v QPR (H) Match Thread

[Whoneedshuls]

9 minutes ago, Raich Van Carter said:

Well that’s the Marriott discussion put to bed... ?

Positives were.... erm... Wisdom looked ok. Holmes worked hard. Erm. The fog didn’t come down too much. 
 

poor game. Poor tactics tbh. 

Marriott wants playing alongside Martin who can actually hold a ball up and win flick ons.. 

[DavesaRam]

Standing in the Yard and my daughter yells across "Marriott's starting" with a big grin on her face. "Great" I yell back, another chance to work on his partnership with Chris Martin ........................ who is on the bench. WHAT? What is Cocu up to? Predictably a load of people have had another go at Marriott in this thread for missing another chance to make an impact. But here he is playing next to "bounce it off my shins" Waghorn. At least its two up front. ................... only its not - Marriott, the big, bruising 6 foot across the chest striker. Oh, he isn't, he is a fairly short, nippy sort of guy who plays as a poacher is playing target man! Good grief. And having realised that one up front doesn't work, we revert to it after only 2 or 3 matches with 2 up front where we have looked pretty good.

So we get a cracking goal from Waggy's free-kick, which might have been against the run of play, only there wasn't any run of play. The goal apart, the loudest applause was for Malone managing to not lose the ball after nearly giving it away. He got booked for a "professional" foul after cocking things up, which begs the questionas to why 2 or 3 QPR players weren't carded for similar fouls. Or for kicking and throwing the ball away 3 times right in front of the ref. When he finally does card a QPR player, no-one knows what it was for. Maybe for wearing a stupid man-bun hairdo?

Back to Waghorn - apart from his free-kick, he struggles with ball control, and misses loads of chances, especially easy ones, What else is he good at? Oh yes. Tackling opposition forwards in our penalty area. Good grief.But then, for thepenalty itself, the law stating that you can't stop once you have completed the run up is to stop the penalty taker from unfairly deceiving the keeper. Having watched the replay of the penalty, he technically did keep moving, but only, only just, which is still deceiving the keeper unfairly. So it should have been a yellow card, and the kick re-taken. And he probably would have scored it.

In the end, a 1 - 1 was a fair result, although it would be even fairere to award no points to either team for the dross they served up. We desperatly missed Bielik, and we have enough players out injured to form an entirely seperate team, but why on earth Cocu was making such wholesale changes to a team that had won 5 on the bounce at home, I have no idea. Radio Derby reckoned that he was setting the team up to counter what QPR might play like. How about we play how we want to, and let them bother about messing the team about to cope wtith it?

I felt sorry for Bogle, as he was played much further forwards, but was effectively shoved into no-man's land, and was isolated for much of the match. He still worked hard, and put in a number of crosses. And Marriott - not only is he not a lone forward, we never gave any service at all. For much of the game, Martin would have been just as inneffective, becaue he would have had nothing to work with. Marriott was pretty well knackered for 10 or 15 minutes before he was subbed.

Yet again Whitaker made a difference, and suddenly there was a bit of urgency about the game. Martin and Knight coming on added to the impact, and yet again we had a bit of a flurry for the last 20 minutes, and did begin to threaten. I don't know why we do this in so many matches. If we can threaten for the last 20 minutes, why not set the team up to threaten for the first 10 or 20 and maybe go ahead and get conrol of the game, instead of trying to rescue something for a game that has been about as enjoyable as a wet fart?

You could say that the players were on the whole only half-hearted, and seemed to have little idea of what they were supposed to be doing. Injuries aside, how can they have an idea when they are paying a different formation every match, sometimes two or three different formations in the same match? 

I said in my last macth report that we are where I expected us to be, and would support the team regardless becaue of the way we were stymied  in the close season. But it is really hard to stick to that when there seems to be no co-hesive plan for how we are supposed to be playing.

[Mucker1884]

2 hours ago, superzak said:

Awful awful game ...so dis jointed

I love the fact that you left a space in the word disjointed.  That's actually very clever!  Wish I'd thought of that!   ??

[DRBee]

Todays changes in team selection were as baffling as some of those made last season by Lampard.

For the first time Cocu's interview seemed wishful thinking to me ,whereas he is usually direct and spot on in the view he gives.

Having 3 at the back simply gives more opportunity to muck about and pass sideways and yet there were still times when Waghorn  was defending too much and was  too far back.   A match that was hard to enjoy.

[lukedcfc]

What Is for certain, Bilic and bielsa are Getting more from average players. We have the luxury of having the  Championship specialist Liam rosenior as well. I am not cocu out btw, I just expect more from him and his coaching staff.

[Anon]

5 minutes ago, DavesaRam said:

The goal apart, the loudest applause was for Malone managing to not lose the ball after nearly giving it away. He got booked for a "professional" foul after cocking things up, which begs the questionas to why 2 or 3 QPR players weren't carded for similar fouls. Or for kicking and throwing the ball away 3 times right in front of the ref. When he finally does card a QPR player, no-one knows what it was for. Maybe for wearing a stupid man-bun hairdo?

Man bun got booked for attempting to scythe down baby Duane on a breakaway. Holmes only avoided getting snapped by pulling off some matrix style evasive manoeuvres. Even then Holmes had to remind the referee what had happened before a card was produced. Man bun should've got a 2nd yellow for kicking the ball away, but the ref bottled it.

[Yani P]

Cocu reckons we showed more pace and played at a much higher tempo 2nd half.. Couldnt see that myself.. 

[Gone]

45 minutes ago, dcfcfan1 said:

TBH half the players wont be here next season, just chill guys

our midfield is so so poor  without beilik

Great another season of transition ! Every bloody year....this is the season to take this league by the scruff of the neck, it’s garbage. 3/4 signings and were there 

[GrimsbyRam]

37 minutes ago, Raich Van Carter said:

Well that’s the Marriott discussion put to bed... ?

Positives were.... erm... Wisdom looked ok. Holmes worked hard. Erm. The fog didn’t come down too much. 
 

poor game. Poor tactics tbh. 

Do not get a lot of this about Marriott.  Any coach with half a brain would know how to play to get the best out of him.  Martin and Marriott worked at home a few games ago and even though we lost at Forest between them they had 4 chances. 

Marriott runs the line and stretches defences with his runs.  People were too far away from him today and we stand no chance in feeding balls to him with Evans as the 'quarterback'.  Last season we used to press with Marriott, Mount, Wilson, Holmes/Bennett and Lawrence, all had energy and pace.  This season we are not.

Ive said it before but Marriott needs a run of games.  If in 8-10 games he is not scoring then fine.

I am not sure why Sibley is not getting a look in.  I would bring Knight back in as a starter.  People are positive about Whittaker but I still think he's a little light weight.  He had some straight forward/nice touches but he didn't change the game.

[Gone]

47 minutes ago, Paul71 said:

First time i have thought as i sat there not sure i want to spend cold winter days sat at PP.

Thought exactly the same today....but been here so many times and always gone the next game #coyr 

[BondJovi]

27 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

Just getting a bit fed up of watching us be so little threat really... 20 goals in 19 games is just dirge. FWIW i don’t think Cocu is an idiot, just like I didn’t think Rowett was an idiot. But what I’m starting to think, is they’re both managers with a negative mindset. Maybe I’m being overly harsh in the aftermath of the match and not considering enough the difficult scenario he’s been faced with, maybe I’ll feel differently in the morning. I’m just struggling to see any justification for the approach to that match today at the moment.

Biggest problem is that Marriott is awfully out of form. This goes back to midway into last season and Waghorn has never been prolific in this league.

We had Marriott, Waghorn, Lawrence. Bogle and Malone are very attacking full backs. Holmes is an attacking midfielder. I don't see a negative intent. What I do see is that when your main midfielder is risk averse, anyone could be up top and nothing would happen and when those up top are not in form it all becomes a mess.

I think Cocu is guilty of trying to be too clever but I feel his choices are limited.

[kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong]

18 minutes ago, GrimsbyRam said:

Do not get a lot of this about Marriott.  Any coach with half a brain would know how to play to get the best out of him.  Martin and Marriott worked at home a few games ago and even though we lost at Forest between them they had 4 chances. 

Marriott runs the line and stretches defences with his runs.  People were too far away from him today and we stand no chance in feeding balls to him with Evans as the 'quarterback'.  Last season we used to press with Marriott, Mount, Wilson, Holmes/Bennett and Lawrence, all had energy and pace.  This season we are not.

Ive said it before but Marriott needs a run of games.  If in 8-10 games he is not scoring then fine.

I am not sure why Sibley is not getting a look in.  I would bring Knight back in as a starter.  People are positive about Whittaker but I still think he's a little light weight.  He had some straight forward/nice touches but he didn't change the game.

I despair.....Marriott,Martin and Lawrence,given time will be a force to be reckoned with but no,it's all up in the air again.

I'm not remotely bothered about finishing mid table and in the same context I don't mind our losing...just as long as we see performances and partnerships improving.

The results will come naturally.

I thought we were finally seeing that unfold...we were pretty good against forest,unlucky to lose and against Preston,I thought we were genuinely fantastic.

And then he does this.....kicks Martin out,isolates Marriott and changes it all again.

That's what upsets me...going backwards with our performances and throwing the mindset of the team into chaos.

 

[ollycutts1982]

So my question is have we, or any other team in fact, ever started with 2 right backs and 2 left backs in the starting 11? 

[Millenniumram]

11 minutes ago, BondJovi said:

Biggest problem is that Marriott is awfully out of form. This goes back to midway into last season and Waghorn has never been prolific in this league.

We had Marriott, Waghorn, Lawrence. Bogle and Malone are very attacking full backs. Holmes is an attacking midfielder. I don't see a negative intent. What I do see is that when your main midfielder is risk averse, anyone could be up top and nothing would happen and when those up top are not in form it all becomes a mess.

I think Cocu is guilty of trying to be too clever but I feel his choices are limited.

Certainly doesn’t help, we haven’t been at all prolific in front of goals. But it’s more than just personnel. It’s the way they’re set up. We were sat far far too deep today, and showed no adventure at all with our movement and pressing. It looked such an organised lack of press that I can only assume it was under instruction. You can have the personnel on the pitch, but if you don’t give them the freedom to attack, then we’ll never make chances. Cocu seems too cautious for me, certainly was today anyway. He’s struggling with injuries of course, but I don’t think that excuses such a negative attitude as our team had today.

[rammieib]

43 minutes ago, DavesaRam said:

Standing in the Yard and my daughter yells across "Marriott's starting" with a big grin on her face. "Great" I yell back, another chance to work on his partnership with Chris Martin ........................ who is on the bench. WHAT? What is Cocu up to? Predictably a load of people have had another go at Marriott in this thread for missing another chance to make an impact. But here he is playing next to "bounce it off my shins" Waghorn. At least its two up front. ................... only its not - Marriott, the big, bruising 6 foot across the chest striker. Oh, he isn't, he is a fairly short, nippy sort of guy who plays as a poacher is playing target man! Good grief. And having realised that one up front doesn't work, we revert to it after only 2 or 3 matches with 2 up front where we have looked pretty good.

So we get a cracking goal from Waggy's free-kick, which might have been against the run of play, only there wasn't any run of play. The goal apart, the loudest applause was for Malone managing to not lose the ball after nearly giving it away. He got booked for a "professional" foul after cocking things up, which begs the questionas to why 2 or 3 QPR players weren't carded for similar fouls. Or for kicking and throwing the ball away 3 times right in front of the ref. When he finally does card a QPR player, no-one knows what it was for. Maybe for wearing a stupid man-bun hairdo?

Back to Waghorn - apart from his free-kick, he struggles with ball control, and misses loads of chances, especially easy ones, What else is he good at? Oh yes. Tackling opposition forwards in our penalty area. Good grief.But then, for thepenalty itself, the law stating that you can't stop once you have completed the run up is to stop the penalty taker from unfairly deceiving the keeper. Having watched the replay of the penalty, he technically did keep moving, but only, only just, which is still deceiving the keeper unfairly. So it should have been a yellow card, and the kick re-taken. And he probably would have scored it.

In the end, a 1 - 1 was a fair result, although it would be even fairere to award no points to either team for the dross they served up. We desperatly missed Bielik, and we have enough players out injured to form an entirely seperate team, but why on earth Cocu was making such wholesale changes to a team that had won 5 on the bounce at home, I have no idea. Radio Derby reckoned that he was setting the team up to counter what QPR might play like. How about we play how we want to, and let them bother about messing the team about to cope wtith it?

I felt sorry for Bogle, as he was played much further forwards, but was effectively shoved into no-man's land, and was isolated for much of the match. He still worked hard, and put in a number of crosses. And Marriott - not only is he not a lone forward, we never gave any service at all. For much of the game, Martin would have been just as inneffective, becaue he would have had nothing to work with. Marriott was pretty well knackered for 10 or 15 minutes before he was subbed.

Yet again Whitaker made a difference, and suddenly there was a bit of urgency about the game. Martin and Knight coming on added to the impact, and yet again we had a bit of a flurry for the last 20 minutes, and did begin to threaten. I don't know why we do this in so many matches. If we can threaten for the last 20 minutes, why not set the team up to threaten for the first 10 or 20 and maybe go ahead and get conrol of the game, instead of trying to rescue something for a game that has been about as enjoyable as a wet fart?

You could say that the players were on the whole only half-hearted, and seemed to have little idea of what they were supposed to be doing. Injuries aside, how can they have an idea when they are paying a different formation every match, sometimes two or three different formations in the same match? 

I said in my last macth report that we are where I expected us to be, and would support the team regardless becaue of the way we were stymied  in the close season. But it is really hard to stick to that when there seems to be no co-hesive plan for how we are supposed to be playing.

Pretty accurate although I wouldn't call the last ten threatening.

[Millenniumram]

8 minutes ago, ollycutts1982 said:

So my question is have we, or any other team in fact, ever started with 2 right backs and 2 left backs in the starting 11? 

And then still not stop a cross all day

[ColonelBlimp]

Wisdom was brilliiant. 

Holmes was good.

Everybody else a bit poo.

I would drop Davies and play Wisdom instead, give Bogle a licence to get up and down.

Back 4 should be

Bogle  Wisdom  Forsyth  Lowe

New goalkeeper behind them. Hello January?

[Gone]

41 minutes ago, DavesaRam said:

But it is really hard to stick to that when there seems to be no co-hesive plan for how we are supposed to be playing.

This worries me, no pattern or plan of how we are going to play. I expected by now a rhythm or style to our play but it seems so ad-hoc. I think 2nd half of the season we will settle and watch us go.

[rammieib]

3 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

Certainly doesn’t help, we haven’t been at all prolific in front of goals. But it’s more than just personnel. It’s the way they’re set up. We were sat far far too deep today, and showed no adventure at all with our movement and pressing. It looked such an organised lack of press that I can only assume it was under instruction. You can have the personnel on the pitch, but if you don’t give them the freedom to attack, then we’ll never make chances. Cocu seems too cautious for me, certainly was today anyway. He’s struggling with injuries of course, but I don’t think that excuses such a negative attitude as our team had today.

All the feedback on his Dutch managerial career was he set up teams not to lose....

Chalk and cheese with the Lampard approach. I wonder if Mel did research on his style.

It was difficult to get motivated today, in fact when you know you're a bang average mid table team, it's been difficult all season. The Rooney effect is my last (and only?) hope for the season.

[TheresOnlyWanChope]

Thought we played well first half. Thought the movement was much better. Noticeably in the last two home matches, we have offered options for players on the ball. Earlier in the season, everyone seemed stationary. I thought build up play was good. Moaners in the crowd but we were 1-0 up and keeping the ball with patience. Thought second half was scrappy and we seemed lethargic and disjointed. Draw fair result. Liked the idea of using Bogle in a more attacking position. Thought he did well, so did Holmes. Lawrence looked tired near the end. Most of the other players I thought were average today. We aren't having much luck with injuries.