Jones feared for under-strength QPR.and.Mick Jones brings us his latest blog

Jones feared for under-strength QPR

Assistant manager Mick Jones has revealed he feared QPR were in line for a thrashing at Fulham in the build-up to Sunday’s 6-0 defeat.

Rangers were without the injured Danny Gabbidon and their defensive options were further limited when Matt Connolly, who was to replace the banned Armand Traore, suffered a twisted ankle on the eve of the game.

That prompted Jones, who had watched Fulham ahead of the match, to tell R’s boss Neil Warnock he believed Rangers could be heading for trouble.

“I have to say I was a bit fearful and I made those feelings known to Neil,” Jones told West London Sport.

“Usually after a bad defeat you want to play again as soon as possible, but in this case the break has come at the right time for us.”

“Everything that could go wrong was going wrong for us and I’d seen Fulham and felt if they played both Andy Johnson – who was on fire in their previous game – and Bobby Zamora, as well as Clint Dempsey and Moussa Dembele, then we might have a problem.

“It was the first time this season all four of those started for Fulham, and we’d had a terrible couple of days going into the match. So it was was the perfect time for Fulham and the worst possible time for us.

“For one reason or another Johnson and Zamora hadn’t been playing together, and with the problems we were experiencing going into the game I was fearful of what might happen if they played.

“Unfortunately my fears were realised when they scored in the first couple of minutes and when they scored the second I was thinking ‘we could be in for a long, hard afternoon here.’

“There’s no problem picking the players up after that because they know the situation we found ourselves in.”

Rangers hope Gabbidon will recover from a hamstring problem in time for their next match, at home to Blackburn on 15 October.

Traore will be available for that game and the international break should help Fitz Hall, who played at Fulham despite complaining of a hamstring strain shortly before kick-off.


Hall is nursing a hamstring strain

Jones admitted: “Usually after a bad defeat you want to play again as soon as possible, but in this case the break has come at the right time for us.

“We need that time to get some of those lads fit again and raring to go for the next game. We’ll be okay.”

Traore will be hit with a fine – part of which will probably be suspended until next year – for his recent sending-off against Aston Villa.

Warnock was furious with the left-back after his late dismissal for a second bookable offence, branding the Traore “a disgrace.”

But Warnock was not fazed by Adel Taarabt’s reaction to being substituted at the weekend.

Taarabt did not stick around after being told he was being taken off at half-time, but will not face any disciplinary action and Jones has dismissed reports of discontent in the Rangers camp caused by the Moroccan’s behaviour.

Jones said: “It’s all a load of absolute rubbish, it really is. We’re perfectly fine with the situation – it’s people outside who have made an issue of it. It’s a total non-issue.

“Armand, now he left us in the lurch and you can’t do that and expect to not be fined. I think Armand will be a top player but he’s got to learn from that. He won’t do it again, I’ll tell you that.”

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Again the very public criticism of Traore. It was bad enough first time around without contrasting it so obviously with the Taarabt situation. Are they looking to cause a row with him or what?

 

This scenario is so bizarre. Such open bias towards one player compared to another. I know you have to treat different players differently but to me it just seems hypocritical.

 

If losing gabbidon, traore and connolly means our coaching staff expect to get thrashed by any team playing two half decent strikers then f*** me we're in trouble.

 

I have to agree, I was very surprised at the sentiments expressed by Jones. What does it say about Hall and Orr when the coaching staff have so little faith in them.

 

Jones says what NW tells him
The Fulham was a game where they gelled as the first choice unit
They were on top and scored on their first attack Half time NW ****ed up and history now a 6-0 scoreline against us I believe if he hadn't of fiddled we would have got a goal back
If Jones was right then Derry could have played deeper in the back four
Mackie could play at Full back
It's a load of ****e

 

FFS get over it its done & dusted, move on & lets get 3 points from blackburn match.

 

talk about being wise after the event i wish he had kept his thoughts to himself

 

I agree, it's painful to read.

 

QPR Assistant Manager Mick Jones brings us his latest blog direct from the Harlington training ground…

We are all massively disappointed after Sunday's result at Fulham. Dear me. To concede six goals away from home against anybody is almost disastrous. Naturally everybody is left feeling low after a result like that but there are mitigating circumstances.

We lost our left back to a suspension and then Matt Connolly, the natural replacement, suffers an injury on the Friday in training. We had to re-jig the whole back four with Luke Young having to come in at left back. In the end, we only had one player in the back four in their original position from the Aston Villa match a week earlier.

On top of all that, Fitz Hall had a problem with his hamstring in the warm up. We had to decide whether to stick with Fitz, or go with young Bruno Perone, who is only just learning the game. In the end, we went with the experience of Fitz because it was such a big game.

At one stage during the match, we considered bringing Bruno on because Fitz was having difficulty with the injury. The problem is, we were losing at that time and you've got to think about using the other subs in order to try and get back into the game.

I said to the manager beforehand that my worry was if Fulham played with Andy Johnson and Bobby Zamora together up front, they were going to be a real handful for our depleted back four.

In all honesty, the game couldn't have come at a better time for Fulham and at a worse time for QPR.

In normal circumstances, you want another game as quickly as possible. In this case, though, I think it's good to have the international break. It gives everyone time to have a good look at everything without getting too excited. It gives us some breathing time.

A defeat like that makes you look at everything that you do. Absolutely, 100 per cent. I've looked at our training, our preparation, I've been speaking with the Manager, Keith Curle, Carl Serrant (Strength & Conditioning Coach) and Nigel Cox (Head Physio). You question everything.

You can't get beaten 6-0, and just say, 'It's one of those things'. That's not right. You have to analyse it, and get some answers.

But we will recover. If you win a football match, you've got 24 hours to rejoice. If you lose a football match, you've got 24 hours to sulk. And then you move on. And that's what we've done.
YOUR QUESTIONS…

How much "mental" training goes on with the team - what are some stories you could share? Who is most mentally strong and what can you do to help them focus?
Matt Carroll

The most mentally strong person at the Club would be the Manager. By a mile. That's why he is a success. But when you talk about players, there are a lot of leaders out there. Shaun Derry is a natural leader. If you were going to war, Shaun would be your captain or your admiral. Joey Barton is proving to be a captain. He has a big influence on everything that happens around here, and rightly so. Anton Ferdinand is mentally strong and a leader. Danny Gabbidon, in his own quiet way, is another mentally strong boy.

But you can go right through the Club and see that comes from the very top. Tony Fernandes is a powerful personality and a strong character. Amit Bhatia is a strong character. The Chief Executive Philip Beard is a strong character. The Manager is a very strong character.

And that carries into the staff - Keith Curle is an outstanding coach, and the staff are all together. We had a meeting amongst the staff at the start of this week to discuss one or two things, and we are together. If someone drops a clanger, I cover for them. If I think it's a big clanger, I expose it. But we stick together.

Our staff is very tight, and the strength of the club comes from that tight group working under very strong, powerful people.

*If you have a question for Mick Jones, or a topic you would like him to discuss in a future blog, e-mail [email protected]

 

i woul like to see the crowd get behind Traore and give him a big cheer because i think he has been harshly treated.
he has added much needed pace aand quality on the ball and was badly missed sunday