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Reply | Complacency.....
at 11:05 7 Apr 2024
Yesterday really hammered home that despite all the improvements we’ve seen, this squad still has massive issues with mentality and consistency.
Relegation six-pointer against a niggly, physical team, in front of a packed Loftus Road, with expectations high and the pressure on? They just don’t want to know. As this group of players have shown us time and time again, they’re not brave enough when things get tough, and always far too willing to let someone else shoulder the responsibility.
How many times over the last few years have we sat through that exact match? No tempo, no movement, nobody willing to risk anything, nobody prepared to match our opponents physically, get in the ref’s ear, make something happen, and ultimately outfought by a team more willing and able than us to get their hands dirty. |
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Reply | Armstrong New Contract ?
at 10:01 7 Apr 2024
It’s painfully clear that he’s not up to Championship standard yet, but we’ve messed up his development by having to rely on him too much this season because there are no other strikers at the club.
He’s still young, with excellent raw attributes and potentially a very high ceiling, but he’s skipped several stages in his development. He should have been on a L2 loan this season, L1 next, then try to make the step up to Championship.
Hopefully we stay up, FFP headroom allows us to bring in a striker or two so Sincs and Kolli can go on loan. But I wouldn’t be giving up on him yet, or judging him too harshly given what a basket case we’ve been as a club. |
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Reply | The referee was bloody awful.
at 09:51 7 Apr 2024
It was clear from the off that he was willing to let stuff go, so we should have got wise to that and matched Wednesday physically. As much as we’ve improved we’re still a bit soft and meek, I think.
But he also wasn’t entirely consistent: there was a moment when Sinclair went into someone from behind but led with his shoulder: whistle goes, foul, fair enough. Two minutes later one of their players does exactly the same thing and it’s waved on.
I thought we had a number of borderline free kicks go against us, but that they probably should have had a penalty, so I guess it evens out, and we were far from good enough regardless, but yeah he contributed to making an already poor spectacle even less enjoyable. |
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Reply | Hayden Article
at 20:12 2 Apr 2024
From his first interview, where he talked about players taking responsibility and being up for a relegation scrap, it feels like he's brought exactly the right energy to everything he's done, as well as delivering some very solid performances. The right sort, as they say.
I don't think bringing him back in the summer sounds particularly realistic - he's already taken a pay cut to be here, has two years left on his contract, will be on Premier League wages, is approaching 30 so will have zero sell-on value even if it works out, and we've already had our fingers burned in exactly the same situation with Johansen - but the approach he's shown over the last couple of months is exactly what we've needed.
Whoever's playing for us next season, and whatever league we're in, the example set by Hayden (and others like Cook) should be a marker from the club for for every other player in the squad. |
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Reply | High noon for Lowe and co… a QPR match thread
at 14:20 1 Apr 2024
Not overly optimistic given that lineup but in Marti we trust. I’m assuming Paal’s injured if he’s not even on the bench, and Fox over Larkeche makes sense. Surprised to see Hayden in the squad - he’ll be missed but hopefully we get the better version we’ve seen of Colback recently, not the braindead one from earlier in the season. Rotating Willock, Anderson and Frey seems smart, just hope their replacements can step up - Hodge in particular, who started so brightly with us but has seemed to go off the boil a bit.
Feels like we’re set up to press aggressively and keep it tight, going for a 1-1 draw. [Post edited 1 Apr 14:21]
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Reply | VAR. No thanks.
at 12:48 1 Apr 2024
DRS is great because it gives accurate answers to objective yes / no questions. Did the ball clip the bat? Did it hit the pads in line with the stumps? Did the bowler over-step?
Part of the problem with VAR is that it’s used to decide much more open-ended and subjective questions - whether someone’s arm is in a “natural” or “unnatural” position, whether a challenge is “reckless” or merely “careless”, or even whether a ref’s error is “clear and obvious”.
Those incidents are always going to be inconsistent, with differing views on how to interpret the rules, so applying VAR to them solves nothing and often makes things worse. I mean, you only need to look at that Antony Gordon / Kalvin Phillips penalty shout from the weekend, or the red card in the PSG game, for incidents where VAR is just fundamentally incapable of revealing a “correct” decision.
The other thing that DRS gets right is proportionality: it’s only used when requested, and it leaves marginal decisions unchanged, even if they’re technically incorrect by a millimetre or two (e.g. “umpire’s call” on LBW decisions). It doesn’t try to be perfect or cover ever single incident.
VAR is never going to be perfect either. I genuinely think if you limited it during games, both in terms of how often it’s used and what it covers (i.e. no more stupid handball reviews, and have it only triggered by a team’s limited number of appeals), as well as agreeing that marginal decisions stay with whatever the original on-field decision was, instead of chalking off goals because one armpit hair was offside, then it would slightly more bearable, at least. [Post edited 1 Apr 14:28]
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Reply | VAR. No thanks.
at 12:33 1 Apr 2024
Change it to having the captain request it from the ref, then, and make it a rule that you can’t show replays in the stadium until after the VAR review window has expired. I’m sure teams will try to game the system but there’s ways around it. |
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Reply | VAR. No thanks.
at 16:46 31 Mar 2024
VAR would be fine if the implementation wasn’t so shockingly bad. Nobody complains about goal-line tech because it’s quick, clear and objective. You might eventually get instant & 100% accurate offside decisions but there’ll always be grey areas for the rest. Cricket-style appeals (communicated properly in the stadium) would help deal with the massive clangers without ruining the flow of the game, but there’s no way football administrators will admit they’ve messed the whole thing up. |
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Reply | The Black Cats vs Jude the Cat Match Thread
at 17:07 16 Mar 2024
Awful game, with two poor teams playing disjointed, unattractive football. Feels like two points dropped, if only for that Willock chance a few minutes from the end: ten yards out, unmarked, keeper out of position, he absolutely has to score.
Positives: thought we looked solid and well-organised defensively, Sunderland had plenty of the ball but barely forced Begovic to make a save, Andersen was good until he was subbed and Armstrong caused them loads of problems when he came on. A point away here would be, in most other circumstances, a decent result.
Negatives: Armstrong aside we're painfully slow and predictable in attack, and constantly incapable of finding the right final ball or finish. Getting goals out of this team is torture, even against opponents as poor as Sunderland were today.
This is the first of a run of games against teams in appalling form and / or in the relegation mire with us. If that's what we bring to our next four fixtures, we're going to be serious trouble. |
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Reply | The Black Cats vs Jude the Cat Match Thread
at 12:41 16 Mar 2024
Feeling very nervous about this one: it’s the sort of winnable game against gettable opponents that we’ve become experts in ballsing up.
But the Rotherham win a few weeks back does give me a bit of hope that we’re learning to knuckle down and grind out a result, rather than automatically folding under the weight of expectation.
Sunderland have 12 players out, they’re on an awful run of form, and seem even more mentally fragile than us, which is saying something. If we’re going to stay up, these are the games we have to win.
2-1 to the hoops, Frey and Willock to score. [Post edited 16 Mar 12:42]
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Reply | Michael Gove again
at 13:48 29 Feb 2024
"We must defend plurality of thought and expression"
[30 seconds later]
"The Palestinian flag should be banned"
At least the first team squad's no longer the least consistent thing around here, I guess. |
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Reply | Sliding doors moments
at 12:45 23 Feb 2024
The only one I remember is wanting Routledge on a permanent transfer. Imagine how much better off we'd have been with him instead of Wright-Phillips. |
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Reply | Jimmy Dunne at RB - yay or indeed nay?
at 10:29 18 Feb 2024
Not entirely sure about this. We played half the Warnock promotion season with Kyle Walker as our second best attacking player, behind only Adel, bombing forward from right back. |
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Reply | Delia Smith's extra thick stuffing - QPR vs Norwich Match Thread
at 14:04 10 Feb 2024
Posted the lineup, then realised it was a Spackman.
Sinclair ahead of Dykes is a big call, but entirely justified given their respective recent form. Amazing how much difference those four new signings make to the quality of our lineup.
[Post edited 10 Feb 14:08]
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Reply | Ilias
at 10:20 7 Feb 2024
Of course clubs are going to take the piss, it’s been clear for ages that we’re broke. You don’t pay RRP for stuff you’re buying at a bankruptcy auction.
Getting this stuff right takes years: you sell Darnell Furlong for £1.5m, then Like Freeman for £5m, then Eze for £20m, then - once you’ve shown that your players are worth paying for, but that you’re solvent enough to hold out for a decent price for them - you can maybe demand £15m for Ilias Chair / Chris Willock / Rob Dickie.
What you can’t do is derail the process at the first sign of success, cripple yourself financially, let the squad regress to the point of becoming relegation fodder, then act surprised when people come in with pisstake bids in full knowledge that a.) your players are rubbish and b.) you’re in desperate need of cash
Obviously £4m for Chair is absurd, but this is the situation we’ve created for ourselves. |
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Reply | Hoops vs Udders - Match thread
at 15:05 28 Jan 2024
Sums this squad up that there’s a blatant yellow card for the foul on Field,and not a single one of our players is bothered enough to have a word with the ref and tell him he’s bottled it. No fight, no aggression. |
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Reply | Hoops vs Udders - Match thread
at 14:28 28 Jan 2024
Not a match for the purists, this one: scrappy, attritional, both teams clearly nervous and not very good. First goal is going to be absolutely crucial.
I’d get Smyth on asap, Willock’s offering nothing and we’ve got nobody else with enough pace to support Sinclair. Dykes and Colback both need to impose themselves more, been far too anonymous so far. Set pieces woeful once again.
On the other hand, Sinclair looks like a handful and has his defender on a yellow, and JCS is looking very decent at the back, one really great block in particular. No reason we can’t go on and win this, just need the players to show up second half. |
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Reply | Match Thread vs the M team
at 20:13 20 Jan 2024
Didn't watch the game, but never been happier to be proved wrong. Sounds like exactly the sort of performance we needed - gritty, determined, organised. We all know the shortcomings of this squad, but if they bring that attitude to games consistently then they'll have a chance. Huddersfield game feels absolutely massive now. |
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Reply | Match Thread vs the M team
at 14:14 20 Jan 2024
About the best we can do in terms of lineup, and Cook returning should hopefully give us a bit more mettle, but our problems go so much deeper than just picking a starting 11.
There are too many ways to score against us, too few ways for us to score, and too few players willing or able to do anything about it. Two nil to Millwall. |
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Reply | This week's Caulker interview
at 14:05 20 Jan 2024
“Probably not. I went straight from Liverpool to rehab – for the second time. It had to happen. I had to hit rock bottom to be where I am today."
He was still a QPR player when his Liverpool loan finished.
It's clear that he was in an incredibly dark place, and I have a huge amount of respect for him overcoming his demons (anyone who's lived close to addiction knows that this stuff is never black or white) but he took an insane amount of money out the club - and our pockets, ultimately - while he was clearly incapable of being a professional footballer.
Just once in all of these endless puff pieces I'd like him to acknowledge that fact, or say sorry to the fans and staff for his behaviour, however much it might have been triggered by forces beyond his control. For all the column inches over the last six or seven years, and however happy I am to see any addict clean themselves up, I can't recall him ever talking about the negative effects of his addiction on anyone other than himself. [Post edited 20 Jan 14:07]
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