Just what the **** was Ramsey thinking today? Playing a West Ham team that are already on their hols in a game that we had to win, he decides to pick an ultra defensive line up. Hill at left back I could understand, with the threat from West Ham at set pieces. But to have no attacking threat down the left and no attacking full back at all was a complete disgrace. Redknapp used to be slaughtered for playing 4 centre backs across the defence, but to do it in a must win game? Ridiculously muddled thinking. 1 point was never going to be enough and so we had to gamble and risk losing in an attempt to get all three. But for some reason, only known to the hapless Mr Ramsey, we set up to not lose and to make things worse, we never really went all out for the win for the whole game. When Hill was replaced by Yun we did at least go with three at the back, with Yun and Phillips as wing backs. However, Yun never made any impression down the left and Phillips, apart from one stinging effort near the end, was awful. The crowd were calling for Taarabt from 60 minutes on, but after all 94 minutes were played, we still had both Sandro and Henry on the pitch, with Taarabt and Kranjcar sat on the bench. Unfathomable!! West Ham were simply awful and there for the taking. The game was crying out for someone to put their foot on the ball and rip them apart with a little creativity. Unfortunately Fer looked well off the pace and out of touch when he came on. We were playing Charlie up front on his own by this time...............in a game that we had to win!!!! Surely, Kranjcar ot Taarabt in behind Austin and a pushed on Fer was the way to for those last 25-30 minutes? A criminally clueless performance from Ramsey, who clearly doesn't believe that we can stay up. Player ratings and comments: Green - 7 - A fantastic save from a free kick kept us in it. Dodgy on the ground as usual. Onuoha - 6 - Solid as ever, but offered so little going forward. Dunne - 4 - Terrible. Caulker - 5 - A point more than Dunne because he won quite a few headers. Otherwise terrible. Hill - 6 - Solid as ever. Phillips - 5 - IMO his greatest asset is a stinging shot and he produced one near the end which was only kept out because of a fantastic save. Apart from that, Phillips was plain awful! He surely must be one of the most over-rated players ever to wear the shirt! Barton - 8 - Again he was the one player who seemed more determined to win than all the others. Drove on and on and never stopped running. Sandro - 7 - Very solid and won a lot of headers and quite a few tackles. No attacking threat. Henry - 7 - Played very well. It's not his fault that he shouldn't have been playing on the left. No attacking threat. Zamora - 6 - A handful at times, but could have done better with a couple of chances. Austin - 4 - A very poor display and a very poor penalty! Doesn't look as hungry as earlier in the season and knows that he has a move at the end of the season whatever happens. No one offered any creativity...........at all..........at any stage...........for the entire game!! The bottom line is that we weren't good enough to beat a terrible West Ham side and deserve to go down (which we will!).
Today was the perfect time to play Taarabt. The midfield did well against Chelsea and Ramsey made the mistake of sticking with them. A little creativity was needed apart from Phillips out wide.
I was giving Ramsey the benefit of the doubt up until today. He well and truly lost me today. What was he thinking with that team selection? The guy lost the plot completely today.
Surprised no one had started this already. Inspite of results i have been ok with the improvement and intent under CH. But today...cum on!!. Similar team to last wk ( which was correct for that game) bar Isla today....which there in lies the prob. 4 centre backs...& 3 DMs....for a game we had to win. Apart from matt... no spark. Karl (who had ok game) LM...Fer(gd sub)... but no "tubby"....whm utd (wearing flipflops) were there for taking...which is why we are back at notts forest next season
I would love to disagree with your observations Col but unfortunately I can't. The gaffer had a mare. Once I heard the team at 2 pm in the pub, 0-0 jumped out at me. I don't blame Ramsey on a personal level as he is obviously doing his best but...... He showed his inexperience there today. Had a great social day meeting some very friendly folks from both sides of the Irish sea. Shame the football let us all down again. There's always next week.
Agree completely with your comments on Ramsey, Col. I don't understand why he didn't bring Taarabt on to play behind Austin and Fer. We had to go for this one and we didn't. His record isn't great. I'm not convinced by him, going forward. Didn't see Dunne as bad as you marked him, but otherwise agree with your scores. Disappointing day.
I'm sorry but if that perfectly good goal stood and Charlie slotted the penalty would u all be talking like this We was robbed West Ham were ****
I have to agree that Ramsey got it badly wrong today. A truly baffling starting line-up, which he failed to improve upon with his substitutions. Why do we water the pitch so much if our players can't keep their feet on it?
Apart from Barton again being our clear MOM, I dont agree with too much of that. Ned put in our best cross of the game at the end which someone if they had been awake and fit enough should have tapped in. Only Barton was sharp enough, but he'd set Ned up. Ned did well today, got forward well 2nd half, and as usual played far better than Isla ever does defensively. Not sure Adel or Nico are any fitter than Fer, so I'm not sure Mr Ramsey had the players to do what you were looking for. I agree that game looked made for Adel but he probably couldn't do more than 20 minutes, and Fer was the chosen one of those 3. He could hardly play more than the 1 unfit midfield player, even even for 20 minutes. Dunne was also clearly unfit, very poor at the back, but he scored what should have been our winner. Caulker didn't foul their Keeper. Phillips was our main attacking threat. He did well down the right side. Not sure if Traore was fit but he would probably have given us more coming forward down the left than Clint or Yun.
Was it wet? From the TV pictures it seemed hard and dry, but whatever Hammers didn't slip like we did. Thought Green and Sandro in particular must have used the wrong studs. 1st half Green seemed to fall over with almost every kick.
I would have been hard and dry if we hadn't watered it! Didn't seem to affect the West Ham players though.
For me the problem is the CR is learning on the job & the fact is shouldn't really be there. Fans aren't the best judges as he goes from being the best thing after a good performance to the worst after a bad one. What we needed was some experience after HR went but TF probably influenced by Ferdinand plumped for an unknown with no managerial experience & we wonder why we're going down. There's clearly some really poor sides around us & we needed someone with the nous to make the right calls to scrape every possible point out each game.
I cannot knock CR as he was left with these players, he cannot turn water into wine..... However West ham were on their hols and i thought the team were not up for it. Caulker was shocking, Charlie looked disinterested (yes he did) and we should have brought on Adel or Krank as the game needed a bit of life. So yes CR had a poor day at the office. Cheers Harry you really have Fkd up my club.
It's a bloody shame really. That brief bit of hope I had that we might just survive by the skin of our teeth has turned back in to that resigned feeling that we are down. If we do just manage to stay up then it's the typical QPR do things the hard way. Oh well, I will always love the R's!
No chance of staying up, we blew that chance many games ago. Should have won at Villa = blew it Should have got point v Scum =blew it Needed to win today =blew it Funnily you see how Palace get safe and then lose 2 home games? That's why you can never rely on other teams especially when you don't win your own games.
I missed the game today so I can't comment but from the highlights reel he was our most creative player as usual. Ramsey messed up today Ozzie
Knock Ramsey? Rubbish Our players today did not have the composure to stick their foot on the ball can't complain about the effort And that's the small difference We didn't get the result so it's a blame game ... Not right IMO The game seemed to me to be dictated by players trying too hard Maybe they were too pumped? But I didn't see Rangers football today
