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Ways to lose away games, number 11 in the series - report
Sunday, 11th Jan 2015 23:11 by Clive Whittingham

Defensive incompetence in the first half, and a tactical shambles in the second, saw QPR hand over three points to relegation rivals Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday - an eleventh straight away defeat.

You’d think QPR might have won one away game by now this season, even by accident, after 11 attempts and 11 defeats. Indeed, it seems the R’s are having to come up with new and inventive ways to ensure they don’t. This week: self-immolation.

Harry Redknapp’s justification for his repeated application for a hall pass on the away results this season has been the toughness of the fixtures - QPR have played ten of the league’s better teams on the road to start with, and will now travel to all of the bottom seven before May. The results, in theory, should start to catch up with the team’s very decent home form.

That so called ‘easier’ run of away matches started on Saturday at Burnley, second bottom at the start of the day after spending just £4m on strengthening their team following promotion alongside QPR last term.

The Clarets are a magnet for patronising pundits this season. “Little old Burnley, giving it a go, spending no money, manger doing a great job, footballing miracle,” they’ll say, after a 30 second highlight reel of their game at the end of the programme. “Still probably going to go down though.”

Sean Dyche is doing more than a great job, he’s doing a magnificent job, but he and his team pay scant regard to what’s said or written about them. When they were written off after failing to win any of their first ten games they ignored it and kept playing the way they always play, when individuals are singled out they credit the team and move on, and when the media fell over themselves to praise them for roaring back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at champions Man City Dyche calmly pointed out that it was still only one point for the league total. While others complain about a hectic Christmas fixture list, Dyche picked the same starting 11 for six matches in a row.

The upshot is you know what you’re getting with Burnley. Whether they won 4-0 or lost 4-0 last week, whether they’ve played a dozen times in the last fortnight or not had a game for a month, whether they’re in good form or bad, the ethos, the plan, the style and the message remains the same. This is a basic set up - two banks of four, two out and out strikers - and it achieves its success through discipline and harder work than you’ve seen from a football team. They’re relentless, but apart from striker Danny Ings - out of contract in the summer and attracting interest - and the full backs Trippier and Mee it’s little more than a good Championship side on paper. George Boyd, outstanding on Saturday and all season to this point, couldn’t get in the Hull team last year.

Apart from away defeats, you don’t know what you’re getting from QPR from one week to the next, either the formation or the personnel. Harry Redknapp is collecting ‘number 10s’ best suited to playing in the withdrawn role off a central striker, and added another this week with Mauro Zarate on loan from West Ham. It means Eduardo Vargas and Leroy Fer are routinely used out of position on the wings, while Niko Kranjcar and Jordon Mutch can’t get a game at all. Zarate, too, was benched on Saturday because Adel Taarabt was suddenly recalled for his first start since August having previously been labelled “three stone overweight” by his manager and, apparently, participating in almost none of the training.

Redknapp’s team selections are wild at the moment. After laying out £58m on 21 players since arriving at the club he still doesn’t have a winger for either side of his 4-4-2 formation, a partner for his main striker Charlie Austin, or any kind of strength in either full back position.

But you’d have thought, given the relative resources and outlay, that QPR should have had enough about them to trouble a Burnley side that had scored only seven times at Turf Moor all season prior to this match. And you’d have been right.

A quarter of an hour in, a combination that worked in the previous meeting between these two sides - Vargas and Mauricio Isla down the right feeding Charlie Austin in the penalty box - almost produced a goal but the former Burnley striker struck the post with a shot he did well to dig out from behind him. Later Vargas tried his own luck, striking a sweet volley from 25 yards that home keeper Tom Heaton had to fling himself full length to his right to reach with one hand.

Taarabt, despite a lack of action, looked good; showing for the ball and using it wisely and creatively. No sign of his ball-hogging or selfish tendencies, no hint of tiredness through lack of action, no real indication he’d ever been anywhere other than the QPR first team. He linked the play beautifully, not only maintaining possession but passing it forwards and wide, into dangerous areas, with a real purpose. It was a fine ball from the Moroccan to Vargas who in turn fed Austin just after the half hour for QPR’s opening goal. Dean Marney couldn’t resist hanging out a leg which tripped Austin providing him with a chance to beat Heaton with a powerful shot into the bottom corner from the penalty spot. Perhaps today would be the day to remove that awayday monkey.

Problem was, that was only an equaliser. Richard Dunne and, in particular, Steven Caulker had decided that this was the time to take their previously solid-looking partnership and turn it into an accident-prone farce. Burnley don’t do anything particularly clever or creative with their formation or their attacking play - and at times looked quite ordinary - but they were able to open up their visitors time and time again with little more than proficiently executed basics.

There had been signs - Ings in space and running towards goal with the ball at his feet twice in the first minute and 30 seconds - but even that didn’t really give fair warning of a truly shambolic first goal after 12 minutes. Scott Arfield collected the ball from a throw in down the Burnley left with no hooped player within six or seven yards of him. He was allowed to turn, drift past a non-existent tackle from Joey Barton, ride a pathetic attempt at retrieving the ball from Mauricio Isla, and ghost past Richard Dunne who was committed to running in one direction and hadn’t received coastguard clearance to begin the process of turning around. The little sojourn had carried him right into the heart of the QPR penalty box without the need to really break a sweat and from there a low curled shot, under no challenge, around Robert Green and into the far corner was relatively simple.

No matter, Austin drew the sides level and with Vargas’ volley bringing 1,600 travelling fans to their feet in renewed hope, the momentum seemed to be with Rangers. Then… well… if you thought the first goal was shambolic…

Just five minutes after equalising, with their fans in full voice, and Burnley seemingly on the rack, QPR contrived to fall behind once again with another goal owed entirely to their own feckless incompetence. First Mauricio Isla gave the ball away with a header in the right back slot, but that needn’t have necessarily mattered as the home team simply hooked a hopeful ball forward that centre halves as commanding as Dunne and Caulker should have eaten alive. In actual fact Caulker allowed the ball to bounce and was then ushered away from the action with embarrassing ease by Ings who subsequently turned Dunne and rolled a gentle left footed effort past Green and oh, so, agonisingly, slowly across the line.

I’ve seen some nonsense from QPR in my time but my goodness me.

But, again, no matter. One nervous claim by Green under heavy pressure at the back post, which he needed two attempts to complete, and a low daisy cutter from the tireless George Boyd that rolled straight to the keeper apart, there hadn’t been much serious threat on the QPR goal in the first 45 minutes. Neither team was defending well and of all the possible second half scenarios, the score staying at 2-1 seemed the least likely. Queens Park Rangers were still well in the contest.

The respective second half strategies were poles apart. Burnley, pretty set in the ways that have brought them continuous success for the last 18 months, decided to continue to do pretty much everything they’d done in the first half. QPR decided to take everything good they’d done in the first 45 and stop it, replacing it with much more of everything bad they’d done before half time and some new rubbish as well.

Having created good goal scoring chances reasonably regularly before the break, the attack now had the cutting edge of a wooden spoon. The defensive incompetence actually increased incrementally with the desperation for an equaliser, and really Burnley could and should have scored a lot more. The ball retention was poor, then it was awful, then it was abysmal, and in the end it seemed as though QPR couldn’t hand the ball back to their hosts quick enough - Clint Hill was particularly culpable, and Joey Barton so careless that his rare successful passes were actually met with ironic cheers from an exasperated away end.

Redknapp made three substitutions, each one deteriorating the shape of the team further and reducing the effectiveness of his side and the performance of his players. Any hope that the first half display had provided that there may be something in this for the London side had been carried away on the spiteful northern wind long before full time.

Within five minutes of the restart QPR had once again fallen fast asleep while defending a throw in, allowing Ashley Barnes to stand totally unmarked in the penalty area and receive the ball to his feet - Green made a fine save to deny him as he turned and struck a first time volley towards goal. Later, with Caulker caught downfield protesting to referee Andre Marriner that he should have been awarded a corner, Barnes was able to find more space around the penalty area and this time fired a shot high over the bar. Within six minutes Green had allowed another shot from the former Brighton forward to bounce out for a corner via a heavy deflection when it looked like the keeper could have easily caught the ball on the full.

Redknapp’s first move was to take off Karl Henry and introduce centre forward Bobby Zamora, but the play-off final hero looked so far off the pace here it was untrue. He moved with the speed and ease of the minutes taker at an Arthritis Care meeting. Simple passes played within a yard or two of him were allowed to roll past and back to Burnley. Essentially he was only any use if QPR could get the ball directly to his head for him to flick on, and Burnley centre back Jason Shackell was happy to deal with that one all night long.

Zamora’s first act was to give the ball away cheaply resulting in an attack from which Burnley won a corner. This marked the start of QPR’s apparent determination to concede at least once from a header at the back post. In this instance, they left Ben Mee unmarked and his downward header was bundled over the line by Barnes only for Marriner to rule that he’d fouled Green in the process of doing so. He definitely had, but Hill had plenty of Barnes as well.

QPR, who’d earlier rightly felt aggrieved that Marriner had shown Joey Barton a yellow card for his first foul of the match while Marney was allowed to pull Vargas down deliberately and interrupt a promising counter attack without so much as a word on the run, were grateful to the official for his generosity there.

But they didn’t heed the warning. Dyche sent on Sam Vokes, hero of Monday night’s home draw with Spurs in the FA Cup, for Barnes and the home team continued to find joy with simple, well delivered balls to the far post. Had Isla not headed a cross from Trippier behind, Vokes and Arfield were both standing unattended waiting to convert. From the resulting corner Keane was left free at the far stick and Green made a wonderful save to deny him. Later Keane was allowed to roam free on the far side of the penalty area again and should have done more than guide a header back across the face of the goal.

It was mind blowing. Same every time: deep cross, queue of unmarked Burnley players at the far post. Perhaps Dyche had picked up on the problem with constantly signing ‘number tens’ - it means you often have players out of position on the wing. Neither Fer nor Vargas are natural wide players, and it shows in their defensive work. What little shape the R’s had fell apart completely in the second period with the substitutions leaving the full backs even more exposed than they were before.

Redknapp responded by sending on Armand Traore for Clint Hill who’d had a particularly poor game. Traore, typically, brought an element of comedy and circus to the proceedings - yellow carded after 15 seconds for a bad foul on Boyd he later set off with a dribble in a straight line that took him almost immediately out of play and into the main stand still with the ball at his feet.

Zarate came on for his debut instead of Vargas as well but by this point the only player in the visiting side who seemed to have a set position was lone striker Bobby Zamora, and possibly that was only set because he was physically incapable of moving out of it. Zarate, Austin, Fer and Taarabt all milled around behind him, getting in each other’s way, trying to do similar things, nobody with any idea or inclination to play wide or central, left or right. It was as if Redknapp had just collected up all the attacking players he had left, slung them on and told them to stand at the far end of the field and see what happens.

Burnley stayed in shape and system - two banks of four, high tempo, high work rate. George Boyd was perpetual motion. There was nothing more complex on offer than that from the home team. Had they been better, they’d have buried the game long before full time. On half a dozen occasions ball concession from Rangers set away counter attacks with big numbers involved - Joey Barton particularly culpable in a dismal personal 45 minutes - but they couldn’t get the execution right and so it remained 2-1.

Consequently, an injury time corner, met powerfully by Steven Caulker, could have provided a late equaliser - fully deserved on the first half showing, total daylight robbery on the second. Heaton pushed it over the bar one handed.

The points were Burnley’s, and so they should be after a calamitous second half display from the not-so-Super Hoops. Harry Redknapp showed a turn of pace that belied his chronic knee problem at full time, moving across the field and down the tunnel double quick, with only the briefest of glances, and no applause, towards an away end that, contrary to morning headlines, was more resigned and depressed than angry and confrontational. Rarely has the veteran QPR manager’s persistent assertion that buying the best players wins you football matches, rather than the systems and tactics that Burnley are relying on, looked so utterly stupid.

Links >>> Photo Gallery >>> Message Board Match Thread

Burnley: Heaton 7; Trippier 7, Keane 7, Shackell 6, Mee 6; Boyd 8, Marney 6, Jones 6, Arfield 6; Ings 7, Barnes 6 (Vokes 73, 6)
Subs not used: Duff, Wallace, Kightly, Reid, Gilks, Jutkiewicz
Goals: Arfield 12 (unassisted), Ings 38 (assisted Barnes)
Bookings: Marney 45+1 (foul), Barnes 52 (foul)

QPR: Green 6; Isla 5, Caulker 4, Dunne 5, Hill 4 (Traore 75, 4); Fer 6, Henry 6 (Zamora 69, 4), Barton 5, Vargas 6 (Zarate 76, 5); Taarabt 7, Austin 6
Subs not used: Phillips, McCarthy, Onuoha, Mutch
Goals: Austin 32 (penalty, won Austin)
Bookings: Barton 44 (foul), Traore 75 (foul)

QPR Star Man - Adel Taarabt 7 I was surprised he looked as fit as he did, and played 90 minutes. He showed for the ball well, peeling off Charlie Austin to receive it from the midfield with his back to goal before looking to turn and feed Vargas, Fer and his strike partner. His link play, particularly in the first half, was excellent and exactly what Austin has been missing. No doubt this was either a stunt to get him in the shop window, or loosen the purse strings for the transfer window, and Taarabt will either disappear again, or not be as keen to work this hard for QPR in future games once he realised nobody wants him. But here, he looked a far better option as a second striker than Bobby Zamora, and helped Austin no end.

Referee - Andre Marriner (West Midlands) 7 Difficult week for Marriner with his old boss Keith Hackett publicly saying he should be struck off the Premier League list, but he did reasonably well here. The penalty decision was correct, as was the disallowed Burnley goal. I thought he was inconsistent with his yellow cards though. The one handed to Barton was purely because of his reputation - it was debatable whether the challenge even warranted a free kick and was his first foul of the day. Earlier Marney had hauled Vargas to the floor cynically as the Chilean ran clear on a counter attack - blatant yellow, but Marriner only awarded a free kick.

Attendance - 17,523 (1,600 QPR approx) Much has been made of an apparent altercation between QPR players and fans at the end of the game, with the Daily Mail and others showing pictures of Clint Hill apparently angrily remonstrating with fans. In fact, on a wide shot, it’s two fans, out of 1,600, and the exchange is frank but certainly not angry, with Hill seemingly more bothered about the children nearby. Actually, the reaction from a very decent travelling support at full time, was much more restrained than I thought it would be. The atmosphere was decent and positive in the away end for most of the game. The thick end of 1,600 people, going all the way up to Burnley, to watch a team lose its eleventh away game on the spin. Heroes every one of them.

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chaz added 23:50 - Jan 11
Redknapp's blatant ignorance of the 1600 away fans, many of whom were making a 10 hour round trip, was shameful. His excuses are beyond tiresome at this stage. With tough upcoming home fixtures and the worst away record of any top division in Europe, it makes you wonder where the next points are coming from. Shambolic tactics, but just get another striker in eh arry, thats what we need.
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WilloW4 added 23:52 - Jan 11
Dyche picked the same starting 11 for the 6th game in a row ... Nuff said.!! Great report .!
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QPR_ARG added 00:24 - Jan 12
One of the things Adel said after being accused by his manager of being 3 stones overweight and after hearing his salary being revealed in front of the world's media, was that Redknapp doesn't have a gameplan and doesn't work hard in training.

I have never believed Redknapp, but boy this Saturday's non-sense from him sure gives Adel every chance on Earth to beat even the most accurate of lie detectors.

Not fat. Not bad. Not deserving of being left out of the squad or even on the bench for what him and his teammates show.

Even if the lack of a gameplan from the manager meant he had to spent the last 30-ish minutes of the game like 60 yards away from Heaton and chasing Burnley players as they won possession thanks mostly to Joey.

Every day I'm more and more convinced that we would have been in a lot better place had we chose Adel over Harry when the first sparks flew.

Even if Adel wasn't keen or considered, having Redknapp removed when he should have been removed, would have sufficed for us to be in a better position.
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AussieRs added 03:21 - Jan 12
Terrific and fair report Clive. Adel offered new ways forward, better link up play as well as good control and passing - not always but mostly, especially in first half. But this was completely new system from the usual knock it long to Bobby and get Charlie around the scraps style we have been playing. Fully agree that Redknapp seems to offer no structure or system. Queens Park Strangers indeed. Put this together with transfer market profligacy and an apparent lack of enthusiasm by the players and it is a potent mix pointing to relegation. All the other teams look like they try harder than us, leaving aside if they have better players or not. Burnley great example. It is not a great time to be a QPR fan.
And don't get me started on Barton's passing.......
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Jon_in_Oz added 06:39 - Jan 12
We all know we were lucky not to lose by 1 or 2 more goals and we would have deserved it. Overall a pretty woeful performance. The 2 things that are really getting on my nerves watching Rangers at the moment are a) as AussieRs says, every other side works harder than us and b) our passing is not up to PL standard in a million years, which leaves us defending most of the time. Given our back line currently, this is not a recipe for winning games. Unless we can improve the quality of our passing significantly, allowing us to retain possession for decent periods of matches, then we will go down. One of our problems in this game was that both Dunne and Caulker were poor and Clint had a shocker. Both CBs have played quite well up to now, although personally I'd prefer Ned to be playing to Dunne. If Caulker goes off the boil for the next few games then we will be in serious trouble.
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OldPedro added 09:31 - Jan 12
' Rarely has the veteran QPR manager’s persistent assertion that buying the best players wins you football matches, rather than the systems and tactics that Burnley are relying on, looked so utterly stupid. '

For me this sums up the situation. I just don't think Harry and his coaches have the ability to coach to the required standard anymore. As others have said, all the other teams look consistantly more organised than us whereas we just depend on individual players to turn a game.

No idea where we go from here.
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wrinklyhoop added 11:24 - Jan 12
Thanks for another great report Clive, even if it means reliving the pain of watching that match.It must be increasingly hard to write up our away games this season, and I'm beginning to think you're unlikely to have a win to rejoice over in our last nine :-(
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probbo added 11:58 - Jan 12
Thanks Clive. Looking at our remaining away matches its hard to see where a point will come from, let alone a win. We rarely travel well 'up North' and six of our remaining nine away game are to teams north of Birmingham. The other three are West Brom and Palace (both under new management) and Villa.

When you strip away all the bluster, Redknapp has no one to blame but himself for the position the team currently finds itself in and this shocking away record.
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Marshy added 12:15 - Jan 12
Sometimes you can blame a team for not putting in the effort, or for individual players not being good enough. However, it's been apparent for quite sometime that Redknapp is the weak link! In simple terms he just doesn't have a clue how to manage. Has no concept of tactics, and can't coach / doesn't coach. Until we can bring in a new manager, which presumably will not now be until next season, will we have a chance of playing consistently attractive football, with a competent plan of how to approach setting up a team before and during a match. Regretfully by this time there is a strong possibility we will be back in the Championship.
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Dando added 12:35 - Jan 12
The frustrating thing for me is that we do have some very good and capable players, but Redknapp keeps playing them out of position. Although the ability of the squad should be improved with new additions, we could be doing so much better if the tactics and team selection was addressed - it really is that simple. Firstly, we had the best defence in the league last season and we near enough changed it completely. Secondly, Leroy Fer is an excellent player, an international central midfielder. Yet he plays on the left every week, even though he has stated himself that he is not comfortable on the left. The player has a great shot on him, very composed and brings the ball forward - but hes not a winger. Why not drop Barton, and simply play Fer alongside Henry? We have plenty of options for left wing who could do a better job such as Niko and Adel. Then we have a Chilean international regular goal scorer, playing on the wing. No doubt that he links up well with Isla, but surely hes being wasted? For me, we need a new left back asap and hope Sandro returns fit asap. Henry has been great, but hes just not good enough for this level in my opinion and Barton has been very poor. There is a lack of composed players on the ball, and we just give the ball away so cheaply - its infuriating. Happy to see Adel given a chance, someone who hasa footballing brain, composure, fearless and adds creativity and goal threat. Without him or Niko in the side, we are way too predicatable.
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062259 added 12:39 - Jan 12
Pivotal weekend which saw QPR sink into the bottom three, from which I fear they will not emerge. Wins for Leicester, Burnley, rejuvenated Palace (who now have wins at Everton, at home to Liverpool and at home to Spurs) and Pulis-led West Brom. It remains "difficult" to pick three teams QPR will finish above.

Man Utd had precisely no shots on target at home to Southampton. Watch them rip Rangers apart next weekend. First goal inside 15 minutes to burst the balloon, resulting in a 0-3 defeat.

Harry out.
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ibnumber10 added 13:23 - Jan 12
Last year I saw Trevor Sinclair on that Sky fantasy football program, he was asked about his time at West Ham particularly under Harry.
He said that they just played off the cuff, no real tactics, which is what we're seeing week in week out.
Problem is that I believe the majority of players now seem to need to be coached or at least expect it. Add in the lack of pace we have in the team and a few players who seem to have limitations in technique and current form, and we have a one way ticket back to the championship.
Question is does Harry have it in his make up to change his approach as I don't think TF will make a managerial change.
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ngbqpr added 15:03 - Jan 12
Of the 14 players who played a part on Saturday:
Fer, Dunne, Isla, Caulker, Austin, Vargas, Henry, Zarate - Redknapp signings
Green, Traore, Zamora - all given extensions by Redknapp
Only Barton (who Redknapp made captain), Hill & Taarabt were inherited and still under contract
On the bench on Sat or not selected for whatever reason were more Redknapp signings - Sandro, Mutch, Ferdinand, McCarthy, Phillips, Krancjar, Yun...whilst Murphy & Faurlin I think have had extensions since Redknapp joined? So only further 'inherited / stuck with' squad players are Hoilett, SWP, Onuoha
IT'S HIS SQUAD.- no hiding place
He spent all summer planning for 352, then ditched it after a game and a half...went 442...but it's his fault we lack striking options to play 2 upfront.
With the excessive number of potential number 10s / wingers in the squad, you don't need to be Rinus Michels to conclude that we should play 4231 or 433.
His post-match comments were pathetic, but his mates in the mainstream media STILL won't pick him up on it
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Antti_Heinola added 22:50 - Jan 12
Also, the problem with Harry's gameplan is that in fact it relies so heavily on players doing extra work to cover for the lack of a plan. That's why he goes on about good players all the time - what he means is players who can do his job for him. In other words - give it to Di Canio / Bale / lump it to Crouchie to nod down to Defoe and job's a good-un. But that's not enough these days. Teams are smarter and cleverer and we have no Di Canio or Bale and no one to partner Austin and give him a hand. So the players are not only trying to play their game, they're also trying to work out how to actually beat the opposition too.

Remember what Karl Henry said about the Man U game - still the most devastating comment on Redknapp's management: 'we didn't know whether to press them or sit back, so we sort of got caught in between.' Think about that for a moment. QPR, playing away at Man Utd, and the team *didn't know* if they were supposed to press or sit deep and contain. And a player admitted this openly.

And then you have Dyche, with a squad on paper inferior to ours, but who knows how to coach and manage a team to perform beyond the sum of its parts and is not always relying on one person's ability to produce something special. He proved last season how much better he is than Redknapp - he's doing it again now.
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smegma added 11:18 - Jan 14
If you were a neutral you could maybe sympathise and say we probably deserved a point BUT looking at the bigger picture we deserved nothing as we dont seem to have any game plan from the first minute to the 90th. And that goes for EVERY away game and has crept into the last two or three home games as well.Just before we equalised we were actually starting to play some football, got the goal and went in search of a second. That was all undone within 4 minutes and after they took the lead for the second tinme never looked in danger.Despite the headlines i thought the fans were very restrained at the end and the only abuse i heard was dirercted at the manager from a pocket of about a dozen fans near the back by the side wall.
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romfordranger added 22:45 - Jan 14
It is now looking like a certain return to the championship with the only consolation being Redknapp would resign and we can rebuild under a new manager. To lose 11 games with not a single point taken away from home is completely inexcusable and I will not waste my money attending another away game this season. My loyalty has been completely exhausted, I just can't face another pathetic performance from a clueless bunch of morons being managed by a money grabbing manager devoid of tactics who should have retired years ago. The players and manager have had nowhere near the abuse they deserve, they still pick up their hefty salaries. They don't like their commitment and ability being questioned, but having the worst away record in the top flight for 50 years is something to be ashamed off but unless we have a change at the top, I can see us going through the whole season without a single away point and my masochistic tendencies can take no more, I would rather ram a knitting needle through my testicles than attend another away game, much less painful!!
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TacticalR added 11:09 - Jan 15
This feels like the same dip in form that we had around this time last year, with players like Dunne and Zamora looking really jaded. Isla and Caulker looked very limp for the Burnley goals. After we scored we came back into the game, but as soon as the second goal went in we lost our momentum, and then it felt like Redknapp was just throwing on random players.

Austin. Not a whole lot to work with and made the penalty by hanging on to the ball in the box and inviting the challenge.

Vargas. Good shot in first half.

Barton. Horrible the way he kept giving away the ball when we were flowing forward. However, I can't see him being replaced unless Sandro gets over his injury.

Taarabt. Looked very composed on the ball, although he wasn't able to do anything decisive to change the game.
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