Struggling to find the will power to write match reports now. Been a utterly dreadful season that I cant wait to see the back of tbh. Players clearly dont care, and im losing my will power at the moment all things related to QPR. But I will force myself! THE GAME Well once again we began quite brightly, and Taarabt had a shot within two minutes that went close. We had a number of half chances and many wide shots but were having much of the possession. We had the much better of the opening exchanges and were in control I thought. You know whats coming by now dont you!!! Stoke broke away when we had most of our players committed forwards and it was Samba v Jerome in a battle for pace. Only one winner and its not our 12.5 million defender. He managed to keep Jerome out to the edge of the area but let him get a low cross into Crouch who somehow was unmarked. Hill had no idea where he was. Bang. 1-0. Same old bloody story. In control, had most of the opportunities and we make one error and its cost us. That is the PL in one sentence. Half time and unlucky to be 1-0 down. Immediately memories of the Everton game came flooding back from last week. And I was hoping we wouldnt do the same and give up without a decent fight in the second half. 1-0 still gives us a chance, especially against the team with the worst form in the division. So second half. Tbh I cant really think of many decent opportunities we had. There were a couple, one namely being Sambas shot that Mbia blocked when it was certainly heading goal bound (Mbia blocked it 2 yds from goal). But other than that and a couple of Remy attempts we didnt threaten too much. And that is a bloody disgrace. Stoke didnt have to work too hard for it imo and once we lost Adel and Andros to injury early on in the 2nd period we didnt look like scoring. THE RATINGS GREEN - 6 - probably should have done a bit better with the first goal but tbh it was from about 3 yards. Looked ok overall, but almost let one through his fingers at the loft end. Thankfully went wide! But he did communicate with his defence more than Cesar has for sure. Keep him in goal for the rest of the season imo. BEN HAIM - 5 - played at LB which isnt natural. wasnt he played there v West brom in the home cup game? Anyway, he was solid enough but couldnt get forward much and struggled to support Hoilett. Defensively ok though tbh. HILL - 3.5 - poor and played a part in both goals. failed to track crouch for the first despite looking back at him and fouling him for the pen (which was a pen imo). Barely won headers all game as he was marking Crouch who played very well. SAMBA - 3.5 - 12.5million? Not a chance. Awful as he has been recently. Cannot separate him and Hill. Both looked clumsy and slow and just not aware of what was happening. Samba just stood there and let Jerome cross the ball for the first and won next to no headers. Had a decent shot in the second half which mbia blocked! BOSINGWA - 6.5 - does get some stick but was one of our better players. got forward well and distributed some nices passes. shame he clearly isnt interested though. cannot run off the pitch fast enough at the end. for that reason we need to get rid, no matter how he is playing imo. MBIA - 6 - full of energy as usual and was doing well in the first half until those around him crumbled in the second. blocked many of their passes and was calm on the ball. DERRY - 5.5 - 100% effort and i can see why HR played him v stoke, a physical team. As with mbia was doing well in the second half but both lost control of the midfield in the second. lack of pace was found out a couple of times. HOILETT - 1.5 - quite possibly one of the worst ever performances from a winger. had a number of runs with the ball but constantly ran into stoke players and didnt try hard enough to keep the ball. many bad passes and generally isnt putting in enough of a shift for me. unfortunately with adel and andros getting injured we couldnt get him off. get rid. TOWNSEND - 6.5 - our lowest paid player and our best player again. made several runs both inside and down the wing but wasnt as effective as normal, hence a lower score. but full of effort and energy and it was going to be him or adel to score if we ever did. hope his injury isnt too bad but that could be the last we see of him. TAARABT - 6 - as with townsend full of effort and was one of our more creative players. had a couple of chances and was a threat throughout. missed him when he went off. REMY - 6 - as always a threat from most areas. had a couple of chances. but without the support once the two went off injured he didnt get the service. SUBS: MACKIE - 5 - would rather him than hoilett any day but struggled to make an impact. didnt do too much tbh but was involved a couple of times in attacks. BOTHROYD - 5.5 - came on when the game was well and truly a struggle for us to change, but put himself about and caused problems. why HR hasnt played him more. Was in form when he was dropped back after the Southampton game. I think the win over Sunderland hid this issue, but he should have played more. THE FINAL WORD Well that is well and truly it isnt it. Im sort of hoping for a Villa win on Monday as I just want it over now. Is that wrong? Well and truly fed up of this dire season. Lack of bottle and spine from the players so as soon as we go 1-0 down they crumble. Has happened twice in a row and also away at Villa when they got a lucky equaliser before half time. Such a lack of bottle throughout this squad and I cant see that changing if we kept them together. Something needs to be done as we simply cant sit back and think these players will suddenly turn it on away to the likes of Barnsley. Half of them couldnt care less - shown in the fact that only Green, Hill, Derry, Mackie and Bothroyd came over to clap the fans. The rest walked straight off down the tunnel (Bosingwa sprinted!). I dont know what to expect, but that is bloody wrong. Imo literally every one of them bar the ones above and Remy, Mbia and a couple of those not playing yesterday can do. Literally every single one of them. Start again. If that means another season in the NPC after next then so be it. Had enough of watching this pile of absolute rubbish every week from players who dont care. Those who think this squad will get us up are deluded imo. HR is spot on - unless there are major changes to the squad we wont be back up anytime soon. I guarantee it. There, i said it, we will not be back up next season if the majority of these players are still playing for us. Why oh why am I going to Reading and Liverpool now. I must be crazy.
I really do fear for us next season, it can't change just like that and this malaise has us in it's grip. You can't get away with any weaknesses in the Championship and we have so many we'll be another Wolves or worse, it feels like that time when Paul Hart was in charge, just embarrassing...
Well done Judo, that was a supreme effort under he circumstances. No quibbles from me on your rating either, I reckon you've got those pretty much spot on. Next season mate you should get to report on some victories.
Cheers Judo & spot on i think. Too many kidding themselves about us coming straight back up with this team, regardless of who stays. Major rebuild from the Manager down i think!
hoilett is just too lightweight he looks good running at players but as soon as he gets to them he runs out of ideas how many times did he take the ball out for a stoke goalkick and don't even get me started on ol mr shakyhead
Well done Judo.........better man than me, as I simply couldn't bring myself to do a full report. Pretty much agree with everything you say there. What I will say though, and it's been said on other threads, is that the need to re-build yet again puts us in a very dodgy position. The last thing we really need is to change most of the playing staff and manager again, but most of us can't see the present lot having the required spirit to get us back up! A true dilemma!!
I seem to recall he scored a screamer against us when he was playing for Blackburn. Perhaps we signed him on that basis? Hard to chose between him or Granero for which has disappointed most.
Thanks Judo. Wasn't it Hoillet that kept falling over. We seemed to do a hell of a lot of that 1st half - the cameras were often on wide pan for some reason Saturday so I was often unsure who it was, but thought Hoillet fell a lot.
