LFW End of Term Report 14/15 — Defenders Tuesday, 14th Jul 2015 20:37 by Clive Whittingham Part two of the annual LFW carve up of the QPR first team squad from the previous season moves onto Rangers’ porous defence. 3 — Armand Traore D/EArmand Traore seemed to be turning one or two people around towards the end of the promotion winning season in 2013/14 and was rewarded with a new contract at the end of it, an outcome which had seemed unlikely even a few short weeks before when a couple of scuffed goals against Ipswich and Bournemouth had the away fans mockingly singing “I saw Traore score” on their way back to the pub. He spoke about “doing something special now” and fulfilling his supposed potential as he moved past his twenty fifth birthday.When Harry Redknapp subsequently tried to offload him to Crystal Palace just a few weeks later at the end of the summer transfer window, we should have smelt a rat. Now, a year later, we’re still waiting for that something special, and rather praying it hasn’t happened already while we were asleep, or reading the programme. We cannot rule out the possibility that he thinks all those tepid little flicks with the outside of his boot - so treasured by Soccer AM and their showboat section, so woefully ineffective and brain tumour inducing when your team is struggling to hold possession high up the field - are in fact the “something special”. Another desperately poor season where you can barely count the his positive contributions to a game on the fingers of one hand, let alone decent performances across a whole 90 minutes, leaves us with three possible theories on a player who has, kindly put, flattered to deceive throughout his career. Armand Traore is either not very good, or he’s not very bright, or, potentially, both. He’s the quintessential modern footballer for the lower end of the Premier League: molly coddled through a pristine academy, initially only ever played in League Cup games or loan spells, lots of talk about potential, all speed and flicks and tricks, all tattoos and ridiculous haircuts. He’s got all the gear and absolutely no idea and in the modern game that doesn’t necessarily matter, he’s still disgustingly rich regardless, but for a club fighting against relegation it’s the exact opposite of what’s required. He has shown, on occasions, the ability to take a man on the outside and deliver a fine cross — Heidar Helguson’s goal at Stoke, Jamie Mackie’s at Man City - but I can’t honestly remember the last time I saw him do it. Defensively, setting out with Armand Traore anywhere near your back four is like going to sea in a sieve — his first half performance at Arsenal on Boxing Day where he was directly responsible for a penalty which the home team missed, then immediately handed them the first goal on a plate straight afterwards anyway, channelled Karl Ready on some bad acid. He’s been crap all season. Unable to complete the basics of his profession with or without the ball. This is nothing new, which lends itself to the first theory, although for managers at Arsenal, Portsmouth, Juventus and QPR to have persisted for so long suggests he has something about him somewhere but lacks the mental fortitude to apply it. Unless Chris Ramsey has another Matt Phillips-style turnaround up his sleeve we’re probably at the lock the door, turn the lights off and pretend we’re not in until he gets the hint stage now. Stats: 4 — Steven Caulker CI can scarcely recall being as disappointed in a QPR signing as I currently am with Steven Caulker. I mean I was disappointed that Christer Warren couldn’t kick straight, Karl Connolly couldn’t run, Bob Malcolm was as quick as an old milk float with the same turning circle, Sammy Koejoe couldn’t fit his arse in a conventional pair of shorts and so on. But it’s about relative expectation levels.Although he’d been relegated with Cardiff City the previous season, he certainly hadn’t looked bad doing it. He’s a good age, with an excellent pedigree coming up through the Tottenham academy with strategic loan spells at Bristol City and Swansea getting in excess of 150 games in the Championship and Premier League under his belt before his twenty third birthday. A full England international, completely injury free, with his whole career ahead of him, and only £8m which in the current market for a player of his nationality and age represented something of a steal. He was, in short, not the kind of signing QPR usually make and he was a prime reason for optimism last summer that Rangers may well survive. But, as we often say, if these players were perfect, with nothing wrong with them, and wonderfully talented to boot — they probably wouldn’t be playing for QPR. There’s something wrong with Caulker, which is why he’s here, but quite what it is is difficult to pin point. Perhaps he’s rather too fond of the strong European lager — his form dipped first around Christmas after an unfortunate incident at the Christmas party where he made the papers for falling over his own feet. This after a mix up over a block of cheese at Tesco, and later an alleged dust up in the VIP section at the 02 Arena. Perhaps he’s one of those footballers who likes the footballer lifestyle rather too much. Perhaps he suffered through playing in such a poor team, so regularly exposed with so little protection. Brought in to play alongside and learn from Rio Ferdinand, he first of all had to do the work of two men when it became apparent that Ferdinand was absolutely shot, and never really had a settled partner after that once Ferdinand was mercifully dropped. Maybe he simply lost confidence. There’s a chance he’s another example of a good player who comes to QPR and gets worse. We’ve seen him play well elsewhere, for Spurs and Swansea and Cardiff and Bristol City. We’ve said before that the facilities, the ethos, the infrastructure, the coaching staff, the attitude and everything else at QPR is not conducive to success and even the good players we sign are quickly dragged down by it all. Caulker is possibly just the latest victim, through no fault of his own. Maybe he was overrated in the first place. Not something I subscribe to, I really rate him despite last season, but Daniel Levy isn’t usually in the habit of shedding young, English players on the cheap with no kind of fight. When you see him commit just about every cardinal sin in the centre half’s manual by heading a percentage ball to the back post straight back into the heart of the danger area for Hull City’s first goal at the KC Stadium, or the shambolic mess he made for the Newcastle goal at Loftus Road, you wonder whether he’s just not that good. Rather than touting for a move, which hasn’t happened as much as I thought this summer, he’d do well to settle down, behave himself off the pitch, and repay QPR for their substantial outlay on him with a good season in the Championship. He and Nedum Onuoha are potentially as good a centre half pairing as you’ll see in the second tier next season but that’s the problem with both of them — neither are 21 any more and you can only talk about potential for so long. Stats:
5 — Rio Ferdinand DObviously Rio Ferdinand and his family have endured a tough, and ultimately tragic, time of things since Christmas leading up to the death of his wife Rebecca at the end of the season. Randomly, his best game for the club, away at Sunderland, came during that spell but he rarely played in the second half of the season and for justifiable reasons. What more can you say? Anything from some poxy football fan site seems trite, but you wouldn’t wish that on anybody and you can only imagine what he’s gone through with his young children these past few months. He, and the club, handled the whole thing with real dignity and class.To begin with this looked like the classic modern day QPR signing, the standard Harry Redknapp signing, and so it proved. When he arrived peddling his baseball caps (available in the club shop for a slim £35 - just the one cap for that, I did check) at his opening press conference, and saying things like “I was going to retire, but Harry gave me a call” every fucking alarm bell in Tony Fernandes head should have been keeping him up at night. Sadly, when it comes to football, Tony Fernandes keeps mistaking alarm bells for the theme tune from Cheers. Bigger and better clubs than us have found that Man Utd don’t usually get rid of players who can still perform at the highest level, and Ferdinand followed neatly in the footsteps of Ji Sung Park before him at Loftus Road. A very decent performance on debut against Hull apart, he was absolutely spent. Physically shot. Miles off the pace. At West Ham, a game against his former club, his last ever visit to Upton Park as a player, something he should have been bang up for and right on top of his game, he got done for skill and speed on the turn for the second goal by James bloody Tomkins. Thankfully, even Harry Redknapp’s blind faith couldn’t stand it any more after that and he was dropped, first with a load of excuses about this calf strain or that foot injury, and then with justification after Christmas. By all accounts a model professional, fantastic on the training ground and with the younger players both in the way he sets an example, and the advice he’s able to give. But QPR must never ever again be drawn into these big money, big name, expensive signings of over the hill, physically shot footballers. Somebody needs to take Tony Fernandes’ 2004/05 Premier League sticker book away from him and slap his hand. Stats:
6 — Clint Hill BYear five of Clint Hill’s one-year fill-in at QPR went much the same as the previous three. At the start of the season you assumed he wouldn’t get much action, and was being kept on as a steadying influence and decent club captain — plenty of merit to that idea, QPR have far too few players of his standing and attitude. Then, as all the best laid plans of Rio Ferdinand-marshalled back threes sunk to the bottom of the ocean, Hill started to be called upon again.We can trot out the usual bits about him not being able to cut it at left back any more, getting found out by the best players, lacking any kind of pace but to be honest I think Clint Hill is still a very decent player, particularly in his favoured position as a left-sided centre back. He rarely loses a header, and powered in his first ever Premier League goal (sticks another pin in the fat head of the Martin Atkinson voo doo doll) at Aston Villa in typical style, and he’s pretty decent on the ground too. Sure, he gets found out, infamously by Luis Suarez two years ago and by Sergio Aguero this year, but then who doesn’t get found out by Sergio Aguero and Luis Suarez? A consistent performer, and certainly well capable of plenty of action at Championship level next season. Stats:
13 — Yun Suk Young BGiven that Harry Redknapp was quite happy for Benoit Assou Ekotto to amble around scratching his pubics, falling to the floor and conceding ridiculous goals in key games whenever the going got remotely tough, for the thick end of 40 matches in the Championship the year before it seemed fair to assume that he didn’t much rate Yun. That seemed to change a little towards the end of the season and during the play-offs, when he impressed in cameo roles, but by the time August came around he was back down the pecking order behind Armand Traore, Clint Hill, Joe Jordan, Kevin Bond’s piano tuner, Mr Bun the Baker, Davis Love III, former culture and media secretary Tessa Jowell and possibly even Redknapp himself if it wasn’t for his knees. Has he mentioned he’s got bad knees?He was given a chance after the West Ham debacle, when Redknapp decided to start utilising Bobby Zamora and playing more direct to the front men, to decent effect initially. Yun was something of a revelation — outstanding in the home win against Aston Villa and singled out by Gary Neville on the Sky coverage afterwards as somebody who’d set the mood and tempo for Rangers that night from left back. It all felt rather like the time Gino Padula emerged from months of inaction to make the left back spot his own and achieve cult hero status in W12. Like Steven Caulker, Nedum Onuoha, Jordon Mutch and others, we therefore know there is a bloody good player in there. With Yun, it seemed that his confidence waned slightly with each passing thrashing, and like everybody else reviewed in this section the criticisms all come with the understanding that the midfield QPR had in front of the defence this season was completely inadequate. They were left to fend for themselves. At Palace Yun was particularly poor, but so was Furlong on the other side as they were left completely exposed by their respective wide midfielders while up against two of the Premier League’s better wingers. Overall he’s a player I like. Tidy, quite strong in the tackle for such a slight lad, quite snide when the referee isn’t looking, good on the ball. I think, assuming he’s going to stay and be first choice next season, he’ll be absolutely excellent at Championship level. Stats:
14 Mauricio Isla DIsla, like Caulker, another player who has disappointed massively after sparking such optimism when he arrived.If you had to pick a nation, realistically, from last summer’s World Cup that you’d want a club in QPR’s situation to plunder for players it would have been Chile. Roy Hodgson says their goalkeeper should play with 10 on his back because of their insistence on passing the ball out from deep, even when it’s on their own goal line, but Chile are tireless without the ball as well, hassling and harrying mistakes out of opponents and not allowing them any time in possession. They value possession and they value hard work. Isla, who once cost Juventus the thick end of £10m, may not be particularly quick but he’s one of the chief exponents of that South American tenaciousness and ethic. His capture looked little short of a masterstroke. His early form, woeful though it was, could perhaps be excused because it takes time to settle in a new country, or because lots of foreigners take time to adjust to the Premier League’s kick and rush style, or because his wife gave birth almost as soon as he arrived in London, or because the tube is difficult to get your head around to start with… Or, much more likely, because he’s a specialised right wing back and Redknapp abandoned that system after two matches forcing him to play right full back. There were good games, playing ahead of Nedum Onuoha down the right flank at home to Man City for one, but overall he was poor and to be honest, while Redknapp certainly didn’t help, it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for a right wing back who once cost Juventus and eight figure sum to transition to right back. It’s not like we were asking him to play in goal. Even Jamie Mackie gave right back a reasonable stab when utilised there one afternoon away at Nottingham Forest. After taking over Chris Ramsey used Nedum Onuoha and the other Spanish speakers to hammer home the message to Isla about not allowing his man to cut inside and drive towards the danger zone. When this happened for goals at West Brom, Aston Villa and Chelsea in quick succession Ramsey wondered first whether the Spanish speakers weren’t as crash hot with their languages as they’d made out. In the end, he concluded that Isla simply wasn’t listening and wasn’t that bothered. He was dropped thereafter. Chile have since gone on to win the Copa America with Isla, and Eduardo Vargas who I’ll say similar things about later on, impressive throughout. Another two names to add to the list of good and potentially great players who came to QPR and looked like pub footballers.
15 Nedum Onuoha CMuch like Steven Caulker, but several years older. Onuoha should be brilliant. He came out of the Man City academy, he’s got hundreds of games under his belt at the highest level, he is capped by England up to Under 21s, he’s lightning quick, he’s a perfect physical specimen, he’s as intelligent as they come, he’s British, he’s a good age for a centre back… all the potential is there. And yet you can’t help but feel he was disappointing again last season. He suffers first of all from being bumped around between right back (where he lacks the distribution to play the position effectively) and centre half. When Harry Redknapp was manager you were never sure whether he would start centre half, right back or not at all from one week to the next, and that’s not ideal in an area of the pitch where consistency of selection and understanding between partnerships usually yields great results. He’s also, possibly, too toned and muscular now — he suffers more than most defenders with hamstring injuries, as if everything is just so tightly wound and finely honed that it’s ready to snap or ping at any moment. Dr Whittingham clocking on for shift there, with my extensive medical knowledge. But these mitigating factors are merely excuses. I like him, as I do Caulker, and I think together they’ll be outstanding in the Championship if they’re picked at centre half together and able to stick long runs of games together. But he’s 28 now and we can no longer talk about his great potential. It’s time to piss or get off the pot. A big season, as captain, awaits. 22 — Richard Dunne A/BHarry Redknapp’s nutty professor idea that QPR would play a back three in the Premier League this season (“like what I saw in the World Cup”) was a rare and unsuccessful foray into the complicated world of football tactics from a manager who has always insisted “it’s not about systems, it’s about players” while persuading another chairman to part with another £10m for The Boy Crouchy, Little Boy Jermain, Niko Kranjcar’s elevenses and so on.He could have given the idea a better chance of success had he picked the more mobile duo of Steven Caulker and Nedum Onuoha to man the door at the Rio Ferdinand retirement party but he’d forced Richard Dunne through a 46 game Championship season, running the veteran centre half on fumes through March and April to the detriment of the team, and that favouritism wasn’t about to stop after winning promotion. Seeing Dunne playing on the left of a three-centre-back formation, with Armand Traore ahead of him as the left wing back, was barbaric. Asking him to not only defend as a centre half, but cover the winger cutting in from the opponents’ right flank as well, and carry the ball out of defence and start attacks, was completely unfair on Dunne. Such a ridiculous plan, it even made Erik Lamela look like a Premier League footballer during the carve up at White Hart Lane in game two. When the team returned to a back four, and Redknapp belatedly admitted that his old chums act with Ferdinand was little more than a friendly top up of the defender’s pension plan, Dunne stepped in as a reliable option at the heart of the defence — still cumbersome at times, and occasionally exposed, but far less accident prone than Caulker and Onuoha turned out to be and a reasonably reliable base for the team. He was on the pitch for 39 goals conceded this year, far fewer than all the other regulars. At Chelsea away, against in-form Diego Costa, he rolled back the years with a vintage performance. Against Burnley at Loftus Road, in a crucial six pointer, he stood tall for 20 minutes at the end when Rangers were down to ten and won every ball — including one in injury time where he charged 20 yards out of defence to contest a header on the halfway line, obliterating all in his path. Later suffered a bad knee injury against Southampton, but fought back to fitness and returned ahead of schedule even though the cause was all but lost by then. As he showed at Wembley against Derby, there are still few better classic old British and Irish centre backs out there capable of anchoring a defence, winning every header, refusing to yield and so on. Redknapp should have realised that and stuck to it, rather than wasting a summer transfer window and hamstringing the squad from the start with his ludicrous three man defence comedy sketch. Dunne can be very proud of what looks like being his final season in professional football. Personally I’m surprised he doesn’t want to go for another year, and that half the Championship aren’t hammering his door down. A brilliant servant for two years at QPR and should be remembered as such. Stats:
OthersDarnell Furlong smashed through the glass ceiling at QPR to make a debut at right back at Hull City, much to the scorn of Harry Redknapp/Martin Samuel who’d steadfastly refused to consider Rangers’ young players, even for early round cup games.What followed gets lost in myth and opinion for me. Furlong was very decent at Hull in his first game, fine against Arsenal for the first half before being exposed by Alexis Sanchez in the second, and totally exposed at Crystal Palace against the Premier League’s form winger Yannick Bolasie while getting less than zero help from Shaun Wright-Phillips in front of him. His selection and performance was far from the disaster it was portrayed — particularly when Mauricio Isla came back into the side and subsequently had a hand in opposition goals at Villa, West Brom and at home to Chelsea. Other than that… Max Ehmer finally seems to have found a level and a home at Gillingham and will stay there; Michael Harriman seemed to have done likewise with Luton only for QPR to extend his deal then loan him out (I’d give Harriman a dozen games here next season and see how he does); Cole Kpekawa struggled to make an impact on loan at Colchester and Portsmouth which doesn’t bode well but was given minutes in the final game against Leicester. The Twitter @loftforwords The Pictures — Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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