QPR have won three and drawn one of five away matches, but struggled at home so far. That should bode well for Friday’s trip to an out-of-sorts Fulham, until you check out the pitch measurements. No, seriously.
Trying to guess which QPR team will turn up from one game to the next this season has been like knitting fog. A poor performance against Nottingham Forest, a shambolic first half against Blackburn, and then suddenly at Hull City last week back to the settled shape, steady passing, obvious game plan, total control and decent result on the road. It’s our resident tame odds compiler Owen Goulding I feel sorry for, imagine staking your hard-earned on this lot.
Coach Steve Gallen as a theory, expressed on this week’s podcast, that size of the pitch may have something to do with it and when you see Rangers making use of the wide open spaces at the KC Stadium by keeping Tjaronn Chery and Matt Phillips tight to their respective touchlines at all time, stretching the game widthways, you wonder if he may have a point.
Mathematically, as we’ve discussed before, he doesn’t. When QPR returned to the Premier League after a 15 year stint in the lower divisions the "tight pitch” at Loftus Road was a regular them of post match press conferences with opposing managers. Alan Pardew rarely missed an opportunity to bring it up, while making eyes at the nearest female, but without wishing to bore you all with figures QPR’s pitch is officially 112x72 while Newcastle’s is 114x74. Not sure that extra two yards in either direction makes a great deal of difference, nor at Hull last week who play on a field shortened by Assem Allam as one of his many techniques to spite the rugby league club that shares the stadium and now stands at 114x78. Again, bigger, not surely not enough to justify why QPR were so dire against Forest and Blackburn and so composed and confident at the KC Stadium
Part of it is the perception. Stadiums these days are built or redesigned with One Direction concerts and television broadcasts in mind by chinless architecture graduates who’ve never been to a football match before in their life with an unhealthy amount of input from the elf and safety, without whom the persistent torrent of footballers killed and seriously injured by crashing into stands placed too close to the pitch would have continued into the late 1990s and 2000s just as it had done for the previous 100 years. Now we have a concrete walkway and some advertsing hoardings, a gravel track and some more advertising hoardings, some more gravel or a strip of artificial turf, some actual turf and then, finally, many, many miles away, the actual football pitch upon which the match you’ve paid £35 to watch from a seat miles away is taking place.
Loftus Road is right on top of the pitch and therefore the pitch looks small. Gary Neville, to whom we look now for wisdom to cut through the bland platitudes of his rivals and the incessant goose-like honking of Robbie Savage, always spoke warmly of the place but talked about how small the pitch felt and how Les Ferdinand used to use it to his advantage.
Personally I think a more likely issue QPR are running into this season is that, as a former Premier League club which has hung onto its best players against the odds, every team that comes to Loftus Road this year sees a point as a good result. On the other hand every team that hosts Rangers, sees them as a potential scalp.
Last week at Hull it was noticeable how much more time and space Charlie Austin had in the channels to bring the ball down with his back to goal, and feed it back to similarly unattended midfielders before peeling off and continuing the move down field. That was helped by Hull’s wing back formation, which left acres either side of the three centre backs, but the point remains that Hull, with two up front, were much more positive in East Yorkshire than they would have been in West London and Rangers, consequently, got more time and space on the ball in their half. Forest and Blackburn both defended deep in midfield and high in defence, squeezing that space and surrounding Austin — the chipped balls forward he thrived on last week looked like aimless punts to an isolated, frustrated striker in the home games.
Of course, as regular readers know (hi to both), I obviously know far less about it than Steve Gallen, Gary Neville, Chris Ramsey, Charlie Austin, former culture and media secretary Tessa Jowell and that bloke that works in the post office and professes to quite like Spurs while blinking so hard his face screws up every time he does it. But that’s my theory for what it’s worth and if you’ve read this far then good on you.
Fulham, for what it’s worth, play on a tiny 109x71 pitch, which may explain why we haven’t won here in 35 years. That and not playing here for the larger part of that time. QPR fans are owed a performance in this fixture more than most others after recent shellackings and with Fulham’s indifferent start, and recent struggles against crosses and direct balls played to the heart of a new-look defence, they’ll rarely have a better chance to register a win here.
Looking forward to the inquest already.
Links >>> Khan’s misjudgements costing Fulham — interview >>> QPR’s 15k steal from Fulham — History >>> Friend in charge at Fulham — referee >>> Queens Past Rangers — Podcast
Paul Peschisolido, who later spent a brief spell on loan at QPR, fires in the only goal of the game in a meeting between these sides at Craven Cottage in September 1999. That was the first time the two clubs had played a league fixture since 1983 and the newly monied Whites, with Mohamed Al Fayed fresh to the ownership and Kevin Keegan kicking around in the dugout for a spell, signalled a real changing of the guard with Gerry Francis’ cash strapped Rangers long since on the wane. There was, of course, the obligatory controversial Rob Styles red card for Rob Steiner in the first half.
Fulham full back Jazz Richards has detention so may not make it out in time, occasional Bristol City full back Ryan Fredericks is ready to stand in. Boy band member Tom Cairney and serial shagger Jamie O’Hara were left out of the League Cup tie with Stoke on Tuesday with an eye on this fixture. Second World War veteran Scott Parker and loaned Everton full back Luke Garbutt are back in training but not yet available for the first team.
Elsewhere: Championship fixtures stretching as far as they eye can see across six days this ‘weekend’ starting tonight with Nottingham Trees’ draw at already relegated Huddersfield in West Yorkshire.
There are nine fixtures following us on Saturday, starting with the Franchise v The Sheep in the Sky lunchtime game which is sure to draw the viewers in droves. Big Spending Burnley v Waitrose is probably the pick of the 15.00 kick offs, but it’s not a particularly sparkling list. Abacus host Sheffield Owls fresh from their League Cup win at Newcastle while Brum must overcome the disappointment of being sucked into Tactical Tim’s deliberate trap of playing awfully in the first half just to lull them into a false sense of security when they take on Rotherham.
God bless Cardiff for getting Steve Evans’ men off the mark last week, I was starting to worry his all-cholesterol diet may start to take its toll if they remained winless. Not a good result for the Welsh side though, and in Charlton they face another side that went off well but have regressed with recent poor results.
Bolton v Brighton is this weekend’s fixture between two sides beginning with B.
Christ this is dragging on a bit now isn’t it? And we’ve still got Middlesbrough v Champions of Europe on Sunday to do — technically a Yorkshire derby, although only because Yorkshire is so bloody big and important on the say so of people from Yorkshire. There’s Abacus v Brum to come on Tuesday too, a game in hand from that amusing moment in August when the Griffin Park pitch fell to pieces and took their star signing from the summer’s cruciate knee ligament with it.
Concluding Saturday though and it’s Tigers Tigers Rah Rah Rah v Blackburn, Ipswich v the Wurzels and last and least Preston v Wolves.
Godspeed all who travel in her.
Referee: Kevin Friend, not usually a friend of the away teams it should be said, has been trusted with this one despite his card-happy and eccentric form so far this season which has already seen one of his three red cards (in four matches) rescinded for being an obvious load of rubbish. His extensive case history with QPR is available here.
QPR: Having kept key players on Transfer Deadline Day (which we cap up, because it’s a thing) and won three games on the spin to climb to fourth, QPR can be reasonably disappointed with only two points from the last nine available and two dreadful performances at home to Forest and Blackburn. Including the Carlisle cup disaster it’s now two defeats, two draws and a single win at Huddersfield from five fixtures played, although there were big improvements at Hull last week and only Tjaronn Chery’s glaring miss prevented a deserved win. Away from home, in all competitions, Rangers have won three and drawn one of five and are unbeaten since the opening day of the season. They’ve scored in every game except that loss at Charlton, and conceded in every one except the win at Huddersfield. Hull was the first time in the league apart from Huddersfield when the R’s hadn’t conceded exactly two goals in the game.
Betting: Professional odds compiler Owen Goulding tells us…
"QPR make the short journey to Fulham to face another side who both score and concede in numbers. Fulham have scored and conceded in every one of their league games this season, while QPR have only failed to score in the opening day fixture at Charlton, and conceded to all they've faced bar Huddersfield. All the stats point to a high scoring game and Marathonbet are currently offering Over 3.5 goals at a whopping 4/1. It’s a must play. Also, considering Fulham's recent propensity to concede from set pieces, I am very surprised to see Nedum Onuoha available at a huge 18/1 to score at any time with Paddy Power.
Recommended Bets: Fulham v QPR - Over 3.5 Goals @ 4/1 (Marathonbet) and Nedum Onuoha to score anytime @ 18/1 (PaddyPower)
Prediction: Reigning Prediction League champion ISawQPRatWhiteCity tells us…
"Two clubs who've both shown a bit of form this season, just not consistent form, make it hard to choose between them. We may be doing a little better but will we beat them? I don't think so.”
Jim’s Prediction: Fulham 1-1 QPR. Scorer: Charlie Austin
LFW’s Prediction: Fulham 2-2 QPR. Scorer: Charlie Austin
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