Great to hear, and I hope the long covid fades quickly. That's the buggeration of Covid. It can affect fit youngsters. In my day, it was glandular fever and even that could hang around if you were unlucky.
Very true. We got it all wrong in the first half and deserved to be losing. It was a “no contest”. Credit to MW for acknowledging this and for making early changes. I hope he extracts “Lessons Learned” from his team selection and the 1st half performance. I guess that we all hoped that we would “come back” in the 2nd half. However, the excuses were already made earlier and it would have been very easy to “lose again to Barnsley”. But no! Despite playing better, but still not playing well and never fluidly, we never gave up. We plugged at it and to our surprise and amazement, we leveled at 2-2. At the end, we were all rooting for the winner, which was quite possible, but would have been possibly unfair. The great positive from this match is again “character”, and it is teams with character that are successful. One can only rue and speculate what may have happened if we started the match with the 2nd half team. Another roller coaster of a match, another legendary match, more character building, and this team is still learning and developing. The bottom line is that we are unbeaten with 8 points from 4 matches. If we keep this current form up to the end of the season, then we will be celebrating. Enjoy the weekend! COYR’s!!!!
A lot of poor performances in first half, not just Dozzell and Thomas...need to see a bit more of them before final judgement...maybe one at a time though
Highlights... https://www.skysports.com/watch/vid...itions/championship/12386871/qpr-2-2-barnsley And Warbs post match interview... https://www.skysports.com/watch/vid...onship/12386897/warburton-we-showed-character
I would give them another run out against Oxford. They need a quick opportunity to build their confidence.
The main problem for Dozzell was that Johansen wasn't quite at the races and he needs an enforcer alongside him (as does Johansen imo). Thomas offers very little imo. I suspect Warbs nay have a bit of a blind spot with him, as he did with Kane for quite a while.
The criticism toward Thomas is very harsh as he was being asked to play totally out of position. He is an attacking midfielder NOT a RWB. The back 5 today should have been Kakay - Dickie - Dunne - De Wijs - Barbet, far more experience and balance. Why he left Ball out at the start today was mindblowing. That first half hour was all down to team selection.
Yes, I guess Warburton learnt he can't play Thomas at WB, Kakay at LWB, or Dozzel as a holding midfielder, for now at least. All credit to him for changing it as soon as he did, and I think our turn around was at least worth the point, all 3 really with better finishing. Austin missed a few before the equaliser.
Slight rangers tinted specs on there (no bad thing!) as they had some decent changes at 2-0 up to kill the game. That square ball they had to an open man 6 yards out really should have put the game to bed. All 3 would have been a proper (and glorious) mugging.
And now I just heard Warburton say in his after match interview that Jordi rolled his ankle when he landed after the clash of heads, which was why he didnt play the 2nd half. The squad is getting pretty thin, especially at the back, LWB and defensive midfield.
We ended up with 6 shots on target to Barnsleys 4, 13 shots to their 12, and 66% possession to their 34% according to the BBC, so not just the tinted specs....
Jordi is always likely to pick up the odd injury simply because he is a no nonsense center half, so will be prone to a clash of heads or other such injury, that's why Jimmy Dunne will be such a crucial buy as he's a very talented footballer as well as having the same no nonsense approach...... More worrying is that Dickie seemed to be hobbling towards the end, rest him for Oxford as Saturday against Coventry is far more important....... I'll add that this side has balls and not just Dom.........
Random ratings: Austin - I was almost going to say he's a busted flush until he turned up for the equaliser but even so it was very clear that he's not fit enough even for a striker of advancing years. He needs to put the gym work in IMO. Adomah - well, I didn't expect that performance. Played an hour, looked more sprightly than some of the youngsters and was still running hard at the end. His enthusiasm is infectious. Chair - blew hot and cold but what a goal! He looks much stronger than he used to. Johansen - worst I've seen him play for us. Was nowhere to be seen when we were struggling to play the ball out from the back which was most of the game. Willock - another stand-out performance. A real shame that we rarely made use of the space he created all game. Thomas - just an awful 30 minutes. No sign of a footballer there at all. Dozzell - ditto. Barbet - worked really hard and got a grip on his destructive tendencies for once but when is he going to take a decent free kick? Ball - made a massive difference and he seems to improve whenever I watch him Warburton - got it totally wrong and I really don't understand why given that this is exactly how Barnsley have played against us every time in recent years. Referee - him and his ilk are truly ruining the game. Pathetic. Barnsley - I would happily watch them play every week.
We only have 1 league game in the next 21 days We can patch a team together for the mighty Coventry and get others back from injury/suspension for our dominance through the back end of September We should have more available by 11th September surely
Austin's had knee problems hasn't he, which accounts for his lack of match fitness? I thought Dunne did really well. Looks a warrior at the back
