I don't normally have much time for Shearer but he did make an interesting comment on MOTD last night in response to being asked why we seem so strong at home and so crap away. At home we play 4-4-2 but away we are playing 4-5-1 and tend to sit deeper thus allowing teams to come at us and eventually we crack whilst at the same time poor old Charlie up front gets no service. It is obvious that is not working so we should play 4-4-2 away as well and treat them as home games, after all we can't do any worse than what has gone before.
Shearer also came up with the usual stuff about our 'small pitch' and lack of pace. I'm pretty convinced its the crowd that makes the difference at home.
Agreed. We are worth a goal at least this season at home. The pitch isn't that much smaller than any other, it's the closeness of the stands that produces that effect. We only lack pace because we don't always play the fast players in the starting 11 or in their correct positions. I'd play this at Arsenal: ---------------------------Green-------------------------- Isla-----------------Caulker--------Dunne--------------Yun --------------------Henry--------Barton------------------- Vargas----------------------Fer---------------------Hoilett --------------------------Austin--------------------------- Plenty of pace on the break and pray for an Arsenal off day!
While it defies all logic I'll be hoping for a point at the Emirates...I just can't help myself. I suspect we may see a few players 'rested' as Redknapp will have categorised this as a 'bonus'/'unwinnable' game and we play again in a must winner two days later. For once he may be right, but I don't like writing anything off. And their central defence is fragile, Charlie might bully them a bit - Bobby would be good too, but 4-4-2 would be suicide. The pitch is an interesting one - agree about the stands confounding the effect, but even though its only about a yard shorter and narrower than the average, when you do the maths it works out to quite a significant amount of square yardage less.
That looks spot-on Col, if Arsenal go gung-ho Vargas and Hoilett could be the key on the counter. Kranjcar for Fer could hurt Arsenal as well...
Fancy us for a point at Arsenal.......this away form cannot go on for ever, so why not end it at the Emirates.
I was wondering he same. Asked an Arsenal mate if he was worried and he replied 'not at all', fully expecting to win. I hope his team are as complacent on 26.1214! If we treat them as we did Liverpool and City (albeit at home) then we may just get the away monkey off our back!
I thought Shearer made this in depth analysis based on the Everton game alone when we did not have our main man. I'm sorry but his opinion is worthless at the best of times.
Neither of the pillocks on MOTD (nor any other pundits) have picked up on the fact that ALL of our away games so far this season have been against teams now in the top half of the table and we have yet to play ANY teams in the lower half of the table. We DO have a better chance of taking away points off the clubs around us than we did against Chelsea, Tottenham, Man Utd, Southampton, Newcastle, etc. The problem is that we still have to play the above at home.
We need to play a DM when away, packing midfield with the more creative midfielders then leaving Barton as the DM doesn't work. Col's team looks good, assuming Isla is back and Yun ok. Unfortunately, Eamon has the real truth of the matter and we should be picking some points on the road second half of the season, however will we still be picking them up at home.
At the end of last season - would we have really expected to pick up points at the top 10 teams last year. Remember how we all felt most of the season - was not a happy board on our tactics then. This is not new. I think the way we have played has been predictable given what we know of Harry. If anything, I see hope since the start of the season. Lots of positives: coaching from Hoddle is better - its where we missed McClaren on having a manager that actually goes to the training sessions - Harry doesn't do this. Did you see the extended interview with Charlie where he says he spoke to him only once really, after he came back from injury; Isla looks better than he did as he adapts to pace and is used to Vargas; Yun has come into the side; Henry is the gift none of us saw coming; Ned is back in the squad - a thing we all wanted and IMO is getting better evert game - he was just not Prem League in his first few games - thought he had a good blocker / stopper game yesterday. Still to make mind up - Caulker - his distribution and aggression (lack of both) scares me. I keep going on about his record of yellows over the years (zero almost, this if a great professional or he just does not really commit enough to intimidate stickers and his distribution is poor - yesterday he gave ball away loads. Mutch - ????? We need one more fast striker - some one with pace. Personally I would love Morrison to come back. But someone very fast that can run at defences. Austin is clinical like an Ian Rush, Zamora hold the ball - we need a pacy finisher as well. Vargas has the speed but not as clinical in front of goal. And we need a more creative midfielder for the home games. Nico has lost weight but still not to the pace it seems to me. Adel - well maybe a christmas present if he does what all but have given up hope of seeing. We are 15th. Heady stuff. Feeling positive. Our home crowd and the ground is absolutely worth a goal. It feels kinda culty to be a LR these days. Every game is played like a cup run game or a derby. I think if we win a few more it will get even more intense and will be the best time to face the top 10 teams at home - with the crowd blood up. Remember Liverpool at home when Barton was booed off by us and we came back from 2 - 0 down to win 3 - 2. and the Chelsea- gate match where JT was revealed to the world and their players lost their heads because of the home atmosphere. All good stuff... am excited to be a QPR fan right now - it's not boring and feels like we are a proper football team vs a collection of egos.
If Arsenal play anything like they did just now against Liverpool we should have nothing to fear... If we actually provide any attacking threat. That's a very big if of course given what we have seen away from home so far. I simply can't see the huge risk in 4-4-2 that others do - how can we do worse than a 0% success rate?
I'm pretty happy at the way the fixture list unfolded. Hull apart we've done what we needed to at LR and anyone who genuinely fancied us getting more than a couple of draws from our first 8 was being a bit optimistic. It's taken the pundits quite a while to get their noses out of Harry's arse and see it for what it is. At home we play to score. Away we haven't so far. We set out to contain. When we do get the ball, everyone wants to pass the ball as quickly as possible. When we get to the box nobody except Charlie is prepared to take the responsibility. That is a matter of tactics and management. Perhaps our sports psychologist should prioritise by working on Redknapp's own self-belief away from the home. He has managed to persuade the players that they are world-beaters at LR and it shows. Away from home they have an attitude that the best they can get is to keep the score down. Change that mindset against Burnley on 10th January and of course Stoke on the 31st and we can kick on. Although most of the big boys come to town after Xmas, they will not relish the prospect having watched the way we frightened Liverpool and City to death and we should be able to pick up wins and draws in most of our remaining home games.
