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Comment | Kingmakers (again) – Preview
at 12:28:46
Thanks for your (final) preview and all your other previews and reports this season.
I think I'm with you on Stéphan. His bureaucratic air reminds me of the old French énarques like Valéry Giscard d'Estain. I hope the amount of goals we let in just after half-time is not related to the uninspiring nature of his half-time talks.
Hopefully someone will try and find out the root cause of all the injuries. I felt our season was pretty much over when Burrell got injured, as we were so wedded to balls over the top, but as you point out we have a lot other frailties (defence, midfield, goalkeeper) that were there all along. |
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Comment | Anatomy of a season – Report
at 12:03:10
Thanks for your report.
We started off well, hammering Derby's goal, and Vale put us in the lead. The impressive thing about Kone's goal was that because he is hard to shove off the ball he was able to score when surrounded by opposition players (although it wasn't pretty).
However, if you can't make it count when you're ahead then there is always the danger (some might say the certainty) that you will get caught out later in the game, particularly with our defensive frailties. |
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Comment | Madsen’s rich redemption, Stéphan’s words of warning – Preview
at 13:46:21
Thanks for your preview.
That makes sense about cultivating young fans, especially when we have so many rivals on our doorstep.
The Madsen story is a complete turnaround. In fact we are very dependent on him. Two of the biggest blows this season were losing Burrell and losing Madsen.
Eustace is gradually improving Derby, but they aren't world-beaters. Can we raise ourselves from our lethargy? |
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Comment | Eustace has Rams back on the right road – Oppo Profile
at 13:13:43
Thanks to Ollie.
It sounds like Eustace is systematically improving the squad, which is reflected in Derby's improved position in the table. It also sounds like getting into the playoffs would have been self-defeating as Derby's record against the better teams is so poor. |
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Comment | Cook bows out in defeat as QPR stutter against Swans – Report
at 12:59:07
Thanks for your report.
An absolutely calamitous start to the game with Cook and Norrington-Davies knocking over each other over (after all the good things you had said about Cook in your preview). I don't think the 'penalty' had much influence on the game as we couldn't get going, even after changing so many players.
Yes, we can't keep the ball. Swansea had players available for passes, we didn't. Instead we rely on long balls and badly judged long passes (as Hoopstar mentioned the first goal came from Adamson's long pass getting intercepted). |
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Comment | 100 and out – Preview
at 18:41:37
Thanks for your preview.
A great tribute. It's very true that we like the flair players, so the pros can easily get overlooked. It's funny how over recent years that, despite our many bad buys, we have had good luck with pros like Cook, Ryan Nelsen, Richard Dunne and Sean Derry.
Someone once said that really good defenders don't need that much pace as they can see the problems coming. Cook's nous has covered up a multitude of problems during a period of everchanging managers. |
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Comment | QPR’s familiar tale of woe at the Wall – Report
at 17:46:18
Thanks for your report.
In boxing once you get knocked out it's over. We got knocked out by Millwall in 20 minutes, but unfortunately in football you have to play on for another 70 minutes.
Yes, a lot of player had bad games. Yes, we really missed Dunne - I felt quite sorry for Edwards when got caught between two giants (he managed to head the ball over).
To be fair to the other London clubs, they have done everything they can to help us out by skedaddling to the Premier League. I see Bromley are currently top of League Two. Surely it's only a matter of time before they whizz past us? |
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Comment | On the move – Preview
at 11:12:32
Thanks for your preview.
Thanks also for the cons of the stadium move. Definitely not a silver bullet. To be honest, because the debate has been going on for so long, and because the last new stadium move iteration with Fernandes and Beard turned into such a non-event, I am having trouble getting worked about it this time around.
On the pitch, I wonder if we can take advantage of Millwall's wobble (even if we have lost momentum since the Watford game)? |
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Comment | A long time between drinks – Oppo Profile
at 10:32:13
Thanks to Lucas and William.
We are all curious as to how Millwall have done it. It sounds like a lot of things have gone right this season. One thing that is noticeable is that Millwall's season has been built on defence rather than blowing teams away. |
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Comment | Stats magic – Preview
at 14:04:56
Thanks for your preview.
Those jumps from 0-0 draws to high scoring games are not that strange in the context of QPR's last 10 years...there have been many managers who have struggled to find the balance between defence and attack (fix one problem and the other one comes back). Having said that, going from losing four games without scoring to winning two games scoring nine goals seems a bit more random, the key factor (apart from playing two relegation-threatened sides) being benching Varane and Saito.
I wonder which Watford we are going to play? Their season seems even more chaotic than ours. |
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Comment | Portsmouth hit for six in QPR’s bizarre numberwang – Report
at 14:46:15
Thanks for your report.
Yes, we can most certainly enjoy it, even if we have an uneasy feeling that this result wasn't quite what it appeared. One of the keys to the result was how many of our shots went into the corners of the net - this is what happened to us away at Coventry. Having said that, Schmid looked like he was on some sort of sleep medication.
Agree with Smyth as Star Man - he got us going with that first goal (and the Portsmouth oppo fan had told us that the first goal would be key). It was interesting seeing his speed applied in a roving role in front of goal instead of on the wing. Whether he can do that against better teams remains to be seen. Good to see Kolli and Kone take their chances too. And all this with so many first-choice players injured. Making Saito and Varane take a back seat seems to have paid off.
One of the threads on the forum this week was entitled: 'The only team with literally nothing to play for'. Without wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I really hope we don't just play well when we have nothing to play for. |
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Comment | Dream a little dream – Preview
at 21:34:28
Thanks for your preview.
That 'sideways and backwards' song is quite good, and seems to have worked at Leicester. QPR have been a hard watch for much of this season. Perhaps the difference this season is that at times we looked as though we might get going, whereas in previous seasons (post-Warburton) our backs were against the wall the whole time. It also seemed like we had lucked into finding a manager who suited us (Cifuentes) and then he was defenestrated. Then Dunne confessed last week that some of the players didn't know what they were supposed to be doing. One of the biggest dangers of 'the plan' seems to be that supposedly saleable players who are hopelessly off-form, such as Varane, will continue to be played. It's not surprising doubts are beginning to creep in about 'the plan'. At least we can play out the rest of the season without being in panic mode.
Portsmouth seem to have a lot of the same problems we do. From what the Portsmouth fan said in the oppo interview, this sounds like another game where the first goal could be crucial. |
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Comment | Back from the brink – Report
at 20:24:53
Thanks for your report.
A game between two fragile sides low on confidence, which could have gone either way. In the end it was Leicester who fell apart.
Our first goal was scored from Edwards' Hail Mary pass - the kind of goal we were scoring when Burrell was around. After that Leicester started to crumble. Is Ben Nelson a QPR fan? He gave us two goals in this game and an assist in the home game.
Vale is very inconsistent but agree that he was Star Man in this game. Edwards looked very good too.
Anyway, a much needed result which will settle nerves for the rest of the season. |
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Comment | That time of year – Preview
at 13:53:39
Thanks for your preview.
I was quite concerned by Dunne's comments about the players not knowing what they are doing. Is our methodology that complicated? The one thing that people never understand is that it's easy to create something complicated, hard to create something simple. As mentioned previously, despite all the talk of methodology I feel we are a patchwork side, with an odd mix of players and lacking an overall style and ethos.
Yes, the all power to Nourry model doesn't make sense. Perhaps he believes himself to be a Silicon Valley-style 'disruptor', or perhaps he believes you get stupider as you get older. Getting rid of anyone with a connection to the previous regime is a bad sign.
The strange thing is that Nourry & co do seem to be able to identify the problems, just as Fernandes identified the problem of needing a new ground. There was a business book written in the 1990s called 'The Knowing-Doing Gap'. The authors found that many organisations knew what their problems were as they had commissioned numerous reports from management consultants on the problems, but had difficulty implementing the necessary actions to fix those problems: they knew what they needed to do but just couldn't do it.
Given that we are on another of these bad runs we have to dig ourselves out one way or another. A goal would be a good place to start. |
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Comment | Rowett charged with rescuing Foxes from self-inflicted disaster - Oppo Profile
at 22:11:53
Thanks to Ian.
Quite incredible where Leicester are now, even compared to a few years ago. It sounds like Cifuentes couldn't stem the tide, which is a shame, as I think his inclination is towards attacking football. Maybe Rowett's pragmatism is more suited to the situation - he seems to do well with teams in the lower half of the Championship. |
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Comment | Blues pile on the misery as Stéphan brands shot-shy R’s “embarrassing” – Report
at 21:51:12
Thanks for your report. QPR have been flogging you for three-quarters of the season so it's not surprising it's catching up with you.
A terrible first half where we failed at every level. The only saving grace was that we only let in one goal and were a bit better in the second half.
Varane. Yes, the flaw in the development model is if anyone actually sees him play. In fact it looks like we are employing the regression model where we buy players and they get worse every week. |
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