The season is long and hard... — Knee jerks

Antti Heinola reports from Loftus Road on a disappointing result from a performance that showed some promise while still exhibiting some familiar failings.

Ramsey's in-game management

Is he PRO-active, or merely RE-active? Is he taking a holistic, cradle-to-grave approach here? Or does he need to make a step-change, combined with some blue-sky thinking, then run that up the flag pole with Les, loop back in with Tone and then see how we might be able to take this project forward with some proper pre-planning? The point is - we're shooting at an empty hole here: there's no time to play percentage golf.

Ramsey is in a spot. I estimate that at least 98% of fans don't think he's up to it and expect him to be gone by the end of the season, maybe sooner. That includes people like myself who are all for giving him a decent bash at this, by the way. I like him and want him to do well, but I don't think he'll get the chance. I find the stick he gets on the message board pretty flabbergasting and I think November is really the earliest time to start drawing any serious conclusions about his coaching of the team. But we have a fanbase that is almost continually demanding change, partly because the heroin diet they've been fed for the last decade has delivered exactly that: no manager has lasted two years at the club since Olly, who left in 2006.

Interestingly, Ramsey's situation is similar to that which Olly faced back in 2001. An almost completely new team coming off the back of a relegation largely not of his doing, with many fans completely unconvinced in his abilities. I spent many hours defending Olly on forums in those days, and in truth no matter what he did some fans were not happy. Ramsey is having issues now because fans have no confidence in him. Therefore, everything that goes wrong is immediately attributed to him. Of course, the buck stops with him but there's virtually no patience. More of that in a moment, but in terms of yesterday, I couldn't argue with his starting line up particularly and then I thought, on the whole, the subs were understandable. They worked in some ways, not in others, but they were hardly the naive, bordering-on-idiotic moves some have painted them as on the forum.

Firstly, Doughty for Chery. I would probably have left Chery on and switched him wide to replace Gladwin, but otherwise this was a sub that, even though we conceded two goals afterwards, helped the team a lot. Henry doesn't have the legs to play the pressing game Ramsey wants - but Doughty does. Suddenly, he was closing down the gaps much higher up the pitch and pressurising the Cardiff defenders and defensive midfielders. It helped us get a better foothold in the game. It also allowed Luongo to move forward, where he created the two best chances of the game from open play with two excellently-weighted passes for Austin and Phillips. Chery, for all his ability, wasn't giving us enough cover in midfield and I can see why he hooked him. That might just be a case of Chery settling into the team and understanding his role a little more.
Secondly, Polter for Austin. It felt a little odd because Austin had just gone close to scoring, but he had been tiring for some time (despite criticism of him, I thought he was much better than last week and looked fitter too). In the end, Polti had a good game, could have scored, and was a real handful. Leaving Austin on and going 4-4-2 I suppose was a possibility, but in the last 20 mins we created all our best chances. Hard to argue against that.

Finally, JET for Gladwin. Sensible - just could have happened earlier as Gladwin was not affecting things. JET certainly had a decent effect, almost scoring (should have scored) had another good shot and created one or two openings.

All in all, you can argue against the decisions Ramsey made, but none of these were bad decisions and all had good reasons for why they happened. None of them cost us the game and while I was sad to see Chery go off, especially so early, it stiffened that midfield significantly and didn't diminish the chances we created.

The crowd

The atmosphere yesterday was really poor. First home game of the season and there was hardly a roar for the goals. It was flat, a bit depressed. This is both sad and completely understandable. This is a bit like the trauma of teaching an infant about delayed gratification. As mentioned above, for years we've demanded change: change of owners, change of managers, change of players, more players, more expensive players etc and for years we've been given it. A 20-year-old fan will have known nothing but drama and change and salvation being promised via another signing or a new coach. Those of us older than that can remember a time when we had to be patient: Gerry Francis's first, excellent, stint in charge saw us win no games in his first eight and he managed just one league win in his first 12. Imagine the reaction if that happened now. But look what Gerry managed afterwards. I'm not saying CR is the new GF. But I'm also not saying he's not. The thing is: we just don't know yet.

I think most fans recognise now that this might be a tough season, and that's difficult to take. So there's immediate unrest. Ramsey has nothing to offer in terms of hope: some decent performances last season, but few and far between. He's not a club legend. He has no track record for us to point at. So feet and trigger fingers alike are itchy, when in fact we should be pulling together, recognising the situation and giving our full backing to the new players and the coach. You can't say no one was trying, you can't say there haven't been encouraging moments.

The attitude from some fans feels sulky - I mean, booing after a 2-2 draw? I appreciate we didn't play particularly well, but still. Really? Booing? Already? It's amazing really, because 1,000 fans went to Yeovil, which proves our fanbase is fantastic. And then this almost complete lack of patience or understanding when a late goal flies in (I understand it was more than that of course). As I said: it's sad, but weirdly this attitude makes sense when placed in the context of our recent history. We need to face the facts, though, that this is going to be hard, the season will be long, there is no quick fix, we won't be spending £6m+ on Dwight Gayle and we probably won't even remotely challenge for promotion. Face all that, and then try and enjoy things a bit more and not be quite so quick to jump on every single bloody mistake, as the crashingly boring fan behind me did all evening. Watching QPR is not like playing FIFA.

Doughty

First time I've seen him play properly and I was impressed. Great attitude. Good engine. Nice and aggressive, willing to press high up the pitch and make the sort of dashes to close players down that Henry and Luongo weren't really managing. Ramsey's said a few times he might save us some money and on that, admittedly brief, showing, I can see what he means. Wouldn't mind seeing him in for Henry at some stage soon. Long way to go, but I thought he played well. Should have had a free kick before the equaliser too.

Ben Gladwin

First game in the Championship for him and it didn't go well. One or two encouraging runs in the first half where I thought he looked dangerous and quite strong on the ball, but after the break he faded badly and then seemed to lose confidence. Hopefully there's more to come - I'm sure there will be. I still think the team are learning how to play this 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1 formation properly. It worked much better with Phillips this week who was far more involved - two assists, a few of his trademark whipped crosses and three times he found himself in very good scoring positions. That I found really encouraging. This formation counts on the two wide players to make sure they attack the box when possible - Phillips did that well yesterday, Gladwin not so much.

Polti

Like him a lot. He's a huge unit with a Gallen-sized arse on him, yet he's not slow by any means. He's athletic, aggressive, very strong and confident too - although the shot he took on went well wide, it was encouraging that he had no compunction in smacking it from distance when he had the opportunity. He'll cause real problems this season. He's unlikely to get the fabled 20 goals, but I could easily see him getting his fair share.

Chief

Two good league games in a row for Steady Neddy - just a shame we've conceded four goals in them. You couldn't fault him for those two yesterday, however. When Cardiff did threaten, it was invariably Ned who bailed us out. He was strong, commanding, quick and calm. I think giving him official responsibility will bring the best out in him - as long as he stays fit. Clint played well too (apart from losing his man for the first goal), but I do think we need a quicker CB to play with Ned, meaning we can defend a little higher up the pitch and compress the space. This might, in turn, help this formation to work a little more fluidly by allowing our two deeper midfielders more chance to push up.

Pictures — Action Images

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