 Wednesday, 25th Apr 2012 21:36 by Neil Dejyothin In a new feature we're hoping to make a regular part of LFW next season, Neil Dejyothin analyses where the Spurs game was won and lost and looks ahead to the key tactical battles at Chelsea this weekend. How did QPR beat Tottenham?The preparation and execution was spot on, with a little bit of lady luck thrown in. It started by Joey Barton cleverly switching the teams around for kick-off after we won the toss, so Spurs were playing directly into the low hanging sunlight, which was a real problem for any player facing into it. I happened to walk across the pitch at half-time, having done a pitchside presentation on behalf of QPR1st who donated some money to the QPR Girls set up for their upcoming tour of Denmark , and when I looked over to the away end, the glare from the sun was so intense that I could barely see anything at all. Then we deployed the perfect tactic for the conditions by putting the Spurs defence and goalkeeper under pressure whenever they had the ball. They were struggling to see, so it was easier to pressurise them knowing that they had to be extra careful with their passes. When you add in the fact that they've got an aging backline, they struggled to cope with our tenacity and it was one of the reasons why Brad Friedel also kicked so many balls into touch because he couldn't see properly and didn't want to take any risks. We rushed and harried them well to the point they became nervous and jittery with Jamie Mackie typically setting the tone. The free kick that led to the goal was a little bit fortunate in the way that it went for us, but was probably right by the letter of the law - and we know all too well about the letter of the law given some of the decisions that have gone against us. It was actually superbly executed. I can usually always tell who is going to be striking the ball, just by the way players stand and what their body language is like. If you pay close attention to the way muscles are relaxed or tensed and how they set the angle between them and the ball, you can usually spot the kicker. And on this occasion, half way before Adel Taarabt struck the ball, I still thought Taye Taiwo was the one who would be hitting it so the deception on this occasion was excellent. Midway through however I suddenly realised it was going to be Taarabt, and from there I knew we had a chance because of the surprise element. And that along with the sun all helped to give us that crucial lead to hang onto. After that, we played a totally different game and one that required a shift in mentality. The transition isn't easy to make sometimes, but we are good at playing with our backs to the wall and trying to pinch something on the counter. It suits our style of play and players, but at the same time, Spurs lacked the energy levels to penetrate and I was pretty confident we could hold on. That shift from one style of play to the next is something we have struggled to come to terms with under Hughes, but this time, they got to grips with it. The three key players were Taye Taiwo for an excellent and committed performance, Adel Taarabt for producing the goods when needed and Joey Barton, for a quietly efficient performance in the midfield. His battle with Scott Parker went relatively unnoticed, but he was ready for every dual he encountered with the one time England captain and played to his strengths by keeping it simple and tidy. Parker was unable to influence proceedings as much as he would have liked in a crowded midfield area and that's credit to us. Hodgson v RedknappAt West Brom last week QPR regularly found themselves troubled in wide areas. Roy Hodgson lined up with Jerome Thomas on one side, Chris Brunt on the other and allowed Peter Odemwingie to wander freely behind Fortune the lone striker. Billy Jones often came forward from right back to join in with Thomas' raids down the right. The effect was to outnumber QPR in wide areas where Taiwo's attacking was severely restricted and Onuoha looked wholly uncomfortable. Which rather begs the question why Spurs approached the game on Saturday so differently? Modric, Sandro and Parker – whether deliberately or otherwise – formed a narrow trio in the centre of the park giving Taiwo, Diakite and Taarabt acres of space to attack Spurs in wide areas which in turn restricted the forward movements of Walker. On the other side Jamie Mackie's presence caused Assou-Ekotto all sorts of problems and he won his dual, both in an attacking and defensive sense, and nullified the Spurs man's forward play. Joey Barton won his dual with Scott Parker, but we allowed Spurs to have the ball deep near their central defenders and higher up the pitch. They can usually dictate and penetrate from this position, but they need the aid of their fullbacks overlapping to pull opposing players out of position. Instead, they always had a sea of QPR players in front of them and struggled to pick them out. They only had one moment of success in the first half when a quick three or four one-touch passing move cut us open, but we closed off all the gaps after that and they couldn't repeat it. While their wide men kept coming inside, on the occasions that Gareth Bale did stay wide he was often blocking Kyle Walker from making overlapping runs on the outside of him. Instead, Walker came in on Bale's inside and was tracked really well by our players, further exacerbating the problem of their narrowness, nullifying his threat and forcing passes to him into areas where we had players waiting to engage. Bale came on the inside because when we did let him cross once or twice he didn't find the quality in his delivery to hurt us and was crossing to a small striker in Jermain Defoe in any case, which also worked in our favour. He played left and right and alternated regularly between the two with little effect. I thought Rafael Van Der Vaart was poor, but we didn't allow him the time and space in front of the defence to get on the ball, and made sure that we were more aware of his ability to ghost in on the rebound as he did when he scored at White Hart Lane. Contrast his performance with Odemwingie at West Brom the previous week which was all about his movement and their willingness to pass the ball down the slip side while he was on the shoulder. His movement was excellent, but also once that pass was made and as he took possession of the ball, the supporting runs were all very well drilled and meant they could fire off quick give and go's in dangerous areas that are hard to deal with and put you on the back foot. Spurs never found Defoe at all really and therefore never had any proper cohesion in their build up play. Why are we winning at home but not away?I think it's a combination of reasons, but mainly facing the right teams at the right times. All of the sides we've beaten recently at home are the kind of teams that like to exhort pressure on you and hold the majority of the ball. We can be our own worst enemy when we've got time on the ball, or are expected to go out and attack teams, it's where we're not really ready yet as a Premiership outfit. We make too many unforced errors in these situations, but it is easier to hold your shape, keep your discipline and hit teams on the counter attack. That suits our players far more at this time and we've been able to find results. In terms of timing, we've played some of the bigger sides at just the right time. Liverpool were in poor form and dramatically collapsed, giving us an almighty shot of confidence at the same time. It was the boost we needed, as was the decision for Mark Hughes to remove Joey Barton, which was the making of him and the turning point in our season where everybody knew they had to turn up and perform regardless. Arsenal came about at that strange point where a side goes on a winning run and look invincible, only to lose suddenly, but they weren't actually playing fabulously in those games either and they are so inept and dozy at times, that you always have a chance against them. Swansea just hit a rocky patch of form too, but we've done well against them over the last couple of years and I had no fears, because a lot of our players had played them before and knew about them. But they are again another side who like to keep the ball, but fail to penetrate properly as they don't quite have the quality in the final third and are really nothing to be scared of, so playing them straight after Arsenal at home was ideal for us. And then there was Spurs, who looked like they were out of gas and also in poor form just at the right time. I think it's right for Hughes to say the run in and matches against higher profile sides help focus the mind more. It's certainly helped us, but we have to also give credit to the fans who have really got behind the team in recent weeks and played their part at Loftus Road . Like I said, I think Hughes won the respect of the crowd when he removed and then dropped Barton, and we've turned up to do what we need to do from the stands too. As for the away matches, the emotion of the Liverpool game took it out of us against Sunderland . It was just too much too soon, and you can get that up and down reaction when it's so extreme, so I wasn't surprised and half expected that to be the case. The Manchester United game was all about the Shaun Derry sending off, but also it helped us save our legs for Swansea as the tempo went to walking pace and Hughes made the right substitutions at the right time as well. We were clumsy against West Brom, but they played well and with a lot of width which didn't suit our three man midfield, and when you hit this stage of this season where we played three times in six days, it's a tough ask of the players to perform at their maximum when you don't have the strength in depth and luxury to rotate. How should we approach Chelsea?I think we should go there and try to win the match rather than play for a draw. There's nothing to be scared of any we should pay no attention to our away form. There's no better time to play them, regardless of whether they win or lose against Barcelona in the week. They've got to protect a lead and will spend a lot of emotional energy whether they win or lose, and face Newcastle United shortly after us, so they're going to be really stretched. We might be one game too soon (it might be Newcastle where they are really spent), but with Branislav Ivanovic out, and possibly David Luiz and Gary Cahill too, they're light on numbers in defence. Whichever centre back pairing starts I'd like to see Bobby Zamora drop deep and stay tight on their defensive midfielder, whether that be Michael Essien or John Obi Mikel. Allow Terry and partner to pass the ball and have it as much as possible because when I saw him and Cahill attempting this in the England v Wales game they were so bad it was laughable. I think Taarabt's absence is also a blessing because Chelsea are the sort of side that are very mechanical and efficient, so it does need a like for like in terms of how you shape up and react to changeover in possession of the ball. I would play Djibril Cissé in his place, and either put him on the left side, or play two up front, with Jamie Mackie or Cissé alternating and joining him occasionally from either side. It's possible you would consider Shaun Wright-Phillips for this one, only because he knows the mentality of Stamford Bridge well, and that can be useful, but given his form is still a risk. Cissé offers more physical power and threatening pace and we need that because Chelsea are a very physically strong side. I would want us to start slowly for five or ten minutes, make sure we get decent touches of the ball and find our rhythm and then when we've got our touch and range, really take it to them as much as possible. It's in this phase that you also work out what the opposition has in the tank and it will be pretty obvious straight away. I think this game is won in the centre this time as well, rather than looking to the wides. A lot of their shortcomings come from narrow through balls in central positions, just inside the wide positions, and this is where we should lurk. They are the kind of side that let you have the ball in the deep central area of the pitch, so tidy passing is important in there and would probably lead me to keeping Shaun Derry on the pitch, he'd probably also be sharper at tracking Frank Lampard's runs from midfield too. Samba Diakité has the energy to deal with Meireles and John Obi Mikel and it's probably Juan Mata who will be the biggest danger of all. Similarly there will be a lot of dead moments, where they have a habit of just going through the motions with their play and we need to be on top of that, and not allow them to shift up and down gears as they please. It's about keeping them on their toes, and making sure if that happens that we are controlling our fair share of those situations. What we need is the same kind of performance we dished out away to Aston Villa in the first half that put us two goals up and then we need to shift the mentality as successfully as we did against Spurs. One area we can also look at, in terms of them having possession of the ball, is both Gary Cahill and John Terry do like to venture forward. Cahill tends to come out of his position, though usually in safe zones and gets on the ball, but this gives Cissé a chance to get in behind him if we can hit them on the counter. Similarly I reckon John Terry is going to be really fired up for this and actually desperate to score. Sometimes you see him pop up on the left side and even breakaway down the channel, which can be to our advantage if we can pop Mackie in, or get Bobby Zamora to hold and "set it" (the LFW crew will laugh at that one) for a through ball to be played into Cissé or even Diakité breaking from midfield. I certainly think it's a game where we can get something. Tweet @loftforwords, @neildejyothin Pictures – Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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