Well...we didn't expect any points from that game and we were right! For me, the differences in the team from Warnock's style of play were that we pressed the opposition much higher up the pitch and we looked better organised from set pieces. We also played 4-4-2. Apart from that, there wasn't much difference, which isn't a surprise as MH had the same players to choose from, minus 4 first choice players. I see there are a few people attacking certain players on here and it's fair to say that they're the usual suspects (the players that is). For me, Derry, Hill, Smith, Buzz, Bothroyd and to an extent HH, show precisely our biggest problem - a severe lack of quality on the ball. Smith has to be one of the worst players I've ever seen!! Truly shocking! Derry and Hill, whilst their commitment can never be faulted are just so poor in possession. HH's legs have gone and can only be of limited use imo. Bothroyd isn't bad technically, but he takes so long to get his head up and decide what to do with the ball that our attack is slowed to a walk! His finishing is dire and he just looks so bloody lethargic!! Hopefully this game will serve as a good pointer for MH as to who to keep and who to release. As for the game, it was another case of us being pretty unlucky really. Even down to Derry putting Cabaye out of the game, which introduced Ben Arfa who immediately got them playing better. We hit the frame of the goal twice, one of which was a superb curler from Betty, showing that he does at least have some ability. Toon had one shot on target in the whole game while we had 6!! Trouble is, we can't spend our time from now till the end of the season saying we were unlucky!! My only early concerns with MH are the fact that he kept Betty on (hopefully that's shown him the light) and SWP ended up along side Derry in the middle (hopefully, he wasn't told to do this!!?) But to be fair, MH has to look at everything and get us playing his way, with his players before it's fair to judge him. My player ratings and whether, imo we should keep them in the team/squad. Kenny - 7 One mad rush of blood, but not our biggest concern. PL starter. Young - 6 Not one of his better games. PL starter. Ferdinand - 7 Played well. PL starter. Gabbidon - 7 Played well. Squad. Hill - 5 Just not good enough at this level. Terrible distribution. Get rid. Derry - 5 Just not good enough at this level. Terrible distribution. Get rid. Buzz - 5 Same as Derry and Hill. Get rid. Mackie - 7 Played well and never gave up. Made some good runs, but lacks our old friend quality. Squad. SWP - 6 Did ok. Needs to get his confidence back. PL starter. HH - 6 Not one of his better games. Set up Betty very well. Squad. Bothroyd - 5 Just not up to it. maybe enough about him to keep in the squad. Squad. Smith -2 Truly, truly awful!!!!!!!!!!!! Get rid. Macheda - 5 Not enough time to do much. Doesn't look the answer up front imo. Squad. For all our efforts on goal, I thought we looked pretty toothless going forward and, unless that is addressed very quickly, we will be gone! All in all, MH has a hell of a job keeping us up!!
I disagree about HH. You say he's lost his legs but, in my opinion, he's at the best time of his career. His control of the ball has been the best he's had. He stops and controls incoming passes really well and beats many big players in the air. He has to start every game unless we find someone better.
Ype...I agree. Maybe I was a tad harsh. I'm a big fan of HH and maybe we just need a good player to play off/with him?
Very fair assessment, with the exception that HH is better than just squad - he had awful service today - his head is his danger, yet there were few decent crosses - misses Faurlin and to a lesser extent, Barton MH has been given a lot to think about today. And before we all spend the evening looking for the answer in the bottom of a beer glass - look at it this way. If SWP and Bothroyd's goals had gone in, and we had won 2:1, you can bet that the members of TF's consortium would be saying, "we've got the players, they just needed to be better organised than under Warnock" when we all know that fresh blood is needed desperately. So the result doesn't bother me. What happens in the next 15 days does, greatly...
I also disagree about Heidar - I couldn't understand why he was pulled. He's got the best height-to-header probability in the whole squad, he always makes himself some room - we needed to get better quality, high crosses into him more.
Lets be honest lads, hh has done a sterling job for us mainly due to there being nobody else!. If we were to put him up for sale there wouldn't be another single premiership team bidding!
Good post as usual Col. I think we must have killed a black cat or something. Our luck just has to change. Looking at the starting 11 today, i think we all could see the absolute lack of quality. And yet we came so close. Our defence did pretty well today all things considering. Our central midfield partnership was shocking and all but the blind on this board can see that certain players including Derry and Buz are just not good enough. I thought our crossing todat was pure rubbish again. Why can't we cross a ball? Awful !!!. I am just afraid that we won't be able to get the players we need in the next few weeks. It's great having money, its great being linked to top top players. But who in their right mind will want to come to us now. MH has one hell of a job on his hands.
Agreed. I'm really starting to fear the worst tbh. Simply running out of time (and games!!). Swansea have just beaten Arsenal too!! Unbelievable, with a jammy penalty decision too. Maybe our luck will change....you never know!!
Why spend big money on other teams rejects as we are not going to sign quality players whilst we are in the relegation zone. If and when we probably go down (this team despite their efforts are simply not good enough by a long way) we are going to have a team of other teams rejects on huge wages who dont want to play in the Championship and we will probably end up like Portsmouth. Id like us to start rebuilding for next years campaign and should we survive in the premiership it will be a bonus. The team will get my full support but I fear 1 home win out of 10 (and that was aginst 9 men) and 2 pts out of the last 27 the damage has been done. Come on you Rs and i hope i will be proved wrong.
A couple of months ago I thought if we got to January 6 points plus above the relegation places we could attract some quality players. But now I'm not so sure that players like Alex, Samba , Johnson, Zamora and all the other players we've been rumoured to be linked with will fancy a relegation scrap. MH will need a silver tongue to persuade them to come here. Quite honestly, I do not have faith that Rangers are ever going to score and when Newcastle went ahead I thought it was another game lost. In the first twenty minutes we controlled much of the play and had we scored then, perhaps we would have had a better result. I hate to be so pessimistic but unless we get another central defender, a midfielder to replace Faurlin plus another and two strikers we are going to struggle.
HH is normally great in the air, but he's not the quickest around the box. Today he had a bad game, seemd to spend too much time otside the box rather than in it, and I wasn't surprised when he came off. As I said on another thread playing HH and JB together up front seems strange to me when they are similar target men types - better to play just one of them max, with a quicker sharper player playing off them.
Obviously the first 25 minutes was your best period, but I thought the pressing your team were doing kept us very, very quiet, which nearly led to you's scoring as we kept giving you the ball back. Even if we tried to hoof it it just ended at a QPR defender. If Hughes could get your team playing like that for 90 minutes (or near to, maybe yous need some younger players playing) I think you would be well clear of the bottom 3. Just my opinion.
I think that 'work ethic' of pressing will be the style when the new signings, whoever they are, are brought in. The old legs are likely to be on their way, if not now, at the end of the season...
Excellent work as usual Col. I wasn’t able to watch the match unfortunately (or maybe not!). Would you care to expand on your selection as to who should be got rid of with some sort of priority? As an example, we all know that Mackie isn’t good enough, but our need of a decent striker is more pressing.
Thats because of his age, were the only team to get ageing footballers, the amount of 30 somethings and players who will turn 30 this season is shocking, must be near 20 out of 25 in our squad.
Cheers Roller. I think it's more a case of who we need to get in!! TBH mate, I'm on a real downer about the situation. I fear we won't get the players we need as they won't want to come to a team in our position! I really think we will be re-building in the Championship next season.
That depends on where we are looking for them. Some players from abroad may feel it is worth the risk and would be confident of being picked up by another Premier League side should we get relegated. Others could insist on a clause in their contract allowing them a free transfer should we go down, like Ba had at West Ham. I fear that we could be heading back into financial meltdown if we overspend trying to stay up.
TBH the more i watch QPR the more i think that we are not very good. I think the 'Goons' didn't help but also NW is to blame for losing easy points. Kept hearing people saying 'we will be okay' but game after game you can see the same result. Don't be surprised if MK Dons beat us. MH needs a big clear out because those players are not that good.
Crikey, chin up everyone!!! Hughes has had one week with an inherited team, Faurlin injured and Barton suspended plus Africa Cup of Nations. That was a 10 fold improvement on MK Dons. We pressed much better, forced numerous errors from the Newcastle players turning it over to us. We were moving better and shooting at the slightest opportunity (how many times have I read on hear that we don't score or try to score from out of the box!) Hit the woodwork twice and restricted them to 1 shot on target which they scored from. Considering the amount of posts pre match that we expected little from this and many pndits put it as a comfortable win to Newcastle we outperformed what was expected. Get some perspective, the big match is next week against Wigan hopefully following on from a morale boosting victory against the Dons.
