Blackburn Vs QPR

Work? Sunday? F**k that.

I know… the joys 🤷‍♂️.

Re Dunne; I agree that at the moment, and in instances such as the Blackburn game where we are impotent going forward the questions, and the attention, will be concentrated elsewhere. Though I do still expect once a hiding or two occurs then the calls for him to return into the team will grow. He might play against Boro’ given Wilder will play with Wing-Backs. I went to the Sheffield United game in 2018-19 and McClaren’s tactical set up against Wilder’s 3-5-2 was that bad that we practically didn’t get out of the half for 45 minutes, so you’d hope Beale would have a better plan devised for Saturday if it could be more of the same.

stoatey I agree that Beale seems intent on a 4-3-3 which is what we all expected pre-appointment wasn’t it? My only nagging issue with that is can you get Chair and Willock in that formation together. Neither are comfy or as effective playing from the right, and can either play in the middle 3 and give you enough out of possession 🤷‍♂️ a shrewd manager would tactically coach Chair into becoming an 8 where his ceiling would be higher both in terms of career prospects but also transfer fee, but he’s now 24 and tbh I don’t see that happening now. So I think he’ll have to continue to play as a 10 and systematically we’ll play as a 4-2-3-1. Some will say that’s still 3 in the middle, but the pressing patterns, passing options, even running demands are completely different in a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-3.

I’ll go out on a limb here and say that personally I’d have sold Chair in the summer. Not because he’s a bad footballer, I rate the boy highly and think he’s probably the best player in the team. But I think he can cause a headache systematically as he’s a bit inflexible position wise, which causes the team balance issues. I’d have spent the money on getting more dynamic 8s because as we saw Saturday, that isn’t Andre Dozzell.

Lyndon Dykes is obviously a concern but I’m a believer strikers are only as good as their supply and when you’re getting virtually nothing from your wide players or anything into feet from your midfield, you’re on a hiding to nothing. Also feel the prioritisation and need to fatten Chair and Willock up for market has hurt him, and invariably Charlie Austin last season too, because it has meant we’ve ditched two strikers which got the best out of the two of them during the second half of the 2020/21 season. I feel looking at the forwards we do have that 2 strikers would be the best way to play even now, but then that means picking one of Chair or Willock and that simply won’t happen, they have to start. There’s a lot of incompatible elements in this squad then, and not a system that exists which affords both balance and the chance to get all our best players in the team. I worry therefore for Beale, and after 0 shots on target and 0 corners against a bang average team like Blackburn you fear this job could get very messy very quickly. It already feels like we may not win a game until Blackpool on the 16th

We often played one, Willock played centrally and a lot closer to the forward. But crucially you had a runner from midfield going behind the centre forward in Amos.

The best Chair performance last season was the second half at home to Barnsley when we went 4-1-4-1. Chair played centre left in that 4 and ran the second half, it got him close to Willock and allowed him to play as a runner going beyond the striker too. That’s why I see him as an 8. But I still think you could’ve sold him for £12m (he’s better than Tavernier that’s just joined Bournemouth) and then reinvested that money in players and positions more suited to Beale’s style and it would’ve benefitted the team more.

I honestly don't see Chair leaving. Any team ever tempted would watch him and see there are too many flaws in his game. He's brilliant at this level for us when he is on it, but I suspect (maybe wrongly) he could be at QPR for his career, unless he requests a transfer or something like that. I really feel anybody interested would see small things in his game that made them think twice.

I assumed the idea of Johansen sitting behind Dozzell and Field was for him to act as a conduit for the Back 4? Otherwise what is he doing behind Field, who is a far better defender of the ball?

It’s seems this could be the team to watch this season then