QPR Vs Brentford

Apart from a short period in the 2nd half Brentford were the better team and the £25 million they spent in the transfer window showed. Jansson was commanding at the back and when you add him and the others they purchased to a squad that already included Watkins and Benrahma it shouldn't be a surprise that they beat a QPR team who spent next to nothing and are heavily reliant on developing youngsters.

Whilst Brentford had the more expensive and better players it was really disappointing that their players also seemed to display more passion and desire than the QPR players.

I think that we we really should be concerned because Warburton's luck has now disappeared and he will now have to rely on his tactical awareness.

Unfortunately as I have said several times before his tactics are lacking and he continues to play a formation that leaves us wide open at the back. Despite conceeding at least two goals a game we still play a system of 2 central defenders and 2 attacking wing backs. Nobody on this site needs to be told that we lack central defenders. At the end of last season our only real central defender was Leistner. Hall is a poor central defender as is Cameron when he has played there. Barbet came in to replace Lynch but isn't much better and Masterson struggles to even warm the bench. We all knew we needed at least 2 experienced central defenders but when you replace one poor player with another it's always going to be difficult.

If you are going to play Manning as an attacking wing back then you must ensure we cover the space he leaves either by playing a third central defender or by getting your defensive midfielders to fill the gap.

Teams have sussed out how poor we are at covering down our flanks and they know that Manning and Rangel are good going forward but both are slow getting back. Reading and Brentford both took advantage but so have other clubs.

Last season Eze started the season well before fading and Chair has done the same this season. Chair should have been rested before the Reading game and his form is suffering.

My expectation at the beginning of this season with our squad was survival and my expectations haven't changed. I fear that some of our promising young players may get sold but if there is any vision at the club and we do keep the likes of Eze then we need to bring in at least 2 central defenders who are leaders with character and authority.

As mentioned above, no matter how good are goal-scoring abilities are, we need to defend better and prevent more goals. Given the way we play then we will always be at risk of a breakaway leading to a goal, but the current squad are not doing enough to prevent sloppy or opportune goal-attempts. Last night's header by Watkins was just one of many examples. When the ball sails over you into the space between you and the other CB then you must communicate and deal with it! January may well allow us to get a decent CB in the transfer window, but it is not certain. What is certain is that until at least January our CBs have to defend better, our WBs need to close down ball-players better, and the midfield players like BOS, Cameron and Pugh need to do more covering. Full credit to Kelly for making some great saves - it could have been a lot worse!

Well on Saturday we will have Hugill back up front I would suspect, but there needs to be a shake-up behind them. No more Eze way out on the wing, the replacement of Cameron & BOS, and much better defending!