The result and performance at Cardiff last Saturday has lifted some of the aggressive levels of doom around QPR’s prospects in 2023/24, but more to the point the system and style was much more what we’d thought and hoped a Gareth Ainsworth QPR might look like.

QPR (1-0-2 LWL 16th) v Ipswich (2-0-0 WWW 1st)

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The ever-increasing amounts of time football managers are being asked to spend parked in front of the press answering questions isn’t leading to any notable uptick in insight, understanding, information or knowledge for the audience.

Premier League managers in European competitions can expect to spend every day of the next nine months in some form of pre- or post-match interview or press conference for broadcast, print, online, club official channels, international media and more. It’s a pure quantity play, there solely to provide hours of mediocre slop to a 24-hour media with space to fill.

While QPR were financially ruining themselves, severely handicapping the club for a decade to come, sacrificing the soul of the place at the alter of Joey Barton et al, getting relegated from the top flight with barely a whimper let alone any sort of a win, Sky Sports News would roll up once a week and ask ‘Arry such cutting questions as who he fancied for the Ryder Cup, or the Joshua fight, so they could cut the clip as part of their coverage. Scum. Sub-human scum.

The managers have much better, more important things to do with their time. They’re fined for not fulfilling the obligations but also if they say anything remotely controversial, however interesting or true it may be. They don’t want to comment on players they might be looking to sign, for fear of tipping others off, driving a price up, or disrespecting his current club. They also don’t want to talk about players they might want to sell, ones that aren’t behaving themselves, ones they’re having a problem with, because obviously you want to keep all that in house. They don’t want to talk about injuries for fear of informing the opposition, or weakening their bargaining position in the transfer market. They don’t want to chuck their own players under the bus, spark a feud or row with an opponent, or create a headline of any sort really. When you put it like that, you really do have to wonder what the point of all this is at all other than that ‘these previews don’t write themselves’ excuse I use a lot.

Occasionally you’ll get a Marcelo Bielsa who’ll happily sit there on a Thursday and name his team for the weekend just because. Or, when Frank Lampard boots off about his training sessions being spied upon, bring a two-hour PowerPoint presentation telling every other team in the division everything they already knew about Frank’s masterplan to take a Championship team containing Mason Mount, Harry Wilson and Fikayo Tomori and not get it promoted. You’ll get Jose Mourinho, who’ll pick fights with journalists, opponents and referees, to distract from his own failings or those of his players, then sit there with a smug look on his face while the press pack dutifully chase whatever nonsense he’s thrown them for the next news cycle, like a dog owner amused by how far the pooch will run after a ball he hasn’t really thrown at all. There’s Ian Holloway, who’s just mad, but again behind the madness the method is about distracting from what the actual story is: blow up at the crowd for leaving a game with Brentford early and everybody’s talking about that, not how dire the team was in going 2-0 down in the first place; girl in a taxi quote goes viral, Clarke Carlisle’s drunk again does not.

Mostly though, it’s just all so terribly beige. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s “it is what it is”; Steve McClaren’s media-trained cliched claptrap; Mark Warburton’s first contacts and second balls, taking care of the football; Mick Beale’s deep ingrained knowledge of the childhood of every European footballer… They become stock phrases, that irritate when things go wrong, but are just all so terribly bland. Terribly bland, and almost entirely untrue.

Since Gareth Ainsworth’s arrived the Pravda-style misinformation and propaganda has stepped up several dozen notches. Being repeatedly told a team that was top of the league at the end of October is “giving me everything” when they’re two wins from 28 games and losing 6-1 to Blackpool can give one the feeling of losing touch with reality – or, at the very least, belief that you’ve been at the wrong match by mistake. When fans booed Ethan Laird’s latest cry-off at Wigan, Ainsworth came out to defend him as a young player giving everything he had, and then one more shambles against Coventry later decided he’d rather face Burnley and Anass Zaroury with Aaron Drewe instead. He says Chris Willock has responded well, bought in, come back in the best shape of his life, then benches him for Charlie Kelman at Watford and plays him for one minute of stoppage time in a 4-0 defeat as a seemingly definitive ‘fuck you’.

In that environment it’s really difficult to know what to believe of anything he says at the moment. I don’t particularly know what he gets out of telling a group of fan sites on the Thursday that Paul Smyth will play at Oxford when he then doesn’t. Nor do I buy into his theory that pretending Jimmy Dunne may or may not be fit for the next game, like he’s clutching Del Boy’s “two pair” to his chest, has got the rest of the Championship managers losing sleep. In fact, this attitude towards telling the fans about injuries has made pariahs of players like Leon Balogun and more recently Jake Clarke-Salter because if you tell people it’s “just a bit of a calf problem” and then they’re missing for six months people like to enter that vacuum and starting adding two and two.

In his defence, I do think the sheer amount of covering up he’s had to do and outright untruths he’s come out with betrays exactly how chaotic and difficult the situation he’s inherited here is, how many problems and issues he’s having to deal with. With Lyndon Dykes’ injury this week it once more looks like we’re going into the irritating doom cycle of not being allowed to know what’s wrong and when he’ll be back, but with two weeks of the transfer window left and no budget to spend do we want clubs to know we’re potentially desperate for a striker when approaching them, or indeed if they’re coming for one of our players that we’re now even more gagging for some cash to go out and get a forward? I guess I’d side more on the point of view that it’s blatantly bloody obvious we’re desperate for strikers and money but I can see it his way. Likewise, if Chris Willock is being a problem child, rather than just carrying a little knock, what good does it do any of us, or his value, for him to come out and voice that? In frustration after a loss at Newcastle, Redknapp once dropped Jose Bosingwa’s £60k a week salary into the post match press conference and said he was one of several players who hadn’t fancied the flight so close to Christmas so hadn’t come – it torched an asset the club had spent millions on, and made it impossible to play for Rangers again, as Redknapp then found when he later tried to pick him anyway. If Ainsworth did come out last season and say he had players who didn’t try, didn’t give a toss, were phoning it in, what sort of response would that have got from them, or from us? Not a helpful one, as Neil Critchley essentially found post Fleetwood and Hull.

I think the situation he inherited was worse than any of us, and certainly he, could ever have imagined, and he’s trying to remain calm on the surface while paddling frantically underneath to keep the show on the road. Things are so bad, however, that his Iraqi information minister routines about how fine everything is frequently look ridiculous, particularly in the wake of a 5-0 at Oxford or 4-0 at Watford.

Amongst it all though, the one thing I have tossed over in my mind has been his frequent bristles about his style of play. Wycombe, he says, scored some of the best passing goals you’ll ever see in his last 18 months there, and only played the other way in the first place because you had the unique figure of Akinfenwa up front. He described our approach to the vital wins at Burnley and Stoke as a “ridiculous Catenaccio set up” that he didn’t want to use. He pointed to some of the slick football played in the first half of the friendly at Wimbledon as more of what we could expect. He’s said flair players would be top of his list as soon as he gets some budget to spend. And yet several times in his 15 games in charge so far we’ve turned up and it has, indeed, just been a one-dimensional, unwatchable, boring lump up towards a big bastard striker with little support. We played that way against Slavia Prague and Oxford at the start and end of the summer, and then went in like that against Watford with disastrous results.

Last Saturday at Cardiff was a stark change. There are all sorts of stories and rumours about how it came about, which players spoke up, who objected. All we know for sure is Ainsworth did hold his hands up to his tactics not working at Vicarage Road and him making the conscious decision to change things completely the following week after consultation with his players.

The performance in Wales was by no means total football, the final possession stats were again weighted 65-35 against and seized upon by outlets like The Second Tier pod as another example of Ainsworth-ball getting a spawny result. But those were skewed heavily by panicked closing stages and the 57:43 ratio at the time we scored our first was a fairer reflection on a game in which we were the much better team for a thick hour. More to the point of this typically waffly preview, though, it was much, much more what I hoped Gareth Ainsworth’s QPR might look like when he came here, and what he’s said repeatedly he wants it to look like in interview. Support for Lyndon Dykes, pace in wide areas, good service off the touchlines, collective hard work and big distances covered, an uncompromising defence. Perhaps he’ll tell you it was getting more of his players fit and into the team – Smyth and Steve Cook were two of the stand outs – and there will be more to come as Jack Colback joins the midfield and one of Dunne or Clarke-Salter returns to the defence. Either way I was delighted to see it and I’m looking forward to watching it potentially develop, albeit with three fiercely difficult games to come before the international break.

Still, the system and the result it got, allied to everything he’s said about style of play in interviews, did make that Watford horror show all the more odd. But then perhaps that’s my fault for paying attention to managerial press conferences.

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Team News: The switch of shape, personnel and, perhaps most importantly, style which caught Cardiff cold last weekend was continued with a much-changed line-up against Norwich. Now we wait to see which players who were rested for the cup game, and those who’ve been absent, are able to return to the side for league action.

Sinclair Armstrong and Paul Smyth, the two outstanding performers in South Wales, you would think are certs. Likewise Ilias Chair unless there’s anything to the vague social media rumours that a move away is imminent. As we’re becoming used to we won’t get to hear exactly what’s wrong with Lyndon Dyles’ knee or how long he’ll be missing for but it’s safe to assume he’s not playing in this one and the replacement for his role will be interesting. Is Chris Willock a fully bought in, up-to-speed, lovely boy who just desperately wants to play for QPR and the decision to only use him for the last minute at Watford and then not take him to Cardiff was all tactics and fitness related? If so, he’ll likely play there. If not, perhaps it’s Rayan Kolli who leads the pack after his impressive cameo against Norwich.

In midfield Sam Field will likely step forward, and then it’s one or two from Andre Dozzell playing against his former club for the first time, another old Ipswich player Jack Colback on debut, or Stephen Duke McKenna rewarded for his midweek efforts. At the back Steve Cook, Morgan Fox and Kenneth Paal are almost certain returners, but there’s also some suggestion the first of Jake Clarke Salter’s eight appearances for the season may be nigh. Jimmy Dunne is a medium term absentee.

Asmir Begovic will be in goal with Joe Walsh on the bench after Jordan Archer’s midweek concussion.

Ipswich lost first choice goalkeeper Christian Walton in the final week of pre-season preparations after he’d kept 24 clean sheets in 22/23 including a sequence of nine in a row through March and April. Czech Vaclav Hladky has done the two league wins so far while summer arrival from Man City Cieren Slicker was between the posts for the 2-0 league Cup success against Bristol Rovers. Full back Harry Clarke and centre back George Edmondson are both back in training after respective lay offs.

Elsewhere: Your Leeds United season ticket/Sky subscription gets you access to the Champions of Europe at home to West Brom tonight where the majority of the intrigue will be sparked by the team selections. Jack Harrison is the latest ‘name’ to take advantage of a clause in his contract allowing him to leave on loan in the event of relegation, joining Everton. Wilfried Gnonto and Crysensio Summerville are both trying to force their own moves by refusing to play. Clearly they haven’t heard, or certainly grasped, just how massive Leeds United are. One would have thought the possibility of Leeds being relegated might have occurred to them when they signed their contracts all of a year ago, given the club had spent 16 of the previous 18 years outside the top flight. The situation could also have been averted had these players… played a little bit better and prevented the relegation happening in the first place. Still, those who ignored the widespread pre-season predictions of a march straight back to the top flight and predicted them outside the six and the least inspiring of the relegated clubs are feeling as vindicated as you can at this early stage.

The host broadcaster’s decision to show Plymouth v Southampton on Saturday lunch time looks a sound one. Argyle, as we expected, have started strongly, with four points from games against Huddersfield and Watford. Southampton, meanwhile, are somehow taking Russell Martin’s extremes to ever more ridiculous heights. From completing just shy of 1,000 passes against the worst team in the league on opening night all to just scrape a 2-1 win five minutes from the end, they then turned 70% of the possession against Norwich into an xG of almost one and four goals conceded in a 4-4 draw. Sky’s other pick, Norwich v Millwall at the same times as the Women’s World Cup Final on Sunday, probably a good deal less sensible/crowd pleasing.

Not a great deal to enthuse among the eight other fixtures taking place tomorrow afternoon. Burnley’s frog-faced free kick specialist Posh Scott Twine looks a great pick up for Hull Tigers on loan ahead of their visit to Blackburn. Middlesbrough have made a poor start but with one hot streak persuading Ajax to part with a ridiculous £10m for previously-jobbing-journeyman Chuba Akpom things are starting to move in the transfer market. Full back Lukas Engel is in from Silkeborg and striker/coffee Emmanuel Latte Lath for £5m from Atalanta ahead of a bit of a home gimme against the already fairly forlorn Sixteenth Annual Neil Warnock Farewell Tour. They’re hoping for similar additions at another hot pre-season fancy who’ve started badly Sunderland – they face Rotherham, currently on a run of 14 away games without a victory, the longest current sequence anywhere in the top four divisions. Sheffield Blue Stripe, as expected, have looked ropey thus far, and now host Preston Knob End.

Among the clubs happier and more optimistic with their starts are Bristol City and Birmingham who meet in this week’s exciting clash between two teams beginning with B, and Stoke v Watford in the Potteries.

Swansea are still ina holding pattern while they find out what’s happening to star striker Joel Piroe, but have extended Matt Grimes’ contract. Coventry have already cashed in on their star pair and started rebuilding in earnest, their 3-0 win against Boro last week a real statement of intent. Those two meet in South Wales.

Further clues as to whether Cardiff are decent but took us lightly, or are actually just going to be shit once more this season, available in their game at Leicester.

Referee: Geoff Eltringham tends to score highly with LFW when we get him, but QPR have a poor record of 2-3-10 with this referee. Details.

Form

QPR: Last Saturday’s surprise victory at Cardiff lifted gathering storm clouds that had gathered around Loftus Road after the opening day thrashing at Watford. QPR have now, somehow, won three and lost only one of their last five away games. The midweek last-second loss to Norwich, however, extended the club’s lousy records in both cup competitions, and at home in general. No Championship club lost more at home in 22/23 than QPR’s 12 defeats at Loftus Road. It’s now one win in 16 on our own patch, 12 of those have been defeats, and nine of them without scoring a goal. Lyndon Dykes’ goal in the 1-1 league draw with Norwich in April is our only goal at Loftus Road in now six outings. The R’s infamously scored just five goals at the Loft End last term, two of those penalties, and it’s eight games since the last – Tim Iroegbunam in the defeat to Blackburn in Ainsworth’s first game on February 25. The last time we scored more than once in a home game was the 2-1 win against Wigan, 17 games and ten months almost to the day ago (Ipswich’s forward Nathan Broadhead scored for the Latics that day). The last time we scored three in any match home or away was the one before that at home to Cardiff, 35 games ago.

The Cardiff win, unsurprisingly, came after QPR scored the first goal. On the five occasions they’ve done that in Gareth Ainsworth’s 15 matches in charge they’ve won four and drawn one. In the other ten games where the oppo have scored first Rangers have recorded just one point, away at West Brom last Easter when they trailed 2-0 but drew.

Ipswich became rather pesky visitors to Loftus Road once this fixture was rekindled after QPR’s promotion from League One and Town’s relegation from the Premier League. From 2004/05 to 2009/10 Ipswich won four and lost only one of six visits to W12, scoring 14 goals in the process. But after Neil Warnock’s title winners did a comfortable double in 2010/11 it’s been a difficult place for the Suffolk side to visit with QPR winning six out of six and only conceding three goals. Pawel Wszolek, Nahki Wells and (remarkably for a Boxing Day) Joel Lynch were the scorers when this fixture was last played in 2018 – that 3-0 completing an early league double and making it five unbeaten for the R’s against Ipswich. The last time we lost against this lot was November 2016, a 3-0 reverse at Portman Road early in Ian Holloway’s second spell.

Ipswich: Look away now if of a nervous disposition - Town are coming into this game red hot.

They’ve won three from three to start the new season, beating Sunderland A 2-1 and Stoke H 2-0 in the league either side of a 2-0 cup win against Bristol Rovers. They’re the first team newly promoted to the Championship to win the first two league games since Charlton did so in 2019/20. Only two teams have won both their opening games, Ipswich and Leicester.

This follows on from the end of 22/23 when they stormed to League One promotion unbeaten in their final 19 league games. They won 13 and drew two of their final 15 matches with 45 goals scored – a sequence that included two 6-0 home wins against Charlton and Exeter, and three 4-0s against Wycombe, Bolton and Forest Green. They were promoted second with 98 points and 101 goals scored. Across the two campaigns they are unbeaten in 21 league games, two shy of the club record of 23. The Tractor Boys’ last loss to anybody was Burnley in an FA Cup replay, 2-1 in the last minute on February 7. Their last league loss was 2-1 away to Oxford on January 21. They haven’t lost a league game at Portman Road since October 15 when Lincoln won there 1-0. No team in the league below won as many (12) or lost as few (three) as Ipswich on their travels – Oxford, Plymouth and Gareth Ainsworth’s Wycombe the only teams to beat them.

With QPR’s penchant to concede from set pieces it won’t thrill you to know that 16 of those 101 goals came from corners – the most in League One. Freddie Ladapo, who scored three goals against QPR in two appearances for Rotherham, scored eight goals as a substitute in 22/23 – again, a League One high. George Hirst had made 41 appearances (30 as a sub) across spells with Sheff Wed, Blackburn and Rotherham without scoring a goal at Championship level, but netted a winner on day one at Sunderland. Hirst one of six different scorers of Ipswich’s six goals so far.

Prediction: We’re once again indebted to The Art of Football for agreeing to sponsor our Prediction League and provide prizes. You can get involved by lodging your prediction here or sample the merch from our sponsor’s QPR collection here. Our reigning champion Aston was spot on with the Watford prediction, what’s he got for us today…

“Ipswich are one of the best teams in the league despite having put the squad together in League 1 and, for me, probably have the best manager in the Championship right now. Their tails will be up certainly. Cardiff gave me hope that actually we can put together a competent plan to beat some of the 'lesser' teams in this division, but Ipswich are not one of those lesser teams. I think 3-1 to Ipswich, Armstrong to score again.”

Aston’s Prediction: QPR 1-3 Ipswich. Scorer – Sinclair Armstrong

LFW’s Prediction: QPR 0-2 Ipswich. No scorer.

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Pictures — Ian Randall Photography

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TacticalR added 14:02 - Aug 19 Thanks for your preview. Those interviews have to be beige don't they? From the manager's perspective, it's hard to think of any upside to managerial interviews. Football is an industry, and managers are pretty cautious about what they say about players because they could end up working with those same players at another club. Maybe there is a danger of Ainsworth coming across as the Comical Ali of the Championship (although I don't think he had any alternative last season), but he obviously prefers that to ranting or Mourinho-style mind games. Even worse are the interviews with footballers who are currently playing for the club. What can they say? If the team is on a losing streak they have to desperately try to convince everyone that they 'really care'. It's quite significant how things have turned round in regards to Ipswich. They had stagnated for years in the Championship and we always seemed to be able to handle them. Let's see how we get on against a rejuvenated side on a winning streak.

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