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Personally I thought their left back, Heggum, and ours were the main difference between the sides.
To me Paal was going through the motions all day.
He had inexperience in front of him, who offered minimal protection. However, he wasn’t vocal directing them, which he should be as the senior pro. He just let us get overrun. And, ultimately they scored 2 goals by getting to the byline on his flank and should have had a 3rd. At HT, WBA clearly identified him as a weak spot and went after him.
Whether he is staying or going that decision needs to be made soon. For his good and ours.
Toyed with this idea last season. Shall we have a thread to discuss, comment on, cover the rest of the league? A place to discuss other teams’ results, performances, financial implosions, etc?
For example, last night, anyone catch either of the first two games? I didn’t. But somewhat surprised/worried Blackburn scored 4 given how they are meant to struggle. Was it Derby being utter sh*te?
Sounds like Preston are continuing in the same vein of being incredibly dull.
Clive, what do you think? Worth making a sticky? Might reduce the number of threads to manage.
Prediction
Prediction Logged by at 00:12:40 Queens Park Rangers v West Bromwich Albion prediction logged
Has it been announced who the club captain is for next season? With Johansen and Martin leaving, someone new will have to step in. Field has been captain on the pitch a few times when both the above were injured, but I think he was match day captain unless Ainsworth arrived and moved it to Martin. I love Field and he is a leader, but he’s perhaps not as vocal and motivating as some of the others in the squad may need. I think he leads by example more. So who are the other contenders?
In some of the Austria videos, it looks to me like Dunne and Field are Ainsworth’s two senior pros he talks to about the sessions at the end of them, so guess it will be one of them.
Not much more to be said. Front 4 for that last 30 were the worst offenders. Hiding. Not tracking runners. Roberts couldn’t have sold Kakay down the river any more unless he’d been slipping in the passes himself.
This group of “professionals” have got to sort out their attitude and mentality. You can’t only play when it’s going well. The only adversity we faced today was missing our own chances, and we then folded.
I’m not on Twitter but I see on the left hand side of this site he’s crediting Q and R blocks for singing Mick Beale’s Blue n White army for 15 mins to lift the atmosphere.
Dan, that was Pu, more precisely, that was me. And it was 25 mins. It took 5-10 mins for Q and R to bother joining in. Pu was at it for a while before and after.
To misquote Ringo, I have blisters on my hands from banging the back wall.
Some days it’s not me, it’s others. But Pu deserves way more credit than it gets. Q and R were dead quiet. Pu lifted it.
Roberts, to my eye at least, looked excellent last night. Looked a class above in terms of first touch, and positioning. He wanted the ball, turned sharply and drove with it. Lovely strike to. Needs to play if fit. He’s a better quality of footballer than most in our squad.
Armstrong. There is no need to hold this kid back. To all intents and purposes, he’s not a kid. He’s built like a fully grown athlete, he has pace to burn, he seems to have no fear. He scared the Charlton defence. His technical ability may not be there yet, but he gives us an X factor that, with our budget and resources, we shouldn’t be afraid to use. He won’t come off or play well every week; I’m not sure he has the technical skills (yet) to ensure a consistent level of performance, so the crowd need to stay with him. But the support he received yesterday was unlike anything I’ve seen/heard for a young player who’s not played for the first team in competitive football yet. We might have a very good one here. Right time. Right place.
Shodipo. Okay, far from perfect, and end product is still missing, but he played well. He beat his man on the in side and outside. He got to the byline. He’s not a starter at this level, but as an option off the bench, he offers us something. His pace, along with the two above meant we suddenly played with genuine pace going forward. We could run in behind and play it through/over the top from deep OR we could go short, and all three could turn and drive with it. That is much harder to defend than knowing everything is going short.
Sam Field. Defensively still had another excellent game (not helped by no one else in the front 6 making a tackle in the first half. And it was nice to see it was him who played the first through ball (along the deck) into the channel for Armstrong to race on to and win a corner. I’m not sure that was a ball Chair or Johansen would play given how conservative they are.
Dickie and Dunne. I think both are playing well. They’ve been under a fair bit of pressure in the last two matches, without the 3rd centre half, and they’ve stood up well to it. Dunne is back to winning most things in the air, and Dickie seems to be stepping out of defence more and driving forward.
The squad is light, even at full strength, and certainly now. But there are some bright spots and we can still field a competitive XI.
I think Beale is gradually beginning to work out who is playing in line with what he’s asking them and who isn’t. I think Sunderland is a game to experiment a little with. It’s not a bonus game. We should still be aiming to win, but 20 mins up to the goal showed us we can play a different style to the last year.
There are enough threads on the “negatives” so I’ll leave it there.
You won’t see many better defensive midfield performances than that.
This bloke has so much ability and potential. His reading of the game and positioning is superb.
If he plays for the club for the next decade, even if he only plays 60% of the time, I don’t think we’ll drop out of the top 30 in English football bar the odd few games. He is class. Got to keep him somewhat fit, but he is class.
I think with the system we’re trying to play, Johansen, whilst quality on the ball, IS the problem with our shape and the number of goals we’re conceding. He’s a passenger out of possession. Good teams just play around him. Ball was terrible alongside him and the sub meant it was Chair there….honestly, if you want to keep this shape, you can you can only play 2 of Johansen/Chair/Willock against the good sides. You need legs or the defence to play incredibly high, but up against pace, you set up our back 3 to get turned.
I’m not sure what the answer is, but this two man central midfield with Johansen is not working. No legs.
Good lord, that was one of the ugliest Rangers’ wins I can remember. But more importantly, it’s a complete change in team character from the first half of the season when we were losing when playing well.
3 centre halves are clearly helping and, as many others have pointed out, Austin and Johansen have made us a lot more game savvy and vocal, but the whole team seems to have a certain togetherness that wasn’t there 2 plus months ago.
Winning helps, but i’m wondering what else.
I think his legs have gone, but I think Geoff has stepped up and seems to be far more vocal since the arrival of Austin and Johansen. He’s getting involved in celebrations, being far more vocal during the game and with the ref. It’s as if Austin’s presence has helped him feel able to speak up more.
Something similar could be said for Barbet. I actually thought both he and Cameron were better than Dickie today and really seem to be enjoying playing more “agriculturally” at times.
I wonder if the arrival of some gnarly pros has helped some of the older pros in the side feel more confident and comfortable?
I think of what Onuoha said in his podcast about the young vs old games in training and how the younger lads played all the football, looked good, but the old boys always beat them.
Something about the last few weeks makes me think the older boys, with Austin and Johansen’s arrival, have now wrestled control of the dressing room and perhaps are now playing more of a type of leadership/mentoring role to the younger lads than they were?
Worth also pointing out that our run has coincided with BOS being taken out of the team and leaving. Perhaps the club knew what they were doing with BOS and Manning, and their influence in the dressing room wasn’t particularly positive. That’s pure speculation. But something in the character of the players has changed. We’re not even playing very well in some of these games.
Barbet the baller, hey? Couple this with how he actually defended (two air shots creating dangerous attacks to say the least) and how he was weak in the air for Cov’s winner, I think it’s fair to say he needs to up his game a bit.
Same goes for a Wallace!!
Data further supports how well Kakay is playing.
This also shows that Amos did indeed have a very strong game and Cameron was the weak link. I’d like to see Ball in there.
Finally, it shows up the small issue we have of no one getting close to Dykes, Chair still needs to find space more centrally to receive the ball near Dykes or from his lay offs or flick ons.
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