| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 09:35 - Dec 10 with 4452 views | Antti_Heinola |
Another depressing day at the office as a decent first half gives way to a crushing second. A long, cold winter ahead... I'll try and start with some positives.
1. CHAIR: Well, he looked extremely comfortable on the ball. Busy, tidy, with a couple of nice through balls during the first half. There's definitely a bit of hope there. But overall, he was lost in the maelstrom of four central midfielders trying to play together and was then withdrawn probably too early.
2. RETURNEES: It was great to see Ned and Hall come back - that is big news. Although, obviously, we conceded three at home regardless. First half, apart from one customary mistake, I thought Ned was fine. He may have tired a bit in the second, which would be understandable. Hall looked fine too, so maybe some hope lies ahead. We desperately, desperately need to find a way to keep some clean sheets. Allowing Kemar Roofe, who Leeds fans have basically written off as their version of Washington, a hat trick is a real indictment of our defence.
3. PAWEL: One bright spot was Pav. Probably wasted at right back, it was nevertheless good to see him get a whole game. I thought he got forward well, twice getting to the byeline to play decent balls across without reward. One was on the end of a genuinely brilliant move that cut Leeds apart right through the heart of their team, and would have been goal of the season had Freeman managed to tuck away the cross. And then he scored a fortunate goal at the end, thanks to yet more comedy goalkeeping at LR. Of the last five goals we've now scored at home, three are down to catastrophic goalie errors, which says a lot about our 'fire power'.
4. OSAYI-SAMUEL: I saw plenty to like from Bright. He looks strong, has a bit of pace, decent on the ball. But he didn't really get much of a chance. He came on and seemed to be inexplicably asked to tuck inside rather than offer us a genuine wide option. Then he was bizarrely switched to what looked like full back. Then possibly wing back. And towards the end he did finally play a bit further forward. What chance did he have with that kind of muddled thinking? Four positions in 25 minutes. Poor kid.
5. RELEGATION: Well, I'm ready to join the pessimists I'm afraid. I had some hope after the Brentford comeback that it might spark something, and maybe it would have without the Mackie sending off. Instead, we've lost another two. Six games, one point, scoring just four goals. I feel for the players, because there's no lack of effort and at times yesterday, particularly the first half, we looked ok, without ever really looking threatening. But we can't keep clean sheets and we can't score goals. The early season gung-ho attitude that saw us raining in shots all day (even if they didn't yield much) has now gone. Yesterday I don't think we managed a shot on target - because I'm not counting our goal as a shot. Because it wasn't.
Yesterday we were up against a truly awful keeper, who Leeds fans are terrified of. We had Smith up front. The plan was surely to properly test him. We didn't. In fact, we did, right at the end, with a harmless chip, and he missed it. So here was a lame duck goalie with a recent history of clangers, and he barely had a thing to do. Smith was dominated by their centre backs, but when he did win flick-ons, as usual Washington was nowhere near them (to be fair, Washington was nowhere near the ball all afternoon). We have a striker who thrives on crossed balls into the box, but no wingers and no width - even when we brought on a winger he didn't play on the wing. So Leeds strolled away with three easy points that they fully deserved.
This is now serious. And unlike last time Ollie was in this position in our second season back in League One, there are no magical Lee Cooks on the horizon. He has to make do with what we have and what we have is just too easy to play against at the moment. We're miles away from those Sheffield and Wolves results. What's happened?
6. HOLLOWAY: It's like deja vu. Spending loads of time defending him, saying we should stick with him, that we can't keep changing managers when the same problems remain. It's the noughties all over again. A new manager still won't have any strikers (although he might at least start Sylla every game and give the guy some confidence), and he'll still have defensive injuries, but you start to wonder.
I like Ollie, i think he's brought out some decent performances in this team and he's made solid signings. But, hypothetically, how much longer can this go on? I think the stat was we had only lost six in a row once in our entire history up until December last year. Now, had it not been for an extremely fortunate (if immensely enjoyable) comeback against Brentford, we would have lost six in a row three times in under 12 months - and we weren't even playing for three of those months. We haven't won away since January. Our home form, so solid early on, has collapsed. At the moment, I'm hoping there are three worse teams than us this season, and banking on the fight this team undoubtedly has to keep us up, but a loss to hapless Birmingham next week and we are right in the mix, if we're not already.
A Birmingham loss would make six out of seven. A loss to rampant Bristol City the following week looks pretty nailed on. So that's seven out of eight. It's hypothetical and I don't want a change of manager, but how many can you go without falling on your sword? Perhaps more importantly for Ollie, how long can this go on before the Twitterati convince Fernandes that his trigger finger needs its annual scratch?
Yesterday wasn't a terrible performance, but the second half was a bit nothingy. We were probably better than them before the break, but they came out hungrier, possibly switched one or two things around, and scored three despite not having a recognised striker on the pitch. The answers Ollie had were muddled, with Osayi-Samuel being shunted around and Sylla thrown on to no real effect because of a lack of service from wide areas. I appreciate if we play two wingers we look vulnerable through the midfield, but he needs to find some way to sort this and quickly, because at the moment it's simply too easy for teams to beat us and we're sinking very fast. |  |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 09:58 - Dec 10 with 3021 views | francisbowles |
Hard to argue with any of that.
Thought Ned was being very careful to pace himself through the game, staying back for corners until later on. Managed his game well. Great to see him back and hopefully he will have come through ok. Bet he is sore today though!
Although it is to early to judge BOS, he looked like a big, quick but never in control type. I will try to be patient and see what he can do when he has a bit more experience behind him.
Thought it was strange to start with Smith. He is a great success for us off the bench, why mess with the one thing that is working for us? When you start with Smith, defenders are ready for him and can quickly get into the groove of marking him. When he comes off the bench it is more difficult to adapt from what you have been doing for an hour or so and take on the physical battle as you are tiring. Sylla was scoring regularly but as you mentioned we are now eroding his confidence.
What will we try next week? |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 10:19 - Dec 10 with 2969 views | actonman |
Well put antii , pretty much how I see things .
We can't keep clean sheets and can't score .... basically relegation candidates
I'm not a stat man but the frequency we are going on long losing streaks is alarming if not fking embarrassing.
I honestly don't think we are as bad a team as we appear to be showing. I would take this lot over our premier league team and mentality but if we go down and we lose the better players we do have then I don't see much else to get us back again |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 10:23 - Dec 10 with 2963 views | plasmahoop |
I agree, a very good summary. What's so frustrating though is that at times over the last year we've looked superb. I don't understand why olly has tinkered so much. I accept you need to have more than one tactic, but so often his changes just result in no width and lumping it forward. I really want him to succeed, but as anntii points out how many defeats can you have before you go. Ollies mental wellbeing is also a concern.
And the theory goes that if the director of football system is working, it doesn't matter so much who the manager is. Southampton have had several seamless changes( though was daft to sack puel). Whereas previously with Hughes and redknapp we've just let them loose with no controls | | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 10:46 - Dec 10 with 2899 views | JAPRANGERS |
Antti your writing is of really very high quality I think. You are a professional journalist like Clive??
Always thanks for your interesting and informative Knee Jerks. Just wish that the team would allow you to be more optimistic! |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 10:46 - Dec 10 with 2897 views | WadR |
Thanks Antti, largely agree as usual.
I'm conflicted with Holloway. There's games like Reading and Birmingham away last season, Reading, Ipswich, Wolves and to a lesser extent Sheff U at home this where we have a clear coherent game plan, executed well - so he's clearly capable.
But, then there's games like yesterday's where we played the last 25 minutes in effecitvely a 2-5-3 formation. Osayi-Samuel all on his own on the entire left flank and our 3 strikers all stepping on each other's toes.
His approach in losing positions feels antiquated and ineffectual - just shove a few more players up top - who cares if the team is horribly unbalanced and open. The few times we threatened in the game (including the wonderful move culminating in the Freeman chance) was when we played short passing high tempo stuff and looked to Wszolek to overlap in the spaces that Freeman had created by dragging Leeds players inside. Wszolek and Bright were both outnumbered whenever they got on the ball and had zero support
Smith won a fair bit in the air in the first half (and it's not his fault that Washington didn't anticipate the direction of any of the flick ons) but I don't really understand starting him in this game against two massive Leeds centrehalves (Cooper especially is lumbering and mistake prone).
Great to see Onuoha and Hall back. Both looked very rusty - and I hope Ollie goes back to Baptiste at CB next week - just to protect them both. The last thing we need is Hall needing that surgery or Onuoha getting injury again. [Post edited 10 Dec 2017 10:49]
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 10:48 - Dec 10 with 2888 views | ozexile |
Didn't see anything in Samuel to get me the least bit excited. Spot on about Washington. Ball constantly eludes him. | | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 11:03 - Dec 10 with 2831 views | daveB |
I don't want a change of manager but you are right, if we lose the next two before 2 more away games and Cardiff at home it's hard to see a way back for Holloway, key few weeks for him.
On Washington he's almost a good player. That flick over the defender yesterday was brilliant but his reaction to it was one of I didn't think that would work and he didn't get on the end of it. He also has an incredible ability to make a run for a through ball or a flick on and go the wrong way from where the pass goes every single time.
I reckon he needed another season in league one before we signed him to improve, the championship has just been too big a step up for him so far.
Also though the way Bright Samuel was moved around was really poor from Holloway and no one seemed to know what was going on after the last sub was made. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 11:03 - Dec 10 with 2831 views | NW10Hoop |
It does feel like we're on the slide, and if QPR are thinking of making a change I hope they are doing their homework, as getting Olly in felt a little desperate (even if I was perfectly happy with him coming back).
I'm not convinced there's anyone available who will suddenly get our team scoring 2 or 3 a game, and a s decimated as our defence has been, our problems are up front.
I know saying that we should be looking for a striker is generally met with the rolling of eyes and being patronisingly told we don't have any money, but a new manager coming in, signing another 3 or 4 defenders or midfielders will still leave us with the same headache.
If Olly can stick it until January - I'd be tempted to suggest trying to get some money for Smithies, Washington (if there are any takers) and maybe a defender. I think a natural finisher would make this team look so much better. And if the going rate is 10m, then I think we need to work out how we find that rather than sacking the manager and changing the makeup of the whole squad |  | | |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 11:10 - Dec 10 with 2815 views | stevec |
Blimey Antti, you're seeing the light at last.
With the 3 Amigos saying yes boss, no boss to whatever the clown prince TF wants them to do, this club is fcked.
Caterham on the horizon. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 11:31 - Dec 10 with 2725 views | themodfather |
olly is not renowned for free flowing footy, he was brought in as a cheap stop gap....the issues are deep at the r's. injuries and cardsa re crippling us....and of course losing so often saps confidence.
did tf and sir les buy the best? we have wasted so much on poor signings over too long
mark hughes, good god how much did he get? and 'arry, triffic...free blank cheque book!! now look at the mess.... | | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 11:36 - Dec 10 with 2700 views | onlyrinmoray |
Excellent post Anti Off the pitch we seem to be doing so well community work wise On the pitch at the moment a disaster |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 11:50 - Dec 10 with 2660 views | BklynRanger |
Sorry to go back to this, but maybe this is one of those periods where we're missing the lack of a Kenny Jackett type beside Olly? There has to be someone who he'd be happy to work with without feeling undermined. It's a vicious circle though - the deeper the crisis the more some skilled support is needed, and the more it looks like that skilled support is a potential replacement.
A Kenny Jackett type and a decent CF loanee in early-as-fcuk January - both of those thongs might be enough to paper over whatever cracks are currently widening. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 12:16 - Dec 10 with 2604 views | Petros |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 11:50 - Dec 10 by BklynRanger |
Sorry to go back to this, but maybe this is one of those periods where we're missing the lack of a Kenny Jackett type beside Olly? There has to be someone who he'd be happy to work with without feeling undermined. It's a vicious circle though - the deeper the crisis the more some skilled support is needed, and the more it looks like that skilled support is a potential replacement.
A Kenny Jackett type and a decent CF loanee in early-as-fcuk January - both of those thongs might be enough to paper over whatever cracks are currently widening. |
Not sure Kenny Jackett in a thong is the answer. | | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 12:19 - Dec 10 with 2585 views | oldmisery |
I agree with much of your analysis but think that, despite the dearth of defenders, The Chief is probably 3-4 games away from the degree of match fitness needed to make his inclusion safe from a re-occurring injury and I don't think Hall was in action for long enough to make much of an assessment of his particular condition.
Pawel seemed a bit out of sorts to me. He clearly isn't comfortable at right back and his situation wasn't helped by our Defensive Coach screaming at him for much of the first half.
At the moment I don't see what BOS brings to the table, despite clearly receiving contradictory 'orders' from the bench. He looks rather like an alien life form who has never seen a football before and appears both clumsy and uncoordinated. He was supposed to be, 'one for the future', so why is he in favour ahead of Wheeler? Just what does our intellectual friend have to do in order to start a game in his natural position, I wonder?
But clearly the major problem is goals - both scoring and conceding them. Before yesterday only four teams in the division had scored fewer goals than us and we don't seem able to keep a clean sheet. One of Channel 5's pundits said that in his experience the best way to get out of the Championship was to have an excellent defence and two very good strikers. This made me think of our current side with an excellent midfield section, poor defence and abysmal strikers - so perhaps we will be getting out of the Championship albeit in the wrong direction! | | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 12:41 - Dec 10 with 2507 views | toboboly |
Unfortunately whilst the effort is there the joined up thinking or any tactical plan doesn’t seem to be. That can’t continue. Ollie needs to grab the bull by the horns and start playing in a back to basics manner. Hit the byline make crosses and take shots. Nothing clever. Otherwise he is dead in the water.
Start by playing Sylla, crosses to smith as a 30min substitute, pal being a winger not a wing back. I don’t want to see a new guy in the job every twelve months and have huge respect for Ollie but this is going nowhere fast atm. |  |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 12:55 - Dec 10 with 2464 views | horshamHoop |
Thanks Antti and once again agree with what you say.
Personally I think his team with Scowen and Robinson are better overall than this time last year. The defence will improve as players come back and get fitter. I would beg Olly not to tinker so much especially with formations and player positions and give some players such as Pav a decent run in the side.
I would like to see three at the back two wing backs offering an attacking option, one holding mid and then a mid three supporting a lone striker of either Smith or Sylla. I have lost faith in Washington and Mackie.
I think every game is winnable after the performances against Wolves and Sheff Utd and we will avoid the drop.
I worry more about our decent players moving on than getting more in. | | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 13:28 - Dec 10 with 2402 views | sexton |
I thought Chair was subbed at about the right time after fading a bit. But that was true of Freeman as well. Luongo and Scowen were below their best as well.
I don't see the point of playing 4 ball-playing midfielders and Smith upfront. The midfielders are looking for the forwards to make runs and they just aren't happening, because Smith waddles around like a duck and Washington just isn't good enough. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 13:52 - Dec 10 with 2348 views | TacticalR |
2. RETURNEES
'We desperately, desperately need to find a way to keep some clean sheets. Allowing Kemar Roofe, who Leeds fans have basically written off as their version of Washington, a hat trick is a real indictment of our defence.'
Watching the game yesterday I became convinced that the problem is not in defence, it's in attack. The problem with our attack is that we don't have one. Gallen was correct to say there's no Plan A (he found a diplomatic way to state the problem). In the first half we played some nice stuff, but if we can't score (especially when we are on top) than the best we can hope for is a 0-0 draw, although it's much more likely that the defence will crack at some point and let in at least one goal, and then we will try and chase the game.
3. PAWEL
'Of the last five goals we've now scored at home, three are down to catastrophic goalie errors, which says a lot about our 'fire power'.'
That shows we have neither reliable goal-scoring players nor a reliable goal-scoring method. |  |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 14:09 - Dec 10 with 2303 views | daveB |
I think a big problem we have is the amount of chances the other teams get when we play with a back 4 and the lack of width we have when we play a back 5.
I reckon a decent option would be start with Ned, Robinson and Baptiste as the back 3, have Wsoleck and Bidwell as wing backs and the usual 3 in midfield but have Freeman starting wide and Wheeler on the other wing. When we don't have the ball you keep that shape of a 3-5-1 when we have the ball the two wide players stay wide with the wing backs getting forward to create space so it's more of a 3-4-3
The downside is we could end up with more enough men in the box but I think Wheeler and Freeman are good enough to tuck in and help the main forward when the ball is on the opposite wing | | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 14:36 - Dec 10 with 2265 views | Spaghetti_Hoops |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 12:41 - Dec 10 by toboboly |
Unfortunately whilst the effort is there the joined up thinking or any tactical plan doesn’t seem to be. That can’t continue. Ollie needs to grab the bull by the horns and start playing in a back to basics manner. Hit the byline make crosses and take shots. Nothing clever. Otherwise he is dead in the water.
Start by playing Sylla, crosses to smith as a 30min substitute, pal being a winger not a wing back. I don’t want to see a new guy in the job every twelve months and have huge respect for Ollie but this is going nowhere fast atm. |
This is exactly how I feel about the team and Ollie. Just play the best f*cking team that's available in their best positions. Pawel is a good winger and we need crosses.
I don't accept that we have no striker of Championship standard. The stats say differently. We have one, he isn't brilliant, he has his faults but he's effective. Ollie refuses to play him.
Over the seasons 2016/17 and 2017/18 so far
Games Started/Total Minutes Played/Goals Scored
Sylla..........21/2145/14.........minutes played per goal = 153
Smith........24/2397/11.........minutes played per goal = 218
Washington..40/3805/11.....minutes played per goal = 346
Mackie.......27/2216/5..........minutes played per goal = 443
by way of comparison
Charlie Austin..43/3932/28...minutes played per goal = 140
in his Championship seasons for us 2013/14 and 2015/16.
Washington is a deadweight on the team. As has been pointed out by several other posters he does anything except get on the ends of flick-ons. He hides from the ball. This I said a year ago, and again a couple of months back. Even the diehard Washington supporters must realise this by now? | | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 14:40 - Dec 10 with 2251 views | bosh67 |
Bang on Antti.
A team full of decent hard working professionals being coached by Ollie doing his best impression of Count Arthur Strong most of the time. |  |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 15:09 - Dec 10 with 2193 views | Brightonhoop |
Very hard to argue with any of that Antti.
You're right on the hope of spark, it is there, but FFP has all but killed us, there's no gas in the tank and changing manager I dont think will change that. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 15:30 - Dec 10 with 2139 views | westberksr |
All good points well made Antti
Don't think that Ned is necessarily the solution to our defence as he is likely to make mistakes either by taking a touch too many, misjudging something or as yesterday, getting caught by chasing the ball where he didn't need to.
On top of that he simply cannot pass the ball with any degree of quality. It's a shame as he seems a decent bloke but is simply nowhere nearly as good as he should be.
Washington just does everything at about 70% and in doing so achieves sweet fa. I appreciate he's not the biggest but he rarely even puts in a nuisance challenge, doesn't read the game and has no notable USP that I can mention. Time to drop him and either play anyone else, or change formation to utilise syllas or Smith's strengths. [Post edited 11 Dec 2017 22:10]
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 15:43 - Dec 10 with 2115 views | bosh67 |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 15:30 - Dec 10 by westberksr |
All good points well made Antti
Don't think that Ned is necessarily the solution to our defence as he is likely to make mistakes either by taking a touch too many, misjudging something or as yesterday, getting caught by chasing the ball where he didn't need to.
On top of that he simply cannot pass the ball with any degree of quality. It's a shame as he seems a decent bloke but is simply nowhere nearly as good as he should be.
Washington just does everything at about 70% and in doing so achieves sweet fa. I appreciate he's not the biggest but he rarely even puts in a nuisance challenge, doesn't read the game and has no notable USP that I can mention. Time to drop him and either play anyone else, or change formation to utilise syllas or Smith's strengths. [Post edited 11 Dec 2017 22:10]
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"he simply cannot pass the ball with any degree of quality."
Cut and paste and apply to anyone of about 25 players at the moment. | |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 1 Leeds 3 on 15:53 - Dec 10 with 2099 views | TacticalR |
I knew we couldn't afford goals but I didn't realise we couldn't afford passing. | |
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