Problems right left and centre - knee jerks

Antti Heinola looks back at six key talking points from QPR's surrender to Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

What a goal

Hey, just because I'm resigned to us going down (and have been for some time), doesn't mean I'm not generally an optimistic person with a cheerful disposition who prefers to look on the bright side of things. It's all downhill after this one, so let's at least start from a happy place.

I think we all know Matt Phillips has two particularly good skills: a cross with so much whip it should arrive on Charlie Austin's bonce with a 99 Flake attached, and a shot so hard saving it would be like trying to stop that bowling ball thrown by the kid in Superman 3 after Clarke Kent gives it a helping hand with his super-breath (bit of a laboured metaphor, you think?). And this was a demo of the latter. A pearler. A ripper. A stunner. A blooter, if you're of the persuasion of people who think 'blooter' is a viable word.

I've seen a few QPR classics down the years: Sir Les at home v Man Utd; Tricky v Barnsley; Ainsworth's double helping of phenomenal strikes v Rushden (yeah, I was actually there unlike most of you chancers who only claim to have been there); Furs at Sunderland; all of Langley's beauties against poor Blackpool; Bardsley v Southampton; Adel v Swansea, Scunthorpe, Cardiff (all of them), Arsenal and Fulham. You get the point. My low angle at the ground was a bit rubbish today, but even that couldn't take away from our goal of the season - no, our goal of the century so far. OK, Ainsworth's just beats it because it was a volley. Still, our second best goal since Sinclair's is something to be happy about. And on Matty's birthday too. Lovely.

The right side

Palace are well known to have pace in abundance, an ability to attack quickly, and with their main threats coming down the wings where Zaha and Bolasie are particularly dangerous. Bolasie has impressed me every time I've seen him play - like Charlie he's fought his way up the leagues and he shares Austin's great attitude. He's also skinned much, much more experienced and better players than poor Darnell as well, so I'm not going to rip into him. He tried his best, but he was out-classed. The question is, and this one is not even one you can put down to 'hindsight is 20/20' , because everyone was pointing it out, what was behind the decision of playing Furlong and giving him Shaun Wright-Phillips as cover against Palace's most dangerous player?

Because as much as Darnell was ripped apart, he was also offered no cover at all, not by the centre backs and particularly not by the lamentable SWP. Mauricio Isla was injured again, but surely if we haven't got a player to play on the right to help out Furlong, then you have to bite the bullet and play Clint and push Onuoha to right back - at least he won't get bullied and I've seen him completely nullify Bale in the past. I applaud the faith in youth, but this was hanging Furlong out to dry with a tornado approaching.

My good friend Blob has said recently that risking youngsters in big games against big teams can ruin them. I'm not sure that's true. Players who are going to make it should bounce back from almost any setback, but today probably did hurt Darnell. Let's hope he can recover.

Ramsey had very few options today, but the whole back nine looked woefully unprepared for Palace's attacking pace.

The left side

This is going to be a slight repeat of my last knee jerks and possibly the ones before that, but a word on Matty Phillips. Huge credit to Ramsey for turning him into a valuable first teamer, with assists and now goals in almost every game, but this man needs to be on the right. He has to be on the right. His biggest strength is crossing and to do that he needs to be on the right. He's just not as effective on the left. I will say he worked harder than probably anyone today and his attitude was spot on, but he, like Yun, who was battered down the left as badly as Furlong was down the right, couldn't handle Zaha, or didn't know how to. But at least Phillips kept going and never dropped his head.

Poor Yun. Took one right in the knackers and spent most of the first half getting dizzy watching Zaha take the piss. A day to forget - but at least he has some credit after good games v Arsenal and Spurs.

The middle

I like Karl Henry, he's proved me wrong this season and I do like a player who can make me look a fool. But here he was awful. Bad passing, wrong decisions, slow decisions. Even the ref didn't like him - booking him unfairly for a challenge he could do little about. And Sandro next to him was almost as bad. Yes, he made the odd good challenge, but he's so far off full fitness it's not even funny. Even without Mile Jedinak, Palace bossed our midfield.

But the two of them together, not that Ramsey has any choice in the matter, are death, really, because neither show for the ball, neither really get forward or present any danger going forward, neither have any pace and neither have much perceptiveness when passing. Both of them need, at the very least, a Barton next to them, sadly.

Adel Taarabt

You can, if you like, rate a team's victory out of 140 by adding up fairly meaningless and reasonably arbitrary marks out of ten for the 14 players who tread the turf. So, a good performance will see an average of seven coming in at around 98 or 100. An exceptional performance might, if you're lucky, tip towards 110 or more. Today, I think it's fair to say our combined total might struggle to make 50, and while it means little to say I might be the fifth best cricketer in Serbia, let's still acknowledge that Taarabt was at least a solid (very solid, ha ha) 6/10.

Kept possession well. Importantly, he showed for the ball at all times and seemed to last the 90 reasonably comfortably. While not three stone overweight, though, he's clearly not in the shape he was in his pomp. While he never had a burst of speed exactly, even that little thrust he once had to accelerate after a decent trick is not really there now, so his danger has been greatly reduced. Maybe with a number of games that might come back - but there won't be time for it this season. Decent performance, would be nice to see if he could find a partnership with Austin.

Is Ramsey the Man?

He's had a kicking on the forums of course and unless a miracle happens he won't be in charge next season. But still, I find it hard to judge him on what we've seen so far, particularly because his options in almost every game since he took over have been, to put it mildly, extremely limited.

Had Leroy Fer not got injured, had Barton not been sent off, I suspect we'd have perhaps four more points in the bag now. Might Tim Sherwood have done better? It feels that way after today's results - it's two wins and two losses in the league for Tim. One win that had the kind of luck we would have loved v Spurs or Hull, and one away at Sunderland, which, as we proved, barely counts. Plus, Villa have a defensive record reasonably comparable to mid-table teams, whereas ours is miles off.

So my knee jerk here isn't much of a knee jerk - Ramsey has made errors, but he's also done some good things. It's impossible to tell, really, how good a manager he might be, long term, in this awful situation and I can't really believe Sherwood - or almost anyone else - could really be doing much better given the situation. The Fer and Barton losses, in the end, were two too many.

Pictures — Action Images

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