Much like QPR, I've had a poor Christmas. Laid up with flu and not being able to enjoy as much seasonal cheer as I would wish, my disposition took a turn for the worse after spending two hours in the cold watching a woeful QPR being run ragged by a rampant Liverpool.
At times during the first half of that game I thought
Liverpool were playing an old fashioned 2-3-5 as Johnson seemed to spend most
of his time parked on the edge of our 18 yard box. On the other hand, our beloved Hoops saw an
increasingly isolated Cisse up front, solely due to the dysfunctional nature of
the other nine players behind him. As we
were being cut apart by the skill and determination of Luis Suarez and the
running of the Liverpool team our game plan seemed to be a simple one: allow
Liverpool to run around until they were knackered. We were just like a bunch of school kids in
the playground following the ball around.
By the time we were three down, all we had to play for at this point was
pride.
For now, I’ll leave the telling of the Liverpool debacle to
others in this fine publication.
Instead, I’d like to talk about one of the great things about supporting
Rangers which is the people I've met who follow the QPR cause. Great people I've become good mates
with. In particular I’d like to talk
about one whom I’ll call John.
John has a wealth of football knowledge, but his specialist
subject is Rangers from Venables onward.
He has seen the highs and lows at Rangers home and away; he’s been to
Wembley in the 1980s and played an 11 a-side on the plastic pitch for his Stag. He is your Rangers man.
Following Arry’s anointing as the next Rangers saviour, John
put Rangers miserable predicament into perspective during a chat in the Queen
Adelaide. John suggested that with 25
games to play, the best way to view the season is to split the Arry era into
three groups of eight games. Let’s face
facts; our final game is Liverpool away so nil points are most likely. There’s clearly no way we’ll repeat the amazing
final-day script of season 2011/12.
From here, John believes the target for survival is to
obtain 12 points per group of 8 games.
John’s not suggesting this is easy, he’s simply saying that by breaking
down the remaining games in this way, it’s easier to remain upbeat about our
survival prospects. This means that no
individual game is a “Must Win”, it allows you to look at the bigger question
and assess: are Rangers making progress versus the other crap teams at the
bottom of this division? This means that
we might lose a game against a relegation rival but pick up points against one
of the big sides. Like Chelsea.
Are we as bad as Reading, Villa, Southampton, Sunderland and
Wigan? Current evidence suggests that 9
points from Arry’s first 8 games has steadied the ship but a gain of just one
point on our relegation rivals in that time says that further improvement is
needed to overtake them.
