Final 2 pre-season matches - Palace & the Stones

Having watched the full 90 minutes I didnt see a lot that I didnt already know from last season. For the manager he will have benifited from watching us play better class opposition because he'd have learnt about our lack of pace, creativity and our poor final ball.

I can understand playing against lower level teams to build up fitness but playing against better teams will benifit both the manager and the players. Not sure that the game against Wealdestone was either wise or of benifit, IMO it would have been much better to have played a competitive game against another Championship team or a Premiership team.

It's not every week we are going to come up against Zaha and Eze who can score goals from anywhere. Individually I thought,

Dieng- would have been disappointed with the Eze goal but may have been unsighted. The first Zaha goal was just a bit of magic that no goalkeeper was saving and he had no chance with the penalty.

Kakay-playing in a back 4 as opposed to being a wing back certainly suits Ossie and he looks a lot more comfortable in that roll. Playing up against Zaha he did well and he also managed to support the midfield.

Paal- was up against the inexperienced Plange who got the better of him on a couple of occasions but he did get forward several times although his final ball was poor.

Dickie- Got caught out by letting Benteke get past him and having to grab his shirt for the penalty but as always he looked comfortable with the ball at his feet and when being challenged in the air.

JCS- Not a lot between him and Dunne as to who starts but against Palace he did alright and because he seems comfortable with the ball at his feet and bringing the ball out from the back I'd expect him to start against Blackburn.

Field- apart from one wild pass he put in his normal competitive and reliable performance. One of the first names on our team sheet and he competed well with the Palace midfielders. It was between Field and Kakay for my QPR MotM.

Dozzell- I thought the criticism of Andre a little harsh because he was given the task of supporting Kakay in trying to subdue Zaha and that curtailed his own forward runs. In the Championship I would hope he can get forward more to support Dykes and Chair.

Adomah- Albert was disappointing for and didn't offer a lot. When Willock and the others are fully fit I suspect that the best that Albert can expect is a place on the bench or a cup game.

Johansen- has benifited from pre season and looked fitter than last season. Was up against Jeff Schlupp in midfield and competed well although Schlupp was very good and mostly dominated what happened in the midfield area.

Chair- well marshalled by the Palace defenders and as we have seen previously he then gets frustrated. Misses his mate Willock and he shows his niavity by shooting from range when others are open for a simple pass. Chair was showing great form prior to AFCON but something has been missing since he returned. Whilst we saw Willock step up and perform whilst Chair was away it seems that Illias has found the expectations now placed on him a heavy load.

Dykes- was up against England international Marc Guehi and never really offered a threat. One of the best things he did was when getting back into our penalty area and making a good tackle. The issue for me is that I want to see him competing up front and scoring goals not running back into our area to defend.

Subs- I thought Bonne and Thomas were anonymous for the time they were on. The plus for me was Armstrong who in the 5 minutes he played managed two attempts

Overall our lack of pace remains a concern and we have weaknesses in defence, midfield and definitely up front. Kakay had a decent game but the jury remains out on whether he's good enough. Going forward we will need to see if Johansen last more than a game a week, what is Dozzell's best role and is he good enough at this level. A major concern will be who does Beale choose up front Dykes or Bonne because neither look good enough to me.