After decades of always being (at least) one-step behind, message board regular Dorse wonders whether QPR might actually have got ahead of the game with the appointment of Julien Stéphan and the tactical changes of the last six games.
I’ve been thinking about this in my rare moments of sobriety and I've come to believe that, for the first time in decades, QPR might actually be in the vanguard of the footballing 'New Wave' instead of hanging around on the fringes, hoping they kept the receipt for their dark-wash, sideways-ironed flares.
When everyone else became infatuated with athletic monsters like Viera, we had Barker. When everyone else went tiki-taka, we had Geoff Cameron. We went 352, just as everyone else went 4231. Experience is king? Get thumped by kids. In short, since the 1990s, we always seemed to be a day late and a dollar short when it came to the footballing zeitgeist. We employed Bob Malcolm for a while you know?
But now? Well, at the risk of tempting fate (lest we bring down THE CURSE), we seem to have found the new 'thing'. Two up top. Wingers who wing. Midfielders who, you know, pass and tackle. Defenders who aren't expected to compose operas.
Are…? Are we… the cool kids now?
Now, obviously, QPR have always been the cool kids. We had ‘tens’ when ten was just a number. We played sweepers when other teams thought they were cleaning staff. However, being at the bleeding edge, like what we are, does have a downside. To quote Grandpa Simpson: ‘I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary…’ If you thought that the past 30-odd years haven’t been weird and scary, well, you must be new here. Nice to meet you. Lend us a tenner - I’ll pay you back when we reach the play-offs…
The kind of football that has been clogging up the arteries of pitches up and down the country and populating the fever dreams of people who become physically aroused by statistics and something called xG (no, me neither) seems to be going the way of the Betamax. For many people, this is a blessed relief; there are only so many times you can watch a team make 382 passes to itself without leaving its own half before you start to long for the sweet release of death.
I, for one, do not want to see another ersatz Pep-replacement management service attempt to force this turgid gunge on paying customers anytime soon. It’s the kind of thing that leads to the footballing equivalent of stunted growth, hairy palms, madness and failing eyesight. Just Say No, kids.
By contrast, our recent games have shown flashes of something called ‘entertainment’, it says here, wherein the team wearing hoops (and hopefully not the ‘under-boob and treacle’ monstrosity away kit. What?) try to win games by getting the ball wide or forward, at pace, and score goals.
I don’t want to get all misty-eyed / tented-underpanted but it reminds me of the kind of games I watched way back when. People who know about these things have already made the point that QPR are one of the quickest teams to get the ball forward over recent weeks and this speaks well of the way in which Julien Stéphan has set us up in the wake of the Coventry televised live gob-bumming. Even though we are short of a few players we’d ideally like to have available (Poku, Chair) or lighter in certain positions than feel comfortable (right back, central midfield), I’d have to say that the matchday squad has looked sound.
In effect, with less than we’d like, we’re doing better than we expected – and that has to be down to the set up.
This New Wave has unearthed some new stars, Mbengue and Morrison, Saito, Kone and Burrell (obvs) but none more than Nico (yes, I went there) Madsen. When I saw the team sheet for Charlton, I was surprised to see what looked like a midfield two, rather than a three. I was even more surprised to see it being comprised of Madsen + 1. Compared to last season, when a Madsen + 1 combo was akin to putting out a red carpet and buffet, allowing the opposition unfettered access to our back four, this season he has become © The First Name On The Teamsheet. Passing? Yup. Passing forwards? You better believe it, buster. Interceptions? Winning the ball back? Fuck yeah. Sorry, who are you and what have you done with Nicolas? I love it. I mean, he’s no Dom Ball but, on the bright side, he’s no Dom Ball. I have never been more happy to be wrong about a player and I’m including Paul Furlong in that.
My final thought was that our New Wave is based on what looks like (from this distance) a group of people who actually like each other and want to play here. We occasionally hear crap corporate buzz-word bingo fodder phrases about players being ‘culture guardians’: I am calling bullshit on that right now. Anyone that claims to be something that sounds like a security guard at the National Portrait Gallery should be either a) a weapons-grade dickhead, or b) a security guard at the National Portrait Gallery. I don’t see either of those here: we have younger players working for each other in a system that is breeding success. I would contend that the cultural landscape of QPR has been forged through a touch of adversity (hello Coventry, my old friend) and a collective desire to change.
The New Wave is very much like the old days, only with a more cosmopolitan accent and Koki Saito instead of Andy Sinton. Perhaps this is a retro revival. Maybe it’s Post Modern. I don’t know: the labels are confusing but maybe, for once, QPR might be wearing the right ones.
More by this author >>> View from the outside – March 25 >>> 20 minutes Marti, you and the head of the cod – Nov 24
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