"QPR and Cardiff lurk near relegation zone because of deluded expectations of their owners Rod Liddle, The Sunday Times, 5th March 2023 When Michael Beale departed Queens Park Rangers at the end of November, he left with the highest win percentage of any QPR manager since Iain Dowie in 2008 and the second-highest in almost 40 years. Into his place came Neil Critchley who managed, during his briefish sojourn in west London, the lowest win percentage of any manager in the club’s 141-year history. That win percentage was a little over 8 per cent, since you asked. Mr Critchley was duly shown the door at the end of last month and in came Gareth Ainsworth whose win percentage, at time of writing, is precisely zero. If there is something wrong with the west London club — and I suspect that there is — then my guess is that the various managers, Critchley probably included, are not primarily to blame. A surfeit of managers in far too short a period of time, perhaps. It has long been my contention that a rapidity of turnover in managers is indicative of a club heading inexorably downwards. Of course, to a certain extent that is a self-fulfilling prophecy — clubs tend to change their managers when they are doing badly in the hope that things might improve for a while, not when they are doing well. But it goes a little deeper than that, touching on the deluded expectations of both the fans and more importantly, the club owners. QPR have had four managers in the past 18 months or so, which leaves no time for a coach to mark his imprimatur on the side. QPR are hovering close to the relegation trapdoor because the owners — and maybe fans — were not satisfied with upper mid-table finishes (usually attained after promising starts). But the way to improve upon mid-table finishes is to allow a manager to do so incrementally, as has occurred with the excellent Gary Rowett at my lot, Millwall, and Mark Robins at Coventry City — those are the two longest-serving managers in the Championship and I would suggest that with both clubs in or around the play-offs, that is the more profitable approach to take. Longevity tends to breed success. Teams generally cannot gel under a managerial style in only a few months and a sacked manager is more often than not a mere scapegoat for a deeper malaise. Such is perhaps the case at Cardiff City, who are now on to their seventh manager in a little more than three years, if you include Dean Whitehead’s two-week caretaker stint. The interesting thing is that every new manager appointed by the Cardiff owners has managed a win percentage slightly lower than his predecessor. If that doesn’t suggest to you that it is not the manager primarily who is to blame, then I don’t know what will. Steve Morison, sacked in November had a win percentage of 35 per cent. Mark Hudson, who took over, dragged that down to 22 per cent. In four years, Cardiff have gone from being a Premier League team, through a stage of being top-end Championship contenders, and then — via mid-table — down to relegation probables. In both cases — QPR and Cardiff — it is dissatisfaction with not being in the top six that has driven those sides down the table and could conceivably end in relegation for both. Fourteen out of the 24 Championship clubs have changed their managers this season and four of them have done so twice. I added up the win percentages to see who, on average, has performed better — the new manager or the old manager. I found that the old managers had an average win percentage of 36.2 per cent and the new managers an average win percentage of 34.6 per cent, suggesting that on average switching your manager will actually lead to a worse outcome. The caveats — these are pretty coarse statistics and do not differentiate between clubs who would rather their managers had not departed, such as Alex Neil from Sunderland and Nathan Jones from Luton Town, and the rest. But it is still at least indicative, and suggests that sacking the gaffer during a bad run is tantamount not only to shifting the chairs around on the Titanic but also hacking a new hole in the ship somewhere the iceberg didn’t hit. This doesn’t mean that one should never change managers and there are two very clear examples in the Championship of where a switch has been very effective. By coincidence, those two teams played each other last weekend, with West Bromwich Albion beating Middlesbrough 2-0 at the Hawthorns. The Valencian Carlos Corberán has a win percentage at West Brom of 57 per cent, not far short of three times that achieved by predecessor, Steve Bruce. Corberán came close to being poached by Leeds United, such was his success. And then there is Michael Carrick at Boro, with a win percentage of 68 per cent, the highest in the division — better even than Vincent Kompany at Burnley, who has all that lovely parachute money to play with."
Well, there might be a lot of truth in that, but it’s written by Rod Liddle who has always very publicly hated QPR. He also ignores the fact that we didn’t want to lose Beale, he wasn’t sacked.
No doubting we have a squad, on paper, capable of being above mid-table. But something is holding us back year after year. We are all scrambling around looking for the reason … the board, the DoF, the manager, coaching staff, recruitment, FFP, EFL … Staines betting … we’ve pretty much scoured every avenue … and we’re still no better off knowing what it is. One thing is for sure, we have no (positive) consistency at the club from a playing staff point of view. We also have no leaders in the squad of players we have. I’m guessing GA will want to change that next season if he’s allowed to (because it is becoming more apparent that the DoF and his ‘advisers’ are interfering in the squad choices and (poor) progression).
I am really hoping that we hang onto Gareth Ainsworth now, and allow him to stabilise the club. We really do need a bit of quietness and building up. I really hope that it does not have to happen in league1
I honestly think the appointment of Gareth was to appease the fans and give Les/owners some breathing space. It seems to have worked because we were playing **** under Critchley but yesterday's performance was something else entirely. Total amateur stuff. But we have a QPR man in charge so we can over look that.
Serious question Bob which you are the only person who has the experience and knowledge to be able to answer. How does any manager turn around the loss of confidence and lack of desire by the team as a whole and individuals in it? Slagging them off in public does not work and I suspect that ranting at them behind closed doors won't either. Somehow Ollie got them playing for the badge although we did have to drop down to start. Let's not forget Bircham wasn't the only supporter in the team nor was he the only player to dye his hair blue. I think Ainsworth will be able to instil some pride and fight n them - the only question is how long before it makes a difference.
I've had some unusual ways to gauge the team spirit at various clubs. At my last place, just down the road from you York's I got all the 1st team squad to hand me their preferred line up of personnel. Obviously only I knew who picked who, all totally secret but it gave me an insight into who thought what of others. It gave me a stepping stone to be firm in my selection. I changed the whole formation (much to the annoyance) of the 1st team manager. It proved successful and we broke records for the 4 seasons I was there. You (as Gareth is trying to do) have to try find all the positives from a game/training before you pull the negatives. Coaching has to be not just bought into but also understood. I actually don't think we are suffering with a lack of confidence or desire, we have been in certain individual matches but I honestly think it's the easiest cop out. A good coach will throw his hands up and admit mistakes, I have hundreds of times and will continue to do so, no doubt. I think Gareth has to be brave enough to not only change the formation but the personnel. We all see it's not working with the same players week in week out, that knocks the confidence of those on the peripheral and spirals down through the ranks. Gareth has to be confident and ruthless now in his approach to selection and tactics, if the players see this on the training pitch it can only inspire the desire to play. If it doesn't then you see it in the players faces and their understanding of a session and those are the ones that would be getting sacrificed for me.
Just to add, despite already being 22, Drewe made his debut for us and I applaud Gareth for that. It shows he's not afraid to put them in. He now needs to be brave enough to not even put certain players in the match day squad or try an 18 year old instead of a 35 year old. It can be argued that we need 'experience' but again that's just another cop out for me. The players we are using have experience alright, experience of winning 2 games in 4 plus months. Ferdinand's arguement about blooding youngsters and effecting their development with losses, again just doesn't wash. You learn more from defeat than you do from a win. Tim is 19, I know he isn't our player but how is it different to one of our lads playing of the same age?
I think Critchley had a major issue due to not being very confident or inspirational, to the point of boring. I've had managers like that I've played under and it's difficult. I've also had managers full of enthusiasm and character but we're tactically naive and it's difficult to buy in to. Critchley wasn't a success and dare I say it, Ainsworth won't be either but that depends on our definition of success.
Do you not think that Dobson is the tactician and that him and GA are a genuine team with each having strengths ?
Thanks Bob. The only thing I would disagree with in that analysis is that it is is not a lack of confidence and/or desire. Admittedly they do play until someone makes a howler, eg central defender leaving a huge penalty area sized gap for the forward to stroll into and pick his spot, but then I've watched on most of those occasions the confidence sucked out of them. As someone who now seems to spend most his spare time dog walking it looks like the dog who has been beaten and is now fearful of his own shadow. Forget the backbone, if the players had tails they would tuck them between their legs and their shoulders and ears would have dropped. They slink on by in the hope that nobody will notice them. What I hope will be instilled is the instinct for the hackles to rise at the sheer indignation of going behind to teams that are frankly not that much better than them. A bit more of the 'Excuse me buster who the hell d'you think you are? We are QPR.'
It's all opinions York's. Just cos I've had a career in football doesn't mean I know the slightest thing more than you, Col, Steels etc etc. We all see what we see, it can be interpreted differently and the analysis can be so varied. Confidence is always an issue in any sport but is usually confined to an individual or two and not the whole team, that's why it doesn't quite wash with me. The confidence that knocks us could well be down players getting sick and tired of other players mistakes, if you know what I mean. Ffs he's left him again on the back post! How many times is that going to happen? Ffs he can't even hit the target surely thingy should start. Etc etc
