That's a strange stat considering we failed to score in four of them.
Match Day Thread QPR vs Portsmouth
- Thread starter daverangers
- Start date
-
Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
-
But the other 3 are midfielders not strikers and all joined the club at a much later age than Kolli.
Surely a better comparison would be a home grown striker. Let’s say Clive Allen, who scored 32 goals in his first 49 appearances for us and was still a teenager. Kolli has taken 51 appearances to get 10.
Obviously a big win - and 2 on the bounce - is very welcome, but for me tempered by the fact that we were playing 2 very poor sides, and us really riding our luck. The number of free shots that Pompey had from the edge of our area was shocking, and a better strike force would've buried us
More realistic tests of us as a side will be our remaining away games - teams that we need to be matching if we have any realistic prospect of a strong finish next season
I doubt that we'll have the financial capacity for significant signings in the summer (given our large loss for 24/25) without moving on existing players for decent fees
More realistic tests of us as a side will be our remaining away games - teams that we need to be matching if we have any realistic prospect of a strong finish next season
I doubt that we'll have the financial capacity for significant signings in the summer (given our large loss for 24/25) without moving on existing players for decent fees
If we compare every player to Clive Allen we may have slightly elevated expectations.
I get your point though.
Apparently one of their players, Ebou Adams, was in tears after the game and was consoled by Hayden and Clarke-Salter.
I struggled to think of any others…but Kolli doesn’t seem light on self regard judging by his ‘worship me’ style goal celebration after his second.
About the only time that JCS hasn't legged it straight down the tunnel at FT rather than staying with the team
Might sound harsh but surely it was the responsibility of the Pompey players / staff to look after Adams, not members of our squad?
The other 3 are not strikers....although in my mind Adel was as much a striker as Kolli is (or vice versa....but obvious not in the same class, or should I say universe)..
I think this is half his problem and I know every good striker needs a sense of superiority but Kane and Lineker's was more self contained and easier to ignore. However, Adel's was in the same realm as Kolli's (yes I know he earnt it) If by some divine accident we find a good, creative and consistently positive team next year, he would be an excellent striker. (damn my room has just filled full of flying pigs)
Six touches in the box, six goals - the epitome of clinical?
You must log in or register to see images
Image source,ShutterstockImage caption,
QPR had lost their previous three games at Loftus Road before Saturday
ByMichael Beardmore
BBC Sport Senior Journalist
- Published
3 hours ago - 32 Comments
- Published
"Boys were ruthless today," Rangers midfielder Harvey Vale posted on social media, external platform X after Saturday's 6-1 thumping of Portsmouth.
And, boy, he was not wrong.
Just how often does a team score as many goals as they have had touches in the box? Nigh on never.
"It was a clinical game," Rangers manager Julien Stephan, in a somewhat understated manner, told BBC Radio London.
The stats made stunning reading - the R's registered just nine shots (to Pompey's 20) but eight of those were on target and six found the net.
No wonder the Pompey players looked rocked at the final whistle - they had 28 more touches in the area than QPR but it counted for nothing.
You must log in or register to see images
Of QPR's six touches in the visitors' area, three were goals - Paul Smyth's cool one-on-one finish to make it 3-0, Rayan Kolli crashing a superb strike across the goalkeeper and Richard Kone's late penalty.
Their other three strikes were from outside the box, and the same three scorers - Smyth whipping the opener into the top corner from 20 yards, Kolli finding the bottom corner from even further out and Kone drilling home the sixth from near the D.
"It was not our best offensive collective performance - we have had better games collectively," R's boss Stephan said.
Not their best offensive performance? Watford, QPR's next visitors on Friday, 3 April after the international break, best watch out.
'Football is very strange' - from firing blanks to ruthless R's
You must log in or register to see images
05:10
Media caption,
Stephan: 'Not even our best offensive performance'
Saturday's spectacular sharp-shooting marked the second successive game that QPR had their scoring boots on.
They only had three shots on target at Leicester City a week earlier - but scored them all in a 3-1 win at King Power Stadium.
Prior to that, though, Rangers had lost four consecutive games without netting - a run that had raised fears, since proven premature, of being dragged into relegation trouble.
"It was really important for us to be able to break the bad run we had before - four defeats in a row without a goal," Frenchman Stephan added.
"Sometimes football is very strange - we didn't score during four games and then the last two games we score three against Leicester and six today, with the same players and the same instructions.
"It is difficult to explain everything in football - when you have a game like this, you just have to enjoy it."
Some QPR fans on social media claimed the footballing gods were merely repaying them after being on the other end of a similar scenario earlier this season.
Rangers were thumped 7-1 by Coventry in August - when the Sky Blues scored with seven of their eight shots on target.
Was it the most clinical performance ever?
You must log in or register to see images
According to our friends at Opta, yes.
Admittedly they only began collecting data on touches in the opposition box in 2019-20.
But no other side scoring three or more goals in a game since those records began can match QPR's clinical ratio on Saturday.
The graphic above - Premier League and Championship games only - shows that some other sides have come close.
Southampton had just seven touches in the box in a 4-3 win, featuring two trademark James Ward-Prowse free-kicks, at Aston Villa in November 2020.
Saints had been on the other end two months earlier - when Son Heung-min inspired Tottenham to a 5-2 win at St Mary's Stadium despite having only eight touches in the area.
Further down the leagues, MK Dons touched the ball only nine times in the box in a 5-3 opening-day League Two win at Wrexham in August 2023.
Coincidentally, on the same afternoon Barnsley only had 12 touches in the box when thrashing Port Vale 7-0 in League One.
But Stephan's QPR stand above them all - and it would be a surprise if their record is broken any time soon.
It was very noticeable that when the subs were being made Mbengue was desperate to take the long slow walk across the pitch to use up time but was forced to walk around the touchline by the ref. That was in sharp contrast to Kolli who was only too keen to jog off on the Ellerslie side so that he could take the plaudits on his half lap of honour. Despise the two well taken goals, he has a level of vanity that simply isn't merited by his current level of talent and certainly not his effort. It will be his downfall IMO, and he won't start once we have two fit strikers again. Not too late in his career to fix things with hard graft but I just can't see him doing it.
How pleasant to have a positive record for a change!
I'd still like a report into the other 3 touches though.
There are still 50% efficiency improvements to be made.
Totally agree.
Two well-taken goals but his vainglorious posturing after the 2nd was absolutely ridiculous. He seems to believe he is Messi.
Maybe acceptable when he is playing and scoring regularly as part of a high-flying team actually acomplishing something of note.....but not when he has scored a mere handful of goals as an occasional participant in an average, mid-table team.
Could be a good player, but needs to work harder and get a grip.
I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was celebrating the fact he put us further ahead in a game that still could have gone the other way. Even watching online from afar, the relief was palpable.
I reckon having self confidence, if that is what it is, is a Big Plus for a young striker. Here's to hope that Kolli keeps it. They were 2 very good strikes, especially that 2nd one.
Yes keep the self confidence but work harder off the ball.
The ability and confidence is there to achieve
The missing bit is the easy bit to improve - just work harder with no “token effort” closing down or trying to win the ball.
Before his first goal he had literally done nothing