Well said Comrade I'm constantly impressed with the quality of input by regular posters on this site. Often led by Brixton and Roller. There's some really good articles penned up on this Board.
Thanks Col. But as I've said to Swords before, and Roller, I don't come on here to agree with people but to share alternative points of view and to consider other truths. In your case you made it clear that I should have another look at Ali's game - and I have been. In fact every time he touches the ball I think of your judgement - and have to say I've been more impressed of late. If we hadn't exchanged opinions I'd probably still be convinced he's a bit of a donkey! Now I'm not so sure.
The topic wasnât, but some of the content was. It looks to me that some of your points awarded were based purely on specific events rather than the whole match. Only a 5 for Barton â I thought he played better than that overall. Even excluding the cool cross for our goal, he was solid. Even allowing for marking him down for missing our best opportunity to extend the lead, he surely must have been a 6 (not that Iâve changed my opinion of him one jot). Had he curled that shot in what score would you have given him? But to cut to the chase Warnock a 3. Were you unhappy with his starting 11? Were you desperately unhappy with him at half time? Personally I wouldnât have made the substitution he did, but I wasnât disappointed with it. 1 goal up and with only 15 minutes to go, there is no way that I would have brought on Taarabt as many have been suggesting that they would. He has been so far below par this season I would not have taken that chance. What did disappoint me was that we didnât change tactics when West Brom stopped competing with Helguson in the air and constantly dropped off to collect the second ball. We need to change our game plan then and didnât. Again, if that deflected cross hadnât dropped to Long, what score would you have awarded to Warnock? It wasnât just Warnock that costs us, Barton did, SWP did, Mackie did and Iâm sure a case could be made for some of the other players.
I agree with rrrrr's and really happy to see QPR in the Prem because that Championship is a crap division and hope we don't go back. For me NW is a top manager for QPR and i have been very happy with his time here however i do think in the last 2 games that he has not adapted well to oppersition substitutions and we should realise that if we are to stay in this division we should not be giving points away cheaply because they will come back and haunt us.
Exactly this. Particularly the part about not going back into the shi*ty Championship. Well said Ellers.
I really thought that Barton had a below par game. He gave the ball away an awful lot and, imo, he left Farlin badly exposed at times by not picking up anyone in the middle. It was a nice clipped cross for HH, but he didn't pick him out, he just put it in there. A good ball though. And yes, if he had taken that huge chance, which would have sealed the points, I would have given him a 6. SWP scored a great goal that should have stood, so I don't think he let us down. Mackie worked hard, but he seemed to run out of steam. I wasn't too upset with the starting 11, although I do have reservations about 4-4-2 as I believe it exposes Ali in the middle, with SWP not being the best defensively and Joey not always helping enough. Also, I'm far convinced about Betty! Yes, I'm disappointed that Adel isn't getting any more chances and I would possibly have started with him yesterday, as I feel it was a game where he could have regained his form, possibly up front, playing off HH if it was 4-4-2. I certainly am not saying he should have come on when we were 1-0 up, that should have been Derry, but once it was 1-1 I'd have thrown Adel on!! No, I wasn't too disappointed with NW at half time...we were winning and playing quite well. But, from the opening seconds of the 2nd half we were like a different team! That's not his fault, but everyone around me was saying that the game was slipping away and that it was only a matter of time till WBA scored! I gave NW a 3 because he didn't react to this at all. If we could see it, then I know he could. Then, when he did make a change, he unbelievably brought Buzz on, out of position, up front....an horrendously weird substitution. Surely, with Mackie running out of steam we should have brought Derry on to plug the huge gaps that were appearing in midfield? I am a big Warnock fan, but I feel he got it badly wrong, hence a 3 from me. These lost points could really come back to haunt us and I don't buy all this "just be happy with where we are" stuff. Of course I'm happy that we're doing ok, I just don't think it will take much to slip towards the relegation zone. Anything that can be done to guard against this, like reacting to problems during the game, has to be done!
I find myself agreeing with all of this, even with my rose-tinted glasses on. Warnock was not only at fault with choice and timing of substitutes but he didn't seem to set the team up tactically right for the second half. We need to be killing these games off, especially at home.
There's another 1954 on the Barton thread saying hes going to be in the Kop, I thought that was you! I think we'll get a point there. They're good but not un-stoppable.
I tend to regard myself as a pragmatist with odd flights of fancy. Overall, I'm happy with everything at the club. People have bad days and bad runs of form and I try to keep that all in perspective. Example would be NW - did wonders to knit the team together that got us up but I had minor reservations at the start of the season about his adaptability. The changes in the second half against Spurs pacified me but I will admit that he's done a few odd subs in the last couple. Would I swap him? Absolutely not. He doesn't have masses of experience at Prem level and almost admits that he's still learning. He has also convinced a lot of good players to come here (and rarely gets credit for that). I also appreciate that the players are at different levels and so don't expect the same level from Orr as I do from Barton say. I will confess to being a bit of a romantic and love the beautiful game so my rose tinted goggles tend to come out for our brilliant but wayward Moroccan. I've always loved watching the Denilsons (Betis not Arsenal one), Figos, Rui Costas and Dejan Savicevics of this world - true skill that can leave you smiling. We have one potentially that good here and I just hope his class shines through.
not in the Kop,a couple of lads that sit with me in SAR are in the kop,told them to keep there heads down,
Lot of good points on this thread. Can't see that Neil cost us the game, maybe Buz was supposed to play a more defensive role in midfield and didn't, but he didn't play well. But then many players missed tackles, missed chances, and the linesman, all cost us the game, just as much as Neil's failed substition (s). I'd liked to have seen Adel play that game, we are lacking a creative cutting edge going forward to me, but I reckon Neil knows a lot more than me and most of us and knows Adel ain't up to it yet. Hope he is for Liverpool.
personally, i thought that if someone was to blame for Saturday's draw, it was either the ref or lino that flagged or blew for the SWP offside decision. That said, NW has made more good decisions than bad ones since he has arrived. As so far as the substitute decisions go, only he and his training team can see what goes on on the training field, and hear about what goes on in the reserve games and I guess that may have influenced his reasoning for the subs. Maybe Buzz deserved or earnt his chance on Saturday rather than Taarabt, who knows, but maybe NW had a game plan that for once, went belly up. Good article
Wow, you're a harsh critic Col! There are clearly no rose tinted glasses in your house. Anyway, thanks for explaining your reasoning. While the substitution clearly didnât work, I still canât say it was wrong at the time. My preferred change would have been to have brought on Hill for SWP and push Tarore forwards. Looking at the other players on the bench, none of them have either been in good form or played much. Derry was looked poor against Norwich, much as I love Smith this is probably a step too far for him and Taarabt has been terrible this season, therefore Buszaky was the remaining choice. Even you and I arenât going to argue over the fact that it was a game we needed to win, but I think that poor finishing cost us more than Buszakyâs poor touch. As ever mate, we will agree to disagree, and it is always a joy locking horns with you!
You're right Roller, I am being harsh, but it is these small margins that could decide our fate this season. Other Managers make changes that effect the out-come of the game. Having said that, I agree that our bench doesn't offer NW much to play with. However, whilst I don't want to get into a never-ending row with you, I can't agree with you when you say that the substitution wasn't wrong at the time!! How could he bring on an attacking midfielder and play him up front, when we were being over-run in the middle? Also, surely we could have thrown Adel on once it was 1-1? I do agree that better finishing would have made a lot of this superfluous though!!
