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Coming home to roost — Column
at 19:51 25 Oct 2017

I am sure the fine wouldn't be counted as losses for a further FFP fine. But I do feel that QPR itself will have to pay the fine and not a third party. Whether there's some other kind of loophole, I don't know.

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Destroyed, but not unexpected
at 12:08 14 Sep 2016

Here's my 2 cents:

I have a different view from most on here. I do not blame one single player for what happened yesterday. I think it all comes down to unity, or lack of. Unity in the sense that our squad is NOT confident and does NOT believe it is good enough. Unity in the sense that they are NOT working together and they do NOT understand each other and their prospective roles. Unity in the sense that QPR has had a virus for a long time and no manager seems to know how to cure it when coming in. Unity in the sense that we either DO NOT have a suitable game plan for each match or we DO NOT have the confidence and collectedness in order to act it out.

I say this because we would have one of the better squads in the league if every player in the team knew what they were doing, knew what their colleagues were doing, had a good game plan that suited each match and had the confidence to act it out. Even looking at the players as they played last night, I could see that they all have ability and they all have the basic knowledge of an individual footballer. The choice of Perch from the outset seemed actually a good one. He was breaking up play and hurtling himself into some aerial challenges. Conor seemed to be chasing down the defence with some real pace. But as the game went on, the true problems showed themselves.

Each member of our defence seemed to have no idea what the other members of the defence were doing (which was actually the problem of the whole team but showed itself most problematically in our defence). It's like we were taken by surprise completely, expecting Newcastle to play like Rochdale. I actually thought Henry showed talent in a thankless job that basically becomes pointless if the rest of the team cannot do their job or provide an open pass for him to send. Henry is not the only one. Several players truly tried, throughout the whole game. Sadly, a number of other players found themselves shellshocked and unwilling after 2 or 3 goals went in and weren't able to take any more responsibility as they had already shat themselves.

I really do not envy JFH's position. Coming to QPR is immensely hard as a manager. That disease I mentioned... it's not bad attitudes in the dressing room. We've dealt with that. It's the fact that, since our first big bucks takeover, we've gone through countless changes every season. We have barely been able to hold on to a matrix of a squad over any season. Each season there's either a new manager or an almost entirely new squad (this season we've started with a manager who is almost brand new to us and a squad that is more consistent than past seasons but still developing and incorporating new signings). Therefore, keeping a solid playing philosophy at the club has been impossible. We do not have an identity. You may get good individuals coming in but no one will truly know what we're doing or meant to be doing. This was even evident in our promotion season with Harry: we were promoted because we had some good good players, regardless of the fact that we never really got going and it being the most boring season I remember. Maybe we really do need 3 or 4 seasons in Championship obscurity before we really turn into a force.

JFH needs to be adapting and dealing with the situation better, though. We need to be more diverse when it comes to formation and tactics, especially when certain players are unavailable. It is unacceptable to play the exact same system in every game and especially unacceptable to have Washington coming into the team, like for like, when Polter is out without changing the system (some argue we shouldn't have that system to begin with). We shouldn't have two holding/defensive midfielders. I don't think Henry and Cousins can be in the team at the same time. Their roles are too similar and we become too negative with both of them on. We have to pick one or the other (it may be controversial but I'd rather keep Henry as he has a cool head and has played well in the past; Cousins hasn't really shown much of anything since after his first appearance). We shouldn't be chopping and changing the back line in every game (we may have no choice over that now, injuries considered). On the other hand, his substitutions have been fairly good in the majority of games.

We miss Luongo. He's not at the top of his game yet but he brings a creativity and gives options further up the park. Our two new Polish recruits could be a solution in the middle as well, bringing more creativity. Why the hell did we tell Faurlin he may not get much first team football this season? We should have told him he'd get as much football as possible if his fitness allowed. I imagine Shodipo was left out because his lack of experience and confidence was feared in the face of such a good opposition. But really we needed him from the get go. Yeni really didn't provide anything apart from a great cross much later.

And so it comes back to the defence, which is an absolute shambles again. All things would improve or have a better chance of improvement if that could be fixed. And this is where JFH has to take responsibility. He needs to get them well drilled and needs to have an established back line that is only changed if there are injuries. He needs to drill the midfield and wide players so that they cover well and he needs to make us more progressive and creative, which will in itself take the heat off the back four by forcing our opposition into defending.

My ideal lineup, regardless of injuries:

Smithies

Perch Onuoha Hall Bidwell

Shodipo Henry Luongo Ngbakoto

Chery Polter

Polter could be swapped in and out with Sylla.

Luongo could be swapped in and out with the two Polish fellows.

Henry could be swapped in and out with Cousins.

The back line... god help us.

Ngbakoto could be interchanged with Khayati. (this is a position we don't have much going for)

We could also try having Polter and Sylla up front with Chery in a more central role.

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awjm

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