Having watched QPR for most of the first half of the season, the following are my thoughts. This is not a reaction of todays result but a summary of the season so far; General Points We are not scoring enough goals. We are not creating enough chances. Our home form is very poor and will cost us badly. Our set pieces are average to poor. Quality in our first team is thin, and in our squad threadbare. We are to soft as a team. We don't tackle hard enough and loose too many 50:50 tackles. We do not play consistently with desire and passion. We look like we are afraid to express ourselves as a team and individually. We are very poor at defending crosses and this will be targeted by other teams as the season goes on. While our players run the necessary hard yards, because of the lack of quality they are often (too often) not getting into decent positions. Our defence is OK, not brilliant but ok. Our midfield is very very poor. Just no creativity. See individual notes below. Our strickers are average but are not getting enough quality ball from midfield. We are not sure yet of our best formation. Our full backs do not overlap enough. Both our central midfielders look like they can't/won't break into the box to support the attack. NW can't be judged properly yet as his options are limited. We are in a relegation dogfight. Stop talking sh**e about europe or midtable. If we don't improve quickly, we will go down. Our survival depends not on another stricker or CB (nice but not necessary), but buying midfielders who can take on opposition defenders. We have two good fullbacks but nothing happening in front of them. Ferdinand. Our best CB. Missed badly when he is not there. Think Bassong (if he comes)would be a great partner. Gabbidon Decent replacement, but not great. A panic buy IMO. Would be ok against poor opposition. Traore A good buy. young, will continue to improve. Should be tried more at winger as he loves to go forward. Young Solid Barton Average, over hyped, over paid, not playing well enough to justify the off-field probs. Needs to produce or warm the bench Faurlin Workd hard, not physical enough, tends to give the ball away too much. Very few of his passes go forward. I have my doubts. SWP A bad buy. Runs all day but NO end product. Just cannot cross the ball. There are thousands of players out there who can run like him. Team not playing to the one strength he has - pace. Always seems to get the ball with his back to the goal. Mackie Love the guy, but simply not good enough. I can run like him and prob cross the ball better. HH Workhorse. Not being helped by the team. Needs wingers who can whip in a good ball. Bootsy & DJ Won't be at the club going forward. Again neither being helped by our midfielders. No creativity. I am not saying that we need to press the panic button just yet. But now we must beat Sunderland to stay on track. It will not be easy to buy good players in Jan. Most clubs will not sell. Thats why i wanted clarification from our self proclaimed ITKs. There will be a lot of clubs sniffing around for the few players that might be available. I hope we have solid deals already done as we need these new players in at the beginning of Jan and not 3 or 4 games later at the end of Jan. The players we buy must be quality and come straight into the team. Thoughts?
Overall your thoughts are far too harsh, I can´t be bothered to go into all your points, but there is also some truth in what you say. It does look like a knee jerk reaction on our last two performances which were poor against 2 of the big 5 or 6 established teams. If we loose against Sunderland I may start agreeing with more of your comments but I will wait until Wednesday night.
Thoughts? You must've been up all night putting that analysis together NUTS. A very good account though. Well done. I'd take issue with a couple of critical points (reckon our defence ain't bad and more threat going forward would take a lot of pressure off) but largely agree with you. We need to stop being interesting opponents and start scoring goals and points. The only reason we got any hope of staying up is the desire of our owners and the January sales. You're right about it not being a good time to purchase. High prices and low availability (to wit Torres and Carroll last year). It'll be loans mostly till summer.
Perhaps loans with a view to buying may not be a bad thing - Puncheon is an example of 'try before you buy' and I'm sure were all pleased we didn't buy him. Last years loans in Jan saw us home alright so maybe some well chosen loans could be what we need?
If the tabloids are right (no smoke without fire), Barton has alienated Adel in training. He has openly criticized him also in the media. And his tweeting is embarassing. He draws attention on himself and hense our club. He came with a big reputation. So far all tweet and no performance.
I think your assessment is 100% accurate Nuts. Please will someone tell me why NW subd heidar instead of that useless article Bothroyd. Im thinking maybe the pressure is getting to NW.
My thoughts are not restricted to our last two games. I never really felt we were strong enough to take points off those two big clubs. What i did expect however was a performance. We had an initial spark about us that seems to have died. My points above are just my thoughts as to why we are not performing well consistently, why we are not creating chances and why we are not scoring enough goals to win matches.
Fair enough Nuts, but note that I am agreeing on some of your points and may agree on a few more after the Sunderland game. What I will say the last two games were very disapointing as you say not from a result prospective but a preformance and that does worry me espicially if you compare Norwich´s performances against L´pool & Utd.
Brix, took me less than 5 minutes cause i have been feeling/thinking this for several weeks. Still, as i mentioned above, i'm not panicking just yet. There are many positives too, just we seem to be playing with shackles on at the moment. Movement poor, energy poor etc etc
Well if the tabloids say it it must be true. If Taarabt has been 'alienated' I'd be inclined to say he's brought it on himself given his performances and conduct. I couldn't give a toss if he uses twitter or speaks to the press as long as he performs for the club and he generally has.
Cerny, i was not going to reply to this but i won't let you awy with anything. I can guarantee that the few games i get to every year cost me every bit as much as you. Now, your responses are so childishly poor it's laughable. Participate properly in this thread and offer a well constructed arguement and of course i will listen, otherwise buck off.
What's concerning is who are looking worse than us right now? Possibly only Bolton right now. Blackburn and Wolves have stronger squads and Wigan, Swansea and Norwich are playing a better, more together class of football. We don't have a Yakubu or a Rodallega and that's a massive disadvantage. Helgusson and Mackie try their best, Bothroyd just doesn't have it and there's a problem. What happens if Adel went in a straight swap deal with no money involved? Where does that leave us regarding Spurs and the sell on issue?
Barton needs a spell on the bench although to me his heart is not with our club came for a pay day,was absolute rubbish today would rather have derry at least he plays with passion.Thought tarbs played well when he came on should have bought him on earlier rant over.
Can't see Barton ever being dropped, he wants the whole team to revolve around him and this was probably promised to him when he signed. I thought he was better than usual first half, but my opinion of him is always pretty low. Thought the free kick at the end sums him up and the fact he probably blames someone else for it. Also think Bothroyd doesn't deserve the stick he gets and that WP seems to be getting worse - assume his confidence is totally gone.
