‘We’re up against it’: the pessimistic – almost fatalistic – words of QPR manager, Gareth Ainsworth, as we prepared for the start of the 23-24 season. I fear he could be right. We do look as though we are up against it. This could be a long hard season.
Having narrowly avoided relegation last season the club now faces yet another period of transition. With Les Ferdinand’s midsummer departure, we don’t have a Director of Football. With the future of several key players still up in the air, we don’t have anything like a settled team.
And as yet, it seems we don’t even have a pitch to play on. Our opening home game has been switched to away at Watford. Even the newly seeded grass is refusing to grow.
In Gareth Ainsworth we do have the same manager as at the end of last season. That in itself is quite a novelty for a club which got through three managers last season.
While pre-season friendlies are rarely a reliable guide to the coming season there were a lot of worrying signs in our 5-0 drubbing away at Oxford. Tackles were missed, many weren’t even attempted. Our midfield didn’t feel the need to bother to track the opposition forwards. With little creativity in attack no real chances were created. We had no shots on target.
There seemed to be little discernible pattern to our play. Ainsworth looked a worried man, as well he might. Already he seems to be talking as though avoiding relegation is our main aim for the season.
Ainsworth has said he wants to mix up the style of football we play a lot more than in the past. He says we had become too predictable to play against, so teams knew from the outset how to stop us. But at the moment any pattern of play would be an improvement.
As yet I’m unconvinced by Ainsworth’s plan. Most of the successful teams do play to some sort of pattern. They may change it a bit but there is usually a basic formation. If you lurch from Barcelona tip-tap one week to Crazy Gang Wimbledon the next, you’re very likely to end up confusing everyone with the wrong set of players trying to play the wrong sort of football at the wrong time.
So, are we doomed? I certainly pray not.
So far, the one saving grace in all this is that my pre-season predictions are almost always totally off the mark. For the last three seasons I have been pretty optimistic about the winter ahead and each season we have fallen a long way from the top. So let’s hope this season is no exception and that again my pre-season thoughts are totally wrong.
Phil Harding is a journalist and writer. He lives in Hammersmith, is a season ticket holder at QPR and has supported the team since the early 70s.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
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