Putting it all together - Preview Tuesday, 16th Aug 2022 09:54 by Clive Whittingham There have been good bits and bad bits to QPR's freaky start to the season, but with Ethan Laird on board to ease the full back problems and key players coming back to fitness tonight's visit of Blackpool at the start of a run of home games gives Mick Beale's team a chance to put together a full 90 minute performance for the first time. QPR (1-1-1 LWDD 10th) v Blackpool (1-0-2 WLDL 17th)Lancashire and District Senior League >>> Tuesday August 16, 2022 >>> Kick off 20.00 >>> Weather — Muggy >>> Loftus Road, London, W12 Four games into the new season, four matches into the Mick Beale era, and QPR have certainly crammed a lot in. Goal of the season contenders have been scored already at both ends — Chris Willock in our favour against Middlesbrough, Lewis Travis against us at Blackburn. We’ve been 3-0 up inside half an hour against Boro and nearly blown it, while also recovering from a two goal deficit with two minutes left for play at Sunderland. We’ve scored from a direct free kick for the first time since the last ice age, and had a goal from our goalkeeper for the first time in the history of the club. Chuck a penalty shoot-out against Charlton in the League Cup in there for good measure. With so many freaky occurrences, and so many injuries to key players preventing us fielding our first choice side, it’s difficult to get a read on exactly what this team is, where it’s going and how it’s going to travel this season. We thought we had problems at full back, and that seems a pretty fair assessment so far. We thought we lacked strength in depth, really across the board apart from perhaps at centre back, and there’s been nothing to dissuade me from that. We wondered where the goals were going to come from, and though Rangers have scored six in four and finally got more than two in a game for the first time since January they do include Willock’s wonder-strike against Boro and Seny Dieng’s equaliser at the weekend which aren’t exactly sources you can rely on regularly. We’re still horribly vulnerable from set pieces, even when we bring our entire team back and park it on the goalline. There have been some real positives and moments of hope for the season ahead as well. These have tended to come in little blocks — the first 30 minutes at Blackburn, the first 30 against Boro, the last 20 against Charlton, the last ten at Sunderland — and we’re yet to put a full 90 minutes together, but given the players we’ve been missing I think that’s understandable. The big takeaway for me is if, if, we can get Tyler Roberts, Chris Willock, Luke Amos, potentially Taylor Richards, and the very promising Sinclair Armstrong fit and involved more than they have been to this point than it’s a very tidy and exciting looking team. Roberts, despite his injury, looks invigorated by a move away from Leeds where the fans had turned on him, and I’m hoping he continues in that vein rather than do that new signing thing of starting well and then regressing back to a more natural level. Armstrong, for all the valid concerns about too-much-too-soon and the QPR tendency to over-hype and then destroy, has to be involved while he’s playing like this because he frightens defenders, makes things happen and forces issues in a way our other forwards can’t/won’t. Willock, in his one outing, looked like he’s bulked up and is all set and ready for an Ebere Eze-style breakout season and a half. If we can get to the bottom of why we’re suddenly afflicted with so many muscle and fatigue injuries — which had been a real strong suit of our medical and sport science department up until Christmas — our starting XI looks very strong. If we can put it together for a full 90 minutes, or at least the majority of it, this is all really exciting. I’m actually looking forward to tonight, the first time this season I can honestly say that, although we all know what usually happens next. Ethan Laird, a 21-year-old right back from Manchester United, arrives on loan ahead of tonight’s game with Blackpool to further address the full back problems. He’s a great prospect, very impressive at this level for Swansea last season before being sucked up by Bournemouth’s January panic and then barely used, and a bit of a character judging by his signing video on the offish. He says he’s looking forward to getting “down and dirty” with the QPR fans at Loftus Road. Goodness.
Laird will certainly improve us going forwards down that side. You look at the average position of our players on the field in the early games and it’s clear that we want to attack primarily down the right, with the likes of Willock and Chair loitering and combining on the left to arrive onto that service — the right back has been pushed very far forwards, while Kenneth Paal, who we thought would be doing that, has hung back. This is a forte of Laird’s, and a real weak point of Osman Kakay’s. He’s been absolutely fine so far, certainly defensively, and definitely relative to the grief he gets from certain fans. I think he was very unlucky that two of his rare chances for a start last season came against Bournemouth who were particularly strong down his side. Nevertheless, he’s never going to contribute much overlapping and crossing wise — seems to have quite a nice shot on him mind, judging by Blackburn — and Laird will bring us on leaps and bounds in that regard. Whether that’s enough to justify loaning in a Man Utd youngster to develop for them ahead of a player we own, and have committed a four-year contract to, is open for debate. I’m more sanguine about it this season than I ordinarily would have been, because reading the accounts and knowing the business we did last season I just don’t see how there’s budget and FFP headroom to do anything other than what we’ve done already plus papering over a few cracks with loan deals until we get another big transfer fee in — or a nice sell on for Eze, who was outstanding at Liverpool last night. Come on Newcastle, you know it makes sense. You’d do well to get through a 48-game season with just Kakay to play right back so another was required anyway, unless you count Aaron Drewe as his cover. We’re in a similar situation on the other side where Travelman is hopelessly out of his depth at this level and we’re therefore going to need Paal to step out of the Dutch league and basically play every minute of a full Championship season in his first year here. A big ask. I wonder if The Maldives has a team that could give us a bit of money for Hamalainen to replace him with? Sure, be nice to have three left backs on staff, but it’s that budget and headroom issue again. What I am more annoyed about is how we’ve let the full back positions get into this state over time. We’ve done good recruitment elsewhere in the team, particularly at centre back and attacking midfield, but on both sides of our defence we did ‘what manager wants manager gets’ and it never, ever works here. Mark Warburton was allowed to sign (fair enough) Lee Wallace and then (less so) renew his contract after a burst of form and fitness, with Norwich’s Sam McCallum on loan as cover. Likewise another Warbs pick, Moses Odubajo, came in on the right. Aging players with multiple injury issues, covered by a player we can’t afford on loan, and Kakay — it has meant that three years on we were coming into the summer of 2022 with nobody at the club capable of playing full back at this level, and precious little money to do anything about it. A failure, whichever way you cut it. Other clubs that operate in our sphere - Cardiff, Blackburn - have made really good, affordable, signings at full back in that period too. Ostensibly QPR run a director of football model with Les Ferdinand in that role, a recruitment department and analytics team led by Andy Belk, and I think for a club with our owners that’s the right way to go. But every manager within that has been allowed to do their own thing as well — too often for my liking. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was allowed signings like El Khayati; Ian Holloway was about to be allowed to bin Ryan Manning on a free transfer prior to picking him out of desperation; Steve McClaren tore up the summer transfer plans he inherited, demanded loans to cover the subsequent shortfall, and ignored and destroyed the asset value of Osayi-Samuel and Manning; Warbs was allowed Dom Ball, Lee Wallace, Moses Odubajo, was backed over Andre Gray’s behaviour last Christmas and so on. All of these moves and more were detrimental to our medium and long term prospects and were not “what we’re supposed to be doing”. Even, already, under the new man, Mick Beale was keen to say that Paal and Clarke-Salter were his picks, and the club knows how that looks and PRs so tagged bits about how the analytics team had been watching them anyway onto the end of it. Those two, at least, fit the age and development profile we need. Still, I’m never comfortable with this hybrid model — even without getting into the board and their old mate Jamie Reuben parachuting Jeff Hendrick in after everybody else had gone to bed and thought we were done for the January window — and I think it’s really been shown up by the full back situation. I’ll enjoy Laird while he’s here, I think he’s going to be fun, and he’ll certainly improve the team. But that position has to be a priority next summer when hopefully a sale or two, after a frugal season, will work us a little more budget wiggle room. Links >>> Difficult second album — Interview >>> Baked in black — History >>> Davies in charge — Referee >>> Blackpool Official Website >>> Bloomfield Road Ground Guide >>> Blackpool Gazette — Local Press >>> A View From The Tower — Message Board >>> Seasiders — Podcast >>> The Mighty Pool — Blog >>> Blackpool supporters trust >>> Mitch Cook’s Left Foot — Contributor’s Blog >>> Measured Progress — Blog Below the foldTeam News: Tyler Roberts’ latest impressive cameo from the bench at Sunderland at the weekend should be enough for him to get a first senior start for the R’s tonight. Whether Chris Willock has recovered sufficiently to do the same against the team he scored a spectacular goal in last season’s away fixture remains to be seen. Kenneth Paal will thankfully return at left back but Taylor Richards and Luke Amos won’t be seen this side of September and Jake Clarke-Salter is also still sidelined by his hamstring problem. Man Utd right back Ethan Laird is likely to come straight into the team on that side of the defence instead of Osman Kakay.
Former QPR junior Josh Bowler scored in this fixture last season but made such poor decisions in the final third against Swansea at the weekend that he felt compelled to issue a public apology on social media for his performance. Three substitutes from that game are now pushing for starts — striker Shayne Lavery, recently linked with Millwall, came on at half time for Wolves loanee Theo Corbeanu; defender Jordan Gabriel who also came off the bench in the League Cup loss to Barrow; and Arsenal youngster Charlie Patino. Loaned Liverpool centre back Rhys Williams continues to keep last season’s first choice Jordan Thorniley out of the team. James Husband is also fit and available again after topping his recovery up with half an hour in that cup tie. Last season’s top league scorer Gary Madine is out along with central midfield pair Keshi Anderson and Kevin Stewart who are both yet to feature. Elsewhere: Originally eight fixtures slated for tonight in the Lancashire and District Senior League, but Coventry v Wigan Warriors is no longer one of them because of the disintegration of their pitch and the bankrupt rugby club that owns it. It doesn’t sound like they’ll be playing Huddersfield there at the weekend either and attempts to switch those fixtures around and play in West Yorkshire have also been thwarted. Mark Robins’ talented side having a nightmare start to the year entirely of others’ doing. It's a pretty run-of-the-mill list for this midweek round, though new-look Hull are flying after a weekend home victory against Norwich and they go to another relegated Premier League side Burnley in a tie with some intrigue. Dean Smith’s Canaries are yet to win in three attempts — typically he says this is perfectly fine because they’ve dominated the games, so plenty of early Justice League points — and they’ve got a home tie with struggling Huddersfield tonight. Supposed dark horses Lutown look for their first win of the campaign at Bristol City, who nicked Kal Naismith from them over the summer and upset Nathan Jones (can’t believe it) with comments about the Hatters not being able to compete financially. What Ford Magazine have lost Emmanuel Dennis to Forest but are warding suitors of Jao Pedro ahead of their trip to Birmingham. And Swanselona host Wawll in what could kindly be described as a clash of styles. Preston Knob End’s impressive win at Kenilworth Road at the weekend has some admiring eyes being cast in the direction of Ryan Lowe and the work he’s doing at Deepdale. His team is yet to concede a goal and you’d fancy them to maintain an unbeaten start at home to Rotherham, despite the Millers’ destruction of Reading at the weekend. Those highlights will be a tough watch for our former charge Joe Lumley, whose potential continues to be horribly undermined by mental frailty, poor concentration levels and just a propensity to make brutal mistakes in routine situations. Things don’t look like getting a lot easier for him in the Wednesday fixtures either with Blackburn, three for three and surprise pace-setters under Jon Daal Tomasson, travel to Berkshire. Rovers beat West Brom at the weekend — that decision to loan Alex Mowatt to Middlesbrough while persisting with a midfield of Jake Livermore and Jayson Molumby already paying dividends for Steve Bruce — and the Baggies are back home against Cardiff this midweek. Boro and Mowatt head to Stoke while Sheffield Red Stripe host Sunderland for whom star summer signing Daniel Ballard has broken his foot in a seemingly innocuous clash with Albert Adomah in our match there on Saturday. Referee: Andy Davies, a regular at QPR games in recent years, is once more the man in the middle for this one. He was involved in a bizarre incident at the weekend when Barrow felt they’d equalised deep into injury time at Sutton when John Rooney’s free kick from inside his own half was accidentally diverted into his own net by home stopper Brad House — Davies, however, ruled that House hadn’t touched the ball and therefore the goal couldn’t be scored from an indirect free kick. Details. FormQPR: Seny Dieng’s last gasp equaliser at Sunderland at the weekend was the first time a goalkeeper has ever scored for QPR, although Phil Parkes did drop kick one in against Leicester in 1974 only for the nonsense offside rules of the time to scratch it off. He’s the first goalkeeper to score in the Championship since Adam Federici for Reading v Cardiff in 2008. Ilias Chair’s goal that got Rangers back into the game was their first from a direct free kick since Ebere Eze scored against Wigan in September 2019, 148 games and many, many ridiculous Yoann Barbet attempts ago. It leaves QPR with a win, a draw and a loss from their first three league games — a creditable start given the injuries they’ve had to contend with. Three of the R’s four league and cup games have been away so far, which means three of the next four and five of the next eight are at home starting with the teams that finished sixteenth and nineteenth in this league last season and Rotherham who are newly promoted from League One. Rangers have a very good record against Pool — losing just four of 30 meetings in league and cup. They’re unbeaten in nine league meetings going back to Ben Burgess’ last minute winner at Bloomfield Road in December 2007, though there was Steve McClaren’s League Cup nadir in 2018 mixed in with that lot. Pool haven’t won at Loftus Road in 13 attempts going back to 1972 and have only won one of 16 trips here — a run that includes 6-1, 5-0, 5-1 and 4-0 QPR victories.
Blackpool: It took Blackpool just nine minutes to get off the mark for this season when Callum Connolly scored early in their opening day 1-0 home win against Reading. However, they haven’t scored since and following a 2-0 loss at Stoke and 0-0 draw with League Two Barrow (followed by a League Cup exit on penalties) they were beaten 1-0 by Swansea at home at the weekend thanks to a late Ntcham goal after Jerry Yates had missed a penalty for the Tangerines. This continues a worrying trend from the end of last season where they finished the campaign with just two wins from ten games, and a 5-0 defeat at already-relegated Peterborough on the final weekend. They started 2021/22 in surprisingly impressive form away from home, with wins at Middlesbrough, Reading and Sheff Utd on the board by the end of October. However, they’ve now won only two of 17 games on the road going back to November, and one of those was at League One-bound Barnsley at the tail end of the last campaign. Only the bottom three and Birmingham won fewer away games than their five in last season’s Championship and they’ve started this year with a 2-0 loss at Stoke who lost their other games to Millwall and Huddersfield and went out of the cup to ten man Morecambe. Shayne Lavery was top scorer here last season, the only player to get into double figures with ten in league and cup. Prediction: We’re once again indebted to The Art of Football for agreeing to sponsor our Prediction League and provide prizes. You can get involved by lodging your prediction here or sample the merch from our sponsor’s QPR collection here. LFW is 2/4 having, sadly, called the Blackburn and Charlton games correctly. Let’s see what last year’s champion Cheesy thinks this week… “The last 10 minutes at Sunderland has given us all a boost. The signing of Ethan Laired has been announced in time for this game and I'm hoping he’s the running full back to give the service Lyndon Dykes he needs.” Cheesy’s Prediction: QPR 2-0 Blackpool. Scorer — Lyndon Dykes LFW’s Prediction: QPR 2-0 Blackpool. Scorer — Tyler Roberts If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via our PayPal account loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk. Pictures — Action Images The Twitter @loftforwords Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
You need to login in order to post your comments |
   Blogs 31 bloggersQueens Park Rangers Polls[ Vote here ] |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.We in turn value your personal details in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
