Thoughts v QPR

Waz afcb said:
According to Kris Temple it was agreed that Cook would not play as there is a move in the pipeline. I actually think you’re being very harsh on Mepham today, he gave away one very silly foul in the first half but other than that I don’t think he did a lot wrong. I seriously doubt that he’s good enough to play consistently but today I don’t think you can really fault him.
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A defender shouldn't make massive mistakes in crucial areas.

Mepham is guilty of said crime almost every game.

In the PL, if we get there, those crucial errors are punished, not so much in this league.

Mepham, we could argue cost us in the playoffs.

It's a mistake he doesnt seem to learn from.

Great player in there, but naive, and therefore costly.
 
dragonm8 said:
A defender shouldn't make massive mistakes in crucial areas.

Mepham is guilty of said crime almost every game.

In the PL, if we get there, those crucial errors are punished, not so much in this league.

Mepham, we could argue cost us in the playoffs.

It's a mistake he doesnt seem to learn from.

Great player in there, but naive, and therefore costly.
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I agree with most of what you say, I don’t think that he’s good enough for where we want to be. Was just commenting that he didn’t do a lot wrong today, don’t think he deserves to be criticised for that performance today.
 
Waz afcb said:
The only worry for me is Christie. He is a good player no doubt, but we quite simply need a player who is playing the position he does in our set up to provide at least some kind of goal output, and to be honest I’m not sure that he can. His shooting is so woefully poor that it’s laughable. We don’t have a lot of goals in the team as it is and to have one of our main attacking players contribute nothing at all in this department could prove very costly. .
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I’d also like him to score more (than zero), but don’t forget he’s provided more assists than anyone else this season.
 
Waz afcb said:
Very pleasing performance, certainly one of our better displays this season. Unlike quite a few of our victories this season, we thoroughly deserved the three points based on the balance of the game and chances created. This is the kind of level we need to sustain if we are to mount a challenge.
Most pleasing was the way we continued to press high and attack them in the second half, that was far more like it in terms of the way we need to manage the game. Could easily have had more goals in the second half.
Nobody played badly today but a couple stood out for me. Jeff was absolutely outstanding. For the first time this season he was played in his natural position and this really showed, when he is allowed to concentrate on what he is good at (protecting the back four) there probably is not a better midfielder of this type at this level. Asking him to contribute in any kind of advanced role just doesn’t suit him at all as is if detriment to both him and the team, so he needs to be allowed to flourish in his natural position for the remainder of the season.
The other stand out player was Stanislas. During his time on the pitch everything good we did from a creative perspective came through him, lovely vision and execution. The worry as always will be whether he can stay fit for any sustained period of time.
On Lewis Cook, I thought he was okay, nothing more nothing less. He clearly isn’t entirely comfortable in that more advanced midfield role but it is far more preferable to us that he be given this responsibility to allow Lerma to claim that defensive midfield spot. He did okay and grew into the game.
The only worry for me is Christie. He is a good player no doubt, but we quite simply need a player who is playing the position he does in our set up to provide at least some kind of goal output, and to be honest I’m not sure that he can. His shooting is so woefully poor that it’s laughable. We don’t have a lot of goals in the team as it is and to have one of our main attacking players contribute nothing at all in this department could prove very costly. It’s a conundrum because he is certainly a good player but I would be inclined to give Brady a run on the right to see if he can contribute more in the form of goals. But that is the only worry from tonight.
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Credit where due - a good, balanced assessment on the game.

Christie is an odd one. A brilliant talent and work rate and you can tell the opposition defenders hate to play against him, but feels like he's now desperate to score, so those assists from before are turning in to shanked shots. Wouldn't care about him scoring too many if he carried on with the assists. On balance I'd still keep him in there as feels like he does make us tick when he's on the right.
 
I thought Mepham was very composed today. His dummy at the end was class, most defenders would have conceded a corner or played the ball under under pressure.
Zemora looked excellent and is going to be a great player. Lerma makes the team solid. Everyone played well today I thought.
It makes a real difference to the evening after a win.
 
Enjoyed that. Nice tight ground, not been there for ages last time Derek Holmes scored if memory serves me correct.

Elements of us being back to our best. Had we one natural goal scorer in our front three we would have won comfortably.

Positives.
Lerma outstanding
jZ growing back into it
High press back and work rate higher.
Stacey back to old form.
Mepham much better
Solanke driving runs and epic header
Stan reminding us of good Stan

Negatives
No natural finishers so two bad bad misses again.
Cook is not a forward midfielder, it’s right that Lerma holds but Marcondes or Stan should play in that inside forward spot next to Billing, not Cook.
Christie… still producing the magic 40 yards away from goal and Is a lot less magic when in dangerous positions.
Billing looked knackered and if we are worried about his knees has to be a doubt for Thursday.
Looks like we’ve seen the last of Steve Cook club legend.
 
To be honest, Christie is sort of falling into a Billing mold for me. Not in that they play the same position/style, but both seem to be very mercurial. When the game is going well and play flows through them, they can be creative joys, but when the team struggles, when the press is disjointed and we have a hard time getting the ball to them, they are prone to disappearing. Early on in the season we saw Christie getting stuck in when we played defensively, so I didn't have this opinion, but over our slide he seemed to fall out of the game regularly, whereas tonight he started showing of his magic again (even if end product has some improvement to be made).

One thought I've seen passed around (and don't entirely disagree with), would be playing Christie more in the attacking midfield role, see if he is more reliable there. If Christie is to be shifted into attacking mid, who plays at RW? Waz mentioned Brady as a possibility, though I'm not sure if he's played much of any on the RW, so it may be a bit unnatural (correct me if I'm wrong, I thought I recall hearing he mostly played up and down the left side). He has shown vim and vigor when he has been on the pitch though, so I do understand the desire to see more of him. However, Lowe may be a more natural fit for the RW. He has pitched in a goal or two already and may benefit from getting more opportunities to play his way into the team. And if Christie is in the attacking midfield role, where are Billing/Stanislas/Marcondes? Ultimately, this is a good problem to have, deciding where Christie, Lowe, Brady, Billing, Marcondes, Stanislas, and Anthony start among our left and right wingers and attacking midfielder(s), with all of them having shown some spark of goal scoring or assisting at some point in their time with us.

Regarding the game as a whole, MOTM performances from Solanke and Lerma with everyone else playing well, keep it up and keep playing our way out of the slump. UTC!
 
I thought Lewis cook was good last night. His work rate off the ball was excellent -something you don't always pick up from the TV coverage. We need his passing to get back to where it was when he first joined us. He had the ability to unlock a defence with a direct forward pass which is also something Christie can do well.
 
Enjoyed the result, and from what I could see, we enjoyed some really great spells during the game. I thought Mepham had a good game. A couple of wayward passes from Lewis Cook but he had a very good game too.

But Loftus Road was pretty poor for disabled away fans. Photographers blocking the view, one view of the goal obstructed by standing fans and stewards and rain coming in.

But a win always helps!
 
These are so much more fun to put together when we have won and played well. As normal individual ratings are prone to error!

After our typical slow start (no shots for 20 mins) we dominated the game, bar one big scare that doesn't show up on xG (more later). QPR's only registered attempt that was rated above 1 in 10 was Willock's shot that Jeff brilliantly blocked. We only had three shots rated above 1 in 10: Dom's header in the first half (around 2 in 5), following a lovely cross from Billing; Anthony's miss after the ball from Stacey evaded everyone (54%) and Solanke's attempt that was blocked from the left side of the penalty area (about 1 in 7) but had a lot of attempts. Solanke's flicked goal was rated as 1 in 25.

It must have pleased us all that we didn't sit back on the lead as has been the case. In the second half the xG was 0.24 to QPR and 1.00 to AFCB, it may have been influenced by their lack of match sharpness but our intent was impressive. The big scare was when Stacey appeared to throw his arm at the ball in the penalty area. It missed by inches, and if it had hit, I'd be hard pressed to say it wasn't a penalty. All the good work could have been thrown away.

QPR.JPG

As frustrating as the results have been, our last 4 games have been away against the teams in 2nd, 5th, and 7th, and home to the team in 3rd. I hadn't realised exactly how tough they had been collectively.

:utc:
 
DJ said:
Terrible miss from Anthony. One that you’d expect to see on a bloopers show.

Incredible young talent at times and yet in some single moments he plays like he’s got numb feet.
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Yeah that was a pretty horrific miss. Guess it did come at him quickly, bounced awkwardly?
 
DJ said:
Terrible miss from Anthony. One that you’d expect to see on a bloopers show.

Incredible young talent at times and yet in some single moments he plays like he’s got numb feet.
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Was a bad miss, but if you watch it back you will see the keeper make an attempt for the ball and fail to connect. I think Anthony expected the keeper to get something on the ball and as a result did not set himself correctly and had limited time to react. Then when he realises the ball will make its way through he goes into panic mode and snatches at it with his weak foot. It was a bad miss but I’m not sure it was quite as nailed on as it seemed in normal time, given the amount of bodies the ball travelled through.
 
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