from the back, showed their intent to play through their left hand side even starting from the goalkeeper. This was shown, by their left side centre back, touching the ball a huge 109 times and making 93 passes. Significantly more than any other player on the pitch.
It was another difficult night for new striker Salomon Rondon. He only managed to touch the ball 23 times, the least out of all the players who started the game. When he did touch it, it wasn’t much use either. He only completed 12 passes when he received the ball. He also lost possession 3 of those times with an additional 2 unsuccessful touches. One slight positive is he won his fair share of aerial duels, winning 6, more than any of his central defender opponents.
Another positive from the game, was our two wide players. Anthony Gordon and Andros Townsend were two shining lights in what was a very dark and gloomy performance. Gordon completed 4 key passes, more than anyone on the pitch. He developed a great understanding with Lucas Digne during the game and was working extremely hard off the ball to make runs and track opposition attackers. Townsend, who has impressed many Evertonians since signing on a free transfer, had another exceptional game. He setup the first goal, scored the second and was working so hard for the team on and off the ball. He delivered 8 crosses, more than anyone else on the pitch. Unfortunately, due to the lack of movement from the forwards none of these were successful. He also had the most shots for Everton, made 2 interceptions and completed 2 key passes. Andros is probably Rafa’s first name on the team sheet at the moment and I’m sure he wishes he had one or two more of him to play at the weekend.
Huge credit to Queens Park Rangers, by the way. They seem to have a real identity of how they want to play and made Everton look like the Championship team. They have a mixture of real talent and old school players and I expect them to do well this season. Willock, Chair and Austin had great games and gave the Everton side real problems all game.
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| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 16:48 - Sep 22 with 2908 views | londonscottish |
Thanks, good read.
Interesting to see how Everton fans saw it and some great stats in there. |  |
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| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 16:50 - Sep 22 with 2891 views | BrianMcCarthy |
Thanks for that, kernow.
That seems very fair to me. |  |
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| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 17:03 - Sep 22 with 2797 views | EastR |
I like the implied criticism of our floodlights:
Anthony Gordon and Andros Townsend were 'two shining lights in what was a very dark and gloomy performance' | |
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| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 19:54 - Sep 22 with 2434 views | davman |
| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 17:03 - Sep 22 by EastR |
I like the implied criticism of our floodlights:
Anthony Gordon and Andros Townsend were 'two shining lights in what was a very dark and gloomy performance' |
teehee!
Stats may not be our cup of tea, but on this occasion, they probably confirm what we thought. Townsend and Gordon were their best players by far and Holgate, Godfrey, Rondon and Davies were very, very poor.
Nice to get some plaudits... |  |
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| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 20:12 - Sep 22 with 2351 views | BrianMcCarthy |
| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 19:54 - Sep 22 by davman |
teehee!
Stats may not be our cup of tea, but on this occasion, they probably confirm what we thought. Townsend and Gordon were their best players by far and Holgate, Godfrey, Rondon and Davies were very, very poor.
Nice to get some plaudits... |
Godfrey had a bad, bad, night.
He lost tackles, lost aerial duals, lacked strength, sat off, got bullied. I made him a target all night - if Austin would've been taken off fir a rest I'd have hoped we'd sit Dykes on him.
And then he missed his peno. And I really felt for him. It was one of those nights that could really set a career back. | |
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| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 20:30 - Sep 22 with 2259 views | Boston |
| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 20:12 - Sep 22 by BrianMcCarthy |
Godfrey had a bad, bad, night.
He lost tackles, lost aerial duals, lacked strength, sat off, got bullied. I made him a target all night - if Austin would've been taken off fir a rest I'd have hoped we'd sit Dykes on him.
And then he missed his peno. And I really felt for him. It was one of those nights that could really set a career back. |
I thought Godfrey should have retired years ago.
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| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 20:49 - Sep 22 with 2163 views | VancouverHoop |
| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 16:48 - Sep 22 by londonscottish |
Thanks, good read.
Interesting to see how Everton fans saw it and some great stats in there. |
Yeah. Interesting how many touches and passes Sam McCallum had. Or was that Barbet? [Post edited 22 Sep 2021 20:51]
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| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 21:44 - Sep 22 with 1985 views | nix |
| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 20:49 - Sep 22 by VancouverHoop |
Yeah. Interesting how many touches and passes Sam McCallum had. Or was that Barbet? [Post edited 22 Sep 2021 20:51]
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It was Barbet.
Based on SofaScore stats:
He had 6 clearances, 3 blocked shots, 4 interceptions and 1 tackle!
He touched the ball 110 times and had nearly 87% accurate passes. 8 out of 13 long balls from him were on target.
Pretty impressive. |  | | |
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| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 22:05 - Sep 22 with 1891 views | BklynRanger |
Has the change in formation helped anyone more than Barbet? He seems to have gone from a decent passer prone to the regular wobble or three to a fully integrated colossus. Mad. |  | | |
| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 22:19 - Sep 22 with 1781 views | WestbourneR |
In my opinion Holgate is very very good.
But as a fullback. He’s no centre back. If his career is on a downward trajectory as it appears to be then I hope we look to pick him up |  |
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| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 23:14 - Sep 22 with 1570 views | kensalriser |
Excellent summary. Although Digne was causing us problems I thought Townsend was easily their best player. We would have won comfortably had he not been on the pitch. |  |
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| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 23:18 - Sep 22 with 1562 views | DavieQPR |
| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 20:12 - Sep 22 by BrianMcCarthy |
Godfrey had a bad, bad, night.
He lost tackles, lost aerial duals, lacked strength, sat off, got bullied. I made him a target all night - if Austin would've been taken off fir a rest I'd have hoped we'd sit Dykes on him.
And then he missed his peno. And I really felt for him. It was one of those nights that could really set a career back. |
So did the Ref and gave him a second chance. |  | | |
| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 23:40 - Sep 22 with 1499 views | ManinBlack |
Watching Kevin Phillips on Quest I was surprised that he felt Everton didn't play a stronger team. I thought Coleman, Richarlison and Calvin-Philips are all injured. Four of the players left out from the Villa game sat on the bench and most did come on.
Naturally no acknowledgement of our absentees thereby giving the impression we were at full strength. There seems to be an ignorance of clubs players outside of the Premiership. |  | | |
| From the 'Royal Blue Mersey' site on 23:53 - Sep 22 with 1478 views | Loftgirl |
Hollow article. It doesn't mention our xG rating.  |  | | |
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