QPR slipped to an inevitable 2-0 defeat against champions-elect Manchester United at Loftus Road on Saturday.
In a season of upsets that has made heroes of Bradford City, a Manchester University student who ended up playing for Oldham Athletic, Shaun Wright-Phillips and others there was a straw for the Loftus Road faithful to clutch at ahead of Manchester United’s visit on Saturday that you just never know in football.
Wayne Rooney had a sinus issue and was fit only for the bench, Paul Scholes didn’t travel at all and the growing stature and importance of Phil Jones was placed on hiatus by injury. With the gap between the two Manchester clubs now 12 points in United’s favour and an important Champions League game with Real Madrid on the horizon there was a school of thought that said this would be a good time for beleaguered Queens Park Rangers to meet the champions-elect. Perhaps Alex Ferguson’s side would be thinking about other things.
Harry Redknapp was able to start Bobby Zamora in attack for the first time since he became QPR manager in November, and the fragile Loic Remy had roused himself sufficiently for a place on the bench so QPR had an attacking threat to pose for the first time in a while. At centre half the imposing figure of Chris Samba stood shoulder to shoulder with Clint Hill to form an uncompromising, physical duo in front of Julio Cesar – a goalkeeper in such wondrous form that some have suggested United may like to purchase him this summer to replace their own inconsistent David De Gea. Adel Taarabt, newly matured and finally looking ready for a bigger stage than this corner of W12, was ready to prove his worth. Rangers were well rested after a week in the Dubai sun and had nothing to lose by ploughing their heart and soul into this one.
The visitors brought a pantomime villain to rev the crowd up still further. Ashley Young embarrassed his sport with a dive for a controversial penalty against QPR at Old Trafford last year, and even had the gumption to try it on again in the first meeting between the two this season. On the second occasion Hill and Shaun Derry – sadly absent here – picked him up from the turf and delivered a few home truths. This was the first opportunity for the Rangers fans to do likewise. Five minutes in Zamora administered a dose of his own medicine, pinching a dangerous free kick from the winger with a theatrical fall that referee Anthony Taylor was happy to blow for. Esteban Granero, starting in the middle of midfield with Stephane Mbia between wingers Taarabt and Andros Townsend, delivered the ball poorly and it was easily cleared.
And there, in a nutshell, was the problem. Upsets in football are complex recipes with a multitude of ingredients and a large slice of luck. Harry Redknapp, as you’d expect given the dire situation he finds himself in, talks a lot about luck and the rub of the green but QPR didn’t have enough about them to source the other components required for a positive result in such circumstances.
Only Townsend - whose recent arrival on loan from Spurs means he’s neither weighed down by the confidence sapping run of two wins from 27 matches nor the thought that he’ll be heading to the Championship with the R’s come May - played with the tempo, speed and urgency required.
In the last minute of normal time Samba strode onto a deep Adel Taarabt free kick and headed powerfully for the bottom corner only to see De Gea turn it around the post with his toe. The linesman on the Ellerslie Road side of the ground overruled the referee and awarded a goal kick– that element of luck again – but given that Taarabt and Granero had only managed to deliver one or two half decent set pieces between them in the entire game prior to that it’s probably fair to assume they wouldn’t have done a lot with the corner anyway. When faced with such awesome opposition each chance to commit men to an attacking situation and deliver a quality ball into the penalty box must be treasured and perfectly executed – here, as usual, Rangers’ set pieces were delivered to an amateur standard and tossed aside as if other chances would flow freely thereafter.
The atmosphere was morgue-like. A palpable sense of resignation swept across the ground from very early in the game and left three sides of the stadium suffocating under an oppressive silence. To make matters worse, United’s travelling 3,000 sent a 30 minute funereal dirge down the field to the tune of Magic by Pilot – their team may be, their song is not.
Despite their injuries, United were still able to field Robin Van Persie in attack – 19 goals in 24 league starts since a summer move from Arsenal – and when he injured himself beyond repair by dropping into an ill-placed camera pit behind the Loft End goal midway through the first half that thought about it possibly being QPR’s day returned. Within three seconds it had been extinguished again because, with Van Persie still trying to extricate himself, the ball broke loose off a decent save by Cesar to Rafael who let fly with a 30 yard barnburner that almost tore the net off the back of the Brazilian goalkeeper’s posts.
That had been coming. Cesar tipped over a flicked header from Hernandez after a quarter of an hour and the little Mexican was just out of reach of Nani’s cross three minutes later when Chris Samba played a blue light pass to Stephane Mbia deep in his own half and he was immediately set upon and robbed of possession.
In response QPR could mostly muster only long range efforts with Townsend blasting over and then wide and Taarabt mishitting from adventurous distance. When the home side did finally deliver from a wide set piece Samba planted a header goalwards only to see it cleared from the line by Rafael. As if stirred from a slumber, United sought to re-establish their dominance immediately after that let off and glided down field with an effortless counter attack that seemed certain to yield a second goal once Rafael had expertly picked out Van Persie but Cesar expertly turned his first time volley wide.
Alex Ferguson then replaced the Dutchman with Danny Welbeck and later sent on Wayne Rooney for Javier Hernandez and Antonio Valencia for Young. Such an embarrassment of riches in reserve only served to further highlight the gap between these two sides who share the same league in name only. Rangers for their part were forced to rely on the labouring Bobby Zamora who gamely battled through the first half, spent the half time break seizing up, and could then barely move in the second but insisted on staying out there until the hour mark by which time it looked as though the hip injury which requires further surgical attention may leave him wheelchair bound for the rest of the day.
Redknapp sent on Loic Remy in Zamora’s place and he immediately cut inside from the left flank and fired a powerful shot on goal that De Gea got a strong hand to and saved but thereafter the Frenchman was eliminated from the game by a talented and well drilled United defence that had already suffocated the influence of Taarabt. The Moroccan’s only serious impact on proceedings came late when Michael Carrick seemed to have upended him right on the edge of the penalty area but Taylor waved appeals for a free kick away. In the end the Super Hoops were reduced to moving Samba into the attack as an auxiliary centre forward. Ferguson’s technique of pinpointing one or two key opposition players, removing them from the game, and then allowing his own attacking threat to spread havoc had worked perfectly once again.
United rarely needed to move out of second gear to secure a comfortable victory, which made the occasional piece of play acting and dissent all the harder to stomach – Patrice Evra forced the play to be stopped in the first half by laying down and clutching his chin when, in reality, there was nothing wrong with him. QPR, filling the subservient role they happily occupied all afternoon, meekly kicked the ball back to De Gea once the Frenchman had picked himself up and had a prolonged moan at the officials.
Later there was a run out for Junior Hoilett instead of Andros Townsend but the former Blackburn man made little difference and in fact it seemed a little strange to remove Townsend rather than, say, Jamie Mackie given their respective effect on the match. Redknapp also replaced Esteban Granero with Jermain Jenas at half time which was merely swapping one ineffectual central midfielder for another – a point emphasised by the amateurish first touch of the football he concocted in the lead up to United’s second killer goal from Ryan Giggs that had the home defence appealing for offside in vain.
It had only been a matter of time – Rooney had a shot blocked just beforehand, Nani flicked a header goalwards that Cesar needed two attempts to keep out, Giggs crossed right through the area after Hill had fouled Rafael and then later chipped a delicate effort flush onto the face of the crossbar – but a weak challenge from Jose Bosingwa on Danny Welbeck in the build up didn’t improve the mood of a fast diminishing home crowd.
Bosingwa has become such a figure of hate and ridicule in West London since a summer move from Chelsea that a bookmaker recently erected a billboard facing onto the West Way at White City mocking his refusal to sit on the substitute’s bench earlier this season. That incident, prior to the only home win of the campaign so far against Fulham, sparked an angry reaction from Redknapp who fined the player and then, a week later, effectively condemned him in the eyes of the QPR fans by revealing just how much money those two weeks of wages amounted to. Recalling the Portuguese to his team exposed the QPR manager’s desperation almost as much as his perseverance with the one legged Zamora but the row over the money the player earns and the effort he puts in relative to that distracts attention from the key issue of Bosingwa not actually being a very good footballer regardless of how hard he tries not to mention the wider problem Rangers have at the moment with their identity.
Chairman Tony Fernandes, ashen faced at fall time, defended a £20m January transfer splurge on a seemingly doomed team by saying QPR must get rid of its “small club mentality.” On the contrary, Rangers should be embracing it. Mark Hughes’ technique of populating his squad with ageing big name players used to grander things in the hope of elevating Rangers to that sort of status was flawed – QPR should be proud to be who they are and look for players with equal pride in that identity. Jose Bosingwa cares little for QPR and even if he did he’s barely good enough to play for the team. The ducked challenge on Welbeck in the build up the Giggs goal is immaterial – signing him was a mistake, recalling him shows a total lack of self regard and respect. He laughed when the QPR fans booed him before kick off and went on to give no indication of why he should be selected ahead of Nedum Onuoha in future.
QPR were never likely to trouble Man Utd unduly however or whoever they played – the league table doesn’t lie. The problem was there was little to take from this performance to suggest the spirit, will and ability exists to source the 20 points Harry Redknapp believes they need from the final 11 games. If the R’s play like this at Southampton next week they’ll be beaten by a similar scoreline.
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QPR: Cesar 7, Bosingwa 5, Hill 6, Samba 5, Traore 6, Townsend 7 (Hoilett 70, 5), Granero 4, (Jenas 45, 4), Mbia 5, Taarabt 5, Mackie 4, Zamora 6 (Remy 60, 6)
Subs not used: Green, Onuoha, Park, Wright-Phillips
Man Utd: De Gea 6, Rafael 8, Ferdinand 7, Vidic 7, Evra 6, Young 6 (Valencia 67, 6), Carrick 7, Giggs 8, Nani 7, Hernandez 7 (Rooney 61, 6), Van Persie 7 (Welbeck 41, 6)
Subs not used: Lindegaard, Evans, Anderson, Cleverley
Goals: Rafael 23 (unassisted), Giggs 80 (assisted Nani)
QPR Star Man – Andros Townsend One of the few to play with the vim, vigour and tempo required of players on the underdog’s side in such a situation. Seemed an odd choice to be taken off in the second half.
Referee – Anthony Taylor (Cheshire) 6 I noticed on the interactive player ratings he was down as low as a two from 38 votes which I struggle to understand. There were the usual moans about him being rather accommodating of Alex Ferguson’s team – Evra conned him into stopping a QPR attack with a non-existent injury, Taarabt was definitely fouled on the edge of the box, the late Samba header should have been a corner and not a goal kick – but he also allowed Clint Hill to hack away at Hernandez without a card and I didn’t come away thinking he’d been overly biased or one sided. No major decisions wrong and no cards – I didn’t think he was too bad.
Attendance – 18,337 (3,100 Man Utd approx) The QPR fans were almost completely silent throughout. I certainly don’t blame them for that, but that was the first time season it felt like everybody had given up hope. The United fans sang the same song for half an hour in the second half – sadly it was some unfathomable dirge that made the whole thing look and sound like a funeral procession.
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Pictures – Action Images