PLAYER WATCH v QPR (H)

[tonyoz]

PLAYER WATCH v QPR (H)

Each incident in the match was rated on the following scale: 

+5 GOAL 

+4 Excellent play 

+3 Very good play 

+2 Pleasing/good play 

+1 Decent play 

  0 Routine stuff 

-1 Sloppy play 

 -2 Disappointing/poor play  

 -3 Very poor play 

 -4 Terrible play 

 -5 Own goal 

The ratings for each player were then combined to produce a measure of the players overall contribution to the match. 

 
Ratings       

Key incidents per player = coloured stars              Overall contribution = numbers

Kaminski                         **     7                               

Nyambe (52)                  *******   *     7

Lenihan                           ******************  *****     18 

van Hecke                       **************  ******      16

Wharton                         ************  *********     6

Pickering (70)                ************  *******    2 

Travis                              *************  *********     2     

Johnson                          ***********  ********    4        

Dolan                              ******************  *****     23     

Gallagher (66)                ************ ******     11

Khadra                            ***************** ***********     7 

 

Zeefuik (52)                   ******  **     7

Hedges (66)                   ***** ****     2 

Giles (70)                        ***** **     5 

 

Highlights and Lowlights 

(A justification for the main ratings given above)

Five games without a goal! We are also in danger of sliding out of the top 6. This is a big, big game. No Rothwell, no Diaz, no Ayala but Dolan and Johnson are in.

 

05 Khadra’s fancy footwork makes Adomah look silly by sending him the wrong way down Bolton Road and he’s away. He slips it to Dolan who carries the ball across the edge of the box under physical challenge by the defender. He’s fouled eventually in a great position. Dolan has been his usual bundle of energy since the start. It’s just to the right of the D and Pickering hammers it directly into the wall. Disappointing. 

07 Johnson’s doing ok in the centre of midfield, distributing simple balls forwards. This one’s to Gallagher who wins a corner. The keeper punches away. This is a better start than we’ve had for a while.

08 Persistent pestering by Dolan again wins a throw in. He’s a better option in the so-called false 9 position I think

10 It’s also a delight to see Dolan fizzing around at our throw ins, offering the option. All too often, in recent times, our throw ins have been embarrassing! This time he wins a corner for his efforts. The fans love it.

I notice, for the first time in ages, that I’m writing more blue than orange! This is an encouraging start and we are making QPR look second best in all areas.

Oops! Khadra’s corner goes over everyone and rolls into touch on the far wing!

11 More Dolan pressing sees the defender pass directly to Khadra but the move fizzles out.

13 A bad tackle on halfway by Travis.

14 Van Hecke has this happy knack of dispossessing the man running straight at him. He does that here and slips it to Nyambe. The ball goes back to van Hecke, on halfway, and he launches a wonderful crossfield ball to the feet of Khadra who is totally unmarked 25 yards out. He runs into the box and the goalie comes out to challenge. Khadra, from 14 yards, tries to put it to the left of him but it’s a poor effort and the goalie stops it with his foot. Bad, bad one on one miss!

24 Two poor corners from the left by Khadra. Neither got past the near post! He’s having a nightmare patch right now.

28 The second poor pass from Johnson in as many minutes. Khadra flies down the wing, outpacing the defender, but his cross is a bit average and Rangers clear.

29 Some nice one touch interplay between Khadra and Johnson gets the ball to Dolan. He slips the ball beautifully, between 2 defenders to Khadra on the edge of the box. He takes it to the left corner of the 6 yard box but again he can’t finish. The defender gets back, slides in, and manages to deflect the shot sideways and Rangers clear.

30 A Gallagher cameo! First he gets up to a long clearance and flicks the ball on for Nyambe to chase. Then he blocks the defender’s attempt to clear and finally he races across the pitch to put in a full-bloodied sliding challenge to dispossess Adomah. Good stuff!

32 QPR have been made to look poor so far but now they have some possession; passing the ball around neatly in our half. Good pressing forces them backwards though. After dozens of passes, they eventually give the ball away! Oh! then van Hecke passes it straight back to them! Wharton cuts out the next Rangers forward ball.

34 Wowee….now we have some proper attacking play from Rangers! They come down their left wing and shift the ball central to Hendrick, unmarked, 35 yards out. He slides it behind our entire defence line to Adomah in the box - Pickering has left him free! Yet again Kaminski is the saviour, he goes down to block Adomah’s first-time shot from 6 yards. Great save!

35 It’s all QPR!

36 Here they come again and an unmarked Chair receives the ball 13 yards out but he fluffs his shot and it’s just wide. That was a good chance! Our defence looks rattled.

38 A nice ball from Johnson to Khadra allows him to edge into the box by the byline but the defender puts the ball into touch. Pickering’s corner is average, bouncing before it reaches the goal, but it falls to Lenihan just to the right of the penalty spot. He receives on his thigh I think, and off-balance and falling backwards attempts a left-footed shot but it’s well wide. Our set-pieces continue to be disappointing.

40 Khadra receives the ball on the wing, 24 yards out and whips in an in-swinging cross. Gallagher comes flying in at the far post but he’s at least a yard off. He takes out the Rangers keeper. This is the thing about Khadra….he can be infuriating, running down blind alleys, poor passes, terrible misses but he does make things happen!

43 QPR are persisting with their “play it out from the back” tactic and it almost costs them. Rovers are pressing well and this time Gallagher robs the full back on the edge of his own box. He slips the ball sideways to Johnson 15 yards out but it’s powder-puff along the ground and the goalie drops on it easily. Another bad miss. Rangers stream down to the other end of the pitch where we are struggling to get a foot on the ball until van Hecke sweeps in to dispossess the attacker. Arrgh! Pickering passes straight to Chair, unmarked and 26 yards out! He beats Wharton’s challenge and is into the D where Travis puts in a good block to clear. It’s hectic all around our box.

45 QPR have changed their keeper.

48 Gallagher receives the ball at the right corner of the box and lofts a cross to the far post, the defender gets there but can only glance the ball to Pickering, who passes the ball back to Khadra in the left corner of the box. He goes for goal again and the keeper makes a good diving save with his fingertips. 

49 Johnson nods a lovely ball through to Dolan who runs across the box but he’s out-muscled by Dunne. We get the ball back and Khadra, on the wing and 20 yards out puts in another in-swinging cross to the far post but it’s just too far for Gallagher and the goalie collects.

52 Rovers break forward nicely and Johnson has the chance to send Nyambe into the box but his pass lacks pace and Nyambe has to slow down to gather but his touch isn’t perfect and the defender makes up ground and tackles him at the side of the box. This looks bad, Nyambe leaves on a stretcher!

57 Zeefuik on.

58 Zeefuik chases down the full back and blocks his clearance which bounces straight to Dolan in the box. He tries to dribble into the 6 yard box but wins a corner. It’s loud! Another poor corner by Pickering!

63 Dolan tries an ambitious shot from 25 yards but it’s row Z time.

68 Travis is dispossessed on our left wing and Gray is away. Wharton blocks but only to Field on the edge of the box. Van Hecke only manages half a challenge and it goes to Gray again, on the byline. His cross is blocked by Lenihan and finally Hendrick lobs the ball onto the roof of the net.

74 Hedges first touch of the ball is a bad one as he mis-passes and allows a promising move to break down. Excellent persistence from Khadra, riding several tackles, before he unleashes a mighty, long crossfield ball to the feet of Hedges on the left wing. He slips it inside to Giles who runs down the edge of the box to the byline. He gets in a cross which is touched by the defender and looks like it’s going in and the goalie, on the near post, has to push it behind! We take it short and Travis is fouled a few yards from the corner flag. 

76 It’s about 8 yards from the byline and Khadra fires in another inswinger. The ball goes over the substitute keeper, who flaps at it, and whistles into the net! The relief is palpable…..all the players rush to Khadra and embrace him. He looks like he’s going to burst into tears. I confess, I was thinking to myself……get someone else to take this kick….his set-pieces have been poor! You’ve got to hand it to the lad though…..he’s got the bottle to keep trying. 

78 Oh! QPR come straight back. Johnson is outmuscled in midfield and Gray is away flying towards our box. Van Hecke is there as the immovable wall and clears up the problem.

79 Wharton and van Hecke allow Gray too much space in our box and Hendrick lobs the ball right to his feet but he runs into Kaminski who collects the bobbling ball.

83 Travis cuts out the keeper's flat pass and the ball goes to Dolan near the D. He takes it on and gets in a decent shot but the keeper saves. Hedges collects the rebound but he’s offside. Giles dispossesses the defender and streaks off towards goal. He’s into the box but it’s a narrow angle and his shot hits the goalie at the near post. Dolan was available, square in the 6 yard box, and he throws up his arms in frustration. I think Giles has something about him though. He too can make things happen.

84 Another poor Travis tackle earns him a yellow card.He looks knackered.

85 Giles picks up the ball midway in the QPR half and inter-passes nicely with Dolan and Hedges and he’s into the box but overruns the ball slightly and the keeper gets a hand to it. He tries a couple more times to put the ball back into the danger area but each time he hits the keeper! Rangers finally clear.

93 Zeefuik wins a header from a long punt and Hedges slips the ball through to Dolan who chips the goalie and the ball lands on top of the crossbar…..but I think he knew he was offside. 

94 The fans are nervous and whistling away!

95 Wharton and van Hecke are both beaten to a high punt into the box but the ball falls nicely for Kaminski to drop on it. The whistle goes and Khadra revels in the adoration as he waits for his teammates to leave the pitch. 

We needed that - it feels as though we might be back on track. Khadra and Dolan together inject so much energy into our play. I enjoyed it! 

 

 

[Herbie6590]

@tonyozdo you keep a master spreadsheet of the scores for all players for all matches by any chance ? 🤔

[tonyoz]

11 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

@tonyozdo you keep a master spreadsheet of the scores for all players for all matches by any chance ? 🤔

I do. Below is the list. Two of the early games are missing as I didn’t have access to the full videos. Players must play at least 60 minutes to be included. If they play less than 90, their scores are scaled up. I think I may have become meaner allocating positive scores as I’ve developed my technique!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Thanks as always Tony, you’re doing a great job. I’m gratified to see your scores marry up with my mental images of how the game panned out.

[Displaced Rover]

4 hours ago, tonyoz said:

I do. Below is the list. Two of the early games are missing as I didn’t have access to the full videos. Players must play at least 60 minutes to be included. If they play less than 90, their scores are scaled up. I think I may have become meaner allocating positive scores as I’ve developed my technique!

 

Scores show how immense the 3 centre backs have been. Rock solid.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 minutes ago, Displaced Rover said:

Scores show how immense the 3 centre backs have been. Rock solid.

And what a threat Dolan was.

[tonyoz]

1 hour ago, Displaced Rover said:

Scores show how immense the 3 centre backs have been. Rock solid.

This has been the big change this year I think. You can add Ayala to our current 3. He was so important in the early days….setting a great example to everyone.

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

And what a threat Dolan was.

He was! For a team intent on passing out from the back, he must be a nightmare. I love his energy but his passing was good too. He had a good all-round game.

[Herbie6590]

6 hours ago, tonyoz said:

I do. Below is the list. Two of the early games are missing as I didn’t have access to the full videos. Players must play at least 60 minutes to be included. If they play less than 90, their scores are scaled up. I think I may have become meaner allocating positive scores as I’ve developed my technique!

We need to revisit this at season’s end in some detail 😀

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

11 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

We need to revisit this at season’s end in some detail 😀

Is that an accountant speaking ?

[bluebruce]

7 hours ago, tonyoz said:

I do. Below is the list. Two of the early games are missing as I didn’t have access to the full videos. Players must play at least 60 minutes to be included. If they play less than 90, their scores are scaled up. I think I may have become meaner allocating positive scores as I’ve developed my technique!

You're doing great work but I see a problem. According to this, Gallagher has been as good as Brereton, which I'm sure only a madman or Gally's mum would believe.

I may have said this previously, but I think you should give higher weighting to goals than you currently do.

[Herbie6590]

5 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Is that an accountant speaking ?

A data geek…😉

[tonyoz]

8 hours ago, bluebruce said:

You're doing great work but I see a problem. According to this, Gallagher has been as good as Brereton, which I'm sure only a madman or Gally's mum would believe.

I may have said this previously, but I think you should give higher weighting to goals than you currently do.

Thanks for your interest bluebruce. I have thought about this myself; whoscored.com seem to allocate a high weighting to goals scored and to assists but I’m often bemused by the fact that most of the players tend to get similar scores. So this isn’t perfect either. As I’ve mentioned before, in our 0-7 drubbing by Fulham there were only 1.5 marks between all of the Rovers players….including subs and van Hecke (who was sent off after 30 min!). 

Just for fun, I adjusted the scores in the table to see the affect of increasing the score for goals scored. 
Trial 1: what if the score for goals scored is increased to +7?

Diaz’s average score increases to 13 Gallager’s to 12. Not much change!

Trial 2: so what if I double the score for goals scored to +10?

Diaz is now averaging 15, Gallagher 13. So it doesn’t make as much difference as you might think!

And if I increase the weighting for goals scored, don’t I have to increase the score for “assists”? It starts to get complex. If you count the stars above you can see that I made 226 “assessments” in this game, so I’ve got to keep the scoring simple…..or, of course, I could get a life, heh heh!

I’d like to know what others think.

Edited February 28, 2022 by tonyoz

[tonyoz]

Here’s another thought. You can see above that Khadra has 2 red stars for his 2 “misses” which contributed -7 to his score. If those efforts had gone in, his total score would have been 24!

Similarly Diaz ends up with low scores because of misses or even persistent offsides. Against WBA, for instance, Diaz had 3 good chances but each time he was offside. On 2 of those occasions, he put the ball in the net! His overall score for that game was +5. It could have been +22 if these few incidents had gone better. I think these “errors of judgement” have to be counted against him. Maybe we have to look at his goals scored separately and value them for what they are. We know he has been a great goal scorer this term but his all round play still has flaws.

[Herbie6590]

@tonyoz A defender heading a goal bound shot off the line…is the maximum score for this 4 ? Similarly say…keeper saving a penalty ? 

[tonyoz]

10 hours ago, Herbie6590 said:

@tonyoz A defender heading a goal bound shot off the line…is the maximum score for this 4 ? Similarly say…keeper saving a penalty ? 

+4 = saves a “certain” goal (like Dolan’s effort …previous match or Kaminski’s 1 on 1 with Adomah this match or any penalty), or sets up a “certain” goal (e.g. assist or wins penalty)

-4 = sets up a “certain” goal for opposition (e.g. concedes penalty) or misses ‘certain’ goal (e.g. misses open goal or penalty)

Edited March 1, 2022 by tonyoz

[LDRover]

Great work Tony.

Strange the low score for Johnson though, I thought he played very well.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 minutes ago, LDRover said:

Great work Tony.

Strange the low score for Johnson though, I thought he played very well.

I thought he did ok but he lacks mobility these days.

[tonyoz]

2 hours ago, LDRover said:

Great work Tony.

Strange the low score for Johnson though, I thought he played very well.

Thanks LD. He caught the eye on occasion (see my comment on 7 minutes) but was punished by some negative incidents. For instance, if that bad miss had gone in on 43 minutes his score would be instantly transformed to +12!

His second half was good. Here’s how I assessed his performance in more detail:

First half:       +1 -1 -1 -2 +2 -2 +1 +2 -3  = -3

Second half.  +2 +1 -1 -1 +1 +2 +1 -1 +2 +1  = +7

[tonyoz]

On 01/03/2022 at 00:39, bluebruce said:

You're doing great work but I see a problem. According to this, Gallagher has been as good as Brereton, which I'm sure only a madman or Gally's mum would believe.

I may have said this previously, but I think you should give higher weighting to goals than you currently do.

I just noticed the average scores on whoscored. Diaz 7.11 and Gallagher 6.95.