I needed a laugh to pick me up after the Bristol City game, so I thought why not just ask Alexa.
"Alexa, tell me a joke".
"You're a Queens Park Rangers supporter", comes the dulcet purr from the little speaker beside the TV.
Ok, I made this up. Alexa is not capable of British irony and does not know which football team I support. However, if this did happen I certainly wouldn't know whether to laugh or fall to the floor weeping.
Watching QPR at Loftus Rd over 28 years, the Bristol City performance was the worst I have seen. And I sat through the full debacle that was Vauxhall Motors. Against Bristol, we played some good football, but Connor's miscues, including the shit pass that prevented Eze from scoring, were dreadful for a striker at any level and overall our team cohesion and desire to win seemed non-existent. To be fair, playing Connor on his own up front with Eze in the 10 position and Pav on the wing isn't a tactically astute combination. How will a 5" 6' striker who's skill is turning his defender going to cope with long balls lumped up to him or crosses into the box? Neither Eze or Connor are a back-to-goal hold-up-the ball striker.
Eze though is the player who suffers the most from the ineptitude on display. A clearly gifted player with the ability to subtly shift his weight and bamboozle defenders, an eye for a pass and capable of striking with both feet. Eze is a player that, with the right support, would be running any game at this level. Instead the System doesn't lend him that support and in the last 15 minutes against Bristol he started trying to make things happen with some outrageous punts of the ball, none of which came off. I do feel for him; at least Jesus Christ only had to use water to make wine.
Our club is seriously broken, a continual merry-go-round of managers who arrive to much fan-fare from the Club attempts to assure the Fans that QPR is serious, we're making progress, we're going to be competitive in this league. Each pre-owned manager starts with the "getting this club back where it belongs" bollocks. Their cliche riddled speeches on the importance of attitude over results have reached a point where it's hard to distinguish who said what and when. After a series of mediocre results, said manager then scurries out the back door well before their contract completes. Another dollop of compensation for another failure, a further drift towards destruction for QPR.
I can imagine Ollie having an argument with himself on Tuesday night about his precious QPR. Much like Gollum arguing with Smeagol, Ollie, proud Bristol Rover and QPR supporter, would be furious with a performance that lacked desire and ended in a loss to Bristol City but feeling vindicated that he'd done the job last year before his unceremonious dumping at the end of the season.
QPR have now engaged the services of two strikers who seem to know how to score goals and, with this article being produced just before the Wigan game, I'm not sure how they will invigorate or salvage a point in that game. I don't recall the last time a QPR result surprised me.
