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I know very early in the week…..but planning to attack Pompey from the whistle takes mental planning just as Spike Milligan had to deal with his mental struggles in his “Where have all the bullets gone?” brilliant read. Being a QPR supporter has recently (again) been mentally challenging too, but we will overcome this temporary phase and go onto better things, like Spike did 👍👍👍
And yes, it is 754pm in Aus- not touched a drop. So the paragraph above is written with a clear mind, whether it makes sense or not. 😀😀
A 2 1 win for us. Dembele with a bullet pile driver and Frey with a bullet header.
DonnieR
2
Our Pomp and Ceremony - Match thread vs PFC on 03:27 - Oct 20 with 2536 views
Two conclusions from watching yesterday’s game from R block. 1) Portsmouth are a bottom three team. QPR are a bottom team. 2) Having an ST and going to all the home games at the moment has become a profoundly depressing experience. It actually comes as something of a relief that I’ve got cataract surgery on Tuesday which is going to prevent me going to the Coventry game!
[Post edited 20 Oct 6:39]
6
Our Pomp and Ceremony - Match thread vs PFC on 08:16 - Oct 20 with 2292 views
Given myself a day to calm down and I haven’t read through any threads yet (I’ll do that throughout the afternoon) so apologies if I repeat what others have said.
Not often I walk away from LR feeling like I don’t want to come back for a while , but I did yesterday. I’ll be there Tuesday of course but I felt utterly demoralised and fed up yesterday evening. The difference between now and year ago is this. A year ago we knew we were in big trouble and we had known for a long time. The last game of the previous season against Bristol City told us everything about where we were heading under Ainsworth , Les, Hoos etc. This summer , our expectations were slightly higher (not hugely but higher) but our hope was higher by miles. The hope that actually we had finally cracked it in the head coach / managerial appointment. We weren’t signing players for big money for no sell on value and we had the basis of a squad that finished , since the end of January , pretty strongly .
And it’s that hope that’s gone and that’s what feels so depressing / infuriating after yesterday .
The team was announced and I liked that , supposedly we’d changed it to a 3 at the back . Wing backs and an extra body to plug gaps . Then in the warm up Paal, Cook, Fox and Dunne do their drills as a back 4 . For 15 mins they warm together as a 4. So not for the last time yesterday my son and I are scratching our heads thinking well, Ashby is playing wide right then ?? Instead of Smyth?
Dont rate either of them Particularly but at least play players in their preferred position?
I still can’t really tell you if we played 3 or a 5 at the back yesterday . Ashby played in no man’s land really. Which leads me to the subs, because of ever anybody played in no man’s land, it was Celar yesterday. You take your left forward off (I understand why taking Chair off made sense due to his fitness etc but it killed any hope we had in one moment) and put a left sided forward on in Saito ….but he plays Saito at wing back !!!! Celar in the ‘void of nothingness’ , take your right back/wing back, and put a winger on leaving Dunne to play in a weird hole between positions and you put a kid on in midfield taking Field off and pairing him with the most immobile, unaggressive , passive midfielder in Madsen we’ve seen since Jordan Mutch came and hid in plain sight for a season. Even Dozzell came and got it from the centre backs . He didn’t do anything with it but he did come and join in occasionally. Madsen is hiding . No question . Morgan looks decent enough , looking a bit Dozzell ish if I’m honest , but clearly MC wants to bring him in so we can get someone , anyone , on the ball in midfield so we can try and get some sort of foothold in a game at some point….but yesterday wasn’t the game to throw him to the lions!!!! And don’t pair him with the invisible man!!!!!
I just thought MC got so much wrong yesterday and throwing in Morgan was just one of many strange decisions he made that I just found baffling .
It was almost like putting on Morgan was him standing there looking up at Nourry and Belk and saying “this is what I’ve had to do because you’ve given me a load of crap this summer and I can’t get this bunch of misfits to play together “ If JCS is fit, bloody play him!!! If he isn’t don’t have him on the bench as Fox looked shocking yesterday. Truly shocking. However after either mistake and especially after they scored the pen and were taking an ice age to get back to their own half , and Fox looked devastated standing on his own , where was our captain putting an arm round him or even grabbing him by the shirt and saying “oi, come on! Head up and go again”. Cook will defend our goal with his life , but we need our captain to support, dig out , help, demand , order and drive his players on . Alan McDonald basically . Cook does none of this . We blamed it on Begovic being too far away last season . No excuse for Cook now. When teams are wasting time , opposing players are walking to the opposite side of the pitch knowing they are about to be subbed ,whilst the referee turns his back and shows no interest , when decisions go against us etc etc our captain needs to be in the refs ear . Constantly. Try and influence the referee. Cook does none of the above and stands and shows no interest . His leadership is poor. However , if we keep putting ourselves in a postition where teams can shithouse us to death then that’s our bloody fault .
Marti has a lot of credit from last season, but I don’t know where we go from here to be honest . The cracks are appearing and we have to stem the tide of shite washing over us right now or eventually there will be only one thing left to try to stop it, and that’s sack the manager. I don’t want that.
The issues are starting to appear to be bigger than the head coach who has proved he can do this job.
It’s what’s going on above him is the alarming concern.
If we all just take a step back a minute …..did we really allow a 26 year old recruitment consultant, employed by the club to employ a DOF , to just employ himself in that role and advise our CEO to step aside and let him be that too???? Whether Hoos was any good is another argument but what has happened here? Why have we allowed this as fans ? I’d suggest that everyone on this message board is more qualified to be QPR director of football than Christian Nourry .
We’ve been conned again haven’t we? And I think , Marti might be feeling that way too.
But he has start making sensible decisions and working out how to gel this lot together . Those 2 weeks together did nothing . If he doesn’t we’ll finally go down the drain we’ve been circling for decades .
A few QPR fans were singing “we want our Rangers back” as they left the loft end yesterday . I’d ask which incarceration of garbage would they like back from the last 30 awful years ?
Just sick of it now
[Post edited 20 Oct 13:46]
13
Our Pomp and Ceremony - Match thread vs PFCch on 15:26 - Oct 20 with 1759 views
Our Pomp and Ceremony - Match thread vs PFC on 13:37 - Oct 20 by mart_Goblin
Given myself a day to calm down and I haven’t read through any threads yet (I’ll do that throughout the afternoon) so apologies if I repeat what others have said.
Not often I walk away from LR feeling like I don’t want to come back for a while , but I did yesterday. I’ll be there Tuesday of course but I felt utterly demoralised and fed up yesterday evening. The difference between now and year ago is this. A year ago we knew we were in big trouble and we had known for a long time. The last game of the previous season against Bristol City told us everything about where we were heading under Ainsworth , Les, Hoos etc. This summer , our expectations were slightly higher (not hugely but higher) but our hope was higher by miles. The hope that actually we had finally cracked it in the head coach / managerial appointment. We weren’t signing players for big money for no sell on value and we had the basis of a squad that finished , since the end of January , pretty strongly .
And it’s that hope that’s gone and that’s what feels so depressing / infuriating after yesterday .
The team was announced and I liked that , supposedly we’d changed it to a 3 at the back . Wing backs and an extra body to plug gaps . Then in the warm up Paal, Cook, Fox and Dunne do their drills as a back 4 . For 15 mins they warm together as a 4. So not for the last time yesterday my son and I are scratching our heads thinking well, Ashby is playing wide right then ?? Instead of Smyth?
Dont rate either of them Particularly but at least play players in their preferred position?
I still can’t really tell you if we played 3 or a 5 at the back yesterday . Ashby played in no man’s land really. Which leads me to the subs, because of ever anybody played in no man’s land, it was Celar yesterday. You take your left forward off (I understand why taking Chair off made sense due to his fitness etc but it killed any hope we had in one moment) and put a left sided forward on in Saito ….but he plays Saito at wing back !!!! Celar in the ‘void of nothingness’ , take your right back/wing back, and put a winger on leaving Dunne to play in a weird hole between positions and you put a kid on in midfield taking Field off and pairing him with the most immobile, unaggressive , passive midfielder in Madsen we’ve seen since Jordan Mutch came and hid in plain sight for a season. Even Dozzell came and got it from the centre backs . He didn’t do anything with it but he did come and join in occasionally. Madsen is hiding . No question . Morgan looks decent enough , looking a bit Dozzell ish if I’m honest , but clearly MC wants to bring him in so we can get someone , anyone , on the ball in midfield so we can try and get some sort of foothold in a game at some point….but yesterday wasn’t the game to throw him to the lions!!!! And don’t pair him with the invisible man!!!!!
I just thought MC got so much wrong yesterday and throwing in Morgan was just one of many strange decisions he made that I just found baffling .
It was almost like putting on Morgan was him standing there looking up at Nourry and Belk and saying “this is what I’ve had to do because you’ve given me a load of crap this summer and I can’t get this bunch of misfits to play together “ If JCS is fit, bloody play him!!! If he isn’t don’t have him on the bench as Fox looked shocking yesterday. Truly shocking. However after either mistake and especially after they scored the pen and were taking an ice age to get back to their own half , and Fox looked devastated standing on his own , where was our captain putting an arm round him or even grabbing him by the shirt and saying “oi, come on! Head up and go again”. Cook will defend our goal with his life , but we need our captain to support, dig out , help, demand , order and drive his players on . Alan McDonald basically . Cook does none of this . We blamed it on Begovic being too far away last season . No excuse for Cook now. When teams are wasting time , opposing players are walking to the opposite side of the pitch knowing they are about to be subbed ,whilst the referee turns his back and shows no interest , when decisions go against us etc etc our captain needs to be in the refs ear . Constantly. Try and influence the referee. Cook does none of the above and stands and shows no interest . His leadership is poor. However , if we keep putting ourselves in a postition where teams can shithouse us to death then that’s our bloody fault .
Marti has a lot of credit from last season, but I don’t know where we go from here to be honest . The cracks are appearing and we have to stem the tide of shite washing over us right now or eventually there will be only one thing left to try to stop it, and that’s sack the manager. I don’t want that.
The issues are starting to appear to be bigger than the head coach who has proved he can do this job.
It’s what’s going on above him is the alarming concern.
If we all just take a step back a minute …..did we really allow a 26 year old recruitment consultant, employed by the club to employ a DOF , to just employ himself in that role and advise our CEO to step aside and let him be that too???? Whether Hoos was any good is another argument but what has happened here? Why have we allowed this as fans ? I’d suggest that everyone on this message board is more qualified to be QPR director of football than Christian Nourry .
We’ve been conned again haven’t we? And I think , Marti might be feeling that way too.
But he has start making sensible decisions and working out how to gel this lot together . Those 2 weeks together did nothing . If he doesn’t we’ll finally go down the drain we’ve been circling for decades .
A few QPR fans were singing “we want our Rangers back” as they left the loft end yesterday . I’d ask which incarceration of garbage would they like back from the last 30 awful years ?
Just sick of it now
[Post edited 20 Oct 13:46]
Great post Mart. Almost as long as some of mine but with more reasoned joined up thinking.
Agree with most of what you said.
Just differ I feel with the introduction of Morgan. Thought he looked for the ball more and tried the longer pass / distribution to the flanks etc - much more efficiently and more regularly than our starting two in centre mid...
Yes Nourry having full control is alarming - playing out football manager in real time !!!
Definitely feel there is a lack of team togetherness i.e. they don't appear to be clicking as a unit and they don't seem to be all heading for the same goal. Seems to be zero team unity i feel. Am not a fan of Frey banging the ground in frustration at the end of the game, almost saying I care more than all you others on the pitch with me. Find that kind of reaction a bit contrived if players do it and don't buy it at all. Didn't appreciate last season when after every one of his three goals last season Sinclair Armstrong celebrated equally elaborately - a bit show pony attitude for me - don't like it !!!!
Ashby playing at wing was a strange choice and did not make any sense.
Fox making his second mistake and also noticed Cook left him to his own thoughts. Poor by Cook and his form has plummeted without JCS alongside him too.
Madsen looks scared and his play suggests if he has no involvement he has zero chances to make mistakes. But we do have Colback and Varane not available and also Field is playing poorly currently too. Strange too that Dixon Bonner was not even on the bench. Has he been binned alongside Kolli.
For me, I would have Lloyd on the bench ahead of Celar and tbf Frey apart from one game and couple of goal involvements in others. has not been playing as a consistently selected centre forward should, for me.
For me though. I know it is normally the coach / manager that gets the P45, but for me this is on the recruitment team and if Marti is a part of this, he has questions to answer but I still feel he has a lot of credit in the bank as to how well he did in getting an Ainsworth team that was totally fried to perform so well.
If the other two with chief involvement were Nourry and Belk, we as a fanbase have a right to know.
I still think its too early to make any rash decisions with regards to this but by the time we get to 20 games played, we can make reactive decisions then and if we are still in a similar position, I say its Nourry and Belk that need to go. Neither has any credit in the bank.
Think if you still on your football manager game at the moment Mr Nourry, currently I am afraid to say that the "COMPUTER SAYS NO"
I though Frey was pretty great yesterday, amazing work rate, proper sprints in his pressing and, most importantly, two gilt-edged assists with perfect passes, wasted. He is the least of our problems.
11
Our Pomp and Ceremony - Match thread vs PFCch on 17:25 - Oct 20 with 1521 views
Our Pomp and Ceremony - Match thread vs PFCch on 15:26 - Oct 20 by numptydumpty
Great post Mart. Almost as long as some of mine but with more reasoned joined up thinking.
Agree with most of what you said.
Just differ I feel with the introduction of Morgan. Thought he looked for the ball more and tried the longer pass / distribution to the flanks etc - much more efficiently and more regularly than our starting two in centre mid...
Yes Nourry having full control is alarming - playing out football manager in real time !!!
Definitely feel there is a lack of team togetherness i.e. they don't appear to be clicking as a unit and they don't seem to be all heading for the same goal. Seems to be zero team unity i feel. Am not a fan of Frey banging the ground in frustration at the end of the game, almost saying I care more than all you others on the pitch with me. Find that kind of reaction a bit contrived if players do it and don't buy it at all. Didn't appreciate last season when after every one of his three goals last season Sinclair Armstrong celebrated equally elaborately - a bit show pony attitude for me - don't like it !!!!
Ashby playing at wing was a strange choice and did not make any sense.
Fox making his second mistake and also noticed Cook left him to his own thoughts. Poor by Cook and his form has plummeted without JCS alongside him too.
Madsen looks scared and his play suggests if he has no involvement he has zero chances to make mistakes. But we do have Colback and Varane not available and also Field is playing poorly currently too. Strange too that Dixon Bonner was not even on the bench. Has he been binned alongside Kolli.
For me, I would have Lloyd on the bench ahead of Celar and tbf Frey apart from one game and couple of goal involvements in others. has not been playing as a consistently selected centre forward should, for me.
For me though. I know it is normally the coach / manager that gets the P45, but for me this is on the recruitment team and if Marti is a part of this, he has questions to answer but I still feel he has a lot of credit in the bank as to how well he did in getting an Ainsworth team that was totally fried to perform so well.
If the other two with chief involvement were Nourry and Belk, we as a fanbase have a right to know.
I still think its too early to make any rash decisions with regards to this but by the time we get to 20 games played, we can make reactive decisions then and if we are still in a similar position, I say its Nourry and Belk that need to go. Neither has any credit in the bank.
Think if you still on your football manager game at the moment Mr Nourry, currently I am afraid to say that the "COMPUTER SAYS NO"
[Post edited 20 Oct 15:30]
Yeah agree with the vast majority .
Wasn’t saying Morgan was bad, on the contrary he wanted the ball and showed confidence but our bar is now set so low anyone who now comes into the team and makes a couple of passes now looks like a world beater . As I say I think MC is keen on him coming in and keeping the bloody football .
Disagree with Frey. I thought he Morgan and the keeper were the only ones who didn’t deserve the boos at the end .
But as mentioned …the bar is so low now that you’d barely get a cigarette paper under it .
Our Pomp and Ceremony - Match thread vs PFCch on 15:26 - Oct 20 by numptydumpty
Great post Mart. Almost as long as some of mine but with more reasoned joined up thinking.
Agree with most of what you said.
Just differ I feel with the introduction of Morgan. Thought he looked for the ball more and tried the longer pass / distribution to the flanks etc - much more efficiently and more regularly than our starting two in centre mid...
Yes Nourry having full control is alarming - playing out football manager in real time !!!
Definitely feel there is a lack of team togetherness i.e. they don't appear to be clicking as a unit and they don't seem to be all heading for the same goal. Seems to be zero team unity i feel. Am not a fan of Frey banging the ground in frustration at the end of the game, almost saying I care more than all you others on the pitch with me. Find that kind of reaction a bit contrived if players do it and don't buy it at all. Didn't appreciate last season when after every one of his three goals last season Sinclair Armstrong celebrated equally elaborately - a bit show pony attitude for me - don't like it !!!!
Ashby playing at wing was a strange choice and did not make any sense.
Fox making his second mistake and also noticed Cook left him to his own thoughts. Poor by Cook and his form has plummeted without JCS alongside him too.
Madsen looks scared and his play suggests if he has no involvement he has zero chances to make mistakes. But we do have Colback and Varane not available and also Field is playing poorly currently too. Strange too that Dixon Bonner was not even on the bench. Has he been binned alongside Kolli.
For me, I would have Lloyd on the bench ahead of Celar and tbf Frey apart from one game and couple of goal involvements in others. has not been playing as a consistently selected centre forward should, for me.
For me though. I know it is normally the coach / manager that gets the P45, but for me this is on the recruitment team and if Marti is a part of this, he has questions to answer but I still feel he has a lot of credit in the bank as to how well he did in getting an Ainsworth team that was totally fried to perform so well.
If the other two with chief involvement were Nourry and Belk, we as a fanbase have a right to know.
I still think its too early to make any rash decisions with regards to this but by the time we get to 20 games played, we can make reactive decisions then and if we are still in a similar position, I say its Nourry and Belk that need to go. Neither has any credit in the bank.
Think if you still on your football manager game at the moment Mr Nourry, currently I am afraid to say that the "COMPUTER SAYS NO"
[Post edited 20 Oct 15:30]
The other thing I’d say is if MC is part of recruitment then he is massively culpable but all the signs are that he isn’t .
He went physical from January and depended on us being big and strong to win games. So why would he sign the munchkins ? Why would he sign 2 right backs and then always play Dunne with the exception of yesterday ?
None of it makes sense
1
Our Pomp and Ceremony - Match thread vs PFCch on 17:51 - Oct 20 with 1414 views
Our Pomp and Ceremony - Match thread vs PFCch on 17:31 - Oct 20 by mart_Goblin
The other thing I’d say is if MC is part of recruitment then he is massively culpable but all the signs are that he isn’t .
He went physical from January and depended on us being big and strong to win games. So why would he sign the munchkins ? Why would he sign 2 right backs and then always play Dunne with the exception of yesterday ?
None of it makes sense
Cifuentes was nothing to do with January signings either - Frey and Andersen were basically available and willing to play for 6 months for half a packet of polo’s each.
The scouting app that Belk found Frey on even did made a big PR fuss about it.
0
Our Pomp and Ceremony - Match thread vs PFCch on 18:25 - Oct 20 with 1256 views
Our Pomp and Ceremony - Match thread vs PFCch on 17:31 - Oct 20 by mart_Goblin
The other thing I’d say is if MC is part of recruitment then he is massively culpable but all the signs are that he isn’t .
He went physical from January and depended on us being big and strong to win games. So why would he sign the munchkins ? Why would he sign 2 right backs and then always play Dunne with the exception of yesterday ?
None of it makes sense
Munchkins 🤣🤣
2
Our Pomp and Ceremony - Match thread vs PFC on 18:52 - Oct 20 with 1193 views
Our Pomp and Ceremony - Match thread vs PFC on 18:16 - Oct 19 by slmrstid
In fairness to Field I always hark back to Ian Holloway talking about having a central midfield with a piano shifter to piano player. He talked about himself being the shifter with Wilkins the player.
In more recent times Derry was an excellent shifter whilst Faurlin played.
Field, I think, is an excellent shifter. Unfortunately, he never has a player with him and that exposes him. I hoped Madsen would be that player but so far...no.
Field's central midfield partners to date.
2
Our Pomp and Ceremony - Match thread vs PFC on 19:03 - Oct 20 with 1159 views
I really like Cook, but yeah, would like him to be at referees a bit more. Dembele is getting kicked off the ball every game, his captain needs to be pointing this out repeatedly
3
Our Pomp and Ceremony - Match thread vs PFC on 16:04 - Oct 21 with 852 views