Well for starters, it was certainly a far better game than the drab affair against Chelsea. Truth be told QPR were lucky to escape in the end with just a point. Not since the 5-1 drubbing by Boro on us a few years ago, have I seen such a one sided performance. The stats tell it all realy with Villa's 23 shots to our 3. Yet in the business of football you need a bit of luck, and we certainly were due some due to the last couple of months and tonight we appeared to have all of it. A mysterious forcefield (some would call it handball's) kept the ball from going into our net for most of the night, were as upfront Stephen Warnock gifted us a second with a placed header that Helguson would have been proud of. Kenny 9 MOTM- the man deserves a medal for keeping us in the game for so long. Aided by his fellow QPR players who appeared to be playing rush keeper tonight, Kenny was certainly deserving of the MOTM award tonight in my eyes. Taiwo 4 - Not the best start to his QPR career. Looked off the pace and needs a few games either in the starting XI or reserves just to increase his match fitness. Positional sense was off slightly as well but will improve as he gets used to the english game. Ferdinand 6 - was caught wrong sided by Bent for the first but overall not too bad a performance. Continually cleared the ball and kept Bent under wraps for most of the match Onouha 6 - much like Ferdinand, he didnt have too bad a game to start his QPR career, won balls in the air and cant really be faulted for either goal. The faceblock at the end definetly saved us a point. Young 5 - one of his worst performances for the R's so far this season. Was continually beaten by N'Zogbia who had a great game and offered little going forward which was unusual for him. Barton 5 - crap deadballs, crap throughballs, failed to keep possession at any point during the night. But no worse really than the rest of the midfield. Derry 5 - failed to keep possession or mop up balls in the box, will be replaced by Diakite when he returns from ACON. SWP 5 - useless at counterattacks or keeping possession, no real chemistry with any of the strikers at any time, one bright point was the cross-come-shot across the box. Should be dropped for Taarabt at the weekend. Mackie 5 - forrest kept on running tonight, all be it with his head down. Made several important saves in the box whilst playing Goalie. Didnt look comfortable being asked to continually run down the wing. Needs to be used to feed off a striker Hulse 4 - anonymous. Much like Torres on saturday, I wasnt really aware that Hulse was on the pitch. Lets just hope that one of Helguson/Zamora/Bothroyd/Balanta/Campbell/Macheda is able to play at the weekend. Cisse 7 - scored a good goal to start his QPR career. Continually looked a danger for the first 30 mins after which he appeared to run out of steam and showed a general lack of knowledge/interest in the offside rule. But generally one of the brighter points from this game. Subs Smith 5 - didnt really do much good, but didnt do much bad Ephraim - n/a Macheda - n/a Manager Hughes 6 - he got them fired up to come out but after that didnt really do much to alter the course of the game. Needs to realise sooner rather than later Rob Hulse is not a viable striking option in league football and that SWP needs to be either played on the right so he doesnt continually cut inside or not at all. Defense looked a lot better than usual but still needs to figure out his strongest 11. Referee Swarbrick 2 - from a Rangers point of view, it was nice to be on the winning side of Swarbrick's many incorrect decisions but if I was a villa fan i'd be fuming over the 5 or so penalties they should have had. Still suppose he had atone for sending off Barton for standing his ground.
We never do well at villa even when we had a stronger team,im happy we got a point bur agree hughes needs to sort his starting 11.hleb now available on a free we could use him we still have chapionship players in the squad that lets us down.still were better than wigan and surely we can beat wolves before a horrendous march fixture list,fingers crossed
That's a super assessment superdoopa, our midfield was rubbish tonight, Barton needs to sort it out or he could be warming the bench. Agree about Taiwo, he looked off the pace and didn't seem to make many tackles, really pleased with a point.
Saying that Wez, you've just reminded me - all that talk about us not winning a cup game for years... What about Aston Villa 0 - QPR 1 - Carling Cup‎, 24 Sep 2008? I'd forgotten that one!
Taiwo looked off the pace but He wasn't helped by the lack of cover or rather Naive cover from SWP in the first half. When Smith came on and was in front of him shored up that side. Need to do something with the midfield at the moment they are giving tha ball away to easy and not retaining, putting too much pressure on the rest of the team must do better. Cisse obviously looked bright and at last someone up front with some decent movement, will be interesting to see him fully fit and with Bobby. Would have happily settled for a point before the game, rode our luck (Derry definate hand ball).
Kenny 9 - solid performance - Young 5 - Was constantly in big trouble with brilliant N'zogbia (then again so would have been almost all the PL left backs tonight) - Ferdinand - 7 - Was in trouble too but did handle it with luck and style Onuoha - 7 - He did ok for a first match ,but i expect lot better. Taiwo - 6 - Was very unsure on first half ,but was better on the second and he did "assist" our second goal plus he did shoot one of our rare shoots on the second half. Derry - 4 - He did win some balls bit could not keep them as he was kickin it directly to villa player. Barton - 6 - He did fight a lot and was our best midfielder tonight ,but was not escpecially good. Mackie - 5 - He did his best ,which aint good enough on this level. SWP - 5 - He did run constatnly but find a dead end every fekin time. - Hulse - 5 - He did his best which ain't enough on this level . Cisse - 8 - Was very good on the firs 30 min or so and did score great goal. Points for that- - Smith - 5 - Was he there too? Ok, played by his standard. - Macheda - 4 - What do we do with him. Totally useless. - Ephraim -5 - Did not have much time to show what he can do.
Just back... Kenny 9- nuff said Taiwo 5- Clearly rusty. I'm sure he'll come good but off the pace, unsurprisingly given such a lack of games. His cross supplied the own goal though. Onuoha 8- Excellent debut. He seems to have all the attributes to be a top centre-half and combined really well with AF given how little time they've had together. Ferdinand 8- Calm and assured. Seems to be getting better all the time. Young 6- Did ok. Positioning could probably be questioned for the equaliser. SWP 7- Thought it was one of his better days. Linked up well with Cisse and a cracking cross for Mackie's miss. Derry 8- Excellent. Broke up their play well and distributed it far better than he has done for most of the season. Barton 6- Did well off the ball and was in their faces a lot which was an improvement. Distribution wasn't good enough again and two corners were very poor although one was superb. Mackie 6- Industrious as ever. I thought he did well after Hulse went off when he played up top. A poor miss but when it's fired at you like that it's tough to react. Cisse 7- Great finish for the goal, great first half. Made Dunne look a mug a couple of times. Breathing out of his arse after an hour as you'd expect with so little game time but it was a very encouraging debut. Hulse 6- Did what he could and is twice the player of Macheda but you can see how painfully limited his game is. Ephraim 5- Not a lot of time and had to defend throughout so the mark is perhaps harsh. Nothing more to add really. Smith 7- Held the ball well and brought others into play. Macheda 4- Just not a Premier League player. Fans 8- Good numbers (1500ish?) and in good voice throughout. Hughes 7- We were positive for the first 35 minutes and played some good stuff. If we'd held out a couple of minutes longer in the first half I think the crowd would have completely turned and we'd have won comfortably. Too negative arguably in the second half but we were away at a team better than their league position with some top quality attacking players. We had so little on the bench to choose from but he made the right subs at the right times imo.
I don't get this Macheda lad. What does he do? Has anyone witnessed him do anything worthwhile yet? I don't think i've even seen him complete a pass yet or not lose the ball.
Bit high with those numbers watfordR!!..Our midfield was almost non existent,numorous missplaced passes,no shape,no pace to recover.The amount of times Derry and Barton gave the ball away was driving me nuts!
