There were 2 main problems wth our defensive disply yesterday: players and formation Players- Fitz Hall is not serviceable as a CB in any division of league football. He continually gets turned by even the slowest of strikers, has no aerial dominance despite being 6ft tall and has no understanding of postion. Most worryingly though, is that he has absolutely no understanding with the rest of his defenders. He regularly plays strikers onside because he has no idea where his fellow defenders are. Yesterday Blackburn's game plan and only attacking option was to get Yakubu to stick to Fitz Hall and the continually play the long ball. This worked incredibly well. Hall failed to win a single header and as a result Anton Ferdinand was forced to come over to provide cover generating a massive gap in our back 4. Hughes made the wrong team selection from the start. Onuoha and Ferdinand should have remained in the centre with Taiwo at LB and Hill at RB. Hill is not one of our best players by a long margin but he is a better option than switching Onuoha outwide and playing Hall. Even if Hughes didnt want to play Onuoha as a CB then he should have played Gabbidon. Gabbidon has been fairly poor this season yet he is still a better option than Hall. Formation- when defending we instantly form 2 lines of 4. This is correct in principle however it requires your players to continually step up and draw offside and to also track the nearest man to them. However yesterday, Blackburn were able to pass through these rigid lines with ease. The 4 line approach only works when you have 4 skilled players. If not, then you have to close men down and put them under pressure. This has been a continual problem of ours this season. We need to start putting pressure on strikers from the start. When we did this in the seccond half, Blackburn had no chances. When defending set pieces or crosses you have to play either man or zone coverage. You have either have to assign a man and then stick to him, or alternatively everyone gets a zone and they cover whoever is in their zone until they leave. We play neither. All of Blackburns crosses and corners went to the far post towards their tallest player. He was covered by 2 players, Ferdinand and Onuoha. However one other player felt the need to track the biggest guy, Fitz Hall. The blackburn players role however was to head it back across goal where there would be Yakubu and another player unmarked waiting at the far post. I dont know if QPR didnt look into Blackburn in the slightest before yesterday's game or whether Blackburn's game plan took them by surprise. If the latter, it really shouldnt have. Watch any other game this season and you will see the opposition targeting Hall at every chance they get. Even if this was a shock to the players and the management, then the easiest solution would have been to take Hall off after 20 mins and to bring on Hill or Gabbidon before too much damage had been done but alas it took somehow until the 93rd minute to see the problems he had caused.
If you have a capable defensive midfielder the protection they give the back four can negate some of these weaknesses. I believe in players playing in their best positions so Ferdinand and Onuoha should be the central pairing regardless. Equally, in midfield Buz just can't play the defensive role and we were always going to be ripped apart by mobile and stronger players. The centre of our team yesterday was a disaster waiting to happen, if MH couldn't work that one out we are in the brown stuff up to our necks...
Totally disagree. Hall was by far our best defender yesterday. He made many great tackles, and won lots in the air. Also it was Anton who failed to stop Yakuba get his shot in for the first goal, Hall had lost the preceding aerial duel, and Kenny should have saved the shot easily. Reckon its a toss up who plays next game Hall or Anton. Also our biggest problem wasnt the back 4 but lack of a defensive midfield with Barton only putting in a shift there. Hope Diakite can fix that, we need a fix there bad!
Don't agree with most of the OP. The defending was schoolboyish granted and this stems from the lack of pressure put on the ball and its been the story of our season!. When we attack the midfield takes that long to get in supporting positions that when it breaks down there is a huge area between defence and midfield to be exposed at will. Hall wasn't as bad as you make out. Hill at right back is one strange and bizarre option you offer! Our defending stretches through the outfield ten players. Tonal marking is one of the stupidest suggestions i have ever heard.
I have said countless times before that the bedrock to a successful team is possession football. We have a squad of generally adequate, functional players. Very few have been blessed with a decent first touch, vision or guile. How many teams at the top half of the table are there despite, on average, having less possession of the ball across all their games? Because we don't have players that can hold onto the ball goes a long way to explaining why we are where we are in the league. Our "functional" players do a bit of chasing, a bit of blocking, a bit of headering, a lot of punting the ball upfield/out of play for a moments respite. But there's nowhere near enough passing to feet, movement, triangles, vision, options, support, confidence, swagger, ne'er say die and (there's that word again) guile. On MOTD last night, Lineker described Swansea and Norwich as "two promoted sides that have graced the Premier League this season". We might not like it, but compared with the abilities and style of play that we've seen from the Rs thus far, I happen to believe that he's not far wrong. Neither Swansea nor Norwich have overhauled their respective squads to the extent that we have this year. Both are "gracing" this league with ostensibly the same group of players that chased the Rs in vain last time around. And yet the Rs, big-spending in both transfer windows, look so far removed from being a team (in the purest sense of the word) that its all so very depressing. Blackpool went down last season having won many friends through their style of play. The Swans and the Canaries look likely to stay up having won many friends through their style of play. If the Rs are relegated, I can't see us being mourned by anybody other than our own fans. Sorry, all a bit gloomy, but its how I'm feeling.
We had the best defense in the Championship last season not necessarily because of the strengths of the back four, but because of the qualities of Derry and Faurlin to protect it. Now Faurlin is out injured and Derry doesn't have the legs for the championship, we have no protection. Diakite is hopefully the answer. It's a big ask. On top of this we had the best goalkeeper in the Championship, a goalkeeper who is currently looking like one of the worst in the Premiership. Swansea managed to upgrade their Championship goalie for a world class one, if only we had done the same... I agree that Hall wasn't the only one to blame for yesterday's first half performance, and he put in a couple of quality tackles in the 2nd half. That said though, he is not good enough for the Prem.
I can't help feeling that whoever fills the positions, it's consistency that counts. Last season, we had an exemplary defensive performance which I believe was borne out of keeping the same back 5 wherever possible. I have seen all our defensive players have great games and bad games and I honestly can't tell you which one will turn up on the day - although I think what assists to get their best game going is to play alongside the same individual. I don't know what the answer is, but MH needs to find his first choice, available back 5 asap....
Agree. I would have preferred to see Connolly and Gorkks out there yesterday. Hall and Ferdinand looked like they'd never met before.
I was hoping we would see a solid spine in our team after the window closed. Anton and Nedhum looked good, Cisse and Zamora was great business. However with a weak midfield centre, we have been shown to suffer. And it is costing us. Our midfield can neither support our defence, hold onto the ball or be creative enough to get the ball through to our front line! Not getting Peinnar has shown to be a real loss for us; I'm not convinced Diakite is ready yet (I would love to be wrong). Anton and Nedhum need to be in CB roles consistently now. Gel together and lead their line! They shouldn't be moving around.
This. Diakite does not have to be a fantastic player. Just mobile and able to tackle. If he is any better than this then thats a major advantage. MH now has a bit of time to bed in his Jan players and get the players functioning as a team. I expect us to start our real fight for survival now.
I watched Diakite in the 3rd place game and I thought he looked pretty good. Trouble is, he has no time to get used to the Prem cos, as others have said, he looks like our last hope in midfield!!
There was clearly something very funny about the sudden departure of Gorkks. I can only guess that there was a big falling out between him and Warnock over something, and the latter decided to offload the former double quick. I can't see that it was because Warnock believed he had particularly better in central defence his squad.
I think we need a settled CB pairing but not with Onouha. We need him at RB as Young has been a real liability there the last games, losing his man and us goals as a result. Think we should have Gabbi back in with either Hall or Anton, Hall for me based on their recent performances.
We're doomed if we're relying on a guy to come straight from the ACN to play his first ever games in English football, and play in a way that will keep us from being relegated. Madness
Well Buz or Derry don't cut it so we have only Diakite to hope for. MH should have got in a ready to start quality replacement for Ale. This failure more than anything may cost us our PL place. Though Paddy's performances latey make me think we should have gone for another Keeper too.
