2024 has been a far better year for QPR compared to 2023 looking at our league records: 2023: P46 - W8 - D12 - L26 0.78 points per game 2024: P45 - W15 - D16 - L14 1.36 points per game QPR entered 2024 in 22nd place, 4 pts from safety. We end it 17th, 5 pts above the drop. [Hoops & Dreams]
Five points from safety versus four points is what I was looking at. Either way, we were **** and we're still ****. No progress as far as I can see. Edit: Ah, I see it now. Still **** football, though.
Points per game is the key stat. That has improved a lot over the last six weeks or so and long may it continue!
That's a huge improvement in one calendar year. Made all the more impressive given the low starting point which is hard to turn around, and the limited resources. @Stroller re style of play - Rome wasn't built in a day. Marti did try to play more expansive football at the start of the season and we all saw how that went. One of the things I like about Marti is his pragmatism. I'm sure he'll adapt the style as he improves the squad.
I think he tries to adapt for the opposition which can be seen as a positive or negative. There have been some great performances with very pleasing football and there’s been desperate dross. Some desperate dross which has yielded a positive result in there too. The strength of this squad is the goalkeeper and CBs still. Our strikers/‘tens’ wouldn’t be getting in many teams in this league. Cook/JCS/Nardi get into most.
Most of the gain in points per game was from the second half of last season. This season the average is 1.08, which is near relegation standard, if not quite the rock bottom relegation standard of the first half of last year. Cifuentes has compromised on all his supposed footballing principles - possession, high press, always wanting to win not draw. In his first game in charge, the 1-1 draw away to Rotherham, you could see a huge and instant difference to the Ainsworth style. Not anymore, when apparently no shots on target for two games in a row is a part of his ‘pragmatism’. And let’s not forget he’s had a net spend of over £3m on his squad this summer, a decent amount for most clubs in the Championship. Still, if our target is not being relegated even if that means parking the bus in every game, he’s doing a great job. And other clubs have injuries too. Sorry, I can’t pretend that yet another season of this crap is fun, or that anyone involved in the club is doing an average, let alone above average, job.
Here's the way I see it. A 0.58 point per game improvement is pretty big. If we saw an improvement of the same magnitude in 2025 we'd be on 1.94 points per game, which would be automatic promotion form. Now that's not likely to happen (because of diminishing returns and because we do have a small budget even with £3m net in the summer) but it does show how big a jump 0.58 PPG is. A good number of summer signings are decent (Nardi, Varane, Morrison, Morgan) or IMO still have the potential to turn out to be good buys (Dembele, Celar, Saito). And it's good that a number of those players are quite young - Morgan 18, Varane 23, Dembele 21, Morrison 21. I see a lot of progress in 2024 personally. Even the way we collectively (on the whole) continued to support Marti in the winless run was a sign of progress for me. Lots of green shoots to be pleased about. Hoping for more in 2025 - including improvement in style of play where that's possible Edit - oh, and forgot to add, the reason the calendar year is significant is because 2024 was the first year Marti was in charge across the whole season.
Stroller won't be happy until Marti is paraded around Shepherds Bush Green in stocks, getting pelted with rotten veg
