QPR boss makes plea to his defence Mar 19 2012 By Paul Warburton QPR boss Mark Hughes has pleaded with his defence to give the club a fighting chance of beating the drop. Sparky admitted it hasnât been easy for an ever-changing Rangers back four since he arrived in January. But the manager insists there is enough quality in the team to remain a Premier League outfit â provided they can keep a clean sheet starting with the visit of Liverpool on Wednesday night. He said: âItâs been difficult on occasions. âWe lost Luke Young to injury. Danny Gabbidon went out of the side and Taye Taiwo and Armand Traore went away on international duty. âA settled back four is a pre-requisite, and the last couple of games weâve tried to get a bit of continuity. âDefenders like to know whoâs alongside them and whoâs in front of them, but we havenât been able to do that.â Hughes reckons the Rs strike force of Bobby Zamora and Djibril Cissé have goals in them â itâs about making sure what they do at one end of the pitch doesnât get undone at the other. He added: âWe know that to score weâve got to release Djibril and Bobby in good areas, and on paper we look as if weâve got a cutting edge. âIf we can keep a number of clean sheets, then I think weâve got the quality at the other end. Itâs all about striking a balance.â
"QPR boss makes plea to his defence" About f-ing time!! I wonder if you stole Dirk Kuyt's judges wig for a haircut he would still have such an impact...
It's time to drop Ferdinand,he hasn't been the same since the whole Terry affair.Move Onouha to centre-half with Clint,and bring back Young at right-back.Young is the better right-back and has more attacking threat,and comes up with the odd goal.However i just can't see us keeping a clean sheet again this season,there's just too many individual mistakes and lack of concentration!
TBH the problem in the last few games has not been with the core defence who have been pretty sound but with those that play in front and behind them. We give the ball away so many times in midfield and defenders who are often also asked to attack will always struggle to cover when that happens. And there is that nagging question mark about Kenny that won't go away - could he/should he have done better for those critical goals? We are also increasingly under threat from set pieces as there are no cirmcumstances in which the goalkeeper attempts to challenge crosses.
I hoped Anton would have be replaced by Gabbi a while ago, but now I'm not so sure - for the reason MH writes about here, we do need a settled back 4. Think we should keep rhe same 4 and stick with 2 defensive holding midfielders in front of them, Barton and Diakite, as Adel is back. leave out Derry,
And who put Danny Gabbidon out of the side Mr Hughes? I'm still not sure about Zamora having "goals in him". He's never been prolific. Maybe he can set Cisse up. Is that what he means?
This man knows his football IMO .. the other team can't score without the ball... You practice defensive set plays time and time again but unless the keeper and the defence are completely one its the biggest rick area. I have never understood why the keepers train separately at times when the back five should be completely aware .... this has not been the case. As a shot stopper Kenny is up there with the best but as a dominant cross taker he is very very poor and that at times is the difference of a free header
While the Defense is not without blame, if the midfield did their job the defense would have a lot better time of it ie not retaining the ball, giving away cheap possession in silly areas, not tracking players back etc. If I had to pick and area of the team which has put in this situation this year, it would be a close call but I would say middle of the park.
Spot on there. IMO I don't think it was the defence that needed strengthening a'tall in January and I said so at the time. Our midfield and lack of a goal-scorer has always been the problem.
Exactly lads. Barton, SWP etc etc just simply can't hold the ball for more than 3 passes. When you give the ball away cheaply at this level you get punished. That's happened to us several times this year. Barton in particular has given the ball away so easily at times its shocking. For most of this year our midfielders have not created enough, resulting in a lack of goals for us and have been slow to track back leaving our back 4 terribly exposed at times.
