QPR v Aston Villa, Friday 26th Oct. 7:45pm kick off | Page 25 | Vital Football

QPR v Aston Villa, Friday 26th Oct. 7:45pm kick off

Melon Donkey said:
We have a difficult run of games coming up. Derby, Forest, blues, Albion, Stoke, Leeds .

Maybe in a perverse way it will be better that the expectation will probably be on the other teams (apart from blues) due to their form and the bigger expectations on them as a club from their own fans. We seem to suffer from the 'lesser 'clubs we play substantially raising their games against us wanting to give us a bloody nose as the big boys.

How's that for straw clutching?
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Lesser teams will park the bus, which is essentially what QPR did last night, except that QPR are good enough on the counter attack not to be a lesser team. Play like we did last night and we'll get the results against lesser teams. I think we are better set up now to play lesser teams than we were under Bruce, simply because our attacking game has improved.

Playing the better teams is going to be interesting. None of them is outstanding. They won't be so inclined to park the bus. They may put us under more pressure but maybe we'll have better chances.

I think the key may be up front. Swap Kodjia and Abraham. Abraham's a waste in a relatively static role. Kodjia is a waste outside the box.
 
sirdennis said:
Still shaking my head at how we didn't get anything out of that game.
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Let's face it, QPR parked the bus pretty well. Finding a way through was difficult. Add to that the threat on the counter attack and it explains why at the moment they're the form team.

Pity a lot of our crosses and corners were a bit long. Is that due to the small pitch?
 
ironside said:
I don't know whatI'd do about that defence but maybe putting Jedinak in front of them with McGinn and Grealish either side of him would give it a bit more solidity. Up front Kodjia in the middle with Bolasie and Elmo on either wing. D.S. has had a look at nearly all of them now, except, Jedi and Lansbury. For me McGinn has been the stand out player so far. Most of Bruce's buys have been disappointing but McGinn has been his one success.
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Like McGinn not sure of his taking corners no pace on the ball tends to float it so it hangs in the air which makes it difficult for the forwards. Needs to whip them in with pace. Frustrating for me was Elmo in a good position several times but fluffed his crosses.
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
Let's face it, QPR parked the bus pretty well. Finding a way through was difficult. Add to that the threat on the counter attack and it explains why at the moment they're the form team.

Pity a lot of our crosses and corners were a bit long. Is that due to the small pitch?
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I think a couple of Elmo's crosses are still in orbit.
 
Wicked Messenger said:
Massive improvement in play and desire to go forward. Difficult to believe we didn't score given all the attacking intent. I'm sure he will try different options like starting with Bolassie. He has more options up front than at the back.
Under Bruce, opponents almost always looked to be the better team but here Villa looked a different class to QPR, albeit not the finished article.
Agree this kit thing is a negative for me. When GT arrived he got us playing in our traditional colours unless a clash.
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Agree with all that, but regarding the kit, we had to wear claret shorts last night (like we did at Blackburn) because usually 2 teams can't wear the same coloured shorts.

There was however no need to wear the away one at Norwich, but that's the thing these days. I don't know who makes the decisions, is it the club?
 
garygaryshaw said:
!! Personally I thought we were pretty poor. I don't see the good football that others seem to be. Possession stats mean nothing if all you are doing is passing it around in your own half.
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But we weren't just passing it around our own half. It's quicker and more one-touch. There is a noticeable difference, if only slight for now.
 
Stephen Jay Hawkings said:
But we weren't just passing it around our own half. It's quicker and more one-touch. There is a noticeable difference, if only slight for now.
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I didnt think we were any quicker though, we play a quick ball out of defence then as soon as we get near the final 3rd we always turn inside or knock it back. QPR looked far faster on the counter than we did.
 
garygaryshaw said:
I didnt think we were any quicker though, we play a quick ball out of defence then as soon as we get near the final 3rd we always turn inside or knock it back. QPR looked far faster on the counter than we did.
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Yeah, that was mostly Hutton doing that, lol. I thought there was some nice quick one-touch stuff in midfield and around the box. The players have obviously been told to release the ball quicker.
 
My tuppence worth the day after the night before:

I thought we deserved a point but no more to be fair. As some have pointed out, the chances at each end were much of a muchness despite our over-riding dominance of the ball. Their keeper didn't have to make too many saves, certainly not ones that worked him anyway. However, I sit in the camp that it was our play in the final third that did let us down. Sometimes the movement was still rather static, particularly as the game wore on, whilst the final ball is at times distinctly lacking, which is flummoxing when you consider some of the players we had out on the pitch.

What scared me the most was the number of times (particularly in the first half) where we gave the ball away so easily and sloppily, under no pressure whatsoever. Now, I've read a number of people blame Nyland for invoking panic in the defence; well it cannot have been him as he'd barely touched in by the time the first 3 occasions had occurred. Furthermore, Tuanzebe looks the part and now very settled and assured. We really missed having pace in the backline last season I thought against some opponents and he ensures it's there.

His partner though, wow, that's a player lacking confidence. You can claim he had to help deal with the mess our lack of transfers in defence beforehand but not anymore, it's a settled backline and he's miles off. Without doubt culpable for the goal from where I was sat and Smith's comments seem to agree. He was one I thought would've struggled if we had gone up and now he is in desperate need of a swing in fortune and some successive clean sheets.

To me, before departing, Bjarnason was our best player. He seemed to be controlling things for us and breaking up plenty of their counter attacks. I didn't think Whelan had a horror game as some have made out when he came on, but it wasn't the same dynamism as the opening 35 minutes. McGinn started off emphatically and I can fully see the furore surrounding him. His influence on the game waned as time went on and as people said, with Grealish, they don't make for the most inspiring free kicks! What bothers me most with McGinn though was twice he recklessly gave away silly and unnecessary free kicks by flying in energetically when he was better off just putting on some pressure.

Out wide it was pretty ineffective too, although I would resonate that was more through the final ball issue mentioned above. Hutton seems to have gone back to how he was before his revitalised efforts last season. It was epitomised by when Axel wanted to take a quick throw as we were hammering them at the start of the second half and Hutton just kept running towards him - the foul throw was inevitable and all because Hutton panicked because he "should" take the throw ins. Baffling. Taylor I thought started off ok and is sufficient for us, but he too started to tail off as the pressure ramped up in need of the goal towards the end. In front of them, Elmo just wasn't with it and it was no surprise to see Bolasie, but although an improvement, I wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped I would be by him. I am a Kodjia fan and think he gives us some X Factor; inevitably he was going to pull off the line when with the ball, but he seemed so reluctant to get close to Abraham when a long ball was going to be utilised and I couldn't understand why. I had previously not minded having him out wide, but last night proved he does need to be the main man.

I can see the points made regarding Abraham and his need for an extra touch. The other point I'd make on him was everytime he was dealing with a long ball, he would always try and bring it down. This predictability made the QPR centre-backs (who along with the whole team defensively were excellent for them in closing down space and getting bodies around the ball) win more and more headers. At times, he needs to try and win a header and flick it on. If he does, it puts the wide men under pressure for not tucking in and trying to read flick ons.

As I say, we definitely deserved something out the game. To me as well, we played 4-1-4-1; has this been the case recently or is that a change last night? There is definitely shoots of opportunity and improvement there for us and I'll back the new regime to make those remaining tweaks required to take us forward and turn these odd goal defeats into the draws and wins we require to climb the league.

I know that's a pretty brutal and negative post, but I'm keeping the faith that actually we might be able to make a fist of it. As everyone has noted, it's looking like a ridiculously tight league this season and a flurry of results (as QPR have shown) can turn it all around. Let's just hope ours kick in over the next month before our tasty run into Christmas!
 
Kodjjia had a great game against Brentford yet smith doesn't seem to rate him as a CF...Grealish has gone backwards since McGinn came and stole his thunder, the defence is appalling, Chester has regressed to average, and I still don't trust Nyland...oh and we are 16th and counting in this bloody awful league! Other than that we are ok..
 
After today's results, and our performances of this week my gut feeling hasn't changed. I think we will struggle till Feb with some good and some bad results, then by the close of the window in Feb we will have hopefully solved some of the weaknesses we all know are there, by either recalling players or bringing new ones in. There are very few players I would be devastated about if they left. Then it is going to have to be championship winning form not just promotion form to get us into a playoff position. But I think we stand a better chance now, with the way we are performing in the last few games, than we did before Dean Smith was appointed. The players we have seem to be responding to his wish for us to play higher tempo and higher up the pitch.
 
Must admit I was knackered by the time me and my lad got home last night. I watched the game in a passive mood, yes we should have got a draw but I never felt we would score. I'm chuffed Bruce has gone and chuffed Dean Smith is in charge. If we can turn the year and be within 5 points of the play offs we have a chance. As an aside Loftus Road is pathetic, more pathetic than I remember it 30 years ago, £5 for a bottle of bear, wank little club in a cespit of a city. Warwickshire la la la Warwickshire la la la ?
 
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