Happy New Year folks! I'm doing this write up ahead of the Cardiff game so this will either be following a racous win, dreary draw or do we take the L? (Baah humbug) Please disregard the above as necessary. The Opposition: I genuinely forgot we played them earlier this year, and given it was a 0-0 draw perhaps that's not too surprising. I do remember QPR wasting a number of good chances though which isn't a good sign and watching the highlights again that was the correct feeling with finishing that would make Jebbison blush. QPR play Norwich before they play us, but they were most recently beaten by Swansea 3-0 away from home in a match where they didn't register a shot on target which is, no matter how you dice it, crap. That said, they're on 25 points and (for now) reasonably clear of the relegation scrap having managed to put together a 7 game unbeaten run before the Swansea game. Having had a number of notable injuries earlier in the season, a lot of them have now returned during the December run in including the likes of Ilias Chair, Jake-Clarke Salter and Michael Frey. However, Steve Cook picked up a major foot injury v Preston as has Žan Celar with a hamstring injury while Karamoko Dembélé won't be back for them until at least February. Liam Morrison also is out with a muscular injury. QPR Lineup v Swansea: Michael Frey leads their goal scoring charts with 4 goals followed by Jimmy Dunne putting in 3 goals to be a big set piece threat. The 'Orns: The last time we played QPR at their place, Jake Livermore came up with two unexpected pearlers to help Watford to a resilient away win. I was there that game, and I'm going to this one too. Maybe Sissoko will be the next unexpected goal scoring source? Ben Hamer was also in form that game, especially at the end producing a fantastic save through a sea of bodies to keep out a well struck effort. We will need to put in a substatially better performance than we saw when we played QPR at home to stand a chance of getting a result. Bar an exceptional Louza free kick that rattled the underside of the bar and off Nardi who reacted quickly to push the ball away, we didn't hugely trouble QPR who missed two or three high quality chances in the first half and one later on in the second half. Unfortuntely for us, this is an away game. And away games haven't been great for us this year which at some point needs to change or we can forget about a play-off push. Andrew French has confirmed we have no injury concerns following the Portsmouth game and we will have Kwadwo Baah back from his 1 game suspension after his silly second yellow card so this is assuming we have no new concerns following the Cardiff game. Given how deep we are into the fixture list now, credit must go to Cleverley and the medical team and is a far cry from the horrific season in 2021/22 where we had up to 16 concurrent senior player injuries around this time. Being an away game, I think Cleverley will go for a back 5 due to our fairly pourous defence and swap to 4-3-3 only if we're chasing a lead. What Cleverley will likely use: What I'd like to see: Final Thoughts: Watford aren't a good away side this year, but we did produce our best overall performance away from home v Plymouth a few months ago and the 6-2 v Sheffield Wednesday. (Which I was also in attendance of) Much of this game depends on us getting through the midfield 4 and with Louza being in top form that will always give us a good chance of breaking through their lines with Baah and Vata's pace and Chakvetadze able to draw players onto him and get by them. QPR are no mugs though and their set pieces will be a big threat, something we're not great at dealing with. More importantly, my former boss was a QPR fan too who I'm still in contact with and knows I'm going to this game. I'm going for a nervy 2-1 win. COYH and once again, a Happy New Year from an elderly Phelps:
Recently we don’t have too bad a record on New Year’s Day, or our first match of a new calendar year if not played on that day. Starting from last season… 3-3 v Plymouth 1-0 v Norwich 0-1 v Spurs (controversially I think) 1-2 v Swansea 2-1 v Wolves 3-3 v Muff New Year’s Day 2018 we played Man City, so no need for me to record the outcome lol
Seems a bit of both: Cleverley explained the reasoning behind those two changes, which certainly had a negative effect on the threat Watford posed. “Vata and Louza were nursing injuries at half-time, and I was told they were at high risk for the second half,” he said. “So I had to deal with bringing off two influential players due to them being at high risk. “As a result, we lost a little bit of momentum. “Vata was feeling a calf issue at half-time and I was warned about it, and with so many games coming up I couldn’t risk losing a player like him for six to eight weeks. “So unfortunately I was forced into that change. “With Imran he was nursing a knee issue as well as walking a tightrope having been booked, so that change was forced upon us as well.”
Imo nothing will show us better where we are as a squad right now and where our season is heading than how we react on Wednesday to the home defeat. It’s a potentially winnable fixture at a ground we won last season. Start with the wrong eleven again, fail to win yet another match on the road, and things could start quickly going downhill with a tough home fixture to come shortly after. Start with the right eleven, hit the ground running, Baah back too, and yesterday could soon seem like a distant memory.
We were at home against the divisions whipping boys over the 2 Christmas fixtures and our on loan strikers managed a combined zero goals . I know I sound like a broken record but anything else is just flim flam. If Bayo or Jebbo are trudging out , Feb 1st , in the starting line up then prepare for a mid to low end of season position .
Big game this now. Lose this and it’s 2 in a row with Sheffield United at home, then Fulham away it’s likely to be 4 in a row if so. Ironically then followed by the return Cardiff game.
We took the L. That said, I do not want to see Sissoko and Kayembé starting for us again for a good while if that's what they consider acceptable. The worst thing is I actually think Sissoko did more than Kayembé which is tragic. 4-3-3 doesn't work as we don't have the depth for it and Cleverley will lurch back to our 5-2-2-1. Don't know what Dwomoh had to do to start more games and I'd take Ince in midfield over both Sissoko and Kayembé at this point. Chakvetadze worked well in that midfield 3 v West Brom but looked isolated and ineffective on the wing yesterday. You have to keep him more central so he gets on the ball more. Jebbison has a dangerous burst of pace in him, but good lord he has no confidence in his finishing.
As a kid, I was taught that QPR meant Queer People’s Republic. As an adult, I don’t think it influenced my move to W12 either way.
Well written and very informative write-up of QPR's last game https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/footb...break-for-improved-qpr-at-carrow-road--report Funny too: "For the final ten minutes Norwich brought on Ashley Barnes, a man now in his 25th year of going bald. Looking like he’d finally succeeded in a lifetime ambition of getting locked inside Cadbury World for Christmas, he slobbed about for ten minutes contributing the square root of **** all until stoppage time when he interrupted a promising Norwich attack by belting a QPR player off the ball at the far post. "
And to think I thought Barnes was a player we should have been in for when he went to Norwich, I know nothing!
Ebosele’s cameo stank the place out last game. I’m surprised he’s third choice but there’s obviously something Tom’s seeing that we’re not.
Sissoko and Kayembé stink the place out week in week out so that doesn’t seem to be a blocker to being in the team. I’d like to see Festy given a run given the indifferent performances of Ngakia and Andrews.
Another whole year left on Sissoko's two-year deal after this season. Baffling and, as far as I know, it was a deal of convenience because he wanted to come back to the area for personal reasons. Happy to be corrected on that if it's not the case but I heard it from a good source. We have a 35-year-old and a 26-year-old who plays like a 35-year-old at the heart of midfield. One or other is just about tolerable but seeing both together in the same line-up really makes for a hard watch – the deficiencies are obvious from a mile away. The other consequence against Cardiff was that it meant Louza couldn't float about doing Louza-y things.
Perhaps I'm being unduly negative because of the cost of QPR away tickets, the likelihood of NYD public transport disruption, and the prospect of seeing Sissoko and Kayembe as the midfield pairing again when it's clear it leaves a lot to be desired. To be fair, we've over-achieved this season but a small handful of injuries and a busy schedule do expose the gaps in the squad. (I'm also still reeling from Kayembe's inability to boot the ball over the stand roof in injury time at Home Park, which would have given us a much better chance of seeing out the victory than tapping it out for a throw in the middle third).
One of the reasons we are in the playoff places is because so far we have had a happy knack of responding to disappointing results with a win. Admittedly this has generally been a home game following an away game. We need the opposite tomorrow. If we can do it I feel very optimistic about clinging onto 6th place in May....
Sierralta was a huge improvement on Porteous (not something you'd normally say) and he seemed determined to make things happen. Another chance for him to rehabilitate?
I think Ngakia's been OK since he's been back. Not stunk out the place at least. Andrews has been bas though. But agree Festy should be given run.
I agree. He’s still rather quick despite his (well documented) injury woes. Since he joined in 2020 I’ve always thought there’s a solid Championship player there, it’s just a shame he appears to be made of breadsticks.
Start on the front foot with energy, not tentatively pussyfooting around like we’ve all just come out of a cold shower. And keep up some tempo for 20 minutes. Like the way we started at Plymouth. Add a bit of good leadership (Pollock not Sissoko or Bachman) and we can beat this lot. 1-2 Watford. On Sky I believe. COYH.
I hope go back to three at the back. We started the season with it, mainly I guess because our defenders aren’t so good in a flat back four. Our shape didn’t look right on Sunday. Play a three (especially now Ogbonna is back), get our wing-backs further forward, don’t start Sissoko in midfield, play Chak at 10 again after Sunday’s experiment of playing him too wide, and get POTS Baah back doing what he does best.
It's amazing how poor we looked against Cardiff without Baah. I mean nobody played well and we deserved to lose no mistake about that. But we have so few players who can really worry opposition teams we looked at least 50% less effective. Jebbison's miss aside, it proved how much we need to keep our best players' fit and not suspended as much as possible - especially with a squad as thin in reserves as we are. We are not world beaters by any means with a fully fit squad, but when you've got Louza, Chak and Baah all making runs then we do look a real threat.
