| Just back 22:54 - Feb 21 with 3743 views | QPR_Nippon |
Enjoyable game, decent atmosphere and best of all 3 more precious points. A contrast to Saturday I suppose as we had to grind that one out a bit. Wigan gave us a sterner test than their league position suggested. Omar Bogle was a constant thorn in our side, although the defence coped a bit better with him in the second half. Clinging on a bit at the end with some heroic defending from Ned in particular, but overall deserved to take the points as I thought we had a bit more quality where it mattered. Washington will deservedly take the main plaudits for superbly creating the first and scoring a cracking second but watching Lua Lua take their right back to the cleaners time after time was also a particular highlight. Really enjoying the combative yet skillful Freeman/Manning combo in the midfield although they both rove around a bit and this sometimes left Wigan with too much space to exploit through the middle. But overall, loads more positives than negatives, and with a 10 point gap to the relegation zone giving us a bit of breathing space hopefully we can enjoy watching this team develop and improve over the remaining matches without the spectre of a relegation battle. | | | |  |
| Just back on 23:05 - Feb 21 with 3642 views | BrianMcCarthy |
Thanks for that. Much appreciated. | |
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| Just back on 23:11 - Feb 21 with 3579 views | 100percent |
Agree with most of that.
Lua Lua ripped them a new one.... they couldn't deal with him at all.
If they go down, we need to make a big for Omar Bogle.... he was a proper nuisance throughout the first half..... lost a bit of his confidence in the 2nd, but a great front man...
Freeman adds a bit of class to the midfield, he a footballer... always looking for the ball...
enjoyable win to grind out... | | | |
| Just back on 23:19 - Feb 21 with 3495 views | FDC |
Listening to the comms, when Hall went off i assumed Perch would come on. Sounds like Lua Lua coming on instead worked out? | | | |
| Just back on 23:28 - Feb 21 with 3417 views | OakR |
I think you can look at it two ways.
Much of the match was poor quality, aimless hoofball from both teams, lots of poor miss passes all round and a lack of composure on the ball.
Washington was a clear MOM and you can see how confident he is right now, great goal and great assist for Smith - was suprised he went off but maybe he needs a rest. LuaLua had a great cameo, very promising, just a bit more work on the end product, but looked very good on the ball
Smithies made a couple of important saves.
Lynch was generally good however he gave away the penalty, and the goal we conceded was poor all round, and we nearly conceded another time when Nedum covered for him.
Wigan worked hard, did not allow us much time on the ball.
I like Manning but did not think he had a great game tonight, Freeman looked good but we just could not get the passing going.
All in all for me it was winning without playing that well, as the OP said grinding it out.
Not conceding that penalty and a bit more composure and I think we might have got a few more. The players are still getting to know each other, that much is clearer, so things should improve. | |
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| Just back on 23:30 - Feb 21 with 3392 views | bosh67 |
The thing about Manning though is he is relentless. Every ball he lost tonight he eventually won back. Boy's a tiger. | |
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| Just back on 23:35 - Feb 21 with 3348 views | QPR_Nippon |
I made the same assumption, but was pleased to see Ollie take the bolder step of switching from 3-4-3 to 4-4-2. It did leave us a bit shorter staffed in the central defensive area obviously, and Bogle began to dominate this area even more after Hall went off, but the additional attacking threat from Lua Lua and slightly better balance overall (with Washington able to play more centrally off Smith) more than compensated for this, I'd say. | | | |
| Just back on 23:36 - Feb 21 with 3333 views | eghamranger |
Was a good move as he played wide and made use of the pitch.
Old school 4-4-2, 2 good wingers and little and large up top.
Well done ollie | | | |
| Just back on 23:45 - Feb 21 with 3253 views | A40Bosh |
Agree with a lot of that Oak.
Very scrappy at times and I think that Wigan had a plan to target Hall and their yellows were a reflection of some pretty cynical fouls and a couple looked nasty.
Notice that Pawel not getting much attention on this thread and that is perhaps because I felt he looked lost tonight. Other players seemed to be moving him around and bawling instructions at him. He just did not seem to be involved tonight.
My only real gripe is the "have the big man, use the big man" approach of Lynch and Ned receiving the ball and hoofing it towards Smith. We looked better getting it out to LuaLua and driving at them. | |
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| Just back on 23:45 - Feb 21 with 3243 views | TacticalR |
Atmosphere better than in some matches this season, although still quite quiet for long periods, especially as there weren't that many Wigan fans (although more than Burton brought).
Great pass from Washington through a crowd of Wigan players to Smith for the first goal.
The result could have been a draw as Wigan had some good chances. They look an OK side (and much better than for example McCarthy's Ipswich cloggers), although a bit short of confidence. When they went behind for a second time they looked a bit short of ideas. Bogle was a handful.
The game speeded up and slowed down, there were periods of ball in the air and periods of ball on the ground, there were a lot of misplaced passes and a lot of good passes. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
Manning and Freeman look good. Manning has great control, can bring the ball down quickly, and can change direction quickly. Freeman has that little touch of the unexpected. | |
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| Just back on 23:51 - Feb 21 with 3215 views | QPR_Nippon |
Indeed - it was a night where his combative qualities stood out more than his technical ones. But I like him a lot and think he is worth his place at the moment. And that comes from one of the seemingly dwindling number of people who still rate Luongo!
As for Freeman, I thought his cameo in the Huddersfield match was one of the most impressive debuts I've seen from a Rangers player and I'm delighted he's more or less carried that form into these last 2 matches. In 2 and a half matches with him in the team we've scored 7 and conceded only twice. [Post edited 21 Feb 2017 23:53]
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| Just back on 00:02 - Feb 22 with 3166 views | OakR |
RE Pavel, he was very quiet, thought he had a few opportunities to drive on but passed it back or sideways, it was an odd performance from him. | |
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| Just back on 09:16 - Feb 22 with 2761 views | BklynRanger |
If we hadn't had a striker who is on form I think we'd have needed to settle for a frustrating 1-1. BUT we did so all's well that ends well.
You could see things we were doing well in certain parts of the pitch that weren't quite joined up enough (technical football term). Early days though and thankfully we can be a bit less worried about the drop for now. | | | |
| Just back on 10:28 - Feb 22 with 2626 views | W7Ranger |
As much of a handful as Lua Lua was last night - and he really was a handful going forward. Switching direction, and bursts of pace causing all sorts of problems. There were a couple of times last night near the end where he lost the ball through relaxing and being complacent (cocky). Other than that, he was superb - and boy has he got a shot on him! He was unlucky not to score against Huddersfield in the closing stages when the keeper saved with his feet, and he had a couple of real thunderbolts last night which would still be travelling now had they not been blocked! I'm trying to remember if it was Lua Lua that hit one which pole axed one of there players in the first half, but the whole crowd went "ooooooooopppphhhh!" when it connected!! | | | |
| Just back on 10:43 - Feb 22 with 2579 views | robith |
Agree with all that's being said. Also Wigan were bad. Bad bad bad. How many times did they put the ball out of play under no pressure whatsoever. I made it well on its way to 20 by the time I stopped counting | | | |
| Just back on 10:46 - Feb 22 with 2566 views | W7Ranger |
A lot of the Wigan opportunities came from us being sloppy and losing possession, the penalty being one of the them. We could have been punished but we dug this one out. Cut out the silly mistakes and we're looking a very good team... | | | |
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