After a surprise win at Watford at the weekend, QPR can really start improving the mood and putting some momentum behind their new manager if they can win two in a row for the first time since January as Hull City come to Loftus Road tonight.
Lancashire and District Senior League >>> Tuesday August 30, 2022 >>> Kick Off 19.45 >>> Weather — Overcast >>> Loftus Road, London, W12
Silly, really, how much better everything feels after a win. Now, imagine how good it might feel after two.
This is not something we’ve experienced for a little while now. Saturday’s victory at Watford was only QPR’s sixth in their last 26 matches. The last time they won two on the spin was mid-January, at Coventry 2-1 and at home to West Brom 1-0. Actually, if you take out the Rotherham FA Cup match, that was part of a sequence of four straight league wins which catapulted us into contention for second place. Sigh.
Since then we’ve won the odd game here and there. The heroic late show with ten men against Blackpool followed swiftly by an insipid load of complete crap at Blackburn that Saturday. The unlikely 2-1 comeback at Luton swiftly forgotten after Chris Willock’s injury at Nottingham Forest and the latest of three nadirs against Peterborough. A 1-0 Easter win against Derby to keep the play-off dream alive… a 1-0 defeat at Stoke painful for everybody present to kill it off once and for all. Think we’re getting somewhere against Middlesbrough, four without a win straight after including home games with Blackpool and Rotherham.
You only go places in this league with consecutive wins really, particularly at this time of year when the table is a bit of a formative nonsense. Look at Norwich, who one point from three games in everybody was asking ‘what’s going on there?’, but now three straight wins later are exactly where most of the season previews suspected they might be. Having got their much needed win at the weekend, the challenge for QPR now is to back up and capitalise on it in the midweek home game.
There were plenty of positives on Saturday to suggest we might be capable of that. When Mick Beale was appointed the Glasgow Rangers fans in particular told us the full backs would be key to his preferred system — tight and compact through the middle of the field, compressing space in front of our own box in particular, and then everything played out through them. Having had to start the season with Kakay and Travelman playing there I guess it’s no surprise it took until Saturday for us to see Paal and Laird flying forwards and influencing things as they did at Vicarage Road, but now I have seen it I liked it a great deal and am hungry for more.
There were some decent performances at the weekend from players who’ve been problem children for the team so far this season. Lyndon Dykes failed to score again, it’s now just one in 20 for him, but that doesn’t necessarily have to matter if he leads the line and provides for others. The physicality, nuisance value and aerial presence we know he can provide was there on Saturday — you don’t need to be in good form, confident, or even particularly good to do that which is why it annoys me so much when he doesn’t even contribute that much. With the talent we’ve got behind him, as long as he is doing as he did on Saturday, I can live with that. Likewise Andre Dozzell — play like that, nobody would have a problem with him. Much more effort and influence on the game, passing and moving beyond the ball, getting himself into the final third, rather than hanging back and admiring stuff. He got stuck in a bit too. One of the club’s big problems for a while now has been committing the contract we did to Stefan Johansen expecting/hoping him to continue the form of his loan spell — Saturday was probably as well as he’s played since that was made permanent, and the midfield as a whole looked better for switching him and Sam Field back around. Beale spent much of the pre-match talking up the club’s prospects of making as many as five signings before this week’s transfer deadline, and Aston Villa’s young midfielder Tim Iroegbunam and striker Cameron Archer continue to be a dream ticket for the Twitterati. If the intention was to put some players on notice who’d been underperforming in those positions, then it certainly worked at Vicarage Road.
There were also problems that could come home to roost tonight against a Hull side that, even with a lengthy injury list, is a world apart from the one we took four points from last season.
The first is the effort expended to get that result against Watford. Against the parachute payment clubs it really feels like QPR have to go absolutely all out, total maximum in every metric, just to be there with them down the home straight with a chance of getting a result. I’d be surprised if Watford have played that poorly yet this season, and we certainly haven’t played that well prior to the game, and yet it was only enough for a single goal lead, preserved two minutes from time by a marginal offside decision. Wins for us in those games feel like giving birth to an oil refinery, goals for the opposition feel like things that happen almost in their sleep. Oh, have we scored? I didn't notice. Fuckers. QPR, as we know, have several players injured, and little strength in depth anyway. Johansen, so key to Saturday, in particular, has struggled with the three game Championship weeks. Chris Willock was outstanding, but is coming back from a horrible injury himself and needs to be preserved because it’s pretty clear our prospects this year hang on his shoulders. Ilias Chair’s workrate was prodigious. Physically are we going to be able to reach those levels again tonight, so soon? I suspect it might take some squad additions, some injured players back, and a few more weeks of season bedding in for us to do so. Ideally you’d want two or three fresh faces, certainly in the midfield and attack, tonight — but bar a potential for Tyler Roberts to come back in, who is there remotely good enough, fit and available?
We were also, even while playing well, and despite Watford being a bit limp, gettable defensively. Dieng had already made one save from Manaj breaking the offside trap before Sema did the same for the equaliser. When it happened a third time Dieng had to sprint out of his area to rescue the situation and nearly got lobbed on the return. The second Watford goal was a shambles, the disallowed equaliser we were very fortunate with. It’s no clean sheets in seven games this season, and only two in our last 26 league and cup games. We’ll have to be much tighter than that tonight, because Oscar Estupinan has seven goals for Hull already this season — in batches of two, two and three across three matches — and I doubt he’ll be as charitable as Minaj and co were three days ago if we’re going to allow that sort of space in behind, and piss about that much with bouncing balls. His hat trick against Coventry at the weekend came from a cumulative distance of about five yards, so tonight is definitely a night for sticking the ball in the stand if there’s any doubt at all, rather than letting things bobble around out penalty box waiting to see, as has been rather too prevalent in our early games and was so again at the weekend.
The Tigers were always going to have a significant uptick this season. The Allam ownership had become a malignant cancer at this club, deliberately dragging it down below where it really should have been performing out of spite with the council for not handing them the publicly-owned stadium the team plays in for a nominal fee so they could develop the land around it and profit. The team is now getting the investment it needed and if there is one number/line you can draw to try and guess who’s going to go where in this division it’s salaries paid. Hull have taken on sizeable payroll this summer and even with quite a few of the new arrivals injured it’s no surprise to see them improving considerably on when Grant McCann was managing here with a hand tied behind his back by his boss. Hull’s new owner responded to our hefty £36 ticket prices by laying on free coach travel, and that combined with the Tigers’ promising start means there’ll be more than 1,000 from Humberside when you’d usually expect a few hundred for the sort of fixture that has no business at all being played during a working week. That all adds to QPR’s task, but Shota Arveladze’s team haven’t been able to mirror their home form on the road as yet — six without a win away — and Estupinan's lightning start rather masks their lack of chance creation so this is still a great chance for Rangers to get that elusive consecutive win and, as Beale said post Watford, "get this thing moving” a bit.
Links >>> Fast starting Tigers — Interview >>> Ray Jones stars — History >>> Great filmography — Referee >>> Official Website >>> Hull Daily Mail — Local Paper >>> The Amber View — Blog >>> Reciprocal interview - Blog >>> Tigerlink — Blog >>> Amber Nectar — Blog and Forum >>> Not606 — Forum >>> Hull City Live — Blog
Team News: After no pre-season it feels like it’s going to be a little wait before we see a debut for 34-year-old free transfer Leon Balogun. Tyler Roberts missed out at the weekend after his latest injury set back saw him ruled out of much of last week’s training, but he might be available for this one. Mick Beale expects up to three new arrivals this week — might be worth getting these rumoured Villa loanees in the bag before Stevie G gets shown the door up there — but none will be done in time for this match which means the team probably won’t look that much different to the one that started at Vicarage Road. Jake Clarke-Salter, Luke Amos and Taylor Richards will all be out until after September’s international break. George Thomas and Macauley Bonne are among those the club are keen to shift this week to work budget room.
City have brought in 14 new players this summer, but as fast as they can get them through the door they’re heading back out the other way injured. Allahyar Sayyadmanesh (Yekshemesh!), who made his loan move from Fenerbahce permanent for £4m in the summer, has been out since the draw at Burnley. Dribbly winger Dogukan (as opposed to a dog who can’t) Sinik is yet to make his debut after a £3.6m move from Antalyaspor. Ozan Tufan, pretty lousy for Watford last season but impressive with two goals from midfield to his name so far here, crocked at West Brom, also now out. Likewise high-profile free transfer from Fulham, Jean Michael Seri, who scored a fortuitous winner on debut against Bristol City but hasn’t played since round two at Preston Knob End. Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand (leave a few names for everyone else mate) has joined on loan from Arsenal, but is also now dead without playing, and fellow teenager Vaughn Covil lasted only 25 minutes of the weekend win against Cov so he won’t travel either. Adama Traore, who signed a two-year deal to become the club’s first signing of the summer, ripped a hamstring off the bone within days of starting pre-season training, and won’t play until after Christmas. It means that of the new arrivals, only Ryan Woods, Oscar Estupinan, Benjamin Tatteh, Tobias Figueiredo and Cyrus Christie are currently able to feature and two of the others are goalkeepers. Throw in Brandon Fleming (boredom), Josh Emmanuel (confusion), Greg Docherty (ball ache) and James Scott (puffer fish poisoning) and it’s quite an absentee list this early into a new season.
Elsewhere: I’m starting to get that Huddersfield feeling again. Have we, for a second season running, tipped a team for relegation that ends up running promotion close instead? Reading, even allowing for a 4-0 nadir at Rotherham, are top of the nascent Lancashire and District Senior League table after their latest surprise win at Millwall at the weekend. Worth pointing out they started with seven wins and a draw the season before last and didn’t even make the play-offs, but certainly looking a lot better than most expected so far. Big test this midweek with Sheffield Red Stripe away — a much sounder tip of ours by the looks of their early results.
Likewise Norwich, who have recovered from their own poor start to stick three wins on the board ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Birmingham. I’m not sure anybody expected Rotherham to by flying high in fifth either ahead of their Wednesday trip to Sunderland, reeling after Alex Neil’s shock departure last week and not displaying a lot of joined up thinking over potential replacements with Tony Mowbray and Liam Manning the early favourites. Burnley showed their teeth at Wigan at the weekend and are now the division’s top scorers ahead of a midweek homer against Millwall. Only Bristol City can match their 11 goals scored so far, but yet another injury time goal conceded at Blackpool at the weekend (two already this season to go with 13 last) keeps hamstringing the Robins prior to a homer against Huddersfield.
Among the early strugglers, a few sides we thought would do considerably better. Our tip for the title, Boro, finally got a first win on the board at the weekend at home to Swanselona, whose strikers we thought would be enough to override Russel Martin’s over the top idealism. Boro now go to Watford, while the Swans are at Stoke for Neil’s first game in charge with the knives now very much out for their manager. Coventry we felt might be a dark horse this season, but a disastrous start on and off the field has now been compounded with the oddly cheap sale of Dom Hyam to Blackburn for £2.5m — he starts life with Rovers away at Blackpool, while Coventry are drawing 0-0 at home to Preston Knob End who are yet to concede a goal but have also only scored once.
Referee: Steve Martin co-wrote and starred in the 1986 comedy western movie Three Amigos, directed by John Landis. Details.
QPR: If we’re looking for clues as to how Mick Beale’s QPR might look, feel and do this season then the early form has offered precious few clues. Rangers have one won, drawn one and lost one at home, won one, drawn one and lost one away, scored nine times, and conceded nine. They’ve won the two most difficult games on paper — Boro H, Watford A — and taken one point from the two easier ones — Blackpool and Rotherham at home. One thing is for certain, it’s a different team with Chris Willock in it — he has scored in all three of his appearances so far, and QPR are yet to lose on any of the 13 occasions he’s scored in his career with them so far — W10 D3. He’s the first player to score in the first three league games of a season since Tjaronn Chery in 2016/17. Our stats man Jack Supple tells me: "The last QPR player to score in each of their own first four+ league apps of a season was Patrick Agyemang in 2007-08 when he joined in January (he scored in his first six league apps - mad dog). His overall QPR debut came in the FA Cup beforehand though (v Chelsea). Prior to that it was Clive Allen in 1982-83 and Mark Lazarus and Brian Bedford in the 1962-63 campaign.” Ilias Chair’s ten chances created is the best of any player in the EFL so far this season. Clean sheets remain an issue — two more goals conceded on Saturday at Vicarage Road — Hull, Boro and Swansea (ten each) the only teams that have conceded more than Rangers so far. It’s eight games since Rangers last registered a shut-out, 1-0 at Swansea on the last day of last season, and they’ve only kept the opposition scoreless twice in the last 26 games.
Hull City: The Tigers’ summer overhaul has already reaped dividends in the form of three home wins from three games played, 2-1s against Bristol City and Norwich and 3-2 at the weekend against Coventry. Colombian Oscar Estupinan, who scored 15 times in the Portuguese top flight for Vitoria last season, has hit the ground running with a league-leading seven goals so far — these tend to come in batches with two v West Brom and Norwich and three v Coventry. The next top scorer in the league is already three behind him — Josh Brownhill on four. Away from home things have been slightly trickier. Hull are yet to win in four league and cup road trips this year (D2 L2), a run that includes a League Cup exit at Mark Hughes’ meticulously prepared League Two side Bradford. They were beaten 5-2 at West Brom in their last away game and haven’t won on the road since a 1-0 at Middlesbrough on the first Saturday in April seven games ago. Their overall away record last season wasn’t that bad for a newly promoted team — 7-5-11 in the end with the other wins coming at Preston, Barnsley, Cardiff, Bournemouth, Peterborough and Coventry.
Prediction: We’re once again indebted to The Art of Football for agreeing to sponsor our Prediction League and provide prizes. You can get involved by lodging your prediction here or sample the merch from our sponsor’s QPR collection here. Let’s see what last year’s champion Cheesy thinks this week…
"After Saturday, I am looking forward to this one. It all seemed to click. Willock is just a joy to watch. I know it's a thing that Rangers don't do, but some consistency would be nice.”
Cheesy’s Prediction: QPR 2-1 Hull City. Scorer — Ilias Chair
LFW’s Prediction: QPR 1-1 Hull City. Scorer — Chris Willock
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