QPR would seem to be on a hiding to nothing this Sunday as they travel to Manchester to face United, so should Mark Hughes rest players ahead of more realistic point winning opportunities next week?
Barclays Premier League >>> Sunday April 8, 2012 >>> Kick Off 1.30pm >>> Old Trafford, Manchester >>> Live on Sky Sports 1
I had to chuckle when message board regular Gloucs R dug out Patrick Agyemang’s record so far during his loan spell at League One Stevenage earlier this week – six appearances, no goals, yet to make it through to the end of any of his starts. That guy drives a personalised reg Bentley at our club’s expense.
It’s amazing to think that back in August we were starting with Agyemang up front in the Premiership at Everton and Wigan. I’m amazed we didn’t fall foul of the league’s rules on fielding weakened teams for that to be honest, surely fielding a player that inept in a top flight match must place you in some danger of violating a league rule of some sort? Mind you I can’t say I really understand how you can force a club to select a 25 man squad for league games and then punish them for picking a combination of those players.
The only two teams to find themselves fined under that particular piece of legislation are Blackpool, who actually nearly got a result from their match at Aston Villa last season for which they made ten changes, and Wolves who two seasons ago came to Old Trafford in similar circumstances to us and changed their whole team. Mick McCarthy’s argument was that in the grand scheme of that year’s relegation battle their subsequent weekend match with Burnley at Molineux was of greater importance than a midweeker at Old Trafford they were highly likely to lose whatever team they fielded. The league disagreed and fined Wolves £25,000. McCarthy’s side went on to beat Burnley and stay up while the Clarets were relegated, so he’d probably say it was money well spent.
Which rather begs the question whether QPR should do the same this weekend? Rangers are 16/1 for a win here with some bookies and will need a miraculous turn of events to achieve that. Meanwhile games at home to Swansea and away at West Brom lie in wait three and six days after this one respectively. I highly doubt that the idea of wholesale changes with a mind on the forthcoming two games has even crossed Mark Hughes’ mind – he’s not a man used to accepting defeat, he’s returning to the club he spent most of his playing career with and one he no doubt sees himself managing one day, and he recognises that with just seven matches remaining QPR can’t really afford to be giving up on any of them. But with Swansea playing today and getting a full four days of rest before travelling to Loftus Road, 48 hours more feet up time than our players, I wonder if he should.
My opinion is that teams often beat themselves before they arrive at Old Trafford through attitudes like this. We’ve seen several times this season from a variety of different teams – Man City, Blackburn, Athletic Bilbao, Basle, Benfica, Ajax – that coming here with no fear and actually going to attack and try to score a few goals can reap greater rewards than you may think. Chances are though even if we do pick a full strength side it will be sitting deep and counter attacking given that this is how we’re playing in every game at the moment - hence the greater success against the better teams.
Personally I want to see us come into this game and go for it because United look surprised and uncomfortable whenever a team does it to them at their own ground. Or I want to see seven or eight players rested ahead of a monumental effort against Swansea on Wednesday. The worst case scenario here is we pick our first team, don’t show enough ambition, spend the whole afternoon tiring ourselves out chasing shadows around the place, and then have nothing left in the tank for the rest of the week. Interesting situation this one.
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Team News: QPR are without long term injury victim Alejandro Faurlin and permanently suspended Djibril Cisse. Another week of training may well move DJ Campbell and top scorer Heidar Helguson back into contention following their respective lengthy absences. Armand Traore could be back in contention after recent hamstring problems.
Antonio Valencia continues to play with a metal plate in his ankle, and Alex Ferguson has refuted claims in the press this week that he will require a further operation. Nemanja Vidic is a long term absentee while Tom Cleverley is fighting his way back to full fitness. Rio Ferdinand continues to struggle with his back injury.
Elsewhere: A frantic Easter weekend of action featuring two matches for each team played between today and next Wednesday. By the end of it QPR could be bottom, fifteenth, or anywhere in between. We’ll focus on everybody’s first fixtures here and then review the second half of the week pre-Swansea on Wednesday. It all gets underway today with Swansea hosting Newcastle in a live Sky fixture before Sunderland face Spurs in tomorrow’s early game.
There are five games at 3pm tomorrow, the most important from a QPR point of view are Bolton’s home win against Fulham and Blackburn’s trip to West Brom although with Aston Villa dropping like a rock their match with Liverpool also has interest. Wigan are at Chelsea so hopefully that’s at least one team around us losing this weekend, and it’s hard to fancy Wolves for much at Stoke in the Saturday evening game. Manchester City travel to Arsenal in the Sunday 4pm kick off following our defeat at Old Trafford.
Referee: For the second time this season we have Lancashire official Lee Mason in charge of a trip to the North West. Previously he took our 1-0 defeat at Liverpool in December and will now oversee this visit to Old Trafford. Like so many officials he’s previously incurred the wrath of Alex Ferguson who delivered a volley of abuse to him over a late Birmingham City goal against the Reds last season. For his full QPR case file please click here.
Man Utd: United have won their last seven league matches and haven’t conceded a goal for the last three during which they’ve scored eight of their own. The home win against Chelsea earlier this season equalled a club record 18 consecutive home league successes and a subsequent win against Norwich broke that record but the Canaries were unfortunate not to take something from that game and there have been some cracks appearing at times this season. United have conceded 15 goals at Old Trafford so far, their worst record for ten years.
QPR: Rangers have won six times this season, but included in that is victories against Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal which suggests they prefer playing against the league’s better sides. They were unfortunate not to take something from Man City earlier this season as well. Away from home QPR have lost five of their last six and are without a win in nine league games having started the season winning three of the first six away from home. The number of games without a clean sheet now stretches to 23 in the league.
Prediction: Sadly it can’t realistically be anything other than an absolute thrashing here can it? I’ll air on the optimistic side and say United may only get two but really four, five or six wouldn’t be a surprise. If you can get a price on their first goal being a penalty take that as well.
Man Utd win 2-0, 7/1 with Stan James
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