Agree with this. Samba was a huge gamble for me. Fact is though that QPR don't score enough and I don't see that changing.
I posted on their board when they got Samba that Bassong was just as good for a fraction of the fee and wages.Naturally our QPR chums ripped the piss. I think I was being generous to Samba.He looks slow and out of his depth in the top flight.
They played him up front in the last 20 minutes yesterday. Would be interesting to see him up against our back four next week, which is obviously a huge game for them. Partly because it would take him away from Rickie, a match up that Pochettino will be pondering how to win over the next week.
With their struggles to hold on to the ball, I'd suspect that the diagonal cross will not be our primary attacking weapon. Against City we saw the value of Rickie's somewhat unusual (for a centre forward) movement off the ball, and he could torture Samba by peeling off to the edge of the box, with our other attacking players running into the vacated space. We're about as bad a match-up for them as exists; they really do poorly when pressured, and while Zamora can bring down a long ball (if healthy), they don't exactly push players forward in a hurry.
I think Lambert's mobility and use of space will be a nightmare for QPR's CBs. Samba, still not up to speed is a lumbering giant and Clint Hill (who is one of their players who deserves respect for staying loyal) is on the slow side.
My thread "Relegation Watch" on the Norwich board has now been updated to take in this weeks matches,Saints pretty much unaffected odds wise by their 4-2 loss.
I'm hoping Zamora isn't fit. He is the type to give our boys real head aches if he is on his game with a little bit of service.
Think he will struggle to play 90. He wasn't match fit before Saturday and then picked up another knock.
He ends up isolated to a comical degree. Taarabt generally wants to dribble through ten defenders rather than get into the box, and thus provides little support. Their wide players are equally adept at staying far away from goal, having scored a total of three league goals combined all season. If both are fit and Harry has any sense, they'll play both Zamora and Remy up front, bypass the midfield (and thus their own inability to string together two passes) and hoof it up every chance they get, with their midfield running up in quick support...as Newcastle demonstrated, there's danger to playing a high line if the opposition is getting the ball forward quickly, and has players with the pace to capitalize. But knowing Harry, he'll probably go with their usual 4-5-1, leaving their striker marked by both centre backs and thirty yards from the nearest other player in hoops, and chunk crosses into an entirely empty box. I hope, at least.
If QPR are to survive, then Harry simply has to change formation imo. I too am hoping he'll stick with that 4-5-1, because I'll back to us to handle that. My worry is that he'll finally see the light this week, going into our game, and finally change it - going with a greater attacking. Even a manager as inept as him, must realise by now that this current plan just isn't getting them the wins or goals that they need - and as every week goes by, they need them more and more. Yes they might start to concede a few more again, but who cares? If you're going to go down any way, it matters little if you go down with 1-0 defeats and 0-0 draws, or if you go down with 5-2 defeats. They need to score some goals - and then maybe, just maybe, they wont go down.
Still think you can't go further than QPR, Villa, Wigan and Reading. Newcastle are good enough to climb away and I know our position is false. Have to just get the points to cement that
I do kinda struggle to figure out what would make for a useful formation for them, if they're going to start Taarabt...they need two out-and-out strikers, but a 4-4-2 with him in central midfield would be rather porous. 4-3-1-2, with Remy/Zamora up front and Taarabt in the hole? They would be hellaciously weak on the flanks, but at least they would have an attacking presence.
A Wigan type formation maybe? (I'm just plucking something out of the air here, not a great deal of logic to it). It's not like QPR's (vast array of) full-backs are up to much, not defensively any way. So maybe go three CBs and a holding CM, and thus have an extra body in an attacking sense to support Remy. The wingers/wide-men would need some defensive nous about them though.
That's an idea. Having the extra attacking player might actually allow them to retain possession for more than six seconds at a time...it better, at least, because the thought of Samba or Hill galloping out to cover countering wingers is not pretty (unless those wingers are wearing red with white pinstripes).
Though one could argue that the thought of a Boswinga or a Traore covering counterting wingers is not pretty either!
Would break up the game, though, when they have to send the trainer out with supplemental oxygen three times a half. Guess that you could play Onuoha alongside Samba/Hill and designate him as the player who deals with any and all situations that require moving more than five feet.
A couple of key games coming up for Sunderland now. Away to QPR and then home to Norwich. Get four points from those two and they should be fine, even three wouldn't be bad return. But their fixture list doesn't look very nice once you remove those two games, so if they are only on 30 or 31 points in two games time, then they will be very much part of this relegation battle.
Sticking with Wigan, Reading, Aston Villa, QPR. Wigan and Reading got beaten badly again and (famous last words) I can't see Villa beating City. QPR have some winnable games, but I still don't see them pulling this off. We had masses of chances and they played hard throughout the game, but generally you can't give so many chances away. The win may have given them confidence, but that didn't happen after their Chelsea victory.
