Is mis-firing QPR striker the weak link in their attack?

Is mis-firing QPR striker the weak link in their attack? - QPR - London 24

Queens Park Rangers' Jay Bothroyd, right, in action against Aston Villa
Is mis-firing QPR striker the weak link in their attack?

By Ian Cooper, QPR correspondent
Monday, September 26, 2011
12:50 PM

Bothroyd draws another blank as Warnock admits: ‘we’ll struggle for goals’

Should Jay Bothroyd shake off the shackles and score his first QPR goal in the derby against Fulham this weekend, no-one will be more relieved than the misfiring England striker.

It is still too early in the season to accurately judge Bothroyd’s ability to adapt to life in the Premier League, but the immediate impact of QPR’s summer signings Shaun Wright-Phillips, Joey Barton and DJ Campbell have put the pressure on his shoulders to prove that he is not the weak link in Neil Warnock’s new-look attack.

Against Aston Villa on Sunday, the Rs striker endured another fruitless afternoon. Having missed a host of gilt-edged chances in the Rs’ last home match against Newcastle two weeks ago, he was in similar wasteful form here, sending a free header from Barton’s cross wide in the first half, and hardly threatening after the break, eventually replaced by DJ Campbell.

QPR’s build-up play was impressive as ever; Wright-Phillips, Barton and Adel Taarabt, playing around Bothroyd, interchanged positions to the extent that the visitors were chasing shadows for long periods of the match.

But once again Rangers struggled to finish the chances they created. With the exception of last week’s win at Wolves, when two of the QPR goals were scored by midfielders Barton and Alejandro Faurlin, Rangers have been hit and miss in front of goal this season.

Against Alex McLeish’s uninspiring Aston Villa, their blushes, and indeed a deserved point, were saved by Richard Dunne’s injury-time own goal which cancelled out Barry Bannan’s opener, but at his post-match press conference Warnock reflected on his side’s lack of cutting edge up front.

“I think all the promoted teams, the one thing they struggle to do is to score goals on a regular basis, but I can see us causing problems home and away, and goals will come,” said Warnock. “It’s just that belief, and when you get a result like that it does give you more belief.

“We are going to create chances and I just want to persevere the way we’re playing. We played some good stuff today, and Jay Bothroyd, I thought that was a great chance in the first half where he glanced his header wide.”

In common with QPR’s 3-0 win at Wolves last week, late controversy took the focus of the team’s display, but this time, rather than the Twittering of Barton, it was the refereeing of official Michael Oliver.

Oliver had four major decisions to make on Sunday afternoon, and of those four, two were wrong, the third was highly dubious and the fourth was a sending off as obvious as you are ever likely to see.

Oliver’s first misdemeanour was to award Villa the softest of second-half penalties from which they took the lead, penalising Armand Traore for the slightest contact with Gabriel Agbonlahor which sent the visiting striker sprawling.

Traore was booked, an action which was to have significant consequences later in the game.

Oliver’s second error was his failure to award QPR a penalty of their own, when Shaun Derry’s header clearly struck the extended arm of Villa defender Alan Hutton, before Hutton struck again, blocking Tommy Smith’s cross with his hand. Once again QPR’s frantic appeals were waved away.

He did at least get his final big decision correct, sending off Traore for a terrible lunge at Marc Albrighton which even Warnock labelled ‘a disgrace’ in his post-match press conference, but which really should have just been a first booking for the defender.

Warnock reserved the bulk of his frustration for Oliver, and the decisions which swung the game firmly towards the visitors.

“You don’t always get what you deserve but I thought we more deserved the point today,” said Warnock. “When I was a young man my father refereed, I was always told that a good referee, you don’t often see them. Two major decisions have both gone against us today.

“When not one Aston Villa supporter behind the goal appeals for a penalty you know there’s something wrong. It was a very soft one - you could have blown him down.

“Likewise, I thought he was in a good position for the first handball 70-odd minutes in. Derry’s header, the lad actually moves his arm down, it’s the most 100 per cent penalty you’ll ever see.

“We’ve been a bit unlucky on both counts, but I thought the referee was brilliant with the players up until the penalty decision. I think he’s one of the best refs in the Premier League if I’m honest.”

Follow Ian Cooper on Twitter @QPRTimes

iReader

 

At the moment yes,but we should be playing 2 up front at home!!

 

Goal-shy QPR in need of formation revamp?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thefootballtacticsblog/2011/09/goal-shy_qpr_in_need_of_format.html