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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 2 Millwall 0 12:13 - Sep 20 with 2165 viewsAntti_Heinola

From laughing stock of the country to the division’s form team in a few short weeks. And to think, all we had to do was give Amit the reins again. The man has a touch of gold (we won on live television and it was a London derby, FFS). And a lovely smile.

1. CONFIDENCE: This team who played last night, particularly first half, would wipe the floor with the team of a few weeks ago. And yet the players are almost the same. The biggest change is confidence. You could see it last night in the fluidity of the passing; the sense that players were not, as they were against Wigan, looking to offload the thing almost before they took control, for fear of making a catastrophic error; the belief going forward; the snapping into tackles. Yes, Millwall, like Birmingham, Bolton and Wigan before them were not great. But you can’t keep saying that after every win or draw. A month ago I’d have laughed if someone had suggested we’d take 10 points from those games, or at least assumed such a set of results would have meant McClaren had been binned in favour of some Portuguese genius or other.

So credit must go to McClaren and his team. He may have decided that he was trying to run before he could walk. A complete style change, with split centre backs and a ball-playing goalie, was perhaps too much in one go — particularly when we do not have a ball-playing goalie, because our ball-playing goalie is sitting behind Neil Warnock on a sort of airline chair wearing gloves for no reason, sadly recalling the days when those that loved him would sing about him being England’s number one.

So Stevie Boy changed things up. He shut up shop. He went, in the main, with experience. Risks were not encouraged. Just get a win and we’ll worry about the rest later. It worked — just. On another day, Wigan may have won 2 or 3-1, and had they done so, McClaren would’ve been sacked and we’d be sitting here with Mick McCarthy, with his wonderful press conferences but dire football, saying ‘well, at least he’ll keep us up’ while all the while secretly plotting that once he did keep us up we could get rid of him and get someone else in. Someone sexier, who would split the centre backs and play with a ball-playing goalie. Luckily, we won, and from there, in little increments, things have got better, culminating in a good performance on Saturday, and another good one last night, with the first half in particular being very pleasing indeed.

Tougher tests undoubtedly await, but for now, we’ll take the points, hope the improvement continues, and now really can start to dream of coming 15th. 15th!

2. LUMLEY: Ooh Lummy it’s Lumley. The man is a stats machine. He works only in binary this season: 0, 0, 0, 1, 0. Delighted he was at the end, so delighted he decided to clap the Millwall fans who hadn’t left early to buy cans of Foster’s for the journey home. They responded to his good sportsmanship by showering him with thoughtful gifts, like a nice programme and other things I couldn’t make out from my vantage point.

At the moment, he’s certainly a better option than Ingram, but concerns remain, as they do, to be fair, for any young keeper. His kicking was a bit erratic, particularly when Millwall forced him to kick from his hands, which resulted in him volleying balls at sort of waist height really hard to the halfway line. And, woop woop woop! Cliché alert! Woop woop woop! He… LOOKED A BIT DODGY ON CROSSES! Woop woop woop! Well, he did. Sort of patted one corner away in the first half that he should’ve caught and wafted almost catastrophically at a deep cross in the second half.

But, he got away with all of it and when Millwall did have the odd shot, he either saved it, or calmly watched it rattle off the bar, hit a defender on the back of the head and rebound straight into his arms, as he always knew it would. Shouts a lot. Doing well. Seems to have luck on his side.

3. CAMERON: Geoff Cameron (is his name Geoff? I’m not actually sure) is one of those players who plays for years in the Prem and I genuinely never notice them. I didn’t, until we signed him, even know he existed, truth be told, let alone if he was any good or not. Sorry Geoff (Jeff?). But here he finally was, taking his place in the system. I’ll be honest, I don’t know what the system was — you can all argue about it if you want, but I’m a bit over systems now. Was it a 4-4-1-1? A 4-5-1? A 4-1-3-1-1? All I know for sure is that we had four defenders.

Anyway, Joel Cameron. Had a quite incredible first five minutes where he won the ball in one way or another about 6 times and then did a good pass. After that, Jimmy C won it less often, and some of his passing was a little wayward. But still, he was big and strong and he shouted a lot, and he was a pragmatic pick considering Millwall have giants that don’t look like giants because one of their defenders seems legit taller than mid 90s WWF superstar giant, Giant Gonzalez (previously known as El Gigante in WCW, fact fans, and a worse wrestler you’d be hard-pressed to find). So, in short, I only know slightly more about Joffrey Cameron than I did 24 hours ago. Hope that helps.

4. WELLS: Oh my lord, Nahki, you are a very fine player indeed. First half in particular he was excellent. Movement: great. Work rate: Great. Touch: Great. Passing: Great. I don’t want to dig poor Wash out, especially as he’s gone now, but here was an exhibition of how to play the lone role up front even if you are not a big lump. So strong, so clever, so smart, so bright. A real joy to watch and when his goal does finally come it will be richly deserved. And you can see how much Freeman and Eze enjoy playing with him too — he’s someone they can give the ball to and expect to get it back.

5. COUSINS: Starting to get a run in the side now and hopefully we might see the player we thought we’d signed. Seemed to be shunted out to wide right last night when really, if he’s going to play, I want to see him play 5 consecutive games in the middle so we can properly see what we have here. Still, this was one of his best games for the club. Worked really hard down the right, both going forwards and backwards, and in the end should have had two goals — one a tricky chance in the first half (but a great run to get into the position), the second an easier one with the goalie stranded after Luongo (greatly improved) had seen his shot parried. Did his job, essentially, although you do think given the changes that had to be made because of Hemed’s enforced absence, Pav might have been the more natural pick for that position. Still, a really hard-working, effective display.

6. THE BENCH: It was during the Bristol game that the squad suddenly felt so, so thin. It’s like that in losing runs. The ones on the pitch aren’t doing it and you look at the bench and think ‘well, they’re not going to do it either. Oh dear.’ But suddenly we had a bench full of options last night. Scowen, excellent for most of last season, and usually a first pick. Pav, always a dangerous outlet and a great engine. BOS, tricky, fast, great to bring on in situations last night when spaces were opening up on the counter (why not bring him on then?). Smith — in case all else fails. Hemed — genuine goal threat. And Alex Baptiste, who’s useful, isn’t he? And that’s not even counting Little Smyth, who S-Mac may not rate, which is a shame. A few wins and suddenly everything’s coming up Millhouse. Until Norwich get their annual win on Saturday of course.

Bare bones.

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 2 Millwall 0 on 21:29 - Sep 20 with 1761 viewssimmo

Cheers Antti. Your confidence point is bang on and not just for this season / team. Thought the stat sky produced in the 2nd half was indicative of a team that thrives on confidence - since Dec '15 QPR haven't lost when leading at HT - P27 W21 D6 L0

Who knew...

Of course it also works the other way, sadly, with Ollies 6 losses in a row repeated more than once.

ask Beavis I get nothing Butthead

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 2 Millwall 0 on 21:43 - Sep 20 with 1728 viewssexton

2. Glad I'm not alone in never having heard of Geoff Cameron.

6. I thought the choice of subs to come on was poor. Wells, Freeman and Eze - the players who had run at Millwall - were replaced by a defensive midfielder, a big centre forward and Smith. Result? The ball kept coming back at us.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 2 Millwall 0 on 21:45 - Sep 20 with 1723 viewsJigsore

With the bench being relatively strong I would have liked to see a few earlier subs to get bit part players some game time, especially a player like Pav who I think deserves a bit better. maybe he didn't want to disrupt the team shape though, but that's my only real gripe.

“The thing about football - the important thing about football - is that it is not just about football.”

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 2 Millwall 0 on 21:50 - Sep 20 with 1702 viewssimmo

Also concur with your smaller point that BOS would be perfect for that kind of game in last 20 minutes, can carry the ball up the pitch and chase down clearances, turning them into chances. I appreciate we don't play wingers per se and Freeman/Eze undroppable in this form but he's surely earned more minutes from his cameos this season.

ask Beavis I get nothing Butthead

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 2 Millwall 0 on 21:50 - Sep 20 with 1702 viewsLeedsR

I think McLaren took off Freeman and Eze as they were on yellows, but I agree that either Pav or BOS should have come on for one of them at least. We lost any creative outlet once Free’n’Eze were off, so the pressure was all on us. Just as well that Millwall’s finishing was so poor.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 2 Millwall 0 on 22:16 - Sep 20 with 1623 viewsloneranger1

Thanks Antti.

About the subs, I made the same point on the 'just back' thread. Think BOS or Pav would have offered a good outlet - nothing stuck to either Hemed or Smith and we just seemed to invite MIllwall at us for the last 20 mins
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 2 Millwall 0 on 22:27 - Sep 20 with 1593 viewsFDC

3. We really need to start building a portfolio on this guy.John G right?

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 2 Millwall 0 on 23:36 - Sep 20 with 1479 viewsCliveWilsonSaid

Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 2 Millwall 0 on 21:50 - Sep 20 by LeedsR

I think McLaren took off Freeman and Eze as they were on yellows, but I agree that either Pav or BOS should have come on for one of them at least. We lost any creative outlet once Free’n’Eze were off, so the pressure was all on us. Just as well that Millwall’s finishing was so poor.


Yes with lots of games coming up no need to take risks with our best players. Although it did make for a strange ending. I think the negative subs in our last few games are a reflection on our poor start to the season. I imagine if we get to a more comfortable position in the league we'll see McClaren taking a few more chances. Can't blame him for being a bit cagey.

P.S. Never heard of Gary Camberley before he signed either.
[Post edited 20 Sep 2018 23:39]

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 2 Millwall 0 on 01:12 - Sep 21 with 1404 viewstimcocking

No offence, but it is harsh and inaccurate to say McClaren has been shutting up shop. He's been playing with two strikers, four forwards.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 2 Millwall 0 on 11:05 - Sep 21 with 1200 viewsAntti_Heinola

Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 2 Millwall 0 on 01:12 - Sep 21 by timcocking

No offence, but it is harsh and inaccurate to say McClaren has been shutting up shop. He's been playing with two strikers, four forwards.


didn't mean that really - more that he's asked the players to take fewer risks.

Bare bones.

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