 Wednesday, 23rd Mar 2011 23:29 by Clive Whittingham Since joining QPR permanently in the summer Adel Taarabt has been the player of the season in every sense of the term, and on Sunday night he was rightly recognised as the league’s finest. LFW gets all carried away…
These are the good old daysFor most newspapers coverage of the Championship, despite its huge importance to thousands upon thousands of sports fans in this country, rarely stretches further than a league table next to a short report on how the team at the top of the league did. When they’re not packing pages full of rugby union nobody cares about, or another cricket match two days after the last one and two days before the next, or the absolute very latest on the John Terry England captaincy issue occasionally sports editors allow a feature on our ever popular, consistently ignored, division to slip through the net. And for months they have come, seen, marvelled, and then written a piece comparing Adel Taarabt to Rodney Marsh, or Stan Bowles, or both. It’s the obvious hook to hang your copy on. Marsh and Bowles were tremendously talented loose cannons who played their best football with QPR, who could do things with a ball that nobody else could, who entertained and enthralled and who were ultimately flawed in their personalities. Adel Taarabt is all of those things. When you want him to pass it he holds onto it, when you think he cannot possibly wriggle out of a situation he does, when you think he must score he doesn’t and when you think he cannot possibly trouble the goalkeeper he sends one screaming into the top corner. Against Leicester recently he sent a free kick in from a wide area with pace, zip, whip and accuracy that Heidar Helguson headed a faction over the bar. Two minutes later, from exactly the same position, he hit a delivery so wild it actually ended up in the Q Block which, as if you didn’t know, sits above the corner flag on the far side of the ground from where he was striking the ball from. It would have been a hard spot to hit, even if he’d been trying to do it. That’s Taarabt – unpredictable, exciting, ridiculous. Against Coventry in January he ghosted between two defenders and scored a brilliant first goal before laying a late winner on a plate for Wayne Routledge with an outside of the boot pass from tight to the touchline the likes of which I can scarcely ever recall seeing before. Six days later at Hull he became angry and frustrated in a dire first half and went on strike for the final ten minutes before half time – asking to be substituted and standing motionless in the middle of the field refusing to play. It’s this flawed genius in Hoops that cannot help but inspire comparisons to similar QPR mavericks of the past. But I’ve always thought a comparison that should have been made more often is with Juan Roman Riquelme – a similarly mercurial Argentinean with a similarly suspect temperament. Riquelme started his career at Boca Juniors before being transferred to Barcelona in 2002 and it is in Spain where the comparisons with Taarabt start to come through. At Tottenham Taarabt arrived with a big reputation as “the new Zidane” but Spurs could never find a place for him in their team consistently. At the Nou Camp Riquelme was described as a “political signing” by manager Louis Van Gaal who played him as a winger, when he played him at all. It was only when Taarabt moved to QPR, and Riquelme went to Villarreal, that fans really got to see the best of them. Riquelme was a stick I would frequently use to beat managers in this country with – including, ironically, Neil Warnock. At Villarreal they recognised the value of Riquelme’s vision and passing ability and put him right at the heart of their midfield. This required them to play a further two central midfield players to do the defensive work, covering, tackling and graft that Riquelme simply wouldn’t. Villarreal ended up in a Champions League semi final against Arsenal with a team built entirely around one man – a system designed to get the best from one player. And Villarreal aren’t too much bigger than QPR when you look at their history and support base. Riquelme, I would regularly write on this site, would never have succeeded in England because he would never have found a manager here willing to build an entire team around him – a team to bring out his best and cover for his faults. I cited the traditional English managers like Warnock, Peter Reid and others who would force Riquelme to play wide in a 4-4-2 and suffocate him with defensive duties and channel ball football then throw crockery at him when he fails to pick up his man at a corner. In my defence, Warnock himself admits he would never have tolerated Taarabt earlier in his career. But not only has Warnock tolerated Taarabt, he’s positively indulged him. He has built a QPR side around him with an attacking trio for him to rotate around and find space, a lone striker to take the brunt of the physical abuse and provide service in attacking areas, two holding midfield players to sweep up his mistakes, and two defensively minded full backs to keep the back four tight behind him. We’re by no means a one man team, but one of the primary aims of the QPR team this season has been to get Taarabt on the ball, in space, in areas where he can hurt teams, and the rewards have been simply stunning. This week Taarabt was crowned as the Championship’s Player of the Year and nobody deserves the award more than him. However it’s telling that he’s far from a shoo in for the QPR Player of the Year. In all likelihood Taarabt will win it but fans recognise that people like Heidar Helguson in front of him and Shaun Derry, Alejandro Faurlin, Clint Hill and Paddy Kenny behind him have done vital work in laying a platform on which he can perform. For a team top of the league you would expect there to be plenty of candidates for the big individual honours at the end of season awards but it’s testament to the team Neil Warnock has built here that there are five good, strong candidates as well as Taarabt and had Jamie Mackie stayed fit for the entire season that probably would have numbered six. And let’s give further credit – yes Taarabt is prone to theatrical falls and dives in attempts to win set pieces, but he’s actually as tough as an old boot. How many times has Taarabt had treatment from the physio this season? He hadn’t missed a Championship match until the weekend and that was a family bereavement issue that saw him miss out there. He is subjected to some horrendous tactics to try and stop him – Reading and Forest at home spring to mind – and yet he always bounces back up. Although I suspect that’s often because he wants to take the free kick himself. It astonishes me that there are still people out there who question Taarabt’s worth to our team. Steve Claridge says Scott Sinclair is the Championship Player of the Year because he defends better – despite previously saying QPR are top because they have Adel Taarabt. As ever, that clunge is best ignored. I chuckle to myself sitting in F Block listening to the abuse build up around me when Taarabt tries two or three things that don’t come off, and I smile when I think back to the Bristol City away game when people wanted him dropped, and the summer when some were not convinced we should sign him at all. To those who still scream at him when he fails to pass it, or takes on too many players, or throws a tantrum I say what I’ve said all season – you’re missing the point. If everything Taraabt tried came off, he wouldn’t be playing for QPR. Because he has the confidence to try ridiculous things, and they come off far more often than they would for any other player in this league, he’s an incredible player for us to have but the only reason we do have him is because of his failings. By abusing him for holding onto the ball too long or losing his rag you’re asking him to get rid of the things that keep him here. Take the bad times and put up with them, because the good times are incredible with him. The fourth goal we scored against Swansea, where Taarabt back flicks the ball to Faurlin and then receives it back before outrageously nutmegging Joe Allen and then curling the ball into the bottom corner form 25 yards is my favourite but there are 15 to choose from, and 19 assists besides. People say he’s not as good as Bowles and Marsh – is he really that far off? People who’ve seen all three will no doubt tell me he’s miles away, but is he really? He’s certainly the most talented player I’ve ever seen at QPR in my time following the club, and Neil Warnock has found a way to harness and use that ability where the pillocks that went before him like old friend of the site Paul Hart couldn’t even find a place for him in their team. In Hart’s case he preferred Patrick Agyemang instead. All being well Taarabt will be a Premiership player with QPR next season, a fitting reward for a player who has lit up the entire season in W12 and has actually made watching football a lot of fun again . Highs and LowsTaarabt’s top three moments of the season so far: 1 – November 27, Cardiff H Taarabt scores a winning goal that, whilst not his best of the season in my opinion, proved a catalyst for us pulling away from an increasingly ragged Cardiff outfit. Not only did he win a tackle against a full back wide on the right (admittedly after having one of his many poor corner kicks cleared back out to him) but he then carried the ball into the area and scored past Heaton with panache. Watching the goal again, having set the ball on a path across the penalty area Taarabt remains within touching distance of it and gives the impression that he is dribbling the ball, in fact he never touches it again and yet manages to sell such outrageous dummies with his body swerves and shoulder drops that two Cardiff players head in different directions creating space for him to find the net when he does eventually make contact with the ball. 2 – Boxing Day, Swansea H The fourth goal in this game is one of my favourite QPR goals of all time. With Rangers in cruise control against what is arguably the second best team in the league Taarabt collected the ball tight to the touchline and laid it back to Faurlin, the Argentinean gave him it back and from there the fun began. First Taarabt produces a gratuitous back flick pass to Faurlin, then receiving the ball for a third time he outrageously nutmegs the onrushing Joe Allen, who can only turn away and shrug in frustrated disbelief, before carrying the ball a further five yards and lashing it into the far bottom corner past Dorus de Vries. A ludicrous goal. 3 – November 6, Reading H In a game where Reading’s tactics revolved around kicking Taarabt and surrounding the referee with three players at all times to intimidate him, the Moroccan was a revelation – scoring a penalty that he had brilliantly won and setting up goals for Faurlin and Smith. This performance, probably his best of the season, came just a fortnight after the Friday night at Bristol City which was arguably his worst show of the campaign and sparked calls for him to be left out of the side. And three he would probably rather forget 1 – January 29, Hull A Frustrated by a more direct approach from QPR, and Hull surrounding him with three men at all times, Taarabt lost the plot midway through the first half and refused to take any more part in the game. He signalled to the bench that he wanted to come off, and ambled around the pitch showing no interest. That was, until Rangers were awarded a free kick on the edge of the area and then he wanted to take it. Not only that but he wanted to fight with Shaun Derry and the other players who tried to calm him down. He returned for the second half, giving his team mates a kiss before the kick off to apologise. All of which went down an absolute treat with the notoriously open minded KC Stadium regulars. 2 – October 22, Bristol City A QPR waited a long time for their first televised fixture of the season, and when it finally came Taarabt was determined to be the centre of attention. His selfishness in possession reached new heights and he actually ended up stifling the team through his own greed and belief he could do it all himself. He was substituted early in the second half but has improved markedly in the subsequent live matches. 3 – February 26, Middlesbrough A The method by which Taarabt and Helguson choose to take the penalties this season seems a bit of a mystery – at the Riverside Stadium it came to a head when Taarabt insisted on taking the spot kick despite Helguson being on a hat trick. An on field row ensued between Taarabt, Helguson and peacemaker Shaun Derry and although the goal was duly scored this could have bread resentment and problems in a less united camp. 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