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So that was easily our best opening game in years. There's so much to talk about but first, here are the Whoscored.com player ratings, which I'll go into a bit more details with.
So they've given top player to Ned and that's primarily down to him getting a goal and an assist which is understandable... the other factors were making 5 interceptions, 2 tackles, 20/23 successful passes and playing 3 of the 7 key passes that led to chances. He's never gonna cross it in particularly well and he really did have to cover for Gladwin's poor positioning but he did so very well, bar one moment where he lost the ball in the Leeds half and had to chase down the guy into our box and make the block with Caulker.
Personally, I would give it to Luongo, we made 16 tackles all game and Luongo made 5 himself, getting a third of all our tackles. He also made 4 blocks, 1 interception, took 56 first touches of the ball and really got involved in that defensive midfield role. For someone of his size to win 3 aerial duels as well is mighty impressive and alongside Henry, he really made it impossible for Leeds to get much of a breakthrough, despite them having more of the ball.
This leads me nicely into my next point which was that only 5 of the 14 players involved today didn't successfully tackle an opposition player and only 2 didn't attempt to tackle an opposition player. If this proves anything, it's that JFH has got the players working his system very nicely. Again, only 2 of our starting 11 didn't intercept an opposition pass, showing how good our closing down was and how intelligent it was. The fact that they had to clear the ball 34 times around their box and we only had to do it 13 speaks volumes about how much pressure we put on them. Smithies didn't even have to make a save today, we were that good at stopping them, bar that one moment where they broke the offside trap (which looks fantastic btw). To only commit 8 fouls in a match when playing such a strong pressing game is great to see as well and 2 of those were from the weak link Gladwin, who looked really off the pace compared to everyone else. Can't wait to get Yeni into this team.
Beyond the numbers, what I saw out there today was a team that was not only hard working, but knew how to work hard, knew when to press, when to put their players under pressure and in what parts of the pitch. I saw a team that, if they play like this all season and end up outside the play off spots, I'd still be proud of because of the commitment to the cause. I saw a team where almost everyone looked like they actually had a job and knew exactly how to counter every attack Leeds had. And what impressed me more than anything else was the fans response to Mide Shodipo. He had a solid debut, especially at his age, but what I loved was that even when he played a mishit cross or a weak delivery, or got tackled and lost out, the fans would still clap for him and cheer him on. I haven't seen that in a long long time at LR. Taking the poison out of the playing staff looks like it will kill the toxicity that has engulfed LR for the last few years. This could be a QPR that we can all be proud of.
So they've given top player to Ned and that's primarily down to him getting a goal and an assist which is understandable... the other factors were making 5 interceptions, 2 tackles, 20/23 successful passes and playing 3 of the 7 key passes that led to chances. He's never gonna cross it in particularly well and he really did have to cover for Gladwin's poor positioning but he did so very well, bar one moment where he lost the ball in the Leeds half and had to chase down the guy into our box and make the block with Caulker.
Personally, I would give it to Luongo, we made 16 tackles all game and Luongo made 5 himself, getting a third of all our tackles. He also made 4 blocks, 1 interception, took 56 first touches of the ball and really got involved in that defensive midfield role. For someone of his size to win 3 aerial duels as well is mighty impressive and alongside Henry, he really made it impossible for Leeds to get much of a breakthrough, despite them having more of the ball.
This leads me nicely into my next point which was that only 5 of the 14 players involved today didn't successfully tackle an opposition player and only 2 didn't attempt to tackle an opposition player. If this proves anything, it's that JFH has got the players working his system very nicely. Again, only 2 of our starting 11 didn't intercept an opposition pass, showing how good our closing down was and how intelligent it was. The fact that they had to clear the ball 34 times around their box and we only had to do it 13 speaks volumes about how much pressure we put on them. Smithies didn't even have to make a save today, we were that good at stopping them, bar that one moment where they broke the offside trap (which looks fantastic btw). To only commit 8 fouls in a match when playing such a strong pressing game is great to see as well and 2 of those were from the weak link Gladwin, who looked really off the pace compared to everyone else. Can't wait to get Yeni into this team.
Beyond the numbers, what I saw out there today was a team that was not only hard working, but knew how to work hard, knew when to press, when to put their players under pressure and in what parts of the pitch. I saw a team that, if they play like this all season and end up outside the play off spots, I'd still be proud of because of the commitment to the cause. I saw a team where almost everyone looked like they actually had a job and knew exactly how to counter every attack Leeds had. And what impressed me more than anything else was the fans response to Mide Shodipo. He had a solid debut, especially at his age, but what I loved was that even when he played a mishit cross or a weak delivery, or got tackled and lost out, the fans would still clap for him and cheer him on. I haven't seen that in a long long time at LR. Taking the poison out of the playing staff looks like it will kill the toxicity that has engulfed LR for the last few years. This could be a QPR that we can all be proud of.
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