What does Ale do? 1) He wins more tackles than anyone else in the club. 2) He wins more headers than anyone apart from Hall in the club. 3) His passing completion rate is higher than anyone else in the club. 4) He gives confidence to those around him, so that they feel they can express themselves more. They trust him & that is so important. 5) He takes better free kicks & corners than anyone else at the club. 6) He made probably half of the goals that Tarrabt scored in our Championship winning side. 7) Warnock & Barton have both stated that he is the best midfeield player that they have managed/played with. 8) He puts his body on the line for this club every game. 9) He inspires the players around him & our supporters. Queens Park Rangers are the club that he loves & he demonstrates that match in, match out. 10) Just by being on the pitch he creates space for his team mates as the opposition nearly always employ two players to stay close to him. Apart from that, he doesn't do a lot! Perhaps your judgement on Ale Faurlin is the correct one & over 90% of our fan base, his team mates & his opponents are wrong!
I agree we must always aspire to the toppermost, but my point is that we're nowhere near ready for life in the PL. With a stronger squad, settled team used to winning, confident playing style and players working for each other then I feel we would have a chance of surviving and building on that. Yo-yoing up and down is moving backwards as far as I can see.
Jumbo your on a different planet if you can't see what Ali gives us, he runs the midfield & him loungo run the show & don't need the likes of Henry covering now, tozzer I thought had a decent 30mins for a change.
No, this squad are no where near ready & don't see us troubling the promotion places anyway. Could have been so different if we'd had the right manage in at the start of the season & had better transfer dealings. Will need some more additions in the summer & then can look forward to next season.
I agree that he's often the heartbeat of the team, I just worry everytime he's on the field with his injury record hopefully he remains injury free for a number of seasons but at the same time we do need to be working on an able replacement.
I'm really glad I went in the end. I was stuck in gridlocked traffic on the A3 for 40 minutes. I was contemplating the easy option of getting off at the first opportunity and heading back home as it seemed unlikely I would make the kick-off. Sod it I thought, I'm on my way now and would knew I would make steady progress using the back doubles. It wouldn't matter even if I got there half an hour late. Incredibly I made it to the ground before the teams took to the pitch. We started really brightly and had an energy about us that I hadn't witnessed for a while. We tested their keeper twice in the first minute and every QPR player looked up for it. I couldn't find fault in one single player which is a rarity of late and we looked like a team. The way the match progressed has been well documented elsewhere but here are my few points of note. Washington looks to be a cracking signing. The amount of times I've watched the opposition at QPR who have had a real busy body playing for them, pressing and harrying defenders but also look dangerous with the ball at their feet and wished we had one of them. We now have one. Communication was much better for whatever reason. Maybe it's because the bigger names have moved on and the players feel that there is more parity between them and now posses the confidence to exert themselves. This became even more apparent when Tozser came on for Faurlin. He was relentless with the cajoling and marshalling of all those around him. Pointing, urging and directing. He looked more like the team captain than anyone else on the pitch. Nasser El Khayati - I didn't know much about him but his first touch had me going ''Wow!'' This lad is different gravy. He has magic feet. His second touch had him shuffling the ball between his feet and lot's of tricks with four Ipswich players around him in their box who couldn't get near him. He will be the new better version of Taarabt and you'll gladly pay your money just to watch him. His cross to Phillips was just that. Not a misplaced shot at goal. He crossed it with the outside of his left boot. He wouldn't have done that if it was a shot. Mackie - He came on and as the proceedings looked like we were heading for a regulation home draw he inspired the whole team to give it one large push. In typical style he led by example and for the tiring Ipswich defence this was the last thing they needed. His passion for never giving up any lost cause nullified any creation from their defence. He was the ideal player to bring on under the circumstances. The lightweight Cherry was also on the bench and it was obvious which of the two would offer the bigger impact under the circumstances. It's only one game, but considering it's the first after the transfer window, maybe JFH can now start to impose what he wants from the team. Let's hope it continues ... starting with the Ruperts. We owe them.
I think we are too far behind in points and while I haven't seen the last 2 games I doubt we are one of the clearly best 6 sides in the League we need to be now to go up. However, if we did do it now it would have shown that in fact we are a very good team with some foundations already in place, and no reason that such a team couldn't build further and survive in the PL. I dont really see that another season in the Championship allows us to build any better for the PL than being in it. Another season in the Championship gives the greater danger that the more promising players and a young promising Manager would leave for the PL, ripping out some of the new building foundations being put in place now. I see nothing to gain from extra seasons in the Championship, but that's what we will be getting probably now.
Cheers nines. Kahyati will need to be some player to be a better version of Taarabt, but I hope you're right.
You mean like OBZ? He was a legend. Such silky ball skills. SPg must have something going for him. The last player we roundly condemned to the gallows, Paul Furlong took half a season to win us over. Polter seems to have done so in a handful of games.
Good decision to keep going 9's. It really was a good one. Agree about El Khayati - the lad looks class but we do have to temper that with the fact we've seen him play for only 10 mins so far!!
It was. As for Khayati he was brilliant and not what I expected. His close skills were unbelievable and took me by surprise. I know it was only 10 minutes but in that 10 minutes I felt a major shift for my love of the hoops. I was up off of my seat and I felt like a 10 year old watching Stan Bowles again and can't wait for Saturday. If he can display that level of talent week in week out we're all in for a fantastic run-in. It may well be the case that I've been starved of witnessing raw skill recently. But Khayati looks a ranger to me. I hope we have another hero on our hands.
Polter does not always have the best ball control with the ball at his feet, but nevertheless he wins the ball well on the ground, sends some very good first touch passes, and other passes through defenses and he's deceptively quick. Saw a few good examples of this just in brief highlights from Saturday including before the goal, in making a good chance for Hoillet on the left, and on the right setting Phillips in on goal in the first minute. Great in the air too. Maybe not yet as good a finisher as Austin, but it looks like he works better in the team, in the build ups than Austin.
Personally I'd have Polter over Zamora any day. Quicker, fitter, works harder and at least as good a footballer IMO.
Although he did a massive air kick rather than clearing the ball on the RH side of our penalty box in the last couple of minutes, allowing Ipswich to get a dangerous ball in Very brave clearing header from Mackie at the death Not sure on watching it again how we escaped conceding in the last 5 - probably because the chances fell to Freddy Sears
I did see that mis-clearence but it was quite a high and awkward ball if I recall correctly. Here's a small clip of him coming away with the ball out of defence ...
