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Match Review: QPR 2-1 Fulham

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees! That is all.

Such is the relief that there isn't a zero next to our name in the Premier League table any more that I can't conjure up a witty title or subheading for this blog post. The mighty Superhoops have won a league game for the first time since May 6th. But this wasn't just any old victory: they beat West London rivals Fulham, who they hadn't even scored against since last beating them in the league in 1983. And best of all, they thoroughly deserved it!

Harry Redknapp appears to have finally realised that Bosingwa and Granero are not good enough and don't have enough stomach for the relegation battle ahead and has brought back forgotten men Nedum Onuoha and Alejandro Faurlin from the cold. He also decided to be positive enough to play Mackie and Djibril Cisse up top with Taarabt in his favourite attacking central midfield playmaker role in front of Derry and Faurlin, the classic Championship-winning combination. 

The proactiveness and positive mindset of Redknapp clearly had a galvanising effect on the side, and QPR started the game with a real purpose, freshness and tempo about their play. There was an energy in the passing and closing down that we haven't seen all season and this immediately got the home fans engaged and supportive. Fulham, on the other hand, didn't appear to be expecting any sort of tempo from the home side at all and appeared to have turned up expecting to play a side emotionally drained and bereft of confidence. Jamie Mackie nearly made them pay for their sluggishness when John Arne Riise's casual backpass to Schwarzer was intercepted by some quick thinking by the Scotland striker, but he put the ball agonisingly wide when it seemed easier to score. What was hugely frustrating about this chance was that if the mistake was made by us, you could put your mortgage on every other team in the Premier League clinically punishing us for it. 

QPR were the better side throughout the first half but suffered the same old familiar problem of not finding enough ways to test Schwarzer, who was even brought out early during half time to warm up (I think Jol was taking the piss!). At least in this match we weren't treated to the sideways football of Hughes! Adel Taarabt was looking determined and in the groove, Faurlin was spraying passes around like he always has done when in QPR colours, the play was not so skewed to the right hand side as it has been in recent weeks and Traore was bombing forward which was encouraging to see - the over-reliance on Bosingwa and SWP down the right this year has been completely unnecessary and reaped no rewards. Mbia was finding plenty of room to operate in the middle, Nedum Onuoha looked solid and able to support in attacks where required and, for a change, even the 'mature' central defensive partnership of Hill and Nelsen were not having any problems. Fulham's best chance came from Armand Traore inexplicably letting a pass from Taarabt through his legs to roll all the way back to Green when there were Fulham players in the vicinity. Luckily the goalkeeper was alert but it is this kind of lapse that has changed some of the games we have been involved in this season in the blink of an eye. Apart from this, Green only had one awkward cross to deal with, which he caught rather than flapped at as Cesar would have done in the same situation. Dimitar Berbatov did show glimpses of the class player he is but wasn't given much room to manouevre. A neat flick had the tourists in the away end "whoo"-ing with ecstasy but it didn't lead to anything, and overall his impact on the game was minimal. 

The second half began much as the first had ended, with QPR once again in the ascendancy. Adel Taarabt was being given plenty of room to stretch his legs in his attacking central midfield role even with Steve Sidwell chipping away at his ankles (and those of other QPR players). On one of these occasions, he made a straight run forward at the Fulham defence who parted like the red sea. Taarabt found himself with just Brede Hangeland and Mark Schwarzer in front of him and, in true Taarabt style, shot from way out with what appeared at first to be a fairly poor effort, but had sufficient pace behind it to ricochet off the backtracking Hangeland and completely fool Schwarzer. This was exactly the sort of luck we need and resembled the lucky break we got at Wigan the previous weekend, only this time, we were the side in control and had not looked anywhere near as frail as we did at the back that day. The moment was soured a little by referee Martin Atkinson, who has a long history of poor refereeing decisions when it comes to QPR and football in general (Clint Hill v Bolton away anyone). This time he was determined to make the headlines by booking Taarabt for over celebrating. What really grated me about this was that Taarabt didn't even remove his shirt and if you're a struggling team at the bottom there is bound to be an outpouring of emotion in moments like this. There was absolutely no need for it; yet more rubbish from one of the league's worst officials.

Moments after going into the lead it really really really should have been 2-0. Chris Baird was put under pressure by Ryan Nelsen (caught in the opposition penalty area for the 2nd match in a row!) and the ball fell to the feet of Djibril Cisse, who, instead of providing the simple finish, decided he would try to beat Schwarzer with a curling effort off the ground but it went inches wide. Cisse has got it in him to be an excellent and lethal finisher but for some reason this campaign he has tried to score with the spectacular more often than the simple finishes. Luckily for him though it soon did become 2-0. Taarabt marauded his way through that central midfield area once again and this time, with no defender in front of him and time to think about how he would finish the chance, he produced an astonishing curling effort with the outside of his boot which took the daisies on the ground with it beyond Mark Schwarzer and precisely into the bottom corner. A beautiful finish! 

The 2-0 lead relaxed QPR a bit and whilst the home fans rejoiced, the players took their foot of the gas and stuck to possession football. As he always is against QPR, Steve Sidwell was an annoyance throughout the match. I'm not often ginger-ist and I have many orange headed friends, but he plays football exactly how I'd imagine an annoying strawberry blonde to play - kicking seven shades out of people and getting away with it! In the 76th minute, Martin Atkinson, with extreme pressure from the crowd, finally booked him for what I'd guess was his seventh foul of the match. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not too keen on him...

The last ten minutes was just a little bit too relaxed and QPR became happy to let Fulham have the ball. With three minutes to go, it was the heart-in-mouth time that we have grown so accustomed to over the years as Rangers fans. Mladen Petric, fresh off the tourists' bench, got a run at the QPR defence and a sight at goal and... well, wouldn't you just know it. The shot took a wicked deflection to carry it past Rob Green who was at full stretch. It was a real shame that this had to become such a nervous end to a game we had controlled and Green had been so quiet, but it wouldn't be QPR if it wasn't this way.  The goal seemed to breathe life into both sides, with Fulham suddenly sensing an unlikely shot at an equaliser, but the R's were disturbed from their slumber. In fact, the game's final chance fell to the Hoops, where Armand Traore produced the kind of wonder cross we all know he has in his locker but hardly ever see, Djibril Cisse got excellent contact but it was well anticipated and very well stopped by the Aussie custodian. Fulham regained possession after QPR gave away free kicks in stoppage time but were unable to cause any further damage to the scoreline and the R's held on for a much needed victory that maybe, just maybe, makes things a little bit more interesting down the bottom.

In summary then, this was the best R's performance since at least Tottenham away. A clean sheet would have been nice but this will do. QPR were by and large dominant, determined, fluid and excellent and not the side Fulham were expecting to play.

So, for now at least: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GwjfUFyY6M

Man of the match: When he's interested, engaged, in the groove and that first trick of the game comes off for him, he can be unplayable. Adel Taarabt was terrific in this match and Fulham just could not live with him. 

Gameweek Five Proves a Hive of Activity

After the tedium of the international break it was good to finally get back to a full calendar of football this weekend and it did not disappoint. There were quite a lot of talking points and it seems that a lot of the leagues are beginning to take shape.

One thing that struck us this week was that there were an awful lot of goals by debutants in the Premier League this weekend. Dimitar Berbatov, Javi Garcia, Alexander Buttner, Nick Powell and Christian Benteke all scored on their debuts for their respective clubs this week. Obviously this could be (and most probably is, but I've got a nice theory so bear with me) a coincidence, but I think that this is an encouraging sign for the Premier League. I think that this shows the depth of Premier League squads is improving and competition for places is hotting up at almost every PL team. It used to be the case that team's first XI's were strong and were the main focus and the squad was made up of players not quite good enough to get into the starting XI or who were young prospects. Nowadays though there is a lot of more emphasis on the squad and strength in depth is a necessity to compete in the PL. Therefore, new signings are under instant pressure to perform rather than getting into the team by virtue of being a big money or high profile new signing. Dimitar Berbatov has to compete with Mladen Petric and Hugo Rodallega - any one of those could viably start for Fulham. Javi Garcia has to jostle with Gareth Barry, Jack Rodwell and Yaya Toure et al. Alexander Buttner is vying for a place in front of Patrice Evra while Nick Powell has Paul Scholes, Tom Cleverley and Michael Carrick in his position. Christian Benteke is a bit more of an anomaly but he does have Darren Bent and Andreas Weimann in his position and he was arguably not expecting to walk into their first team straight away. New signings are desperate to prove they merit a starting place when they get to a new club and the challenge comes when they are required to keep up their good start and maintain a high level of performance. One thing is for sure though it's good to see top quality players like Berbatov and Garcia come to England (or stay in Dimi's case - and boy he is a joy to watch when he plays), and see good young prospects like Buttner, Powell and Benteke grow and mature in the PL into (hopefully) future stars.

Another interesting point to note is the form of Fulham. They look like they will be a strange team again this season in respect of their home form v away form. Last year Fulham won 10 matches at home and lost just 4. Conversely they won just 4 games away and lost 10. This season so far Fulham have won both of their home games but lost both of their away games. They've scored 8 and conceded 0 at home, whilst scoring just 2 away from home and conceding 6. So that begs the question is Fulham's style too cavalier away from home? At home they play swashbuckling football and look as good as any team outside of the top 4 arguably when they play well, but away from home something seems to go wrong. The answer may be that Martin Jol's style of play, whilst admirable and very attractive, is simply not suited to playing away from home. The likes of Man United and Man City have in recent years adopted stifling tactics away from home similar to their European tactics which is designed to primarily avoid conceding and then grinding out a goal or two at the other end. Fulham are perhaps being a bit naive in thinking they can win away games in the same style as they can at home. The problem is that this will start to put pressure on their home games sooner or later and they will have to win at home just to stay out of a dogfight at the wrong end of the table. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that they will be in any kind of trouble, I just don't think that their tactics are the smartest way to go about it. But hey, they've had the heart ripped out of their team with losing the likes of Dempsey, Dembele, Johnson and Zamora so it may be that they will start to adopt a more pragmatic approach away from home, and having Berbatov up front will probably help that as well. Either way Martin Jol has done well to keep Fulham's style at home, but may want to consider toning down his attacking away from home.

Roundup

As you will have seen in the excellent match report here QPR got a very credible 0-0 draw against the League Leaders Chelsea. In my opinion, it is the clean sheet that is most impressive about this result for the R's as Chelsea have been popping in goals for fun in their previous games - all in all, a very good debut for Julio Cesar then.

Man Utd beat Wigan 4-0 in a fairly unspectacular contest at Old Trafford. I hope Danny Welbeck gets a dressing down from Fergie about that dive it was embarrassing and the last thing we need is for another one of our players to get a reputation for diving after Ashley Young's shenanigans last year. Welbeck is a good enough player not to have to resort to diving so please stop eh Danny? On another sad note it seems that there were some chants about Hillsborough and I'm not going to debate whether it was referenced specifically or not - as a human being it is disgusting to even make a thinly veiled reference at such a human tragedy and it needs to stop. Please don't think all United fans feel the same and these 'fans' aren't fit to wear the shirt even in the stands. On to the match and the most pleasing thing was that United won without the likes of Rooney, Kagawa and Van Persie. A big effort is needed in Europe this year after last years disaster so it's good these players got to rest for the Galatasaray game. Buttner at left back looked pretty good from the highlights and hopefully now Evra has some genuine competition his form will get back to the high standards it was before it dipped in the last 2 years I'd say.

Crewe drew 2-2 at Stevenage having been 2 goals up after just 10 minutes. AJ Leitch-Smith produced 2 clinical finishes and looked to have put the Railwaymen on the way to a second away victory of the season, but Stevenage pulled one back before half time and then Chuks Aneke's sending off (coincidentally on his debut - so forget what I said above!) put too much pressure on the Alex defence and Stevenage equalised to maintain their unbeaten start to the season. All in all though not many teams will come away from Broadhall Way having taken points off the hosts this season so I think the Alex can be fairly satisfied with that point.

Union Berlin did actually play this week so our German correspondent Hans Vree finally got something right. They did unfortunately succumb to a 90th minute winner by FC Ingolstadt's Manuel Schaffler and they now sit second from bottom in 2. Bundesliga worryingly. They've got a massive match coming up next though against 1. FC Cologne who sit directly above them in the table so let's hope they can get a result from that one.

What we learned this week:

• Peter Crouch doesn't just have the necessary height to succeed in the NBA he's got mad ball skills, as shown by his 'NBA goal' against Man City.
• Andy Wilkinson is still a thug, and he's lucky Balotelli's reputation probably stopped him getting a red card.
• Jermain Defoe is on fire, and how long will Adebayor be willing to wait in his shadows?
• Southampton's defence is shocking - I saw a suggestion of Craig Gordon in goal for them; might not be a bad shout?
• Barnet look very rocky this year - could they finally be going down?
• Gillingham and Tranmere look very good at the top of their divisions.
• Christian Benteke is the oldest looking 21 year old I think I've ever seen.

This week the Champions League proper is back - YAY! - and the standout fixture is obviously Shakhtar v FC Nordsjaelland...I kid, it's obviously Real Madrid v City. I for one can't wait to see the ideas that José Morais picked up whilst scouting Stoke play City at the weekend be put into action on Tuesday night!

We will have a report from the Man Utd v Galatasaray game which yours truly is attending. Crewe are also playing on Tuesday against Carlisle. So enjoy your football this week there's a lot of it!

J

Week Three Preview, Just For You

Come Saturday the transfer window dust should have settled and we’ll be left with the always calm matchdays. At the time of writing this post it is Thursday evening and not all transfers will have gone through so just to put a disclaimer in and so you don’t question our sanity if we haven’t covered some big transfers you might have expected in this preview the reason is we’re coming to you from the past! In fact, we’re going to break with all expectation and won’t really be mentioning transfers that much since we’re going to cover all the major stories coming from this past ‘Deadline Day Week’ (patent pending so keep your mits off our phrase Jim White).

This weekend will obviously be interesting to see the debuts of a number of players and also the effect that big name signings have on a team. Will Tottenham players be affected by the loss of Luka Modric and the subsequent arrival of Moussa Dembele? Will West Ham’s strikers be motivated to keep their place ahead of the apparently imminent signing of Andy Carroll on loan or will it peeve some players off? These are all really interesting sideshows to the games and regardless of whether some of the bigger signings are playing I’m sure teams like Fulham and Sunderland might find their fans have been inspired by their marquee signings of Dimitar Berbatov and Adam Johnson respectively. Both of whom are really good signings for these teams I’d venture to add. But we will see anyway won’t we...

So – now to preview some of the weekend’s action:

WBA v Everton - Saturday afternoon sees two of the season’s surprise packages so far meeting at the Hawthorns. Before you cry out Everton fans I mean it’s a surprise you’ve started so well (I don’t know if you knew this but you haven’t really started the season well in most of David Moyes’ reign) not that your squad is excellent – we already knew that. West Brom have also started a lot better than anyone could have predicted other than Frank Skinner and Adrian Chiles. Last weekend’s last gasp draw at White Hart Lane was a terrific result for the Baggies and Romelu Lukaku looks like a really good loan signing. He has come on as an impact sub for both his games so far granted, but he really does look a handful. He has got Drogba-like presence up front and is a man mountain but he has a really good turn of pace. I was surprised Chelsea didn’t keep him actually to provide an alternative to Torres but their loss is West Brom’s gain. Everton played excellent football against Aston Villa and up front they look really dangerous. It’s hard to see past the Toffees for this one, but I have a strange feeling the Baggies might nick a draw again, keeping both sides undefeated.

Prediction: WBA 1-1 Everton

Man City v QPR – Saturday evening sees the return of the game which probably everyone outside of the red half of Manchester (including me) saw as one of the best of all time from May last year (anytime I hear “AGUEROOOOO” I still feel queasy). Citeh’s defence has actually looked unstable this season, in stark contrast to last year. I am a bit sceptical about Mancini’s lineup on Sunday at Anfield though and to be honest I think the inclusion of Kolo the Klown over Joleon Lescott had to be a gesture to Brian Marwood to show him just how thin City’s defence is and their need for another CB to fill the gap if either Kompany or Lescott get injured. It seems Mancini’s got his wish this week with Matija Nastasic close to signing from Fiorentina with the added bonus of Stefan Savic going in the opposite direction to boot! They’ve also added Scott Sinclair to effectively replace Adam Johnson on the bench as well so his pockets will be happy at least even if there doesn’t appear to be any other reason for that move. QPR have been incredibly active in the transfer window this summer and this week is no different, with Julio Cesar arriving from Internazionale so far. This is a really astounding move considering Cesar was a Champions League winner just over 2 years ago whilst Rangers were in the Championship. Granted Cesar’s form has dipped since then but he is a very good goalkeeper and was Inter’s number one just last season. Goodness knows what was going through Rob Green’s head when Cesar was signed though and it’s difficult to imagine Green will be the first choice for much longer at all. Unfortunately for C though I think Rangers squad still needs to gel and I can only see a routine win for Citeh here even though it pains me.

Prediction: Citeh 3-1 QPR

Liverpool v Arsenal – This looks like being the stand out game of the weekend and it is a meeting between two sides who could really do with a morale boosting victory to really get their season going. Last week’s draw against the champions was much needed for Liverpool and they looked like a side beginning to get to grips with Brendan Rodgers’ style and the result will help their belief and inspire them to integrate more fully into the system. Raheem Sterling looked really bright against Citeh and his emergence should see him ahead of Stewart Downing in the pecking order for a long time to come in theory. The arrival of Nuri Sahin is actually quite interesting since Joe Allen produced a man of the match performance and Jonjo Shelvey performed really well for a man thrown into the deep end and having to come on for the injured (and unlucky) Lucas after 5 minutes. It will be interesting to see if Rodgers plumps for Sahin ahead of Shelvey (I can’t believe he’d drop Allen after last week) or sticks with the same midfield that kept Citeh to such a bare minimum of chances really. Likewise it’ll be interesting to see how Arsenal do this week. 0 goals scored and 0 goals conceded is hardly the start Arsene will have dreamed of, but the fact is they haven’t conceded and they have played against 2 teams who have effectively parked the bus against them. In this game it really doesn’t seem like Liverpool will do that and that could be to Arsenal’s advantage. Is this the game that Giroud or Podolski or Cazorla finally click? I think it could be and I’m sticking my neck out to say I can see another score draw here.

Prediction: Liverpool 2-2 Arsenal

Elsewhere this weekend, Man Utd take on Southampton at what should actually be a packed St Mary’s this time (as opposed to my very wrong prediction about this last week). Crewe take on a Coventry team in disarray after manager Andy Thorn was sacked this week, and they will be hoping that there is a delayed reaction to this.

Finally, it’s a massive game for Union Berlin on Monday night as they host their city rivals Hertha BSC in what will be an electric atmosphere at the Alten Forsterei!

Enjoy the weekend and deadline day everyone!

C&J