 | Forum
Reply | Man City - GUILTY
at 12:11 12 Oct 2026
I have never known such a mess in my life. What an odd event yesterday's match was. Fans, players and coaching staff feeling the backlash of something that began when Nico O'Reilly (for example) was 4 years old.
It's just such a completely bizarre situation. What have they even cheated? Financial rules which were clearly put in place to stop clubs like them, Newcastle, Villa and God forbid - clubs even lower than those three with the temerity to try to challenge the top table. Most fans don't even agree that the rules that they've broken should exist.
If anything it actually proves the point many have made about FFP / PSR and any such future iteration; they're only there to preserve the status quo.
Of course whether you believe in the rules or not, there's no defending cheating as turning a blind eye obliterates any such chance of fair competition and leaves the competition with absolutely no repute or consequence, which is exactly how that game of football yesterday evening felt; irrelevant.
Like so many others have asked over the last 15 / 20 years, why oh why can't the financial rules around football spending simply dictate that all committed future outgoing funds just lie in escrow? Would that make billionaires less likely to want to spend so frivolously? Maybe but isn't / shouldn't that be the aim of any competition rules based around finances? They should only ever exist to protect a community asset.
I've no idea what happens now. It's basically f****d. I just can't see any resolution. I guess this actually happened years and years ago but the Premier League is not a legitimate competition anymore. It's no better than an Infantino or Blatter vehicle. The really amazing thing is they managed to do it to themselves. [Post edited 12 Oct 12:14]
|
| Forum
Reply | DS Squad playing up at Bolton at 1pm
at 16:53 21 Sep 2026
The playful nudge that the Bolton lad's studs gave to Kone's shin was nothing compared to the brutal assault Cirkin committed on Saturday. Tarantino must be eyeing up Cirkin for his next hit - Inglorious Left Backs. That sort of violence simply doesn't belong on a football pitch and we should all be ashamed of him. Definite red and year long suspension at least. He's lucky nobody reported him to the authorities. In fact I still might. |
| Forum
Reply | Random irritations..
at 15:26 18 Sep 2026
Poorly perforated bog roll.
Edit - As a new entry, not as a response to Kensal. Clicked wrong reply button! [Post edited 18 Sep 15:27]
|
| Forum
Reply | Fans forum tonight anyone going ?
at 13:32 18 Sep 2026
He didn't take over from Beale. He took over from Critchley. Why would you compare him to Beale in ascertaining whether he made us worse? |
| Forum
Reply | Fans forum tonight anyone going ?
at 12:07 18 Sep 2026
Ainsworth averaged 0.85 points that season. Critchley 0.67. Harsh to say Ainsworth made us worse. Well wrong more than harsh actually.
If Critchley's points per game maintained instead of appointing Ainsworth we'd have finished with 48 points, still 4 clear of relegation.
Beale only took one point from his last 5 games too which is often forgotten.
Everyone was crap basically. |
| Forum
Reply | QPR and injuries
at 15:14 14 Sep 2026
I'm not complaining or passing negative judgment. I'm just trying to add some objectivity to a thread largely full of gut feel.
I'm not claiming a settled starting XI is a key metric either - just pointing out how settled ours is relative to the rest of the league. In response to your question about Brum and Cardiff though I'd ask if rotating the squad to an extreme is conducive to results, why are 5 of the bottom 6 in the league table making up 5 of the bottom 7 in the squad rotation table?
My opinion - for whatever that's worth - Is that we have a FAR more talented squad this season than we've had for a long time. Credit where it's due for that. I'm also of the opinion that there have been a couple of worrying signs (so far) that we're incredibly physically fragile... which is the entire point of posting.
Hopefully the likes of the guys that James rightly mentioned are gaining fitness day by day and they can be on the pitch as much as possible without risking injury. If they do and a few others avoid niggling injuries we were plagued by last year, this season could be pretty special. I'd be elated to use these numbers as proof our availability is better than average over a larger sample size as soon as we have it. |
| Forum
Reply | The Dennis Cirkin song
at 13:09 14 Sep 2026
Similarly, there's one too many syllables in the 2nd and 4th lines. I can't even work out how they're fitting it in. |
| Forum
Reply | QPR and injuries
at 12:57 14 Sep 2026
Well I can't be arsed to look into all that so this is all you're getting I'm afraid!  |
| Forum
Reply | QPR and injuries
at 12:53 14 Sep 2026
Oh I see what you mean. Sorry mate, I thought you meant I was picking and choosing as to who should be construed as best XI.
Yeah of course they'll impact it but you're assuming no other teams signed players late in the window with minimal pre-seasons. I'm also not claiming this is entirely due to injuries. Recruiting oft-injured and / or unfit players will impact the numbers, especially this early in the season. The net result doesn't change though; we're not as fit as other teams at this stage of the season. [Post edited 14 Sep 12:59]
|
| Forum
Reply | QPR and injuries
at 12:40 14 Sep 2026
Well I did put it together so you are haha 
Like I said from the off I'm not telling you this data answers the question as to why we've deviated, merely that we've deviated.
I think it gives a clearer steer than people literally guessing that other teams have had as many injuries as us and that our fitness and availability is no worse than other teams'. Which is why I started looking at it in the first place.
I did have a clear idea - How much have we deviated from our most used players compared to the rest of the league. And I think I've proven that we've done it more than everyone else. If anyone wants to believe that deviation is due to us having such a wonderfully deep squad of quality (whilst giving minutes to Alfie Lloyd and Leon Scarlett) that it's an advantage over the rest of the division and therefore we're electing to do so proactively, that's they're prerogative. I have some snake oil for sale too. [Post edited 14 Sep 12:47]
|
| Forum
Reply | QPR and injuries
at 12:28 14 Sep 2026
I don't think that's relevant James. I'm not showing we've deviated from the best players, I'm just showing deviation. Birmingham have used their most-used eleven players 88% of the time. We've used our most-used eleven players 73% of the time. They've deviated the least. We've deviated the most. That's all. |
| Forum
Reply | QPR and injuries
at 12:18 14 Sep 2026
Absolutely right - First XI is the eleven players to have played the most minutes per club. At no point have I mentioned or claimed that's the 'best XI'. You'd never get that from minute data.
This is pointing out how much of the squad has been used relative to the rest of the league. It doesn't matter whether it's injuries, fitness, tactical decisions, rotation... whatever - they all have equal weight. We've changed players more often than any other team in the league so far. I can't think why that would be a good thing. |
| Forum
Reply | QPR and injuries
at 12:02 14 Sep 2026
Well that's pretty much why I wanted to compare it to the rest of the league. It's only relevant when compared to our peers and for me, the point is, both those visuals show that we're doing it more than most of the league. The second one shows we're doing it the MOST in the league.
As I said in the first post - I'm sure there are a multitude of reasons for why... but the objective fact is so far, we're using more players more often than any other team in the league.
Maybe this is a deliberate tactic to ensure this shape is better for QPR come Christmas and the end of the season. Maybe they've proactively spotted something in data and they think they have an advantage on the rest of the league by doing this differently. The proof will be in the pudding if so.
We are getting a heck of a lot of non contact, soft tissue injuries and giving a lot of minutes to 17 year olds though if that is the case.
As Hunter says, whatever the root cause you want to chalk it up to, I can't think of a reason that's particularly (or remotely) positive. Ultimately I think this proves we're either dealing with more in-season injuries and / or our players aren't fit enough to play as much as other clubs' players. I won't hazard a guess as to whether that's merely circumstantial, the performance team's fault or the recruitment team's fault. Any one of us or the club can spin and excuse that as much as they like, it doesn't change the objective fact that we've used more of our squad than any team in the division so far. [Post edited 14 Sep 12:04]
|
| Forum
Reply | QPR and injuries
at 10:05 14 Sep 2026
Also to add, though Swansea are remarkably high from 12-16, there's a huge drop off for them from 17-20.
Here's a table showing the % of total minutes played by players not in the top XI per club:
 |
| Forum
Reply | QPR and injuries
at 09:42 14 Sep 2026
A number of posts on this thread saying 'all Championship teams are struggling with injuries, we're no worse than others'...
Nerd alert warning... But...
Here's a chart that shows squad distribution of minutes across the Championship. Each line is a club. QPR is highlighted. I was interested to see where we sit relative to other teams objectively. If you have a settled and fit first XI, you'll be high on the left of the red line and low on the right of the red line.
Headlines here for me are:
- We're just about average for the league from 1-7.
- We then dip badly in the 7-8 range in fact our 8th most played player has played the least number of minutes in the league vs other clubs.
- Our 13th to 18th are playing a lot more minutes than average, only Swansea's are playing more as a huge outlier.
Obviously these numbers don't categorically prove that we have more injuries than other teams. What it does prove though is we're using more players more often than most other teams in the league. That might be due to a rotational choice / strategy or because we have more injuries than other teams... But either way we're relying on the squad depth more than almost anyone else.
If it feels to you like we're chopping and changing team selections a lot - irrespective of why that it is - I think this chart proves that relative to the rest of the league, we are. |
| | Padulas_Shampoo
|
Site Scores| Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 0 |
|
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.