QPR now have just one win from seven to start the Championship season so will be hoping to ride the feel-good factor created by announcements at Monday’s fans forum when they host Hull City this evening.
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When the summer sun is shining and the season stretches out in front of you full of possibilities it’s difficult not to get excited and optimistic. Because what if it is your year? We didn’t think it was in 2010, and QPR went unbeaten through the first 19 matches on their way to the title. It’s that what if that keeps you coming back, game after game, year after year.
In August, nobody’s injured yet. Nobody’s fallen out with each other, no manager has been sacked, your goalkeeper hasn’t dropped one in the net, your centre forward hasn’t Dean Coney’d one over the bar from a foot away. Every new signing could be the new Taarabt, Faurlin, Ferdinand, Allen (any one of them).
You can say things like "this will take time” and "we’ll have to be patient”. You can keep copying and pasting that line about the profile of the signings (Westerlo, Lugano, Sporting Gijon, Gent, Perth Glory, Bayern Munich B, Estrela and Brest (giggity)). But, really, you’re excited to. There are 48 games out ahead of you in which anything could happen. New signings, particularly younger players, attacking players, permanent buys, are exciting. You just let yourself dream a little bit, and those dreams are only enhanced by Michy Frey turning into prime Heidar Helguson and winning you an away game at Luton bastard Town.
Sadly, almost always, and somewhat inevitably, the cold and wet of the autumn arrives and reality starts to bite. Saturday’s tepid loss at Blackburn was a real chastener – obviously, I admit, amplified by the sheer ballache it is to get up to that part of the country at that time of the day, but still a really lifeless performance even with 11 men which featured none of the things that made Marti Cifuentes’ QPR so fun in games like West Brom and Leeds at home at the end of last season. It’s easy to say this will take time and we’ll need to be patient, but when you see what that looks like while freezing your nuts off in an empty away end it’s a lot harder to actually bite your tongue and settle in for the long haul.
Christian Nourry’s tactic of using his first fans forum to make several crowd pleasing announcements might, therefore, be ideally timed.
I’ve liked a lot of what Nourry has done and said since his audit of the club and what it should do next concluded with you should put me in charge of everything. Things like a more data-led approach to recruitment and better use of European markets, rather than signing players because the manager has worked with them before or Gary Penrice knows his agent or Mick Beale used to read him a bed time story is long overdue at a club which professes to want to develop players to sell. Better alignment and a more cohesive strategy than just giving the manager whatever he wants, meaning we're not so royally screwed when the manager leaves. Giving players a proper farewell when they leave, as opposed to chippy one line statements. Bringing the women’s team back into the fold, rather than treating as some inconvenient cost – seen to be there but not there to be seen. This is all good, proactive stuff.
Clearly one thing I haven’t agreed with him on is the communications strategy, which has become much more closed off and controlled. To a certain extent I would say that purely because it makes this job more difficult for me, but I also think QPR is a funny club where things can go south really quickly and you can buy yourself, and your manager, a lot of time, goodwill, sympathy, empathy and understanding by letting him speak to people like me on a semi-regular basis. I still think the non-reveal of contract lengths is bollocks, and holding back announcements on things like signings or contract renewals until you think it’s a useful strategic time to announce them is not open, honest or transparent.
It might, this week though, work to all our advantages. A cold, damp, Tuesday night at home to Hull, still awaiting that first Saturday 3pm of the season, one win in seven, defeat at the weekend. It’s not exactly a recipe for a big night. But dropping the news of Dembele and Clarke-Salter’s contracts, and the extension of Marti Cifuentes deal, all at once in Monday’s fans forum has changed the mood considerably. Nobody’s talking about Blackburn and Varane’s daft red card any more, and having got the first hour of the evening and all the usual chaff about beer prices and water pressure out of the way nobody who was at the forum itself talking about anything other than the new deals.
Might we finally see that fast, front foot start we’ve craved from the team all season? Last night won't hurt.
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Team News: Jonathan Varane is suspended following his red card at Blackburn at the weekend – he’s actually playing for the development squad at Millwall this afternoon along with Rayan Kolli. It would be handy if Jack Colback has recovered form his knee injury in time for this one – card-related brain farts not withstanding I think this team has missed him while they get up to speed with the level. Of course the big news is whether Morgan Fox will be fit for his first minutes of the season. And a lad called Ilias Chair might be back as well apparently, Heston regulars reckon he’s a bit useful. Here’s hoping Jake Clarke-Salter celebrates his new deal with a run out.
Hull’s 22-year-old Algerian winger Mohamed Belloumi scored his first goals in black and amber at the weekend, bagging two and the man of the match in a 4-1 home win against Cardiff. Unfortunately for Tim Walrer he also picked up a bad ankle knock, left the game early and is rated as a big doubt for this Tuesday night trip. The Tigers picked up Italian striker Joao Pedro as a free agent following his release from Fenerbahce last week and he awaits a debut.
Elsewhere: A full midweek round starts with eight fixtures on Tuesday, including all three of the division’s surprise early pacesetters in action as the battle for The Tony Mowbray Shield hots up. Sunderland are at home to Derby, West Brom host Middlesbrough, and unbeaten Blackburn head to Coventry.
The three teams who were meant to be occupying those positions are also all playing Tuesday. Burnley continue to Scott Parker their way through a series of instantly forgettable games, and they’re labouring to a 2-1 win at home to Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth. Luton are at home to Oxford while Leeds go to Norwich for the Daniel Farke derby.
Changing manager didn’t do a lot to immediately alter Cardiff’s fortunes – quick 4-1 defeat at Hull, 28 minute jog about for Chris Willock, now five defeats in a row for the Bluebirds. I’m not sure they’ll fare much better against Millwall either who really are playing well at the moment and belted Preston Knob End 3-1 at the weekend.
Preston get a chance to recover from that at home to Watford on Wednesday. It’s one of four fixtures that night with Sheffield Red Stripe at home to Swanselona, Stoke and Portsmouth facing off in what’s sure to be a high quality and pulsating affair, and Bristol City hosting Sheff Wed.
Straight back into it on Friday night as well with Leeds travelling up to Sunderland.
Referee: Thomas Kirk, an estate agent from Wilmslow, takes his first QPR or Hull fixture on Tuesday night having joined the EFL last two seasons ago and started doing Championship fixtures midway through last year. Details.
QPR: Rangers now have seven points from seven played, exactly what they had this time a year ago under Gareth Ainsworth. They’ve also won a game fewer.
The defeat at Blackburn brought to an end QPR’s run of scoring in 12 consecutive games. Unfortunately, it extended their run without a clean sheet – eight Championship games going back to last season, 11 in league and cup. The sequence of ten games in which Rangers had scored and conceded was the longest since a run of 11 in 1966, Jack Supple tells us. It was the R’s first league defeat since the opening day of the season but it does mean they’ve now only won one of the first seven league games. It took Rangers nine attempts to win their first game at Loftus Road last season, and they’ve had five homes in league and cup without success so far (D3 L2).
Jonathan Varane’s red card at Blackburn is the second dismissal QPR have had in seven league games. Prior to the start of this season they hadn’t had a player sent off under Marti Cifuentes, having started last season with four reds in the first 15 games.
Since his debut in July 2022, QPR have won 38% of their games when Jake Clarke-Salter has played (21 of 56), compared to winning just 18% when he didn't feature (9 of 50).
🔵#QPR⚪️ pic.twitter.com/LC4hdGPxbz— Jack Supple (@JTSupple) September 30, 2024
Since the start of last season, no player aged 21 or under has provided more league assists in England’s top four divisions than Karamoko Dembélé (16).
🔵#QPR⚪️ pic.twitter.com/L65XDei7aQ— Jack Supple (@JTSupple) September 30, 2024
Hull: The Tigers brought in 16 new signings this summer, with 20 players departing (not to mention the end of several high profile loan deals). Hull scored 68 goals in the Championship last season and 63 of those left during the summer. After turnover like that it was always going to be a challenge for Tim Walter to come in from Germany with his self-styled "heart attack football” and transform Liam Rosenior’s more cautious approach overnight. The most striking stat about his time in Germany was the goals scored – while at Bayern Munich’s seconds they bagged 84 in his 36 games in charge (2.33 a game), 65 in 37 at Holstein (1.7), 33 in 20 at Stuttgart (1.65) and a fairly ridiculous 202 in 104 at Hamburg (1.9).
So, how have Hull done? Well, initially the signs didn’t look great. They won none of their first six games, and with Bristol City, Plymouth and Millwall to begin with it wasn’t exactly the division’s most challenging start. They scored just one goal in each of the first three games, then didn’t score at all for three more. Walter’s technique of packing the opposition penalty box for corners and leaving the rest of the pitch empty raised plenty of eyebrows as Sheff Utd streaked away to score two on the counter and win 2-0 on Humberside. But there are some signs of life of late. A dire game at Stoke came to life with three Hull goals in the final half hour, and they’ve since whacked struggling Cardiff 4-1 so they arrive at Loftus Road with two wins from two and four goals scored.
The home team has come out on top in each of the last four meetings between QPR and Hull – Willock and Chair scored for QPR in a 2-0 home win in December, Tufan, Carvalho and Philogene settled a one-sided 3-0 return fixture in April. That after a run of six meetings without a home win – two Hull wins in W12, two QPR victories up north, and two draws.
Prediction: There’s still time to enter our Prediction League for 2024/25, where we’ll once again be handing out prizes for being top at Christmas and overall winner from The Art of Football - sample the merch from our sponsor’s newly extended QPR collection here. For the first time last year we had joint winners so this season you’ll be hearing from one or both WestonsuperR and SimplyNico in the match previews and the former has called the last three games spot on.
Nico’s Prediction: "The season is turning a bit stale. No home win this season and just one win in total, at Luton. Defence and Frey are okay but there is a big creative hole in midfield. And we are slow. In comparison, Hull are now starting to fire up. At the moment, we seem destined to concede in every game and do not appear to have more than one goal per game in us.”
Weston’s Call "Really tough to be overly positive as I’ve not seen anything from us yet this season to suggest we will outplay a side and Hull are in pretty decent form with six points and seven goals scored in their previous two. I have managed to predict our last three matches correctly, going for four in a row with another draw.”
Nico’s Prediction: QPR 1-1 Hull. Scorer – Michy Frey
WestonSuperR’s Prediction: QPR 1-1 Hull. Scorer – Michy Frey
LFW’s Prediction: QPR 1-1 Hull. Scorer – Jimmy Dunne
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