Southampton’s change of manager paid immediate dividends with a first win in six games, but for victims QPR it’s now three defeats in a row and four in their last five games as their league position continues to decline.

It has been a very odd start to the season for Southampton.

It breaks my heart when every Championship season preview concludes the most likely scenario at the top of the division is all the relegated teams will go back up again. Hours of research, interviews with fans of every club, podcast debates, long thoughtful walks around parks, and in the end Ipswich, Southampton Leicester one, two and three. Worst episode of Poirot ever. Please subscribe to my Substack.

As somebody who writes a 30,000 word version of such a preview, it has been increasingly difficult to avoid in recent years however hard we try. And we do try - I came up with a tonne of logical reasons why Sheffield United wouldn’t make the top six last year, and in the end they got 92 points. Leicester are making a better fist of fulfilling that prediction this year but the more I looked at Southampton the fewer opponents capable of matching them I could find. Just in the forwards alone – Ross Stewart, Adam Armstrong, Cameron Archer, Ben Brereton-Diaz loaned out, a quick £7m+ on Damion Downs, Leo Scienza, Jay Robinson – their worst striker would be most team’s best. QPR have Michi Frey, Richard Kone and Rumarn Burrell. They spent £50m on players in the summer, and topped their parachute payment up with £100m+ of sales. How are we supposed to compete with that?

And yet, there were plenty of signs if you cared to look for them. Southampton won just two matches last year, and while there’s a gulf between the leagues you can’t necessarily turn form on and off like a kitchen light. There will be all sorts of issues causing a run like that, and it will in turn manifest itself in different ways within the squad – fractious relationships, low morale, lack of confidence. That Southampton, bar one hot run under Russell Martin, have largely been losing games every week for four years under myriad different managers suggests there is more to this, there are deeper issues in a team that had won four of 51 league games prior to this week. It doesn’t make sense to look at their team on paper, but it does when you see them on grass.

Let me give you a little metaphorical microcosm of that. On Wednesday night at Loftus Road, Southampton spent an inordinate amount of time in the game trying to come up with new and exciting ways to give Queens Park Rangers corner kicks. There were fresh air shots under no pressure, camera saves that could have been easily caught, at one point goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu stood with the ball in his hands watching referee James Bell count down until the official had no choice but to signal for a corner under the new time wasting rules. This, as a tactic, makes no sense. You look at it and think this is madness in this old-is-new back-to-the-future period of football we’re living through now where it’s all long throws and big-eared boys. Just giving the home team 12 corners to your one is madness, right?

And yet, here were plenty of signs this was quite a canny move. Firstly, and most importantly, because QPR are rubbish at corners. Only Swansea (0) have scored fewer set piece goals this year than Rangers’ one, only Sheff Wed (ten) have conceded more from dead balls than the R’s seven, and no team in the league has conceded from as many headers. So, while it might not make sense on paper, actually, giving QPR loads of corners is quite a shrewd move.

While Rangers wasted each of those in turn (wonder if this post ever got filled?) Southampton were able to win for the first time in six games and end a three-match losing run by breaking away twice to score in the second half. Recalled Amadou Mbengue looked like Mr Tickle on some bad acid as he got his limbs all tied up three times over in pursuit of a routine through ball just before the hour. It smelt like a card or a goal right from the start, and was duly dispatched into the top corner by Jay Robinson after 57 minutes. Then substitute Karamoko Dembele showed off all his defensive strength and acumen with a pathetic token effort on Leo Scienza affording him the time and space to curl in a second from the edge of the box (compare and contrast with Paul Smth’s back post bravery earlier in the evening when Ryan Manning looked certain to score against his former club). You’re going to increasingly be told that Paul Nardi is the problem with this team, and all would be fine if only he weren’t there, but neither of these goals were on him.

It was certainly a much closer, tighter, competitive game than Saturday’s one-sided shellacking here by fellow parachute payment side Ipswich. QPR quickly halved the deficit after the second Southampton goal when Jonathan Varane’s through ball found Rumarn Burrell suspiciously offside, and he waltzed round Bazunu’s indecision to score into the empty net for his fourth goal in five games.

Had one of multiple other balls dropped similarly kindly it could have been a much happier story. Nicolas Madsen’s first half shot through a crowd looked goal-bound before a block in front of the keeper. Burrell, who’d been let down in the box in the first half by a poor first touch with the goal at his mercy, was later inches away from connecting with a low Dembele cross at the back post. Then the former Celtic man got into the same position again but chose a shot when there were two players in the six-yard box screaming for a ball across. Sam Field’s late flicked header off the bench had Bazunu at almost full stretch. Chair’s trademark shot from range was fumbled by the keeper right at the feet of Burrell but he managed to recover sufficiently.

The Londoners had 18 shots to Southampton’s nine, five on target to their two, four Bazunu saves to none from Nardi. Play this game over ten times QPR probably get something out of it in five or six of those, whereas you could re-run that Ipswich game from the weekend as much as you like the outcome would be the same. Julien Stéphan declared himself pleased with the performance, if not the result.

Yet, this one felt more frustrating. The weekend sacking of Will Still naturally made the Saints less predictable, because new managers always change things whether caretaker or permanent and if you’d spent the last five months listening to somebody from the Jake Humphreys High Performance Podcast and then that person was removed from your life then your mood would likely improve considerably as well. But the Saints looked a mile off our weekend opponents to me. Ipswich a good side we were unlucky to run into on the day they finally cut loose, Southampton ropey and eminently gettable in comparison.

That QPR didn’t succeed in that was partly down to those wasteful set pieces, partly just that rank bad luck of balls dropping in the wrong place or striking somebody who knew nothing about it, but also because a lot of the worst traits of this team started to creep back into their play.

The poncey game model goal kick routines were back. Each succeeding only in encouraging the opposition, draining what little petrol is left from our bereft French goalkeeper, and terrifying the defenders and home fans in equal measure. Without exception, each of these just results in a punt down the field anyway, only under more pressure and in a greater state of panic. Pack it in.

So was the sideways and backwards stuff in midfield. Nicolas Madsen’s redemption arc subsided back into what we saw from him in games like this last season where things weren’t going our way - withdrawing into deep, wide positions, hiding in the full back areas, and pointing to other people you should pass to before him. Jonathan Varane passed forwards less than the average rugby league player – there’s no wonder we scored when we did, that ball must have been the last thing the Southampton players expected him to do after the prior 76 minutes. That showed the value of incisive, positive, forward balls. We have to be brave enough to do it much more often, particularly when you've selected a quicker, pacier attack that wants to get in behind a team.

We could put a glass eye to sleep when we play like this, and Southampton weren’t much better themselves for most of the contest – at times both sets of fans could be heard getting aggy with the passiveness as tolerance for this possession-for-possession’s sake style of football starts to run out entirely.

There was no situation on the night that Rangers couldn’t conspire to turn into a pass back to their own goalkeeper. This started in the opening two moments where Nardi was asked to field two horrible bobblers in as many minutes, including a terrifying one right on his goalline, and never let up thereafter. The amount of times referee James Bell – who I thought was excellent after not previously enjoying our outings with him – awarded the home side a free kick only for them to take it quickly and then have it back with Nardi within three passes was mindblowing. The absolute opposite of what you should be trying to achieve by getting your set piece off quickly – catch the opposition out, increase tempo, build pressure, build momentum… nah, roll it back to the goalkeeper let them get nicely back into shape.

There was a lot of jogging back on defence in this game for me. A lot of quite exasperated, forlorn body language. A lot of shrugging.

Streaky English club appoints streaky French manager. You’ll never guess what happens next? From six unbeaten QPR have now lost three in a row and four of five.

Perhaps most predictably of all, the R’s now sit sixteenth.

Links >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread

QPR: Nardi 5; Dunne 5, Morrison 5 (Field 86, -), Mbengue 5, Norrington-Davies 6; Varane 5 (Morgan 86, -), Madsen 5; Smyth 6 (Dembele 63, 5), Chair 5, Saito 5 (Kone 70, 5); Burrell 6

Subs not used: Cook, Hamer, Bennie, Hayden, Vale

Goals: Burrell 73 (assisted Varane)

Yellow Cards: Madsen 38 (foul)

Saints: Bazunu 6; Harwood-Bellis 6, Wood 6, Stephens 6; Fellows 6 (Roerslev 72, 6), Downs 6, Jander 6, Manning 6; Robinson 7 (Azaz 66, 6), Armstrong 6 (Downs 66, 5), Scienza 7 (Aribo 72, 6)

Subs not used: Bragg, Edwards, Matsuki, McCarthy, Quarshie

Goals: Robinson 55 (assisted Armstrong), Scienza 69 (assisted Aazaz)

QPR Star Man – Rumarn Burrell 6 Maintaining his form and confidence as both drain out of the rest of the side.

Referee – James Bell (Sheffield) 7 Six Southampton wins from six appointments but I thought he was good here, not standing for any of the histrionics and gamesmanship, and brave enough to punish Bazunu properly for his time wasting.

Attendance 16,404 (1,800 Southampton approx.) And still they come.

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Pictures - Ian Randall Photography

BayardRanger66 added 17:12 - Nov 6 Clive you seem slightly less angry than after Saturday? - think there is a case to be made for feeling significantly worse about the state of affairs after this defeat to a vastly inferior side to Ipswich - very little evidence of lessons being learned - the two man CM experiment needs to be ditched again as per this time last year
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Northernr added 17:32 - Nov 6 It’s odd that I come across that way mate cos I fell the opposite, way angrier and more frustrated with last night than Saturday cos as I say you were playing a good team at the weekend and I’m not sure we were here.
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Myke added 20:13 - Nov 6 Cheers Clive. I wouldn't say less angry, just a bit more 'resigned' perhaps as yet another false dawn appears over the horizon
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Marshy added 20:20 - Nov 6 The opposition always do their homework, and what they have found is that JS effectively plays the same set up, formation and tactics in every match. He doesn’t seem to vary them, and has no Plan B, it’s the same old same old. As a result we are very easy to play against. Although what we also have to take into consideration is that whilst our squad on paper looks actually quite good, a number of our recent signings have never played at Championship level, and a manager that has never managed in the Championship. Therefore at times we are weak and naive. It was certainly a better performance against Southampton than Ipswich, but we are so wasteful. When are we ever going to learn with set pieces. Most of our corners and free kicks are woeful. Yet when we’re on the other end of them we can’t defend, and the ball ends up in the back of our own net (example Ipswich). I’m not sure what the solution is, and doubt if JS knows either. The next few games will be crucial and if there is no improvement and we start slipping down the table, I could see a change of manager on the cards. I hope this is not the case as I quite like JS, and really want him to succeed.

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mwooly75 added 03:40 - Nov 7 For me - the problem on Wednesday was tempo. Until they scored their second we did things far too slowly and looked like we were missing a number 9 - Smyth, though good defensively, wasted a number of opportunities when set free on the right and we couldn’t get Koki in the game at all. Once they went 2-0 up, we started doing things quickly, throw ins, free kicks - Morgan came on and put in snappy forward passes- something Varanne seems incapable of- and Kone pushed their centre backs back 10/15 more yards. Start with this tempo and the game would’ve been won by halftime. Agree about the ref, excellent. Not sure of the answers for Saturday- Hayden in for Varanne, maybe Morgan for Madsen who looks tired and like we’re overdependent on him being the forward passer in the middle ( perhaps he needs a break ) - oh and someone tell Dembele if someone runs off you like that - pull their shirt to stop them if necessary- it’s what Southampton did to him and that free kick in their half for us ended back at Nardi’s feet for some strange reason! The tinkerman keeps tinkering with the side - a new left back on Saturday due to RND not being allowed to play, Kone back on to start ( maybe a rest for Burrell ) Hayden back in for sure - 4 or 5 changes coming in yet again methinks COYRS- let’s go into the next international break with a win ffs ! ….

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JPC added 09:38 - Nov 7 I think the tempo points are excellent. My frustration watching the game is the number of times we string some passes together or beat a man, or beat the press, then play it back and we’re then treated to 8 or 9 sideways passes while the opposition resets. It’s not a plea to lump it forward, more to just keep the ball moving forward and put some pressure on teams. I was at the game with a Southampton supporting mate and I think they were there for the taking - the last 10 minutes effectively showed that this was a team with a very rickety defence. I’m also not convinced that playing Chair as one of our forwards is working - Kone and Burrell for me, with Chair possibly playing left. He’s gone back to his old habit of slowing the game down.

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stainrods_elbow added 10:14 - Nov 7 It was a real curate's egg of a performance - wasteful in attack, ponderous in midfield, and inept at the back- and I don't like, rate or trust JS. Apart from that, everything's going swimmingly.
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HastingsRanger added 10:38 - Nov 7 Thanks Clive, even though (rightly) it was reading. Is there anyone who can explain our passing out from the back - the only virtue I can see is time wasting - and after a minute at 0-0 I am not sure why we would be doing that! And furthermore, it's got worse, as the eventual/inevitable big boot now comes from inside our 6 yard box, so we have lost yards! As mentioned above, this slow build up (no build up, actually) is just what any opposition wants. We actually have some fast players now, so why are we not using this and increasing the intensity from the off and stretching teams. When they were forced to do this later on, it was effective. Highlights would show a good game but there were some awful moments too. I thought Southampton were poor and were there for the taking. To allow them into the game and indeed win was a very poor result indeed. At least Burrell's goal was something to enjoy and shows what Varane is capable of (almost Wilkins-esque v Leeds!). We should be looking for more of this and when it doesn't work, fight to get the ball back and try again. Another long season, I fear!

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nick_hammersmith added 12:16 - Nov 7 I'd force Dembele to watch videos of SWP and ask him every five minutes "Is this the career you want?" The sad thing is, he would probably love to have SWP's career...
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TacticalR added 12:32 - Nov 8 Thanks for your report. As others have said, there is something so frustrating, unconvincing and ponderous about our play, especially when you get the feeling that none of our attacks is going to lead to a goal. It means when the opposition scores first the game is pretty much over (an early opposition goal is a complete hammer blow). Watching Southampton's first goal I don't think it was quite as bad as it looked first time, the ball came at Mbengue unexpectedly, even if he did make a mess of controlling it. Burrell chance in the first half was a good one. A more experienced striker would have hit it first time. His goal in the second half was excellent: something out of nothing and at least it gives us a positive to cling to.

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