| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 14:54 - Oct 7 with 2852 views | Antti_Heinola |
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?
1. WELL? ARE YOU NOT?: I only ask because in a game of six goals and some bl00dy lovely football, it all seemed surprisingly flat from our fans. OK, flat is an exaggeration. But before the season started if someone told us we'd score four in a game (it was only two months ago the 'Twitt-R-arti' were lighting flaming torches in readiness for a march on the KPFS, armed with an effigy of Lee Hoos, an old Shoot! poster of Les Ferdinand with an angry red cross scrawled on his face in lipstick, and RED RUM written across his chest instead of Holland Fly KLM and a baby blimp of Tony Fernandes because we hadn't signed any strikers, #DONTANNOUNCECHRISMARTIN #ANNOUNCEWELBECKHESONAFREE) I think we'd have all collectively lost our sh!t - pandemonium in the stands, man with Mexican hat falling into the Paddocks to be caught by Jude, that girl from the Palace 6-0 game who stripped and ran up and down the top of the exec boxes doing it all over again sort of thing. On Saturday, at least near me, there was a lot of harrumphing, a lot of heads in hands, and then some three-quarter-hearted cheering as we rammed in four pretty sweet goals.
I'm not sure why this is, just as I'm not sure where the fans who turned up in number for the Luton game have gone, unless they simply thought things would never get that good again. And maybe that is the issue a bit. We saw half an hour of near-perfect football, so the feeling among some is: 'well why can't we play perfect football and score a goal every 10 minutes EVERY MATCH. WHY NOT?!'
I am, of course, being over-dramatic for (limited, yes all right) comic effect. But I do have a serious point. I think the reason why no one was getting very carried away in the way we did against Luton and in the way we might have done in years past is because none of us really know what is a safe score with this team. And it's not about playing out from the back. For all the complaints, we're actually decent at doing that. It's just that we do look really, really vulnerable in defence. Even on Saturday, Kelly did not have a save to make other than the two that went in, and yet there was still that nagging fear that somehow we could give it away. The bravado of 'you might as well go home' after 30 mins v Luton was completely absent after 80 mins and 4-1 v Blackburn. No one felt safe. The Luton game has perhaps created a weird paradox, where we're desperate to see that swaggering perfection again, but at the same time so scarred by their mini-comeback that we're not sure any score his safe.
Still, it's much fun.
2. BREAKING THE CYCLE: Since Ollie took over in 2016, we've endured these runs: 6 losses in a row. 5 without a win. 6 losses in a row. 7 without a win. 5 losses and 1 lucky draw in 6. 5 losses in a row. 7 without a win.
That tells you how important it was to win on Saturday and snap the cycle quickly. True, this is a different team now, but after such a good start, it would have been awful to start slipping down the league and, worse, losing confidence into what had got us so many point so early in the first place. While we might have spent half an hour of this game being a little more cagey than before, it was good to see that we weren't suddenly abandoning everything. This team knows it did not play badly in the last two games, as much as they deserved to lose both, but that's not a reason to chuck everything away and start again. Strength of charatcer, fortified by Wells's opener, helped us overcome doubts to turn in a smashing performance.
3. MANNING: Another excellent performance from our left back/wing back. One of the great things about this side is how everyone is comfortable on the ball. Even Dom Ball, rested on Sat, and not the most technical player in the squad, has no compunction about demanding a pass. Manning, though, has all the technical skill required for passing, controlling and, to deadly effect, crossing. There can't be many games where a left back can pretty much claim three assists, but currently almost every time struggles with his energy, determination and quality of delivery. One in the eye for the 'round pegs, round holes' brigade. His tackling stats are also hugely impressive.
There's a but coming - you can sense it, I know. I'm just wondering. Unlike some people I wasn't hugely enamoured with the performances of our CDMs on Saturday (see below). There was a suggestion last week of pushing Manning into one of those slots and moving Wallace to left back. I'm broadly against that for various reasons: Manning is performing so well, you don't really want to move him. Wallace surely cannot match Manning's delivery, which has been crucial from wide areas. And I'm not quite sure if Manning is right for a CDM role. But, six goals we have conceded this season have come from attacks down our left side, plus a seventh deep cross from the right against Luton where Manning did not track his man all the way (many of the rest were set pieces). Two of the six from the left were dreadful pens given away by Barbet, for which he is of course responsible, but still, they were dangerous attacks down our left with Manning not really in the picture. This is tactical as much as anything, so please don't see it as an attack on Manning - clearly he has license to be a valuable attacker, often forming that lethal triangle with Chair and Eze higher up the pitch. But teams are targeting him, both with high balls to exploit his lack of height and with balls in behind him. Blackburn several times on Saturday drifted balls over to him to get their right winger away, particularly in the first half, and Luton were particularly keen on bombing deep balls in from the right to isolate Manning's size. So I don't know if there's a solvable issue here or not. Would Wallace be better in terms of defence, with Manning becoming more of a quarter back alongside Cameron or Ball? Or would that cut off one of our major attacking threats to our detriment? If Manning is being targeted by high balls or balls exploiting his position higher up the pitch, do we just accept that as an unavoidable consequence and trust he'll do more damage than they can? I don't honestly know.
4. DEFENSIVE MIDFIELD: Good games for Cameron and Scowen on Saturday, but I'm unable to join in some of the love shoved their way. I felt the excellent Rothwell and the decent Dack too often had too much time and space to hurt us. Rothwell, at least, was coming from deeper before playing some really very sharp key balls, several times cutting us in half, which made him difficult to pick up. But there was no such excuse for Dack. Especially when we had two defensive midfielders in his space, and even more especially when he was still finding large pockets at 4-1. At that stage, surely, Scowen could've just man-marked him, ensured he didn't hurt us as he frequently threatened to do, as the game was won. The fact he didn't may have been down to Warbs a bit, who I felt could've sent on Ball for the tiring Cameron with instructions to stand on Dack and take him out of the game (legally obvs, I'm not an animal). For me, this was where our main problems stemmed from on Saturday, because apart from The Beard's classic tackle, I found little to fault the back four.
5. BOS: An odd game for Bright. He's been taking some mild criticism that his approach play is great, but his end product not so much (for wingers, twas ever thus, was it not, friends?). But on Saturday it was the opposite. He wasn't his usual ebullient self with ball at feet and legs on fire, but he set up won and stylishly scored another. I was thinking of him last week and he reminded me a bit of Andy Impey at his age. Younger fans may not remember, but Imps got some fearful stick at one stage from the LR faithful. But then, it slowly began to change, most memorably when he got two away at Ipswich, and he went on to be player of the season and one of our most consistent and reliable performers. I wonder if Bright may follow suit. He has all the tools, he's still only 21 and he has a great attitude. Was really pleased he scored such a good goal on Saturday - hopefully that'll give him confidence to score more going forward.
6. FOUR SCORERS: If ever there was a sign of the new QPR, this was it. Four goalscorers - the only thing missing, and from this season too, is one from Moroccan Messi. When it does come, surely, it's going to be a pearler. The fourth of course came from Hugill another (still another!) getting some stick from some quarters, despite that being his sixth of the season (none of our team got more than 7 league goals last season). What a Warby sub that was. 3-1? Better get another striker on, come on lads. Attack, attack, attack, attack, attack. Great header - couldn't have been placed better. Nahki's seventh means he is averaging a goal every 91 minutes at the moment. I insisted in another thread a Prem club wouldn't take him. Having read that, I'm not so sure. Eze's finish was a thing of beauty. We're currently on course to score 50% more goals than we did last season. Woohoo! |  |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 15:08 - Oct 7 with 2799 views | WestbourneR |
I agree, I thought Scowen still looked the odd man out.
A good CM purchase in the window could definitely find a place in this 11. |  |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 15:30 - Oct 7 with 2728 views | Esox_Lucius |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 15:08 - Oct 7 by WestbourneR |
I agree, I thought Scowen still looked the odd man out.
A good CM purchase in the window could definitely find a place in this 11. |
Scowen had his best game of the season against Rovers and didn't look out of place in the side at all. |  |
| The grass is always greener. |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 15:38 - Oct 7 with 2692 views | Ned_Kennedys |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 15:30 - Oct 7 by Esox_Lucius |
Scowen had his best game of the season against Rovers and didn't look out of place in the side at all. |
He set up a goal as well. Deserves to keep his place if we stick with the same formation at Hull. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 15:38 - Oct 7 with 2687 views | PinnerPaul |
Re 1) Numbers - Surely the difference with Luton is that they sold out both tiers?
Atmosphere - think its always better when there is some 'jeopardy' involved. 1st half Blackburn had a lot of the ball but got nowhere near our goal. Consequently we didn't have a lot of the ball and didn't get near theirs either - its hard to get excited about a pretty insipid midfield battle. Ref got most things right - so no need to moan at him and despite 8 yellows the game was played in a good spirit with no pantomime villains to boo either!
After half time we had a 2 gaol advantage for most of the half, so again - no jeopardy.
I think a close 1-0 or even better a come back form being a goal down always gets the crowd up. Luton was exceptional - 3 goals in 20 mins is pretty rare and matched with some marvellous football, always going to get a better reaction.
I agree would be a shame if this football we are seeing is taken for granted but think that's just human nature. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 15:49 - Oct 7 with 2642 views | Antti_Heinola |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 15:38 - Oct 7 by PinnerPaul |
Re 1) Numbers - Surely the difference with Luton is that they sold out both tiers?
Atmosphere - think its always better when there is some 'jeopardy' involved. 1st half Blackburn had a lot of the ball but got nowhere near our goal. Consequently we didn't have a lot of the ball and didn't get near theirs either - its hard to get excited about a pretty insipid midfield battle. Ref got most things right - so no need to moan at him and despite 8 yellows the game was played in a good spirit with no pantomime villains to boo either!
After half time we had a 2 gaol advantage for most of the half, so again - no jeopardy.
I think a close 1-0 or even better a come back form being a goal down always gets the crowd up. Luton was exceptional - 3 goals in 20 mins is pretty rare and matched with some marvellous football, always going to get a better reaction.
I agree would be a shame if this football we are seeing is taken for granted but think that's just human nature. |
Home ends looked packed to me v Luton. Nowhere near as full last two home games. loads of seats! | |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 16:43 - Oct 7 with 2511 views | ozranger |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 15:38 - Oct 7 by Ned_Kennedys |
He set up a goal as well. Deserves to keep his place if we stick with the same formation at Hull. |
I'd be surprised if he stuck with the same formation given that, or should I say assumed that, Hall is back for Hull. As captain he will be slotted in and it would be hard to drop Barbet or Leistner. I fear that even though he had a decent to good game, Scowen may be dropped back to the bench with Hall in and a change back to the attacking 352 shape.
To save space, on the Blackburn game itself, I thought with your comments elsewhere Antti, you'd put something more in about the subs and the fact that MW was keen on going for the throat by bringing on two forwards and a midfielder for two midfielders and a forward even though we were ahead by at least two goals. Perhaps this goes with No. 1 in that we want to score more than the opposition? |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 17:36 - Oct 7 with 2389 views | BrianMcCarthy |
Hugely enjoyable read as ever, Antti.
I agree with you on practically everything. I'd be higher on Scowen than you, I think. I gave him a seven - good tackles, good aggression, one assist, but some misplaced passes and they had as much joy as us in central midfield so I couldn't quite stretch to the eight I gave Manning, Eze and Chair.
Agree with you about the crowd. Strangely subdued until we went ahead. maybe a mixture of expectation and disbelief that our recent great football would lead to a better result than in the two previous games? |  |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 18:00 - Oct 7 with 2327 views | CroydonCaptJack |
An enjoyable read as usual. |  | | |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 19:35 - Oct 7 with 2157 views | daveB |
I thought Scowen had a good game, best he's played for a while. He moved the ball a lot better in midfield than he has for a while.
On the crowd I think the fact it was Blackburn at home meant the atmosphere was always likely to be flat and the first 30 minutes played into that as not much happened. I thought as the goals flowed in the second half we were all more in shock than excitement, it all seemed too easy |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 19:44 - Oct 7 with 2148 views | Wren67 |
Lots to think about in this excellent report Antti.
I could understand the crowds nervousness coz I was in the crowd and I was nervous too. Seemed to me we were very careful to keep our shape early on and not allow Blackburn to strike first.
Following our first goal, so well taken by Nahki, the team relaxed and so did I.
I too enjoyed BOS performance, he is maturing and took his goal with quality control, quality turn and quality finish ably assisted by Scowen.
We needed to win this game, we needed to play well, we needed to keep a clean sheet.
2 of 3 is acceptable to me. I am happy. Got my ticket for Hull my 1st away this year. | | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 19:59 - Oct 7 with 2106 views | BlackCrowe |
I think i agree with defensive midfield. We're shipping goals not just because of bad defending (but certainly that) but because Scowen and the Dude, whilst working hard enough, are not clicking and offering enough protection for the back line.
I am loving going to HQ this season (to think i was seriously close to not renewing) but 'doesn't matter about defence as long as you score more than you concede is not sustainable as a strategy and certainly i can't think of team that's gone up on the back of it.
But god yes, i am entertained and that will do me for the foreseeable. |  |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 20:17 - Oct 7 with 2066 views | bosh67 |
Rubbish report...... Only joking. Excellent as ever! 
Overall for me Scowen did a lot to win us that game. He does misplace passes, he does occasionally drift out of position, but on Saturday he disrupted Blackburn time after time and he offers himself going forward, hence the goal by BOS and numerous other times when he linked play.
Eze is a wonderful player and a joy to watch but in Chair I think we have something ultra special if he can add the goals. Never seems to waste a ball and hardly ever loses it. His centre of balance is so low that he gets passed players before they can get to him and he has a great talent, like Eze for getting the ball out of his feet and into space to do something with it in the blink of an eye. I would love to see him allowed to drift behind a striker in the middle every so often because I feel there is a player who can become the stuff of defender's nightmares. |  |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 20:29 - Oct 7 with 2051 views | terryb |
Thank you Antti.
As far as numbers go, we have a hard core of around 12,000. Anything above that number plus the number of away fans is a good crowd.
I would think that we are achieving around 13, 000 Rangers fans at matches this season, which considering the past few years dross, is quite good in my view. | | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 22:51 - Oct 7 with 1849 views | stevec |
Can’t argue with much of that.
Suspect we’ve lost a lot of ST holders this season, the last 4 seasons finally taken their toll, hence the smaller crowds. Also, hard to think of a less enticing fixture than Blackburn at home, that grey kit a perfect fit for them, so difficult for crowd to be up for it.
BOS is frustrating. Premier league speed, Championship feet, but the football brain of a Sunday league player let out of a Saturday night lock in.
Took his goal perfectly, which gives some hope, but whilst he’s no Sterling, learning from his movement off the ball wouldn’t do him any harm. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 23:36 - Oct 7 with 1803 views | nix |
Thanks for this Antti. Love the knee jerks.
Like PPs I think the crowd was pretty nervous, like the players, for the first half an hour. After our last two matches there was a bit of a fear that we would go on one of those nightmare runs without a win, especially if they scored first. Then we started to relax a bit after scoring only to get a bit nervous again after they scored. The first half against Luton was a joy but it wasn't long enough ago for us to forget the last twenty minutes war of attrition. We all know we can leak goals so it's difficult to really feel comfortable once the other team have scored and are back in the game.
I agree about Hugill. As well as scoring some really valuable goals I like his attitude and love it when he goes on one of those barrelling runs. It takes him a while to set off but once he's going, he's pretty hard to stop. He's going to struggle without decent support as a lone striker or against six foot four centre backs and he needs a few chances per goal, but he gets in good positions so he creates more chances than others might. I'm a fan. |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 02:46 - Oct 8 with 1715 views | FredManRave |
All very interesting, well written and informative but is there any chance you can let us know as to when we can expect your next test message. |  |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 10:15 - Oct 8 with 1471 views | Antti_Heinola |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 22:51 - Oct 7 by stevec |
Can’t argue with much of that.
Suspect we’ve lost a lot of ST holders this season, the last 4 seasons finally taken their toll, hence the smaller crowds. Also, hard to think of a less enticing fixture than Blackburn at home, that grey kit a perfect fit for them, so difficult for crowd to be up for it.
BOS is frustrating. Premier league speed, Championship feet, but the football brain of a Sunday league player let out of a Saturday night lock in.
Took his goal perfectly, which gives some hope, but whilst he’s no Sterling, learning from his movement off the ball wouldn’t do him any harm. |
can't argue with much there either except 'football brain of a sunday league player' - but we all like a bit of nonsensen hyperbole every now and again so i'll let it slide ;) | |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 12:04 - Oct 8 with 1393 views | 1MoreBrightonR |
Agree on the atmosphere. I was as bad as anyone and i just kept saying it felt a bit like watching a reserve game...not sure why, but i and everyone else seemed very flat given the amount of events on the pitch. | | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 16:34 - Oct 8 with 1254 views | enfieldargh |
Always look forward to your KJ's Antii
I would never miss a home game unless its completely unavoidable but I do hesitate before home games with Blackburn & PNE.
Calls for more additions to midfield?' well dont forget we have Luke Amos and Matt Smith who can both play that roll as well as more attacking. They do seem surplus at the moment but we have them for now so lets utilise them when they are fit.
Next season Cameron may be gone so there will be a need for new recruits then |  |
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 16:45 - Oct 8 with 1239 views | JAPRANGERS |
great stuff as usual Antti, thanks! |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 07:50 - Oct 9 with 1048 views | jonno |
Thanks Antti - some excellent points. Having watched the whole game back again - something I always do because you can miss a few things watching it "live" - a couple of things struck me. I'm really not sure that Barbet challenge was really a penalty. It looked to me like he actually got the ball first, and I'm really not sure that the referee could see that he hadn't. I also think that had the score been 0-0 at the time, or Blackburn had been winning, the referee would not have given the penalty and we would all be saying what a great tackle that was by Barbet. Also, why on earth was that not a penalty on Eze at the start of the second half? He was clearly pushed in the back with both hands - I know Eze does go over fairly easily but that is the way the game is played these days - but that was a blatant push in my view. Again, I suspect had it been 0-0 at the time or we had been losing I'm sure the referee would have given it. One final thing - Hugill appears to have a lot more pace than I thought! |  | | |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 10:03 - Oct 9 with 1006 views | westberksr |
great read as per.
delighted for BOS initially with the assist, looked a pretty brave header and he was in the right place to make the challenge & then great to see him get the goal an it looked like he really needed it going by his reaction.
Blackburn's best players are probably the 2 midfielders so i'm not going to be too hard on our CDM pair who did ok; and although some of his passing will always go astray i can't help but like Scowen's energy and attitude, he also enjoys pushing forward which adds something that others in CDM don't.
After 2 defeats and conceding 5 I suspect a few thousand of us thought our summer renaissance was over and none of us would have been surprised if Blackburn took the spoils; purely based on our record against them!! So the subdued mood may be accounted for by that concern.
still happy to see us in high scoring matches if we win more than we lose; save the 0-0 for when we only need a 0-0! [Post edited 9 Oct 2019 10:28]
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| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 11:21 - Oct 9 with 942 views | ParkRoyalR |
| Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 4 Blackburn 2 on 10:03 - Oct 9 by westberksr |
great read as per.
delighted for BOS initially with the assist, looked a pretty brave header and he was in the right place to make the challenge & then great to see him get the goal an it looked like he really needed it going by his reaction.
Blackburn's best players are probably the 2 midfielders so i'm not going to be too hard on our CDM pair who did ok; and although some of his passing will always go astray i can't help but like Scowen's energy and attitude, he also enjoys pushing forward which adds something that others in CDM don't.
After 2 defeats and conceding 5 I suspect a few thousand of us thought our summer renaissance was over and none of us would have been surprised if Blackburn took the spoils; purely based on our record against them!! So the subdued mood may be accounted for by that concern.
still happy to see us in high scoring matches if we win more than we lose; save the 0-0 for when we only need a 0-0! [Post edited 9 Oct 2019 10:28]
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Totally agree re Scowen,
Thought we were a man short in there v WBA, and Cameron & Scowen seem to work as a pair, as maybe do Ball & Amos or Ball & Scowen (thinking to next years likely starting 11)
Really like Ball and would be good to see him to get plenty of game time to see his level in Championship as I think is potential Captain material, always organising, similar to Rangel who I though was excellent on Saturday
Not getting carried away, but..... it seems years since we were able to put round pegs in round holes and have at least 2 quality players in most positions | | | |
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