A fragmented, at times farcical, pre-season has the Loftus Road natives restless and worried, but Neil Dejyothin sees plenty of cause for optimism in the friendlies played so far.
Chris Ramsey's assertion that he was satisfied following the goalless draw at Newport on Sunday drew some consternation on the LFW message board, and it's true that it's been another poorly organised pre-season which will not help us hit the ground running in the Championship this season.
I've watched a couple of matches on a stream and have been to see us play against Dundee United and Newport County and I'm reasonably satisfied by what I've seen so far too.
Here's why…
It's the small details that matter, not the overall performances or results. Yes there will be some problems that need addressing — but that's normal.
You have to first look at the football you see before you consider the performance and results. Then you have to get an idea about the personnel and how they will come together to form a core nucleus of players that make up the starting squad. I'm only interested in the small details, so I'll focus on those, because these are the things that give you the clues on what's going on behind the scenes.
Let's take Tjarron Chery as an example. He took a free-kick in the first-half against Newport — a poor one, that struck the wall and left us suddenly being hit on the counter attack. The free-kick was to the right of the penalty box and the resulting play developed quickly down our left side, with Darnell Furlong and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas nowhere to be seen having been so far forward for the free-kick. Chery sprinted quietly back into position and filled in for them. He took responsibility for team shape and waited until the danger was averted and cover arrived before heading back into position.
How often could you say that last season when it came to the likes of Junior Hoilett or Leroy Fer, for example? Even some of our central midfield players wouldn't have done that for the team.
That's just one of many small examples I've seen from things we've worked on.
Against Newport, the deepest lying central midfielder often dropped back on top of his centre-back when the opposition had the ball, creating a sandwich between them and the opposing striker and freeing up the other central defender to sweep in behind if necessary or pick up someone else who might be lurking. That is something I haven't seen Rangers do for years.
I've seen much better build up play from the back and more intelligent passing into corridors of space — something they've clearly worked on. Against Dundee United, I saw Nedum Onouha make far better passes than I've ever seen him play. He wasn't on the ball, nervously waving his hands around jazz hands-style like he can do. He simply knew what runs were going to be made and where to slot his pass.
Across the last two matches, I've seen balls sprayed into wide areas, intelligent switches and passages of play designed to encourage the full-backs to attack and overlap and provide additional support to attacks.
We've got into great positions out wide and have clearly worked on trying to put balls into the box with players supporting quickly from behind or the other flank to get into the penalty area. Sure, the quality of delivery isn't quite there yet, but the potential most certainly is.
But more importantly, whenever the play has broken down, we've worked hard to get back into shape and pick up in the event of being hit on the counter. The legs and pace of the team have allowed us to be a lot more dynamic in our response to defence and attack.
Yes we have weaknesses. The set up has provided a much clearer separation at this point between roles and who is supposed to do what in defence and attack. Therefore, there are occasions where we're asking particular units to deal with particular scenarios. Some of that we've done well with and some of that we haven't, and the defence has been exposed at times. However, we've also not played our strongest side in these games, so you have to balance both the good and bad elements in your mind with what it looks like and will be like when the best team is available.
I like that we've looked fast and incisive on the counter attack ourselves, with several occasions where we moved up the pitch quickly after winning the ball.
We've also worked on some passages of play that allow the reverse through ball to be played to runners from deep, as we saw with Matt Phillips' goal against Dundee, as well as numerous nearly-there opportunities across both games. The pace and legs of the side allow us to play this way now — it's not something we could have done with just Bobby Zamora or Charlie Austin leading the line.
We've worked on picking up the ball from deep and playing it around comfortably at the back, but also to open our lines of attack and not just kick the ball up field willy nilly. That will be a huge bonus if they can maintain it going forward, especially if they don't dally around at the back too long.
The triangle in midfield was nicely set up and positioned across both games. It wasn't two sitting deep with one in front, it was more of a rotated triangle, with one deep to protect the defence, one further forward to the right and one even further forward to apply pressure on opposing players on the ball. The balance of this triangle makes for good pressing in zones, but also really good options to pass and move the ball quickly.
So there are lots of positives.
Yes we could have looked a little sharper in front of goal in these games, yes we do need some additional players, particularly in defensive areas, but with what they're trying to do — these are things there that will hopefully fall into place.
There are always going to be concerns and unknowns, particularly with a new team. I wasn't impressed, for example, with how Emmanuel-Thomas berated the kids all the time when they didn't do something he wanted from them, or to the level he wanted. It lacked a bit of sensitive encouragement, but that might have just been one game, it doesn't make it terrible and the kids do need to learn.
The second half the match petered out, but we had a lot of youngsters on the pitch and some of their play was youthful.
Across the two matches so far, I'd say Massimo Luongo is crucial to the way we want to maintain possession and attack — we tried him in two different roles across both games — which again is sensible to see how that works and when he went off. Alejandro Faurlin didn't quite have the same style or range of passing so wasn't as effective.
Another thing I really liked was how often we've put three or four players right on the opposition backline whenever we've had the ball at the back, either with Robert Green or when playing it out from the back.
That's slightly risky perhaps, but when the ball comes in, if you win the first or second ball, suddenly the opposition is under a lot of pressure. Obviously that can cause some problems if the delivery is not up to scratch and the defence doesn't react well to the turnover in possession but I really love that. It's a positive sign, but that's one of the reasons why technical players who can pass, like Luongo, are crucial to the system.
In addition, for the central midfielders, at least two of them have been given the licence to roam in the last two matches. We've seen them popping up on the left or right flanks, or getting beyond the striker or joining alongside them, which is an encouraging sign. Again, the legs of those players make those transitions and movement possible, as I couldn't see players like Barton, Sandro, etc, being able to do that last season.
The Twitter @neildejyothin
Pictures — Action Images