End of Term Report 15/16 — Midfielders Tuesday, 21st Jun 2016 09:27 by Clive Whittingham Central midfield, the main problem area for QPR in 2015/16, comes under the microscope in the third part of our annual End of Term report. 8 — Tjaronn Chery A/BIn the same way that Grant Hall perhaps benefitted from a lack of hype and expectation, so Tjaronn Chery maybe suffered from the opposite. Chery was the ‘marquee’ arrival last summer, with all manner of statistics about his European-leading conversion rate from free kicks and corners — and the accompanying YouTube videos of spectacular long range goals - that go with it. He was described as “statistical porn” for the new breed of match analysts who are coming to dominate recruitment in our sport. By the time we got to day one at Charlton I was half expecting us to score every time we got a corner or a free kick. Some things to consider when judging how successful he’s been, and whether he’s met those expectations… Chery is 28 now and arrived here via three middle-of-the-road teams playing in a European league probably not even as good as France’s Ligue 1. Yes the Dutch are known for producing players, but frequently those who look excellent in the Eredivisie come to the UK and struggle — Alfonso Alves and Siem De Jong two high profile examples. This was not some 21-year-old starlet from the renowned youth set ups at Ajax, Eindhoven or Feyenoord — this is a player halfway through a career that had taken in Twente, Den Haag and Groningen, and stretched to not much more than 120 senior appearances. In addition, Chery is a physically slight player whose game is based around technique and skill, rather than speed or pace or strength or aerial ability. Foreign players often find English football a culture shock that must have been especially true of a 5ft 5in playmaker coming into the cut and thrust of the Championship having played his entire career in the middle of the top division in Holland. So how did he do? Well, like Massimo Luongo, Chery started well in Chris Ramsey’s attacking line up, and scored lovely goals against Rotherham and Bolton, before suffering more than most through the change of managers. Shunted out to the left wing, where he struggled to get on the ball at all, and then out of the team altogether, there was a very strong offer on the table in January from Macabbi Tel Aviv who offered a big financial package for him to move there and were surprised when he didn’t. I’m told Chery and his partner love London, and he’s very happy at QPR. He was keen to stay and give it a go in the second half of the season, and give it a go he certainly did. Chery finished the season with 10 goals from midfield in a mediocre side, in his first season in English football. He’s the top scorer for the season apart from the departed Charlie Austin. His strike rate hasn’t got the credit or coverage it deserved in my opinion, possibly because a couple of them were late consolation goals — Fulham and Boro at home — or possibly because we were led to believe he’d be whopping free kicks into the top corner every week but it’s a significant achievement nonetheless. Like many of his team mates he played his best football through the spring, as four play-off chasing teams and Brentford were all quickly beaten at Loftus Road in decent style — intelligent, well executed Chery goals against Birmingham and Derby set two of those wins up. Amazing what happens if you give a player a few months to settle into a new country and team and find his feet a bit isn’t it? On the down side, in common with the rest of a squad that only won four league games on the road all season (two of them in the first month), he struggled a little away from Loftus Road — missed sitters at Hull and Preston would have added four points to the season total. But what’s telling for me is that while the supporters were drawn to Grant Hall, Ale Faurlin and Alex Smithies in their Player of the Year voting, the players who play and train alongside Chery every day went for the Dutchman. At the risk of making the same mistake with the hype again, I’m expecting big things from a very talented player next season. In Numbers
10 — Leroy Fer EWaste of skin, and no small amount of money, part one — we have Sandro still to come in this section so I’ll try and leave some powder dry. Fer, like Sandro, was one of the big names returning to the side in the autumn that saw us take leave of our senses and get all starry eyed once more. “Promotion is everything to me” said the chairman, “we’ve got one of the best teams in the league on paper” said the director of football… and off we went again. Individuals, names, things on paper all put ahead of common sense, the team as a collective unit, and everything that has happened at QPR during the last five years. We just can’t help ourselves, like some footballing Gollum clutching our precious full Dutch/Brazilian/Chilean international in our hands and snapping our teeth at anybody who dare approach offering reason, or logic, or lessons from the recent past. No, no, it would be different this time. How could we fail to win promotion from the Championship with Rob Green in goal, Sandro and Fer in midfield, Hoilett and Philips on the wing and Charlie Austin up front? Very easily in fact, for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, Austin apart, all of them must have had something wrong with them to sign for QPR in the first place — players of that ilk, that earning potential, that top flight experience, don’t come and play for QPR at the peak of their form and fitness because they like the kit. They come because they’re old or injured or for the big money or a combination of those things. Secondly, Austin apart, none of them are anywhere near as good as they’re made out in the brochure — all of them were part of the QPR team that finished dead last in the Premier League and the gap to the division below isn’t so big for that not to matter. Why would Sandro and Fer, who’d been poor in a poor team the previous season, suddenly pull their fingers out and look brilliant in a lower, more physical division where there are more games to play? Thirdly, parachuting them all back into the team ahead of players who’d arrived in the summer to replace them, and who consequently ended up sitting on the bench at best, breeds resentment and affects team spirit — while also creating that unwanted situation where one of your central midfielders is on £7,000 a week and the one next to him is on £47,000. And fourthly - most relevant to this section - a couple of them didn’t give a single fuck about playing for QPR in the first place, and that wasn’t exactly going to change once the club was playing Rotherham instead of Manchester United. Even when Fer was interested, in the Premier League, he was woeful defensively. Apparently in Holland, where he played holding midfield, they used to call him The Bouncer. I’d want better protection for my nightclub than this. Back in the Championship, obviously angling for a move, he didn’t even feign interest in the defensive side of the game, while contributing very little to the attack where he had at least previously looked potentially useful. One bad miss at Ipswich proved particularly costly as a 1-0 lead turned to a 2-1 defeat. QPR selected him remorselessly through the winter period, often on the wing, despite him phoning in his performances. For all the stick I gave the full backs in the previous Defenders section, let's not forget that they spent their season defending behind Junior Hoilett, Matt Phillips and Leroy Fer who are all to defensive shape what cyanide is to salad dressing. The thinking being that the club needed to show potential January suitors that he was at least fit to play. A risky strategy, given that nobody who came to watch him during that period could possibly have been at all impressed with what they saw, but he did indeed subsequently get a loan move to Swansea which if we all keep nice and quiet and play it really cool and casual for just a little bit longer it sounds like they might be daft enough to make permanent. In Numbers:
11 — Ben Gladwin N/AProbably not played enough to be graded, but worth a small write up all the same. It’s a step up, no question — Gladwin had seven separate stints with non-league clubs (not Conference clubs either) between 2009 and 2013 before a 50-odd game spell with Swindon and that’s it other than a spell in Reading’s academy. So it’s a bit of a punt and it’ll take time to see if he’s a successful gamble from us or not. Doing things the way QPR are doing at the moment, the way they should have done all along, does mean there are going to be hits and misses — in some cases players you thought were more likely to be misses (Grant Hall) will be hits and vice versa. Given that Gladwin finished last season very strongly with Swindon, scoring a fabulous goal in the play-offs and really looking like some player, I was disappointed with how he started this season. I expected some of that confidence, buoyed by a move to a bigger club up the leagues, to carry over, but he didn’t affect the early games enough for me or get involved enough. In the League Cup at Yeovil — and ideal chance for him to put an early marker down against a desperately poor side — he was anonymous. Subsequent loans back to Swindon and then to Bristol City weren’t bad ideas to get him playing some football, and unfortunately injury robbed him of that at Ashton Gate. I was a good deal more impressed with him on his little run outs at the end of the season. He’s perhaps best summed up by a moment against Reading where he completely messed up an attempt to control a dropping ball in the area only to then turn the mistake into a sublime bit of skill with an immaculate touch and step over — Rangers should have scored from the cut back. But he got on the ball, drove at opponents, affected games and looked good in those final few outings. He’s a bit different, in body shape and style, and I hope it works out for him here. In Numbers: 18 — Ale Faurlin A/BLet’s start this by saying that Ale Faurlin’s personal target for this season was simply to complete a campaign from August to May injury free. He’s done that, and made 30 appearances into the bargain. That’s a remarkable achievement, worthy of an A* and a medal and a trolley dash around Nandos and whatever else his heart desires. One ACL injury has finished players before, coming back from two is really quite something and three — as Swansea’s Ferrie Bodde will testify to — is virtually impossible. Wonderful effort, despite Lewis Dunk’s disgusting effort to curtail it back in December. Having given the club a few rounds of the kitchen over the decision to release Clint Hill in the previous piece, let me also say that apparently deals were on the table for both him and Faurlin but both players wanted guarantees about game time that QPR couldn’t (and shouldn’t) provide. Assuming that is the case, and not just the PR line designed to quell the anger that inevitably comes when you shoot Bambi’s mum twice on the same day and then reverse over her in your car, then it’s fair play to the players for looking for something more and to the club for not offering guarantees out of sentimentality or concerns about how it might ‘play’ with the fans. I don’t think sentiment really comes into it with Faurlin. The club has stood by him, and renewed his contract, throughout his injury troubles, when many others wouldn’t have done so. Harry Redknapp’s famed man management skills apart, he’s been treated well at QPR. There are more valid non-football reasons why you would keep him around. The value of experienced, long-serving players with the club at heart is magnified during times of great change and squad turnover. You need those players to set standards, police dressing rooms, make new comers aware that it’s a special club to play for an it’s important they do well. You need some continuity through squads — only Watford really manage to make a success of changing all their players over every summer. On the football side, here’s the harsh bit. The centre of midfield is QPR’s biggest problem at the moment. It’s not quick enough, it’s not attacking enough, it’s not good enough defensively and it poses no goal threat. The personnel we have to choose from at the moment mean we always have to have three players in the centre, and one of them usually has to be Karl Henry. When the Championship Manager veterans got their way and Henry was taken out so we could play four across the middle and two up front… well, we all saw what Fulham (who are crap) did to Tozser and Luongo at Loftus Road. So immediately you’ve got to pick an extra man in midfield, to accommodate two further forward who never score. This in turn means you have to play one up front, which in the Championship is a job only suited to a big physical forward and there’s only really Seb Polter at the club who can do that. The reason Conor Washington hasn’t been playing, and hasn’t been getting good ball on the rare occasions he has been selected, comes back to the centre of midfield. As does just about every other problem we have. We need legs in there, speed, physicality, goal threat. We need to be able to select four midfielders and two strikers sometimes. We need to be adding a dozen goals absolute minimum from that area of the pitch. Is Faurlin going to help us do any of that? All of that said, Faurlin was still the best central midfielder we had last season, and the team frequently played better with him in it. Coming back to a point I made about Clint Hill, are we really going to find a midfielder of Faurlin’s quality and experience, under 30 (which he still is), at an affordable price this summer? You can talk about Faurlin’s injury record, but anybody of that age and ability who is affordable to QPR this close season will also have something wrong with them — and Faurlin has all the love for the club and passion about playing for Rangers that they won’t. Yes the midfield needs an overhaul, and no the club shouldn’t have promised Faurlin he’d be playing every game next season if they intend to do that overhaul this summer. But I wonder just how easy he will be to replace given we’ve already had one go with Daniel Tozser which looked a very good move on paper but turned out to be a disaster. I wonder if they’ve made an already big job this summer even bigger needlessly by getting rid of him and Hill. And, sadly, I know full well that if we start next season in anything other than excellent form then the release of Hill and Faurlin and the re-signing of Henry will fit nicely alongside the “he’s a Chelsea cunt” stuff that Hasselbaink will face. There’s a more fulsome piece on Faurlin’s time at the club here. In Numbers
20 — Karl Henry BI don’t expect this one to go down well so I’ll begin by saying that I, like all of you, would love to live in a world where the QPR midfield was made up entirely of excellent young boys from Spain, schooled from children in the art of ball control and cutting opponents apart with incisive forward passes, immaculate of first touch and with an ability to glide through Championship games without breaking sweat, sweeping all before them and guiding QPR to a 100 point and 100 goal title win on the crest of a wave of one touch passes and back flicks before all being sold for many millions of pounds and immediately replaced by another four of the same. Not only is it not realistic, I’m not entirely sure it would work at this level even if it ever did happen — Daniel Parejo was carved out a very decent La Liga career for himself after flopping at Loftus Road against the likes of Doncaster and Barnsley. You do need somebody in the middle of your midfield who is more defensively minded and can offer protection to the defence behind him. We saw very clearly in the home game against Fulham, where Tozser and Luongo started together in a flat middle four, what damage can be done in the space between midfield and defence even by one of the division’s worst teams when it’s not there. It’s not entirely accurate to say those players are never going to be popular with supporters — because Shaun Derry was loved in W12. Nor does it necessarily have to be somebody quite as limited and defensive as Karl Henry, whose complete aversion to ever playing a forward pass starts to grate on even the most patient and understanding observer after a while. The crowd justifiably got a bit eggy at Brentford when, while chasing a 1-0 deficit, he kept turning balls back inside 15 yards to centre halves who invariably just thumped it long down the field anyway, just from a worse position. But the grief Karl Henry gets from QPR supporters is massively over the top. The MK Dons home match, when a large section of the support basically tried to drive one of their own players from the field by making it impossible for him to play his game so the manager had to take him off, was a real low point not only of this season but also of my 25 years following this club. Not only was it disgusting, over the top and childish, it was also entirely counterproductive. I’d assume, as QPR fans, we’d all like it very much if Karl Henry played really well every week, because that would help the team to win and then we’d all be happy. So why actively engage in behaviour which made it more difficult for him to perform? There’s a difference between sounding off on a message board, a blog, in the pub, or even out loud at a match in the heat of one moment. But to all start bullying one of your own players en masse? This in a game we won 3-0. What would we say of Chelsea or Fulham fans if we heard them behaving in the same way? We have had in our ranks in recent years, the exact polar opposite of Karl Henry. Adel Taarabt scored 19 goals and registered 21 assists as QPR won this division and promotion back to the Premier League after 15 years away. The Moroccan scored goals the likes of which I’ve never seen at Loftus Road, played consistently well across the whole season, was rarely injured despite being frequently kicked by inferior opponents, was brilliant to watch, was especially good when he really needed to be in the biggest matches, and was an absolute joy to watch. There are QPR fans, despite all that, who slag him off because he had a big mouth on him, said some things he shouldn’t, behaved poorly, ate too much and didn’t track back and defend. I do wonder what it is we actually want from QPR at times apart from to turn up once a week and slag off some of our own players. Henry has not sat out injured for months on end with one indeterminate knock after another collecting a huge wage for no return on the field, as Bobby Zamora, Andy Johnson and Sandro have done. He has not sat around picking up a massive wage while playing no football at all simply because he wasn’t really that bothered about playing for QPR, as Shaun Wright-Phillips, Junior Hoilett, Armand Traore and Luke Young among others have done. He has not behaved poorly on and off the field, criticised the club and other players in the press, made controversial appearances on political television programmes, slagged off some of the club’s best ever players on social media, picked up petulant red cards in massive matches… as Joey Barton did. And yet he’s copped more stick than all of them put together. Things seemed to calm down in the stands after Chris Ramsey’s sacking, but I fully expect them to turn again if we start next season in anything other than very good form. Hasselbaink will no doubt be a “Chelsea cunt” and Ferdinand’s “Evil Les” status will swell in no time at all if massive QPR and their 18,000 stadium don’t start immediately beating up the rest of the division. I do wonder what kind of a support base we’re becoming. Let’s try and step back from the brink eh? The daft thing is Henry isn’t even that bad. Yes, QPR need far, far better in that position. Not only does he not pass it forwards, he can’t really run with it either. The team is crying out for a big, leggy, athletic presence in that spot ahead of the back four, capable of not only protecting those behind him but also engaging opponents higher up the field and getting the team on the front foot, as Derry used to do. I’m still amazed we allowed Leeds to take Diagouraga from just down the road at Brentford for so little money in January — he’d have been ideal. But Henry is a steady, reliable, consistent performer. And, it should be said, was one of the team’s better players in the second half of the season. That’s testament to the strength of his character if nothing else — lesser men would have wilted under the pressure we applied. Lovely goal to finish a season he can take a good deal of personal pride from. In Numbers:
21 — Massimo Luongo CA bit of a problem child in a real problem area of the field for QPR at the moment. I thought Luongo was the pick of the signings last summer, and I still think we’ve got a potentially excellent player on our hands. In a part of the season Ron Atkinson would have called ‘early doors’ before launching into some racist tirade, Luongo stood out as our best player. Touch, awareness, passing game, positioning, creativity… all streets ahead of his team mates. Watching us go forwards on a wet night at Wolves in August, with Luongo and Matt Phillips in fine fettle, was a really exciting experience and we came from two goals down to win that game. Four of the six assists he managed all season came in August, four of his five Man of the Match Awards came before the end of September. Then a few things happened pretty much all at once. First there was an international break, during which Luongo had to fly all the way to the other side of the world to play for Australia in a home match, and then halfway back in the opposite direction to line up for them in Tajikistan or some other footballing hotbed of that ilk. I’m not saying he’s still jet lagged nine months later, but he certainly never hit his early season heights again after that ludicrous fortnight. Then there was a mixture of bad luck and profligacy in front of goal. In the 4-0 shellacking at Fulham Luongo actually went through on goal with the score only 1-0 but tried to give the keeper the eyes and didn’t sell it convincingly enough — the resulting duffed effort straight into the grateful gloves was among the most embarrassing moments on a dreadful night. Later, at Brentford, one shot came back into play off the inside of the post when exactly the same effort would bounce into the net 99 times out of 100, and another header hit the cross bar. It seemed Luongo’s lack of a goal for QPR — he still hasn’t scored for the club — started to play on his mind and his shooting and finishing only got worse from there. There was also a couple of changes of manager around this time, and Rangers went from a 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 that Chris Ramsey and Luongo both seemed to like, into a 4-4-2, 4-5-1 and even a 4-6-0 for a couple of dreadful matches under Neil Warnock’s temporary charge. Luongo got left out, bumped around onto the wing, and picked in the middle of a four — none of which he seemed overly suited to. When Fulham came to Loftus Road the problem of playing Luongo and a playmaker together in a 4-4-2 was laid very bare indeed. And so we come to the end of the season not really knowing his best position, or where he can effectively fit into our team. I want to see a lot more from him next season, particularly going forwards. If the lack of assists from our full backs is a problem, then I’m not sure how you can describe us only scoring two goals in the entire season from the centre of midfield. Luongo finished with none whereas I’d be looking for him to push towards double figures given the attacking threat he poses for his country. In Numbers:
28 — Daniel Tozser DQPR knew they had a couple of key problems last summer. The best centre half of the club was well into his 30s, and the best midfielder at the club was coming into the season on the back of three ACL ruptures. Rangers needed Clint Hill and Ale Faurlin to play a 46 game season, or more realistically they needed to adequately replace them. Daniel Tozser, like Gabrielle Angella, looked like a reasonable stab at recruiting a ball-playing central midfield player. They’d both been key, popular, consistent members of a promoted Watford team the season before — so much so that regulars at Vicarage Road were surprised and a little disappointed to see them go. In the end it turned into a competition to see who disappointed the least, and sadly Tozser couldn’t even win that. There is a decent left foot on the Hungarian, but QPR fans only saw two very fleeting glimpses of it across the whole season — one unorthodox but beautifully executed assist for Matt Phillips against MK Dons, and one well-struck goal at Hillsborough against Sheffield Wednesday which was one of only two goals scored by the R’s from central midfield this season. But that really was it. Tozser doesn’t so much lack pace as suffer from rigor mortis. Evolution moves faster than this guy. Admittedly QPR lack pace, speed and tempo throughout their midfield division — a key deficiency to correct this summer and watch how good people like Tjaronn Chery and Conor Washington will suddenly look further forward if we can — but Tozser makes Henry, Faurlin, Luongo and Sandro look like the American 4x100m Olympic squad. I think I caught the physio checking for a pulse during one match last season. Which is a shame, for Les Ferdinand and QPR who must have thought they’d made a reasonable stab at replacing Faurlin with this signing and certainly didn’t have many people objecting or saying it was bad move at the time. And for Tozser himself, who will know with Hungary’s limitations as a nation that he’s probably missed his one chance to play at an international tournament this summer when, had it been staged 12 months ago, he’d have been in the starting 11. Having watched both Hungary games in the Euros so far, that he cannot now even make a provisional gathering of 30 for that team speaks for itself. Remains to be seen if there’s a Lazarus-like resurrection to come next season, or if a taker on the continent can be quietly located. In Numbers:
30 — Sandro EPeople call him The Beast, as if we needed any further proof that people are fucking stupid. Sandro is the least durable beast in the entire history of beasts. He makes that self-pitying Disney creation that lives with a singing teapot look like a scrap yard Rottweiler. The number of league starts he’s made per season since arriving in this country in 2010 are: 11, 17, 22, 10, 17 and 15. Harry Redknapp used to say QPR would be alright, QPR would improve, when Sandro was able to start games regularly for them. As if Sandro had ever started games regularly for anybody. As if he was ever going to be able to start games regularly for anybody ever again. We fell into the trap again this season. Imagine how good he’ll be in the Championship, imagine how one-sided games will be when we can pick a midfield with a Brazilian international in it, imagine how he’ll tear this league apart once he’s finally got his dodgy immigration papers in order and been allowed back into the country. As if he was physically able to play regularly in a 46-game season, as if he was actually bothered about playing for QPR at all, as if he’s actually that good anyway. When it turned out he wasn’t, wasn’t and isn’t we tried to ship him out. As if we’re ever going find anybody willing to pay him the same ridiculous sum we offered him, as if he’d leave for less money if it meant playing regular football at a higher level, as if he was physically able to play regularly for somebody else, as if we’d ever find anybody stupid enough to conduct a medical and examination of his papers as slapdash as our own. He went to West Brom on loan, where he was rarely fit to start. Although Tony Pulis seemed keen to make that deal permanent for reasons which I’m sure are all purely above board and football related — a succession of injury time substitute appearances when not fit to start ticking his appearances closer and closer to the point where the deal would be made permanent automatically — even the Baggies have seemingly decided he’s not for them. Sporting Lisbon were keen, but they conduct medical examinations rather than letting prospective new signings piss around juggling footballs with the chairman in the club offices and have now ended their interest as a result. A complete crock. An absolute write off of £10m. A more typical Harry Redknapp signing you’d struggle to find. The only thing more laughable than his fleeting contributions to QPR’s cause during the past two years is the ongoing pretence that he’s 27 years old. In Numbers:
Others Disappointing not to see Michael Doughty get more game time this season. From what I’ve seen, he’s a League One player at the moment — and a decent spell with Swindon in the second half of the season re-affirmed this. But early in the season, when Karl Henry was playing particularly poorly, I felt Doughty could have been given more game time — indeed the only clean sheet we kept in the league in the first two months of the season was the game at Huddersfield where Doughty started instead of Henry. It’s use him or lose him time now I think. Oscar Gobern looked a little bit of a “shit the season starts next week and our squad is threadbare” panic and so it proved. As more players arrived, he was quickly shipped out. His fleeting appearance at Yeovil one for the QPR quiz question setters in years to come. Sad to see him pick up a bad injury at Doncaster, which will hinder his chances to kick start his career this summer. Best of luck to him. Brandon Comley spent time on loan at Carlisle and impressed in the FA Cup against Everton. And then there’s Samba Diakite. It’s easy to laugh, and God knows we do plenty of that on LFW about the Mad Malian. His random return to the substitute’s bench midway through the season brought a reaction in the Crown only topped by Lee Cook — rather the worse for the free table wine — buying the whole pub a round of Jaeger Bombs later in the season. But like Wright-Phillips, Fer, Sandro, Young, Traore, Johnson, Barton, Bosingwa and so on and on and on and on… it is frightening to think of the money he’s taken out of QPR during the past four years for fuck all by way of return. The Twitter @loftforwords Pictures — Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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