Now that sounds like you want us to go for them? That's what most of us are saying. No point sitting back and waiting to be picked off. Also, I'm sick and tired of sitting in my seat and watching us surrender territory and possession at home. Every game me and the boy sit and watch the opposition teams play. Really sick of it!
Might have been at the spreaddies (sez Ubes all bashful like). I don't have a problem with Zamora, but worry about his fitness. I just have a preference for the big old centre forward a la Ted McDougall, Bob Latchford, Heidar Helgusson to put himself about a bit, niggle the central defenders and win balls. I want Bothroyd to have a go at being that, but has he the bottle? No problem with Granero playing slightly deeper, though centrally. If Taarabt or Townsend play wide but can cut in - Taarabt certainly would do this - then you'd want Granero to hang back a bit, which ought to help him with his vision, anticipation and reading of the game. I could see him be all the more effective for this. I would love to see the return of the Diakite we loved 12 months ago. Him and Mbia have the potential to be much loved Rs... They just need to play with smiles on their faces and do what they're undoubtedly both capable of.
The only problem I have with all your talk about Granero is that I don't rate him too much. Happy to be proved wrong however.
I think HR's plan going into the game was realistic, and so did many others considering the teams selected by numerous posters (myself included) which placed Taarabt up-front in the role he played against Chelsea. As DT says, the plan was to stay in the game then go for a winner - a reasonable objective in a tough away game against a team that plays possession football. My issue was his selection of both Mbia and Derry: we didn't need both; we needed another ball player in there to control the game a bit more and bring Taarabt into the play - Granero, despite some poor displays has looked better in recent weeks and should have been given the starting berth. My main issue is that he let Cisse go out on loan. I've moaned about him, but he was still the best goal-scorer we had and could have done an excellent job coming off the bench. We don't have the firepower to get out of this.
I don't think he had the stomach for a fight, having lived a comfortable life warming the bench at Real. Again, a few minutes in a dark room with Joe Jordan ought to disabuse him of the notion that he can saunter back to a cushy Spanish side at the end of the season. I agree with the comments on this thread made by a couple of others that he's looked better recently. This has to continue, of course.
Leaning against an open door on that one with me mate. Harry didn't rate him, but it was a ridiculous decision to loan him out with our dearth of striker options.
I think you will find that Cisse wanted out old tweets and the abuse he got was very bad. His ego is massive you only have to look at his Mr Lenoir label to see that ... Quatar opens doors and his footballing career is now secondary as in France they think he is finished anyhow. I strongly believe from the French articles I have seen he wanted out ... He mixes in very high circles and to be fair lost of form and out of favour at looking around the bush Be honest it's a no brainer In France he also believed in Hughes and was looking to get away as soon as Hughes was sacked There was no way he could stay and he was also quoted as saying the party is over at QPR the dream went sour I looked into this before Xmas You simply can't play players that a think they are hated no longer believe and are wildly out of form. Generally it a culture thing and Cisse is French generally people don't dwell and turn the page as soon as it looks out of date. Anglo Saxons and the influence of this race don't see things the same it's not wrong it's not right but its different Best way I can highlight it is the fact we queue and think that is 100% correct .. It is of course unless you need to be somewhere else
Watch it again regardless of the score ... posts saying that was the worse performance or that we are the worse team in premiership history ... FFS and to wonder why I gave out a bit of chops DT, It's not my intention to reopen a can of worms with you but that's the third time that you have misquoted me. To put it right once and for all, I said that we will go down as "ONE of the worst teams in Prem history" NOT the worst one. The last team that went down that people said were 'too good' was that famous West Ham team. Looking at our expensively assembled squad which contains several champions league winning players, I'd think its more than reasonable to at least ask the question of how the fook have they only managed to win 2 games out of 26? We have a team who was managed by a man with top four experience with Man City and also had a decent international record with Wales and could not get them to function properly. I know MH unravelled before our eyes with strange player and formation decisions but it couldn't be all his fault!!!! Harry is regarded by many as a top top manager and yet despite his valiant efforts our team still looks incapable of functioning as a unit. Our players have massively under performed. In too many games we have simply been out thought and out fought. I have to admit that I'm struggling with indecision as to whether these players are good enough or not. I think you're right when you say that there is quality there and all it needs is a spark but can you really see us scoring enough to stay up. What has concerned me most, is that all the other teams at the bottom seem capable of scoring goals while we don't. We set up every game to keep it tight and not to loose and invariably when we concede, we look clueless, chase the game and get cut to shreds. Watch our play. We can't put a string of passes together. Our players don't look comfortable on the ball. Confidence is so very low. While picking up single points in Alamo style defensive games has steadied the ship it has blunted our creativity beyond belief. I posted a few weeks ago that while I admired Harry's ability to tighten us up defensively, I felt his biggest challenge would be to get us creating and scoring more. I stand by this comment. The reason I am so disheartened is because despite the effort our players are now putting in we are stuck in a rut of loosing and TBH we don't look like we know how to win anymore. People say winning is a habit. Well, it's a habit we haven't learned. Having watched the Swansea match again I disagree with some of your comments above. Swansea out passed us, out fought us and with that possession out scored us. We lived off scraps. They moved the ball around with ease. A well drilled hard working team. I think thats the key point. We haven't learned to fight, play and work as a team. Just my thoughts.
Great post NUTS. And that snippet hits the nail on the head. Our players are a disgrace. A total and utter disgrace (bar a couple of notable exceptions). Hughes was awful. The Board have been silly and unforgivably naive. Both very true. But to have a highly paid, experienced squad of players such as these win only two games out of 26 is a dreadful indictment of their professionalism, work ethic and self respect. They are a disgrace and I'm ashamed to have a lot of them at the Club.
I do not agree with most of this post I do agree that Swansea have a beautiful system... The scoreline is a bit obvious about Sat and I still believe most comments on this board after a match are knee jerk or reactions to a lost. We have out fought and out played better teams than Swansea this season and yet have little to show again obvious by our league position and points total. Any team at the bottom of the table will be suffering from a lack of confidence... again obvious. We are not West Ham now or then we are QPR that is obvious. Obviously there is something wrong but Saturday even if we were accept the obvious we did in fact produce a number of opportunity that could have produced goals. Swansea City passed us to death for sure and they ran out easy winners my point about that match was that the goals were sloppy in fact three of them were our direct errors. I have also see enough to base my belief that we can be very creative as and when going forward. Our position is Obvious what is the point therefore of thinking we can't get out of this? when it is entirely possible to turn this our way in effect fans and posters are giving up on their team and that goes against everything i believe a football supporter should be
Oddball, how can two wins in 26 and bottom of the table, 7 points from safety be a "knee jerk" reaction? If it was one or two defeats now and again that would be a different story. But its all season so how THE FU*K could it be "knee jerk"?
Be interesting to know the points per £m spent for the three managers as well. It's got to be easier to pick up points for Harry spending £12m or so on Samba and inheriting MH's costly purchases than it was for Colin who pretty much kept you up without spending vast amounts. Much as i dislike the bloke as a one-eyed, whining bad loser I think he did a pretty decent job for you.
I made it clear that the knee jerk reaction are made after the matches with such comments as one of the worst team in premiership teams in history which of course we are not having recently held the current champions and beating the champions of europe. If we only had one or two defeats we would probably be top of the league. It is fact that comments posted on here after the matches are knee jerk mainly because we have lost ... I will go further and directly accuse certain posters of now not knowing the difference between good and bad performances in footballing terms. Yourself have the opinion for instance that Adel missed a penalty whereas it was in fact saved .. therefore using these and countless example the focus gets lost with pure disappointment and things are said that either are incorrect or said in the spur of the moment hence my use of the term knee jerk. I am also considering introducing a new term called hand jerk which as we know you maybe familiar with. The plan is now clear survival after a host of poor predictions by the likes of myself as well as others who are still unable to feel the energy and face the power collectivity in front of us.
Dave, I have tremendous sympathy with your argument, but it is extremely difficult to convince myself that the Rs have put in more good performances than bad in the season to date. Of course the results against Manchester City and Chelsea were very welcome, but can we really say that they were deserved, the Chelsea result in particular? I said earlier that the highlight of the season so far has been our valiant defensive performances. The highlight! That we might have played some lovely stuff, such as at White Hart Lane, I guess is beyond argument. But we lost that game as we have lost so many others. If, therefore we have played lovely stuff, little of it will be remembered when the final league table reveals itself. And this suggests that this lovely stuff has been fleeting and ineffective. When you've won but 2 games all season one can hardly proffer the argument that we've simply been unlucky. I agree that we are all prone to knee-jerk reaction after defeat. I guess this is because we are all so passionate and with this passion comes the pain, anger and upset of all too many defeats and abject performances. Whilst these knee-jerks manifest themselves in colourful Anglo-Saxon language and the odd skirmish with each other on this site, I don't believe that they cause many to overreact and describe a different game to that which was actually played. I suspect that if the overall performance was good, many would hit this site to say how unlucky we were and how we deserved more from the game. This is not happening and the overwhelming consensus is that this is because the Rs are poor. You see a different game and I respect that, but your position can evoke images of Canute denying the tide. We would all love to be wrong and for you to be right, believe me, but we just are not seeing it your way. Finally, your dissection of the Swansea game, whilst wholly accurate, does not excuse the fact that these defensive lapses, unlucky episodes and poor refereeing decisions have been an all too familiar feature of our season. I strongly believe that you ultimately make your own luck and, on overwhelming evidence, for this team the luck is bad.
I said one or two defeats now and again, not in the whole season you eejit. On the whole we should have been winning almost as many as we lost this season. That is a missed penalty Oddball. A missed penalty is one that is not scored. I am familiar with it but my eyesight is getting so bad that its jeopardizing my very ability to contribute to this Board.
Very Good Swords! I think it's also affected Oddball's eyesight as he's clearly not seeing the shyte we've been served up this season...
