Match Day Thread QPR v Newcastle

Nines - we were outclassedd and absolutely thrashed.

I am genuinely pleased that there was no stream to watch. It must have been more than painful (agony?, torture?) to watch.

But it has happened, it is a fact, and is now history.

The key is how they pick themselves up from this. It will be a real test of character for both the team and the manager.

 

I chose not to go to Preston North End, Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United matches. My vacant seat is washing it's eyes out in disgust.

Never more so has my decision been vindicated.

I was otherwise engaged, so oblivious to the score, and received a text from a Nottingham Forest supporting pal - it read:

'Jesus Christ - you're boys are being dicked - 6-0 at home!!!'

 

The most shocking statistic for me in losing so heavily is not to pick up a single yellow card

Where was the passion and desire to let Newcastle know that we wanted to make a game of it?

Shelvey in particular must've paid our midfield off - he seemed to have unlimited space all game and certainly used it to outstanding effect

 

Oh I dunno though. We frequently get those "most liked accents awards" ;-)
Still - I wouldn't panic you QPR fans. We geordies got panned for spending a lot - but have a £56 MILLION surplus on the deals, and saying like Arnie "We'll be back" but we're shaping up to do so and improving every game with almost an entire new team. Panic changes don't work. Whether it's a new experienced man at helm or Hassel, settled back four is a necessity and go from there. Rafa did this at end of last season - a young Lascelles ripping into the overpaid foreigners in the team - some now gone at a profit (which southern press sneered at our demands - they're not going on the cheap Rafa said) we started horrendously against Fulham and Huddersfield. As you are now. Rafa ploughed on. Have players wanting to play. Hassle needs to follow his example

 

Thanks mate. They looked like fekin barca and we like Finnish third division bottom side which had half of the team injured and another half just drunk. They could have win it 12-0! Newcastle will go up but we face a serious threat about staying on this division.

 

What a ****ing shambles. I said to my son after about half an hour that we needed to man-mark Shelvey, but no one got near him all night - he did as he pleased and ran the whole game. Newcastle are a premiership side with a top class manager - we are a mediocre Championship side with a League One manager.

 

Firstly - well done last night. An excellent performance, and Newcastle are building into Championship winners very rapidly IMO

I understand your points but our teams are starting from fundamentally different positions. We came off a very mediocre season in this division last year, with (again IMO) an ineffective manager, and have added mediocre players. Our wins against Leeds and Cardiff lulled many into a false sense of security - I don't think we'd get those results now

Newcastle, however, had a lot of very good players - a number of whom actually seemed to have some fight in them at the end of last season - and were then able to spend (for the Championship) mind-warping sums of money freshening up the squad. I take your point that this was self-financing (though way anyone would pay £30m for Sissoko merely shows how crazy the transfer markt has become), but having the resources to be able to do that is beyond every other team in the Championship

Sadly I won't be able to attend the return fixture due to work commitments (I've always enjoyed away days at Newcastle, if inevitably leaving empty handed!)

 

1-1 against Blackburn at home was the warning sign. What we have is a lower half championship team at best. The team in general was very poor and Conor Washington offers nothing and needs to go.
The one positive of the evening is the amount of our fans that stayed until the end.

 

I still blame Henry
he doesn't tackle or pass the ball forwards
He holds on to it too long then passes slowly to a full back who doesn't want it on his weak foot
Everyone panics and gives it back

This invites every single team onto our defence who then panic more
The other central mid then fears to go anywhere and all we do is either chip it long to someone 5ft 10 with 2 centre backs on him or wait for Cherry to make a move

The left mid is pants how he got in the team ahead of anyone else is beyond me
The new right mid did ok I thought given its a debut and a thrashing when he came on

Shopido did well last week and Washington looked better with him and Chery around him

We need two from cousins luongo and the other new boy I haven,t seen yet in midfield
Or joey and ale back

The full backs and one central mid aren't playmakers and it breaks everything

Let the back 4 defend and the midfield move the ball around quickly

 

Morning lads - just wondered if there was any news on Perchy's injury?

Was a player I really liked when he was at Newcastle, never the greatest, but always put in a good shift and improved a hell of a lot while he was with us.

Just looked a nasty injury - hope he's ok and not out too long.

Good luck for the rest of the season (apart from the return fixture of course )

 

I gather that initial tests on Perch have confirmed our worst fears. He could be playing for us again.

 

apologies Philk, nothing personal, i was just a little shell shocked and full of w(h)ine

 

The Toon lot who have come on here seem to be a really nice lot (obviously after last night they would be happy)....but no trash talk...Thanks for that, as we are all very delicate.
Wish the Toon army all the best for the rest of the season....best team I have seen for a number of years.

Thinking of whether you get a new record points total in winning the championship or not.

I haven't heard anything about Perch, I hope he plays again for us soon...he is the best RB we have in the club

 

Managed to make my first trip of the season down to Loftus Road last night......where do I start?

It needs saying immediately that Newcastle were by far the better team. There was not one QPR player who would have made their team, and that's telling. Perez, Shelvey, Mitrovic and Ritchie caused us all sorts of problems, and the difference in class was evident early on.

What I can't accept is how our side capitulated after going a goal down. The heads dropped instantly, the crowd sensed it and it was a formality from there.

I'm not going to single out any particular player for criticism because none of them performed to their standards, and on a side note I do hope Perch's injury is not a serious one. Never nice seeing a player stretchered off.

JFH stated his ambition was to challenge for the Play Offs at the start of the season. If that's the case, you have to be held accountable to those standards. Being 5-0 down at home before 60 minutes has been played is completely unacceptable in that regard.

 

Many of us said it as we left the Blackburn game. We hadn't played a decent side up until last night.

The performance was probably no worse than against PNE but we got punished by a much, much better side.

JFH needs to take a long hard look at (himself) his team selection and start getting things right.

Cilla has to start and get a 5 game run. The Polski midfielder who looked half decent against Rochdale (I know it's only Rochdale but he looked like he knew what he was doing) deserves a start. Running out of defensive options with Furlong & Kpewkwa as cover as Caulker looked shot and Perch out for some time, I am guessing.

Over to you Jimmy.

 

When we lost to PNE and threw away the lead against Blackburn, many were saying "Ah, we're a decent team, that plays badly against poor ones".

We learned last night (by the abject performance as much as the score) that the results against the lowly teams didn't lie. We're now plummeting down the League table to join them.

I'm really unimpressed with Cousins. He looks weak and out of his depth. Ngabakoko shows a distince lack of talent (prefer Shopido). Can't tell about Washington because he got crap service all night, due to the weak-as-water midfield.

There was no lack of effort from our team last night. And the Newcastle team probably cost 10 times what ours cost (the Magpies appear to have spent their money wisely). But still, JFH should produce more from the resources available. I ask myself, if NW had been our manager, would we have done better last night, and the answer is YES.

If the team doesn't rally now, the manager (and probably the chairman) will be under huge pressure.

 

This.

 

Here's my 2 cents:

I have a different view from most on here. I do not blame one single player for what happened yesterday. I think it all comes down to unity, or lack of. Unity in the sense that our squad is NOT confident and does NOT believe it is good enough. Unity in the sense that they are NOT working together and they do NOT understand each other and their prospective roles. Unity in the sense that QPR has had a virus for a long time and no manager seems to know how to cure it when coming in. Unity in the sense that we either DO NOT have a suitable game plan for each match or we DO NOT have the confidence and collectedness in order to act it out.

I say this because we would have one of the better squads in the league if every player in the team knew what they were doing, knew what their colleagues were doing, had a good game plan that suited each match and had the confidence to act it out. Even looking at the players as they played last night, I could see that they all have ability and they all have the basic knowledge of an individual footballer. The choice of Perch from the outset seemed actually a good one. He was breaking up play and hurtling himself into some aerial challenges. Conor seemed to be chasing down the defence with some real pace. But as the game went on, the true problems showed themselves.

Each member of our defence seemed to have no idea what the other members of the defence were doing (which was actually the problem of the whole team but showed itself most problematically in our defence). It's like we were taken by surprise completely, expecting Newcastle to play like Rochdale. I actually thought Henry showed talent in a thankless job that basically becomes pointless if the rest of the team cannot do their job or provide an open pass for him to send. Henry is not the only one. Several players truly tried, throughout the whole game. Sadly, a number of other players found themselves shellshocked and unwilling after 2 or 3 goals went in and weren't able to take any more responsibility as they had already shat themselves.

I really do not envy JFH's position. Coming to QPR is immensely hard as a manager. That disease I mentioned... it's not bad attitudes in the dressing room. We've dealt with that. It's the fact that, since our first big bucks takeover, we've gone through countless changes every season. We have barely been able to hold on to a matrix of a squad over any season. Each season there's either a new manager or an almost entirely new squad (this season we've started with a manager who is almost brand new to us and a squad that is more consistent than past seasons but still developing and incorporating new signings). Therefore, keeping a solid playing philosophy at the club has been impossible. We do not have an identity. You may get good individuals coming in but no one will truly know what we're doing or meant to be doing. This was even evident in our promotion season with Harry: we were promoted because we had some good good players, regardless of the fact that we never really got going and it being the most boring season I remember. Maybe we really do need 3 or 4 seasons in Championship obscurity before we really turn into a force.

JFH needs to be adapting and dealing with the situation better, though. We need to be more diverse when it comes to formation and tactics, especially when certain players are unavailable. It is unacceptable to play the exact same system in every game and especially unacceptable to have Washington coming into the team, like for like, when Polter is out without changing the system (some argue we shouldn't have that system to begin with). We shouldn't have two holding/defensive midfielders. I don't think Henry and Cousins can be in the team at the same time. Their roles are too similar and we become too negative with both of them on. We have to pick one or the other (it may be controversial but I'd rather keep Henry as he has a cool head and has played well in the past; Cousins hasn't really shown much of anything since after his first appearance). We shouldn't be chopping and changing the back line in every game (we may have no choice over that now, injuries considered). On the other hand, his substitutions have been fairly good in the majority of games.

We miss Luongo. He's not at the top of his game yet but he brings a creativity and gives options further up the park. Our two new Polish recruits could be a solution in the middle as well, bringing more creativity. Why the hell did we tell Faurlin he may not get much first team football this season? We should have told him he'd get as much football as possible if his fitness allowed. I imagine Shodipo was left out because his lack of experience and confidence was feared in the face of such a good opposition. But really we needed him from the get go. Yeni really didn't provide anything apart from a great cross much later.

And so it comes back to the defence, which is an absolute shambles again. All things would improve or have a better chance of improvement if that could be fixed. And this is where JFH has to take responsibility. He needs to get them well drilled and needs to have an established back line that is only changed if there are injuries. He needs to drill the midfield and wide players so that they cover well and he needs to make us more progressive and creative, which will in itself take the heat off the back four by forcing our opposition into defending.

My ideal lineup, regardless of injuries:

Smithies

Perch Onuoha Hall Bidwell

Shodipo Henry Luongo Ngbakoto

Chery Polter

Polter could be swapped in and out with Sylla.

Luongo could be swapped in and out with the two Polish fellows.

Henry could be swapped in and out with Cousins.

The back line... god help us.

Ngbakoto could be interchanged with Khayati. (this is a position we don't have much going for)

We could also try having Polter and Sylla up front with Chery in a more central role.