QPR go back to Coventry City for their final match before the World Cup break tomorrow afternoon, and a large travelling support isn’t the only comparison to draw with our last trip there in January.

Coventry (7-5-6 WDLWWW 12th) v QPR (9-4-7 WWLDLL 6th)

Lancashire and District Senior League >>> Saturday November 12, 2022 >>> Kick Off 15.00 >>> Weather — Actually quite nice >>> The Coventry Memorial Millstone, hanging around this city’s neck

As much as things change they stay the same. That’s particularly the case at Queens Park Rangers, who have taken seven from nine points from away games at the teams currently third, fourth and fifth, but none from nine at home to the teams currently twenty-fourth, twenty-second and twenty-first. As was, is and seemingly ever more shall be.

Plenty of comparisons to draw between this Saturday’s visit to Coventry City and last January’s — Rangers sit sixth currently and were fourth when they last visited whatever they’re calling this dire example of new stadia development, which continues to vaporise the business of plan of anybody and anything that comes within 500 feet of it.

This time it’s no wins in four, and five defeats in the last seven, for Mick Beale’s QPR, whereas Mark Warburton’s side were on an unbeaten streak of seven, and had won six of eight. Victory here made it four away wins on the spin. But then, like now, you couldn’t say QPR were playing particularly well. The wins at Bristol and Birmingham, in particular, were achieved despite Rangers being a bracing watch, out-of-form West Brom were beaten with an offside goal, Stoke and Bournemouth had both won comfortably at Loftus Road and quite how we got out of 110+ minutes of Coventry barrage with three points I’ll never know to this day. Then, like now, we brushed it aside with things like “we’d all have taken this position at the start of the season” and other such similar cliché, but now like then QPR won’t remain in anything like contention if they play as they have in recent games.

It’s interesting that at the point we travelled here last, QPR actually had the division’s best record for conceding goals from set pieces — just three, excluding opposition penalties, in the 25 league matches. They’d previously had the worst record in the Championship for it in 2019/20, prompting testy exchanges between LFW and Mark Warburton in our annual summer manager interview, but that problem did appear to have been cleared up. When Jordan Shipley confidently strode onto Todd Kane’s fiftieth minute corner and ripped one into the top corner we shrugged our shoulders and asked ‘what can you do about that?’ But that goal from that corner was just the beginning of a pattern that continues to badly hamstring our team today. No side in the division has conceded as many goals from set pieces as QPR since (13 including penalties in the final 21 games of last season by my count, eight in 21 games this — 21 goals in 42 games, one every other match, from dead balls alone).

Warburton used to be mocked for trotting out his stock answers, of which “first contact, second ball” was always one, but it rang very true on Tuesday night when Huddersfield scored twice, and came close to a third, from us not doing either of those things well enough. I was pissed off enough to say “this is a mentality issue” in the match report, which I think some have taken to think I don’t believe the players are trying — palpably untrue, look at them at full time the other night, in actual fact I think a couple of them are trying too hard of which more shortly. What I mean by that is we’ve changed managers and coaching staff, even touting the arrival of a dedicated set piece coach; we’ve changed from a back three to a back four, and the starting centre backs have gone from Dunne, Dickie and Barbet in this fixture last season, to Clarke-Salter and Balogun on Tuesday night. Each change in turn has been hailed as the answer — Beale will sort us out defensively, Harry Watling’s been hired to sort this out, Balogun’s exactly the kind of experienced warhorse who’ll sort this out, Clarke-Salter’s obviously a better centre back than those three, maybe the back three is the issue… And still you’re conceding goals as pathetic as the two we shipped the other night. When you’ve changed literally everything about the way we defend — shape, personnel, coaching, manager — and it’s still happening, and happening to the basic, easy level it did against Huddersfield, sooner or later some jumped up prick like me, maybe out of pure frustration, is going to question whether the problem here isn’t zonal versus man-to-man, but the lack of somebody sticking their hand up like Richard Dunne did one afternoon did at Wembley and making it his business to win every fucking header for half an hour. Sorry if that’s me veering off into Keys and Gray territory.

Another, for me more important, issue that was true for Warburton then, and Beale now, is the total lack of anything by way of impact below the starting eleven. At Cov last year our non-keeper subs were De Wijs, Ball, Odubajo, Amos, Thomas and Austin. Thomas, as it turned out, came on in that game against his former club and did a great turn for the extended period of stoppage time, closing down and stopping Cov loading balls into our box. But we hadn’t seen much of that before, or since. Who there, really, given Austin’s decline, would you look at if we’d been 2-1 down and think they might come on and impact the game? In the last two home matches Beale has been criticised for lack of subs, slow subs, and choice of subs — I’d have pushed Laird further forward and hooked Adomah the other night, as a for instance — but, let’s be real here, you look down that bench against West Brom and Huddersfield and who is there to come and rescue a situation there? In the end, in the second game, the answer was nearly Taylor Richards, and now we all have our hopes up he could be a bit of an answer as he recovers his fitness, but he hadn’t given many hints of that in his previous, admittedly brief, cameos. Mick Beale’s team, like Mark Warburton’s team, is very talented when it’s fit, firing and available, but as soon as it loses a Chris Willock or a Stefan Johansen, or has to play a three-game week, it’s in trouble.

Sinclair Armstrong has given hints that he might be able to help with this, but we need three or four more like him coming out of the academy who are able to impact things when required. Young lads starting out, low down the pay roll, capable of an impactful 20 minutes now and then. Mide Shodipo was used in desperation on Tuesday but if he’s the answer, at 25… well, let’s just say he’s hidden it well up to now. He is currently one of a chunk of middle ground players in this squad, picking up money, who you wouldn’t back (and Beale clearly doesn’t back) to come in situations like West Brom and Huddersfield and rescue the score. Thomas, Shodipo, Macauley Bonne, Andre Dozzell, Luke Amos, Tyler Roberts, Taylor Richards, Albert Adomah… One of these needs to find that ability, or that fire within himself, to come on in situations like we had this week and do something about it. There's a big chunk of wage there not contributing very much.

Without it, Beale has the same situation Warburton did: Illy, Willy and Stef have to play. They have to play through injuries, as Johansen did last season and seems to have been doing recently, and they have to come back from injuries when they don’t look ready, as was the case with Willock last week. Chair comes in for some stick on nights like Tuesday because the worse things get, the more frustrating the situation becomes, the harder he tries, the more he attempts himself. He becomes like an angry little kid, desperately trying to dribble around three or four players, believing he can be the one to score every time he gets the ball even if he’s 30 yards out. I liked a point made by somebody on our message board this week about this so much that I’m basically going to nick it and repost it here. Chair is going to the World Cup next week, which he’s no doubt dreamt of and longed for all his life. It’s the pinnacle of a player’s career. He has played every game for QPR this season regardless. He has chucked himself at it and tried so hard to drag us through games that at points like Huddersfield at home we’re sitting here saying ‘perhaps he’s trying too hard’. There’s been absolutely no phoning in, no ducking out with minor injuries, no demanding to be subbed in the first half of games with injuries that actually turn out not even to be bad enough to keep you out of the next match. Several others have done this sort of thing already this year and not got half as much stick as Chair got for "shooting too much" on Tuesday night. I'll stick up for him all the time because I've seen QPR players down the years phone it in and go through the motions so I'll forgive you a lot for that never-say-die spirit Chair shows, but also because I think he’s a little treasure for our team wherever on the form scale he is at any given time.

And so we go into this break facing much the same issues we did driving away from Coventry in victory last season. You’re not going to compete in football leagues if you concede every time a set piece goes in your box — and for all the talk of set piece coaches, sooner or later it’s up the players on the pitch to go and put a body on the line. You’re not going to stick around the top end of this division playing as QPR have during the last few weeks or on this ground last season — Warburton was in full “find a way” mode at that point, Beale has made it clear it’s about peaking in March.

Most of all though, you’re not going to compete in a 46-game Championship season with just a good starting 11, relying on two or three star men to grind themselves into the ground. Either through better players coming up from our much vaunted academy, or a clear-out of the middle ranking players who are currently sucking up wages (remember, you’ve got to find a taker, not as easy as just “get rid”) the next challenge for Beale, Ferdinand and the recruitment team will be strengthening that bit just below the surface of his squad - possibly fewer, better players might be an answer. But on our budget, with the contract situations, that’s easier said than done.

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Below the fold

Team News: Luke Amos remains sidelined for QPR, along with medium termers Tyler Roberts and Stefan Johansen who are out until after the World Cup break — Roberts’ injury, and form, costing him a place in Wales’ travelling party. Taylor Richards will push for a start after his impressive cameo off the bench on Tuesday night where he nearly rescued the game for QPR with three late efforts brilliantly saved. Sinclair Armstrong wasn’t on the bench for that one, but this was tactical according to Mick Beale in his pre-match so he can be involved here. Ilias Chair and Seny Dieng both made their respective national squads and will fly out to Qatar after the game.

Michael Rose, scorer of an own goal in QPR’s 3-0 win over this opponent at Loftus Road the season before last, came off in the midweek win against Wigan with a tight groin but scans have shown no tear. Callum Doyle will once again replace him if he doesn’t make it. Liam Kelly is yet to feature this season thanks to hamstring and knee problems but was back in full training on Thursday. Striker Matty Godden is on the long term injured list after tearing ankle ligaments in the home win against Sheff Utd, Martyn Waghorn did his hamstring in the same game having replaced Godden and won’t be back until after the World Cup, Fankaty Dabo still has six weeks to go with his thigh tear.

Elsewhere: With the ink still drying on a three-year-contract signed just 16 days prior, Leam Richardson has been dismissed by Wigan Warriors after they sunk into the bottom three with a loss at Coventry during the week. No wins in seven, six defeats among those games, fair enough, but with the resources he’s got at his disposal there it’s difficult to know what more he could have done than won promotion and made a reasonable fist of staying up so far. I thought Wigan looked pretty good at our place and were unlucky. Their first game without him is at home to Blackpool.

As reported in Tuesday’s preview, Nathan Jones has indeed gone off to terrorise the Premier League with his disrespect inspections — God knows what he’ll make of Jurgen Klopp’s fist bumps first up this weekend — leaving Luton searching for a new boss ahead of a home game with Rotherham. Neil Critchley feels like a reasonable fit there.

The weekend is rounded off with its best game — the first league derby game between bitter rivals Burnley and Blackburn since 2015/16, with the Clarets first and Rovers second as we stand this afternoon. Waiting to capitalise on dropped points there are Sheffield Red Stripe, still third despite a midweek home loss to Rotherham, ahead of their trip to Cardiff; Norwich, still fourth despite boring the tits off everybody, facing a home game with Boro; and Watford, fifth despite another home defeat last week, this time to Cov, ahead of their game at Bristol City.

Chasing down that top six, four unfancied clubs where the managers are starting to attract attention. Preston Knob End couldn’t keep drawing every game nil nil and thankfully for them it’s the attack that’s started firing rather than the defence regressing — they’re seventh and face Millwall this weekend who had climbed into contention with four wins on the spin before a lapse in the last week or so. In between Swanselona, who’ve finally decided to start playing in the opposition penalty box rather than their own prior to a trip to Huddersfield, and Birmingham who deserve all the credit in the world for climbing to tenth in the league with everything they’ve got going on. They start the weekend at home to Sunderland on the tellybox this evening.

West Brom have a great chance to continue their revival under Carlos Corberan with a visit from a dire Stoke side. The only possible reason anybody has for watching out for Hull v Reading is that the Royals have quietly lost six and won only one of their last eight — has that annual descent down the table started in time to actually suck them into the relegation whirlpool this time? Well, praying didn’t work for me on Tuesday, but it’s not going to stop me trying now.

Referee: It’s our turn again. Referee.

Form

Coventry: Amidst a raft of postponements, pitch problems and financial difficulties at their home stadium, Coventry started the season with six of their first seven games away, and perhaps unsurprisingly won none of their first eight in league and cup with all that going on and key man Callum O’Hare injured. Since snapping that run with a 1-0 home win against Middlesbrough, however, they have won seven and drawn two of 11, and have lost only two of their last 13 fixtures. They come into this game on a run of three successive wins and clean sheets against Blackburn and Wigan H and Watford A. They have kept clean sheets in eight of their last 11 fixtures. With Godden and Waghorn out injured, Viktor Gyokeres has really started to burnish his reputation — his spectacular clencher against Wigan during the week was a seventh goal of the season and fifth in his last 11 games. This is a fifth game in the last six that Coventry will play at home as they try to catch up on the farce of August — they’re 4-1-3 on this ground in all comps with Preston, Burnley and Blackpool the three sides to win here so far (they also lost a ‘home’ tie in the League Cup against Bristol City but that was played at Burton Albion). Mark Robins is the longest serving manager in the Championship, and fourth longest in the whole EFL, having been here in his second stint since March 2017 — remarkably Michael Beale is already up to ninth on the Championship table having only arrived at QPR in June.

QPR: It was all going so well for Rangers with eight wins from 11 games and a manager of the month nomination, but they come into this fixture winless in four games in which they’ve only scored one goal. They have lost three of the last four and four of the last seven matches. Away from home they’ve taken one point and scored one goal from their last three having won three in a row and four out of five on the road before that. Five of the last six goals they have conceded have come from set pieces. Their running total of seven defeats so far is the same as West Brom who are third bottom — mind you Blackburn are second with eight. Lyndon Dykes now has five in eight and six for the season after his goal against Huddersfield in the week — prior to his brace against Reading he’d only scored one in his previous 24 QPR games. Ilias Chair scored three times in Rangers’ first seven league games this season but is now without a goal in 13 outings. QPR and Coventry returned to competitive action against each other for the first time in ten years in 2020/21, and QPR have won three of the four meetings since including both games last season — though quite how they escaped this fixture with a 2-1 win in January is anybody’s guess. Rangers have won five of the last six encounters having won only one of the previous ten.

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…

“I understand that if the players were getting eight out of ten every week they wouldn't be playing for QPR, but some of our boys go from an eight to four and then back again too frequent. Like Clive said, the World Cup break can't come quick enough. Only five games left (including Coventry) until the transfer window opens and a few will leave and I am sure a few will come in and #signastriker will be trending again. Its going to be interesting. As for Saturday.....God knows which Rangers are going to turn up. You have to hand it to Coventry. With what's going on with the ground etc, they are putting some good results together and I think they will probably do one over us. I just hope for a really poor referee again, just to hear more poo stories.”

Cheesy’s Prediction: Coventry 2-0 QPR. No scorer.

LFW’s Prediction: Coventry 2-0 QPR. No scorer.

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062259 added 04:20 - Nov 12 The only guaranteed outcome from this game is that when it is over, Rangers will have played 10 of the other 12 teams in the top 13 (at the start of play) away from home. Something to give reason for hope.
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thehat added 07:43 - Nov 12 Great report Clive. Just about got Tuesday night out of my system. Travelling to Coventry with very low expectations which may not be a bad thing as we seem to dig out more results when we are the underdog. Despite everything great to see us travelling in good numbers. We really are a special club. Come on you R’rrrs
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traininvain added 12:12 - Nov 12 Feeling strangely positive about this one. As fans we were frustrated on Tuesday night and I think the players will have felt it even more. They’ll want to put it right this afternoon.
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TacticalR added 14:54 - Nov 12 Thanks for your preview. Once again, this season is shaping up as a control case to answer the question: 'Were last season's problems down to Warburton, or were they down to objective factors such as injuries and squad depth?' On Chair trying too hard, as mentioned after the Huddersfield game: 'I was reminded of Rooney's performance when England were beaten by Iceland. Everything was going through Rooney and the rest of the team ground to a halt. We missed Johansen's know-how, and kept on trying to do the same things over and over again.' There's actually a book about the paradox of trying too hard: 'Trying Not to Try: The Art and Science of Spontaneity' by Professor of Asian Studies, Edward Slingerland.

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Lils1977 added 06:26 - Nov 24 https://loftforwords.fansnetwork.co.uk/
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