Antti Heinola reflects on the ups and downs of a ludicrous afternoon of Championship football at Loftus Road as QPR beat lowly Bolton 4-3.
So how refreshing was this performance? I assume Clive will probably give him an 8, but I wouldn't be surprised to see an extremely rare 9 from the parsimonious northern one. This was simply a great display. He won the ball in the air. He shielded it. He chased down defenders. He laid the ball off well. He dribbled. He took his chances (if you can even call his second goal a 'chance' - it certainly wasn't when he received it). And he scored a beautiful winner.
But I was also impressed with his attitude and his leadership in the game. Because not only was he effective up front, he was influential at the back too, on at least three occasions it was his head clearing away dangerous balls into the area. And when we went 2-0 down, it was JET demanding the bench get a new ball out for a kick off (the other one had disappeared) while the rest of the team either looked sorry for themselves or were arguing amongst themselves.
His first goal came from a well-timed run and a confident header, but the second was sublime. While the crowd were clearing their throats to boo the defence off for yet another defensive horror show, he kept his head, dribbled past one, hoodwinked a second with a beautifully tight turn Messi would have been proud of, and then finished with a stupendous curled shot inside the post. Reminiscent of Taarabt in his pomp.
Ramsey seemed certain to haul him off for Polti at some stage, but he just played too well. Let's hope for more of the same. Maybe we should have taken that £12m for Austin after all? (only joking).
But on the broader subject of subs: I've given Ramsey the benefit of the doubt several times this season with his subs and their timing. Sometimes the criticism he's received I felt was unjustified when you look at the choices he had, other times I could see his reasoning, even if things didn't quite work out how he wanted. But it is now a pattern that (Fulham apart!) he does not use his subs early enough. He's not utilising all the weapons at his disposal. It was bad enough when he left Faurlin on for 10 minutes too long when the game was effectively over v Rotherham, but Saturday was worse.
First of all, Henry had another shocker. It's at the stage now where his own confidence is looking shot. After one particularly poor pass he spent seconds on end apologising or explaining himself to Onuoha while Bolton played on. He looked lost. People keep telling me his job is to win the ball and be some kind of enforcer, but he's not even doing that anymore. He's off the pace, unsure of his positioning and his passing is just as bad as it ever was. Ramsey's trying to build this quick-tempo passing side, so I don't understand how he keeps his place. Four players paid the price for the Fulham disgrace, but Henry, arguably the worst of the lot, still retained his position. It's starting to get suspicious.
So Henry should have been hooked by the hour mark. Especially when we had no less than four centre midfielders who could have taken his place on the bench. But even worse was what happened when Sandro did come on for the tiring Fer. He ran on and then told Henry to take Fer's position behind JET. Karl Henry. In the number ten role. Seriously. If he was there to sprint about and win the ball high up the pitch, then, well, OK - weird, but let's go with it - but he didn't do that. He seemed to be in the way more than anything. And we had Luongo on the bench who's played that position ALL SEASON! Or Doughty, with fresh legs and energy to play that sort of nuisance role (I wouldn't advocate it, mind).
The team was tiring. You have subs - and on Saturday we had a very strong bench indeed - USE THEM! HELP the team! But if you could somehow explain away all those decisions, the one that you couldn't was after Bolton equalised. Five minutes left, a game we should have won comfortably, a team with a defence as bad as our own, we need a goal and Karl Henry is playing almost up front. Luongo could come on. You could go 4-4-2 and chuck Polti up there to cause some havoc and maybe win the game - and he's going to do as much chasing, if not more than Henry. But nothing. Nothing. It was flabbergasting.
This isn't just an attack on Henry, who badly needs to sit out a few games, but on Ramsey's unwillingness to use his resources. He has to do better on this. JET or Austin won't bail him out every time.
Onuoha not close enough to the crosser, Angella for some reason standing right next to Onuoha, Hall absolutely nowhere near the only danger man in the box, who's stolen in behind him. Konchesky hadn't spotted that danger and Green watched the ball drop past him in much the same motionless way as he did for Fulham's opener a week ago. Awful.
Then Green fails to hold or adequately push away a bobbler from Pratley for the second. And then the third? Clownish. Green dropping yet another one in the build-up, Angella not bothering to challenge an extremely dangerous and yet very winnable high ball, Onuoha beaten easily by Wellington Silva (thank God he wasn't on from the start) and the ball's in the net. Pathetic, everywhere. We seem almost completely unable to deal with lofted balls down the centre, and our inability to stop crosses is compounded by a keeper who almost never claims them (although Green did make a very fine stop from a dangerous low cross in the second half).
But why is it this bad? I always say defending is about organisation. Individuals are less important than the collective. I mean, look: the year we won the league partly off the back of 24 clean sheets, our back five was often: Kenny, Orr, Hill, Connolly, Gorkss. Individually, this back five is at least on a par with that back five. And yet it is useless in comparison. Part of it is what looks like Green's collapse in confidence and more importantly the back four's collapse in confidence of him. But it's at least two goals a game in just about every game.
We can blame Ramsey for not being able to organise a defence, as many do. But in the league this season, Chelsea have conceded: 2, 3, 2, 2, 3, 0, 2, 3. And I suspect even those of us who despise Mourinho would acknowledge that if there's one thing he does everywhere it's build a miserly defence - so what's the answer there? I'm not absolving Ramsey and his team of blame, of course I'm not, but some of these goals are down to frankly terrible decision-making. It must improve, and Ramsey needs to find an answer. Fast.
Whether there was a come to Jesus meeting with Ramsey last week, I don't know. But he publicly apologised and then yesterday turned in what was probably his best performance of the season. He was lively, tricky and dangerous in attack (with a frequently immaculate first touch): set up the first, helped Fer score the second and then scored a phenomenal goal himself, an absolute treat. More importantly, he was disciplined. He played deeper, he helped out Konchesky and didn't take silly risks. I think this is what Ramsey wants from him. If JET hadn't scored that last minute winner, he might have sneaked man of the match. Much, much better and the best possible response to last week's personal humiliation. The sign of a good character.
Bonus Feature: Players You Haven't Thought About For Ages, No.1. Carl Cort.
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