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Chair ran back and supported Paal to double on the wings against the opposition. This was key to stopping their play down the left-hand side for the whole game.
Everyone runs and runs a lot, or you lose the match in the Champ.
The only exception that proves the rule is if you are Adel Taarabt. Are you Adel? No, then you run and run and run and ...
We need a LB. Paal is inconsistent and Fox is not really a LB. Larkeche was seen in a training video in the weights room, but he's probably a long way off.
We have no cover or compo at LB for Paal and we need it.
Either we buy a LB or we loan one. As its Jan, probably a Loan is actually the cheaper option for now.
We also need cover for Frey. Celar is not good enough and may never be, Kolli is off and Llyod is still learning.
So, we need a couple of loans of one LB and one CF. This would take us to 5 loans overall and is about right when you are a poverty-stricken Champ club like ours.
Cook has done this many times already this season. I have seen him give the V sign to the away fans after we have scored.
Cook likes to wind up the away fans. If the game after that goes badly then he knows they will get on the oppo teams backs.
Thats the geart part about QPR fans, we only boo when you don't try and have no heart in the game. If you Bean, Scowen, Palmer, Holloway, running around like a maniac but not very good then we support you as best we can.
But if you have phoned it and don't fancy it, then your in trouble.
We saw him win more headers and also hold up the ball better than he has done in the past. Thats the coaching staff for sure.
If he can improve his hold-up play ala Gallen style, then we have another forward on our hands. As that is what is needed most, hold up play. Hold the ball up, be an outlet so, we can get out of our own half. By playing it from the back, we force the opp to risk coming out to us, and then space opens up.
The catch is that we get out, we which means we need to beat the press. There are many ways of doing this in football, one of them is the long ball up to someone like Frey or if Lloyd can do it. Whoever it is, they must hold on the ball for us to then come out and support. Lloyd didn't quite do that, but his headers and pace forced Luton back. This allowed the defence to come out and press them in the middle, where we won it back again.
It's good to see we have an option other than Koli, though.
Shows Madsen what is needed, you may have the talent and skills, but in the Champ its run run run.
On a Watford break away, I saw Chair sprint back like a maniac and then Watford fecked it up and Chair supported Paal by doubling up and we killed off that break away. Thats why the running is needed.
This is why no matter who you are, unless you have Adel skills, in the Champ you run run run. It is a merciless league on the body as we know.
Watford made a major tactical error today and did not fix it during the game and were punished for it. They only put one player on Smyth. That was really stupid with his pace.
Smyth became an instant outlet for us everytime, allowing us to get the ball out of the press and up the pitch for attacks time and again. If they had put two on him, that would have left Field free, who only scores if someone else beats their man for him as Smyth did.
Watford only scored themselves as Smyth made a mistake and then Barrs shot was deflected off Paals knee, otherwise it was going wide. That was really lucky for them.
Whereas we double up on either flank against their wingers, which was needed as they are super fast players like Smyth. Big mistake that by Watford, expect in the next game for Smyth to be doubled up against. No Champ team will make that mistake again, which means for the next game Morgan needs to be the free man if we can work it that way.
Watford also showed their defence is not Champ standard as they could not handle little QPR attacks.
Marti out thought the Watford manager today. First goal was clearly a move from the training pitch, the constant play inside from the fullbacks to the middle for them to play Smyth in beat the press and was also clearly from the training pitch again. We have been improving that for a while but today we perfected it. Doubling up on the wingers, we have been doing great at for ages and it continued again.
Smyth looked the best player as Watford played into our hands with only putting one player on him. But I thought Dunne was the best player. That spin for the goal brought back memories of how Macca did that back in the day from corners to lose his marker. Worked for Macca and also worked for Dunne. Also Dunne was not done for pace and mashlled the back line well. Dominating performance against a pacy forward line.
On paper a smart loan. Seems to be a ball playing defender, also seems to play it from the left to the right diag, which will be useful for the Dunne flick on or playing Smyth in.
Either way a few balls like that and the oppo defence is forced to drop deeper, allowing Morgan to exploit the gaps in between.
Where is the loan LB that we really need. Perhaps Larkeche is on the way back. I notice it was Larks, Morrison and Dembele in the video so, they were in getting fit on New Years Day. Good to see.
The whole team looked like they couldn't run, and as I have said before, in the Champ, you don't run, run, run, you lose.
We sat back way too much and did not press them enough. So much so that in the first half, at 35 minutes and 3-0 down, we sat back while they played it around the back, waiting for halftime. Hello, you're LOSING!
I mean, you're 3-0 down? Time to get frantic and go all out berserker, what do you have to lose? 4-0? Does not matter if you're dead anyway. But get a goal back before half-time and make it 3-1, and then there is a small chance of a way back.
It was like watching Ainsworth's QPR against Blackburn when the whole team didn't want to cross the halfway line. In that game, Dozzell had a breakaway on the wing, looked up, realised he was the furthest forward, and then decided to pass back as Blackburn players fretted and scrambled back for no reason as Dozy played it back anyway!
The worst players were Field, Varane and Morgan, who just sat in front of the Back four and didn't press the opposite middle at all. Free midfield reign all of the first half. All the Swansea midfield had to do was collect the ball from their defence, turn, look up, and then play another ball to a free Swansea player, and so on, until they could have a shot at goal. Kohil was totally on his own for a one-man press.
As Swansea had a free midfield pass then Fox and Paal were exposed for lack of pace, which Ronaldo took full advantage of. Fox is done, he cannot run back quick enough (remember Champ is run run run). Paal had that game where he's phoned it in. Must be hoping for his Jan move now we are so close. No need to get injured just before the move.
Paal was so bad that Saito was fully occupied the whole game supporting him and, therefore, didn't venture over the halfway line either.
On the up side, Chair has moved from 10 mins, 20 mins, 35 mins to 45 mins. So, the next is 60 mins, which means he's ready to start. I expect him to start against Norwich. Frey was back for a few mins as well. The team was so bad Ashby looked like he was decent, despite also giving the ball way quite a few times but at least he was trying to get forward and also challenging to win the ball.
This was like the Oxford half, but this time, Swansea are a proper Champ team who know what they are doing. And tore us apart. It was too easy for them.
Swanseas' tactic was clever; they decided to press us hard and attack high upfield and risk breakaways. It's a very risky tactic because if the oppo wins the ball, then you will be facing a counterattack, possibly outnumbered. This usually results in a goal if that keeps happening. They need not worry as ...
It worked as our middle decided not to compete in the middle at all and just let em have it. Cue 1-2's all over the park from a team that specialises in 1-2's. If we had challenged them in the middle, then they would have fewer balls on our left and right, and we would have gotten out and up the field as Saito and Smyth could now get forward to support Kohli. We did this a little in the second half, which is how we know it was possible.
Players let Marti down big time as they relaxed over the Christmas break. There is no relaxing in this league; it's all run, run, run. They tried to hide behind the formation of two banks of four (an old Gerry and Holloway tactic). But that only works if you run run run.
You can say it's wrong; it should be about the quality of the football, but teams will do this to you and win. I have noticed it coming into the Prem more now. This is how Villa, Forest and Bournemouth have improved up the table by introducing a lot more of this into their games now. It seems Man City's slow build-up is going out of fashion.
Swansea are not lamo Oxford, they have proper Champ players, they will tear teams apart that don't compete. And they did.
We can see he has a great left foot, dribbling skills and has some pace. However, I am not seeing many headers being won or much hold up play, looks more like a left winger in playing style than a hold up player.
For your question, Oxford and especially Brizzle did a tactic that exposed our flaws in the middle. They overloaded the sides, blocking us from attacking down the flanks. This meant we could only attack through the middle. With Andersen and Madsen who cannot get up and down the pitch quick enough. Andersen does not have the legs for it and Madsen, may have the legs for it but he needs to get fitter quicker (just like Frey was off the pace last season, but learned to up his game and run run run to be ready for this season).
As we had no middle attack option in those two games being forced down the middle with no legs, this meant in those two games we could not get any attacks going as our flanks were doubled up against always. Brizzle were really good at doing this. The only time they failed to do this was when Smyth scored. Oxford failed as they were so poor they let Field come through the middle and score two goals ... nuff said.
For PNE, Morgan came in and had the legs for it and also the skill. Hence whatever PNE did we had an answer. He also helped break the press which means it was not all on Varane to do this. PNE tried the same tactic of doubling up on the flanks and were caught out as we now had a middle game. To the extent that Field should have scored when Morgan played him in (all down the middle that move).
If Morgan can maintain that capability against other oppo, then we now have a strong midfield in Varane, Field, Morgan with Colback to return for those who miss games due to yellows (Field I am looking at you). It also mean's Madsen is behind all of those 4 now.
Somehow, Morgan comes out of the blue and, luckily, is picked to start? No this is not by luck, Marti and the team must have analysed those two games (Oxford & Brizzle) and saw what the oppo were doing and our weakness. Then come up with a plan to fix it.
This is what good managers do, mistakes get made, but they fix them. Warbuton was good at doing this. Wildthing was not, he actually made them worse like for example the treatment of Willock.
Another thing I noticed is that Beenie comes on for Smyth on the flank. So, I assume as Demble is out till March, that this is the option they are thinking of if Smyth gets injured. I am not sure about Beenie; he runs around a lot (good) and does not do stupid things (also good), but he is not really showing me anything that's a game-changer (not so good).
It's early days for Beenie, but I am not seeing anything like I saw for Varane and Saito when they first came in but were poor at the start.
I like it because it means when we get the reverse, we can just carry on. Some player goes down with banged head, ref waves play on, we score and win the game (the key difference here).
The Oppo team goes nuts. Marti afterwards says, "Well, I understand that their upset, but the same happened to us against PNE. PNE played on, scored, and we lost our captain to injury. That's the champ."
The bit Marti won't mention is that we went on to win that game so, the only bad thing about that goal was Cooks injury.
And then the oppo will have to suck it up and we get the win (which is the difference that won't be mentioned) :p
Chair isnt match fit yet and we have seen with rushing back WIllock how you can ruin a player.
Saito was not bad but not great either in that game. People forget that this PNE side is not like Oxford; they have decent defenders, it's just that day the whole team played so well that we made them look like Oxford.
So, Saito was up against better players than other teams and I suspect he was required to stop PEN coming down that side until they PNE gave up. Chair came on against tired legs, but he did what was needed. Even before the goal, he put in a cross that nearly fell to Smyth for a tap-in.
Chair is the better player, but he's not match fit yet.I would go with sub and come on for last 35 mins next time. And see where we are. Saito might get more joy against Swansea, who are less into the beat-em-up side of the Champ.
He was not used to the "run run run" of the Champ.
Now he realised if he runs and puts himself about a lot, that matches up to the oppo capability there and then he betters them as he has the skill to put his foot on the ball and win and play it.
If he carries on like this, we should expect bids of £10m plus as Prem clubs love this sort of player. Compare to Tim Iroegbunam (who likes to think of himself as this type of player but isn't) who went for £9m.
Who is better Iroegbunam or Varane? I think it's our Varane.
What more interesting is that Morgan has now made a massive case to be in the middle with Varane and Field. With those three, if Morgan improves will be highly effective in the Champ. Colback will struggle to get back in the team, let alone Madsen who is behind all of them.
It's clear he's being coached by Marti and the other coaches.
A noticeable difference is that once he uses his pace and dribbling skills to go past a player, instead of just putting in a cross, he now looks up to do the cutback.
This only works if the other QPR players are moving into position to receive the cutback. Which they are, as it also means they have been coached when Smyth gets into that position to do this. Otherwise, Smyth has no one to cut back, too.
Another tactical move we are using is the cross from the left to the far post for a tap in. Chair did this in the second half and the oppo defender just got enough of head on it to divert it away from Smyth who was about to use his pace to tap it in (a type of goal he has scored before even Marti arrived). Then, soon after, the Chair did it again for Dunne (what's he doing there, must be coached) to nod the winner.
These two tactics we shall in my biased view see again from the team as they are working.
Another one to watch for is corners. If you see Dunne or the corner taker rubbing their head from back to front with a hand, this is a signal that the ball will go to the near post. I have not worked out what they have as the signal for the far post, if they have one. But, I have seen Andersen, Paal and Chair all do this near post signal and seen Dunne do it in the box too.
They are being coached constantly, make no mistake.
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