Neil Warnock takes charge of QPR for the fourth, and almost certainly final, time in his second stint at the club at Reading this evening ahead of the probably appointment of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink tomorrow.
Championship >>> Thursday December 3, 2015 >>> Kick Off 20.00 >>> Weather — Pissing it down >>> Madejski Stadium, Reading
QPR’s unusually protracted, and allegedly thorough and thoughtful, search for a new manager looks set to end tomorrow with the appointment of Burton Albion boss Jimmy Flloyd Hasselbaink.
Which means we’re almost certainly heading up the M4 tonight to see the final throws of Neil Warnock’s brief, odd, second coming at the club. That will be of some considerable disappointment to those who favoured the idea of him staying until the end of the season, or even permanently all over again, or those who think this is no kind of job for a relative rookie from League One given the challenges it presents.
To their case Warnock has added a considerably improved defence. Rangers shipped more goals than anybody else in the league through to mid-October with 22 conceded in 11 matches but that stopped the second Warnock walked through the door. Grant Hall and, initially prior to his injury, Clint Hill were recalled to the centre of the defence, the midfield was reshaped and the R’s have now conceded just three in seven and kept four clean sheets.
He’s also started to coax some form out of players who were struggling previously — notably Nedum Onuoha at centre half. Hall has been a revelation, Ale Faurlin is back running the midfield, Sandro looked half decent last week, even Junior Hoilett suddenly seems to have a place and role in the team. The Canadian, in particular, represents a remarkable turn around from where he was previously.
Then there was last week’s sudden inclusion of Michael Petrasso, to decent effect for an hour. As one message board regular pointed out, this all seemed rather odd. Even when Chris Ramsey had been picking the younger players, it was Darnell Furlong, Cole Kpekawa and Michael Doughty who benefitted. Petrasso has been completely overlooked, despite getting good reviews while out on loan in League One last season, despite playing in a position QPR are somewhat short in, and despite having the legs, speed and engine so obviously missing from the midfield over a prolonged period of time. Took Neil Warnock a fortnight to realise what his two predecessors
But there’s been plenty of strangeness as well, starting right back at the announcement of Warnock’s return in the first place. The idea of an experienced assistant or coach was certainly a good one for Ramsey, and the summer story that Gerry Francis was being sounded out for a return in the same capacity he currently fulfils for Tony Pulis wherever he goes suggested he agreed. That never happened, leaving just Ramsey and Steve Gallen, which felt like they were kind of asking for naivety and inexperience to be exposed.
But to bring in Neil Warnock as an advisor at the time they did made no sense at all, unless the intention was to deliberately undermine the head coach once and for all. Warnock is a manager, a man manager, he’s not much of a coach — he got other coaches to do that for him when he was manager here. And the idea either Ferdinand or Ramsey had much to do with his arrival, other than choosing to announce it before the Birmingham match rather than after, seems fanciful to me. Soon stories were seeping out about him bollocking the team in the dressing room at Derby while Ramsey stood aside, and to Ramsey’s detractors and critics that was seen as good news — but it’s not really is it? It’s fairly shambolic.
Warnock has also spoken repeatedly about the need for an experienced football person to be appointed between managers and chairmen in this country, as foreign owners with more money than sense become the norm. Once Ramsey was gone Warnock spoke quite openly about expecting to have a say in the process of replacing him. But QPR, for better or worse, already have somebody in that role — Les Ferdinand. Watching the footage back from Brentford, with Ferdinand squirming in his seat while Warnock sat next to him phoning down instructions, was fairly excruciating.
As I said at the time, Gerry Francis, Lennie Lawrence… these guys have been out of the managerial game for years, they’re no kind of threat. Warnock was a Premier League manager this time last year and obviously was.
On the pitch, for all the improvements at the back, the attack has almost ceased to exist entirely. Top scorers in the league when Warnock arrived, Rangers have failed to score in five of the last seven matches and the winner against Leeds last week was their first in four. Warnock said afterwards "There aren’t many goals in the team, we know that”. Well, there were before - even a manager as apparently out of his depth as Chris Ramsey extracted more goals from this team than anybody else in the division could manage with their teams.
If Seb Polter is indeed a write off, then with the injury to Charlie Austin you can perhaps understand why Warnock has been playing Matt Phillips and Leroy Fer up front to no positive effect whatsoever. But leaving out other Ferdinand signings like Tjaronn Chery and particularly Massimo Luongo as he has done felt political to me. As did the very quick decision to bring in Kevin Blackwell, while Ferdinand was still in Malaysia, and then have him in charge for the trip to Middlesbrough when Warnock couldn’t go himself. Steve Gallen should have been doing that job, as he has done before.
I thought it was a curt point that got missed at the recent fans forum when Lee Hoos cheerfully, casually, said that Warnock had a commitment here until the end of the month and no more. Warnock said last week he hadn’t, in fact, been consulted about the new manager at all. And for me that’s a positive, because he’s felt like somebody on an angling mission for a while to me — I’ll have Les’ job, and we’ll have one of my men as the manager sort of thing.
His second spell in charge will be little more than a quiz question in years to come. Neil Warnock won QPR’s promotion to the top flight after 15 years away against all the odds, having taken over a farcical club with a rubbish team and turning it around inside 18 months. He’ll always be a hero for that, and 20 years from now QPR aficionados will use the last month as a "but did you know he also returned for a brief caretaker stint in 2015”. That’s how it should be really. They say never go back, and unless Warnock felt capable of creating a team quite as wonderful as his 2010/11 effort and stampeding to a league title again he was only ever going to sully that by staying longer.
He’s laid a platform, defensively at least, for a new man, probably Hasselbaink, to work from. For that, at least, we add small thanks to the eternal gratitude we already owed him.
Links >>> Clarke on thin ice — Interview >>> Madley takes charge — referee >>> Travel Guide
Wayne Routledge runs clear to give ten-man Queens Park Rangers a 1-0 win on this ground in another Sky fixture from 2011 as Neil Warnock’s side pushed on towards promotion from the Championship.
Team News:
Leroy Fer is free from suspension to compete with Robert Green for the goalkeeping spot. Charlie Austin came through a successful half hour against Leeds unscathed so may be able to push for a start here.
Well, the good news is, Anton Ferdinand looks set for a recall with Paul McShane nursing a swollen eye socket. If ever a man could cure a goal drought it’s Anton Ferdinand. Garath McLeary has his spinning class on a Thursday evening so he’s a doubt.
Elsewhere: Obviously there are no other games being played tonight because it’s a fucking Thursday and football isn’t meant to be played on a Thursday.
Part two of Sky’s latest attempt to anger, frustrate and alienate the people most likely to subscribe to watch their Championship coverage continues tomorrow when the Middlesbrough faithful have been asked to trek all the way down to Ipswich on a Friday night to see their team play just three days after a taxing League Cup quarter final. Surely that match would have made more sense for Sunday, where Sheffield Owls and Derby Sheep have been shifted — barely an hour’s drive between the two.
On Saturday Brighton and Tigers Tigers Rah Rah Rah have a chance to improve their respective positions at the top of the table. Albion are at home to whipping boys Charlton while Hull go to crisis club Champions of Europe who have responded to dropping to nineteenth by increasing ticket prices by a fiver — you do get a meal voucher though.
There’s a derby match between Big Spending Burnley and Preston while Bolton’s unpaid players welcome the Red Dragons. Dean Smith welcomes the Franchise for his first match as Abacus manager while Rupert and Tarquin are having a chap’s night out in Hooters after their afternoon soiree with Nottingham Trees.
Rotherham host Wolves, Birmingham welcome Huddersfield and the Mad Chicken Farmers are at Bristol City.
Referee: Andrew Madley, whose brother Robert is on the Premier League list, is in charge of this one. It’s the second QPR game of his career, the first coming at home to Brighton during the Harry Redknapp promotion season when the match finished 0-0 and was eccentrically officiated. Full details of that and some of his recent stats are available here.
Reading: The Royals started the season as a difficult team to beat — three draws from their four August league games — then really kicked into gear in September with a run of seven victories from nine matches in all competitions. But they’ve faltered of late, winning just one of their last seven and conceding 14 goals in that run. High flying Brighton were held to a draw here, but equally Huddersfield and Rotherham have both taken points from Reading in that run as well. Sky televise this fixture every year and God only knows why — the last time a Reading v QPR fixture had more than two goals in the game was 2006 and that’s the only one of the last eight that have.
QPR: Although the win against Leeds on Saturday halted a run of five matches without a win for QPR, it didn’t do much to address the sudden and dramatic goal drought which has afflicted a team which topped the Championship goal scoring charts just six weeks ago. Charlie Austin’s second half winner was the R’s first in five matches and if you discount the 3-0 whitewash against MK Dons they’ve scored only two in seven. QPR are also on a run of five straight away defeats in which they’ve only scored once. The last three road trips have all ended in 1-0 losses.
Prediction: Reigning Prediction League champion isawqpratwhitecity tells us…
"Even without the managerial mayhem, this was always going to be a tough game, but lowly Huddersfield managed a deserved point here a month ago, so who knows? Whatever happens, it's all to Ramsey's/Warnock's/JFH's/(insert name here)'s absolute credit/disgrace. Just play a striker, please, Neil."
Jim’s Prediction: Reading 2-2 QPR. Scorer: Charlie Austin
LFW’s Prediction: Reading 0-0 QPR. No scorer.
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