A couple of the consequences of opting, as we have done, to go with a tiny squad because of our insistence on “quality over quantity” are that, firstly, the opportunities for any sort of squad rotation are limited. After a big effort on Saturday, a few of our players looked in need of a rest after just three games of the league campaign as City turned in a lethargic and, at times, surprisingly cumbersome performance in losing at Loftus Road tonight in a match that was never as close as the 2-1 scoreline suggested.
The second unwanted consequence of insufficient squad depth is that you make certain players undroppable. There was much messageboard talk when I looked at half time about how Yousef Salech was not making an impact and the commentators on the stream I watched made the same point more than once in the second half. Maybe a reason for this is that Salech knows that, as long as he stays fit and doesn’t get suspended, he’s going to be in the side every week until January unless BBM decides to try either use Callum Robinson, who barely started a game in the third tier last season, or Isaak Davies, who no City manager has trusted enough to play him as a lone striker, up front.
It’s not just Salech that applies to, it’s hard to see Alex Robertson, Rubin Colwill and Ollie Tanner being given a rest through squad rotation and I’d say all three of them turned in their worst performances of the season so far tonight – again, the thought occurs are they almost undroppable because of a lack of realistic replacements for them within the squad?
I’ve not done any research on this, but I’m pretty sure I’d find that, by some distance, we had the smallest squad of realistic first team starters in the Championship and, while I didn’t see evidence of complacency in any of the players tonight, it becomes easier for that instinct to take a hold when you know there are so few in your club’s squad who could come in and do a good job in replacing you.
City brought back Callum Scanlon to replace Krystian Bielik in the only change from Saturday’s starting line up and, by the standards of this season of poor starts, were as comfortable as they’ve been in any league game in the opening minutes.
Nevertheless, in the first instance of a weakness that was to afflict them all night, City defended a corner abysmally as unmarked home captain Jimmy Dunne didn’t even have to jump as he headed wastefully wide from six yards.
All of the pre match predictions I saw had QPR winning the game, but most thought it would be a close and exciting encounter with only a goal between the teams, but for most of the opening half an hour, it was an error ridden affair with passes aplenty going astray on both sides as they seemingly struggled to keep their feet on a pitch which looked good, but was certainly a problem for some.
Alfie Lloyd came close for the home side before City had their best spell of the match around the half an hour mark with Jack Moylan and Perry Ng forcing Pierce Charles into diving saves and the muted Cian Ashford heading wide from Tanner’s fine cross when the least he should done was force the keeper to make a save.
Apparently Rangers had the most on target shots in the EFL going into the game, but here City were thankful that much of their finishing was wayward as ten first half attempts bought just a single shot on target.
Unfortunately, that sole effort was enough to give the home team a half time lead. Striker Rumarn Burrell had not scored since January, but here he was aided by more poor City defending from a corner and a fair bit of luck as the ball bounced off Dunne, hit Robertson and then dropped to Burrell whose shot didn’t look the cleanest of connections but found its way into the net via a deflection off the City midfielder.
BBM withdrew Scanlon and Ashford at the interval to bring on Bielik and Chris Willock, but things only got worse in the opening minutes of the second half as we had the dodgiest spell of our season so far and we could easily have let in more than the one we did concede on 53 minutes.
At times City looked like they were running through treacle as a far more dynamic Rangers poured forward looking for the goal that, with City now providing no attacking threat, would settle the game. That goal duly arrived courtesy of by no means the first misplaced pass by Rubin Colwill of the night and the resultant ball from Rangers centreback Ronnie Edwards sent Burrell through on goal for a chance he never looked like missing.
Such was Rangers’ dominance at this stage, it looked like they could get four or five, but, without ever looking like they could save the game, City did get to steady the ship defensively as, on a night of sub par individual displays, Osho and Bagan at least maintained their standards.
Four defensive looking substitutions by the home side seemed to have a more positive effect on us than them and we were able to gain s foothold in the game as our passing and technique improved for a while. Nevertheless, it was still a shock to see Ng receive a pass from Tanner and fire high into the net with a quarter of an hour to go as his left footed first timer from twenty yards, gave Charles no chance of saving.
It was a goal out of keeping with the standard of our performance and despite sending on Joel Colwill, Callum Robinson and Isaak Davies late on (too late in my opinion), we never threatened an equaliser while Rangers looked set to add the game settling third goal on many occasions, but it never quite came.
Rangers move up to second as a result of their win and I was pretty impressed by them – we gave our worst display so far, but at least some of that was down to our opponents being the best out of possession team we’ve played so far.
BBM got it right after the game when he said that we weren’t good enough technically – my opinion is that it was the worst we’ve been in that part of the game for ages. If Saturday offered a positive view of what the season may hold, this was a reminder of what might be in store from a negative point of view.
There were a couple of age group games worth mentioning that were played yesterday. It’s not very often these days that I mention an age group below the under 18s, but the under 17s deserve a shout out for their 2-0 win over a category 1 academy West Brom team in their version of the EPL Cup. Taono Nyakuhwa and Gruff Evans were the goal scorers in a match where we scored in either half.
There was very little sign of a City goal in the under 21s game under the lights at Leckwith against Sheffield Wednesday though. A combination of wayward finishing by the visitors combined by the best performance I’ve seen from goalkeeper Jake Dennis meant we escaped with a goalless draw in a match we were second best in for about three quarters of the time. Besides Dennis, I thought our centrebacks did pretty well with Noah Anyadike mixing some very classy and composed defending in with the, very occasional, mistake.
Apart from that though, it was poor stuff from a City side which looked lightweight and passed the ball carelessly.
I’ll finish with a few words on the wholly unsatisfactory end to our transfer window. Before laying into the club though, I would say that the four players we did get in mean that the window was far from a complete disaster.
When you see some of the prices being paid for keepers in the Championship this summer, Nathan Trott looks a bargain at £1.5 million. Callum Scanlon appears stronger and fitter than last season and was very unlucky to lose his place on Saturday. My concern with Jack Moylan is that fans are going too far over the top on him. For example, I watched a podcast where it was said we paid £2.5 million for Moylan (how do they know that?), but he must be worth £10 million now!
Make no mistake, Moylan has done well so far and I thought he stepped up a notch on Saturday, but I think he can improve more once he gets to know his new team mates better because, for now anyway, I think he hangs on to the ball for too long sometimes and looks to shoot too often. I’m being a bit harsh there, but I do it mainly to try and get a bit of balance on Moylan. Don’t get me wrong mind, i rate him a good signing who will prosper as long as we keep on playing on the front foot.
Two games is too little to judge Krystian Bielik on, but he did look the part after a testing start on Saturday where he came over as very much a BBM type defender, so if we can get a centreback or two fit, I reckon there’s a fairly strong foundation there for a side that can definitely survive at this level and possibly make it into the top half.
However, the overwhelming feeling I have as a write this with the window having been closed for getting on for twenty four hours is that our prospects could and should be so much better than they are.
Not bringing in the winger and striker that were identified in May as a priority is pretty shocking and we don’t have an Omari Kellyman to stand in this time if Salech suffers an injury which keeps him out for as long as he was last season.
There’s also uncertainty about whether we have a replacement for Ryan Wintle. Is it Alex Robertson? If it is, then who gives us what we lose in the 8 and 10 position with him not there? There’s conflicting signals as to where Bielik is going to be used once we get the likes of Lawlor, Fish and Chambers back and while all of this is going on, we’ve got rid of the closest thing we have to a young, natural number six in Eli King and we’re seemingly turning Dakarai Mafico into a left back for some reason!
Yet again, it feels like we’re over reliant on luck and a prevailing wind, but I do find myself wondering why, as City fans, do we always expect everything to be different this time as far as those in the Boardroom are concerned? After all, we’ve had sixteen years now of the sort of sums of money which should have established us as a kind of Norwich/Middlesbrough type club at the very least being squandered by poor, amateurish decision making by people not up to their task – all of this overseen by someone who appears determined not to learn from our mistakes.
I’ll finish with a story from transfer deadline day which, if true, says it all about this club. With supporters vainly hoping for something to transform a mundane final day of the window, it was reported that striker Sam Cosgrove had been identified by Cardiff as a target for the January transfer window (he’ll be thirty by then). Put bluntly, and somewhat cruelly, Cosgrove is someone who failed at a variety of EFL clubs on the back of having a couple of seasons of high scoring in the SPL with Aberdeen. Cosgrove has now had a decent run of scoring for Auckland FC in New Zealand and this, reportedly, has got City interested – you think to yourself there’s no way this can be right is there, is there and then you remember we’re talking about Vincent Tan’s Cardiff City here and realise it probably is.
