| QPR (A) - A forum preview 17:25 - Aug 18 with 1408 views | Sarge |
We go to Loftus Road searching for another win, which would put us over halfway to our win total for the entirety of the 2018-19 Championship season, a season so bleak that when I watched the highlights earlier this week of our games against QPR that year I couldn’t remember any of it, nor recognise some of the players. Rangers on the other hand are desperate to arrest a slide that began last season and saw them drop from 1st to 20th in just 19 games. There are glimmers of hope in the fanbase that getting points on the board at Cardiff last week may spark a revival of sorts.
The Ipswich Connection
It’s a veritable homecoming for a few tomorrow as QPR boast three (plus one, sort of) former Blues in their ranks in the shape of Andre Dozzell (more on him throughout), one time schoolboy Morgan Fox, and Keane-era signings Jack Colback, and Asmir Begovic. The latter two having played for us during the 2009-10 season which at the time of writing is now 14 years, 7 managers, and 4 Paul’s ago. Meanwhile Dom Ball and Massimo Luongo swapped hoops for collared shirts, Luongo in particular seemingly the QPR target for the bizarre trend of mostly overweight football fans calling professional athletes fat.
There was a quote on this but it appears to have disappeared - Ed
One man who you certainly can’t level that accusation at is Dozzell, although R’s fans aren’t exactly in short supply of things to hurl at him, many threads on here and links to LFW articles are available should you wish to enquire further. Begovic has taken on the captaincy at Loftus Road and will likely start tomorrow, Jack Colback doesn’t appear to have reached fitness yet to bolster Rangers’ relatively thin squad
A change in tactics?
Speaking of bolstering a thin squad, former Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest defender Steve Cook has been drafted in. A man who you’d swear has been 31 since about 2015, his arrival was well received, and he looks to have wasted no time in shoring up a leaky QPR defence that was so easily cut open by Watford on the opening day.
"Pleased that GA and RD have learned how to set a defence up to be solid and compact. We looked solid tonight."
Defensive solidity seems to be the hallmark in a change in tactics since that first game. Ainsworth abandoning the style of play that he presumably took through pre-season to settle upon something else, seemingly to good effect in a first win of the season against Cardiff and followed up by a last gasp defeat to Norwich in the Carabao cup that left most fans relatively nonplussed
"He got it horribly wrong last week I lost all faith in him but the gameplan today was so much better, we looked so much better as a team and fair play to him for making the changes"
Doubts remain though and nerves set in with QPR leading against Cardiff, as is always the case when you’ve been following your team for a considerable time and that team isn’t Manchester City
"Game of inches as usual it should have been 2-2 so while the win is brilliant we have lots of issues still.
Leading by 2 goals we should have buried them but actually got worse IMO.
We cannot afford to retreat and playing hospital balls to Dykes up there by himself just lit the fire under Cardiff .
Not one QPR fan expected us to hold out with those tacticts espiceally with 10 minutes of extra time.
We did and its brilliant but we need some other plan going forward ."
No prizes for guessing who this refers to
"He wasn’t abysmal but again did nothing in an attacking sense. Made the occasional tackle but that’s an improvement. I wouldn’t say he was good at Cardiff but coming after that Watford performance anything would have seemed like a renaissance. A generous 6/10 in both after the 2/10 there."
On Ipswich
With another game down and another win secured, there is slightly more to judge us on now, and whilst that didn’t stop Stoke fans from speculating based on very little that we would be a tight-knit team of low-quality players, QPR fans seem to view us with a bit more respect and caution than the Potters did.
"I suspect that Ipswich on Saturday will be a harder match for us than Southampton will be, but I badly need us to match their effort! The performance at Cardiff has given me hope that we will."
"Thought Ipswich would be very good, looks like they are."
Our start to the season and the momentum carried over from last season mean that it’s not generally viewed as a great time to play us
"Bit annoying playing them this early, they have that euphoria and momentum spilling over from last season's efforts. They'll gradually come back down to earth though, maybe startin this weekend. Bit galling they have Ball and Luongo whilst we have Dozzell. Maybe playing Ipswich will fire up Dozzy and he'll finally put a dominant performance in, I still feel there's a gem of a player in him somewhere."
"I dont think Dozzell got the ability to dominate an u14s game"
They make reference to the current unbeaten run, although personally when it spans across different divisions, I don’t think it’s a hugely relevant accolade
"Town on a 21 game undefeated streak"
"We are gonna have to be at our best to bring them back to earth"
Some R’s fans are confident, some of the view that sitting back and soaking up the pressure before counter attacking may be their best shot. It certainly proved to be one of the more moderately successful strategies we faced in League One last term. Moderate meaning it mostly failed but to a more credible degree than some of the teams that tried to play football.
There is a hope that Jack Colback will be fit enough to make the squad, unsurprisingly in this scenario he makes most fans starting lineup ahead of Dozzell. I don’t sense that anyone is expecting Lyndon Dykes to make an appearance after his midweek injury, so Irish striker Sinclair Armstrong will most likely start. One because he scored his first Rangers goal to win the game against Cardiff and two, I think he’s the only striker they have available.
"For some deranged reason I quite fancy us to sneak this 2-1. Ipswich on a great run but are a promoted side so I do not think we have anything particularly to fear and we need a big improvement on our home form given our only 2023 win was 1-0 against Watford. I see us ceding possession to a degree but if we stay firm and can break quickly we can get the result. Likes of Cook and Colback, if fit, allows us to play more solid and mean."
One final thing
QPR played Norwich midweek. They scored in the 99th minute and injured their key striker. Some don’t appear to be huge fans of our beloved neighbours which makes them alright by me
"Farking Norwich ! I forgot how much I hate those yellow spawney bstards" |  | | |  |
| QPR (A) - A forum preview on 23:34 - Aug 18 with 932 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
QPR have an advantage of a manager that knows exactly how we play, and was able to stifle us last season, this time he’s going to be able to do the same with a better pool of players to do that, in QPR. They’ve always been a bit of a bogey team for Town. I will take a draw. Scoring earlier in the game will be very important. [Post edited 18 Aug 2023 23:36]
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| QPR (A) - A forum preview on 00:13 - Aug 19 with 860 views | Garv |
| QPR (A) - A forum preview on 23:34 - Aug 18 by ChampionsofInnsbruck |
QPR have an advantage of a manager that knows exactly how we play, and was able to stifle us last season, this time he’s going to be able to do the same with a better pool of players to do that, in QPR. They’ve always been a bit of a bogey team for Town. I will take a draw. Scoring earlier in the game will be very important. [Post edited 18 Aug 2023 23:36]
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On the flipside we're a much better team than when we played Wycombe and we didn't have any of our January signings at the time. Our game has also evolved so if we need to be more counter attacking we can be. |  |
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| QPR (A) - A forum preview on 09:14 - Aug 19 with 607 views | Guthrum |
| QPR (A) - A forum preview on 00:13 - Aug 19 by Garv |
On the flipside we're a much better team than when we played Wycombe and we didn't have any of our January signings at the time. Our game has also evolved so if we need to be more counter attacking we can be. |
Indeed, that was also before we'd developed the tactic of drawing opposition teams forward to create space.
That was a particularly chilly afternoon, with freezing fog gathering in the bowl of Wycombe's ground. Town's defeat basically came down to Davis slipping and being outmuscled by the giant Hanlan, then the ball looping just beyond Walton's reach. Not saying we would have won, ITFC simply weren't firing that day, but likely a draw. |  |
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| QPR (A) - A forum preview on 10:28 - Aug 19 with 515 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
| QPR (A) - A forum preview on 00:13 - Aug 19 by Garv |
On the flipside we're a much better team than when we played Wycombe and we didn't have any of our January signings at the time. Our game has also evolved so if we need to be more counter attacking we can be. |
Still he will know that a big part of beating us will be to shut down Donacien and Burns, get Morsy wound up and booked and to push Chaplin around a bit. Agree that Broadhead and Hirst are a new factor, but I don’t expect Clarke to play. QPR know enough about Mass too. This will a tough one for Town. | | | |
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