A score draw that should have been more

Match Review: QPR 1-1 Everton

The teams pre kick-off

Finally I bring news of a point again for QPR, an outcome which I've no doubt every Super Hoop would have taken before the game, but given the circumstances, I'm sure they are disappointed that we didn't do more to try and win the game.

For a change, it started really well! Going into the game, QPR had built up a reputation for being slow out of the blocks. Of the 17 goals they have conceded this season, seven of them were shipped  in the opening thirty minutes of games, including 4 of these in the last 3 league matches. Equally, they have an awful habit of leaving players unmarked, committing too many men going forward and leaving themselves completely exposed to pacey Premier League wingers and front lines. Considering all this, it was pretty satisfying to see the R's carry out a complete role reversal and themselves be the scorers of a goal on a swift counter attack where the opposition had over-committed going forward for a change. With less than two minutes played, an Everton corner was cleared as far as Junior Hoilett, who proceeded to run and run and run. With the last defender and goalkeeper off his line being all that was left before him, he unleashed a shot (which the keeper probably would have got) but it caught the trailing leg of Leighton Baines which completely wrong-footed Tim Howard and sent the ball on its way into the empty net. 

Everton, who had come to Loftus Road in outstanding form and flying high in the league, looked very surprised to have conceded and continued to be on the back foot for much of the half. This looked like a game where QPR would finally click, the early goal settling nerves (although clearly not those of Stephane Mbia, who on six minutes ordered the ball boy to slow down the delivery of the ball back to the pitch!) The R's were doing their usual though - showing nice touches and putting together neat passing moves only to have no end product. I can recall a Ryan Nelsen header from a corner but not a lot else in a spell of sheer dominance. No surprise then that when Everton strung a few passes together it would lead to an equaliser...

Referee Jon Moss, a headmaster on weekdays I'm told, decided that after an uneventful 30 minutes by refereeing standards, he would play the role of primary school PE teacher and become extremely whistle-happy. Jelavic went down fairly easily on a couple of occasions and Moss was quick to award free kicks as well as be very fussy about where they were taken from and how far back the wall was. One such free kick (which, I accept, was indeed a free kick) was delivered into the area for an unmarked Sylvain Distin to plant a firm header goalbound which hit the post and then ricocheted off Cesar into the net. Cesar was unlucky having made a really good save from an earlier low Jelavic drive from another set piece, but unlucky is not how I would describe the defending. Bobby Zamora and Stephane Mbia between them should have had Jagielka and Distin covered, but Zamora completely neglected his man and in truth either of them would have had a free header here. In spite of having had two weeks' international break to work with his players on ways to reduce their catalogue of defensive errors at the training ground, it seems that marking from set pieces is not top of Hughes' priority list. The longer that goes on, the longer it will continue to plague QPR this season. Not even two minutes after the equaliser it should have happened again - this time the R's defence were rescued by the crossbar. Infuriatingly, it was again Zamora's man that was allowed to get away (this time Jagielka) and he got a powerful head on the ball under no pressure whatsoever which was a lick of paint from making it 2-1. 

At half time the mutterings from the terraces were of the 'same old story'. QPR had once again dominated possession, produced some nice build up play but again had extremely limited end product. The only difference was that this time they had taken the lead first! Maybe the shot-shyness can be linked to the continued desire of Hughes to play one out and out striker up front even when at home. Zamora as a lone striker with the players we have just doesn't seem the right choice to me, and I feel that we'd work much better if it were 4-4-2. But given Cisse has been so out of sorts lately, maybe Hughes feels he is still better off playing this system, and the decision to play Hoilett had so far paid dividends - he'd looked lively and shown a willingness to run at Everton's defence, something Cisse hasn't done enough when he has been on the pitch this season.

The second half began fairly evenly with both sides looking determined to produce a performance. In the 50th minute, Samba Diakite produced an excellent run where he emerged from deep in his own half, danced past several challenges and then produced a low cross which begged for a hooped shirt to get on the end of and smash home. Sadly, the man it fell to was QPR's pet tortoise of recent weeks, Ji Sung Park. He was far too slow reacting to the intelligence of Diakite and by the time he eventually got a shot away, it was blocked by Jagielka. 

Meanwhile, challenges were getting a little more heated and the referee was getting ever fussier, blowing even for fifty-fifties. Steven Pienaar, unrecognisable after his haircut, was the first name to go into the book for a fairly nasty challenge shortly after the Park effort. He was also the second name in the book just nine minutes later for what seemed like an innocuous tussle between him and Jose Bosingwa out on the right wing. This wasn't really a surprise given the way the referee had been going about the game since early on and Pienaar appeared to have lost his rag after his booking - whilst this offence was definitely not worthy of a yellow card, he was bound to go at some point within the next ten minutes if he had escaped here. The sending off should have given QPR the impetus to go gung-ho and instead of reacting instantly to the dismissal, Hughes let the game roll on another ten minutes before making two substitutions. Managers win praise for being quick, decisive and catching the opposition off guard with their substitutions, but it was so obvious during that ten minutes what the changes were going to be that Moyes was afforded time to ready his pack for their introductions. So when in the 70th minute Djibril Cisse and Nedum Onuoha finally entered the fray in place of Zamora and Armand Traore (incidentally, Hughes was true to his word when he said Traore would only last 70 minutes!), it wasn't exactly a shock that they didn't have the intended impact on the game that they could have done. 

For the remaining twenty minutes QPR rallied but disappointingly only produced two more saves from Howard, both from good Hoilett efforts. This was the Canadian's best performance for QPR and he has clearly been told to work on getting shots out of his feet sooner, which can only be good news. But the Hoops need more than one contributor if they are to get out of the situation they are in. Taarabt had a very quiet game compared with his last two games for QPR which was disappointing but Zamora also just doesn't get involved enough in attacking play. Cisse should have come on much earlier and been instructed run at the Everton defence, who had shown on occasions in the game that they don't like being ran at. But as was the consensus at half time, there is a much simpler way of getting more contributors to attacking play - have two up front!!! Please, Sparky. Especially at home.

Free flags for all in the home ends: not condoned by ESDB football due to the fact they are associated with plastic supporters from SW6 these days. But good atmosphere builders, admittedly

Man of the match: As alluded to at times during this match report and many others, central midfield appears to be the Rs' strongest department, with Ale Faurlin only good enough for a place on the bench behind Esteban Granero and Samba Diakite, and it was the latter that stole the show in this game for QPR. He made some excellent runs, produced some cute passes and even well timed challenges in this game (apart from once, when he picked up his customary yellow card). He's still a lunatic, but a talented lunatic at that...

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