Despite heavy squad rotation through the opening games, QPR go to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday missing a clutch of key players through injury once more – they’re not alone in this, mind.

West Brom (4-1-1 WLLDWW 1st) v QPR (3-2-1 WDWWLD 4th)

Sky’s Super Saturday Brunch Spectacular >>> Saturday September 12, 2026 >>> Kick Off 12.30 >>> Weather – Bright start, grey and wet later >>> The Hawthorns, West Bromwich

When the club announced its annual fans forum would take place on the Wednesday between West Brom and Preston there was a degree of cynicism in many of the replies – start the season well, quick get the forum booked in.

Now, as both regular readers know, we do very much enjoy a bit of cynicism here on LFW, but on this occasion I think it’s only fair to point out that bar last season (when it was staged before game one) this event does almost always take place in or around that first international break in September. Still, a week or so back this did look likely to be a very cosy affair with lots of gladhanding about a successful summer transfer window and opening to the new campaign. First question is Steve from High Wycombe, Steve would like to know where do you get all your great ideas? Thanks for that Steve…

Pending tomorrow’s game at Unhappy Hunting Ground 2/2 this week, things could become a bit more awkward for the panel. With Ilias Chair and Richard Kone taking a seat in the first half of the Middlesbrough defeat, and then Tariq Lamptey and Jimmy Dunne doing likewise in a draw at Charlton, QPR are once again racking and stacking injured players. Boy Kemper and Karamoko Dembele were medium term anyway, Koki Saito and Kwame Poku weren’t even fit for the bench on Wednesday. The fact it’s a lot of repeat problems, a lot of exactly the people you’d expect, and the manner in which they’re pulling up, will surely dominate much of the discussion on Wednesday night (if it’s allowed to).

Again, I do have some sympathy with the club. There is something of an injury epidemic in football about which much ink is being spilled, and it’s particularly acute in the Championship where our opposition during the week were short of nine first teamers and just down the river at Millwall there are already 13 players on the sideline. To accommodate two ludicrous international breaks (three weeks off in September, zero games over the Easter weekend) matches are having to be crammed in at awkward angles – this will be QPR’s fifth in 15 days while West Brom (who progressed through a round of the League Cup) are playing their seventh in 21. Bristol City play Saturday, Tuesday and Friday next week. This is nuts anyway, but especially when we’re all then going on a three-week hiatus with no game at all.

Don’t complain too loudly - this will likely only hasten the demise of the League Cup. Round three is already seeded, split and staggered across two weeks at the behest of the “Champions” League clubs which - given the way that tournament has been engorged - is now effectively half the Premier League. These are the clubs with the biggest and deepest squads, who have vast great, hoarded academy systems they use in that competition anyway, but sure, yeh, we’ll bend over for you and gape on this one no problem.

The problem, it seems, goes further than simply two cup competitions and a post-World Cup schedule worked out by the same dart throwing monkey Stoke use to identify their transfer targets. There are studies doing the rounds (here in 2020, here and here in 2023, here in 2025) showing that injuries, particularly to things like hamstrings, have gone through the roof in the sport as a whole, and particularly the English leagues.

Favourite suspects like too many games, too many cup competitions, too much over Christmas, lack of a winter break have stood accused on this – but, of course, not putting your squad on a plane the second your 50+ game season is over to go and play two more money-spinning friendlies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, nor the tours of the Far East/US they’d all inevitably fill said mid-winter break with should it ever be introduced.

There are several working theories that games are being played at a faster, higher tempo than ever before. More sprints, more high intensity stuff, more pressure on players. The ridiculous five subs rule, which was initially brought in to help player welfare during Covid by the sort of people who thought we needed men in Hazmat suits spraying disinfectant over the crossbar at half time in case anybody gave it a good lick in the second half (mind you, I suppose if there are people out there who believe that was necessary it’s probably better safe than sorry), has had the opposite effect. Teams are doing what Valerian Ismael pioneered at Barnsley – hell for leather for an hour, then three or four changes. This rule already, once again, benefits the clubs that need help the least and should be rowed back, but there’s little chance of that.

Whatever the reason, you only need look around the Championship team news this weekend to see something has gone awry somewhere at the start of 2026/27. QPR love nothing more than a carefully chosen data set or statistic to prove their point and make out like there isn’t a problem at all, so expect to hear a lot about how well we fare on this metric versus the rest of the division. The problem Rangers have is it went awry for them in the previous two seasons as well, under two different managers and approaches. In Kone, Chair and Lamptey they have managed to lose three key players despite heavily rotating them and managing their minutes through the opening weeks – rotation Julien Stéphan was criticised for in the wake of the Boro defeat.

You can only point at other teams for so long if it keeps happening to you. We’re only in round six, and already it feels like a pattern is repeating. You could feel the air go out of the away end with the Lamptey substitution during the week and I think the match-going QPR fans are about done with comparisons and cherry picked/manipulated stats. With optimism so high about the team’s chances, I reckon tolerance for another season drifting away through lack of player ability is probably on the low side after the last 18 months.

Wednesday could be an interesting night. A win at West Brom on Saturday would be seriously useful, for more than just the usual and obvious reasons.

Links >>> Surprise leaders – Oppo Profile >>> Bircham and Gallen in charge – History >>> Ricardo in charge – Referee >>> Official Website >>> Independent West Brom forum — Message Board >>> Boing — Blog >>> Express and Star — Local Paper >>> Birmingham Mail — Local Paper

Below the fold

Team News: With the standard of these early Saturday kick offs frequently found wanting it could be that the team selections on both sides are more interesting than the game itself.

QPR lost Ilias Chair and Richard Kone in the first half of the defeat to Middlesbrough, followed by Tariq Lamptey and Jimmy Dunne early on at Charlton during the week. They join long term absentees Boy Kemper and Karamoko Dembele on the sideline with neither Koki Saito nor Kwame Poku considered fit enough for the bench at The Valley. Spotter’s badge for any sighting of Rayan Kolli in the away end.

West Brom went top of the league with a midweek win at Derby achieved despite playing with ten men for much of the second half after Brayann Pereira was dismissed. With fellow right back, and summer QPR transfer interest, Nolan Glaves also sidelined it leaves James Morrison scraping around for an option at right full back. Summer signing Toby Collyer is the only senior West Brom player yet to see action this season – Nat Phillips replaced QPR fan Chris Mepham and Jayson Molumby came into the side for the win at Pride Park.

Elsewhere: A gruelling fortnight of five fixtures each comes to a close this weekend, starting tonight with West Ham hosting Disney FC. A win there would put the Hammers back on top despite not really impressing on their return to this level. I’d say this once again highlights the advantage of parachute payments but we’re sitting here with Burnley second bottom and still awaiting a first win. They’ll have all on tomorrow too away to surprise early pace setters Swansea. Wolves, sitting between the two, head to Sheffield Red Stripe on Sunday morning.

It’s a real dog of a lunchtime list alongside our own trip to The Hawthorns. Bolton v Cardiff is a battle of two newly promoted teams who have just one victory between them, and that Wanderers’ opening day victory against basement dwellers Preston. Derby and Birmingham only have one victory each ahead of their meeting at Pride Park and pressure will start to build on John Eustace and Chris Davies if that continues tomorrow.

The afternoon games are headlined by Middlesbrough hosting Norwich, two of the divisional mainstays most backed to trouble the top end of the table this year, and in form duo Southampton and Bristol City meeting at St Mary’s. Keep an eye on the score (don’t watch the game, I beg you) at Preston v Lincoln as well – you’d expect us to be previewing a new Knob End manager a week from now if they happen to lose this one at Deepdale.

Blackburn host a Millwall side missing 13 first teamers injured, Charlton are hosting Portsmouth and there’s a real thriller in prospect as Watford host Stoke.

Teams that had League Cup fixtures will, ridiculously, play again on Tuesday as Bristol City host Lincoln in the Michael Skubala derby, while Millwall go all the way back up north again to play Middlesbrough. If you think that’s a gruelling week for the Lions, well Bristol City then play yet again on Friday night against Watford. No wonder teams are picking up injuries is there?

Referee: Ruebyn Ricardo takes this one as he begins his third year on the Championship list. Details.

Form

- QPR have started the season with just one defeat in their first six games. Away from home they’re unbeaten with wins at Portsmouth and Blackburn to go with the midweek draw at Charlton. The 0-0 at The Valley passed up an opportunity to win the first three away games of a season for only the fourth time in club history - 1927-28, 1962-63, and 1987-88.

- West Brom have also only lost one of their first six, and their lone defeat is also against Middlesbrough. The Baggies have won four of the other five to top the fledgling league table by two points. At The Hawthorns they’ve beaten Burnley (3-1) and Watford (1-0) to go with their own draw against Charlton (1-1).

- James Morrison has really kicked on from his caretaker manager spell which kept West Brom up last season despite a late points deduction. The Baggies have lost only two of their last 17 league games (W8 D7) since the start of March. They haven’t won three consecutive league games since August last year, and if they keep a clean sheet here it’ll be the first time they’ve done that three games in a row since September 2024. They have nine shut outs in the last 15 league games.

- The ridiculous stat around possession continues to grow, with another win against Cardiff achieved with 36.3% making it 70 games and 23 victories since QPR last beat a team while holding more of the ball than their opponent. The R’s had 72.4% of it against Charlton on Wednesday and 52% in the loss to Boro a week ago.

- West Brom are unbeaten in ten home games (W4 D6) since losing here to Coventry in February. They haven’t won consecutive home games since December, mind.

- As during the week, it’s another ground QPR don’t tend to fare very well on – one win in 14 trips. Rangers haven’t won at The Hawthorns since a surprise 4-1 victory here in the 2014/15 Premier League season when Vargas, Austin, Zamora and Barton scored the goals. There have been seven meetings since then, all in the Championship, with five West Brom wins and a couple of 2-2 draws – 18 goals conceded across those, though that total is toped up by the farcical 7-1 under Steve McClaren. The R’s have lost their last three visits, going down 2-1 over Christmas 2025 the last time they were here.

- In fact, the 3-1 QPR win at Loftus Road last season (Burrell 2, Varane 1) is the R’s only victory over the Baggies in eight meetings anywhere.

- QPR have failed to score in eight of their 13 away games in the Championship in 2026, the most of any side currently in the division. They do have the league’s joint best defence though with only four goals conceded and two clean sheets from six played.

- Only Cardiff (104) have had more shots so far this season than QPR (101). Only Sheff Utd (52) have had fewer than West Brom (60). The Baggies’ conversion rate of 15% is the fourth best in the league. Only Cardiff and Lincoln have a worse shot conversion rate than Rangers’ 6.93.

- Jimmy-Jay Morgan has five goals in all comps and three in the Championship to top score in his first season for West Brom after moving from the Chelsea puppy farm in the summer. His three goals and three assists is the most ‘goal involvements’ of any player in the Championship so far. Ilias Chair and Rumarn Burrell share the top scorer rights at QPR with two each.

Prediction

In our Prediction League for 2026/27 we’ll once again be handing out prizes for being top at Christmas and overall winner from The Art of Football - sample the merch from our sponsor’s newly extended QPR collection here. JB007007 won both prizes last year and has kindly agreed to keep up tradition and offer his irrational dislikes of each of our opponents this year…

“I wasn't around for our only cup trophy success, but have plenty of mixed emotions and memories of games with West Brom. One that will always stay with me and I know has been covered by Clive previously is the 2006 night game at The Hawthorns when we refused to cave in and came back twice to eventually grab a point in a 3-3 thriller.

“With the exception of their Middlesbrough defeat, The Baggies have had some impressive results to start the season and now top the table going into our lunchtime game on Saturday.

"Again I thought we controlled most of the game at Charlton the other night but lacked that bit of cutting edge in the final third to create enough good chances. With (another) growing injury list, Albion at home and buoyed by now topping the table, I think we'll struggle and they'll have a bit too much for us. I can see us losing this 3-1 and Burrell to score.”

JB’s Prediction: West Brom 3-1 QPR. Scorer – Rumarn Burrell

LFW’s Prediction: West Brom 2-1 QPR. Scorer – Rumarn Burrell

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Pictures - Ian Randall Photography

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