QPR v Millwall 17MAR21 3-2 FT 12th/49pts

Over 12 months ago Warburton was told on this site that his 4-2-3-1 didn't suit the team and left us susceptible in defence. Manning was never and never will be defensively astute enough to be a left back and was a much better wing back. It took him 12 months, the loss of Manning on the cheap and the threat of losing his job to listen. We were proved right.

A couple of matches ago he was told that Charlie was much better suited to playing alongside Dykes rather than Willock. Against Huddersfield this was again shown to be the case and Warburton didn't react to the required changes until too late.

Whilst Dykes will never be a prolific goal scorer he is IMO a better choice to play alongside Charlie and they complement each other. I thought that Willock did well against Huddersfield but he was never going to score and if we want to see Charlie at his best and scoring we have to stick the Aussie back alongside him. Going forward Willock will need to adapt his game and become more of the left sided wing back that we now lack.

The other strange move from Warburton was to change the back 3 by moving Dickie into the centre and bringing in Kakay. The fact that De Wijs and Cameron were both available made this an even stranger decision and one that only made sense to Warburton. I thought this change in the central defence left the whole of the team unsure who was doing what and as a result we never had any of the cohesion of previous games.

If Warburton has any tactical nous he will put de Wijs back into central defence and Dykes will be back up front with Charlie. Willock should then be used as an impact sub should he be needed.
The added height of both de Wijs and Dykes against Millwall will also be an advantage.

How long will it take 'the Gaffer' to realise he could learn something by reading the posts on this site?

Dieng
Dickie, de Wijs, Barbet
Kane, Field,Chair,Johansen, Wallace
Austin, Dykes

My money is on an attritional, dire match. There don't tend to be too many goals in any of our games this season (for the most part) and Millwall are just gritty.

I think Ball will replace Field.
Dykes will start.
De Wijs to return. Kakay only played against Huddersfield to man mark Campbell.

I agree stoatey that it makes more sense to play Cameron or De Wijs in the middle of the Back 3 - if only because they are better at getting targeted balls upfield from a wider position. Dykes & Austin works for me too!

I think that is sensible given it is Millwall stoatey, as is putting Cameron into the DM role to add a bit of muscle. btw with 3 'beardies' on the left it is going to be difficult to identify who is who! 

Dieng
Dickie De Wijs Barbet
Kane Johansen Cameron Wallace
Willock Austin Dykes

5 mins and Kane goes a-wandering (possibly as our midfield is absent) and gets easily picked off. A through ball and their Wallace makes it count. Question: Why did Barbet stop closing down Wallace and elect to drop into dead space instead? There was no pressure on the goal-scorer! Poor by the Rs. Cameron looks off pace..?

It was offside, I did a rewind to check.

We've been ok since conceding, but we were asleep for the first 5 minutes and deserved to go a goal behind. I know Dieng was exposed but I felt he could have been positioned better for the goal, he seemed to go too far across to his near post and left what felt like a massive gap across goal for Wallace to score.

Definitely offside, but a braver ref would have recognised Dickie was held there until the ball arrived! The Millwall aggression, especially in the goal area, has been ignored by the officials...

Field on for Cameron and Bonne for Austin...?