QPR face a long trip north to Sunderland today as Harry Redknapp attempts to do in his first match in charge what Mark Hughes failed to achieve in 11 months – win an away game.
Premier League >>> Tuesday November 27, 2012 >>> Kick off 7.45pm >>> Stadium of Light, Sunderland
As part of my day job one week each November is spent in Amsterdam watching the documentaries you’ll all be seeing and reading about in the press in six to 12 months time and talking to the people behind them. It is, for somebody like me, an absolute highlight of the year. Last year I was privileged to be present for an early screening of The Four Year Plan which laid QPR bare in all its farcical glory.
There was a football theme to this year’s trip as well because having noticed that Ajax had a Champions League game that coincided with my trip I set about securing a ticket for their game with Borussia Dortmund through Viagogo which, if you were wondering, is awful.
Having spent €130 to secure my €35 ticket – which included some €40 for the postage – I sat and waited for the best part of six weeks for it to actually be delivered. “Don’t worry,” said Viagogo via e-mail, “we guarantee that you will have your ticket in time for your event.”
As part of the guarantee they said that tickets are often sent out less than five days before the match is due to take place and therefore if I was travelling within that time period I should be sure to inform Viagogo of my arrangements and which hotels I would be staying at so my ticket could be sent there instead. ‘What fantastic service’ I thought, and duly entered both my work address, and that of me hotel in Amsterdam, with the dates I’d be at both locations, so I’d be sure to get my ticket. I even e-mailed their customer service team a week before the match to clarify my arrangements, as I was getting nervous about not receiving the ticket so long after shelling out for it.
Viagogo said they would try to respond to my message within three working days. Four working days later my tickets were dispatched to the wrong address. Shortly after they’d been sent, customer services e-mailed me back to apologise for completely ignoring my change of address notice, and subsequent e-mail, but to “remind me” (which actually meant tell me for the first time) that if I wasn’t at the address I told them I wouldn’t be at to sign for the tickets they would be returned to Viagogo. If there then wasn’t enough time to get them to me I would not receive them, however as they’d made one attempt to deliver them to me at an address I’d told them I wouldn’t be at their “guarantee” to have the tickets with me before matchday was not valid and I would not be entitled to a refund.
| “Tell us what you think of our service” invited an e-mail several days after the match, which I was able to attend because I found out that UPS were delivering my ticket and was therefore able to speak to people who do know a thing or two about delivery logistics and arrange to collect my ticket in person from their depot in Kentish Town. Man did I tell them what I thought of their service. Useless pricks. Avoid.
And so there I sat, in the Amsterdam Arena, watching Borussia Dortmund deliver the most complete, faultless tactical display I think I’ve ever seen. They demolished an Ajax side that had been too good for Man City’s billion pound team in previous weeks 4-1 on their own turf. I looked at Ajax, and at Dortmund, and I looked around at the magnificent surroundings, and I thought back four days to QPR’s home defeat against Southampton, and I struggled to even believe it was the same sport.
It’s perhaps easy to see why players like Esteban Granero, Juio Cesar, Ji-Sung Park, Jose Bosingwa, Shaun Wright-Phillips and others who are used to playing in games like that, in stadiums like that, may have found the idea of fighting tooth and nail for every loose ball and every spare point at a club like QPR a bit of a culture shock. They’re used to free flowing, winning football played between excellent teams - not putting their bodies on the line to try and get a point from an away match at Reading. They’re used to playing at about 70% for 80 minutes, upping it briefly for a quick ten minute burst, and that being enough to win the game at a canter – as we saw Man Utd do to QPR at the weekend.
But I had another thought on the train back into town after the match. I was surrounded by Ajax fans glumly dissecting the game, and a defeat which meant their Champions League campaign was over for another year. They looked much like the QPR fans I see on the Hammersmith and City Line after each Rangers home game, all struggling with the realisation that the game they’d been looking forward to all week had been a disaster, and another five days of monotonous day job lay ahead before they could come back and try again.
The big name players Mark Hughes brought in from big name clubs in some misguided attempt to lift QPR into the upper echelons of the Premier League have given the impression that they see our club as being a bit beneath them. The attitude both the players and Mark Hughes portrayed to the public – rightly or wrongly – is that they have won pretty much everything there is to win, they’ve done what they want to do, and we should be grateful to have them here at little old QPR. Players as talented as Jose Bosingwa and Bobby Zamora should be personally embarrassed that players like Shaun Derry and Jamie Mackie showed them up at Old Trafford on Saturday despite having a fraction of the ability, simply by having a better attitude to their work.
No, QPR may not be Ajax, or Dortmund, or Chelsea, or Manchester United; no, QPR may not be competing for trophies and Champions League places; and no, Loftus Road isn’t going to be hosting any World Cup fixtures any time soon; but QPR have a lot to be proud about, and playing for them should be a privilege, not some way of topping up an already swollen pension fund.
Three days after my Amsterdam experience I stood on the platform, in the rain, waiting for a tram back from Old Trafford to the city centre after the latest R’s defeat. The Manchester United “supporter” in front of me used the down time to call his father and although I only caught one end of the conversation, it was enough: “Hi dad. Yeh, great game, United were wicked in the second half. No, I got my ticket from Simon at work. No, he’s got a season ticket behind the goal. Well he doesn’t use it so much these days, he’s more of a Man City fan at the moment.”
Tonight, weather permitting, Harry Redknapp will send his first QPR side out onto the field for a difficult but winnable and vitally important match at Sunderland. As they emerge onto the sodden turf any Rangers player that cares to glance off to their left, and look up into the murky night sky, will see a block of probably no more than 500 people who will all have taken at least one day off work and spent at least £100 to travel the length of the country and support a team that has given them nothing – nothing – to get excited about this season and which all previous evidence would suggest is going to lose this game with little resistance.
Redknapp needs points quickly, and he’ll get them by discovering which players in his current squad will look up to that tiny little band of brothers and feel inspired to do everything they possibly can to deliver what they want more than anything else in the world at that moment. Sadly, Mark Hughes inflicted rather too many players on QPR who will look at our tiny away support on Tuesday and hark back to days when they used to play in front of thousands of people in United or Chelsea shirts.
What Redknapp and QPR need is a team of players who think, as I do, that Simon from work is a prick.
If Redknapp can find 11 so-minded players, then I don’t care that Rangers only have four points from 13 matches, he’ll keep them up.
Links >>> Opposition Profile >>> History >>> Referee >>> Travel Guide
Team News: Harry Redknapp, in a terribly well PR’d press conference on Monday morning, very deliberately said the exact opposite of Mark Hughes when asked about his starting 11. Mark Bowen had recently told the Open All R’s Podcast that, despite bringing in 16 new players, Hughes and his staff weren’t sure of their best 11, and that if they could pick 12 players Ale Faurlin would be in every time. Fans, rightly, were amazed and outraged by these admissions, and Redknapp had clearly been tipped the wink prior to meeting the media yesterday morning because he very quickly said he already had a team in mind for this game after just a day on the job. Hughes also said that despite QPR’s problems he wasn’t “losing any sleep” while Redknapp went out of his way to stress that every defeat would affect him personally and “knock him for six.” Gold star to the press officers, excellent work.
What players are included in Redknapp’s chosen 11 remains to be seen. Armand Traore was forced off early at Old Trafford and two games in four days may be too much for Kieron Dyer to stand. Jose Bosingwa should have recovered from a virus if Redknapp is stupid enough to pick him but Bobby Zamora and Andy Johnson are long term absentees. Fabio Da Silva is fit and free of loan restrictions so could easily replace Traore if needed. Ji-Sung Park is also fit and ready to go after a prolonged absence.
As well as a damaging 4-2 home defeat by West Brom at the weekend Sunderland picked up a couple of crucial injuries. Lee Cattermole opened his knee joint up attempting a cross with his weaker foot, and John O’Shea injured a calf muscle, so neither will feature in this fixture.
Elsewhere: A full midweek programme begins with two relegation six pointers on Tuesday evening. While QPR are at Sunderland, two fellow strugglers Aston Villa and Reading meet at Villa Park. That’s good news for Southampton, who have climbed clear of the bottom three with two straight wins and must be confident of notching a third from a home game with Norwich on Wednesday. Stoke have struggled to register wins but seem to be catching Newcastle at a good time, while Wigan host Man City.
Up at the top end Man Utd host West Ham while Chelsea must overcome the anti-Benitez sentiment at Stamford Bridge to secure maximum points from a West London derby with Fulham. Everton v Arsenal has an attractive look about it while in form West Brom could easily continue their push for European football with a result from a trip to Swansea.
Referee: Andre Marriner, one of the league’s top officials, is the man in the middle of this crucial game for both teams. He was last in charge of a QPR game when the R’s met Chelsea earlier this season and despite being given that and several other high profile matches this season he is yet to send a player off in 11 outings. Famous last words. Click here for a full case file.
Sunderland: The Mackems have only won twice all season, and on both occasions (Wigan H, Fulham A) the victories came after the opposition had been reduced to ten men. Prior to that ther last win was against QPR here in March, and on that day the R’s had Djibril Cisse sent off as well. That was Sunderland’s eleventh win under Martin O’Neill in 21 matches, but they’ve only won two of 21 league games since. Prior to last week’s win at Fulham they’d registered just 58 shots on goal, and a measly 15 on target, in ten matches which was the worst record in Europe but the ten they managed on target in defeat to West Brom on Saturday was more than anybody else in the league at the weekend. Stephen Fletcher scored four goals from his first four shots of the season.
QPR: The head to head record between the two managers should warm a few QPR hearts ahead of this one. Martin O’Neill has beaten Harry Redknapp just once in 19 attempts in his career, back in 1997 when his Leicester side beat West Ham. Harry has won 11 and there have been seven draws. Rangers fans making the long journey north will want to clutch at anything really because it’s now more than a year since their last away win – 20 matches. Mark Hughes lost 12 and drew two of his 14 road games in charge, Rangers have lost the last six away games and conceded at least once in all of the last 23. The R’s have now officially made the worst ever start to a Premier League season with just four points taken from the first 13 matches.
Betting: Professional odds compiler Owen Goulding says…
“Harry Redknapp’s QPR travel to Sunderland on the back of a decent performance against the league leaders. So much has been said about Rangers since the appointment on Saturday so I'm not going to expand on things but I do look at both teams and QPR look stronger on paper. However, yet again on Saturday we conceded sloppy goals from set pieces and I'm struggling to see us keeping a clean sheet at the moment until some business can be done in January. Add the fact we will have to be a little more adventurous in the quest for much needed points and I’m struggling to predict anything in this game with any real confidence but I suggest a bet on QPR to win but not keep a clean sheet- currently 13/2 with Corals. One thing I can predict for certain is It's going to be a long journey home if we don't start the hopeful revival tomorrow.”
Prediction: Reigning Prediction League champion Nathan McAllister says…
“ If ever there was a team in need of a bit of new manager bounce, it’s QPR. Saturday’s performance was a massive improvement on what had gone before, but it was essentially a waste of a performance. Where was that spirit and quality when they really needed it in the three winnable games prior to that?　
“Well as Rangers played, the fact remains that they are now seven points away from safety, and if they don’t start getting results fast that gap will become nigh on unbridgeable. It’s not just a win that Rangers need, it’s a series of them, and the next six games – none of them easy but all of them winnable – will go a long way to determining whether they have a fighting chance of staying up and avoiding the financial catastrophe that relegation will inevitably be.
“As we all know, it’s now over a year since Rangers last away win, but there seem few better chances of one than tonight’s game at Sunderland, a team who – surprisingly in my opinion, considering their manager – have struggled so far this season, winning just two of their 12 matches and just one of their five home games. That said, I’m always wary of playing under-achieving teams on a bad run, the general remedy for which seems to be having QPR up next on the fixture list. Sunderland will no doubt see this game as a massive opportunity to get their season back on track. “This is a tough one to call. If Sunderland play as badly as they did against West Brom on Saturday, Rangers have a really good chance of getting something, and I would be surprised if we don’t see the same level of commitment from the team that they showed at Old Trafford as they look to impress the new manager. But Rangers are no West Brom, and I fully expect Sunderland to improve.”
Prediction: Sunderland 1 QPR 1
Scorer: Cisse
Tweet @loftforwords
Pictures – Action Images