NEGATIVE R'S TAKE LIBERTIES by Simon Skinner
A decent report and I totally agree hence posting this.
Taken at face value and with no knowledge of this game and how it panned out, a goalless draw away at Swansea sounds like a decent result. Anyone that was there will attest to the fact that this was one of the most negative displays of football ever witnessed and the folly was only added to by the fact that Rangers failed to register a single shot in anger against an outfield player playing in goal.
Having registered a decent win on Saturday Dowie did what Dowie does and changed the side. That makes it exactly zero consecutive games in which he has selected the same starting XI this season. Come good performance or bad, he simply cannot resist tinkering with the side and he has to shoulder a large part of the blame for the inconsistencies in performance, how do players get to know each others games if there is a different bloke next to them every week?
Cerny was in goal behind a back four of Ramage, Hall, Stewart and Delaney. Mahon and Leigertwood were screening the back four with Buzsaky, Rowlands and Cook ahead of them. Blackstock was alone, sometimes very alone, up front. Parejo was back on the bench as was Saturday’s goal scorer Balanta.
Rangers actually managed to get the first attack of the game on the board. Cook fired a ball to the far post which Leigertwood managed to keep in; he knocked it back to Buzsaky who in turn sent in a cross that Blackstock headed wide. That was Rangers only attempt at goal of the half and one of only two vaguely reasonable attempts they would have all night.
Swansea then started to get their foot on the ball. They passed and moved, then passed and moved again and again and again and again. All the while Rangers watched, occasionally they would intercept a pass and smash it toward the forlorn figure of Blackstock. He would battle gamely as he does and then lose out and the passing would start again. This went on for the entire evening.
Roberto Martinez had clearly identified the full back area as a weakness for Rangers. Mind you, it doesn’t exactly take a rocket scientist to figure out that in Delaney and Ramage we have two of the slowest and poorly positioned players in the land. Mark Gower tore Ramage a new arse in the first half; he skipped past him at will or just waited for him to lumber slightly up field and then lurked behind him safe in the knowledge that he didn’t have a prayer of getting back at him. On the other side Jordi Gomez was having similar joy against Delaney who collected a fifth booking of the season after mowing him down. Thankfully he will now be suspended for a game so we can all have a night off from him.
The Swans had a couple of half hearted efforts at goal in the opening twenty minutes. Gomez dipped a free kick over the bar and Jason Scotland, who actually touched the ball more with his hands than either of the Swansea keepers, saw an effort deflected over the bar by Hall with Cerny hoping it hadn’t looped over him and in.
On twenty seven minutes the moment the game really turned away from Rangers occurred. Leigertwood slipped a through ball past the Swansea defence and in a rare moment of attacking play Rowlands surged from midfield in pursuit. Dorus De Vries in the Swansea goal was quickly off his line and he slid in and Rowlands slid in and there was an almighty collision. The physio was quickly on and signalled straight away that De Vries was done for the night. It transpired that he has a fractured cheek and jaw. In my opinion the ball was there to be won and Rowlands certainly didn’t try to do the keeper. He was rightly cautioned by Bates.
It soon became clear to the R’s fans that there was no keeper on the Swansea bench as Alan Tate made a hasty change into a keeper’s kit on the touchline. The defender was nominated sub keeper as Martinez generally doesn’t have one on his bench which I always find odd. It mattered little though as the quite pathetic Rangers passing game failed to force him into a solitary save for the remainder of the game.
Swansea were galvanised by the seeming injustice they had witnessed and aided and abetted by some generous and often blatantly one sided refereeing from Bates they set about attacking non stop and ensuring that every foul was made to look like GBH. Bates was happy to go along with this ruse and somehow managed to book six R’s players whilst apparently awarding just ten free kicks to the home side.
The home side seemed to be using Dutchman Ferrie Bodde as the focal points for their attacks and he had two long range pot shots off target as well as seeing a free kick crash into the wall after Bates penalised Cook for a perfectly good challenge on the edge of the box. The brute Akos Buzsaky had also gone into the book by this point for a routine foul on half way, a free kick yes, a booking, never in a million years.
Half time was as blessed a relief for the R’s fans as it was for the players. The formation wasn’t working, Rangers weren’t pressing the ball well, they weren’t keeping it when they got it back and they were posing no threat whatsoever. A second striker might have given a different option, instead Dowie stuck with what he had and the second half fell quickly into the same pattern as the first but with a slight difference, the home side actually managed to muster the odd shot on target.
Three times in the opening three minutes Cerny was called into action. A tame strike from Scotland was fielded before he flew across his goal to hold a good strike from Pratley after the former Fulham man advanced from midfield. Soon after he kept out a shot from Gower after he cut in from the left wing. It was a good flurry of action from the home side and some excellent keeping from Cerny.
Leigertwood was carded for wafting a hand near the feather light Gomez and then Stewart was also booked when Britton knocked the ball past him and then changed direction to run into the big Jamaican. Poor show from Britton and poor refereeing from Bates not to spot such a blatant piece of gamesmanship.
Alan Tate was frozen half to death by now, I am sure at one point he was considering nipping out for a brew. I reckon he would have got away with it with his clean sheet intact if he had chosen to. At the other end Swansea continued to smash a succession of wild efforts at goal with Cerny more than happy to see them flying at all angles past the target.
Rowlands and Cook were withdrawn and Parejo and Ledesma sent on as Dowie changed things up. All this really served to do was give Swansea a couple of different players to wander past at will. Rangers actually then had another shot when Parejo seized on a clearance and shot only to see the ball hit Stewart and trickle wide.
Swansea mustered their final shot on target when Rangers were caught out on a short corner for what must have been the tenth time in the game. The ball was fed into the box and skipper Monk sent the ball goalward only to see Parejo appear and coolly clear the danger. The dangerous Gomez then had Rangers hearts in mouths as he seized on an inexplicable error from the hopeless Ramage. Having cut out a pass, instead of just clearing he hooked the ball back into his own box. Gomez got it out of his feet and crashed it against the outside of the post.
Ramage was hauled off for Connolly late on and the replacement right back went into the book. He was the sixth. Ramage must have been injured to be taken off as I don’t see why Dowie would take him off that late otherwise. Having watched his incompetent boobery for eighty minutes you have to wonder what had changed. I fully expect him to be stinking up the right flank at Reading on Saturday evening.
The final whistle brought a huge sigh of relief from the R’s fans as well as a burning sense of anger that many had driven the thick end of four hundred miles and shelled out god knows how much to watch a team show absolutely no attacking intentions whatsoever. Dowie says he wasn’t happy with the display but I don’t buy that. The team started negatively and got worse, he could have changed it but he didn’t, he let it fester. A negative mindset from the off couldn’t be shaken off and to fail to have a single shot in anger at a bloody defender in goal is unforgiveable.
As I said at the start, on face value this is a good point. Had Swansea had anyone in the side that could finish a sandwich then they would have smashed Rangers to pieces but they didn’t so they didn’t. Chances have to be taken when they arrive and they couldn’t do it. They were the only team doing any sort of attacking yet they get the same reward as a team that doesn’t want to get out of their own half. One thing I do know is that if Rangers had passed a team to death at Loftus Road for a nil nil then they would have been booed off at the end!
Now I know I slagged Dowie off earlier for changing things but he has to for the Reading game. If we persist with this negativity at the Everyone Look At Me, This Is My Club And Don’t You Forget It Stadium on Saturday then Reading will marmalise us. I would rather get beaten having tried to have a go than get beaten having tried to close the game out from the first minute. Come on Dowie, give us something to enjoy for the money.
simon@qprnet.com
