QPR 3:1 Scunthorpe
A sign of things to come?
Scunthorpe played one man up front, but put everybody behind the ball. How often do you see the ease in which our defenders took possession of the ball from Lee Camp?
It was a taster of what to expect in the future. As this team grows, the opposition will no doubt look to pile men behind and frustrate us. Today it was slightly different because Scunthorpe are scrapping for their lives, but it was a terrific opportunity to see how teams may decide to play against us at Loftus Road in the future. We learnt a lot about our players and our team today. It was a great workout for them.
In many ways it was the perfect setting. Scunthorpe, an inferior team in every departmenet, took the lead from a cute free-kick which almost had me off my seat and yelling with praise and applause as if it was us who scored! In reality, I lost it in the heat of the moment because I worked out what was going to happen just before Gavin McCann struck. I knew it was going to deceive Lee Camp and I had a wonderful view of the shot from where I was sitting. Full marks, I thought it was a great little free-kick.
There will be opponents out there who are better than Scunthorpe though and who will be more resilient and able to frustrate us. Today the referee and his assistants seemed to give our team and the crowd more grief than the Scunthorpe players. Despite Fitz Hall giving away too many needless fouls against Geoff Horsfield, which he didn’t need to do, Scunthorpe rarely threatened in attack.
The players need to believe in their ability a little more because they were there for the taking and it only needed some small amount of quality and composure to unlock the door but we hurried and rushed our work and despite a fair amount of patience, we abandoned Plan A too quickly and when we do that, we don’t look like we have a proper Plan B. There’s a reluctance to continue using Plan A if it doesn’t work out and that’s something we need to rectify going forward.
It looked like we came out in the second-half with a Plan B and that was to get the ball to Rowan Vine as quickly as possible. He got wide and got lots of the ball, but that was about it for long periods. The rest of the team seemed to turn into statues or run in very straight lines while they waited or expected Vine to do something fancy with it. It doesn’t quite work that way and we need to remember that we’re attacking and defending together as a unit, rather than relying on one individual to try and do the damage. Consequentely Akos Buzsaky was a little bit wasted on the right as a result. He’s good too you know, pass to him as well!
The proof in the pudding however we Patrick Agyemang’s goal. Martin Rowlands started the move with a quick disguised pass and a couple of one-two’s later including a glorious reverse ball from Buzsaky and the ball was in the back of the net. It may not have seemed like it, but those sorts of passes were on all day long and had Dexter Blackstock been on his game, it very may well have meant we got in control of this game long before we finally did.
I feel sorry for Dexter because he’s not playing particularly well at the moment and is some way from his best. I can’t quite tell if he is really fit enough and the reason I say that is because his touch and technique in the past few games have not been at the standard required for this level. Match sharpness can play a big part in that, but if he doesn’t have those basics with him he will struggle to find any sort of form and really it was a bit painful seeing hm fall over so much or struggle to get a hold of the ball from the simplest of passes. His confidence is low too, which doesn’t help.
That aside, without ever playing spectacularly we’ve managed to take three points and that’s a fine quality for any team to have. Vine isn’t quite in the same form as before Christmas, but continues to be a real nuisance for opposing teams. Damien Delaney is putting in a lot of solid performances at left-back (as is Michael Mancienne as right-back), but just occasionally may be foraging too far forward. It’s important we don’t get punished for that against smarter teams.
It was great to see big Pat (or Dave, if that’s what you prefer to call him) back on the scoresheet, although I wasn’t sure if I was pleased with his work-rate or not. I say that with some irony because he was sprinting around at times like a maniac. Some of it tactically was really good, some of it was plain crazy (even if it seemed slightly heroic), but I’ll err on the side of being pleased this time around. I suppose that’s showing your frustration in the right way.
In the meantime, this match was a good work out and an opportunity to see what our defenders can do when they’re on the ball. They need some work on knowing what to do when they have possession so often and the midfield need to know when to come and take it off them. It was great however to see the full-backs pushing on when they realised they had the space and the wide men really getting very wide to stretch Scunthorpe out.
I’d like to see us be a little bit more patient on the ball and not worry if nothing is on. It doesn’t mean we should lump the ball forward or try a fancy switch in play that isn’t really the right ball to choose. Patience is key and quality counts. At times we lacked the quality to make it happen but at others we did build pressure and ultimately got what we wanted in the end.
It wasn’t perfect, but there was some progress and some insight to what the future holds and it may not sound like it, but I’m pleased as punch!
