Antti Heinola's mid-winter break is over, and he's back with six knee jerks from Saturday's draw with Wolves including praise for Alex Smithies and Seb Polter, and concerns about the middle of midfield.
Last week against Rotherham we were awful first half and good in the second half. This week, that was reversed. First half we continued from where we left off against The Rothers, as we scored early (Polti's second goal in about three minutes, effectively) and caused them plenty of problems until half time.
But the change after the break was obvious from kick off. Wolves were out early after receiving a royal coating from Jackett (look and learn, Whittingham), while QPR stumbled out, half asleep, believing the result was a formality. Which it should have been. Wolves had looked severely shaky in defence and, while McDonald was playing well and La Parra had plenty of joy against a beleaguered Konchesky, we looked reasonably confident at the back and dangerous in attack. Yet Wolves took immediate control, QPR were punished for their lacklustre start, and then never really found their way back into the game.
Were we too nice? Over confident? Or were Wolves just absolutely dreadful in the first half? I'm not really sure, but after the break they were on top in every area of the pitch except up front, where the perennially over-rated and frequently offside Le Fondre was easily handled by Hall and Onuoha.
So why didn't things change? The temptation is to jerk your knee towards JFH. It took until the 73rd minute to make any change at all, while Washington was given just seven minutes and poor Jamie Mackie got nothing except endless sprinting exercises. When we were clearly struggling in so many areas, surely a change should have come sooner? Mackie might have been able to better help Konchesky. Washington certainly would have given Wolves something to worry about had he come on earlier. And Faurlin might have added some steel that Luongo wasn't providing. JFH was not short of options.
I think the team is starting to settle down, and it will be a lot clearer in a week's time when the tiresome transfer window closes, but, especially at home, we need to start putting together a more solid 90 minutes.
Well, we've had numerous central midfield pairings this season. So many I can't even be bothered to count them. The most successful and effective by far was when we had a fit Sandro and a fit Faurlin. But that's something that's as likely to happen as often as a full moon. Luongo and Henry are at least reliably fit, but yesterday they were well dominated by Wolves' midfield, especially in the second half.
Luongo first. I've long wanted him to have a proper run in this, his natural position. And at times he looked good. There were at least three occasions where he won the ball intelligently, skipped past a couple of challenges and found a team-mate. But it wasn't enough. He just wasn't fully involved. He didn't win enough of the ball, he wasn't hard enough in the tackle, and he didn't bother Wolves enough.
All this might have been okay if Henry had been doing his job - winning the ball, closing down quickly and giving the ball to better players. One ball-winner, one playmaker. But after a few weeks of improved performances, against his old club he was pretty poor. Barely won a tackle, constantly seemed away from the action and rarely filled the yawning chasm in the midfield that Wolves players constantly exploited. Eventually he was mercifully hooked.
I think one of the reasons we lost the central midfield so badly was McDonald. Playing deep, he picked the ball up from the back four and acted almost like a quarterback. He played good passes, was comfortable in possession, and never looked flustered. An impressive performance, but he was rarely harried by anyone. Our second striker, whether it was Hoilett or Fer, should have been on him, but neither tracked him. And neither Luongo or Henry were willing to step up to put him under any pressure. It gave Wolves a free hand in that area, and it would have been enough for the win, had it not been for the form of Smithies.
To be fair to Henry and Luongo, the trio of Hoilett, Fer and Phillips are never going to give them much help going backwards. JFH must continue experimenting to find the right balance - which you suspect will need to include Mackie sooner rather than later.
My first real look at him and it was certainly encouraging. He's now seen off Green, that's been made clear. Whether that was on merit or because of the financials I'm not sure. But his importance was clear late in the second half when he received a tricky bouncing pass back he simply put his foot through it first time - a clean connection with plenty of distance. A cheer went round the ground. A cheer for a *kick*. That shows you just how little confidence everyone had in Green's kicking. He had become a total liability in that area of his game.
Smithies was good elsewhere, too - not just in his often imaginative distribution. His handling was fine. His calls were nice and loud. And then midway through the second half he produced three excellent saves in the space of a minute, the pick of them probably being the final one, from a fine downward header. He was extremely unlucky with the twice-deflected goal - certainly neither he, Onuoha or Hall deserved to have their clean sheet dirtied. Glad to see him finally in the box seat and hopefully, long term, our defence will benefit.
Well, the rumour is that we'd like to sign a left back this month. You can see why. Konchesky, while you can never fault his dedication or his effort, has not been a successful loan signing. I always hoped he was signed as reliable cover, perhaps playing about 15-20 games, and that we'd see more of Yun, but the Yun enigma refuses to unravel and now looks destined to end in him departing this summer. So, with Robinson injured and Traore, er, doing whatever it is Traore is doing these days, Konch has had a free run at left back. Even with Robinson edging back to fitness, it's obvious both full back positions need strengthening.
While Perch had a solid game on Saturday, La Paul was La Pummelled by La Parra. True, he wasn't helped enough by Fer or Hoilett as they switched positions to try and cope with Wolves's strengths down that side, but still, even when he tried to foul La Parra he generally failed. First half he almost held onto his coat tails, second half he wasn't even close to touching them. It got worse and worse. You can't be too angry at such a good pro, but he doesn't have the performances in the bank for us that someone like Clint Hill has, so it's sadly hard to feel much sympathy either. We need more pace there - Konchesky is starting to look like a busted flush.
Like Smithies, this was my first real look at Polti and I liked what I saw. Previously I'd seen a couple of sub appearances, a few goals online and a lot of sniffy writing off of our big German who couldn't look more German if he played while carrying a two-pint stein in his hand.
And he is an odd player. There are, I suppose, comparisons with Rob Steiner, but not many. I'm not sure I've ever seen a player like him. One minute he's trying to control a ball and it bounces off his shin and runs away from him, the next he's bringing a long ball out of the air down with one touch as if it's the easiest skill in the world.
But he is a determined striker. He is scoring regularly and deservedly so - partly because he takes up great positions in the box. Yesterday he probably had three chances. The tough one after 2 mins, which he scored, one where he just didn't quite get on the end of another great Phillips cross, and then the one in the second half where he swivelled in the box and didn't quite get a decent connection on the ball. So, even in a game with few chances, he was there to threaten when the ball did come his way. And his goal was sublime - he rose well and early, despite having his shirt almost pulled off, and generated great power and excellent direction from some distance to score. Really impressive.
As Clive has said, he must be horrible to play against and first half in particular the Wolves defenders didn't seem to know what to do with him. He faded after the break, but to be fair, QPR hardly broached the halfway line, so we can't be too harsh on him. He's no Charlie Austin, but with each game it seems stranger that he wasn't given a better run in the side earlier.
This is a proper knee jerk, because what can you really judge on 10 minutes? I've castigated people for writing off Polter after a couple of sub appearances, so I'm certainly not going to champion Washington just yet. But, for the time he had on the pitch, he certainly looked decent. He worked hard, he has a bit of pace, a lot of spikiness, obvious desire, and then, when his chance came to show what he could do he took it - a great run down the left and then, instead of firing a blind ball across goal, he cut it back beautifully for Chery, whose fine strike almost broke the post. Very encouraging. I wonder if he might start on Tuesday for our usual defeat at the City Ground?
No.4 in an occasional series: Players you may not have thought about for years...
Romeo Zondervan.
Pictures - Action Images