Antti Heinola reflects on last night’s shellacking by Newcastle at Loftus Road, which he puts down to the perfect storm of QPR’s work in progress coming up against a talented side that has found its feet.

Olympics

Faster, higher, stronger. The BBC's slogan for the Olympics works perfectly for tonight. Newcastle were faster than us all over the pitch. They jumped higher for every ball. And they were stronger in every challenge. People often talk about being outclassed in all departments - never has it been more appropriate than tonight. It wasn't even as if the players were dreadful, making silly mistakes, or not trying. They were just not in Newcastle's class. Not even close - but the worrying thing was they seemed to think that was the case before a ball was kicked.

Strength in depth was my biggest concern this season - that was valid. But now it seems it's much worse. People may have been pleased to see the backs of Phillips and Hoilett, but replacing players like that is not easy and I'm not sure any of our wide players match them. But neither they, or Faurlin and Hill would've stopped that rout tonight. They all played in maulings like the Fulham ones, and Newcastle were better than Fulham were. We can wait for one or two new signings to catch fire - but not all of them.

Shelvey

Should've been booked before he scored, but basically he totally ran the game. He was superb - I lost count of the number of brilliant balls he put in, and that was apart from his spectacular second goal. That he's playing at this level is his own fault for whatever happened at Swansea, but he won't be down here for more than this season. But, having said that, we made it very easy for him. Nominally I suppose we were playing 4-4-1-1 or maybe 4-5-1. But no one ever got close to Shelvey all night. On his own I think he had six shots, mainly because he drifted to the edge of the box time and again without anyone picking him up.

As with Saturday, our two CMs were very deep - too deep to mark him. Chery never got close to him. Washington never pressured him. So he was completely free to do as he wished. And it never changed. At no point did JFH change things to pick him up to at least try and stem some of the inexorable flow of perfectly-weighted through balls for the strikers and wingers. On the opening day of the season, Luongo and Henry were gifted the freedom of the midfield by Leeds and profited. It hasn't happened since and the difference today was that Newcastle had the players to expose our weaknesses ruthlessly.

Perez

Was it Perez or Aguero? Christ, he didn't just rip us a new one, we actually didn't have an arse left after he'd finished, just a big, gaping, bloody hole. I thought all our back five worked very hard and actually made some good challenges, clearances and saves, but faced with that amount of pace, verve and accuracy they never stood a chance and were completely outclassed. Perez was the pick, he probably should've scored four.

I thought Hall tried manfully to keep going, but losing can become a habit. Someone said to me at half time that Caulker has the air of a man who has seen games like this too many times now in his short career. It's not that he stopped playing, more that he accepted the inevitable. Yet another spanking. It's going to need guts and hard work for this defence to fight back from this.

Lascelles

If Newcastle had played 1-4-5 I still think Lascelles would have kept us to nil. Won absolutely, positively everything. Always rated him and when some of this side were taking the piss out of Newcastle fans with some terrible performances last season, he never did. Showed real character, and now he's captain, a leader and a great centre half. Everything we could do with.

But truth be told, he was rarely tested. Washington was a willing runner, but showed no threat at all. Chery was probably our best player (with a whopping 4/10) but was always too deep and too isolated to ever cause any serious issues. Apart from one decent cross, Yeni was again not really doing anything, Perch was off early and Wszolek tried hard, but looked a bit shellshocked to come on and witness this pasting. Plus, he only has one foot.

Sylla did force the keeper into one decent save, similar to Saturday, but that was it. And it is a real concern how little we threaten teams. Chery and Polter are a decent partnership, but they need help - much more help. I'm not quite sure where that's coming from at the moment, but then after a 6-0 defeat, every game looks like a thrashing. Teams recover. Eventually. Usually.

Smithies

I actually thought he did ok, but on the way back, listening (a conversation I really didn't want to hear) to Newcastle fans dissecting the game, they thought he was 'all over the place'. I thought he kept the score down with some good saves, but maybe I'm wrong? Should he have saved more? Thought his kicking was good - he did try to not hoof it to Washington's head if he could help it, and tried to play it out when possible. Dunno. Depressing when even the bloke you thought did ok, despite conceding six, gets a 2/10 from the oppo fans.

Hope

So, a million negatives. A million more concerns and worries. A reminder that just changing a manager isn't like waving a magic wand (if any team could see that, it should be us). And my belief that teams quite often, after a kicking, come back with an unexpected result. Remember Southend away? 5-0? A performance far, far worse than this against a team that went on to get relegated, not certs for automatic promotion like this lot. We then went up to Leeds and drew 0-0. OK, so we didn't win any of the next four, either, but come on, I'm trying to find something here. And we did eventually turn the corner that season and, somehow, stayed up. And Wolves lost 4-0 to Barnsley. So, you know. That's all I got.

Pictures — Action Images

Action Images

RonisRs added 16:32 - Sep 14 what a shambles, lets hope the team galvanises and pushes onwards and upwards. lets hope JFH learns from this one.
0

Patrick added 17:37 - Sep 14 I can't blame the players too much, there was no shortage of effort, but an absolute gulf in class and ability - sadly about a two divisions gulf. Not sure if JFH has ever had to put out a side against a Prem team (which in truth they were) before. A steep learning curve all round, and maybe a list for reinforcements needed in January?
0

Myke added 11:33 - Sep 15 Thanks for report Antti but I have to take issue with your underlying theme as depicted in your headline that we are a 'work in progress' while Newcastle are a 'talented team that has found it's feet.' Newcastle have just been relegated and we know the devastation that goes with that. This is our second season down so have had more time to adjust to the demands and expectations of this tier. Rafa Benitez has never managed in the Championship. Much has been made of the 'culture shock' of this division playing every Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday blah blah blah. Imagine how much more intense that shock must be for a Champions League winner and a man who 12 months ago was managing Ronaldo, Bale et al. It must be harder coming down a division than going up one and again JFH has the benefit of being in his second season at this level. Transfers: Benitez has just gone out and bought an entire new team. Yes he has spent a lot of money but to say they are not still a work in progress after 6 games is unrealistic. And he didn't go out and buy Ronaldo or Bale or Messi although you would be forgiven for thinking that's who we were facing when listening to JFK explaining his team selection. Ritchie and Gayle struggled in the prem last season while Clarke was part of the worst team in the division. Not many Blackburn fans lamented the loss of Hanley. Two average centre-halves who could have been exposed with a bit more courage from Hasslebaink - instead both could have played in their suits and both scored simple, preventable goals They also were stripped of top quality players this summer although admittedly some were nearing the end of their careers. But to lose Sissoko, Winjnaldum, Cisse, Krul, Colloccini, Cabella and others and say you're not in transition is just not accurate. Yes we had a good deal of transfer activity early on (and some late ones too I know) but Jimmy still seems to be a million miles from knowing his strongest team and the players a million miles from implementing a high pressing game. In fact the latter expression in light of the performance against Newcastle and Preston is somewhat of a ghoulish joke at this stage. Also to suggest that absolute shysters like Phillips or Hoilett would have in anyway improved the performance is patently untrue. The two men most likely to disappear when the going gets tough more like. And while I'm on that topic several message boards have suggested the 'solution' is Sandro - nuff said To me Antti it was down to the glaring tactical naivety of our manager. So Newcastle are the biggest team he has managed against, fair enough. Show them respect but don't fear them. Don't put 7 defenders on the pitch - AT HOME! - to counteract their 'world class' attacking options. Be brave, cause them concerns , take the game to them. Be more adventurous . I personally and I'm pretty sure all QPR fans, would rather lose a rip-roaring game 4-7 than what was witnessed on Tuesday evening. Be brave Jimmy. Trust your players, They are yours for the most part. You believe they can compete at this level. Take the shakles off and let them prove you right. Let this be the darkest hour before dawn

1

Blogs 31 bloggers

Queens Park Rangers Polls