QPR and Reading meet on Wednesday in a competition increasingly seen as an unwanted distraction. Given their respective results so far this season, both may be reassessing the importance of a win.
League Cup Third Round >>> Wednesday September 26, 2012 >>> Kick Off 7.45pm >>> Loftus Road , London , W12
The Europeans have brought many great thins to the English game. The aversion to knock out cup competitions is not one of them.
QPR are now four league games into the 2012/13 season and things have not gone quite to plan. To begin with, a summer of almost universal optimism was brutally punctured by a day one thrashing at the hands of Swansea – a result which looks even worse now given the Welsh side's last two showing against Aston Villa and Everton which were totally inept and yielded two defeats with no goals scored and five conceded. Then there was a performance against a Norwich team far inferior to Swansea that, in almost every way apart from the amount of goals conceded, was even more shambolic than the opening efforts.
This bought about the bi-annual last minute rush to squeeze a few more big earners through the closing transfer window and the arrival of Esteban Granero and Júlio César has undoubtedly brought about improvements. QPR were as good at Spurs on Sunday as they have been in any game for years, and only a persistent inability to deal with the changing dynamic of a match after a goal has been scored cost them a point. That, and profligate finishing which also robbed them of a deserved win against Chelsea the week before. Having taken one point from two matches they should have comfortably lost, QPR have now taken the same from two they should have won at a canter.
So, performances are improving, which is good, and having been thrashed by Swansea and outplayed by Norwich, Rangers have now dominated Chelsea and Spurs which suggests everything is heading in the right direction. What we have now is pressure: pressure to put points on the board to avoid a winter of scrapping at the bottom of the table and pressure to reproduce the last two performances in the next three games which are all winnable. In recent times QPR have raised their game for the better sides, then immediately dropped it for the lesser ones, and if they do so again they're going to be in big trouble.
The other issue Mark Hughes faces is an escalating injury list. His policy of buying players in their 30s for the experience is all well and good, but they're all more likely to get injured as the years advance. That the injuries are – Andy Johnson apart – coming exclusively in the defence, and particularly at full back, makes them hard to cope with.
The solution proposed by some around the various message boards and social networks this week is to bail out of the League Cup against a Reading side that is also struggling at the bottom of the Premier League. Field the kids and reserves and get the hell out of it.
No, no, no, a thousand times no.
By all means throw in Michael Harriman or Max Ehmer to bolster a flagging defence – one sensible thing Hughes has done in the past few months is involve those two regularly during the pre-season so that if a crisis, such as the one we're currently experiencing, arises they won't be coming in completely green and naïve to what is required. But this attitude that clubs as low down as League One now have towards cup competitions where the first choice players are universally left out for the early rounds is a crying shame. That’s particularly true for a club like QPR where the only realistic chance of winning any silverware, and qualifying for Europe into the bargain, for the foreseeable future rests with this competition.
Mark Hughes has stated that he intends to take this competition seriously and despite the recent injuries I hope he does just that. This perception that cup runs equal poor league form isn't one I buy into – you can point to Birmingham City getting relegated after winning the Legaue Cup, but Stoke failed to win any of their last ten matches last season after fielding a reserve side to exit the Europa League at Valencia. Surely the mood of the supporters and team heading into Monday's important Premier League game with West Ham will be better for a win against Reading than a defeat?
I don't care what Roberto Di Matteo says and what all financial logic dictates – there is more to life than finishing in the top four every year, or making sure you stay in the Premier League. Football is about cups and medals, and I'm yet to see proof that pursuing them automatically means you suffer in the day-to-day humdrum of getting to 42 points as quickly as possible.
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Team News: The torn hamstring suffered by Jose Bosingwa in the first minute of Sunday's defeat at Spurs will keep him out for several weeks. With Fabio Da Silva and Armand Traore also nursing hamstring complaints it leaves Nedum Onuoha as the only recognised full back fit and available for selection, and many would argue he is better suited to a centre back role anyway. Kieron Dyer won the LFW Star Man award at White Hart Lane for his impressive stint as Bosingwa's replacement but with his own battles with injury over the last six years well documented it might be unwise to request another 90 minutes from him within three days of his first, and just five days before we're likely to need him for an important league game with West Ham. Anton Ferdinand's absence and Ryan Nelsen's injury and advancing age further complicate the situation and it's likely that one or both of Max Ehmer and Michael Harriman could be used here. No 25-man-squad rule for the League Cup means Luke Young can be selected, although given the state of relations between him and Mark Hughes I'd suggest there's more chance of me playing full back on Wednesday. Up front Andy Johnson is out for the season with ruptured knee ligaments, and Bobby Zamora left the field early at Spurs with a knock.
Reading are still without veteran front man Jason Roberts but could have Jimmy Kebe back from his torn hamstring after he successfully completed an hour of a reserve game last week.
Elsewhere: The majority of the third round ties were played this evening, with in form Premier League high flyers Everton succumbing to a 2-1 defeat at Championship side Leeds in the televised game. Former QPR boss Neil Warnock described it as his greatest night in knockout football as Rodolph Austin and Aidan White saw his team through to the fourth round.
Elsewhere Swansea narrowly avoided an upset at League One Crawley, coming from 2-1 down to win 3-2, and Aston Villa recorded an impressive 4-2 success at Eastlands against a weakened Manchester City side. Everything else went pretty much to form although Wigan’s 4-1 win at West Ham stuck out, and Paulo Di Canio’s Swindon are still marching on having knocked out more Championship opposition in the form of Burnley.
Sky have gone for audience over editorial on Wednesday evening by showing Man Utd v Newcastle, which will essentially be a glorified reserve game, ahead of Carlisle v Spurs which holds real genuine intrigue for me. The idea of Andre Villas Boas crouching down on the touchline at Brunton Park as his millionaires get the rounds of the kitchen run through them by a League One side is appealing, but not apparently appealing enough for a live game status. West Brom v Liverpool, which finished 3-0 to the home side on the opening day of the league season, has plenty going for it as a potential spectacle as well with Brendan Rodgers’ side still without a win in the Premiership.
Referee: Roger East from Wiltshire is the man in the middle on Wednesday night. He hasn't refereed a QPR game for the best part of 18 months since Ishmael Miller burst through on goal and fired a last minute winner to maintain the Hoops' position at the top of the table with a 1-0 victory against Leicester at Loftus Road . He was a Championship official last season, refereeing Reading 's 2-2 home draw with Derby among others, but was promoted to the Premier League list this season and has already clocked up ten appointments across four competitions in double quick time. For his full case file click here.
QPR: Rangers' have a notorious record in cup competitions in recent years, with one FA Cup quarter final appearance back in 1995 the best they've done in either domestic competition for the best part of a quarter of a century. Last season's narrow 1-0 replay win against MK Dons was the first FA Cup tie of any sort they'd won in 11 years – the worst record of any team at any level in the entire country. They've fared slightly better in the League Cup, both historically having won it as a Third Division side in 1967, and recently when a couple of runs as a second tier side took them through a win at Aston Villa to defeat at Man Utd, and then a year later to Chelsea. Beating Walsall in the first round this season prevented the Midlanders from joining Port Vale, Northampton , Orient (all twice each), and Rochdale in eliminating QPR from the League Cup as a lower division team in the last ten years. The 3-0 success against the Saddlers remains QPR's only win this season – they've lost two and drawn two of the others and are yet to score more than a single goal in a game against a Premier League team this season. In fact, the 3-2 defeat at Man City on the last day of last season was the only time they've managed it in eight attempts going back to the 3-0 home victory against Swansea in April.
Reading: The Royals could have picked better places for a cup tie having lost their last two trips to Loftus Road, conceding seven times in the process. To be fair, QPR have given them a man advantage in each of the last four meetings with Hogan Ephraim, Bradley Orr, Damion Stewart and Ben Watson all seeing red in this fixture. Brian McDermott's side is currently bottom of the Premier League, one place and point worse off than QPR, after a draw and three defeats from their first four league matches. Goals haven't really been a problem – seven in five games in all comps – but they've conceded 11 already this season. They beat Peterborough 3-2 at home to get here – no great feat considering Posh's played eight lost eight record in the division below, and their record in this competition recently isn't great. One or two notable cup scalps in the last decade, but a pair of fourth round appearances in 2005 and 2003 where they were beaten by Arsenal and Chelsea is as good as it's got. They reached the quarter finals in 1996 and 1998.
Prediction: This is going to be even more difficult to call than normal. Either team could easily decide to sling a reserve team out and not bother, focusing instead on their worrying league positions. If one does and one doesn't then a landslide could result. Given that Reading play Saturday (QPR aren't on again until Monday) and they have less strength in depth, I fancy their team to be weaker and QPR to therefore squeeze through here. Mark Hughes is likely o field people like Djibril Cisse, and Adel Taarabt who have points to prove and places to win, along with Samba Diakite and Stephane Mbia as they hunt match fitness and I think that extra quality will override the worries in defence and Rangers' notoriously bad form in cups.
QPR 2 Reading 1
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