Mark Hughes starts his reign as the tenth manager of QPR in the last five years with a trip up north to Newcastle on Sunday.
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Mark Hughes, like myself, decided his Thursday evening would be best spent watching QPR’s youth team knock academy champions Everton out of the FA Youth Cup at Loftus Road. A considerable achievement for the youngsters at Rangers, but probably one of the worst things Hughes could have done with his time.
You see our youth team has a creative midfield player called Frankie Sutherland in it, a Republic of Ireland youth international who looks (and plays) like a cross between Chris Brunt and Dean Parrett. Sutherland, it turns out, does a nice line in set pieces from wide areas. He also has a penchant for wild lunging tackles and red cards it seems but it didn’t affect the final score unduly.
Anyway, these set pieces, I’ve never seen the likes of them before. Here was a QPR player in a QPR shirt who could deliver from a dead ball situation. Imagine that. One hand up meant near post, two hands meant far, and every time, be it from a corner of free kick, he whipped in a perfect delivery. Balls were flying through that corridor of uncertainty between defenders and goalkeeper like nobody’s business. His delivery was consistently excellent.
This is a bad thing for us this Sunday at Newcastle because Hughes probably thinks, like any right-minded individual would, that our set pieces must be alright. After all if some 17-year old kid in the youth set up can deliver like that, imagine how good the seniors must be. Sadly, unless Hughes decides to take a chance on Sutherland as a way of solving the problem with our lack of bodies for the midfield area then he’s going to be disappointed.
Disappointment isn’t something Hughes can afford too much of over the next couple of months as he settles into a new job that I’m still not entirely sure why he’s taken. QPR need to post points quickly up to and including the Bolton away game or face up to the fact that a cruel last ten matches against the top eight sides is probably going to sink them regardless of how well they play. Hughes only won one of his first nine as Blackburn boss and was in the bottom three on Boxing Day last season after taking over at Fulham. Both rallied, Fulham to eighth and Rovers to consecutive top eight finishes, but he can’t afford a slow start like that this time and his “you need to embrace what we do, quickly” comment to the team earlier this week betrayed his concern about that.
Hughes was repeatedly asked by journalists during the week about QPR’s ambition, and whether this was just a stepping stone for him in his career – fair questions, given the manner of his departure from Fulham. It seemed in the summer that Hughes expected to walk into the job at either Aston Villa or Chelsea and it’s fair to say he sees himself in the top job at either Stamford Bridge or Old Trafford sooner rather than later in my opinion.
Perhaps being overlooked or both posts made him realise that he hadn’t done enough yet, despite impressive league placings at Blackburn and Fulham and a proven eye for a bargain in the transfer market, to command a big job just yet and needed to go and prove himself lower down the food chain again. Or maybe he’s grown frustrated of putting plans for the long term in place only to then leave or be sacked from a club and really does want to see what he can do over a longer period of time. Or maybe he just likes money, Tony Fernandes is allegedly paying him £1m just to keep QPR up this season on top of an astronomical annual salary. He won’t have come without a promise of serious transfer funds either – I do worry that we’re going to become the next Portsmouth.
Regardless of the reason it’s a huge risk for him to take. QPR, now shorn of Ale Faurlin for the rest of the season and with only really Shaun Derry and Akos Buzsaky to play in midfield this Sunday, look like relegation fodder. There’ll be no big job offers or long term planning for Hughes at Loftus Road if that happens. For his and our sake I hope he gets this right.
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Team News: Rarely has the team news from both sides had such a profound effect on the way they’re both going to approach the game – both teams here are missing their best players so far this season. For QPR Player of the Year elect Ale Faurlin has ruptured his cruciate knee ligament, the scourge of QPR players down the years, and is out for the rest of the season. Joey Barton misses his first trip back to his former club through suspension but will now return for the Wigan game next week with the third match falling on Tuesday’s FA Cup replay. This leaves new manager Mark Hughes with a massive headache in the middle of midfild, only really Shaun Derry and Akos Buzsaky can play there unless he wants to delve down further into the ranks and select somebody like Martin Rowlands. Armand Traore and Adel Taarabt are away at the African Nations Cup.
As are Demba Ba and Cheik Tiote, two of Newcastle’s outstanding performers this season. Ba had 15 goals in 16 appearances prior to jetting off so QPR will be glad he’s gone, and Tiote has been earning rave reviews for his screening of the defence for several seasons now. Alan Pardew must find a way to fill the void left by both players. Steven Taylor is their long term injury absentee.
Elsewhere: After a weekend of FA Cup thrills and spills we’re back to the run of the mill Premiership action this weekend with matches spread across three days. Man City round the weekend off with the Monday Night Football and will be confident of snapping their recent bad form when they travel to Wigan, although the struggling Latics have started to pick up some decent results of late. The other two teams below QPR have contrasting fixtures on Saturday – Bolton go to Man Utd while Blackburn welcome notoriously poor travellers Fulham. Looking forward to the away attendance figure at that one.
Tottenham levelled it up at 45 points apiece between them and Man Utd by winning their game in hand with Everton on Wednesday and now host Wolves looking to go second. Resurgent Sunderland go to misfiring Chelsea where they won 3-0 last season, and I wouldn’t back against a repeat away victory in that match. West Brom v Norwich and Villa v Everton round off the Saturday 3pm kick offs (no lunch time or evening game in the Premiership this weekend) while Swansea v Arsenal is the 4pm Sunday match on Sky after our one.
Referee: I found it interesting that although the FA backed Neil Swarbrick’s decision to send off Joey Barton against Norwich by rejecting the club’s appeal against the suspension, they then demoted the referee two divisions this weekend. Chris Foy attracted plenty of justified criticism for his handling of the Manchester derby last weekend but that’s just the latest in a long line of controversies he’s been involved with this season and he keeps getting games immediately afterwards so somebody somewhere rates what he’s doing. QPR fans have fond memories of Foy of course, he sent off two Chelsea players and awarded the R’s an early penalty in our only home win of the season to date. This is our first appointment with him since then, read a full case file by clicking here.
Newcastle The Magpies were unbeaten in their first 11 matches this season, including a 0-0 draw at Loftus Road in September that I’d guess even they would say they were lucky to get. How times change. That run was built on a consistent team selection and came to an end through a combination of a trip to in form Man City, where the referee for this game on Sunday Chris Foy awarded the home team two penalties in a 3-1 win, and injuries to both centre backs Steven Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini. That then set them off on a run of one win from seven matches, including a 4-2 defeat at our fellow newly promoted side Norwich who scored all their goals with headers. They’ve turned it round of late though with wins against Man Utd in the league here and Blackburn in the cup – they’ve now won three of their last four and climbed back to seventh.
QPR: QPR’s form has been the subject of the national news all week so we don’t need to go over it again now in any great detail. Four wins all season, three of them away, but no wins in the last nine games and only one in the last 12. The last victory was at Stoke at the beginning of November and since then they’ve drawn three and lost six. Crucially Rangers are also boosting the teams around them in the league – they’ve played the bottom three once each losing two and drawing one. In fact they’ve only beaten two teams in the bottom half of the table this season – Everton and Wolves. A total of 19 goals scored is matched only by West Brom, and only Wigan with 18 have scored less.
Betting: Professional odds compiler Owen Goulding says…
Well a lot has happened since our last game. Where to start??!! Firstly from an odds makers point of view, Mark Hughes on paper is an excellent appointment. Definitely one of the best available at this time. It has resulted in nearly all major bookmakers easing the price on QPR to be relegated and therefore shortening them to stay up. For the record, QPR are a best priced 2/1 to be relegated, which roughly translated mean the bookies believe QPR have around a 35% chance of relegation and therefore a 65% chance of survival – it’s not time to panic just yet. However I, along with a number of other odds makers, initially shortened the price on Newcastle to win in Sunday lunchtime’s fixture when Ali Faurlin's season came to an abrupt end last week, he truly has been a revelation over past year. Without knowing if we will bring in any new players prior to the match - as it stands - our midfield will look very sub Premiership standard at the weekend.
This however is balanced by the fact that Newcastle are undoubtedly missing their best two players so far this season to the African Nations. I am a massive fan of Cheick Tiote and would love to see a player with such energy and poise on the ball in the blue and white hoops. As for Demba Ba, his record and recent performances - most notably against Man Utd - speak for themselves. These two are a huge loss for the Magpies and although Rangers lose a recently revived Taarabt and also Traore who has had his moments this season, the weakening due to the African showpiece definitely will affect Newcastle more in my opinion and this could explain a little move back in the market for QPR in last couple of days. Had Ale Faurlin and Joey Barton both been available, I definitely would have fancied an upset here, but as our squad sits at time of writing, I am avoiding getting involved in match prices due to the possibility of late signings.
I do however think this will be a feisty affair and with Chris Foy refereeing, there is always a likelihood of a red card. He has handed out nine in his 18 games so far this season and with the ridiculous nature of the 'two-footed' tackle doing the rounds at the moment, there is every chance he could reach double figures this week. I certainly think the 9/2 offered by Victor Chandler on there being a red card is too big and therefore that is my recommended bet of the weekend. And having mentioned the Cup of Nations, for those who wish to have an interest in African affair could do a lot worse than back Senegal at 8/1 on Betfair to win the tournament.
Bet of Weekend - Red Card in Newcastle v QPR game - 9/2 Victor Chandler.
Also Recommended - Senegal to Win African Nations 2012 - 8/1 Betfair.
Prediction: Mark Hughes has a good record on this ground as a manager but he’ll have all on maintaining that this weekend with QPR missing too many key players to really stand much of a chance. Nevertheless I expect an improved showing, and certainly an increase in commitment levels compared to what we saw last week at MK Dons. I expect Hughes to have us organised, tight and difficult to beat and without Ba I wonder if Newcastle will break us down if we get that right.
0-0 draw, best price 11/1 with Sporting Bet
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