The hunt for a first away win in a year, a first league win of any sort since May and a first win of the season at the sixteenth attempt takes QPR to injury hit Wigan this Saturday.
Premier League >>> Saturday December 8, 2012 >>> Kick Off 3pm >>> DW Stadium, Wigan
There is a danger of romanticising times gone by when things are as bad as they are at the moment.
Last week, shortly before he was hooked off by Harry Redknapp, Esteban Granero saw a ball bounce loose deep in the Aston Villa right back spot underneath the F Block from where I’ve watched this season’s shuttle disaster unfold. There could be several explanations for what the Spaniard’s did next: perhaps he thought the ball was going off, perhaps he had picked up a knock, perhaps he was tired, perhaps his spirit was broken. Whatever the reason, he stood and watched. He gave the Villa man a free pass basically. The East Paddock was not amused.
And Granero has been one of the better big names inflicted on our club by Mark Hughes.
The immediate reaction to such moments is to throw your hands in the air and denounce all these players as lazy, work shy tossers. And indeed, in the toilets at half time, that’s what many people did; ranting on to perfect strangers at the urinals about how at least when we were in the lower divisions the players cared about what they were doing.
The thing is, I’ve stood at the urinal in the lower division days and had the same strangers saying the same things to me about the same issues. Yes you can look back at the good old times under Ian Holloway and to days when we had QPR supporters like Marc Bircham and Lee Cook in the team, but those good times were still pretty rare and for every Kevin Gallen there were at least five others more in John Curtis’ and Zesh Rehman’s class. There were thrashings at Yeovil and Southend and Colchester and the players didn’t care and weren’t trying and whatever back then either.
The difference is these players are earning up to 100 times as much, and playing so far within what they’ve produced for other clubs before, you cannot help but conclude they really, really don’t give a shit about QPR or the result.
I have written repeatedly lately that Rangers were too quick to turn their back on their Championship winning side in favour of big names, and there’s a certain rose tinted spectacles element to that as well. It’s easy to gloss over the fact that in this fixture last season, before the big name arrivals, Rangers had Patrick Agyemang in attack and Bruno Perone and Fitz Hall paired together at centre half.
The LFW match report from that game noted: “if QPR are still using anything like this starting eleven after the end of the transfer window on Wednesday then the word ‘doomed’ doesn’t even begin to cover it” and having lost 4-0 to Bolton, 2-0 to Rochdale and 2-0 to Wigan in the opening three weeks of the season that was hard to argue with. The team that was promoted from the Championship did need strengthening.
Sadly, almost as soon as the trophy was handed over to Adel Taarabt post Leeds at home QPR embarked on what has been a catalogue of errors. Neil Warnock was undoubtedly too quick to turn his back on the players that got him into the big time – Agyemang was selected ahead of Heidar Helguson in this fixture last season bizarrely – and, admittedly in a rush, added big names and big egos on big wages to a dressing room full of character and spirit which was the last thing QPR needed. The way the club indulged Joey Barton when he was publicly criticising Adel Taarabt was a key moment. Mark Hughes did the same thing sixteen times over.
Occasional LFW contributor Rob Gilbert asked on Twitter last week where we’d be now with a team of Kenny, Kyle Naughton, Gorkks, Hill, Traore, Derry, Faurlin, Wayne Routledge, Taarabt, Mackie and Danny Graham. That is what Warnock appeared to want to put on the field after promotion was confirmed, but he was hampered by the speed of the Tony Fernandes takeover and Flavio Briatore’s tight fistedness in the meantime. It would have been interesting to see how that team did. You may think ‘relegated’, and you might be right, but that side would have made a better fist of things than the current one is managing to do.
Prior to putting the finishing touches to this preview it was my absolute privilege to sit and watch Heidar Helguson play for Cardiff City at Blackburn. Our former Icelandic striker – eight goals from 13 starts in the Premier League last season – got two assists in a minute in the second half as the Welsh side won 4-1 and was a clear man of the match for me. To think Warnock didn’t start with him initially last season, and then Hughes replaced him with Bobby ‘I don’t like football’ Zamora. Heartbreaking stuff really.
What QPR need is to somehow wind the clock back 18 months to a time when they had an unbelievably hard working and spirited team that needed three or four quality players adding to it. Redknapp has got to foster that spirit and work ethic – his championing of Jamie Mackie’s cause is clearly being done with that in mind – while picking out exactly which of the quality players Rangers do have that can be trusted to play with them and put a shift in.
Sadly, the sight of Tal Ben Haim rolling into the QPR training ground this week on trial ahead of a potential January move suggests not only that there may be something in the pessimistic idea that Redknapp is just an expensive way for QPR to get relegated anyway, but also that the club has learnt nothing (literally nothing) from the past 18 months.
(I’m sorry. I’m very down about QPR this week. All aboard the 08.30 to Wigan tomorrow in search of a first away win since November 2011.)
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Team News: Harry Redknapp lost both his midfield enforcers during the draw with Villa last weekend but tests after the match showed Stephane Mbia’s neck injury and Samba Diakite’s calf knock were not serious and both should feature here. Andy Johnson and Bobby Zamora are long term absentees but Fabio has fought his way back to fitness and has made the bench for the last two games. Redknapp must decide whether or not to recall Djibril Cisse in attack where Jamie Mackie scored as the lone striker last weekend. Julio Cesar is likely to miss out again with a groin strain leaving accident prone Robert Green between the sticks once again.
Wigan are short of numbers in defence, and missing a lot of quality in midfield. Centre backs Antolin Alcaraz (groin) and Ivan Ramis (hamstring) were injured before Monday night’s trip to Newcastle where Maynor Figueroa was harshly sent off after ten minutes and Gary Caldwell picked up a fifth yellow card of the season meaning a suspension for both of them. Figueroa lost his appeal against the card earlier this week so definitely misses out. I’m quite disappointed Caldwell isn’t playing to be honest – usually good for at least one goal a game. In midfield former QPR loanee Ben Watson, Albert Crusat, Arsenal loanee Ryo Miyaichi and ex-Celtic man Shaun Maloney are all injured.
Elsewhere: It’s one of those evil weekends where Sky Sports thinks the Saturday lunchtime pub audience really wants to watch a Scottish football match, so no early Premier League game tomorrow. Frankly I’ll be lobbying whatever pub we’re in at Wigan to stick the Hollyoaks omnibus on instead of the dirge from north of the border. Man City v Man Utd in the early Sunday game should make up for that slightly, and West Ham look long odds to beat Liverpool at Upton Park straight after that too. Everton v Tottenham rounds off the Sunday action with Fulham v Newcastle the Monday Night Football.
That leaves six fixtures for Saturday, all starting at 3pm. Arsenal v West Brom looks the pick, with the Baggies flying high in the table and not what Arsene Wenger needs as the Gunners’ slump in form continues amidst rumblings of discontent on the terraces. Chelsea are also in a free fall and fresh from their Champions League exit during the week they go to a Sunderland side desperate for a win. Elsewhere there is a relegation six pointer between Southampton and Reading, a chance for Villa to pull away from the drop zone at home to Stoke, and a battle between the two clubs that came up with QPR and have made rather a better job of things since Swansea and Norwich.
Referee: Phil Dowd must be wondering what on earth happened to QPR. When he was last in charge of a Rangers game, at Tottenham earlier this season, the R’s actually played very well and should have won. Now here they are two months later still hunting for that first success. Wigan fans have happy memories of Dowd’s last visit to this ground – they beat Man Utd 1-0. For his full QPR case file click here.
Wigan: The perception is, rightly, that Wigan are a good deal better than they were at this point last season and in far less danger of being relegated. Given that 12 months ago theyhad just lost nine consecutive games on the bounce and were about to go into another spell of ten matches without a win that would seem a fair comment, but oddly the numbers don’t really back it up. This time last season Wigan had lost nine of 15 games and as we stand now, they’ve also lost nine of their first 15. They’ve also conceded 15 goals at home which is more than any other side and have only won one of the last five, with two consecutive defeats without scoring under their belts heading into this match.
QPR: Another week, another potential record for QPR to chalk up. Failure to win here means they will break a record held by Swindon since 1993 for the worst start to a Premier League season – 16 matches without a win. Of course the Robins infamously got their victory at the sixteenth time of asking by beating QPR who could have gone second in the league had they done what everybody else had done to that point and beaten John Gorman’s side. It’s now 22 away league and cup games since a road win for QPR – more than a calendar year since the 3-2 win at Stoke last November – and the R’s haven’t won a league game of any sort since the first Saturday in May. They need to string together consecutive victories to play themselves back into contention at the foot of the Premier League but haven’t won two on the spin since regaining promotion 18 months ago, and haven’t managed it at all since March 2011 when they beat Doncaster and then Sheffield United in the Championship – that’s 54 league games. The last time they did it in the top flight was December 1995 when they beat Bolton 2-1 then Villa 1-0 at Loftus Road.
Betting: Professional odd compiler Owen Goulding says…
“Rangers travel to the DW stadium for a really important game. Two decent draws with the woodwork denying a win last week are the grounding for what Harry will hope is third time lucky. Wigan have big defensive problems at centre back but in truth have always been poor in this area. Even with ten men the Latics passed the ball for fun last week against the Toon however, for the first time in a long time, QPR have actually looked a bit more dangerous from set pieces with Clint Hill especially coming close a number of times in recent weeks. One thing that will be apparent on Saturday is that the ball will spend most of the time on the floor but it’s what happens from set pieces which will probably settle this game as both teams are massively susceptible in this area. I've got a sneaking feeling we may finally chalk up those three away points but the current prices don't interest me. I do however think it’s worth an interest on Clint Hill first goal scorer each way at 40/1. You will get a third of those odds for the place part if he scores at anytime. For those going, enjoy the trip - it could well be a good day.
Prediction: Reigning champion in our Prediction League Nathan McAllister says…
“Since I’ve started doing these weekly prediction write-ups I have perhaps at times been guilty of overstating the strengths of mediocre opposition teams simply to justify my gloomy predictions. In hindsight this was probably unnecessary, as simply turning up and being mediocre against QPR this season has guaranteed teams a point at the minimum, usually all three. In any case, Wigan, are a side whose strengths do not really need to be overstated to make a convincing case for them being comfortably good enough to beat QPR.
“They put together an astonishing run of results at the end of last season to escape the drop, outplaying teams like Arsenal and Manchester United in the process. This season too they’ve shown enough glimpses of that form – most notably at White Hart Lane in October when they beat Spurs by a goal to nil with a scoreline that flattered the hosts – to suggest that they won’t need to pull off another great escape to save themselves this season. Although they lost star player Victor Moses to Chelsea in the summer they look to have unearthed another gem in Ivorian striker Arouna Kone.
“And yet (and this is where I am probably about to go and lose the plot –naïve, gullible fan that I am) I see some real causes for optimism that Rangers might just be about to finally, finally, get that elusive first win of the season and break that year long away-game hoodoo. It’s not just the fact that Wigan will be without all four of their ‘senior’ centre-halves for this game in addition to one of their key attacking threats in Shaun Maloney, or that they have a normally excellent goal keeper who seems to have come into some lousy form at just the right time. There was also the news that the injury to Stephane Mbia, who has been arguably Rangers’ stand out player since Hughes departed, was not serious, and that he and Diakite are likely to figure this weekend. I still think Rangers would have beaten Villa had Mbia played the full 90 minutes, and with Jamie Mackie now offering a genuine alternative to Djibril Cisse as an out and out centre forward, there were still positives to take from that match despite the massive disappointment of Rangers not getting the result they so desperately needed.
“Finally, there is my belief that, poor as Rangers have been this season, they have not been as bad as their meagre points haul suggests, and really are due a bit of luck. So, having successfully predicted low scoring draws in the last two games (even if I did have the 0-0 and 1-1 the wrong way round) I am going to make a very bold – and probably very stupid – prediction. Rangers to win. Yes, win a football match. Yes, that’s right, away from home. Madness I know.”
Prediction: Wigan 1 QPR 2
First Scorer: Taarabt
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