Wigan 2 V 1 QPR : Match Report
Feb 2, 2019 23:28:20 GMT
Post by northwesthoop on Feb 2, 2019 23:28:20 GMT
QPR succumbed to a defeat against Wigan at the DW Stadium in a performance that was simply dire for 70 minutes and too little too late in the final 20.
We were off the pace from the first minute, every pass felt delayed and like it could have been played sooner. Quite often we'd say 'he should play it to Luongo now he is in space'... the pass would eventually come but all too late, we'd get pressed and lose the ball. If we've had time to talk about it in the stands before it happens it's not a good sign of how we are playing!
The amount of times today we tried to play out from the back from Lumley to Leistner, Lynch or Scowen only for it to be played back to Lumley and punted long after 20 seconds of panic was bizarre. It doesn't work Steve. It didn't work at the start of the season and it doesn't work now. It's the same players and they can't do it. Stop it. Now. Please.
Anyway, in the first half Wigan were on the front foot for the first 5/10 minutes, in which time they took an early lead, but then despite looking largely comfortable they didn't really threaten our goal aside from Clarke heading over from close range, but it was given offside. Their goal came on 8 minutes when Lynch and Leistner - who were both very poor today - went to head the same ball as they seemed to struggle with Leon Clarke early on, they both missed it and it allowed the ball to travel on to Windass who was pretty much through on goal and he had time to shoot across goal and put us up against it. Poor.
Before going behind a Luongo tackle midway inside the Wigan half allowed Wells to shoot from distance. It looked like the keeper had fumbled it into his own net when the ball span up in the air and somehow Freeman was blocked/crowded out as he followed in the rebound. We had a lot of corners and 'half chances' without ever testing their keeper again in the opening period.
Eze was a passenger for the first 30 minutes and gave it away for the next 15. Wszolek was poor on the right hand side and worse when he tried his hand on the left and he was rightly hooked at half time for Osayi-Samuel.
Every player was rating a 4, 5 or 6 in the first half and you simply don't win matches when that is the case. We needed to step up but we actually took a step back and it wasn't long before it was 2-0. Freeman was on the right but he comes inside far too much and that exposes Furlong and the goal came from that side, a catalogue of poor positioning, missed kicks and errors ended up with Leon Clarke poking home from close range. He is a carthorse, no doubt about it but typically he scored on his home debut against QPR.
Plan A hadn't worked so Plan B was put in to action which of course means Matt Smith is thrown on and the artillery commences. Eze was removed. He looks low on confidence, like he is carrying an injury and at times today looked like a kid thrown in to a mans game. He could barely make a pass. A tough period for the young man and it will be interesting to see how he responds.
As usual Smith being on wasn't pretty but as is often the case he causes panic and not long after we got a goal back with 15 minutes remaining. Osayi-Samuel was lucky how the ball fell for him and even luckier when his shot from the edge of the box was deflected home. Game on out of the blue.
So after being well below par for over 3/4 of the game we now had a chance of some points. Matt Smith, usually a lumbering oaf, somehow found a turn of pace even he never knew he had and was racing past defenders and through on goal when he was tripped on the edge of the box but Wells struck the free kick against a wall that looked about 6 yards away from him.
We should have got 1 point in the end and could have had all 3. Leistner struck a shot against the bar from a Smith knock down then in the last seconds we should have had a penalty when a shot from the edge of the box clearly struck a Wigan arm. The defender had his arms up like 2 back slashes \\ . It was so clear yet not given. So on another day Leistner scores, we get a penalty and somehow win 3-2.
In reality though we got what we deserved over the 90 minutes... nothing.
McClaren really needs to look at some of his automatic choices; some players who start week after week are currently not performing. Lynch, Wszolek and Eze in particular. I mean how is Lynch playing over Hall? Yes Lynch was much improved in the Autumn but we need to pick the players who are playing well now, not who had a good patch in November. The same can be said of Wszolek who has had maybe 3 or 4 good games all season yet is still starting match after match after match. How? Why?
A frustrating afternoon that kills any outside chance of play off contention - a win would have put us back within 5 points - and means this season has officially today hit that point where the remaining league games will start to become dead rubbers as we finish in mid-table obscurity.
At least we have the FA Cup to get excited about. Until Tuesday.
Player Ratings:
Lumley: 4 - He made 1 decent low save early in the second half but his distribution today was so poor. So so poor. He kicked it out of play over the head of Furlong or Bidwell numerous times. We are giving away possession probably 8 times out of 10 once he kicks it. His recent form and overall play has gone backwards and if this was Ingram we'd be reading a lot more about it.
Furlong: 5 - he was better in the second half but in the first half he had a bit of a nightmare and I thought he was lucky not to give away a penalty. His positioning was poor today.
Leistner: 5 - the worst I've seen him play personally. He isn't suited to the ball at his feet and like Lynch is seems to make them nervous then in their overall games. He just wasn't commanding like he can be.
Lynch: 5 - much the same as Leistner he made numerous errors and when he makes a mistake with a wayward pass or losing possession it then makes him go backwards in everything he is doing
Bidwell: 6 - Out of position a few times but tried to get forward and is consistent. The problem is he is consistently 'ok' and never 'superb'
Scowen: 5 - I'm struggling to remember a positive contribution and his body language annoys me. He is always flailing his arms about like he is being wronged.
Luongo: 5 - Off the pace on his return for my money, he got booked and it seemed to stop him getting as stuck in as he sometimes would and he'd do one good pass then give it away
Freeman: 6 - he tried to get us ticking but he was being moved from left to right and right to left and so there was no consistency in his play today
Wszolek: 4 - A woeful display, he just wasn't at the races from the first minute. He also has an annoying trait of putting his hands on the back of players so they go down and win a free kick in a position when all he needs to do is stand them up and pen them in.
Eze: 4 - as mentioned above he looks a combination of injured, lacking confidence, smug, burnt out, whatever you want to call it is he is currently only keeping his place on past merit, not on current form
Wells: 6 - his link up play and touches were lovely at times but he never seemed to be on the ball in places where he could really hurt Wigan. He was through on goal in the first half and completely overran the ball.
Subs
Osayi-Samuel: 6 - deserved credit for his goal but it was a very lucky strike which could well have been heading back to W12 without the deflection. He battled gamely but he doesn't appear to be able to beat a man for pace which I thought was meant to be his main trait.
Smith: 7 - it is not great viewing with Smith on the pitch but we only had a chance today to get something when he came on. I am far from his biggest fan but he won every header, every chance we created in the final 20 minutes came from something he was involved in and he even showed pace Thierry Henry would be proud of so he probably was the man of the match from a QPR perspective which I can't believe I'm saying
Manning: N/A
We were off the pace from the first minute, every pass felt delayed and like it could have been played sooner. Quite often we'd say 'he should play it to Luongo now he is in space'... the pass would eventually come but all too late, we'd get pressed and lose the ball. If we've had time to talk about it in the stands before it happens it's not a good sign of how we are playing!
The amount of times today we tried to play out from the back from Lumley to Leistner, Lynch or Scowen only for it to be played back to Lumley and punted long after 20 seconds of panic was bizarre. It doesn't work Steve. It didn't work at the start of the season and it doesn't work now. It's the same players and they can't do it. Stop it. Now. Please.
Anyway, in the first half Wigan were on the front foot for the first 5/10 minutes, in which time they took an early lead, but then despite looking largely comfortable they didn't really threaten our goal aside from Clarke heading over from close range, but it was given offside. Their goal came on 8 minutes when Lynch and Leistner - who were both very poor today - went to head the same ball as they seemed to struggle with Leon Clarke early on, they both missed it and it allowed the ball to travel on to Windass who was pretty much through on goal and he had time to shoot across goal and put us up against it. Poor.
Before going behind a Luongo tackle midway inside the Wigan half allowed Wells to shoot from distance. It looked like the keeper had fumbled it into his own net when the ball span up in the air and somehow Freeman was blocked/crowded out as he followed in the rebound. We had a lot of corners and 'half chances' without ever testing their keeper again in the opening period.
Eze was a passenger for the first 30 minutes and gave it away for the next 15. Wszolek was poor on the right hand side and worse when he tried his hand on the left and he was rightly hooked at half time for Osayi-Samuel.
Every player was rating a 4, 5 or 6 in the first half and you simply don't win matches when that is the case. We needed to step up but we actually took a step back and it wasn't long before it was 2-0. Freeman was on the right but he comes inside far too much and that exposes Furlong and the goal came from that side, a catalogue of poor positioning, missed kicks and errors ended up with Leon Clarke poking home from close range. He is a carthorse, no doubt about it but typically he scored on his home debut against QPR.
Plan A hadn't worked so Plan B was put in to action which of course means Matt Smith is thrown on and the artillery commences. Eze was removed. He looks low on confidence, like he is carrying an injury and at times today looked like a kid thrown in to a mans game. He could barely make a pass. A tough period for the young man and it will be interesting to see how he responds.
As usual Smith being on wasn't pretty but as is often the case he causes panic and not long after we got a goal back with 15 minutes remaining. Osayi-Samuel was lucky how the ball fell for him and even luckier when his shot from the edge of the box was deflected home. Game on out of the blue.
So after being well below par for over 3/4 of the game we now had a chance of some points. Matt Smith, usually a lumbering oaf, somehow found a turn of pace even he never knew he had and was racing past defenders and through on goal when he was tripped on the edge of the box but Wells struck the free kick against a wall that looked about 6 yards away from him.
We should have got 1 point in the end and could have had all 3. Leistner struck a shot against the bar from a Smith knock down then in the last seconds we should have had a penalty when a shot from the edge of the box clearly struck a Wigan arm. The defender had his arms up like 2 back slashes \\ . It was so clear yet not given. So on another day Leistner scores, we get a penalty and somehow win 3-2.
In reality though we got what we deserved over the 90 minutes... nothing.
McClaren really needs to look at some of his automatic choices; some players who start week after week are currently not performing. Lynch, Wszolek and Eze in particular. I mean how is Lynch playing over Hall? Yes Lynch was much improved in the Autumn but we need to pick the players who are playing well now, not who had a good patch in November. The same can be said of Wszolek who has had maybe 3 or 4 good games all season yet is still starting match after match after match. How? Why?
A frustrating afternoon that kills any outside chance of play off contention - a win would have put us back within 5 points - and means this season has officially today hit that point where the remaining league games will start to become dead rubbers as we finish in mid-table obscurity.
At least we have the FA Cup to get excited about. Until Tuesday.
Player Ratings:
Lumley: 4 - He made 1 decent low save early in the second half but his distribution today was so poor. So so poor. He kicked it out of play over the head of Furlong or Bidwell numerous times. We are giving away possession probably 8 times out of 10 once he kicks it. His recent form and overall play has gone backwards and if this was Ingram we'd be reading a lot more about it.
Furlong: 5 - he was better in the second half but in the first half he had a bit of a nightmare and I thought he was lucky not to give away a penalty. His positioning was poor today.
Leistner: 5 - the worst I've seen him play personally. He isn't suited to the ball at his feet and like Lynch is seems to make them nervous then in their overall games. He just wasn't commanding like he can be.
Lynch: 5 - much the same as Leistner he made numerous errors and when he makes a mistake with a wayward pass or losing possession it then makes him go backwards in everything he is doing
Bidwell: 6 - Out of position a few times but tried to get forward and is consistent. The problem is he is consistently 'ok' and never 'superb'
Scowen: 5 - I'm struggling to remember a positive contribution and his body language annoys me. He is always flailing his arms about like he is being wronged.
Luongo: 5 - Off the pace on his return for my money, he got booked and it seemed to stop him getting as stuck in as he sometimes would and he'd do one good pass then give it away
Freeman: 6 - he tried to get us ticking but he was being moved from left to right and right to left and so there was no consistency in his play today
Wszolek: 4 - A woeful display, he just wasn't at the races from the first minute. He also has an annoying trait of putting his hands on the back of players so they go down and win a free kick in a position when all he needs to do is stand them up and pen them in.
Eze: 4 - as mentioned above he looks a combination of injured, lacking confidence, smug, burnt out, whatever you want to call it is he is currently only keeping his place on past merit, not on current form
Wells: 6 - his link up play and touches were lovely at times but he never seemed to be on the ball in places where he could really hurt Wigan. He was through on goal in the first half and completely overran the ball.
Subs
Osayi-Samuel: 6 - deserved credit for his goal but it was a very lucky strike which could well have been heading back to W12 without the deflection. He battled gamely but he doesn't appear to be able to beat a man for pace which I thought was meant to be his main trait.
Smith: 7 - it is not great viewing with Smith on the pitch but we only had a chance today to get something when he came on. I am far from his biggest fan but he won every header, every chance we created in the final 20 minutes came from something he was involved in and he even showed pace Thierry Henry would be proud of so he probably was the man of the match from a QPR perspective which I can't believe I'm saying
Manning: N/A
