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 Sublime to ridiculous, points surrendered to Villains and Wolves – guest columnTue 07th Feb 2012 23:47 by Chris King Chris King reflects on a potentially damaging three days on the field where QPR took just one point from two leading positions and lost two key players to injury and suspension. Queens Park Rangers should have won on Saturday. They were 1-0 up through Bobby Zamora, netting on his debut and emulating his strike partner Djibril Cisse’s goal-scoring first appearance in blue and white, and Wolverhampton Wanderers were there for the taking. Thoroughly dominant, against a side who had lost their last nine games, and experienced the ignominy of having their Chairman walk into the dressing room and lambast their mediocre efforts after a 3-0 home defeat to Liverpool, Mick McCarthy’s side were a miracle away from claiming all three points. Step up new the aforementioned Cisse to provide said miracle. From the lofty view of this supporter in the stands, the Frenchman’s offence initially appeared to be nothing more than reacting to a rash, dangerous challenge from the Wolves defender with a push in the back. However, Twitter instantly exploded with testimony from observers with access to instant replays. By these, Cisse was damned, and his true offence – grabbing Roger Johnson by the throat – revealed to the world. In the meantime, of course, he had been dismissed, and the sting well and truly taken out of the R’s front-line. Zamora was tasked with the impossible – maintaining some sort of threat on the away side’s goal, and holding up the ball at every possible opportunity against the overtly physical centre-back pairing of Johnson and Sebastien Bassong. Rangers were impotent after the sending off, and as at Villa Park on Wednesday, surrendered possession readily to their opponents. This time Mark Hughes’ side had an excuse, as Wolves used their man advantage to maximum effect. The visitors inadvertently made an early switch to all-out-attack, Emmanuel Frimpong’s injury meaning the introduction of Sylvain Ebanks-Blake in the first half, before he and Steven Fletcher were joined by Kevin Doyle in the second period. Wolves’ goal after the break was pitiful from the home side’s point of view. The away side were basically allowed to pass their way into Paddy Kenny’s net, Matt Jarvis finishing an excellent move for the inevitable equaliser. The winner was even more grimly predictable, as Rangers were beset by a worrying injury to Luke Young, and Wolves pressed further and further forward, substitute Doyle slotting home twenty minutes from time. Joey Barton was, you’ll not be surprised to hear, once again anonymous and useless in the face of the away side’s barrage. As a leader he is akin to Nero, standing by as the disaster unfolds, thinking about intervening but ultimately doing nothing until it’s too late. His “summaries” of the day’s events get more infuriating as each game goes by, particularly as the gap between his rhetoric and grand promises and performance level increases exponentially. Shaun Wright-Phillips’ relationship with the supporters was also brought into sharp focus by his lacklustre display in Saturday’s defeat. Ultimately, in this writer’s opinion, the diminutive winger is being wrongly deployed, and that has been the case since he put pen to paper. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that a player of Wright-Phillips’ stature is going to be more or less useless in a physical challenge. His weakness in ground-level exchanges, however, is extremely frustrating, as is the former England star’s inability to take players on. Sadly, the situation with Wright-Phillips is somewhat difficult, as bad performances lead to criticism, and jibes and frustration from the stands increase the intensity and frequency of his poor displays. It’s a vicious cycle, and one that Hughes, in his role as club saviour-in-chief, will have to break. The entire side, bar one individual, appeared to be gripped by a collective paralysis and an inability to resist the gold tide from the sending off until the final whistle. Only Adel Taarabt, returning from the African Cup of Nations, seemed to grasp the significance of a home defeat to Wolves, who were directly below QPR in the table. He had three or four efforts, one of which was superbly saved by Wayne Hennessey in the visitors’ goal, and in the process demonstrated exactly what he could be doing in the top flight with greater discipline and direction from the dugout. Taarabt was everywhere, his sublime skill so nearly forcing an equaliser, and earning last season’s Championship Player of the Year a standing ovation from the Loft.
Rangers had blown another two points three days previously at Aston Villa. Villa Park is a magnificent stadium. A, excuse the cliché, proper football ground. Regional accents, surrounded by flyovers, railway lines and industrial estates - it is a slice of what the great game once was. Atmosphere-wise, however, it has suffered from the exact same sanitisation inflicted upon every other top-flight ground. When Djibril Cisse gave visiting QPR the lead, the murmurings of discontent in the home end turned into a wave of dissent, the stadium’s acoustics ensuring that the fans’ collective chagrin showered down on the poorly-performing players on the pitch below. It got worse for Villa as well, when Stephen Warnock planted an inch-perfect header past Shay Given – into his own net. Red-faced Warnock slumped to the ground, his head in his hands, realising that the he had inadvertently given the away side a seemingly unassailable advantage with just a few minutes remaining until the interval. However, with Rangers, no lead is unassailable – they’ve lost more points (15) from winning positions this year than any other team in the league. The Villa surrender is perhaps understandable, with Nedum Onuoha and Taye Taiwo making debuts in the back line but the fact remains that Mark Hughes’ tactics were misguided. By playing so deep and allowing the hosts to not only dominate possession, but in effect signing over ownership of the ball to a handful of Villa players, the R’s were living dangerously. It is fair to say that had Darren Bent not netted a splendid slotted effort on the cusp of half time, Villa may not have netted twice after the break. But in reality, once Warnock’s wonder blunder had doubled QPR’s advantage, they fatally sat back, and failed to close down the flanks sufficiently. And, by some marvellous coincidence, guess where both goals came from for Alex McLeish’s side? Luke Young’s marking on Charles N’Zogbia was, well, that sentence is actually a contradiction in terms. There was no marking. Despite this, and the rather chilling sight of both Rob Hulse and Hogan Ephraim on the field in the same game, albeit at different times, there were a number of positives for Rangers. Cisse looked sharp, and took his goal exceptionally well, in the style of a seasoned goal scorer which makes his three match suspension all the more frustrating. Despite that and private cynicism, the prospect of Bobby Zamora and Cisse lining up together fills one with, oh, what is it? Ah yes, positivity. The exact opposite emotion to when Jay Bothroyd’s name is read out over the PA system at Loftus Road. It is certainly a satisfying feeling, just to have to vague knowledge that your team is capable of scoring more than one goal per game. If you look at the R’s goal scoring charts, Heidar Helguson currently leads with seven in the league. Who is next? One of several players with two goals thus far, including two Aston Villa own goals. Hopefully the arrival of Cisse and Zamora will remedy this, and Taarabt’s return to form can ensure that we are treated to the rather undignified sight of Shaun Derry being wheeled out to chase after the ball for 90 minutes to no avail less often. With the window closed, mercifully attention has switched to events on the pitch and the fact is that, no matter how exciting the January signings have been, QPR pissed away a lead to a team with about as much urgency and potency as a stoned eunuch. On the injury front, Saturday was extremely disappointing, particularly with a trip to Blackburn, a game which could be said to fit into the ‘relegation twelve pointer’ category, on the horizon. With Young hobbling off injured, Zamora picking up a knock and Alejandro Faurlin, Heidar Helguson and Akos Buzsaky injured, the line-up for this Saturday’s game could be decided on a survival of the fittest basis. As for the gaffer, he will have been buoyed by the excellent link-up play between Zamora, Taarabt and Cisse, which certainly put the visitors to the sword early on. However, despite the reasons for Saturday’s defeat, there is only so long anyone can ignore the fact that the “winnable” games are running out, and fast. Tweet @loftforwords, @chriskking Pictures – Action Images
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