x

Will Caceres Finally Make His First Team Debut At Spurs

Saints are now scoring goals but contrastingly are leaking them at the other end, will Martin Caceres be the answer.

It cannot be denied that Yoshida and Jack Stephens hve put in the proverbial 110% effort in recent weeks, but the stark reality is that effort alone is not good enough at this level of football and that has showed in the number of goals that Saints have leaked since they came together after the injury to Virgil Van Dijk.

Taking away cup games they have been the central defensive partnership in 4 full Premier League games and in those matches 6 goals have been conceded, most of which could have been avoided, add the 3 at Wembley and it has not been as watertight as Claude Puel would have liked, especially as all 4 of those Premier games were against opposition below us in the table.

On Sunday however we now come up against Tottenham Hotspur, a team with the best home record in the division, the joint tightest defence and one of the highest scoring teams overall, it is going to be an uphill task.

The good news is that Everton showed a week or so ago that they are not impenetrable and now without Harry Kane they will be missing their top scorer, but that will not be enough.

We have to tighten up at the back and cut out the lapses in concentration that have cost us dearly in recent weeks.

So will Sunday be the right game to bring in short term signing Martin Caceres, he has been in full training for a month now and has got some games under his belt in the U23 league, if he is not ready now then he will never be.

However the question for Claude Puel is whether the free scoring Spurs side is the time to give him his debut ?

I would say it is, if only for the fact that his undoubted quality and experience will trump the lapses of concentration we are suffering at the back.

We have to do something different in the back four or we will get the same results and that means leaked goals and trying to outscore Spurs is a lot different from outscoring Watford.

So my opinion is that we need to bring Caceres in for this game, fitness wise should not be a problem and his experience and quality will make up for a lack of match sharpness, we signed him for a reason, a very good reason and if we are not going to play him, what was the point in doing so.

What to read next:

Best case, worst case – Preview
QPR tasted the relief and joy of victory for the first time in three months and 13 games, but is that Cardiff win the first step on the road to recovery or just brief respite? We’ll find out more tomorrow lunchtime at the scene of one of our biggest horrors of 23/24.
Has Cleverley finally cracked the Watford managerial code? – Oppo Profile
Watford, fancied by many for a relegation struggle, are pushing into the early play-off picture, and even more remarkably still have a manager seemingly secure and popular in the division's hottest seat – Richard Segal and Cam from the Voices of the Vic Podcast gave us the latest.
Taarabt and Smith make QPR champions (for a week at least) - History
Ahead of Saturday’s trip to Watford we look back to the very end of the 2010/11 season when Neil Warnock’s R’s sealed the Championship title at Vicarage Road.
Kitchen in charge of Watford trip - Referee
Durham-based referee Andrew Kitchen is the man in charge of Saturday’s televised trip to Watford.
Celarbrace drags QPR’s team, fans and striker back from the brink – Report
QPR finally got their first win in 14 attempts, and Zan Celar his first goals for the club in his 20th appearance, as the R’s won 2-0 at Cardiff on Wednesday night.
Cardiff City 0 - 2 Queens Park Rangers - Player Ratings and Reports
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.
Desperate QPR travel in hope once more - Preview
QPR could be six points adrift in the relegation zone tonight if they can't somehow find a way to snap a 13-match winless run with a victory at Cardiff City.
Cardiff trying to recover from nightmare start - Oppo Profile
Cardiff made their worst ever start to a league season with just one point from the first seven games leading to a managerial change, but have managed to crawl out of the bottom three under caretaker Omer Riza - Phil Bushby (@bushby_p) gives us the latest.
Ray Jones' last minute winner downs Cardiff - History
Back to 2006 in History ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Cardiff City, as we look back to Ray Jones' last minute televised winner at Ninian Park for John Gregory's struggling QPR side.
Martin in charge of Cardiff trip - Referee
Steve Martin is the referee in the middle on Wednesday as QPR head to South Wales to play Cardiff.