Not even approaching good enough, what has Freddie got to do to get a start? Yes he should have scored before he did due to an awful first touch but he looked more dangerous than the rest of them put together. Another stonewall penalty denied but that's par for the course now with us.
Defensively we were terrible, McDonald & Mattock were atrocious, Barlaser deserved to be hauled off at HT, he was crap & the penalty he gave away was idiotic. Wiles worked hard, that's all, the terrifying thing is both Bournemouth & Brentford are better than QPR.
I'ts gonna be a long cold winter yet again
We came up short after showing some fighting spirit to come back. Their penalty was really iffy. The foul on Olosunde looked more clear cut but wasnt given. As I was told on Saturday though, we cant rely on penalties. That is true. We were all over the place in the first half. Really easy to get at and in Willock, Chair and Samuel they had three forward players who were too quick and too clever for us. They had the cutting edge that we havent got. They seemed to tire though and took their best players off (for some reason) and we nearly pinched a point, but in truth we probably didnt deserve one over the ninety minutes. It's another near miss. Again no lack of effort and we weren't too far off, but those fine margins weren't with us. It feels like we were a bit unlucky in some respects but hand on heart most teams have that bit more quality than us and it makes the difference. It's frustrating and hard to take but there it is.
It's plain for all to see. Teams like QPR have technical expertise and qualities which make us look very ordinary. If we're going to beat teams like this we're going to have to be disciplined, work hard (which we do) and take our chances. Freddie should have had a hat trick tonight - we just can't afford to miss those chances.
I thought we looked disjointed. There was no fluency in our play and we could not cope with the pace of their attack. PW has to take some responsibility. Knowing the speed of Samuels, there is no way he should have been matched with Mattock and the midfield, as I said before kick off, was lightweight. But the players must also take some blame. Barlaser's distribution was awful. I don't believe there's any communication between Blackman and his back four - did he shout for the first goal - he definitely had it covered.
All in all, very disappointing. The only bright spot was Smith's enthusiasm, workrate and goal. Otherwise, totally forgettable.
Look at the incident again, Barlaser definitely knocked the ball away with his hand but he had a 1st half mare, trying at least 3 cross field balls straight to their midfield but when Warne made him the scapegoat a lot of our creativity went even though Lindsay did ok, Crooks looks half asleep a lot of the time & has the turning circle of an articulated lorry.
I really dislike this division intensely as without significant investment we will never be able to compete, if & when we get relegated I'd just like one mid table L1 campaign to enjoy & properly rebuild.
Depressing in the extreme & our two (one) friends haven't started yet.
I don't know the answer with this squad. We've no fit wingers good enough to start with. Harding without doubt our best player. Lindsay gave us abit more bite in midfield. Smith worked hard. It's not easy cause Clarke looked ok at Swansea but not as good tonight. Vassell I'm not his biggest fan but I'd have him before Flo or Miller. 10 more games before the January transfer window hope we are still in touching distance to give us a chance of staying up.
This division can be soul destroying. We know at the start if the season that we will almost certainly be in the bottom six and will do well not to be in the bottom three. It's a slog with a lot of frustration along the way. But you want to compete at the highest level you can if you can. What I hope doesnt happen is scapegoating of players and a clamour for a new manager. We are doing the best we can with what we have and are in there fighting and we should get behind them all the way. I know that probably isnt a realistic hope. We are really missing Ogbene because he is our x factor player, but I think we are also now missing Shaun MacDonalds experience and know how in midfield, but we have to get on with it and keep our heads up. We are still above the bottom three as it stands. Taking a positive where I can, we have finished strongly at Swansea and at QPR and heads certainly didnt drop.
-- Edited by smiler on Tuesday 24th of November 2020 09:49:02 PM
3-2 papers over a lot of cracks. Again the mentality of the entire set up is wrong, you can’t expect to win a game of football by only trying to get something from the remaining ten minutes.
The defending was bad but again I go back to the entire set up/structure of the team, it’s a big race to get everyone camped in our own half/box and we have that many players on top of each other they all leave their jobs to one another.
We got exactly what we deserved again by only trying to compete for a short spell.
I've got to agree with C, you can't condone or excuse the first 70 minutes tonight & v Swansea, no one could complain if we'd been 6-1 down at HT. Thankfully Blackman didn't drop his customary ******* but had a nice lie down for another penalty, it's as clear as crystal the back four don't trust him. Harding was the pick of a truly atrocious defence, Icky was OK but I sometimes wish he would do the simple thing & clear the ball instead of thinking he's Beckenbauer but kudos for the assist for Freddie's goal. Mattock & McDonald were utter dog **** alongside our entire midfield & Vassell may as well have stayed at home. Smudge worked his balls off & was my MOM by a mile & Freddie looked dangerous when he came on but he has the first touch of a baby elephant. Crooks has all the talent but he's incredibly lazy.
end of rant
Smith played much better and was more like it, he’s was our best player on a poor night.
PW post match comments mentioning we are giving the opposition too much respect. Surely that comes from himself and the coaches? We don’t set up naturally and play with the handbrake on for large spells.
100% agree with Brad's post. Need to sleep on this abysmal display before offering a constructive opinion but i don't think Tony Stewart has the money or desire to finance our way to security. I will say i don't think Warne's mate Scott has the nous to seek out quality recruitment. There are loads of skillful continental players available cheaply from cash strapped foreign clubs but is he smart enough to find them ?.
As somebody who said i thought we might get something from last nights game, i have to be disappointed. In all honesty i think a 7-3 scoreline would have been a true reflection.
If people believe we have the players to take it to teams and play an attacking 4.4.2 , then i think they have got it badly wrong. Last night Q.P.R had Willock, Chair and Samuel who had pace and skill to put us under pressure every time they went forward with the ball. Compare that to our three, Josefzoon, Vassell and Clarke and i think you should get what i am on about. I feel for Clarke because i think at the current stage of his career he would struggle in Div 1 and needs to be loaned out to a division 2 club. Whether he has enough to make it at professional level i have doubts but hope he gets a chance to develop. If we play Vassell in the no 10 role it takes away the tracking back and effort required when they have the ball. Again i am not sure he is good enough other than coming on for 15-20 minutes when legs are tiring. Josefzoon , i am yet to be convinced.
Mattock has never had any pace, but if he can have somebody in front of him to stop the deep runs he can do a job. Clarke has no idea in that role but when Wiles got the job the left side tightened up. I thought McDonald was as bad as it gets. Out of position, slow and several failed tackles made for a bad night for him. Barlaser, as somebody has said needs a tackler at the side of him so they can give him time to thread his passes. S. McDonald is missed in our midfield to do the dirty side of the game. Lindsay adds bite and apart from the first half at Swansea he has done well. He was harshly dropped imo last night and it was to our detriment in the first half.
People say why don't we take the game to them from the off, like we do in the last 15 mins of games. Last night Q.P.R took off Willock after 60 mins and Samuel after 79 mins. That levelled it up a bit. It is nothing to do with coaching that we are not getting points imo, it is to do with the class of the players available. We will have to grind points out and get our better players back if we are to have any chance of staying up. Warne and co will make every effort to make us competitive and that i believe gives us a slight chance.
I got the usual bad feeling when I woke up - and people say it's only a game... worrying and being a Miller go hand in hand.., always have with a very few season exceptions. We all want it so bad to be good enough to stay in this league..
I only saw the highlights, but down our left in first half, I thought Mattock tracked their players instead of putting in a tackle up the pitch. I’m encouraged that Warne saw that and commented on it in his post match interview – so hopefully he will do something about it.
We need a proper left back signing in January as a priority.
As I say, I only saw highlights, but we looked much better in 2nd half – we need to start picking up points sharpish, although you can’t fancy owt in next 2 games?
We look a better team versus last time we were in this league – better but not yet quite good enough, but I think we see enough to cause hope at this stage. Hope not confidence.
A couple of wins on the bounce either side of Christmas I think would make such a difference to the belief and form going forward.
Mattock is fine as a 2nd choice full back we needed a proper left back 2 seasons ago, we had one and let him go, because he didn't want to play 2nd fiddle to Mattock and Warne loves Mattock. We also had a good defensive midfielder that doesn't spend 70% every season injured and we treated him awfully, he played very well for QPR last night. Vassell is not good enough, what he does on the training pitch is completely irrelevant all that matters is match day, no points for scoring 3 in training. Where we finish is determined by the outcome of each game, the outcome is the output of the approach and so it is very clear the overall approach is not going to achieve an outcome that any of us including the owners want. Therefore we have to change the approach. We do miss Sean McDonald but he is very injury prone and as I said above you won't get more that 30% of games from him, we knew that when we recruited him. If Wood is fit he plays for me even if it is for 70 mins, we are better when he plays and he is a leader on the pitch. If we insist on 4 4 2at the back that has to be Johanson in goal, Harding, Ikei, Wood, Mattock (best of a bad bunch)
Midfield - Olosunde, Lindsay, Barlasar, Wiles
Smith and Freddie up front
If we play one striker, then either smith or freddie with Miller just behind (he tracks back
The above gives us options off the bench to change it, even Vassell can give us 15 mins wide left as can Clarke
We also had a good defensive midfielder that doesn't spend 70% every season injured and we treated him awfully.
Did we? I thought he was generally poor to average when he played for us and we let him leave and continue his career elsewhere which was probably best for both parties. Unless there's some evidence that we treated him awfully that I'm unaware of?
Dominic Ball was moved along because we couldn't guarantee him first team football as far as i know, and also he thought he was better than people in front of him. The move was good for all concerned i believe.
A very good post from Derby and i think his team using one striker is where we should go. Olosunde playing wide right looks a better option than Josefzoon, and Wiles, although out of position is the only option we have to help out mattock. I think it is also worth a go playing Miller behind either Smith or Ladapo. He scores goals and wide left he doesn't appear comfortable doing the defensive part of the job. I said before the Q.P.R game that A, McDonald has yet to be in a winning team. Looks iffy on the left of a central two and not in the same league as natural left footer Wood at reading the game and organising. He also looks no quicker either. Two tough home games but we have to stay in them as long as we can. If we do the chances improve of nicking something.
Dominic Ball was poor for us. His last start for us was a holding midfield player and it was embarrassing how poor he was.
He was taken off early to spare him further punishment. He had 'gone'. Sometimes it doesnt work for a certain player at a certain club. I am pleased for him that it has worked out for him at QPR. We have needed another left back for a while, but in this posters opinion Purrington wasnt it. Mattock might not be blessed with pace but he would beat Purrington over ten yards. I watched him at Charlton (ironically) when we lost 3-1 i think and he looked like he had lead in his boots. The fact that he didnt make himself a first choice player was down to him and his performances. He had opportunities but never took them. I dont think Ball and Purrington are better than we have currently got. I do think Joe Mattock has been here a season or two too long though. Just my opinions. Iam basically in agreement with Whiston. I firmly believe that we are struggling and are always likely to struggle in this division not because of formations or mentality, but because the players that we can afford and pay to wear our kit (which they do with great pride and to the best of their ability) are generally not as good as the players that they come against every week. Over 46 games that will be telling. We havent got one player in our squad (and I include Ogbene) anywhere near as talented and dangerous as whichever is the worst of Chair, Willock and Samuel. And QPR are an average Championship outfit. That's the brutal reality and absent a generous and perhaps dodgy benefactor, I dont know what you do about it.
In regards dom ball, to me and Warne has all but said it he can't manage players with what he regards attitude problem. so he loaned him out. i don't think he was given a chance, in regards his performance how many bad performances has crooks and mattock given yet rarely dropped.
A good point mattock was poor last night was he fully fit. This a Warne weakness he won't change a formation to reflect his playing resource. Why did he sub Clarke and not mattock yet again on comes Crookes who did what exactly last night.
i fear it will be a hammering on saturday v bournemouth and v brentford.
but like smiler said the board wont pay for the class of player needed in this division, agreed but warne doesnt help with playing his favorites.
