From watching today’s game you can take positives from it, but you could also get very worried as well.
Good Points:
Going forward we looked quite good and played some great football, however sometimes our youngsters need to learn to shoot quicker. There were several times today where I thought they could take a shot but held on to it to look for a pass out wide or to someone running through. We aren’t going to score many goals if we don’t shoot.
Kelvin played brilliantly; I don't really blame him for the first goal as he would have been wrong footed being nearer the front post, not leaving him much time to get out.
Adam Lallana was brilliant, for a youngster he has come on leaps and bounds and that goal was class
Bad Points:
Whoever thought it wasn't a sending off really needs to look at the replay and change their minds. For me it was clear-cut. Annoyingly he should never have thrown himself in like that as he could have kept the player and the ball in the corner.
Defence Defence Defence - We really were bad at the back today, it could have been a lot worse, but Kelvin made some amazing saves and we still lost 4:1. I know the second shouldn’t have been a goal and some people will say (including our manager) that changed the game and gave QPR the advantage, but the warning signs were there already. Remember they had 2 (probably only 1 because Kelvin had stopped for one of them) other goals disallowed. Only Jan will know why he didn't start Perry with one of the youngsters, who knows, maybe he couldn’t choose between them or maybe he wanted them both to get some experience quickly.
The problem with our defence is that I really don't see how we can improve, especially for the next 6 games. Svensson was missing yesterday and rumours our that he might not play again, Thomas is injured and personally I don't think hes a great option anyway (better than nothing but only just) and now Ollie will be missing for at least 3 games. This leaves Perry and Cork as our only recognised centre backs, with an inexperience right back (although I thought his crossing today was exceptional and didn't have too bad a game (if you ignore the first goal).
Balls in the box seem to be our weak point, Kelvin doesn’t come to claim many, but our defence seem to shy away from it and more often than not are second to the ball.
Holmes - not sure on the extent of the injury, but from what they said on TV he could be out for a while. This might mean there is room for Skacel and Surman to both play on the left, but I thought Holmes has been very good since he arrived.
So in summary, it’s going to be hard but - COME ON YOU SAINTS
