Match Day Thread QPR v Arsenal

Ozzie, Kranjcar was crap. He was at fault for their first goal and once again looks overweight.

 

lucy
lucy
lucy

which one of the arsenal photo was female

 

The injuries really cost us tonight...I am giving CR the benefit of the doubt that Sandro could not play 90 minutes.
We played well till Ned got injured......
After that, they switched the impetus of their game and took us apart.

Speaking with Stan and Roller afterwards, although Arsenal played some grisly beautiful football for 30 minutes after the break, we felt it was passionless..
We have seen (many) other great teams over run us, like Arsenal did last night...but all the others did it with verve and panache...Arsenal did it without much effort.
I can see they are a class or two above us, and maybe they are the best team I have seen this season ..but I can also see why they are also only the third or fourth best in the division.

 

Quite a few differing views of the same game. I also thought Krancjar looked slow and overweight

 

Niko was disappointing and we could have defended the goals better

Charlie in the habit of scoring - great

We lost by a goal to Arsenal... Not the end of the world... Learn and move on. Squad will be key.

 

Arrived in a bad mood because of carnage on the A40 making me miss my pint.

Mixed feelings. Arsenal are several classes above us. In theory they are my ideal team to watch, and some of their movement is beautiful, but as Beth says there is something missing - it's almost too clinical and measured.

We had some good performances but we were set up to be primitive and rode our luck - Caulker saved us several times at the death in the first half. Yun was excellent, Henry as always now a rock, Sandro did not stand out but obviously did his job, the rebirth of Phillips continued, Bobby ran his socks off. Can't be harsh on Furlong up against one of the best in the world. And just look at the midfielders Wenger didn't play last night - Flamini, Walcott, Oxlade Chamberlain, Arteta, Ramsay, Wilshire.......

What we did well was when we played down the wings. Plenty of crosses but our slow strikers could not get on the end of them. Hoilett poor again and Nico was dire last night. Charlie was no threat at all apart from at distance - great goal, but he hasn't got the skill or pace to beat the first player when he gets the ball with time outside the box, always shoots as soon as possible.

But as Col says the biggest disappointment was this route one stuff, Green punting it up the pitch after taking an age to make up his mind and ignoring wide men in space and screaming for it to be thrown to them. He was obviously told to do this. Bobby won his share of headers and tried to hold it up, but there was no one running in behind him.

Tactically a big step back from Sunderland. We would have been better playing that shape - 4-2-3-1 and having Vargas, Zarate, Krancjar or even Hoilett playing number 10 and giving Coquelin something to do apart from controlling everything. But then you have to drop Austin or Zamora.

Could have been worse, certainly a better performance than I would have expected under Redknapp, up against a really good team, but a long way to go to get the 15 or more points we need.

Oh, and Giroud is a very good player. But a total ****er, in everyone's face the whole time, whining and moaning.

 

Spot on.

 

Great post. Take a bow son.

 

Thought the noise we made was good though - always difficult to tell from the back of the school end as I sacrificed atmosphere for the ability to stand throughout - but the place was rocking at times.

Didn't hear anything from the gooners till they were leaving

 

As much as we all love Charlie Austin - myself included - his limitations are there for all to see in the Premier League*. At the start of the season I was criticised by some on here for expressing a preference for Remy over Austin and, I'm sorry to say, as the season has progressed I still think he would have been a better option had he wanted to stay. With the team sitting so deep a lot of the time it has to rely more on breakaways to be a threat, principally because the midfield is not good enough to keep the ball to (1) take the pressure off the defence and (2) support an attack that lacks pace (so needs skill, possession and guile in midfield to create goal scoring opportunities)...but it can't do what it was capable of when it had a Routledge, Cisse or Remy up there.

P.S. It's interesting that Taarabt wasn't even on the bench last night. Was he crocked or ill?

*This comes across as a bit harsh for somebody that's scored so many goals this season. It's the inability of the (in particular) midfield to pitch in with a few goals themselves that is the worry.

 

We looked OK for 30 minutes, but I think that was more because Arsenal started slowly. No cover at centre-mid was always going to be a problem - everyone was asking before the game 'What happens when Sandro goes off?'. Well, what happens is Krancjar comes on and costs us the first goal by losing the ball high up the pitch and is too slow to recover. Dreadful long ball stuff mostly - did Zamora win a header in the second half? I actually said to my son at 2-0 that we need to get more people behind the ball to protect our goal difference - I thought we could lose by 4 or 5. Good goal by Austin, but he and Zamora must be the slowest front two in Premier League history.

 

I think Taarbs is still injured. Judging by the interviews in Dubai his attitude seemes ok.

I feel rather churlish criticising Charlie, he's scoring the goals and undoubtedly playing near the top of his potential. It's not his fault that his strengths/ weaknesses really limit the way we set ourselves up by needing 2 strikers. We have to play him because he scores the goals.....though it was telling that we looked better and still scored without him at Sunderland (a very weak team to be fair). It's tricky for CR.

 

Adel has got a groin problem, and I gather he won't play Saturday either. Our performances most of the season have been crying out for the creativity he gives when fit, not least last night. I wish in his absence CR would play 4 2 3 1 with Krancjar, Phillips and Zarate in a fluid 3 behind and getting close to Austin, with Vargas and Isla other alternatives. I see he had a problem last night in replacing Sandro, but why he (and Harry) persists with Austin and OBZ up front when so little comes of it doesn't make sense to me.

I think Remy would have been better than Austin in the lone striker role too, but at least we have 1 player who can score a bit.

 

can't understand why Vargas isn't getting a look in. He's full of energy and a threat up top. Would prefer to see him over Krancjar every time

 

I think this is beginning to show how much of a loss Fer is, he looked very good at Sunderland when playing in his preferred role........

 

You say churlish.
I say harsh.
Churlish!
Harsh!
Churlish!
Harsh!
Let's call the whole thing off.

 

You make me laugh on a grey day Uber

 

Weaknesses or no, Charlie has scored 15 premier league goals.... Eat that High flyers!

 

Absolutely!
However, after we are relegated, Charlie will join another Premier league side and will almost certainly have to cope with being a lone striker, all be it with plenty of support from attacking midfielders in most cases.

 

I think he'd do alright in a 4-2-3-1 when the 3 really do get forward and try to get the ball to his feet or on his head facing the goal, where he has a really good conversion rate. There's just no point lumping the ball up to him on his own. There's very little point doing that even with Zamora there, as Charlie isn't going to take on a knockdown and race past two players from 40 yards out. He'd shoot from 38 yards.