Great performance, a few negative points but a win! - My thoughts on the QPR game

Sorry I've not been posting much recently. Been stuck with ****ty shifts on my job and dealing with depression but feeling better now.

It was a fantastic site yesterday. We have squad of players that are up for the fight and have balls between their legs.

It kind of has a vibe to it that the season we finished 5th did (touch wood).

Players that we didn't expect to step are doing so, and when are flair players don't turn up or are taking time, our squad players are filling in and doing a job.

Raylor is just one of those players that you can expect quality from whenever he plays, if put in the right position. He's slow and not got much flair, but his deliveries from set pieces are an excellent asset, and his intelligence to move the ball around the pitch is going to be vital if we want to hope to get back in the top 8 again.

West Ham will be a big test for us. If we win then we really will start to get excited.

One negative was how easy it was for one of their slow strikers to lose one of our CB's. We really could use Colo back because sometimes Willo and Dummett seem done by half decent runs by experienced strikers.

Ratings -

Krul - 5 - Slow distribution again. Comfortable enough. Not too much to do though.

Janmaat - 8 - Good defensively, gets a foot in. Love this bloke. A great threat on the attack as well. Links up better with the team than Debuchy ever did.

Dummett - 7 - Starting to like this guy. Basically the new Perchihno. He's 6ft 2, not bad in the air, and a good pacey option for a CB if we need it.

Willo - 7 - Not as strong as he's been, but dealt with aerial threats well enough.

Haidara - 7.5 - Love this kid. Gets forward and does an all round good job

Colback - 7 - Good job. Good defending.

Raylor - 7.5 - Some great deliveries. He's probably one of the best in the league at set piece deliveries, and if it wasn't for Rob Greens experience, I think we'd have got one from a corner. Also fantastic passing play and intelligence in the middle of the park.

Sissoko - 7.5 - Good work rate and mentality. Some good skill. Good goal.

Cabella - 6 - Some good runs and decent balls at times, but still getting used to the league and was a passenger at times.

Sammy - 7 - Some of his dribbling let him down, but he can whip in dangerous balls, and threatened down that left hand side. Good partnership work with Haidara.

Perez - 7 - Good work rate, good link up play. Some fantastic skills on the ball and pace.

Cisse - n/a - Good movement, poor finishing.

Armstrong - n/a.

 

Good to see you back posting mate. Hope the personal issues continue to improve.

The only rating I disagree with is Moussa. He was an 11 for me

 

Have better opinions like mine, k? K.

 

I think Colback vs some others should be a bit up. I think he was excellent yesterday. His pressure in the final 3rd can really help keep us on the front foot.

Janmaat I didn't think was at his best. Decent defensively. A bit wasteful going forward. Overall I think today showed our ability to win as a team. It's been a long time since we can say that.

 

Higher for Colback and Sammy for me. Both were superb. I think Colback will be one of those who just goes under the radar. His workrate is phenomenal.

 

Colback is proving to be a real unsung hero. Does the simple things well, and despite all of the well-meaning warnings from our neighbours is proving to be very good at passing forward and creating chances, as well as knowing when to keep it simple and safe.

Agree Janmaat wasn't at his best. I would have scored him lower. But in some ways really pleased that on a bad day Janmaat is a 6 instead of a 3 or a 4. Debuchy was one of our best performers last season (probably the best) but on a bad day he just switched off and was really, really bad!

Sammy's ball for the goal was first class, and he put in a good shift too. Still far too naive at times though, giving away needless free-kicks, careless passes and running into dead ends. Don't want to be negative about him though as he's been a real bonus this season and far better than I expected.

 

Was great to see him in the final moments back beside his own goal line helping out Haidara. As a pair they are very naive. Both provide a threat though. Just thought Sammy's effort level was equally only by Sissoko and Colback. Raylor would have obtained a high mark, he was looking great.

 

Agree with others that Janmaat didn't have an "8" day, he lost possession time and time again up front.

Raylor wasn't that good as well, as you guys suggest. He misplaced a pass that led to a dangerous counter-attack break, and didn't provide that much altogether, passed inconsistently(some very good passes coupled with some poor ones), and shot straight at Rob Green on his chance after Perez and Cabella did all the good work.

 

I think most people are so surprised to see him playing first team football at all that everything good looks great and most things that are poor look pretty good too, compared to what they were expecting

 

I couldn't speak for others and there may be an element of what Freddd says for some, but for me I thought he was doing well and dictating the play whilst on the pitch on Saturday. I am not one for sentiment to be honest, just genuinely thought he looked good as he did against Man City. He did have the one stray pass which was disappointing, and he did something similar in the Man City game. However he was the one who was creating opportunities. He sprayed a lovely crossfield ball to Haidara and put him right on the front foot. I haven't seen the replay but live it just looked like Haidara went down pretty softly under Sandro's challenge. Those around me were up in arms screaming pen.

Like Colback he has a canny knack of positioning himself well and doing the simple things right. His free kick was poor, and he should have done better with the chance on the edge. He is getting into the right areas at the right time though.

 

A lot of the punditry picked him out as being influential up to the injury and him coming off, from what I saw in between hospital visits he did seem to be working in the heart of the team.