Wolves 0-3 QPR

 Wolves were today outclassed by an impressive Queens Park Rangers team. Goals in the opening ten minutes from Joey Barton and Alejandro Faurlín secured victory, before Shaun Wright-Phillips completed the rout for the Hoops. 

• First of all, apologies for the lack of a report last week. As I mentioned in a different thread, I spent last week at a conference in Madrid, and so was forced to visit the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in order to get my Saturday fix of live football. Watching Real Madrid defeat Getafe 4-2 was a slightly different experience to what I am used to.

• Anyway, on to today’s match. I saw the starting line-up and prayed we would employ a 4-5-1 formation, with Michael Kightly tucked in behind Kevin Doyle. I even tweeted (@toomb86 since you asked) that “I hope we go 451 today, with Kightly in behind Fletcher (sic). Worried about the midfield otherwise”. I’d watched QPR’s match with Newcastle United on Monday, and was extremely impressed with the way their midfield operated, and was fearful Karl Henry and Jamie O’Hara would be overrun.

• The major problem with using 4-4-2 against 4-5-1 is the extra man the opposition have in the centre of the midfield. It was very noticeable within the first couple of minutes that Jamie O’Hara paired up with Shaun Derry and Karl Henry targeted Joey Barton. Unfortunately, this gave Faurlín all the space he wanted in the middle of the park, and it was of no surprise that he went on to double QPR’s lead. What made it worse was the narrowness of QPR’s midfield. Wright-Phillips on the left and Barton on the right naturally drifted inside, making the jobs of Henry and O’Hara all the more difficult.

• I felt sorry for the players today, because the formation employed was always going to make it difficult for us. What was most worrying was Mick McCarthy’s reluctance to change it. Against Newcastle and Blackpool last season, McCarthy made first half tactical changes, but today he did not do a thing. The obvious change was to drop Stephen Ward a little deeper, and give him the task of picking up QPR’s third midfielder.

• When we did make the change, it was to bring on Sam Vokes who looked off the pace against Northampton Town. This annoyed me slightly, but what compounded it was the decision to bring on Adlène Guedioura for Michael Kightly. I had no problem with the decision to take Kightly off, he looked completely off the pace, but if you are going to bring on a target man whose primary strength is in the air, why not bring on a winger? We had Adam Hammill on the bench who likes to get to the byline and whip crosses in, surely the sort of player Vokes needs to play alongside. Instead, Guedioura came on, who has always been ineffective when played wide right, and had no real influence on the match.

• While I personally do not agree with booing during the match, I could completely understand those who booed at half-time. However, the players were clearly as frustrated as anyone – this was evident when Roger Johnson messed up a header back to Wayne Hennessey, and promptly blamed the Welsh goalkeeper for not being 10-yards off his line, and when Jamie O’Hara miscontrolled a pass and blamed Matt Jarvis for not picking up the loose ball.

• On Tuesday, we are playing Millwall. McCarthy’s plan has normally been to play a weakened side, but I would be tempted to play a strong side to ensure that we win. If we lose, and then are defeated at Anfield in a week’s time, that’ll be four losses on the bounce and the start of a mini crisis. We also have gone 270 minutes without a goal, and so it would be nice to see the net bulge a few times, at the right end.