QPR v Stoke 0 - 0 Full Time
Mar 10, 2019 7:44:57 GMT
Post by northwesthoop on Mar 10, 2019 7:44:57 GMT
I'm not buying any of this 'we should have won as they had 10 men' stuff as it can often be much harder to break down 10 men rather than 11.
Normally I'd agree - playing against 10 men can be difficult and doesn't automatically mean the team with the advantage will win. But my view is that applies more to a second half red card when a team can dig in until the end, as we all saw in the play off final!
But to have a man advantage over pretty much the whole game and not score is different circumstances and we therefore should have won in this case.
Either the team themselves should be used to breaking down 10 men from training sessions, or the manager needs to have a change in shape in mind, move to less at the back, play for 10 minutes moving the ball side to side, then try 10 minutes playing long diagonals pushing the full backs forward, then 10 minutes route 1 etc. We had enough time yesterday to work out an answer.
It almost felt like not having Smith on the bench to throw on to force some panic in the Stoke ranks left McClaren puzzled what to try instead. That's poor.
Rather than thinking 'brilliant we are a man up, let's win this' it was almost like the team/manager were still scared to lose.
