Antti Heinola reports from Loftus Road on a disappointing result from a performance that showed some promise while still exhibiting some familiar failings.
Ramsey is in a spot. I estimate that at least 98% of fans don't think he's up to it and expect him to be gone by the end of the season, maybe sooner. That includes people like myself who are all for giving him a decent bash at this, by the way. I like him and want him to do well, but I don't think he'll get the chance. I find the stick he gets on the message board pretty flabbergasting and I think November is really the earliest time to start drawing any serious conclusions about his coaching of the team. But we have a fanbase that is almost continually demanding change, partly because the heroin diet they've been fed for the last decade has delivered exactly that: no manager has lasted two years at the club since Olly, who left in 2006.
Interestingly, Ramsey's situation is similar to that which Olly faced back in 2001. An almost completely new team coming off the back of a relegation largely not of his doing, with many fans completely unconvinced in his abilities. I spent many hours defending Olly on forums in those days, and in truth no matter what he did some fans were not happy. Ramsey is having issues now because fans have no confidence in him. Therefore, everything that goes wrong is immediately attributed to him. Of course, the buck stops with him but there's virtually no patience. More of that in a moment, but in terms of yesterday, I couldn't argue with his starting line up particularly and then I thought, on the whole, the subs were understandable. They worked in some ways, not in others, but they were hardly the naive, bordering-on-idiotic moves some have painted them as on the forum.
Firstly, Doughty for Chery. I would probably have left Chery on and switched him wide to replace Gladwin, but otherwise this was a sub that, even though we conceded two goals afterwards, helped the team a lot. Henry doesn't have the legs to play the pressing game Ramsey wants - but Doughty does. Suddenly, he was closing down the gaps much higher up the pitch and pressurising the Cardiff defenders and defensive midfielders. It helped us get a better foothold in the game. It also allowed Luongo to move forward, where he created the two best chances of the game from open play with two excellently-weighted passes for Austin and Phillips. Chery, for all his ability, wasn't giving us enough cover in midfield and I can see why he hooked him. That might just be a case of Chery settling into the team and understanding his role a little more.
Secondly, Polter for Austin. It felt a little odd because Austin had just gone close to scoring, but he had been tiring for some time (despite criticism of him, I thought he was much better than last week and looked fitter too). In the end, Polti had a good game, could have scored, and was a real handful. Leaving Austin on and going 4-4-2 I suppose was a possibility, but in the last 20 mins we created all our best chances. Hard to argue against that.
Finally, JET for Gladwin. Sensible - just could have happened earlier as Gladwin was not affecting things. JET certainly had a decent effect, almost scoring (should have scored) had another good shot and created one or two openings.
All in all, you can argue against the decisions Ramsey made, but none of these were bad decisions and all had good reasons for why they happened. None of them cost us the game and while I was sad to see Chery go off, especially so early, it stiffened that midfield significantly and didn't diminish the chances we created.
I think most fans recognise now that this might be a tough season, and that's difficult to take. So there's immediate unrest. Ramsey has nothing to offer in terms of hope: some decent performances last season, but few and far between. He's not a club legend. He has no track record for us to point at. So feet and trigger fingers alike are itchy, when in fact we should be pulling together, recognising the situation and giving our full backing to the new players and the coach. You can't say no one was trying, you can't say there haven't been encouraging moments.
The attitude from some fans feels sulky - I mean, booing after a 2-2 draw? I appreciate we didn't play particularly well, but still. Really? Booing? Already? It's amazing really, because 1,000 fans went to Yeovil, which proves our fanbase is fantastic. And then this almost complete lack of patience or understanding when a late goal flies in (I understand it was more than that of course). As I said: it's sad, but weirdly this attitude makes sense when placed in the context of our recent history. We need to face the facts, though, that this is going to be hard, the season will be long, there is no quick fix, we won't be spending £6m+ on Dwight Gayle and we probably won't even remotely challenge for promotion. Face all that, and then try and enjoy things a bit more and not be quite so quick to jump on every single bloody mistake, as the crashingly boring fan behind me did all evening. Watching QPR is not like playing FIFA.
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