| Swansea City 3 v 0 Queens Park Rangers EFL Championship Thursday, 26th December 2024 Kick-off 15:00 |  |
QPR’s unbeaten run crushed in Swansea Christmas horror – Report Friday, 27th Dec 2024 17:09 by Jamie Perry @jamie_perry2000 QPR’s unbeaten Championship run collapsed in fairly vintage Boxing Day style as Swansea ran riot through a dire first half in South Wales – some game for Jamie Perry to get on his LFW match reporting debut. Clive asked me to do the report for this game in the bar of the very glam Cardiff Premier Inn after our last trip to South Wales. Even then, all full of joy and beer, I did not expect QPR to come into it having not lost a game since before the last international break. Four wins and three draws from the last seven matches, as well as the euphoria from the performance and Jimmy Dunne last minute winner against Preston on Saturday, meant I headed back over the Severn Bridge in something of a state of optimism, despite our horrendous record at this time of year (no away win on Boxing Day since 1967 etc etc). What I perhaps should have expected was for Rangers to take that optimism, scrunch it up into a ball, set fire to it, and volley it into the Swansea Bay as they put in one of their worst performances of the season to concede three goals in an abysmal first half. Just when we’re out, they drag us back in. Just when we’re in, they chuck one of these our way. The clues were all there on the team sheet. If you could have picked someone from this recent run of form to be unavailable Liam Morrison would have been towards the bottom of that list - unbeaten in nine starts as a Hoop. The Scot was ruled out before kick off with a muscle injury. Combined with Steve Cook’s foot exploding into a million pieces at the weekend this was terrible news – since he signed QPR had lost eight of the nine matches Cook had been absent for prior to this one. It did mean the welcome return of Jake Clarke-Salter, though he’d have to do bigger minutes than anybody would have planned. Swansea took the game to Rangers immediately, targeting the areas between the centre-backs and full-backs with direct penetrating through balls, constantly finding free men. Just five minutes in a long ball over the top found Goncalo Franco clean through. The Portuguese knocked the ball past Paul Nardi but made the angle too wide for himself and the Swans worked the ball to Ji- Sung Eom before Jimmy Dunne blocked his attempted cross out for a corner. The home side should have then taken the lead on ten minutes. After playing through QPR’s attack and midfield press far too easily, Liam Cullen freed the lively Eom down the left who turned and played it back for Cullen to cross. The ball looked for all money to be falling to Ronald at the back post for a tap in, if not for Kenneth Paal’s intervention who did very well to turn the ball wide of the post. Two minutes later and the Swans did take the lead. Kieran Morgan caught on the ball after a soft pass from Varane and The Jacks moved through Franco to Ronald, who stood up both Paal and Saito before playing a low ball right between them and into the centre of the box. Cullen spent the entire build- up wandering around on the edge of the box completely unmarked and his movement to meet the ball and sweep home, across a static defence sat way to deep, was way too easy. One nil, already thoroughly deserved, but early enough to reflect upon what has happened maybe get some control back and find a way into the game. Or how about no? Soon Swansea was breaking through again allowing Eon to cut inside from the left and fire a shot straight at Nardi. Even the keeper sitting down and getting treatment for the now shamefully common player conference on the sideline couldn’t turn the tide. Although we do seem to be getting better at them after the comedy of Dunne’s failed attempt in Bristol. At least Nardi sat down for as long as he was supposed to. On the way back from Wales, in an attempt to find something other than Robbie Savage and Chris Sutton to listen to on the radio, LFW stats columnist Andrew Scherer and I switched over to Magic FM. In amongst the Christmas music, they were just starting an interview with Robbie Williams all about his newly released biopic. After an inquisitive “Oh I didn’t know Robbie Williams had a film out?” and a quick Google it became apparent that the main character of this biopic, portraying Williams himself, is a CGI Chimpanzee. This revelation, and the subsequent article I found titled “How Robbie Williams’ Better Man pulls off its wild human-monkey sex scenes” was only the second most disturbing sight of the day - behind Swansea’s second goal. On 26 minutes, with whatever this was masquerading as a midfield press beaten again far too easily, some neat Swansea interplay saw Bianchini flick a ball round the corner into the gap between Fox and Paal for Ronald to run onto. The Brazilian beat Fox for pace (shock) and held him off into the area before spinning his man and firing a shot weakly at Nardi before Dunne cleared the danger. Apparently not content with this let off and really quite enjoying ourselves, we decided to do the whole thing all over again just two minutes later. Rangers too passive on a back to front passing move which ended up with Franco playing right back Josh Key through into the space which had now formed between Fox and Paal (again). Key took one touch and played the ball low into the six-yard box for Cullen to nip in between the centre-backs and slide home his second of the day from five yards. That yawning chasm between the centre backs and full backs, particularly Fox and Paal down the left, was a problem all afternoon. Old football parlance has it that you could have driven a bus through a gap that size, but I’d have fancied myself to pilot a moderately sized cargo ship. Wasting no time, the third came on 32 minutes. I know I’m just repeating myself, but the hosts were again able to break far too easily through a supposed QPR press, which was little more than just Kieran Morgan chasing about on his own. The ball made its way into Swansea’s star man on the day Liam Cullen who quickly laid the ball off to Ji- Sung Eom and continued his run. Jonathan Varane, who had come over to try and pick up Cullen, decided for reasons only known to himself that he would then leave his man to go and try and double up on Eom. The South Korean winger squeezed the ball through both players to the now completely unmarked Cullen whose shot was saved by Nardi, but fell to Franco, who nobody had picked up either, and he gratefully side footed into the empty net. Fuck me dead. Three could have been four just before half time when another long ball from the Swansea defence found a Fox turn buffering and Florian Bianchini clean through. Luckily for QPR the striker had so many options his brain couldn’t compute them all fast enough and he completely missed the ball completely when trying to knock it around Nardi. Jake Clarke- Salter cleaned up. Half time. Three nil down. Could and should have been more. Possession weighted 83-17% in favour of the hosts. Less than ideal. Cifuentes had seen enough. Morgan, who had not quite lived up to his Preston performance and had been sloppy in possession at times, was replaced by Nicolas Madsen. Koki Saito, who had been completely anonymous, was replaced by Ilias Chair. Kenneth Paal was mercy killed for Harrison Ashby. Paal’s afternoon completed and summed up by a ten-yard first touch off his shins from a routine Paul Nardi pass which he was then yellow carded for chasing through the back of Ronald’s shins. There’s been vague post-match talk that Paal was ill. He was certainly something. Other words come to mind. I know this is a path that has been trodden many times, but I find it staggering that when your left-back is not performing well, as has been the case many times this season on the occasions he has been fit, the only replacement we’ve got to come off the bench is a very right- footed right- back who is not even the best right back at the club. In Christian Nourry’s Christmas Day address to the nation he said the reason we loaned out Ziyad Larkeche and did not bring in any cover is because they believed they had enough cover in Morgan Fox and Jack Colback. The problems that Christian has failed to mention is that while Colback has played left-back at points in his career it’s not his natural position, also he is 35 years-old with 500+ games at the top level already played which is probably part of the reason that he’s been missing since September. And, sorry, but if Morgan Fox is your answer to anything you’re asking the wrong question. Anyway, the second half started with Swansea nearly scoring again when Smyth’s crossfield ball to Chair was slightly behind the Moroccan and it bounced up off his arse to spark a Swansea counterattack through Ronald. A tidy passing move between Ronald, Key, Franco and Grimes put Key into space on the edge of the box and his little nutmeg on Field put him through for a firm strike saved well by Nardi. Ah, jeez. From there though, just as an absolute thrashing looked on the cards, the R’s did start to look a bit better and come into the game a bit. Whether it was just a case of it not being possible for them to be any worse or, more likely, Swansea taking their foot of the gas I’m yet to decide. Maybe a bit of both. I was grateful for it either way. He’s already dead etc. A Dunne rampage down the right had been the initial spark which resulted in a Varane ball across the face of goal which Swansea cleared and a few minutes later Ashby had a low cross cleared at the near post. In the opposition half now and everything. Heady days. Then on 56 minutes a long ball from Clarke-Salter set Smyth away behind the defence and his low cross would’ve deflected off Josh Tymon and snuck in at the near post if it wasn’t for home keeper Vigouroux. Back up the other end, a Rangers free kick was played back to Paul Nardi who danced around the closing down Bianchini and was taken out for his troubles. He didn’t look happy about life and I suppose you wouldn’t be either in his position. Five minutes later Sam Field won the ball on a high press and through a combination of Madsen and Kolli the ball was worked out to Smyth whose cross into the box was collected by Vigouroux before it dropped back to Field. A good retrieval of a lost cause by Chair before a cross that came to nothing sparked a Swansea counter which Clarke- Salter initially stopped by controlling the ball with his bollocks before fouling the Swansea player and going down as well which is fair enough. That seemed to be it for a while, Swansea had not so much whether the storm but put a jumper on in a cool breeze. That was until the 80th minute when the Londoners had their best chance of the game so far. Paul Smyth was set off down the line by Michi Frey, having come on ten minutes earlier for Kolli, and despite the Northern Irish international having been limping for the last few minutes he lifted a great floated ball to Chair at the back post. Illy’s header was blocked but fell to Sam Field who I thought was in a much better position to turn and hit it, but he laid it off to Harrison Ashby, who saw his shot from the edge of the box blocked by Franco. Still, a shot. A real live shot. From there any hope that QPR may at least score one started to drain away, this last ten minutes and the day as a whole was rather summed by Nicolas Madsen misplacing a simple five yards pass to Field, which then set off a chain of Swansea possession which ended with Cullen playing through sub Zan Vipotnik who lashed the ball into the side netting. Madsen continues to mystify and infuriate in equal measures. The R’s did get one more chance though when Chair’s injury time corner was flicked on by Varane to Clarke- Salter who should of done better with his header from six- yards out. Somebody was always going to take advantage of one of QPR’s first half no-shows if we kept producing them. This could easily have happened against Oxford, had they not been so woeful, or Bristol City, had they been able to finish. Now it’s all about the reaction to this defeat. A tough game at Carrow Road awaits where for some reason all the local blame us for their players losing their heads monumentally in the reverse fixture and now want revenge. Can this Rangers team cope without Cook and/or Morrison, who Marti confirmed in his WLS interview will be out for ‘some weeks’, I have my doubts. The moving of Clarke- Salter to right centre-back seemed to hinder the team especially in build up from the back and the less said about Morgan Fox’s performance the better. The Morgan-Varane-Field midfield triumvirate will need to get back to its Preston best rather than here where they were out thought, out played and out muscled by Grimes and Franco who not only did the dirty work for the Jacks but also kept the game ticking over. This without them ever really feeling like they got out of third gear. Matt Grimes completed 130 passes in this game, QPR’s midfield three only attempted 48 put together. Grimes had 142 touches of the ball, Sam Field 24. Rangers, not for the first time, seemed incredibly passive to me and spent a lot of the game chasing shadows. The questions also remain as to whether Frey, once fully fit again, can be the hold-up striker we need. Rayan Kolli up front on his own away from home has not been a conspicuous success, only 12 touches for the 19-year-old today and only 13 for Koki Saito who is all too often anonymous and ineffective in away games like this. We need to find a way to hold, maintain and progress possession higher up the field. For now, not the end of the world. We’re very prone to chucking a performance like this in, particularly at this time of year – no away win on Boxing Day since 1967 etc etc. The unbeaten record ends and we bump back down to 17th (we were back home in the hallowed lands 16th until Derby won, bastards) - still a much better position than when last in Wales a month ago. However, any prolonged absence of Cook and Morrison is going to be a huge issue. And you won’t win many games if you keep having first halves like this. Links >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread Swansea: Vigouroux 6; Key 7; Cabango 7; Darling 7; Tymon 7; Franco 8 (Fulton 86, -); Grimes 8; Ronald 7 (Abdulai, 86, -); Cullen 8 (Lloyd, 86, -); Eom 7 (Peart- Harris 61, 6); Bianchini 6 (Vipotnik 77, 5) Subs not used: McLaughlin, Christie, Naughton, Tjoe-A-On Goals: Cullen 12 (assisted Ronald), 51 (assisted Key), Franco 33 (unassisted). Yellow Cards: Eom 50 (foul), Cullen 64 (foul) QPR: Nardi 4; Dunne 3; Clarke- Salter 3; Fox 2; Paal 2 (Ashby 46, 5); Varane 3; Field 3, Morgan 3 (Madsen 46, 3); Saito 3 (Chair 46, 5); Smyth 5 (Anderson 84, -); Kolli 3 (Frey 67, 4) Subs not used: Walsh, Dixon-Bonner, Bennie, Lloyd QPR Star Man: Paul Smyth 5 I don’t know, ran about a bit as usual? Nice cross for Chair? Referee: Ben Toner (Lancashire) 6 Fine, not a lot to referee really in a wholly uncompetitive game. Attendance- 15,842 (543 QPR) Heroic away following rewarded with dross. If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via our PayPal account loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk. Pictures - Reuters Connect Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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