Hopes that QPR’s fine recent performances against the division’s leading lights may lead to points being posted in so-called easier fixtures suffered a blow at Newcastle on Saturday.
QPR will find little use in playing out of their skins in the games they’re highly unlikely to win regardless, if they then regress to this kind of level in the ones that they might.
A fortnight ago against reigning champions Manchester City, Rangers looked fantastic. They’d have been good value for a win and richly deserved the point they took from a 2-2 draw. It seemed a corner had been turned ahead of a couple of months of kinder fixtures. Maintain that level and the R’s would soon climb away from the drop zone — so the theory goes.
At Newcastle on Saturday eight of the outfield players from the City game took to the field again and every single one of them turned in a worse performance than he had a fortnight ago. Every one of them. QPR’s season will not be dictated and decided by their results against Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool. It’s the results in the kind of fixtures they have coming up over the next six weeks that will ultimately seal their fate one way or the other and this insipid effort didn’t bode well.
It’s hard to say which was more frustrating — the 2-0 defeat at West Ham a month ago where QPR simply weren’t at the races at all and you couldn’t help but conclude they wouldn’t be good enough to stay in the division, or this one at St James’ Park now we actually know that there is a good QPR team here when it puts its mind to it.
And perhaps that ‘mind’ element is the most important here, because QPR have now lost all eight league and cup games they’ve played on the road this season, scoring only two goals in the process and conceding 16.
Expand that record back to last Christmas, and include the 15 away matches they played in the second half of last season, and they’ve won just four of 22, drawing another two, losing 16, scoring 14 goals and conceding 38 — most of that in a division where they spent at least 10 times more than all but two of the other sides. Harry Redknapp’s Premier League away record since arriving at Loftus Road two years ago is played 18, won two, drawn four and lost 12, scoring just 13 and conceding 33. His overall away record at the club is played 45, won 12, drawn 10 and lost 23 and, again, more than half of those games were in the league below.
Redknapp, and QPR, often look beaten before they’ve even set out on the pitch in away games, and on Saturday that was particularly frustrating.
Newcastle are obviously a half decent side. Even when they were struggling at the start of the season they weren’t losing at home — just one defeat at St James’ Park so far this season and a win against Liverpool here last time out — and this was their sixth straight victory in all competitions, lifting them briefly to fourth. They’ve discovered a way of playing that suits their - mostly fleet of foot, lightweight and foreign — squad that allows them to counter attack at speed into space created by inviting opponents onto them, with the muscular presence of this game’s outstanding player and winning goalscorer Moussa Sissoko between the midfield and attack. They look decent, but they’re certainly not infallible.
In fact, the home team were beset by injuries before and during the game. They were missing both first choice centre halves, including influential skipper Fabricio Coloccini, and were forced to field Mike Williamson, who’s no more a Premier League centre half than I am, and full back Paul Dummett at the heart of the defence. With Charlie Austin in form and Bobby Zamora’s influence growing by the week QPR must have fancied their chances of targeting them there, but it never quite happened.
Austin got into space in the right channel after 12 minutes but found nobody in support when he looked up so dragged an ambitious attempt across the goal. Leroy Fer burst into the penalty box on a counter attack but was maneuvered off the ball by Mike Williamson — only a penalty if the referee is Mike Jones and the man on the floor is Eden Hazard. On this occasion, Chris Foy rightly waved it away. The official erred a short time later though when Zamora finally rolled Williamson on the edge of the area only to be pulled to the ground and have the free kick awarded against him. That, and a weak Richard Dunne header from a late Joey Barton corner that keeper Tim Krul palmed harmlessly over the bar was the sum-total of the QPR threat against a side missing its two centre halves.
Not only that, but Mehdi Abeid, who’d protected the Newcastle back four in such an accomplished manner during their 2-0 win at West Brom before the international break, freeing Jack Colback to have his best game since a summer switch from Sunderland, was also out. Newcastle had to use Ryan Taylor, conventionally a full back and out of the game through injury for two years prior to this first start, as a holding midfield player. He was at the heart of everything the home team did well for half an hour, twice forcing saves from Rob Green from the edge of the area — one when a corner was spread out to him, and another on a swift counter where he should have scored. Tragically he left the field in tears with another knee injury before half time, to applause from both sets of supporters. Mercifully, a post-match scan revealed no lasting damage, but there’s a definite ‘when rather than if’ air around him at the moment which our own Ale Faurlin could sympathise with.
But despite Abeid’s absence, and the reshuffle caused by Taylor’s withdrawal and Yohann Gouffran’s introduction, QPR lost the midfield battle comprehensively. Harry Redknapp will point with some justification to the absence of Chilean winger Eduardo Vargas owing to the birth of his daughter on Friday — where’s Trevor Francis when you need him? — and the lack of energy, pace and pugnacious attacking threat he brings to the table was immediately obvious. But whether that really justified selecting two of a flat midfield four out of position in a very basic, ineffective, 4-4-2 set up is up for debate.
Redknapp started with Leroy Fer on the left wing where he turned in his worst performance for the club since a summer move from Norwich. Joey Barton, making his first competitive return to St James’ Park since a 2011 departure, started wide on the right and although the first ten minutes of charging around, snapping into tackles and setting a high tempo boded well, Barton soon regressed to a typically ineffective performance littered with Hollywood passes straight into touch or to Newcastle players and poorly taken set pieces. His insistence on placing the ball just outside the quadrant for every corner, seemingly for little more than devilment on a pristine playing surface like this, winding up opposition fans, wasting time, and drawing the referee’s attention, before planting the ball squarely on the head of the defender at the near post is particularly piss boiling. That beaten only by a ridiculous 45 yard miracle ball straight into touch 15 yards away from the nearest QPR player when, deep into five minutes of added time, Rangers had loaded the penalty area to set up for a final push for an equaliser. If only he was half as good as he thinks he is.
Both Barton and Fer have played better for QPR in a narrower 4-3-3 set up. Fer was man of the match against Sunderland earlier this campaign in a number ten role behind the strikers but hasn’t been picked there since. He’s certainly no kind of left winger on this evidence. Even when Niko Kranjcar was introduced after an hour, adding much needed quality on the ball and purpose to the passing, he was shoe-horned into a winger’s role. Harry Redknapp has been a manager for 30 years and I’m a no-nothing gobshite, but it was difficult to see why Rangers persisted with a set up that obviously wasn’t really working. The lack of tempo, belief and snap in the QPR play was the biggest problem, but the shape of the team dented their hopes further.
You sensed it would be that sort of day when, after four minutes, Yun Suk-Young left a pass back to Steven Caulker slightly short, and he in turn did likewise to Robert Green who then lazily tried to punt it away down the centre of the field regardless and was lucky that it bounced wide after striking Jack Colback who’d closed him down. Cabella shot straight at Green after a decent short corner move with the time in single figures and the keeper then palmed over the first of Taylor’s two efforts. Taylor’s second came from a poor pass by Suk-Young, another who regressed alarmingly from the level he set a fortnight ago, albeit with a week of international air travel by way of mitigation. Sandro survived a similar penalty appeal to the Fer incident and Richard Dunne diverted a low Ameobi cross fractionally wide of his own goal after Cabella’s shot had deflected into the path of his team mate. Newcastle weren’t great, but their dominance of the midfield, aided by the QPR set up and led by Sissoko, meant Rangers frequently struggled to clear their lines for long periods of time.
Redknapp selected Nedum Onuoha at right back instead of Mauricio Isla after his travels with Chile, and his dreadful distribution showed once again why he should probably be considered at centre half or not at all. Richard Dunne picked up a fifth yellow card of the season for a necessary tactical foul on Ayoze Perex midway through the second half paving the way for Onuoha to move infield next to Steven Caulker for next week’s crucial visit of Leicester. Oh, but then Rio Ferdinand is available again next week, so, you know…
Taylor struck a free kick into the wall before he went off, full back Darryl Janmaat ventured forward and volleyed wide just before half time, and then immediately after the break Suk-Young had to get back and make a goal-saving tackle after Caulker and Sandro had gone for the same ball and allowed Perez into the area.
Sandro must have been a bit paranoid that his new team mates don’t really like him by the end of this game because he, once again, failed to complete 90 minutes after being accidentally taken out by Suk-Young on the hour. Redknapp sent on Kranjcar, which improved things, but kept the same system and simply moved Barton in field, which did not.
Barton produced a fantastic block tackle in the area to stop Newcastle taking the lead five minutes into the second half, and had Charlie Austin then connected properly with a dropping ball at the back post which he attempted to volley first time then a famous victory could have been on the cards. Newcastle were by no means totally dominant, and the game could quite possibly have ended 1-0 to the visitors on another day, but there was always the feeling that QPR weren’t quite there and a 1-0 home win was much more likely.
Green rushed out to the edge of his area to make a fine one on one save from Perez as Newcastle counter-attacked again — Barton’s honesty, staying on his feet when a fall would certainly have brought a free kick, not rewarded by Chris Foy who waved play on allowing that attack to develop. If we want players to stop diving, we have to be willing to award free kicks when fouls are committed but they stay on their feet. Green then charged way out of his area with a well-made, brave, quick decision and reached a through ball before Ameobi to prevent an opening goal. He had nervy, fumbling moments, but was probably QPR’s best player, which unfortunately tells you a lot.
The inevitable goal came 12 minutes from time. Sissoko unloading a powerful shot from 15 yards out, curling the ball through Karl Henry’s legs and round Green into the corner after being played in by Sammy Ameobi. QPR have now lost their last three trips to this ground 1-0, in almost identical circumstances — limp, sluggish performances, goal conceded about ten minutes from the end.
When you look around St James’ Park and compare it to Loftus Road it’s hard to imagine these two clubs are in the same division. One wonders whether there’s something of an inferiority complex for QPR players coming here, added to this lamentable attitude Redknapp and his players currently seem to have about away games being some sort of "bonus” in which they can only ever hope to hold their own and avoid a thrashing, rather than going all out to try and win. They won’t survive losing all 19 away games, they’ve got to show more ability and ambition than this.
The conviction wasn’t there, and this mostly turgid encounter will slip off into the deepest memory recess of everybody who was there along with similar recent classics like the 0-0 draw at Watford where QPR played with no strikers, or the 4-0 defeats at Spurs and Man Utd where they didn’t turn up at all, or that loss to ten men at Bournemouth, or that one at Blackburn where Luke Young played centre half, or that one at Charlton where Aaron Hughes played right wing back…
Afterwards Redknapp said QPR "lacked quality” but he "couldn’t see Newcastle scoring”. As if that’s the point. What about QPR looking like scoring? And there was certainly no lack of quality in the QPR team against Manchester City and Chelsea. Fact is, had QPR played as they did a fortnight ago they’d have won here, and had they gone about their work as they did at Stamford Bridge they certainly wouldn’t have lost.
Bitterly, bitterly disappointing to see all the recent improvements slip silently away to a shrug and a mumbled excuse about the Chileans being absent.
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Newcastle: Krul 6; Janmaart 6, Williamson 6, Dummett 6, Haidara 6; Colback 6, Taylor 7 (Gouffran 34, 6); Ameobi 6, Sissoko 8, Cabella 6 (Cisse 68, 6); Perez 6 (Armstrong 89, -)
Subs not used: Anita, Ferrerya, Elliott, Streete
Goals: Sissoko 78 (assisted Ameobi)
Bookings: Sissoko 57 (foul), Armstrong 90+3 (time wasting)
QPR: Green 7; Onuoha 5, Dunne 6, Caulker 6, Suk-Young 5; Fer 5, Henry 6 (Hoilett 82, -), Sandro 6 (Kranjcar 61, 7), Barton 5; Zamora 5, Austin 5
Subs not used: Traore, Phillips, McCarthy, Isla, Mutch
Bookings: Onuoha 40 (foul) Dunne 72 (foul), Zamora 89 (foul)
QPR Star Man — Rob Green 7 Couple of nervy moments where he fumbled routine saves, and blasted a bad back pass against Colback, but two very fine pieces of keeping in the second half to deny first Perez and then Ameobi makes him the best of a terribly mediocre bunch. Niko Kranjcar improved things when he came on.
Referee — Chris Foy (St Helens) 7 Not too bad, and both the big penalty appeals were rightly waved away. I thought he was very harsh on Bobby Zamora all game — penalising the striker when he looked to have been sinned against on the edge of the Newcastle box in the first half, then calling Joey Barton across to talk about repetitive fouling when it was difficult to remember Zamora being penalised more than twice. Jack Colback committed a particularly poor tackle on Charlie Austin in the second half with no yellow card as well. Overall though, reasonable.
Attendance — 51,915 (1,600 QPR approx) The numbers following these two teams remain remarkable, given their respective performances, but the giant St James’ Park crowd is certainly in a "entertain us, then we’ll sing” mode at the moment, and the place was very quiet until the goal. It’s an odd situation for them, dead set against both chairman and manager but suddenly on a six game winning streak. A strange atmosphere all in all. Tremendous support from West London given the distance, expense, form and notorious position of the away end here.
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