Furlong not good enough .... Yet

Yes, for that game I would, but then again I don't rate him as highly as some. OR.........place a rocket up his arse and tell him that he MUST TRACK BACK!!
We have some good, high energy players in our squad, but we choose to play hoof ball.

All opinions I know, so let's see what happens Saturday. We may be set up a little differently, as I don't expect BZ to be able to play two games in three days.

 

Its my OP and I wasnt scathing of furlong and I dont think anyone has been. I commented on the match day thread that he just kept backing off until the arsenal players were in the box where the danger is bigger and the consequences of a poor challenge are higher. Yes he is talent and I think its great bringing kids through but not now and not without a centre half who will get him to close down and then cover him. Caulker does give direction to the lad so im not blaming Furlong. I just think its too early for him at the moment

 

So I am enjoying, the energy and conviction that CR is putting in the team...and I think CR has made a hell of an improvement....but I think Col has got to the crux of the matter .....and it is something CR cannot "magic-up"...
"We really miss the creativity to win games imo"

Absolutely...Col...if we can inject that in...we will have the points we need...if we cannot..we won't

Where will the creativity come from...Taarbs, Kranky (on a good day, not yesterday), Zarate...Vargas...Phillips has stepped up a bit

We need one of those 4 to play like Townsend and Morrison did for us

 

I agree, its not 'good football', but its the classic example of 'you cant beat Barcelona by playing like Barcelona', we'd have got taken apart trying to match them by playing good football, so anti football was our best hope, and it was working.. at 0-0 I felt we could have snatched something and again Philips was creating a lot down the wings. It's a shame that their young centre back had to come off as he looked like he was having a nightmare against BZ and CA, when Koscielny came on they looked far more comfortable.

 

Personally I would have gone for Isla but he easily could have got similar treatment from Sanchez

But after starting Furlong I would definitely have brought Isla on in centre mid instead of Krancjar

Hoilett shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the first team again. Ineffectual as always.

Phillips deserves no criticism.

Sandro and Henry offer no creativity and with Hoilett giving nothing on the left our soul chance of creativity was Phillips. Sandro and Henry need to cover the right side more to allow Phillips to do what we need him to do and balance out the fact that they give nothing going forward

 

Arsenal are a very, very good team. On paper they play 4-1-4-1 but are very fluid and have been drilled into a way of playing over nearly two decades. All of their players are better than ours, some of them world class, and many so good you don't even notice them. Rosicky, what a great little player.

We've had a new bloke working with our limited squad for a month. Like Col I was disappointed with parts of our approach last night, but it was far from the humiliation it could easily have been. I hope Ramsey goes back to the shape we played against Sunderland, which is the way forward for us.

Furlong will be fine. Keep him in the team, experience and coaching are what he needs.

 

Does anyone know where I can get a BANGING MY HEAD IN FRUSTRATION smilie to embed here?

No seriously?

Not at the team, not at the performance, not at Furlong, not at Green, not at Phillips.

But some of the comments on here.

For those who are not familiar with the current Premier League Table in the month of March 2015, it shows the team called Arsenal in the UPPER REACHES of the table and it shows QPR in the LOWER REACHES of the table. What this often means is that even though a team may be playing at home, if a top side comes to them, wanting to bounce back from having performed badly in a CHAMPIONS LEAGUE game, the chances are the lower league side is going to get beaten.

Let's get some reality back here for a second.

On lots of forums people are crying out for the QPR management to bring through the youth, lots of "I don't care if we go down, but we should stop playing this over 30s, here for the last pay day useless prima donnas and give the youth a chance" - and so we have, and to be honest, up against Alexis Sanchez et al, I thought Furlong did ok for a 19 year old kid who has been in the under 21s up until 4 weeks ago. Sanchez scored because he is Sanchez and that is what he does, not because Furlong was too inexperienced to cope with him, some players are just that good that it does not matter who is at right back or left back or CB, they are just much better players than what we have. Live with it.

 

If we're going to play hoof ball 4-4-2 then the wide players simply HAVE to track back. Phillips didn't. hoilett did a bit, but looked awful in possession, just as Phillips has till he was given a run in the side and a chance to build his confidence. Hoilett never gets given that chance and when he was last season, he was very good imo.
We are limited through injury and suspension and that isn't Ramsey's fault, but leaving young Furlong so exposed against a player like Sanchez is!

 

Mate...........I haven't seen one person criticising Furlong here. You're missing the point.
He was left totally exposed through poor tactics imo and Redknapp would have done exactly the same thing, except he would have had Ned at right back.

 

Well I've just seen the goals on YouTube and there are a host of players at fault for both, not least Green who was pathetic.

 

No I am not missing the point, my point is that you can't play two right backs, you either play Phillips who you know has started to get his confidence back but is all about attacking intent and you accept that he is not going to track back enough or play or play a defensive midfielder - but that is the gamble you have to take when you have to go looking for 3 points at home. If CR trusted him enough to play him at RB, then he is the right back, and I don't care if any other RB in the world is played there, at some point a RB is going to get taken apart by a player like Sanchez. What you have to do is accept that we have to go and take the game to Arsenal and use the best attacking threats we have to try and outscore Arsenal. Not an error in tactics, a gamble that did not pay off tonight. At this stage we have to go down fighting for 3 points each game. Doubling up on defensive duties is not going to help us score goals. Furlong had a decent enough game. Most of the players did bearing in mind we were playing Arsenal not Burnley or Leicester tonight. We have to concentrate on scoring goals to beat teams not concentrate on keeping a clean sheet because 0-0 draws are no good to us at this stage.

 

Some people on here are unbelievable. For months there have been constant complaints that Harry would never look at anyone younger than 30 and that is why our young players leave as soon as they get a chance.

Now he has gone and Ramsey has come in and given a coupe of the young players a chance and people are still complaining.

Of course Furlong is a little wet behind the ears but he will only improve if he is playing with the experienced pros like Hill and Ferdinand. To blame him for the goals last night is a tad harsh. He did what he has been told to, stay on your feet and it is difficult to see what else he could have done.

I hope Ramsey keeps playing him, his long throws could prove a useful weapon, and we get him on a new contract as soon as possible.

Lets also hope some more of the kids are given a chance as they are the future, not 30 year old has beens (or in some cases never were).

 

A change of subject quickly, and I think I saw one other poster comment on it, but Rosicky was one of the best players I have seen in the flesh last night. 34 years old and and absolute picture of a motivated, capable and dedicated footballer. Was a pleasure to watch.

 

I think Furlong has great potential, he was strong and aggressive in the tackle when he needed to be and he kept a world class wide man quiet for sustained periods.

He could be our Right Back for the next 5 years if managed properly.

Real shame was Onouha going off as we lost that pace at the back which was preventing Arsenal from getting in behind.

I thought Kranjcar looked unfit and simply cannot play in a 2 man midfield, he was definitely down for the first goal.

 

Say again...Furlong looked Ok (stretched but OK) when Ned and Caulker were there with Sandro and Henry in front.
The disruption of that solid base caused him to become exposed....especially when we (and he especially) were chasing the game

We lost to a better team, Furlong will really have learnt a lot last night.

One day ( I do hope soon) our luck will change. We will have a game plan, that does not get changed by injury, that works...and we also get some lucky breaks...like Villa did on Tuesday

Just hope this luck changes before it is too late

 

Green saved us from it being a 1-4 score line. He made two immense saves in the second half alone, one where he was one on one with the striker. Overall, we played well in the first half and were good for a draw. We seemed to back off in the second half (particularly the first 20 mins) and it was during that time-slot we simply gave the game to them.

 

COL's good on the tactical side of the game but he has a dreadful eye for a player. You'd wonder who he does be watching sometimes!

 

Furlong was isolated 1v1 too often but this wasn't his fault, he is inexperienced and couldn't work out how to handle Sanchez and needed help from the others more experienced players but didn't seem to come. Personally I think the CD should have taken a step to the touch line blocking of the cut inside and Furlong a step back, not getting closer to him but shepherding him outside, pushing him to the sidelines. Yes the crosses would have come in but we could handle them. I wouldn't be having a go a Furlong, he isn't going to come up against people like Sanchez too often and will learn quickly but if Isla is fit enough I would play him.

As to the tactic, I thought they were spot but were never going to work through the whole 90 mins once players tired. Pressurising the back 4, making them play the long ball, cutting out the midfield (their strength) was not for a great watch but did work but once we went behind (lucky Goal) we were in trouble with this setup.

 

No excuse to say we shouldn’t get frustrated and point out how we can and could do better.

Don’t think anyone is disputing that Arsenal were favourites.

The highest placed team we’ve beaten this season is West Brom in 13th. Unless we start eating sides that the bookies would have as favourites then we wont be in this league much longer.

We have a tough task because Redknapp got things so spectacularly wrong for so long and now add to that we have injuries but what we can expect is to use the best players we have and set up our team in the best way we can.

I think it’s reasonable fool people to question whether a 19 year old right back in his 2nd ever game should be paired up against Sanchez over an experienced International and CHAMPIONS LEAGUE (you like to emphasise that word so I’ll copy) level full back in Isla.

In hindsight for me he made the wrong to decision but I understand Ramsey’s reasons so personally not too harsh on him for that call.

Krancjar was also the wrong call. And its fair enough to question this decision

To have the attitude we will probably lose these games so lets not worry is a defeatist attitude that will only lower expectations and encourage more defeats. Felt this attitude in the ground when Austin scored with 5 mins plus injury time to go. Wasn’t really as much of a buzz or belief in the ground as there should have been.

We are in the premier league and Arsenal are in the premier league. If we want to stay in the premier league we need to pick up points against whoever we play particularly at home.

Yeah they need to get back but think you are overstating this and unnecessarily digging Phillips out when he has been one of our most effective players.

More appropriate a moan would be centre midfields simply HAVE to contribute with goals and create chances. Neither Sandro or Henry do this.

You keep sticking by Hoilett and he keeps letting you down He has played plenty of times this season and never does enough to justify inclusion in the team.

The guy is ****e and he is not suddenly going to start producing goals and asssits. He never has for us and never will. Also Austin and Zamora thrive on crosses. He doesn’t ddleiver corsses. He cuts inside and scuffs shots.

Front 4 on Saturday:

--------------Austin--------------

Zarate-----Vargas-----Phillips

 

But would he cum on your face???