Hugely disappointing, we can’t play in 2x 20 minute good spells against teams like QPR at home.
All started so well for the first 20 mins hitting the bar and going 1 up. Before the game I was excited by the team selection as it was pretty much the one put on the first page of the thread with the exception of the goalie. I thought it was a chance for Hourihane to shine and Barney to establish a place but it didn’t work today.
Hourihane got in the right positions on the ball, he took the Whelan position defensively which is in front the the back four (which I don’t like but I’m not the gaffer) - the disappointing thing for me was he did nothing with the ball. He doesn’t have the range of passing I perhaps thought he might show today. Good from a set piece but that isn’t enough. I doubt he’s even a squad player in the premier league, if better options are out there we bring them in. Every week you see players who are superior to Hourihane wearing the opposition jersey - today it was Freeman.
Barney ran himself into the ground first half, then faded quickly. The problem with Barney is his awareness when he’s on the ball, he’s a play-the-way-you’re-facing player which isn’t always a bad thing, but in the middle of the park I think you need to have the awareness of who is around you so you can turn on the ball.
I though McGinn was quality with his commitment and work rate, but we need to work smarter as a team not necessarily harder. Every week that goes by you realise we have an average squad with 2 or 3 very good players who are Abraham, Grealish and McGinn. The rest are below par.
Hugely disappointed with Kodjia today. The bloke is borderline disgrace with his sulky attitude at times, I can live with that if he’s doing the business. He just isn’t the same player, I’d be quite happy to cash in on him and bring in a younger, fresher option like a Jarrod Bowen type.
Hutton too was poor for me, but he’s trying to start the play from the back by getting forward but got caught out. He’s not a natural left back so I can forgive him.As for Bree, in the build up I wanted to see him start to get the experience and confidence - and today proved he needed both.
QPR - if a team comes to play for a draw, fine. If a team comes and slows it down a bit tactically, fine. But stupid time wasting antics which I noticed one or two things after 35 odd mins was a bit strange - I could only figure they were happy with a 1 goal deficit going into half time, which when they equalised and went ahead was just a disgrace. For the physio to then join in the antics is an even bigger disgrace - do your medical job you tit then get off the pitch.
I would like to see the body who oversees the laws of the game allow the referee in instances like that to inform the captain there are no more warnings and even if they walk slowly to the ball for a throw they incur a yellow card.
8 minutes into the fully justified 11 mins it was getting a bit too end-to-end for me, I was almost glad it ended.