Match Day Thread Queens Park Rangers FC v Sunderland AFC – Saturday 16th August 2023 - KO 15:00

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Your prediction

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Smug in Boots said:
That's a decent defence and I take your point.

But what happens if this 'new style' fades, what next ...

... it's not as if Ainsworth arrived this summer, he was there last season so it's taken him a while to work things out.

As an outsider I just don't rate him and his attritional, backs to the wall, empty the tank approach.
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He inherited an absolute mess and initially stuck to what he knew. It was a bit ugly and backs to the wall but ultimately he just about did the job he had to do in keeping us up though it went down poorly with the fans.

He’s been hamstrung by the lack of funds- we pulled the plug on some low six figure lower league players- so he’s had to adapt to the collection of freebies and L1 level players we mostly have.

Honestly I don’t think the style now is that bad (including the first 20 minutes yesterday) and some opinions are being clouded by the Wycombe team.
 
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TopCat_ said:
Missed the game yesterday as we had a family day out for my son's birthday. Kept up with the scores of course and watched the highlights back this morning.
I expected a battle, but it looks like we were comfortably the better team and should have scored more. Colback's cowardly challenge on a kid half his age was a disgrace and 100% a red card
Ainsworth was very complimentary about us again - he seems to be one of the few managers who has a fair opinion on games when he loses.

Amazing how the world looks now, 10 points from 4 games and seemingly endless options in the squad

Bad news on Cirkin and it's yet another injury for the kid which is a worry, but now is Huggins' chance to nail down a spot in the team - I assume his substitution at HT yesterday was tactical and not injury/performance related?
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Yeah Tony was reading the forum at halftime and decided to go 3 at the back as a result, I believe it was Roberts brought on for Huggins. Worked a treat.
 
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Bwood_Ranger said:
He inherited an absolute mess and initially stuck to what he knew. It was a bit ugly and backs to the wall but ultimately he just about did the job he had to do in keeping us up though it went down poorly with the fans.

He’s been hamstrung by the lack of funds- we pulled the plug on some low six figure lower league players- so he’s had to adapt to the collection of freebies and L1 level players we mostly have.

Honestly I don’t think the style now is that bad (including the first 20 minutes yesterday) and some opinions are being clouded by the Wycombe team.
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That's a fair point although we can see some similarities with QPR.

I just feel that he's too one dimensional in his approach and your better players won't respond to him while the lesser ones will.

Judging by his 'satorial style' he seems unlikely to change ...

... surely there comes a time in every 50 year old's life when he should look in the mirror and think 'hmmm' instead of 'coooool' <laugh>
 
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Gil T Azell said:
On that note anybody know what happened to Roger
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I've mentioned this before, but I believe that Roger has gone to Kenya to help with finishing the building of a house (his, I believe), although that was a few months ago :emoticon-0148-yes:

His settings are obviously wrong 'cos nobody seems to be allowed to p.m. him (I tried a couple of months ago).
 
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Bwood_Ranger said:
He inherited an absolute mess and initially stuck to what he knew. It was a bit ugly and backs to the wall but ultimately he just about did the job he had to do in keeping us up though it went down poorly with the fans.

He’s been hamstrung by the lack of funds- we pulled the plug on some low six figure lower league players- so he’s had to adapt to the collection of freebies and L1 level players we mostly have.

Honestly I don’t think the style now is that bad (including the first 20 minutes yesterday) and some opinions are being clouded by the Wycombe team.
Click to expand...

You‘re going to have more knowledge about your own club obviously all I can go off is what I see as a general football fan because QPR aren’t really a club I’m interested in - no offence!

But the 2 games you’ve won this season you’ve scored 2 goals in both and only had 2 shots on target. Yesterday I think you only had the 1 on target. You can’t go the season scoring every time you hit the target unfortunately that luck will run out eventually and if you’re not creating chances then the goals wont come.

I know some of the lads on the boards aren’t really into stats in football too much which I respect because they can often be misleading and misinterpreted but I’m a big believer that the statistical evidence will end up prevailing 9 times out of 10 - something I always stood by with us turning our fortunes around because we were dominating games we just couldn’t put the ball in the net. I’d rather start the season battering teams and struggling to score than get battered but score from a corner and sneak a win because sooner or later domination turns into results. One example I’ll use that have started the season flying on paper but I’d put my mortgage on them falling away before long - Preston.

Anyway onto the rant.. QPR have averaged 32% possession so far this season, the lowest in the league. They’ve also only averaged 8 shots per game which is the 2nd bottom behind Rotherham who are favs for relegation that’s not even to mention shots on target. 2nd bottom for short passes per game, 2nd bottom for progressive passes, joint 3rd bottom for crosses per game, joint bottom for through balls but top 5 for long balls with sub 70% passing accuracy.

That to me paints a picture of how QPR are going to play this season and I just don’t think they have the quality to do much. If they do survive it’ll be by the skin of their teeth I’d imagine.
 
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WorkyTicketFTM said:
You‘re going to have more knowledge about your own club obviously all I can go off is what I see as a general football fan because QPR aren’t really a club I’m interested in - no offence!

But the 2 games you’ve won this season you’ve scored 2 goals in both and only had 2 shots on target. Yesterday I think you only had the 1 on target. You can’t go the season scoring every time you hit the target unfortunately that luck will run out eventually and if you’re not creating chances then the goals wont come.

I know some of the lads on the boards aren’t really into stats in football too much which I respect because they can often be misleading and misinterpreted but I’m a big believer that the statistical evidence will end up prevailing 9 times out of 10 - something I always stood by with us turning our fortunes around because we were dominating games we just couldn’t put the ball in the net. I’d rather start the season battering teams and struggling to score than get battered but score from a corner and sneak a win because sooner or later domination turns into results. One example I’ll use that have started the season flying on paper but I’d put my mortgage on them falling away before long - Preston.

Anyway onto the rant.. QPR have averaged 32% possession so far this season, the lowest in the league. They’ve also only averaged 8 shots per game which is the 2nd bottom behind Rotherham who are favs for relegation that’s not even to mention shots on target. 2nd bottom for short passes per game, joint 3rd bottom for crosses per game, joint bottom for through balls but top 5 for long balls with sub 70% passing accuracy.

That to me paints a picture of how QPR are going to play this season and I just don’t think they have the quality to do much. If they do survive it’ll be by the skin of their teeth I’d imagine.
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That’s fair but then Ainsworth routinely had the worst stats in the league on almost every metric while getting success at Wycombe. Possession especially is becoming increasingly overrated and not indicative of success. Our xG is quite poor but that’s heavily influenced by the shellacking at Watford which ought to have been about 12-0.

Certain stats were surprisingly ok. Highest SOT% in the league (as you say though, from relatively few shots) and a high goal tally relative to shots.

Also the first rule of any dataset is to have enough data to be reasonably robust and I don’t think we have that yet. We’ve played four fancied teams and only had two home games both against teams expected to be up there (admittedly we tend to be better away and have been for some time) so maybe that changes.

We’ve got, on paper, a kinder run of games now so if we don’t pick up wins over the next four or five I’ll be concerned but I’m not right now to be honest and I thought we were nailed on to go down when I backed it at 4/1 pre-season (since cashed out).
 
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Bwood_Ranger said:
That’s fair but then Ainsworth routinely had the worst stats in the league on almost every metric while getting success at Wycombe. Possession especially is becoming increasingly overrated and not indicative of success. Our xG is quite poor but that’s heavily influenced by the shellacking at Watford which ought to have been about 12-0.

Certain stats were surprisingly ok. Highest SOT% in the league (as you say though, from relatively few shots) and a high goal tally relative to shots.

Also the first rule of any dataset is to have enough data to be reasonably robust and I don’t think we have that yet. We’ve played four fancied teams and only had two home games both against teams expected to be up there (admittedly we tend to be better away and have been for some time) so maybe that changes.

We’ve got, on paper, a kinder run of games now so if we don’t pick up wins over the next four or five I’ll be concerned but I’m not right now to be honest and I thought we were nailed on to go down when I backed it at 4/1 pre-season (since cashed out).
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Yeah definitely agree the sample size is too small to take it as gospel just yet but needs to improve if you’re to have a good chance. One silver lining could be the big lad up top he looks decent but he needs service.

I disagree about possession but that’s a subject always up for debate to be fair there’s no wrong or right answer! I just think teams who tend to be heading in the right direction are those who dominate the ball and create loads of chances, I’m just happy that I can watch us play like that after some of the **** I had to endure in league one. Totally understand having a game plan against the better teams but it seems to have been every team that you’re up against so far - I do appreciate that the likes of Us, Norwich, Southampton do tend to dominate the ball though. Next few games are vital both Swansea and Birmingham are winnable.

Wycombe was different to QPR in my opinion because even though they didn’t play with a lot of possession the excelled at physical football in a league that doesn’t really have the quality to punish you like the championship does, as we seen when they got promoted. They were head and shoulders (literally) the best at what they were trying to do. In league 1 they had so many big physical players it was just long ball after long ball all game but they still had plenty of shots it wasn’t just sit back and play the long ball on the counter. Every time they had a set piece you thought you were going to score. They made every game a slog whereas I don’t think QPR are at that level of physicality.
 
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Gordon Armstrong said:
I've mentioned this before, but I believe that Roger has gone to Kenya to help with finishing the building of a house (his, I believe), although that was a few months ago :emoticon-0148-yes:

His settings are obviously wrong 'cos nobody seems to be allowed to p.m. him (I tried a couple of months ago).
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Nice 1 GA.

Always thought he was an ignorant tw*t anyway <laugh><laugh><laugh>.
 
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