QPR face a difficult trip to Wolves on Wednesday night, with Saturday's late equaliser from Cardiff at Loftus Road leaving the R's still hunting for their first win of the league season.
I suspect, given the choice, an away game at Wolves ranks somewhere between a city break in Syria and several hours of extensive root canal work in Chris Ramsey’s list of things he’d like to be doing with his Wednesday evening.
A glance down the QPR squad list on the back of the programme at Molineux this evening will show no shortage of experience, talent or high earners. Robert Green, Charlie Austin, Nedum Onuoha, Leroy Fer, Sandro, Junior Hoilett and Matt Phillips are all still here. I’m sure these people would consider themselves Premier League footballers, and we’d be panicking if we were receiving a team with them all their disposal to Loftus Road for a Championship fixture.
And yet this game looks like nothing other than an absolute shellacking in waiting. Not only are Wolves everything QPR are not — settled starting 11, settled management, solid formation they’ve been using for two years where everybody is sure of their roles, players all sure where they’re going to be playing their football this season — but most of their strengths play directly to QPR’s weaknesses. At full back, Paul Konchesky, as suspected, looks well past it and James Perch, surprisingly, has looked extremely rusty so far — Kenny Jackett’s teams play with two very wide wingers and attack down the flanks. Across the back line as a whole, QPR lack pace, with only Nedum Onuoha capable of getting up to a quick sprint — in Nouha Dicko and Benick Afobe Wolves have two parts of an Olympic 4x100m relay team, and they’re bloody handy in front of goal too. It feels like a long night in store.
Chris Ramsey can, still with some justification in my opinion, point to several mitigating factors if the worst does come to the worst this evening. Of that list of talent Robert Green and Charlie Austin both look certain to be playing for another club within the next fortnight, Leroy Fer is still permanently absent with his omnipresent knee knock, Sandro is a £10m midfielder that QPR can’t even get back into the country, Junior Hoilett has looked spent for years now and Matt Phillips also seems to be playing within himself pending his own potential move elsewhere. Get the transfer window closed, get these players out or get them in the team without speculation swimming around in their heads, and then we’ll see where we are.
Likewise the replacements. QPR’s goalkeeper for Forest at home could be Rob Green, Joe Lumley, Alex Smithies, Daniel Bentley or somebody else altogether. The centre forward could be Charlie Austin, Seb Polter, or somebody else altogether. The FFP situation the club has worked itself into means it can’t, because of the rules and because of how it would look to the Football League while negotiations about the fine are ongoing, go out splashing the cash. At the moment they’re struggling to sign a keeper from Southend or another from Huddersfield.
There’s just so much uncertainty about who’s coming, who’s staying, it’s little wonder the team looks short in key areas, the whole thing a little disjointed, and several players not playing as well as we all know they can. I’ll start making judgements on Ramsey’s team at the end of September.
If indeed he makes it that far. The knives are well and truly out in the online world, and I suspect a defeat tonight and a poor start, and heaven forbid a bad result, against lowly Rotherham on Saturday will bring that spilling down from the stands at the games as well. As suspected, Ramsey burnt off a lot of his potential support in a spell last season when, in his defence, he inherited a poor team, totally lacking in quality in key areas, with no transfer window to do anything about it, from Harry Redknapp. Overly defensive in that key West Ham game, picking Shaun Wright-Phillips, the manner of his appointment with no interview process… he lost a lot of friends he could do with on his side now.
If, hypothetically, he does lose his job in the short or medium term I’m sure he’d feel it very unfair, given the circumstances he’s working in. But I wonder, deep down, whether he’d reflect that he isn’t actually being entirely true to himself, and what he promised to bring to the role when he first arrived. He seems, perhaps understandably, to be very cautious at the moment, but that caution is leading to the sort of decisions that his predecessor was pelted for and that can lose you a lot of sympathy.
Take the left-back slot, for example, where he is currently picking Paul Konchesky on loan from Leicester ahead of Cole Kpekawa who played, and impressed, during the whole pre-season. Now it’s highly likely Kpekawa isn’t yet ready for this level of football, particularly with James Henry ploughing down that side on a wet night at Molineux this evening, but wasn’t Ramsey brought in to throw caution to the wind and play a couple of the kids regardless? Weren’t the QPR fans fairly unanimous that they’d rather see a kid like Kpekawa given his chance and it go wrong, than us continue to plod along and lose with ageing old never-have-beens like Konchesky blocking their pathway?
Look at Karl Henry also. It seemed pretty clear, given the length of time the deal took to do and the fact the option for another year was on the player’s side, that Rangers were quite clear to shift Henry and his wage from the books this summer. He didn’t play in any of the pre-season fixtures, and yet suddenly at Charlton on day one and against Cardiff at the weekend he’s in from the start. What happened to the stick Ramsey used to beat Eduardo Vargas with about the importance of respecting the other players and training as hard as they train in order to be considered for selection? What respect does it give Ale Faurlin and others who played, and in some cases played well, during the summer to then sling Karl Henry in from the off with zero summer minutes under his belt? What message does it send out about pre-season?
Why Is Junior Hoilett on the bench ahead of, say, Reece Grego-Cox, who was lauded as a big Ramsey plus last season but has now seemingly sunk back down the pecking order. It seems particularly strange as Ramsey apparently has no intention whatsoever of using Hoilett.
Konchesky ahead of Kpekawa, Henry in for his experience despite no pre-season — this is the sort of thing Harry Redknapp, rightly, used to be lambasted for.
It’s a really tricky spell at the moment with the squad in a state of flux and, as I said on the QPR Podcast a couple of days before Charlton, the results in the first few games were never going to be good. The Cardiff game could easily have finished up as a victory — one shot goes a little higher, or another slightly less left and we’d have our first three points on the board.
But I just wonder whether Ramsey is in danger of dying wondering here. If fans are unhappy, the performances aren’t great and the results are poor while being cautious and going for experience and doing the ostensibly sensible thing, why not just chuck that caution to the wind and see? It might win him a good deal more respect than he’s currently receiving.
Links >>> Jackett’s acid test — opposition profile >>> Post rebuild ambitions — interview >>> Remembering QPR’s 1973 Molineux win — history >>> Rookie referee gets Wolves trip — referee >>> Molineux Travel Guide
DJ Campbell celebrates in front of the jubilant travelling QPR fans after scoring the final goal in QPR’s 3-0 win last time they played at this ground back in 2011. Joey Barton and Ale Faurlin got the other goals in a comprehensive win for Neil Warnock’s men.
Wolves are without young Jed Wallace (grounded) an impressive summer recruit from Portsmouth who hopes to kick start his Molineux career next week. Emiliano Martinez will start in goal ahead of our old loanee Carl Ikeme as Kenny Jackett also looks to keep the same team which played at the weekend.
Elsewhere: In a protest at being forced to play so many games in such a short period of time, the Championship clubs joined forces on Tuesday evening to render the entire round of fixtures irrelevant by making them all finish as draws.
Cardiff almost broke ranks, but having scored a last minute equaliser at QPR at the weekend they suffered one against at Ewood Park against the Mad Chicken Farmers. Derby also needed a late goal to secure their 1-1 with fellow promotion favourites Middlesbrough at Pride Park. Tapes of the Trees against Charlton and Rotherham at home to Preston (both 0-0) are already winging their way to the security forces to torture terrorism suspects with.
Ipswich and the Franchise were the naughty boys on the evening, beating Burnley and Bolton 2-0 and 1-0 respectively. Bolton, in particular, have made a dire start to the new campaign.
That leaves four fixtures for this evening including our own. Money Bags Bristol City, negotiating a £9m deal for Abacus’ Andre Gray, host the Champions of Europe while Tigers Tigers Rah Rah Rah host Tarquin and Rupert for supper — keep an eye out for the away attendance at that one. Sheff Wed against Waitrose is of little interest to anybody.
Referee: Peter Bankes, in only his second full season on the list and in only his fourth Championship match, is the referee entrusted with this one — the first time he’s been in charge of either QPR or Wolves. Should be fun. Stats here.
QPR: This is QPR’s third away game of the season already having lost at Charlton on day one and won 3-0 at Yeovil in the League Cup. Although Chris Ramsey's results since taking over in February were very poor overall, he did manage to improve the club's away form. A dozen games played, a dozen games lost and only six goals scored under Harry Redknapp, Rangers went on to win two and draw one of the last seven on the road last season scoring 13 in the process. They did, however, lose the last two road matches of last season by an aggregate score of 11-1. Rangers’ 3-0 win on this ground in their last visit in 2011 was their first in eight attempts and Wolves have only lost twice to QPR in the last 17 meetings between the clubs.
Betting: Professional odds compiler Owen Goulding tells us…
"QPR travel to the Black Country looking for their first league win of the season. I can’t see it arriving here.
"A combination of poor finishing, tiring legs and debatable substitutions meant Cardiff got a deserved draw late on at HQ on Saturday. The team tomorrow is likely to be similar to the one that took to the pitch there but they come across a different proposition in the attacking Wolves. A forward line of Benik Afobe and Nouha Dicko is one of the more pacy and free moving frontlines in the Championship and with Ramsey likely to stick with the same back four from the weekend, I fear for the Hoops here. Afobe in particular is getting to the stage in his career where he should really be a mainstay for a 'lesser' Premier League side at the very least rather than still plying his trade in the Championship. He is on a hot streak at the moment with ten goals in his last 15 games. Dicko is no slouch either with 14 goals last season and the pair are currently keeping Adam Le Fondre on the bench, a player who would surely walk into most Championship sides. Kenny Jackett has kept a solid side from last season with minimal changes, Bakary Sako the only one of any note moving on and Le Fondre coming in to replace him anyway.
"QPR are still in pre-season from what I have seen. Still working on formations/fitness etc and Molineux is not the place to go to during this phase of their season. An interesting stat is that in Wolves last ten games of last season, they scored in the final ten minutes in seven of them. We all know how much QPR love to concede a late goal and for this reason, the price of 11/10 for the final match goal in this game to be after the 75th minute looks an absolute steal.
"I'll be making my way to Molineux tomorrow, but i may just end up leaving early....”
Recommended Bet: Wolves v QPR - Time of Last match goal 75-90mins 11/10 (Sporting Bet)
Prediction: Reigning Prediction League champion ISawQPRAtWhiteCity says…
"Ah, QPR! Come for the football, stay for the disappointment. Wolves couldn't beat Hull, but I don't think that's going to help us. No beating about the Bush with this one."
Jim’s Prediction: Wolves 2-0 QPR. No Scorer
LFW’s Prediction: Wolves 3-0 QPR. No Scorer.
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