| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 18:03 - Aug 23 with 2989 views | Antti_Heinola |
Very belated, because I've been away, and also haven't had the heart. So they're not knee jerks at all, really.
1. McCLAREN: When Washington controlled the ball six yards out, took out the defender and then blasted it straight at the keeper, for some reason my eye leapt to McClaren. Normally I can't see him from my vantage point, but what I saw spoke volumes: head in his hands, ducking towards the bench. A goal then would've been huge. We hadn't been great, but neither had they, and until then they had caused us very few problems. One up, something to defend, a bit of belief surging back. Instead, another miss, another chance gone, confidence drains further.
Despite his utterly dreadful start and my limited confidence in him draining away like water through a fat funnel, as a human, I felt for him. He's made errors. Tried to make the team run before it can walk properly. Assumed the loss of Smithies would be coverable with Ingram. But still, he can't kick the ball in the net for us. It was the first classic sign of the night that we are a team destined for at best a relegation scrap; at worst a devastating (and early) relegation.
I'm not sure I believe, and more importantly, I'm not sure the players believe, he has what it takes to dig us out this hole, and the season is just five games old. He started the season, I'm sure, certain of probably 8 or 9 of his starters, and his shape. I imagine he'd want Furs back at RB, a new CB, and a striker who can hold the ball, and ideally Hall in the side too. But within four games it's all gone out the window. The apparently discarded Pav back, the youngsters ditched except for Eze, Washington, in desperation, in from the cold. he's now throwing what he can at the wall and praying it sticks. None of it is. I suspect he has one game, albeit with two big reinforcements announced today, to save his job. A fifth defeat, and with performances this abject, I don't think there's much other choice.
2. INGRAM: There was much talk, particularly from Dave Mc, in the early days, about how Ingram was likely to be the better keeper between him and Smithies, given time. Not a view you hear that often anymore. He's clearly decent, or has been, but he's not close to Smithies' class, and Smithies is the single biggest blow we had over the summer. I'd even go so far as to say we might have got a point on Tuesday if Smithies had played, because in at 0-0 half time might (always assuming we didn't then concede our classic goal just after half time) have meant more confidence, some belief returning and a renewed desire to dig the fk in.
But he's gone, and we're left with Ingram, who, poor bastard, looked utterly bereft for the whole game on Tuesday. Sometimes you have to judge: will dropping a player do more harm than keeping him in the firing line? In Ingram's case, he has to be taken out the firing line now. Lumley is not perfect, had a poor game up at Leeds last season, but other than that he had a fine season on loan. If not now, when? Because Ingram is currently shot.
That first goal on Tuesday just killed any fragile belief the team had. I saw Scowen - Josh Scowen, tireless, rat-like, indefatigable, Scowen - trudging off, shoulders rounded and hunched over. You could read his thoughts a mile off. Striker scores, goalie saves a weak shot, we're one-up, we're on our way. Instead, it's all happening again.
3. LUONGO: I don't buy into the idea that he's 'checked out' because he was expecting a transfer after the World Cup. He signed a new contract less than 18 months ago and spent the summer trying to get his mate Sainsbury to join us. But whatever the reason is, and this comes from someone who loves him as a player, he's a shadow of himself. I don't know if that's because he doesn't like SM, or he doesn't understand his role, or he's not properly fit, or he wanted the captaincy and it went to a new guy or what. No one knows except him. But other than a couple of trademark tackles, the Mass of last season was gone. Passes astray, he looks heavy, his willingness to get in the box has disappeared (possibly hindered by two attacking midfielders ahead of him). But it's not him. He needs to find form, and fast.
4. EZE/FREEMAN: I also don't buy that these two can't play in the same side. They absolutely can, but that needs to be worked on, and for it to stand any chance the whole team needs to actually play a bit better. I don't think I've ever seen a player dip as much in 10 days as Eze from Sheff U, where he was effervescent, pinging in accurate shots, dribbling well, at the heart of most of our good stuff, to this guy, unsure if he was a second striker or winger or number 10 or what. Completely wasted. And Freeman had an absolute mare, with, as Clive said in his report, even his normally reliable dead ball kicks being pretty poor.
The future of the pair of them is crucial now. If Hemed and Wells start in the same side, surely Eze and Freeman can't both pay? But we then find ourselves in the weird situation of either leaving out arguably our biggest hope, or the player who got more assists than almost anyone in the division last year. I have no idea what the answer is, so don't look at me.
5. RANGEL: Did all right, didn't he? I know people are annoyed we've signed him, but we needed some cover for right back. I'm sure Kakay will still get plenty of games. But to me at least it made sense to leave him out after Saturday, give him a breather and a break from the hell of it all. Rangel was fine, probably will be fine as the short term measure he is. Had we not signed him and Kakay had picked up a two-month injury, and we didn't get a loan in, we'd all be justifiably angry. So no problem with this. He's not great, he's too old, but he's a stop gap.
6. ATMOSPHERE: Last few mins apart, I thought it was ok. People supportive and not overly negative. But thinking about it, I think a lot of us were just resigned to the inevitable - as, sadly, were the players. It's a nicer atmosphere than on here, that's for sure. I'm guilty of it myself of course - when things go badly, we all get fractious and angry with anyone who has a different view: angry if you're feeling negative and someone tries to be positive or vice versa. But overall, it was remarkably restrained on Tuesday. You can't hate these players, they're not bad people, they didn't fight like they did last season, and that's the really worrying thing. But fight is in them, somewhere, we've seen it. McClaren will be hoping the new blood can inject some belief and three points, because if not, it'll be someone else trying to find the fight in them. Maybe Marc Bircham. He did say he thought he'd be back one day. |  |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 21:41 - Aug 23 with 2676 views | Burnleyhoop |
Despite everything that has happened, the lack of will to fight for the cause will be the single biggest factor that will decide our fate this season.
We appear to have thrown the towel in after 4 f*cking games.
If we don’t find the belief and desire we had last season, we are destined for relegation.
The question is, how does McLaren lift the team to face a very dangerous looking Wigan team on Saturday?
The two new signings just might save his and our bacon. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 21:57 - Aug 23 with 2644 views | dannyblue |
LUONGO - is he still heart-broken after expecting to start in the world cup and not even getting a minute? |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 22:50 - Aug 23 with 2539 views | daveB |
Luongo is struggling for the same reason Scowen and Freeman are, they are not suited to what McClaren wants them to do and pre season there was less emphasis on fitness so where the three of them started like a train last year the 3 of them look knackered already this time around. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 22:51 - Aug 23 with 2536 views | Lblock |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 21:57 - Aug 23 by dannyblue |
LUONGO - is he still heart-broken after expecting to start in the world cup and not even getting a minute? |
I think he was hoping for the couple of weeks he was given off to prepare for the World Cup; to be repeated after it.....
He goes missing in body totally in January I understand
So Manning will slot in nicely. Ryan? Ryan? Has anyone seen..... |  |
| Cherish and enjoy life.... this ain't no dress rehearsal |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 09:48 - Aug 24 with 2248 views | francisbowles |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 22:51 - Aug 23 by Lblock |
I think he was hoping for the couple of weeks he was given off to prepare for the World Cup; to be repeated after it.....
He goes missing in body totally in January I understand
So Manning will slot in nicely. Ryan? Ryan? Has anyone seen..... |
Agree with all of that Antti and on Washington, he doesn't even looked really disappointed after he misses a chance. It's almost as if he thinks that he didn't expect to score anyway and he did quite well to get the shot away. Then when he does get in with a sight of goal he seems to think he will slice it, as he has done many times, and decides to 'pass' it. Then with the touch of an elephant he fires one straight into Eze's body so that he has to get it out before he can shoot and by which time he is being closed down and the shot is blocked.
Couldn't we go 442 with Freeman, Mass, Scowen and Eze in midfield or 4141 with Scowen deep and Wells on the right of the four? | | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 10:14 - Aug 24 with 2213 views | Antti_Heinola |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 09:48 - Aug 24 by francisbowles |
Agree with all of that Antti and on Washington, he doesn't even looked really disappointed after he misses a chance. It's almost as if he thinks that he didn't expect to score anyway and he did quite well to get the shot away. Then when he does get in with a sight of goal he seems to think he will slice it, as he has done many times, and decides to 'pass' it. Then with the touch of an elephant he fires one straight into Eze's body so that he has to get it out before he can shoot and by which time he is being closed down and the shot is blocked.
Couldn't we go 442 with Freeman, Mass, Scowen and Eze in midfield or 4141 with Scowen deep and Wells on the right of the four? |
nice idea, i think Wells would be badly wasted out wide though. he's a proper striker. Strong for his size too. | |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 12:08 - Aug 24 with 2084 views | qprd |
Thanks, Antti.
Rangel was alright. He's basically the Spanish Aaron Hughes from 2013-2014 season; he even looks like him. Steady. Although I have no clue where he was when Leistner was isolated on a 2 v 1 down the left flank for the second Bristol City goal..
In the first half, there was one sequence where he showed off his pretty impressive one-two work in the attacking half. But he really provided little to nothing going forward. There were so many times where there were gaping amounts of space down the right flank and he seemed to run into that channel.
Kakay doesn't have a great cross in him yet, but he can bomb down the flank. And what he lacks in final product, he makes up for with decent ball retention and the ability to at least play square... I'm hoping that Kakay gets the majority of the game time | | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 12:24 - Aug 24 with 2050 views | THEBUSH |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 12:08 - Aug 24 by qprd |
Thanks, Antti.
Rangel was alright. He's basically the Spanish Aaron Hughes from 2013-2014 season; he even looks like him. Steady. Although I have no clue where he was when Leistner was isolated on a 2 v 1 down the left flank for the second Bristol City goal..
In the first half, there was one sequence where he showed off his pretty impressive one-two work in the attacking half. But he really provided little to nothing going forward. There were so many times where there were gaping amounts of space down the right flank and he seemed to run into that channel.
Kakay doesn't have a great cross in him yet, but he can bomb down the flank. And what he lacks in final product, he makes up for with decent ball retention and the ability to at least play square... I'm hoping that Kakay gets the majority of the game time |
I agree Leistner was isolated for the 2nd BC goal, not sure where Rangel was ?
Until we get Furlong back, the defensive part of our right backs game, is a problem for us. |  | | |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 15:29 - Aug 24 with 1891 views | nix |
Excellent knee jerks Antti.
As for the Luongo connundrum, he hinted last year that he’d felt held back by previous managers by having to play a holding role. He loved being encouraged by Olly to bomb forward a bit more. This season he mentioned having to play more of a holding role again. I think that, plus the disappointments of the WC have affected him. He really looked like he was enjoying his football with Olly. Hopefully the team will gel a bit soon and he’ll get his mojo back. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 18:30 - Aug 24 with 1752 views | terryb |
Thanks Antti.
Like you, it has been hard to post (or even read) much on the boards this week!
I thought Leistner was a lot deeper than the other defenders when the ball was played forward for the opening two goals. This would explain why Taylor had so much free space to work with.
That first goal was dreadful from our point of view with three errors.
1) Leistner's positioning.
2) Nobody getting to Taylor before he was in the penalty area along with Bidwell's slip.
3) Ingram's awful goalkeeping in letting that shot beat him. | | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 18:31 - Aug 24 with 1750 views | Neil_SI |
I still think Matt Ingram is a decent keeper who can improve considerably if he plays regularly. But, he needs the opportunity to do that, and sitting on the bench never helps any keeper if they do it for too long and he may have stalled a bit too much while Smithies was able to play at this level and progress further. Doing that has wrecked many a top goalkeeper's career. Jerzy Dudek, Carlo Cudicini, Shay Given, Joe Hart, to name a few, etc...
But, we're talking about keepers being put in front of a very shaky and leaky defence in our case. Ingram has hardly had any protection and if you allow players to shoot from anywhere between 1-18 yards with any sort of regularity, then it's going to make life very difficult.
In some of these matches, my mouth has been left wide open at the amount of times the opposition have had so much time and space in the box, unchecked, to control the ball and smash the ball at goal from close distance. It tells you the problem isn't the goalkeeper, at all.
Sure, Ingram's made some poor mistakes and could have done better in some circumstances, but he's barely been given a chance by those in front of him till now. And, when you're being asked to pass the ball around and you also know your defenders probably don't really want it either, it's just adding to the anxiety levels for everybody.
I'm not sure, when faced with this situation, that's it's the right thing to do to throw a young Joe Lumley into the firing line either. He's also learning his trade and we need to make sure we protect him correctly and not destroy his confidence either. They've got to get the balance right with this, but they need to start by defending a whole lot better in the first place to give the keepers a chance. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 18:36 - Aug 24 with 1735 views | Antti_Heinola |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 18:31 - Aug 24 by Neil_SI |
I still think Matt Ingram is a decent keeper who can improve considerably if he plays regularly. But, he needs the opportunity to do that, and sitting on the bench never helps any keeper if they do it for too long and he may have stalled a bit too much while Smithies was able to play at this level and progress further. Doing that has wrecked many a top goalkeeper's career. Jerzy Dudek, Carlo Cudicini, Shay Given, Joe Hart, to name a few, etc...
But, we're talking about keepers being put in front of a very shaky and leaky defence in our case. Ingram has hardly had any protection and if you allow players to shoot from anywhere between 1-18 yards with any sort of regularity, then it's going to make life very difficult.
In some of these matches, my mouth has been left wide open at the amount of times the opposition have had so much time and space in the box, unchecked, to control the ball and smash the ball at goal from close distance. It tells you the problem isn't the goalkeeper, at all.
Sure, Ingram's made some poor mistakes and could have done better in some circumstances, but he's barely been given a chance by those in front of him till now. And, when you're being asked to pass the ball around and you also know your defenders probably don't really want it either, it's just adding to the anxiety levels for everybody.
I'm not sure, when faced with this situation, that's it's the right thing to do to throw a young Joe Lumley into the firing line either. He's also learning his trade and we need to make sure we protect him correctly and not destroy his confidence either. They've got to get the balance right with this, but they need to start by defending a whole lot better in the first place to give the keepers a chance. |
Hmmm...
Agree with you on everything you ever say Neil. But not on this. The defence has absolutely been poor, but one of the major reasons, I think, is their total lack of faith in their goalie. Shots on target by Bristol on Tuesday was 5 - three went in, the others were long range efforts.
But I do agree Ingram needs a run to settle down. But I also think now is not the time because his confidence is so completely shot. It's tough for Lumley, but young keepers have come in before and done it. Plus, to be honest, I've never seen Ingram have an impressive game. I have seen Lumley play well. | |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 3 on 19:48 - Aug 24 with 1676 views | baz_qpr |
Ingram needs to be loaned out and another keeper brought in with Lumley getting a start. Team comes first and we can't afford a keeper that is costing points not saving them, I'd put the net point loss at about 18 points with Smithee earning us 9 points a season and Ingram set to costs us that many.
You can have all the skill in the world but if you can't mentally hack it you are not going to succeed. Everything is wrong about Ingram at the moment, positioning, distribution, reaction everyone needs to move on and he needs to rebuild his career elsewhere and he has been nervy in any game I've seen him play since he has been here |  | | |
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