Match Day Thread QPR Vs Blackpool

[Rangers Til I Die]

Just watched highlights.
Why, oh why, didn't Dykes square the ball for an easy tap in?!
Why did Johansen simply turn away when Bowler was shooting? Didn't put a foot in or make any effort to interfere with his shot? Others have spoken of him as a spent force. This episode does support that view.

 

[sb_73]

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I’d assumed that Dykes was offside last night.

FFS.

Bit mystified by that performance as a whole.

 

[qprbeth]

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I’d assumed that Dykes was offside last night.

FFS.

Bit mystified by that performance as a whole.

That would have changed the match for sure.

I have read criticism of Johansen for their goal. I do not think Johansen played well, but I am not going to blame him for what I thought was an " unlucky" goal.
Had a good view of it from top of the Loft. The original shot was hard and on target and very well blocked by the CDs, the ball could have gone anywhere but looped up and fell perfectly for Bowler, who struck it away. 9 times out 10 it would have gone harmlessly away.


Even though we did not play well, we did enough to draw or win last night and didn't. The lack of goals, especially when one of the chances was on a plate ...is the reason

 

[rangercol]

My main concern, other than Dykes being so poor, was the shape of the midfield and back 4 last night.
Beale obviously knows what he's doing coaching wise, so I'd love someone to ask him how the shape was supposed to work. Interviewers ask mainly totally inane questions.
Our fullbacks were really, really high, which is fine and nothing new. But in a 4 at the back, the 2 CBs would usually drift across to cover this and the holding midfielder would drop inbetween them. I didn't see this last night. Plus, the midfield seemed really lop-sided, not helped by having 3 all left footers. Dozzell, who I thought played quite well on the ball, seemed to be pretty much in an old fashioned inside right position, with Field and Johansen central. This left Paal completely exposed on our left, especially as Chair seemed to drift inside most of the time and did actually chase back well, but all pretty central.
It all looked completely lop-sided and it was no surprise how much joy Blackpool had down our left. Either Johansen had to cover across left or Chair needed to drop in out of possession on the left. Neither seemed to happen.
I don't know much about Richards. Is he a right footed centre mid?
I hope so because we desperately need one.


Really wish I'd been there as it's hard to see everything on TV. Maybe those who were there could give their view of our general shape etc?

 

[Sooperhoop]

More managers need to call out crap refs, Blackpool were time wasting even in the 1st half and Armstrong nearly had his shirt ripped off yet got nothing. You really wonder what they actually see at times...

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[Goldhawk-Road]

Chair needs to see a sports psychologist or similar. He seems to lack the confidence to run at players, which is exactly what we needed someone to do today. I know I would say this, but I'm not being quite so one eyed as normal, but we missed Amos today, as well as the obvious Willock.

If he goes to see a psychologist, could he please take Dykes with him

 

[Rangers Til I Die]

That would have changed the match for sure.

I have read criticism of Johansen for their goal. I do not think Johansen played well, but I am not going to blame him for what I thought was an " unlucky" goal.
Had a good view of it from top of the Loft. The original shot was hard and on target and very well blocked by the CDs, the ball could have gone anywhere but looped up and fell perfectly for Bowler, who struck it away. 9 times out 10 it would have gone harmlessly away.


Even though we did not play well, we did enough to draw or win last night and didn't. The lack of goals, especially when one of the chances was on a plate ...is the reason

Not sure about that Beth. He turned away from the shot. Compare Dunne who took one in the face for the team!

 

[Rangers Til I Die]

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I’d assumed that Dykes was offside last night.

FFS.

Bit mystified by that performance as a whole.

Absolute game changer and LD fluffed his lines.

 

[sb_73]

My main concern, other than Dykes being so poor, was the shape of the midfield and back 4 last night.
Beale obviously knows what he's doing coaching wise, so I'd love someone to ask him how the shape was supposed to work. Interviewers ask mainly totally inane questions.
Our fullbacks were really, really high, which is fine and nothing new. But in a 4 at the back, the 2 CBs would usually drift across to cover this and the holding midfielder would drop inbetween them. I didn't see this last night. Plus, the midfield seemed really lop-sided, not helped by having 3 all left footers. Dozzell, who I thought played quite well on the ball, seemed to be pretty much in an old fashioned inside right position, with Field and Johansen central. This left Paal completely exposed on our left, especially as Chair seemed to drift inside most of the time and did actually chase back well, but all pretty central.
It all looked completely lop-sided and it was no surprise how much joy Blackpool had down our left. Either Johansen had to cover across left or Chair needed to drop in out of possession on the left. Neither seemed to happen.
I don't know much about Richards. Is he a right footed centre mid?
I hope so because we desperately need one.


Really wish I'd been there as it's hard to see everything on TV. Maybe those who were there could give their view of our general shape etc?

Just about as you saw it Col. We set up with full backs high, for a high press - but we didn’t actually press much until the second half, which really mystified me. I didn’t understand what we were meant to be doing with the ball. It seemed that Roberts and Chair were swapping sides for a bit, but both tended to end up on the right, leaving big gaps on the left. More suited to a 3 CB set up (which would suit Paal and Laird, who both look decent) but even then it would have needed more energy.

In terms of style there was still a lot of the sideways passing at the back, but then quite a bit of aimless launching forward at times, when those in possession felt under pressure. Dieng seems to have permission to punt it now as well. Very little fast, first time passing, or movement into space.

We have some decent players though. Roberts was a cut above, though he can’t shoot for toffee. As individuals the defence looks ok, the shape and working together and relationship with the centre mids need attention. Field dependable. Chair put in a shift yesterday, but left Paal exposed too much. Dykes is obviously low on both talent and confidence, can’t see him getting any better. I don’t understand what Johansen is meant to provide, he’s a waste of a place. Dozzell has a decent pass in him, but we see it so rarely. Armstrong provided energy and pace, which lifted the crowd, but I’m afraid he’s not the messiah, unless his close control improves drastically. He was also pretty hyper, running on nervous energy and looked knackered after ten minutes - I was watching him closely when they were setting up for corners etc. Raw material is there, I hope something can be done with it. I definitely don’t see him as a lone striker.

Should note that Blackpool weren’t bad, quite quick on the break, well organised etc. But we should have beaten them.

Although the temperature wasn’t too high last night, it was very close and humid.

The time wasting to protect a lead will kill this game. It seems every team does it. I left on full time to get the train, and was happy to avoid another 4 minutes (should have been 8 at least) of it.

All in all still giving Beale the benefit for at least another ten games yet. Whatever the results I hope to see a bit more of a coherent style emerging.

 

[rangercol]

Just about as you saw it Col. We set up with full backs high, for a high press - but we didn’t actually press much until the second half, which really mystified me. I didn’t understand what we were meant to be doing with the ball. It seemed that Roberts and Chair were swapping sides for a bit, but both tended to end up on the right, leaving big gaps on the left. More suited to a 3 CB set up (which would suit Paal and Laird, who both look decent) but even then it would have needed more energy.

In terms of style there was still a lot of the sideways passing at the back, but then quite a bit of aimless launching forward at times, when those in possession felt under pressure. Dieng seems to have permission to punt it now as well. Very little fast, first time passing, or movement into space.

We have some decent players though. Roberts was a cut above, though he can’t shoot for toffee. As individuals the defence looks ok, the shape and working together and relationship with the centre mids need attention. Field dependable. Chair put in a shift yesterday, but left Paal exposed too much. Dykes is obviously low on both talent and confidence, can’t see him getting any better. I don’t understand what Johansen is meant to provide, he’s a waste of a place. Dozzell has a decent pass in him, but we see it so rarely. Armstrong provided energy and pace, which lifted the crowd, but I’m afraid he’s not the messiah, unless his close control improves drastically. He was also pretty hyper, running on nervous energy and looked knackered after ten minutes - I was watching him closely when they were setting up for corners etc. Raw material is there, I hope something can be done with it. I definitely don’t see him as a lone striker.

Should note that Blackpool weren’t bad, quite quick on the break, well organised etc. But we should have beaten them.

Although the temperature wasn’t too high last night, it was very close and humid.

The time wasting to protect a lead will kill this game. It seems every team does it. I left on full time to get the train, and was happy to avoid another 4 minutes (should have been 8 at least) of it.

All in all still giving Beale the benefit for at least another ten games yet. Whatever the results I hope to see a bit more of a coherent style emerging.

All a bit baffling the way our shape played out.
I thought we played some decent balls into feet between the lines, but too few and the rest of our passing was slow and predictable.
Need to quicken it up.
Yes, even though the full backs were really high, it seemed more for being in possession than out of it.
Beale doesn't seem to favour a high pressing game.

As you say, time is needed for Beale to get his best players out there consistently and to see if his methods can be implemented.

I have no idea where Richards plays, but I'm hoping he's a decent right footed midfielder.

 

[Quite Possibly Raving]

To add to the good discussion on how we played - I wonder if we went a little too gung ho too early? We were playing as if it was the 85th minute from the 55th minute. Yes, we needed to attack, but we weren't patient and kept punting hopeful balls forward instead of trying to be intelligent with the ball.

We kept trying to play on the wings despite Blackpool defending that attack comfortably time and time again, instead of attacking through the middle where they looked more vulnerable. Urgh. Disappointed still.

 

[cor blymie]

Armstrong must start Saturday. Not going to single out any one player, it was a disappointing team performance.
The curse of Sky once again

 

[Stroller]

I

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I’d assumed that Dykes was offside last night.

FFS.

Bit mystified by that performance as a whole.

That's a shocking miss. Dykes, who wins a lot of flick-ons and holds it up pretty well, is plainly not a natural finisher. Very early days for Armstrong, but first indications are that he might not be either. When Dykes was at Queen of the South he played alongside Stephen Dobbie, who scored 43 goals in 45 games, many, I would imagine, from Dykes flick-ons or lay-offs. With us, Dykes is too often isolated and I'd like to see him play with someone like Nahki Wells (who absolutely is a natural striker) up top with him. I don't imagine that's going to happen at Rangers, though.

 

[Frome-Ranger]

I'll be honest this analysis of the game made me chuckle.

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[Wherever]

Never seen a Blackpool shirt around here (North London) before but just seen a jogger with one pass my house a minute ago, glory hunter

 

[SW Ranger]

The injuries are a pain in the arse. We need to see a settled Beale line-up, with all options open. With some key players out it’s impossible to see our best line-up yet.
Good to see our defence building into a more solid unit. With a little more time they can only get better.

But Dykes! Geez, what a shocker. Saw a little of him early on and was struck how poor his attitude looked - turned out to be representative of his game by the sounds of it. As a club we do seem to have a knack of turning promising attackers into nothing.

 

[QPAAAAAGH]

My problem with Beales tactics are mainly with his use of his wing backs.. ..which I don't understand and leaves acres of space for the opposition to run into.
At one stage Laird was hanging around the centre line with Dozzell behind him.

I disagree with a lot of your report which has way too much positivity for such an awful showing but this part is spot on. Blackpool had an easy escape route from pressure the entire game and were able to exploit an overload down both wings pretty much whenever they fancied it. I was amazed it took so long for them to score via this route TBH. This is coaching 101 surely?

 

[QPR Oslo]

I don't understand quite why Beale has us playing like we have 2 wing backs but with only 2 at the back. It left loads of space behind the backs which Pool were able to exploit whenever they won the ball from us while we were going forward. It gave them their goal and 3 points with Paal caught up field (as Laird was too but he did get back quick), plus of course their good finish. Perhaps our backs weren't both supposed to be going forward together but they did, and it caused a lot of problems with Pool looking to and able to exploit it. I think Beale needs to go 3 at the back when Salter is back, if not earlier by using one of the back up CB's. We have more wing backs than backs now in Laird, Paal and Nico and 3 at the back will also better allow him to play 2 strikers. We are also missing Barbet's ability to cover behind the other Backs when they get done, though hopefully Salter has that.

Our own finishing was terrible last night. Hope they are working hard on improving that in training. From what Beale is saying now, we don't have the Budget to bring in a new striker.

 

[bobmid]

Home game Saturday, I'm fully expecting Dykes and Johanson to start again. Can't see him starting Armstrong anytime soon. Hopefully Willock will be back but we have heard that before. Its going to be a topsy-turvy season that's for sure. Come the January transfer window. I make the bold prediction that an offer comes in for Willock that we can't refuse.

 

[Sooperhoop]

Our own finishing was terrible last night. Hope they are working hard on improving that in training. From what Beale is saying now, we don't have the Budget to bring in a new striker.

If we don't bring in a striker that can actually score we'll be in the bottom 3 by the end of the year...