I think NW has the lineup right...MW said Johansen is fit so I think he’ll start
Watching the latest MW interview and reading that there’s a lot of expectation around Millwall this season too ... I’m thinking we might be looking at a 1-1 or 2-2 draw.
It was a poor first 20 mins, with the team looking far from settled. Whole first half was playing Millwall's game, with lots of head tennis - with them winning most. Second half saw more composure and effort to play the ball and pass. Austin contributed little, CBs were all good, Dieng needs to come out more for dangerous balls, and Willock/ Ball/ OdubJo were good. Frustrated and no whisky tonight!
We missed Chair who adds so much energy and creation to the team. I know players up their games when playing f or a contract and Moses Odubajo certainly looked good in pre season. Maybe they should have put him on a match by match contract because he was very poor today.
We missed Chair who adds so much energy and creation to the team. I know players up their games when playing f or a contract and Moses Odubajo certainly looked good in pre season. Maybe they should have put him on a match by match contract because he was very poor today.
For Chair to shine he would have needed to get the better of a physical side quite happy to settle for a narrow win or boring draw. Have to say I felt OdubJo was good today
It does rather illustrate how important Chair is. It was only the 2nd match he's missed since December 2019.
I wonder if they only found out today that Chair wouldn't play? That could have unsettled the team as no doubt they would have been planning all week for Chair to play/worked on that shape etc.
We certainly didn't seem to flow like we did in the friendly matches. Hopefully it was just the nerves of the opening day/the crowd being back/Chair missing.
We missed Chair who adds so much energy and creation to the team. I know players up their games when playing f or a contract and Moses Odubajo certainly looked good in pre season. Maybe they should have put him on a match by match contract because he was very poor today.
For Chair to shine he would have needed to get the better of a physical side quite happy to settle for a narrow win or boring draw. Have to say I felt OdubJo was good today
I shall have to watch the game again because it seemed to me that when Odubajo got the ball he gave it away and kept loseing possession. I also thought that his crossing was a bit hit and hope without ever getting near Austin and Dykes.
In respect of Chair I just thought that the longer the game went on the more Johansen controlled things and once he went off I could have seen Chair pulling all the strings causing Millwall lots of issues.
Knowing the result I can watch it in a more relaxed fashion.
Yesterdays attendance of 16,127 beats the average from the 10 previous home openings days by 486.
It's also 932 higher than QPR managed on the top flight opening day Vs Bolton 10 years ago.
It is not good though to read reports of long queues to get in, many fans missing a chunk of the first half and some giving up and going home when it got to hear half time.
At a time when the club need every fan they can get and need them to enjoy the experience to want to come back it is not good to let the fans down.
Wallace continues where he left off and Adebajo looks good defensively. Yes, he lost possession a couple of times but he looks experienced and will get better, remember he's only just joined. Better already than Kane I think.
Johansen looked good considering it was his first proper game since the last game of last season.
Willock has looked so good the last few games...he did not fair so well without Chair which makes sense. They both need to play every match I think.
Ball has been great recently but I still think we miss Field...maybe its just me but I feel like he would have been the man to get in and block that shot for the goal from Jed Wallace.
btw...jed wallace...nasty piece of work
Austin...so it looks like Austin is NEVER going to stay on the pitch past 70 mins? Going forward that means that every opponent can plan for this eventuality, they will know a part of our gameplan ahead of time.
I'm still a fan of Dykes but I don't think he's the one you bring in to replace Chair from the start. I do understand why they made that decision but I would have preferred something braver like Dozzell, Thomas or Bettache...after all they are the obvious replacements for Chair!
I think the main take away is that we look really good when we have our first choice 11 but quality goes down considerably when we lose one of those players. A big injury to Austin, Johansen, Chair or Willock and our expectations for the season will change considerably.
It is not good though to read reports of long queues to get in, many fans missing a chunk of the first half and some giving up and going home when it got to hear half time.
At a time when the club need every fan they can get and need them to enjoy the experience to want to come back it is not good to let the fans down.
Really??? That is very bad indeed...come on guys...where was your plan B?
Wow -lots of insightful comments from jimjams and stoatey going for a video check on Odubajo! Firstly, it is possible that it was me at fault in regard to Odubajo (as I had a sh*tty seat to view the whole pitch) but from what I saw of him he was taking on ball-players, and also moving forward with the ball along the wing. If anything, I believe the problem was that Odubajo committed himself and then found Ball was not supporting like Chair would have (for obvious reasons) and Dykes & Austin were marked out of the game.
Talking of Austin, I observed that Dykes was playing further upfield than him, so unable to flick on high balls, and Austin made numerous passing errors. Jimjams has already highlighted that we may have to accept that, like Zamora, we have a player unable to complete 90 mins and have to allocate one sub place permanently to him. For me, Austin is in that Starting XI to provide clinical finishing - something he cannot do when deeper than Dykes and without decent service. I would reverse them - having Austin near the penalty area and Dykes waiting to receive the ball.... MW must also look at how Millwall often managed to pin back our wing-backs, denying them opportunities to cross.
The rumour at the game was that Chair had a fever, but who knows? Certainly without him it seemed that Willock was resigned to doing the work of them both - and struggling of course. Play reached Johansen and then pinged back and forth until Millwall stole or received the ball in error. Perhaps it truly shows what a great player Chair is for our set up! It is interesting that when Austin was replaced that Dozzell appeared to make a positive difference to the play.
It was almost amusing the level of fouling by Millwall, only some of which was picked up by the match officials, and how quickly fit players became poleaxed victims when they had committed a foul or wanted to break up play! How can you play for a side like that? Matt Smith must cringe at times at their antics!
I came home last night still feeling like QPR had let themselves down after such a great pre-season, but today I can see some positives (such as Dickie's wonderful goal, the fact we did get a point, and that I am not a Millwall fan watching such boring football each game).
I have watched the match again and whilst I have seen him play better in pre season IMO Odubajo didn't do anywhere near as well yesterday. I agree with jimjams that he has looked better than Kane and maybe it was just a few nerves on his debut.
I scoured the net to try and find his stats and according to Sofascore he completed just one of his four attempted crosses, one of his four attempted long balls and lost possession 17 times. In addition he won just one of his nine duels and was dribbled past twice and conceded one foul. They gave his performance a 6 out of 10, the lowest of any QPR starter.
The stats site Who Scored also gave him a 6 which was again the lowest performance rating of any of our starters.
Ian McCollough of West London Sport gave him a 7 and thought he put in some good crosses and was steady defensively.
All in all it goes to show how subjective it can be when you watch football.
