QPR’s unbeaten start to the league season continued on Saturday with a 1-0 win against Birmingham that came despite the R’s turning in their worst performance in the Championship so far.
Queens Park Rangers appear to be engaged in an elaborate game of chicken — testing just how poorly they can play while still winning Championship football matches.
The R’s won four and drew one of their first five league games in August, rarely elevating their performances above workmanlike. Blackpool’s Matt Phillips, Tottenham duo Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Tom Carroll, and Dynamo Kiev’s Niko Kranjcar were added at the end of the transfer window to add guile, speed and creativity to the graft and grind.
While admittedly only two of the new comers were involved on Saturday against Birmingham — Carroll from the start, Phillips as a first half substitute when Junior Hoilett’s porcelain hamstring cracked again — Rangers appear to be getting worse rather than better. And yet the victories keep coming. This was a club record fourth consecutive 1-0 win, and the R’s now haven’t conceded a goal in four and a half matches.
On Saturday they faced Birmingham City, a good bet for relegation from the Championship this season amidst continued financial uncertainty thanks to criminal charges being pursued against owner Carson Yeung. So many quality and experienced players have left St Andrews of late that manager Lee Clark is effectively working with his hands tied behind his back but the former Newcastle and Fulham midfielder had a plan for this game far more creative and effective than anything QPR offered. A 3-4-3 formation with overlapping wing backs, and the experienced pairing of Wade Elliott and Chris Burke operating in the right channel, was enough to dominate large swathes of the game and ultimately Birmingham, roared on by a boisterous travelling support, will wonder how on earth they left W12 with no points.
When referee Mike Jones harshly adjudged Tom Carroll to have fouled Andrew Shinnie at the midway point of the first half Shinnie planted the resulting free kick on Lee Novak’s head and the centre forward guided the ball flush against the post. Earlier another free kick had been laid square across the face of the area for Elliott to blast over and when they did put the ball in the net, immediately after half time, Spector’s goal — a combination of neat build up play, slack defending, and rank goalkeeping - was ruled out for offside. Soon after Rangers allowed Burke to skip into the penalty area unchecked and deliver a dangerous low cross shot that Richard Dunne had to fend away at the near post.
Dunne, ably partnered by Onuoha, stood as a tower of strength at the heart of the QPR defence. Old, with a catalogue of recent injury problems on his record, and built more like a pub landlord than a central defender, Dunne was nevertheless QPR’s outstanding player on Saturday. He had to be - Rangers were heavily reliant on their two centre backs to keep them in the game and it’s the back four that looks the only part of the team to be fully formed and functioning at the moment. The R’s still haven’t conceded a goal with Dunne on the pitch this season.
Novak headed over via a deflection seven minutes after half time and then Kyle Bartley also missed the target with a header from the resulting corner. With 12 minutes left for play Jonathan Spector looked all set to score before crashing to earth in the penalty box. Jones showed a yellow card to the Birmingham man for a dive and the referee was absolutely correct. The logic, often proffered by co-commentators in such situations, wonders why a player would go down deliberately when he might score a goal himself if he stayed up. Your guess is as good as mine, but dive he did and the chance was gone.
The City fans behind the goal hurled a flare onto the pitch as an expression of their irritation. It remains a mystery why I can’t get into Loftus Road with a bottle of Diet Coke with the lid on, but pond life from all four corners of the UK is coming to W12 week after week and being allowed to put on pyrotechnic displays completely unchecked by the wonderful Loftus Road stewards. A two minute wait while a thick pair of gardening gloves and a bucket of sand were located was farcical.
City are a very limited team — their ability to work an overlap and then not pass the ball to the player in space in a wide area knew no bounds — but QPR looked terribly disjointed as well. Carroll, barely a day over 11 years old, was asked to play in the centre of a 4-4-2 set up in the first half with predictable consequences. He struggled in that role during a loan spell at Derby earlier in his career and did so again for the first 45 minutes here. Rangers want to play out from the back through him and Barton, which is admirable, but 4-4-2 is a straight line formation from a bygone era and even a team as limited as Birmingham were able to pick it apart with ease. Time and again Barton and Carroll looked up for options and saw nothing but fluorescent away tops. The more it happened, the deeper they got with their possession and the longer the passes got. Playing direct to Austin and Zamora against the giant pairing of Burn and Bartley was always likely to be a hiding to nothing.
Barton struggled just as much as Carroll in the first period. The former Marseille man could have cost QPR the first goal, and been sent off, before half time. First he was caught in possession in his own half and Novak teed up Shinnie for what should, at the very least, have been a shot on target but ultimately ended up at the back of the Lower Loft. Then later he produced an ankle tap trip any rugby league player would be proud of on Tom Adeymi after losing both the initial challenge and then his footing. It was extraordinary that Jones didn’t deem that worthy of a yellow card, and just as well really because four minutes later Barton chopped down Caddis and was booked. Birmingham have good reason to wonder why that second foul didn’t bring a trip to the early bath water for the QPR midfielder.
The home side wasn’t helped by the latest in an ongoing series of hamstring injuries to Junior Hoilett. He’d started the game brightly — volleying over after Charlie Austin set him up with a chest down inside the first minute, then seeing a shot deflected away after he’d seized on a loose Elliott pass and run half the length of the field with the time still in single figures — but spent the next half an hour mostly sitting down and stretching his aching limbs.
Manager Harry Redknapp eventually withdrew his Canadian winger eight minutes before half time, probably a good deal earlier than he’d liked to have introduced winger Matt Phillips for his debut. The former Blackpool man hadn’t played any competitive football since May prior to this outing, and although it was only an elbow injury that kept him out for that period of time he looked a long way off the pace. Simple pieces of control and passes went astray and he was visibly frustrated with his debut to forget by the end of proceedings.
A total rethink was required at half time and to Redknapp’s credit that’s exactly what happened. Bobby Zamora, typically ineffective albeit while receiving limited service against two powerful centre backs, was sensibly withdrawn and a lone striker system adopted instead. Shaun Wright-Phillips came into the side down one flank, with Phillips supporting Austin and the hard-working Gary O’Neil adding further impetus. It’s this system, with three advanced midfielders and two deep lying ones, that suits the personnel QPR have at their disposal best and although Barton and Carroll were too deep in it — the R’s missed the benched Karl Henry on Saturday — it was still a good deal better than anything that had gone on in the first half.
Having made the change QPR took the lead three minutes after the break. Wright-Phillips checked back on the byline and was fouled by Elliott. The free kick was taken deep to the far post by Barton, hooked back into the danger area by Nedum Onuoha, smacked accidentally against the underside of his own bar by Adeyemi, and finally knocked over the line at point blank range by Austin for his first league goal of the season.
One could easily have been two moments later when Dunne missed Barton’s low corner at the near post and Austin stabbed wide of the target having seen the ball coming very late. Later Austin, whose work rate makes him an ideal solo front man in these situations, cut a ball back for Carroll to lift over the bar.
Any thought or hope that breaking the deadlock might lead to a goal-glut proved misguided though. Birmingham were never quite as effective once they’d taken Shinnie off and sent Shane Ferguson on, necessitating a switch away from the 3-4-3 that had worked so well to a less threatening 4-3-3 set up, but they’d have been good value for a point had they won one. A solid centre back pairing was really all Rangers brought to this game of any note.
And yet it could easily have finished 2-0 to the hosts. Three minutes from time Joey Barton flicked the ball up on the edge of the box and executed a gratuitous bicycle kick that keeper Darren Randolph saved well. Barton had Phillips in acres of space to his left, dying to be played in on goal, but he chose the showboat option to the delight of his fan club and ego.
Nothing wrong with his injury time free kick though. Burn was booked for hauling down Austin and Barton stepped up to crack a fabulous strike over the wall and off the top of the Birmingham post.
The visitors’ frustration with life started to manifest itself in yellow cards late in the game. Burn and Spector were joined in the book by Robinson and Shinnie for fouls.
QPR won only 14 matches during two years in the Premier League, and only four in the whole of the 2012/13 season. The ship needed steadying, the team needed solidifying, and the habit and artform of winning games needed revising. Style, panache, flair, attractive play and aesthetics can all follow later, and it’s a good sign that QPR are able to carve out victories from such basic performances in the meantime — but they will have to follow at some point soon, because wins will not continue to flow from performances like this.
Links >>> Photo Gallery >>> Interactive Player Ratings >>> Have Your Say >>> Message Board Match Thread
QPR: Green 6; Simpson 6, Onuoha 7, Dunne 7, Hill 6; O’Neil 7, Barton 6, Carroll 6 (Jenas 82, -), Hoilett 5 (Phillips 39, 5); Zamora 5 (Wright-Phillips 46, 6), Austin 6
Subs: Murphy, Assou-Ekotto, Faurlin, Henry
Goals: Austin 49 (assisted Onuoha)
Bookings: Barton 43 (repetitive fouling)
Birmingham: Randolph 6; Burn 6, Bartley 6, Robinson 6; Elliott 7, Spector 6, Caddis 6, Adeyemi 6 (Lovenkrands 82, -); Burke 7, Novak 6, Shinnie 6 (Ferguson 55, 6)
Subs: Doyle, Ambrose, Reilly, Lee, Brown
Bookings: Shinnie 49 (foul), Spector 78 (diving), Robinson 86 (foul), Burn 90+1 (foul)
QPR Star Man — Richard Dunne 7 A very fine centre half display from the veteran, with honourable mentions to Onuoha and O’Neil as well. QPR are relying on their centre backs more and more with each passing game at the moment and can’t continue to do so, however imperious Dunne looks at the moment.
Referee — Mike Jones (Cheshire) 7 The big decision of the game — the Spector dive — was correct but Birmingham have good cause to ask why Joey Barton was shown leniency before half time and four of their players were then booked in the second half.
Attendance — 16,952 (1,723 Birmingham) An atmosphere to match the game really — a bit quiet and sedate, with very occasional flash points when the travelling Birmingham faithful decided to throw fireworks and loose seats around the place.
Tweet @loftforwords
Pictures — Action Images