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Redknapp returns home aiming to continue Rangers resurgence — full match preview
Redknapp returns home aiming to continue Rangers resurgence — full match preview
Friday, 18th Jan 2013 23:27 by Clive Whittingham

Harry Redknapp is back at West Ham on Saturday as he continues to try and mastermind one of the most unlikely escapes from relegation trouble the Premier League has ever seen.

West Ham (11th) v QPR (20th)

Premier League >>> Saturday January 19, 2013 >>> Kick Off 3pm >>> Upton Park, London

There's just a sniff that something quite special may be bubbling away at QPR. Four matches unbeaten against three teams in the top seven in the Premier League, and three clean sheets into the bargain, have boosted confidence. A run of 23 away games without a win has given way to two victories in as many road trips. This weekend they go to West Ham who have injuries in defence and only two wins from their last 12 outings.

Sadly QPR's record breaking start to the season – it took them 17 attempts to win a single game and they've still only picked up maximum points twice in the league – means it will need more than something special to help them escape from relegation this season. If QPR are a Premier League team next season that will be absolutely remarkable given the position they've worked themselves into with only 16 league matches left to play and in all likelihood the upturn at the start of 2013 is just another false dawn. The light at the end of the tunnel could well just be another train heading towards them.

But it is doable. Back at the start of December, Colin Speller analysed the situation for LoftforWords and said that the road to 42 points involved the R's managing 17 by the end of January and with two games still to play only three more are required to reach that target. I found that table rather comforting as Southampton won at Villa and drew at Chelsea while Reading came roaring back to win 3-2 against West Brom having trailed 2-0 because it shows that Rangers can get out of trouble of their own accord. If they get to 42 points this season, they'll stay up, so I'll stick to the Speller table rather than the other results for now.

That said, several other teams round and about QPR at the bottom of the table are giving the R's something to shoot at. After four points from two away matches this week it seemed as though Southampton were going to survive relatively stress free this season. At Loftus Road before Christmas they appeared united as a team and a club with Nigel Adkins an inspiring figurehead. Now, unbelievably, Adkins has been sacked and replaced by Mauricio Pochettino who was himself fired by La Liga basement side Espanyol earlier this term – admittedly while dealing with a crippling financial situation at Barcelona's second team. What effect will that have on a group of players that have come up through two divisions with Adkins, and made a decent fist of the top flight? Before getting too excited it's worth remembering that similarly harsh looking sackings of Chris Hughton and Roberto Di Matteo at newly promoted sides Newcastle and West Brom actually ended up having positive impacts in previous seasons. But, given the reaction top Adkins' dismissal, that looks like a monumentally stupid move that could well bring the Saints crashing back towards QPR in the coming weeks.

Similarly at Aston Villa, the very worthy policy of packing the team with academy graduates and promising prospects from the lower league is placing that club at risk. It's something I'd like to see QPR do more of, but there's a difference between doing that more often and what Villa have done which has been a baby and bathwater situation leaving them now in a run of terrible form, with confidence going through the floor, and a lack of experienced players who have been through that sort of thing before and can offer guidance and leadership.

Throw in this permanent Sword of Damocles situation with Brian McDermott at Reading, who their new Russian owner is no doubt dying to replace, and the difficult second album that Alan Pardew and Newcastle are currently still wrestling with and QPR would appear to be the one side down there not in some sort of crisis at the moment. Who would have thought that? The problem is they would appear to have left themselves with too much to do.

A win at West Ham would certainly help. Our history column this week looked back to a 4-0 win at Upton Park by a Les Ferdinand-inspired QPR side back in 1993 when Rangers were a very decent team indeed. It sparked memories of a number of successful trips to the other end of the Hammersmith and City Line from supporters. A Clive Allen double, including the double drag back effort, in a 2-2 draw back in 1983/84 still draws a smile but it's often forgotten that eight years later his younger brother Bradley also scored a brace in a game that finished 2-2, and one of those was spookily similar to his older sibling's skilful effort. A year later, in 1984/85, John Byrne, Gary Bannister and Gary Waddock all scored in a 3-1 win here. Further back there was a 1-1 FA Cup draw in 1978 that gave way to a rampant 6-1 replay win in W12.

So QPR have plenty to go on. The problem is, form and optimism for a club in Rangers' current position is a fragile thing. The last Premier League meeting between these sides probably isn't even remembered that well by Tony Cottee who scored a late winner. The dire match, played in icy temperatures, didn't even merit inclusion in QPR's end of season video that year and the R's went onto be relegated. With a tough match against Man City under the lights at Loftus Road looming large, a similar damp squib and defeat at Upton Park this Saturday would be morale sapping and for all the recent improvements a dour 1-0 home win ground out by a Sam Allardyce team does have the look and feel of the most likely result. An away victory, and it'll feel like it's all up for grabs.

Fingers crossed.

Links >>> Opposition Focus >>> History >>> Referee >>> Podcast >>> Betting >>> Travel

This Saturday

Team News: QPR will give a debut to record signing Loic Remy after receiving international clearance for his move from Marseille. Bobby Zamora, Andy Johnson and apparently Jose Bosingwa are all long term absentees. The rest of Harry Redknapp's decisions are nice ones to have – Robert Green and Julio Cesar have both kept clean sheets in the last two matches and played exceptionally well in doing so. Green will be keen to play against his former club. Further forward Jay Bothroyd, Ale Faurlin, Tal Ben Haim and Anton Ferdinand were all brought into the side against West Brom during the week and did their cases for inclusion in the league no harm at all. Samba Diakite is away at the African Nations Cup.

West Ham also had a cup replay during the week, but their Wednesday night trip to Old Trafford was less successful than QPR's trip to the Hawthorns and has left them with less recovery time. With injuries already biting into his team, Sam Allardyce may well have been down at Upton Park on Friday shovelling snow onto the pitch rather than off it. Andy Carroll remains outbut Carlton Cole and Marouane Chamkh are fit and Big Sam will pick one or the other to play as the lone striker in his 4-3-3 set up. The defensive injury crisis has eased slightly with the return of Joey O’Brien, although young Dan Potts’ form since he was thrown in at right back has been such that O’Brien may not walk straight back into the team. James Collins remains out but Mark Noble has passed a fitness test and Joe Cole is available again after being rested for the midweek cup replay.

Elsewhere: The immediate effect of Southampton’s bizarre decision to remove Nigel Adkins as manager won’t be known until Monday when the Saints play for the first time since the sacking at home to Everton. That’s the final game of the weekend in the Premier League and before that two of the other strugglers at the bottom of the league are away from home with Reading facing something of a six pointer up at Newcastle, and Aston Villa going to West Brom in a Midlands derby live on ESPN on Saturday evening. Wigan meanwhile host Sunderland.

There’s a lot of discussion about which team may yet get sucked in from an apparent position of safety and Fulham aren’t in great form at the moment. They’re unlikely to get anything from their match away at Man City on Saturday either which in turn will give the home team a chance to put points on the board before runaway leaders Man Utd take to the field for a difficult game at Spurs on Sunday at 4pm. Prior to that the other live match involves the other two top four contenders with Chelsea playing at home to Arsenal.

Swansea v Stoke and Liverpool v Norwich make up the weekend’s list.

Referee: Considering there are two big clashes on Sunday with Chelsea meeting Arsenal and Man Utd going to Spurs it’s a little odd that Howard Webb, usually a shoo in for such occasions, is taking charge of QPR’s trip to West Ham instead. Martin Atkinson will take the Chelsea game and Chris Foy is the somewhat brave appointment for the United clash. Webb meanwhile has Rangers for the second time this season following a 1-1 draw at home to Aston Villa at Loftus Road in December. Click here for his full case file.

Form

West Ham: The Hammers started the season well but have been on the slide a little recently. They scored twice at Loftus Road earlier this season but have managed just five goals away from home in the league all season – a division low – and drew another blank at Old Trafford in the cup during the week. They’ve won just two of their last 12 matches in all competitions, and lost seven of the others. They’ve failed to score in four of the last seven matches and have conceded eight times in the last four. They started the season with three straight wins at home without conceding a goal, and when they beat Chelsea here at the start of December their league record at Upton Park was won four, drawn three and lost just once. Since then though they’ve been beaten on this ground by Liverpool and Everton while Man Utd scored late to salvage a draw after a win here against Norwich on New Year’s Day.

QPR: Having gone 14 months and 23 away matches without a win, QPR now have two on the bounce and their midweek success against West Brom was their first over a Premier League team in the FA Cup since 1995 when they beat West Ham at Loftus Road. It’s their first away win against top flight opposition in the FA Cup since Middlesbrough in 1982 when they went on to reach the final against Spurs. QPR’s 36 goals conceded this season is a better defensive record than six of the seven teams directly above them in the league and since Redknapp took over only four other teams have conceded fewer league goals. However the 17 goals scored overall this campaign is a division low along with Aston Villa – the next worst is Wigan on 23 – so it’s easy to see why Redknapp has broken the bank to bring in Loic Remy this week.

Prediction Reigning Prediction League champion Nathan McAllister tells us…

“And so Rangers excellent, surprising, and unbeaten start to 2013 continues. Harry Redknapp has taken a shell of a team and transformed them, from Premier League whipping boys into a cohesive, committed, well-organised unit that have become extremely difficult to break down. In fact, since Redknapp took over, only Spurs, Chelsea, Manchester City and Everton have conceded fewer goals in the Premier League than QPR.

“Unfortunately, in that time Rangers have also been, along with Aston Villa, the joint lowest scorers, so you can understand why Redknapp’s first action of the transfer window has been to smash Rangers’ transfer record and bring in a striker. Of course, he has the backing of a chairman willing to gamble everything on Premier League survival. While the consequences of regulation will be financially catastrophic, the damage has probably already been done at this point, and this doesn’t on the surface look like the worst bit of business Rangers could have done. If Loic Remy can provide a hitherto sorely lacking cutting edge to add to Rangers new found defensive solidity then I might dare to believe that Rangers could pull off another unlikely escape. Typically, the buggers have gone and got my hopes up again. I just hope we don’t end up wishing this ‘false dawn’ had never happened.

“In the meantime, Rangers have some tricky fixtures to negotiate between now and the end of February. Amidst home games against both Manchester clubs there is a visit to Swansea and a massive ‘must-win’ fixture at home to Norwich. Other than the home game against the Canaries, this Saturday’s visit to Upton Park looks just about the best chance of getting a win, especially with Rangers going into this off the back of two away victories. You wait over a year for one …..

“ If the Premier League had started when Redknapp took over, QPR would be thirteenth, three places higher than the Hammers. Rangers should be able to give them a much tougher game than they did back in October and, in Stephane Mbia, they have someone who can provide Diame and co with some muscular competition in midfield this time. Remy has not played that many minutes – or scored that many goals - in Ligue 1 this season, so we shouldn’t expect a goal bonanza from him just yet. With West Ham having one of the Premier League’s better defensive records I’m expecting a low scoring game with the spoils shared.”

Prediction: West Ham 1 QPR 1

Scorer: Taarabt

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Photo: Action Images



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TacticalR added 00:09 - Jan 19
"The Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail to the ruin of all." (Lord of the Rings)

We have shown we can defend against the top sides, but can we combine that with attack when needed? And can we cope with the more physical sides? We will know a lot more by the end of this match. If we can keep up our defending and weather the early storm, then hopefully we can combine that with attack as the match goes on. Having had a whole week of the Rémy saga, I am looking forward to seeing what he can do.
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ozexile added 03:46 - Jan 19
Who can forget the 3-0 victory at the start of the 86/87 season I think. Parker debut I think. Might have been seaman's as well.
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ozexile added 03:46 - Jan 19
Who can forget the 3-0 victory at the start of the 86/87 season I think. Parker debut I think. Might have been seaman's as well.
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MelakaRanger added 04:19 - Jan 19
As my old Gran used to say

'Its sh#t or bust time'

The next 4 games will shown if the 8 million spent can save the team or condemn the team.

Fingers crossed for todays match. A win would perhaps light our blue touch paper!
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Roller added 07:33 - Jan 19
Is there any chance we can have Colin's table readily accessible with an addition column showing the points we have achieved? Our progress against his "safety" line may help keep us all nice and calm.
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loftboy added 07:34 - Jan 19
Ozexile, you obviously have, it was 87/88 :)
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isawqpratwcity added 09:55 - Jan 19
F*ck it. I'm going for the win, 0-2. First goal to the new boy (they're going to be trying to feed him).
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PinnerPaul added 13:29 - Jan 19
7/1 Remy to score 1st, worth a fiver I would say
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