QPR 0-2 Brentford – Discussion Points

Following a home drubbing by an ordinary Brentford side – we once again pick the bones of a disappointing performance from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s Queens Park Rangers.

Patience is a virtue – but only if you have the time

We were told this week we must be patient – this barely a year after Chris Ramsey was dismissed from his role as manager for not looking likely to achieve a playoff place. Supporters in truth were relatively cool on last season’s prospects, just the thought that we could start bringing younger players in or through the door was promise enough for me personally.

The club elected to bring in players like Paul Konchesky et al, allow high-earners like Leroy Fer and Sandro talk up the prospect of promotion, dismiss the aforementioned Ramsey for not setting his side up for this prospect, then allowing Hasselbiank to continue where Ramsey left off and allow the style of play and the position of the club generally to fall away in the course of the last year.

When we discuss the subject of patience, the issue should be discussed in the boardroom as to what this in fact means. Lessons learned? We’ve got to establish what the lessons are before we can learn the best way to go about learning them – surely.

We appear as a football club to be a pack of people charging in the direction of a solution that becomes unfashionable halfway, before charging towards another solution without the semblance of a plan. We’ll be looking for ‘more experience’ in no time, no doubt.

It will be very interesting to see how patient the club are when the parachute payments dry up.

Hassling Hasselbaink – Jimmy to be given time?

I for one don’t want to see Hasselbaink sacked – I don’t want to see any manager sacked. There is almost a gleeful, ‘told you so’ microcosm of Twitter that want him gone at all costs. A win and a good performance would bizarrely be seen as counterproductive if you’re on this particular bandwagon.

That being said, Jimmy is most certainly not covering himself in glory at the moment. The style of play in recent weeks has been desperately poor and unimaginative. Punting the ball out to Sylla/Polter/Perch towards the right and hoping for something to occur as a result – it is almost worth not showing up for the first 45 as you’ll be treated to an exhibition of kicking to touch.

Conspiracy theorists could suggest that we’re looking to keep everything tight for the first 45 before expending our energy in the second period – in the last two games however, the games have been gone by half time. Only a below par Bristol City side gifted Rangers three points in what was otherwise a fairly anaemic performance. The difference between Bristol City and Sheffield Wednesday and Brentford was nothing to do with QPR, it was more to do with Bristol City. If they could finish the fixture would have had a very different complexion indeed.

So – sack Jimmy? – What’s the point. The art of challenging a manager to perform better seems to have died – just seems to be after some bad results and performance he ‘has to go’ to quote an all-knowing quadrant of social media.

A new manager, the same players, the same system (as laid down by the club). We surely have to give Jimmy until the end of the season, if this patience alluded to above is practiced as preached. We won’t be promoted – certainly, but we probably won’t be relegated. Not what an insta-fix society wants to hear but bringing in someone of Neil Warnock’s ilk would paper over some pretty gaping cracks in the foundations that would re-appear and bring us back to where we are now.

Square pegs; round holes; missing pieces

We discussed this earlier in the season following the home drubbing by Newcastle United – but still Rangers show their unequivocal reliance on the same formation and style of play. So much so that Conor Washington plays on the left wing, James Perch plays at left back and Jordan Cousins – a central midfielder either plays right wing or right-back.

Surely this is not the basis for success in the short or long-term. Banging our heads against a brick wall where our players don’t really fulfil the system we want them to. We also have some players dropped immediately irrespective of performance, other players played relentlessly, again irrespective of performance. There is little rhyme or reason as to the logic of this.

Does sports science have an overriding influence in his selection? Does Conor Washington flying to Belfast to play a few minutes against tin-pot opposition warrant his dropping after a fine performance against Fulham? Common sense and footballing logic says he should be allowed to continue and find his form after a long period of lacking confidence; but maybe his glucose levels were a fraction out of tolerance, who knows.