QPR will be hoping their recent spell of bad results and poor discipline comes to an end on Saturday as they attempt to climb away from the bottom three with a home win against Everton.
Barclays Premier League >>> Saturday March 3, 2012 >>> Kick Off 3pm >>> Loftus Road, London, W12
So what's it to be this week then? A strike? A plague? A back pass in injury time intended to run the clock down that flies into the roof of the net while Paddy Kenny is thinking about other things? Or yet another red card after about half an hour of the match?
QPR are a danger to themselves at the moment, like the kindly old grandmother now grappling with early onset Alzheimer's. While the family agonises over whether to put her into residential care she totters around the home she's lived in for years leaving the gas on. "What have we said about the gas cooker mum?" the daughter asks as the fire service airs the place out following a call from a neighbour. Three days later they're all back again. And again. And again.
Given two weeks, and a foreign trip, to prepare for a visit by Fulham (one away win all season prior to last weekend) they respond by almost conceding after four minutes, actually conceding after seven, almost conceding again after nine and then getting a man sent off in the first half for the third time in four home games. "What have we said about it being difficult to win with only ten men on the field mum?"
Two weeks they had to prepare for that game and that's the best they could come up with. Two. Bastard. Weeks.
The elephant in the room at QPR is the fixtures against the top six teams in the division which are all still to come in the final ten games of our season but at the moment it's the 'QPR' bit of our fixture list that worries me more. Whoever we're playing, be it Man Utd or Wolves, we're finding a way to make a complete mess of it either by conceding an early goal or three, getting a man sent off, or often both.
Last week the ten men rallied in the second half (I suppose they've had enough practice) and would have taken advantage of Fulham trying to coast through the remainder of the game had Shaun Wright-Phillips not missed another gilt edged chance, this time from inside the six yard box, with the clock running down. I've got a feeling that match sums up how our season is going to go; Mark Hughes has always started slowly before achieving impressive results and I think we're going to throw away our chance of putting points on the board (which pretty much ends at Bolton next week) then suddenly up our game against the better teams by which time it will sadly be too late.
The Wright-Phillips miss, along with more misplaced passes than even Georges Santos could manage in a single game of football, followed by a free kick planted straight into the School End by Joey Barton brought about the first genuinely audible signs of dissent against the pair who have disappointed since arriving at QPR in August.
There is conjecture about just how badly they're playing. I've seen somebody online this week branding Barton "arguably the worst player to wear the QPR shirt in recent times" which, unless you count "recent times" as the last fortnight, shows a chronic lack of knowledge of a club that quite recently fielded John Curtis at right full back. Others say they're doing absolutely fine and their work rate is to be admired. I'm somewhere in between on the issue – they're not as bad as some scapegoat hunters are making out, but embarrassingly short of their best.
Still, the ten seconds of barracking they got last week from a tiny minority of a long suffering crowd, has given the club a chance to change its monotonous rhetoric this week. It's gone from "we understand the importance of this game" to "we need your support" and "we want this as much as the supporters". The insinuation being that the support is waning and it's making a difference – I know 5,000 people who went to Fulham and sang their hearts out for the duration of a 6-0 defeat who'll testify to the level of support making little difference to this group of players.
I know as well as anybody that there are journalists to satisfy, websites to populate, radio programmes to air, 24 hour rolling news to be a part of but wouldn't it be just lovely if for one week, just one week, they all just shut up for five days and then did all of their talking through the medium of actions on the field of play? We've had Anton Ferdinand saying he's determined not to ruin the hard work done last season, Mark Hughes saying we have enough quality to survive, Shaun Wright-Phillips saying it's do or die time, Joey Barton saying they want it as much as the fans and, best of all this week, Tommy Smith saying a win is important this weekend. I wonder how long Poirot worked on that case before delivering his conclusion to Tommy? Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up. Just start playing, show us some actual proof that any of this is true. At the moment we're being treated like we're bloody stupid.
I wonder how these players get such attractive wives. I mean presumably our players stand at the end of the bed every night in their boxers talking about how large the appendage is that lurks beneath and exactly how wonderful it's going to make her feel in a couple of minutes time and just how much they're looking forward to showing her the time of her life before climbing aboard, fumbling around for 25 seconds, rolling off and falling asleep.
If they could, in the football sense, stop waving it around and start fucking that would be useful.
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Team News: QPR could have Luke Young back on the right side of defence after his absence with a hamstring injury. The full back has been training this week and will have fitness test prior to the game to see whether he can return. Nedum Onuoha will replace Clint Hill at centre back if Young does return, if not expect the former Man City man to continue on the right with Hill in the centre as Fitz Hall has only trained once this week (quite high by his standards) and will not be involved. DJ Campbell will return to training next week ahead of Bolton after his hamstring injury and will be joined in the squad next week by Djibril Cisse who serves the final game of his three match ban this weekend. Samba Diakite is also banned this week after his mad half hour against Fulham.
Everton are without central midfielder Darron Gibson through injury and will take a late check on three other midfielders – Steven Pienaar, Leon Osman and Jack Rodwell. Striker Nikica Jelavic has only made one substitute appearance since arriving from Rangers in January but he is in the squad and fit to play this weekend. He has scored 17 goals in 27 appearances north of the border so far this season.
Elsewhere: It's one of those weekends that looks like having a big say on both ends of the Premiership – Sky will no doubt use the word "pivotal" at some point, but then they also say they're going to "keep you across the news" which means absolutely nothing as well. At the top Liverpool v Arsenal starts the weekend on Saturday lunchtime, Spurs v Man Utd rounds it off at 4pm on Sunday. Chelsea lie in wait for slip ups but their game at West Brom on Saturday at 3pm looks tricky given their current form and mood, even allowing for the Baggies' dreadful home results this season. Throw in the Newcastle v Sunderland derby game, two of the division's form teams, and it's a cracking weekend that Man City, at home to Bolton, look best placed to capitalise on.
Down at the bottom, less so. Apart from Bolton who would seem to be on a hiding to nothing at Eastlands the other teams around QPR at the bottom of the table all have winnable games. Wigan welcome Swansea in something of a grudge match given that Roberto Martinez left one for the other in acrimonious circumstances, Blackburn host Villa with plenty of supporter angst on both sides, and Wolves go to Fulham on Sunday. If QPR do slip up against Everton it's highly unlikely they'll get away with another week outside the bottom three.
Referee: The man holding the red card this week is Kevin Friend, and the omens are good. LoftforWords has repeatedly found him to be a home orientated referee both in games at Loftus Road and away from home and the R's haven't lost in five matches with him in charge – winning four. In addition he was the referee at Goodison Park in August when QPR secured a surprise 1-0 victory thanks to Tommy Smith's first half goal. A full (and it is full this week, I see this bloke more than my mum) case file can be read here.
QPR: Rangers have now equalled the Premier League record for the most players sent off at home in a league season – five. The R’s have lost a league leading 15 points from leading positions this season, 13 of those at home, and are without a clean sheet in the league since the 1-0 win against Chelsea in October, their worst run since conceding in 20 consecutive games in 1978/79. Their only other league shut outs this season came against Newcastle at home and the corresponding fixture with Saturday’s opponents Everton. The R’s have won only one of the last 14, and have taken four points from six league matches under new manager Mark Hughes.
Everton: As ever, Everton are coming good in the second half of the season. They’re unbeaten in seven games in all competitions approaching this one, winning four of them. They’ve won four away matches this season and worryingly for QPR they’ve proven rather adept at seeing off the teams in trouble at the bottom of the league – West Brom, Blackburn and Bolton have all been vanquished so far. They did surrender a point to Wigan last time out on the road though, part of a run of three draws, a win and a defeat from their last five away games. Only Wigan have scored fewer than Everton’s 26 this season, but only Man Utd, Man City and Liverpool have conceded fewer than their 27. Everton haven’t been involved in a 0-0 draw for 46 games, QPR haven’t had one for 22.
Betting: Professional odds compiler Owen Goulding has cracked. Weeks of intelligent analysis blown by ridiculous behaviour on the pitch has reduced him to a weary one line preview this week.
I’m sick of posting previews only to have them made irrelevant by less than intelligent players. So, short and sweet this week. It's going to be tight, boring and edgy. Bet of the weekend, draw at half time, 11/10 with Bet365. Let's hope we can get there with 11 players on the field.
Prediction: And as my prediction hiatus didn’t bring about any noticeable improvement in results I’m going to have a go this week as well. Those who listened to the excellent Open All R’s podcast earlier in the week will know already what I think – Everton are a reasonable team in good form, we are a mediocre team in no form at all – and so I’m going for a disappointing 2-0 defeat.
Everton to win 2-0, best priced 11/1 with Bet Victor
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