Looking back

[Greg1882]

It would be wouldn't it!!

Yeah . Love a bit of gallows humour

[MYU]

There is actually a better video of this from the other side of the ground, looked really good.

[1QPRDK]

I have been doing a lot of thinking regarding the Burnley match. Obviously I was absolutely distraught and about as close as you could get to being harryout without actually saying it. Looking back at it though. I would say the only thing he really got wrong that day was the Vargas substitution. People will question why henry came off but in truth he brought very little to the side on the day. Made only 1 tackle all game before he came off. At the moment, with the way clint is being used, it was wise to bring him off. Issue was that we don't have a left back other than Traore. Perhaps taking off Fer or Barton in particular who has been a mess recently would have made more sense than taking off Vargas. Moving to having Vargas, taarabt and Zarate on behind austin is the way forward I believe and could lead to plenty of goals. Other than that though, I can't see much wrong with anything he did that game. Playing taarabt proved to pay off in a way in that we got to see what he offered to the team, in the form of passing. Taarabt played the most passes and succeeded more than anyone. 60 passes attempted and 52 successful is an incredible amount considering burnley's highest amount was 37. This is made more impressive by this image showing his passes in the final third. To have made that many successful passes is quite amazing.



Beyond this though, I have watched the whole match again and we actually defended really well throughout, the only issue was that individual errors cost us. The players seemed motivated and looked to attack well, highlighted by the fact that the ball was in their defensive third for most of the game. We were hit by two poor moments and that is it. Our goal also showed a potential bit of interplay and understanding between taarabt, vargas and Charlie that I last saw when Taarabt played that wonderful ball for Remy's goal against West ham on his debut. I do hope we stick with him over Zamora although I can't see it happening. Imagine being the opposition and seeing a potential attack of Charlie, Taarabt, Vargas and Zarate all moving towards you. I would be shi tting myself in that moment and I hope to see defenders in the prem doing the same. There is no reason why we can't stay up, our performance showed that. We need one or two changes only: Sandro for Henry and Zarate for Joey (obviously switch him with Fer on the pitch), and I feel we will have a first team capable of doing plenty of damage away from home, where teams will be expecting us to stay back. The fact is, we didn't do that against burnley and I hope to see more of the same in the future. We played more passes than them in the final third, we attempted and succeeded in more dribbles than them, and we even attempted as many shots on target as them, and managed to hit the post.

I'm not trying to be over optimistic because I know that may seem annoying as well as over using stats, so I have tried to avoid doing that. I use them a bit to back up what we already know and I also like to shed some light on things that may have gone unnoticed during the game. I hope we can all get behind the team at Loftus Road when Man Utd come to town. Lets get the stadium rocking and lets push them about. We can do this everyone. Let's make 2015 a year to remember for all the right reasons.

[stationcafe]

Maybe HR thought Vargas needed a break. He's played a lot, it's his first season in England, and he plays at a high tempo, we would be ####ed if he suffered mid-season burnout.

As for our defence, we are hopeless. Burnley are a poor side but we made them look dangerous.

[Sotonsuperhoop]

IMO Burnley are a team of 'Jamie Mackies', young, fit and run forever and occasionally they do something with the ball and score, whereas we are an ageing team who are too slow for the PL

One stat the OP missed was up until Sat Burnley had not scored more than one goal in any home game this season and hadn't won a game in 9

Taarabt no doubt has talent but out of these 'great' attacking passes how many lead to a goal? how many were 'goal assists'?

[oldhoop]

Great post again Nasser.

You have lifted my spirits and am now well up for it on Saturday!

[FurtiveFox]

Sorry but to me the original post sounded like a more sophisticated version of 'Arry's excuses! We have a new Premiership record of 10 away defeats in a row. We have been humiliated by lower league opposition in both Cups.

There are always excuses as to why we lose and sometimes we haven't actually been that bad but 10 defeats is 10 defeats and there is no excuse for that. We do not have anything like the worst squad in Premiership history and should have picked up points in some of those games, even if losing say 7 of them. The teams around us seem to be able to do it.

It is differcult though and hard to win away!

[nasser95]

Sorry but to me the original post sounded like a more sophisticated version of 'Arry's excuses! We have a new Premiership record of 10 away defeats in a row. We have been humiliated by lower league opposition in both Cups.

There are always excuses as to why we lose and sometimes we haven't actually been that bad but 10 defeats is 10 defeats and there is no excuse for that. We do not have anything like the worst squad in Premiership history and should have picked up points in some of those games, even if losing say 7 of them. The teams around us seem to be able to do it.

It is differcult though and hard to win away!

Notice how I never said anything of the sort. Of course it is disapointing to have this record. The fact is though, that we played better, we worked harder and we are heading in the right direction. Just because I maintain some level of positivity, doesn't make it an excuse session.

[nasser95]

Maybe HR thought Vargas needed a break. He's played a lot, it's his first season in England, and he plays at a high tempo, we would be ####ed if he suffered mid-season burnout.

As for our defence, we are hopeless. Burnley are a poor side but we made them look dangerous.

We really didn't. As I said, they didn't create much. They created 2 moments of pure luck to score and that is it. Their other good chances were from set pieces.

[nasser95]

IMO Burnley are a team of 'Jamie Mackies', young, fit and run forever and occasionally they do something with the ball and score, whereas we are an ageing team who are too slow for the PL

One stat the OP missed was up until Sat Burnley had not scored more than one goal in any home game this season and hadn't won a game in 9

Taarabt no doubt has talent but out of these 'great' attacking passes how many lead to a goal? how many were 'goal assists'?

Well, the light blue passes contributed directly to a goalscoring opportunity. There isn't much more he can do is there?

[march56]

stats mean f uck all!
W D L F A is all that matters

[SteveQPR1975]

Are give you a stat lost 10 in arow away and our manager is still here

[hh9]

stats mean f uck all!
W D L F A is all that matters

To bad they are also stats

[Olly]

Nasser, does Vargas do the most running around per match? Might that be why he's always substituted?

[Geng]

I've been anti-Harry since before he was even appointed, but there's much to agree with in the OP.

I was at the Burnley game and didn't think it was nearly as bad as the internet reaction has made out. I don't think the crowd did either. The two idiots arguing with Dunne and co weren't particularly representative. Loft For Word's match report makes much the same point.

It was probably our second best away performance of the season, after Chelsea. I know the bar has been set very low.

But this is exactly what does point towards the manager. I don't think the players gave up at all, it was nothing like the lows under Hughes and then Harry in 2012/13. They were just victims of pish poor management, up against a side far more organised and prepared than they. If I could have specifically aimed my anger at Redknapp but not Hill, I would've done so.

The Zamora substitution was shocking. Harry really doesn't think on a level beyond any of us lot, does he? 'Let's stick on Bobby, sling some balls up to him and see what happens'. Immediately Taarabt stopped influencing the game as much as he went to left and had two forwards ahead of him without any pace. If you have Zamora up front there's barely any difference in service between Hill and Taarabt - Bobby is so slow he can't run onto through balls and he actually thrives, specifically, on hoofs from the back.

Then of course no one else seemed to know what they were doing for the rest of the match. We had four players wandering around getting in each others way. All that investment and our plan is seriously punt it up to Bobby and see what happens?

And that's before you even consider how awful Zamora actually played. Wtf was that all about? It was as though he'd just woken up. Back to his late-2013 worst.