| Just Back... 19:06 - Sep 29 with 4810 views | kropotkin41 |
But then I cheated somewhat by living in the wrong direction.
I could have got up and walked out early, and I have never ever done that, ever!
That's all really. Liberty is a nice stadium. Locals are friendly. The weather was nice.
It's not the losing. It's the manner of it. It's not the seasons of struggling in the lower half of the Championship, it's the way we do it. We don't look like a team. My boy said to me that he doesn't care about any of the players in the squad.......
We had a nice day out. |  |
| ‘morbid curiosity about where this is all going’ |
| |  |
| Just Back... on 19:10 - Sep 29 with 4764 views | Hayesender |
I agree with your boy about not caring about these players, bar the young lads who've been treated shabbily imo.
There's just no connection between the club and the fans anymore |  |
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| Just Back... on 19:12 - Sep 29 with 4748 views | bosh67 |
We're not a team because he's killing the confidence of the squad. |  |
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| Just Back... on 19:45 - Sep 29 with 4543 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
| Just Back... on 19:10 - Sep 29 by Hayesender |
I agree with your boy about not caring about these players, bar the young lads who've been treated shabbily imo.
There's just no connection between the club and the fans anymore |
Disagree with this.
Despite David Brent in the manager's seat, and results on the turn, QPR have done the best community work they have every done in my lifetime in my opinion.
I never felt closer to QPR even when we're spanked twice in a week. |  | | |
| Just Back... on 19:54 - Sep 29 with 4452 views | kropotkin41 |
| Just Back... on 19:45 - Sep 29 by BazzaInTheLoft |
Disagree with this.
Despite David Brent in the manager's seat, and results on the turn, QPR have done the best community work they have every done in my lifetime in my opinion.
I never felt closer to QPR even when we're spanked twice in a week. |
Yeah, I agree that the club has done some great stuff in recent years......... we'll make a fine community association that happens to have a football team that plays on Sundays at this rate.
(Absolutely agree with you about the club in the community, but at the end of the day what happens on the pitch matters.) | |
| ‘morbid curiosity about where this is all going’ |
| |
| Just Back... on 20:28 - Sep 29 with 4266 views | Northolt_Rs |
| Just Back... on 19:45 - Sep 29 by BazzaInTheLoft |
Disagree with this.
Despite David Brent in the manager's seat, and results on the turn, QPR have done the best community work they have every done in my lifetime in my opinion.
I never felt closer to QPR even when we're spanked twice in a week. |
3 times in a week.... |  |
| Scooters, Tunes, Trainers and QPR. |
| |
| Just Back... on 20:28 - Sep 29 with 4266 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
| Just Back... on 19:54 - Sep 29 by kropotkin41 |
Yeah, I agree that the club has done some great stuff in recent years......... we'll make a fine community association that happens to have a football team that plays on Sundays at this rate.
(Absolutely agree with you about the club in the community, but at the end of the day what happens on the pitch matters.) |
Yeah, the fcking football always gets in the way. | | | |
| Just Back... on 20:37 - Sep 29 with 4201 views | Watford_Ranger |
This was worse than West Brom, for me. Incidentally my two away games so far.
We’ve got some genuinely good footballers. This isn’t the John Gregory team with Danny Cullip and Adam Bolder drafted in to drag us through the season (probably the wrong manager/players but you get my drift). There are guys in that squad who with the right manager would look very decent.
McLaren’s ‘performance’ started poorly with this bizarre insistence on playing two strikers, no wingers and two full-backs who can’t run but it got increasingly poor. I don’t think Paul Hart would have made that Smith sub for Eze. This bloke is going to kill these young players. |  | | |
| Just Back... on 20:54 - Sep 29 with 4106 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
Seriously, McClaren is right bellend, but can anybody be fcked to change again? It will be Allardyce or Pulis or Curbishly or Howard Wilkinson.
If we are going to do it, no more yesterday men please for the love of god. | | | |
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| Just Back... on 21:45 - Sep 29 with 3954 views | Watford_Ranger |
| Just Back... on 20:54 - Sep 29 by BazzaInTheLoft |
Seriously, McClaren is right bellend, but can anybody be fcked to change again? It will be Allardyce or Pulis or Curbishly or Howard Wilkinson.
If we are going to do it, no more yesterday men please for the love of god. |
I thought Howard Wilkinson was dead. If we just spun an urn around until it pointed at one of our subs we’d bring the right player on occasionally so it would be an improvement. | | | |
| Just Back... on 22:15 - Sep 29 with 3829 views | Boston |
| Just Back... on 19:45 - Sep 29 by BazzaInTheLoft |
Disagree with this.
Despite David Brent in the manager's seat, and results on the turn, QPR have done the best community work they have every done in my lifetime in my opinion.
I never felt closer to QPR even when we're spanked twice in a week. |
Unfortunately we're putting the cart before the horse. | |
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| Just Back... on 00:49 - Sep 30 with 3513 views | Toast_R |
Ramsey and Hasslebaink were new and different but they didnt work out either. The McClaren appointment though has to be the biggest cock up to date. |  | | |
| Just Back... on 01:46 - Sep 30 with 3445 views | Neil_SI |
My slight worry with all of this is I just don't *feel* that McClaren really understands and knows the Championship or lower leagues that well. He's operated at a higher level for a lot of the time, so while he is an excellent and experienced coach, he doesn't seem suited to this level of football and I think it shows.
He wasn't keen on signing players from the lower leagues, because he didn't know much about them, and hence has moved towards experience. Having said that, it's still a fair assessment that we needed to have a bit more experience in the squad having lost so many senior players in the summer, so it's not like he's an idiot. That was sensible enough.
But, he also didn't seem to realise how expensive players at this level are and were. The club seemed to have one idea and he probably had another idea. I'm not sure the expectation levels matched and the reality of it all seemed to be a bit of a wake up call.
In addition, with everything that's happened so far this season, it makes me feel like McClaren hasn't done his homework well enough. I don't feel like he knows the strengths and weaknesses or history of the players here all that well, and I'd say the same for the teams we've faced this season, where he's set up the side poorly and played into the hands of the opposition.
The Norwich and Swansea matches were striking examples of this. Both have deep lying midfield players who can dictate matches and control proceedings from the base of the midfield, but we didn't seem to prepare for this and more worryingly did nothing to try and remedy the situation once it was apparent it was a problem during the games. I mean, it's fine if you want to allow those players to have time on the ball, but don't let them do it with the two strikers out of the game behind them. If they're not going to apply pressure, at least get one or both to drop in and screen.
On top of that, the team selections and rotational policy McClaren's employed says a lot. There are some players he clearly fancies and some he doesn't. It feels like to me has made some quick assessments based on limited action in a short space of time and stuck with them.
And we're back to playing players out of position to try and shoehorn them in and all of this leaves us vulnerable to being exploited by opposing teams and increases the risk of things not going as well as we want.
From a purely tactical perspective, it concerns me to see us paying little attention to the oppositions midfield, particularly the diamond positions (base and top of the midfield) where we're allowing the opposition to control proceedings, and then leaving space for an attacking midfield to freely operate between the lines and in dangerous areas right in front of the defence.
Currently we're vulnerable from wide areas because we're playing two players in Freeman and Eze who are more attack minded, which does leave the full backs exposed and don't have the luxury of an extra body in midfield to try and help out and cover. In addition, those two aren't really thickening up the midfield when they come inside, nor are they really doing the job of a natural wide player. At the same time, the two in midfield are being overrun and exposed, and we've generally not got the profile of players with the attributes to play as a two instead of a three.
That's become more obvious as McClaren's stuck with it, and today we saw Geoff Cameron screening the two centre backs. That might seem like a sensible idea, but it meant that we played too deep and the midfield were giving up even more space because someone was trying to offer more protection than normal. It didn't stop Fulton running through unchecked from deep with all the time and space to tee up and score the third.
You would expect at least one of the two strikers to come deep and help out, but it doesn't look like they're being instructed to do so to me. McClaren also cited that our passing was poor and we gave it away a lot, but if the distance between our defensive base and units increases from the strikers (and there was a huge gap and a lot of vertical space down the middle today) then it's going to make every pass more difficult to achieve.
If McClaren did his homework, he'd have known why so many before him in recent seasons have opted for a three man midfield, as it played to the strengths we had. It also helps with having more passing options in close proximity, at least in transitions and quick turnovers of play.
I've mentioned previously on here that McClaren tends to set up a pretty basic formation, with 1:1 duals across the pitch and expecting players to win their individual battles. But, the net effect of this is when that doesn't happen, you leave yourself wide open and exposed right across the pitch, and at times, outnumbered and vulnerable and this has happened countless times already this season with inevitable outcomes. It's not the type of level of football for this approach, not unless you have players with the technical ability and personality to do it.
I think a lot of the matches we've lost this season are because of this. I've counted many times this season where crosses have come into the box with players arriving on the other side completely unmarked and with plenty of time and space to do what they like. Same for central midfield and runners from deep.
I also think it's a shame that for one half of excellent football against an admittedly poor Millwall side on the night, he went away from it and back to a system where we're shoehorning players in. I just don't get that at all.
The choice of substitutions hasn't really worked this season either, but I think worse than that, decisions on when to introduce and make changes are happening very late, easily 10-15 minutes before they should be in some cases.
But the biggest worry isn't actually about formations or shoehorning players in, it's just the total collapse once things don't go your way. These are the worrying signs that need to be looked at and addressed. We completely gave up and waved the white flag in spectacular fashion against West Brom, made life extraordinarily difficult for ourselves after conceding against Bolton and never looked like we had the belief after going behind against Norwich and Swansea that we could get back in it.
Every time a goal goes in, it's unsettling the side and making them more anxious, and to me, that's obvious. If you need to respond, but you're set up in a way that leaves you wide open as we are doing, it's going to make you nervous about the counter attacks when there's already a soft underbelly. |  | | |
| Just Back... on 07:23 - Sep 30 with 3282 views | jonno |
| Just Back... on 01:46 - Sep 30 by Neil_SI |
My slight worry with all of this is I just don't *feel* that McClaren really understands and knows the Championship or lower leagues that well. He's operated at a higher level for a lot of the time, so while he is an excellent and experienced coach, he doesn't seem suited to this level of football and I think it shows.
He wasn't keen on signing players from the lower leagues, because he didn't know much about them, and hence has moved towards experience. Having said that, it's still a fair assessment that we needed to have a bit more experience in the squad having lost so many senior players in the summer, so it's not like he's an idiot. That was sensible enough.
But, he also didn't seem to realise how expensive players at this level are and were. The club seemed to have one idea and he probably had another idea. I'm not sure the expectation levels matched and the reality of it all seemed to be a bit of a wake up call.
In addition, with everything that's happened so far this season, it makes me feel like McClaren hasn't done his homework well enough. I don't feel like he knows the strengths and weaknesses or history of the players here all that well, and I'd say the same for the teams we've faced this season, where he's set up the side poorly and played into the hands of the opposition.
The Norwich and Swansea matches were striking examples of this. Both have deep lying midfield players who can dictate matches and control proceedings from the base of the midfield, but we didn't seem to prepare for this and more worryingly did nothing to try and remedy the situation once it was apparent it was a problem during the games. I mean, it's fine if you want to allow those players to have time on the ball, but don't let them do it with the two strikers out of the game behind them. If they're not going to apply pressure, at least get one or both to drop in and screen.
On top of that, the team selections and rotational policy McClaren's employed says a lot. There are some players he clearly fancies and some he doesn't. It feels like to me has made some quick assessments based on limited action in a short space of time and stuck with them.
And we're back to playing players out of position to try and shoehorn them in and all of this leaves us vulnerable to being exploited by opposing teams and increases the risk of things not going as well as we want.
From a purely tactical perspective, it concerns me to see us paying little attention to the oppositions midfield, particularly the diamond positions (base and top of the midfield) where we're allowing the opposition to control proceedings, and then leaving space for an attacking midfield to freely operate between the lines and in dangerous areas right in front of the defence.
Currently we're vulnerable from wide areas because we're playing two players in Freeman and Eze who are more attack minded, which does leave the full backs exposed and don't have the luxury of an extra body in midfield to try and help out and cover. In addition, those two aren't really thickening up the midfield when they come inside, nor are they really doing the job of a natural wide player. At the same time, the two in midfield are being overrun and exposed, and we've generally not got the profile of players with the attributes to play as a two instead of a three.
That's become more obvious as McClaren's stuck with it, and today we saw Geoff Cameron screening the two centre backs. That might seem like a sensible idea, but it meant that we played too deep and the midfield were giving up even more space because someone was trying to offer more protection than normal. It didn't stop Fulton running through unchecked from deep with all the time and space to tee up and score the third.
You would expect at least one of the two strikers to come deep and help out, but it doesn't look like they're being instructed to do so to me. McClaren also cited that our passing was poor and we gave it away a lot, but if the distance between our defensive base and units increases from the strikers (and there was a huge gap and a lot of vertical space down the middle today) then it's going to make every pass more difficult to achieve.
If McClaren did his homework, he'd have known why so many before him in recent seasons have opted for a three man midfield, as it played to the strengths we had. It also helps with having more passing options in close proximity, at least in transitions and quick turnovers of play.
I've mentioned previously on here that McClaren tends to set up a pretty basic formation, with 1:1 duals across the pitch and expecting players to win their individual battles. But, the net effect of this is when that doesn't happen, you leave yourself wide open and exposed right across the pitch, and at times, outnumbered and vulnerable and this has happened countless times already this season with inevitable outcomes. It's not the type of level of football for this approach, not unless you have players with the technical ability and personality to do it.
I think a lot of the matches we've lost this season are because of this. I've counted many times this season where crosses have come into the box with players arriving on the other side completely unmarked and with plenty of time and space to do what they like. Same for central midfield and runners from deep.
I also think it's a shame that for one half of excellent football against an admittedly poor Millwall side on the night, he went away from it and back to a system where we're shoehorning players in. I just don't get that at all.
The choice of substitutions hasn't really worked this season either, but I think worse than that, decisions on when to introduce and make changes are happening very late, easily 10-15 minutes before they should be in some cases.
But the biggest worry isn't actually about formations or shoehorning players in, it's just the total collapse once things don't go your way. These are the worrying signs that need to be looked at and addressed. We completely gave up and waved the white flag in spectacular fashion against West Brom, made life extraordinarily difficult for ourselves after conceding against Bolton and never looked like we had the belief after going behind against Norwich and Swansea that we could get back in it.
Every time a goal goes in, it's unsettling the side and making them more anxious, and to me, that's obvious. If you need to respond, but you're set up in a way that leaves you wide open as we are doing, it's going to make you nervous about the counter attacks when there's already a soft underbelly. |
Thanks for that Neil - an excellent summation of the situation. It will never happen of course, but it would be interesting for McLaren and the rest of the coaching team to read that and respond to it. And you are spot on about the Millwall game; surely even the most useless manager should recognise when they, accidentally or not, finally hit on a system that works for their players and stick with it, but McLaren having done that for the Millwall game immediately reverted back. No logic to it at all. |  | | |
| Just Back... on 07:36 - Sep 30 with 3240 views | ozexile |
4-2-3-1 would solve all of those problems instantaneously. | | | |
| Just Back... on 08:09 - Sep 30 with 3149 views | loneranger1 |
| Just Back... on 01:46 - Sep 30 by Neil_SI |
My slight worry with all of this is I just don't *feel* that McClaren really understands and knows the Championship or lower leagues that well. He's operated at a higher level for a lot of the time, so while he is an excellent and experienced coach, he doesn't seem suited to this level of football and I think it shows.
He wasn't keen on signing players from the lower leagues, because he didn't know much about them, and hence has moved towards experience. Having said that, it's still a fair assessment that we needed to have a bit more experience in the squad having lost so many senior players in the summer, so it's not like he's an idiot. That was sensible enough.
But, he also didn't seem to realise how expensive players at this level are and were. The club seemed to have one idea and he probably had another idea. I'm not sure the expectation levels matched and the reality of it all seemed to be a bit of a wake up call.
In addition, with everything that's happened so far this season, it makes me feel like McClaren hasn't done his homework well enough. I don't feel like he knows the strengths and weaknesses or history of the players here all that well, and I'd say the same for the teams we've faced this season, where he's set up the side poorly and played into the hands of the opposition.
The Norwich and Swansea matches were striking examples of this. Both have deep lying midfield players who can dictate matches and control proceedings from the base of the midfield, but we didn't seem to prepare for this and more worryingly did nothing to try and remedy the situation once it was apparent it was a problem during the games. I mean, it's fine if you want to allow those players to have time on the ball, but don't let them do it with the two strikers out of the game behind them. If they're not going to apply pressure, at least get one or both to drop in and screen.
On top of that, the team selections and rotational policy McClaren's employed says a lot. There are some players he clearly fancies and some he doesn't. It feels like to me has made some quick assessments based on limited action in a short space of time and stuck with them.
And we're back to playing players out of position to try and shoehorn them in and all of this leaves us vulnerable to being exploited by opposing teams and increases the risk of things not going as well as we want.
From a purely tactical perspective, it concerns me to see us paying little attention to the oppositions midfield, particularly the diamond positions (base and top of the midfield) where we're allowing the opposition to control proceedings, and then leaving space for an attacking midfield to freely operate between the lines and in dangerous areas right in front of the defence.
Currently we're vulnerable from wide areas because we're playing two players in Freeman and Eze who are more attack minded, which does leave the full backs exposed and don't have the luxury of an extra body in midfield to try and help out and cover. In addition, those two aren't really thickening up the midfield when they come inside, nor are they really doing the job of a natural wide player. At the same time, the two in midfield are being overrun and exposed, and we've generally not got the profile of players with the attributes to play as a two instead of a three.
That's become more obvious as McClaren's stuck with it, and today we saw Geoff Cameron screening the two centre backs. That might seem like a sensible idea, but it meant that we played too deep and the midfield were giving up even more space because someone was trying to offer more protection than normal. It didn't stop Fulton running through unchecked from deep with all the time and space to tee up and score the third.
You would expect at least one of the two strikers to come deep and help out, but it doesn't look like they're being instructed to do so to me. McClaren also cited that our passing was poor and we gave it away a lot, but if the distance between our defensive base and units increases from the strikers (and there was a huge gap and a lot of vertical space down the middle today) then it's going to make every pass more difficult to achieve.
If McClaren did his homework, he'd have known why so many before him in recent seasons have opted for a three man midfield, as it played to the strengths we had. It also helps with having more passing options in close proximity, at least in transitions and quick turnovers of play.
I've mentioned previously on here that McClaren tends to set up a pretty basic formation, with 1:1 duals across the pitch and expecting players to win their individual battles. But, the net effect of this is when that doesn't happen, you leave yourself wide open and exposed right across the pitch, and at times, outnumbered and vulnerable and this has happened countless times already this season with inevitable outcomes. It's not the type of level of football for this approach, not unless you have players with the technical ability and personality to do it.
I think a lot of the matches we've lost this season are because of this. I've counted many times this season where crosses have come into the box with players arriving on the other side completely unmarked and with plenty of time and space to do what they like. Same for central midfield and runners from deep.
I also think it's a shame that for one half of excellent football against an admittedly poor Millwall side on the night, he went away from it and back to a system where we're shoehorning players in. I just don't get that at all.
The choice of substitutions hasn't really worked this season either, but I think worse than that, decisions on when to introduce and make changes are happening very late, easily 10-15 minutes before they should be in some cases.
But the biggest worry isn't actually about formations or shoehorning players in, it's just the total collapse once things don't go your way. These are the worrying signs that need to be looked at and addressed. We completely gave up and waved the white flag in spectacular fashion against West Brom, made life extraordinarily difficult for ourselves after conceding against Bolton and never looked like we had the belief after going behind against Norwich and Swansea that we could get back in it.
Every time a goal goes in, it's unsettling the side and making them more anxious, and to me, that's obvious. If you need to respond, but you're set up in a way that leaves you wide open as we are doing, it's going to make you nervous about the counter attacks when there's already a soft underbelly. |
Hi Neil,
Can you be our manager please?
That's it.
Cheers! | | | |
| Just Back... on 09:37 - Sep 30 with 2922 views | Esox_Lucius |
| Just Back... on 00:49 - Sep 30 by Toast_R |
Ramsey and Hasslebaink were new and different but they didnt work out either. The McClaren appointment though has to be the biggest cock up to date. |
Sorry but that would have to Harry Redknapp. The worst manager we have ever appointed. Even winning the PO final had little to do with him as he just wasn't interested in QPR. |  |
| The grass is always greener. |
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| Just Back... on 12:52 - Sep 30 with 2635 views | Harbour |
| Just Back... on 09:37 - Sep 30 by Esox_Lucius |
Sorry but that would have to Harry Redknapp. The worst manager we have ever appointed. Even winning the PO final had little to do with him as he just wasn't interested in QPR. |
Not much to choose between HR and MH both left the club in terrible position and long term damage which we will live with for next 10 years personally hate what MH did all those crappy signings a very big headed talentless and zero personality | | | |
| Just Back... on 19:54 - Sep 30 with 2257 views | kensalriser |
Nice analysis, Neil.
Perhaps the most inexcusable shortcoming you've identified is the lack of homework, and I would add, application. It's not a 9 to 5 job. He should know his stuff inside out and have people around him who also know their stuff and can answer questions on the spot concerning the other teams in the division, their players, their managers and their methods, playing styles, strengths and weaknesses.
If he really is busking it the players will already have him sussed. |  |
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