In a fast unravelling September, manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink took to the airwaves on Monday to plead his case as QPR prepare for a rare League Cup Third Round tie at Loftus Road.
League Cup THIRD Round!!! >>> Tuesday September 21, 2016 >>> Kick Off 19.45 >>> Weather — Warm, dry >>> Loftus Road, London, W12
I’m not sure you can feel sorry for somebody who gets paid very handsomely to tell eleven men how to kick a ball around the field, particularly when they’re not kicking it very well, but I can certainly sympathise with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s situation to a certain extent, which he graciously explained at length on this week’s Open All R’s Podcast.
Take Sandro for instance. QPR supporters have, supposedly, grown tired of ageing, injury prone mercenaries coming here on colossal money at the end of their careers with no intention of doing anything other than tossing it off for a couple of years and topping their whopping pension pots up. QPR supporters supposedly want younger, hungrier players, who don’t earn £60,000 a week, who actually want to be at the club, who want to play football every week and do their best for Queens Park Rangers. "I don’t mind if we lose as long as we try” — that old chestnut.
And yet, after a couple of poor results and some very lacklustre performances, we want the players who do want to be here out and Sandro back in. Sandro is about the biggest mercenary we’ve had - only here in the first place for the money, hardly ever fit enough to play, not very impressive when he has played, repeatedly stating his desire to leave the club, with absolutely no interest in being at QPR and only now training and pushing to play because several attempts to leave in August fell through. Come January, he’ll be desperate to be off again.
And we’re giving Hasselbaink grief for not picking him?
This supposed period of transition at QPR is occurring off the pitch as well as on it. We’re moving from being a big spending club, to a more sensibly run one and it’s taking some getting used to. Though it didn’t work and wasn’t sustainable, people do still want QPR to be competing for the likes of Dwight Gayle when they move regardless of their cost.
People seem to quite like the idea of scouting lower divisions and Europe for bargains, but at the same time they want and expect them to hit the ground running and perform well immediately. I saw one message board expert writing off Wszolek yesterday, after ten days in England and one 60 minute outing in a dire team performance against Newcastle.
In short we talk a good game about wanting the old QPR back and this and that, but really we don’t, and one bad month is enough for everybody to start calling for the manager to be sacked. Again.
That said, there were some worrying moments in Hasselbaink’s interview. He was right to laugh off the fascination people who’ve never picked a real football team in their life seem to have with 4-4-2, pointing out that 4-2-3-1 doesn’t necessarily have to be a negative formation — the way Huddersfield played it at the weekend, for instance, made it look more like 4-2-4, and they shoved their full backs up to support as well.
The formation isn’t necessarily the problem at QPR at the moment, it’s the lack of pace and tempo to the play, the big gaps between the forwards and the midfield, the central midfielders sitting too deep and playing too slow, the striker too isolated and forced to chase down hopeful punts down the field. But Hasselbaink’s rigidity, and the reason for it, was quite concerning.
He was right to point out that Tjaronn Chery is our most gifted player and is much better when utilised at ten than on the wing, where, again, he was right to say he’d be targeted for his lack of defensive game. But the idea that Chery cannot possibly ever be left out, particularly in tough away games where a more physical approach as seen in the final 15 minutes at Huddersfield may be of benefit, is overstating his ability and importance slightly isn’t it? Is he contributing enough in away games to be considered undroppable?
And while it’s not necessarily a negative formation in and of itself, QPR certainly aren’t playing it in a particularly attractive manner are they? Even the wins, bar Leeds, have been dull to watch. That high tempo and high press Hasselbaink hung his hat on at the start of the year sadly lacking since the Leeds game — it was reassuring to hear him say that needs to improve, but there weren’t many indications as to how that will happen, or why it’s gone away.
It looks like there’s going to be a few changes to the side tonight, which may be a good thing if they’re done right and some players like Ariel Borysiuk finally get a chance to have a go from the start. Or it could be the standard QPR deliberate exit from a cup competition to concentrate on the important business of not winning the league. That really will boil my piss if it turns out to be the case because for a team that’s dull to watch, playing in an attritional league like the Championship, passing up the chance to have a cup run, and beat a Premier League side at home, would be a really disappointing outcome.
Links >>> Hassling Jimmy — Podcast >>> A familiar sinking feeling — Interview >>> Falco secures crucial win — History >>> Bankes in charge — Referee
Team News: Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink will make changes to his starting 11 tonight and try to get some match minutes into his new signings from around Europe — so expect long stints for Ariel Borysiuk, Idrissa Sylla and Pawel Wzsolek as well as the lesser spotted Sandro and one or two of the younger players. James Perch and Jamie Mackie are long term absentees while Seb Polter is feeling his way back from a glute injury.
Sunderland are missing Adnan Januzaj through suspension following his red card at the weekend, while Jermain Defoe is conducting his annual audit of the female contestants from this year’s Big Brother and is also unavailable so expect Kevin De Bruyne’s Wearside cousin Duncan Watmore to start up front. Patrick van Aarnholt was withdrawn from the starting eleven at Spurs at the last minute on Sunday after a cardiologist refused to sign him off. He’s since been taken to a better hospital where his condition has been upgraded to ‘alive’ and he can now play.
Elsewhere: A disappointing lack of upsets last night, with Arsenal winning their attractive tie at Nottingham Trees 4-0, and Liverpool beating the Derby Chokers 3-0 — although that was livened up considerably by a vintage trick from the Richard Keogh collection for the first goal. Seek out the highlights if you haven’t already. Chelsea came from two down to win at Leicester which was a shame.
Everton, who one would have thought might fancy a dig at this competition this year under Ronald Koeman, lost at home to Norwich while Bournemouth were beaten 3-2 on their own patch by lowly Preston. Newcastle avenged their weekend defeat against Wolves by reversing the scoreline. Pity the poor people who had to watch the Champions of Europe host the Mad Chicken Farmers for the second time in as many games — I should imagine the place was absolutely jumping for that thrilling 1-0 home win.
Eight games tonight including Man Utd at Northampton which, inevitably, is the televised match. Tarquin and Rupert welcome Bristol City for an evening soiree while Southampton and Palace is another one of those ties between two teams that may well have designs on this trophy this season. Tigers Tigers Rah Rah Rah can heap more pressure on Mark Hughes and the Taffia at Stoke with a win there while West Ham should be able to get their eye back in with a home game against Accrington Stanley.
Spurs v Gillingham and Swansea v Man City completes the round.
Referee: Merseyside referee Peter Bankes is the man in the middle this evening. He was in charge of two QPR games last season, at Wolves and at home against Leeds. Rangers won both those matches. Maybe we should have him stuffed. Details and stats are available here.
QPR: Having started the campaign with two wins and two clean sheets, QPR have since only won one of six in the league and have conceded eight goals in their last two matches. They needed penalties to overcome League One Swindon in the first round, and came from behind to beat Rochdale in the second which is the first time we’ve gone through two rounds of this competition since 2009 when we beat Accrington and Exeter before losing narrowly at Chelsea. There had been many early round disasters before that and there have been several since with Port Vale winning 3-1 at Loftus Road in 2010, Rochdale winning 2-0 here in 2011, and Reading coming to W12 and leaving with a 3-2 victory in 2012 after Walsall had been beaten in the earlier round. Swindon won a second round tie here in 2013 after a 2-0 win at Exeter in round one but Rangers were beaten 1-0 at Burton first time out in 2014 and lost at home to Carlisle last year after initially beating Yeovil.
Sunderland: The Mackems have started the season in lousy touch after losing Sam Allardyce and appointing David Moyes late in the summer. Four league defeats and a draw with Southampton brightened only by a 1-0 victory against League One strugglers Shrewsbury in the last round of this competition. Sunderland got to the final of this competition in 2014 but have gone out in the Third Round for the last two years against Man City and Stoke.
Prediction: Always difficult to call these cup matches with so many changes likely on both sides. No Defoe for Sunderland is a big boost for QPR and there’s a chance to get the month back on track, calm everybody down, progress in the cup, relieve a bit of pressure on Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and so on. Wouldn’t be surprised to see it go the distance.
LFW’s Prediction: QPR 1-1 Sunderland. Scorer — Idris Elba
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