November 26, 2006
| Pkd | Inf | Name | Position | Morale | Form | Con | Apps | Gls | Av Rat |
| GK | | Chris Day | GK | Superb | 7-6-8-6-9 | 100% | 13 (1) | - | 7.14 |
| DR | Unh | Steve Finnan | D/DM R | Okay | 8-6-7-7-7 | 100% | 3 (2) | - | 7.00 |
| DL | | Michael Ball | D/DM L | Superb | 7-7-7-7-7 | 100% | 17 | - | 7.18 |
| DC | | Abubakari Yakubu | D/DM RC | Superb | 7-7-8-7-7 | 100% | 14 (1) | - | 7.40 |
| DC | | Pascal Cygan | D C | Superb | 8-8-7-8-7 | 100% | 16 | - | 7.44 |
| DMC | | Freddy Guarín | DM RC | Very Poor | 10-6-7-7-5 | 100% | 13 (2) | 3 | 7.33 |
| DMC | | Fábio Rochemback | DM C | Superb | 7-7-7-8-7 | 100% | 5 (4) | - | 6.78 |
| MR | | Damiano Zenoni | DM RC | Superb | 7-8-8-7-7 | 100% | 10 (3) | - | 7.23 |
| ML | | Fabrice Fernandes | AM RL | Superb | 8-8-7-8-8 | 100% | 13 (3) | 1 | 7.50 |
| FC | | Güiza | S C | Superb | 8-7-7-7-7 | 100% | 13 (3) | 6 | 7.19 |
| FC | | Cristiano Lucarelli | S C | Good | 7-7-7-7-7 | 100% | 7 (6) | 4 | 6.77 |
| S1 | Unh | Generoso Rossi | GK | Okay | 8-5-8-7-7 | 100% | 4 | - | 6.50 |
| S2 | Inj | Danny Shittu | D C | Superb | 8-8-7-7-8 | 76% | 15 | 1 | 7.47 |
| S3 | | Martin Rowlands | AM RC | Very Good | 7-7-7-7-7 | 100% | 7 (8) | 1 | 7.00 |
| S4 | | Peter Løvenkrands | F LC | Superb | 8-7-4-7-7 | 100% | 3 (9) | - | 7.08 |
| S5 | Unh | Paul Dickov | S C | Superb | 6-7-7-7-8 | 98% | - | - | - |
| - | | Tomas Locatelli | AM LC | Superb | 7-7-7-6-8 | 97% | 4 (5) | - | 7.00 |
| - | Inj | Grzegorz Rasiak | S C | Superb | 8-7-7-7-7 | 30% | 14 (1) | 5 | 7.13 |
| - | | Cedric van der Gun | AM/F C | Very Good | 7-7-7-7-7 | 79% | 12 | 3 | 7.17 |
League Match #15: we play Chelsea at the newly renovated Loftus Road. They're currently 3rd, but only 7 points ahead of us. They are 4-5 favourites to win this game.
I decide to play a 4-2-2-2 formation with back arrows on the two strikers.
Danny Shittu is still not fully healed from his injury. I move
Abubakiri Yakubu to DC and start
Steve Finnan at DR.
Paul Dickov is on the bench as a sub and will remain with the first team with the injury to
Grzegorz Rasiak.
Chelsea show a 4-3-3 formation to start the game.
This game is on TV and
Abubakiri Yakubu is presented are our key man. They say the team has only conceded 12 goals in teh 15 games the defender has played in. Chelsea's key man is
Frank Lampard and they say the midfielder is a player who can really dominate the midfield is allowed the space.
Their prediction is that Chelsea are on a high and that form should be enough to get them a victory of Q.P.R.
Well, this is not a good start to the game...
In the fourth minute, after clearing one attack, they come right back through the center and head the ball in. Down 0-1. At that point, 9 of our 11 starters are rated at 5...
In the 10th minute,
Cristiano Ronaldo, acquired to the tune of $94M by Chelsea from Man Utd, is alone with a
Chris Day who's rushing out.
Day is nowhere good enough to rival with
Ronaldo who goes easily around him and knocks home the 0-2 goal. At that point,
Freddy Guarín is rated at 4
The half ends with us down 0-2. They're outshooting us, but not outrageously, 4(4) to 3(2).
Day,
Zenoni,
Guarín, and
Güiza are all rated at 5 at the half... I pull
Chris Day and replace him with
Generoso Rossi.
The crowd in attendance is a new Q.P.R. record: 24,993 spectators, 7 short of a sellout!!!
Freddy Guarín goes crazy in the 59th minute when he receives both a yellow and a red card on the same sequence, his red coming when he got furious with the referee after getting the yellow.
COME ON KID!!!
In the 62nd minute, Michael Ball clears an incoming corner kick down the right of the field. It'S a footrace between
Peter Lovenkrands and
Martin Rowlands.
Rowlands understands he should let the speedy Lovenkrands get to it first, which
Love does. He takes the ball forward a bit more before centering it to the edge of the 6 yard box where
Güiza is waiting, unmarked. He scores an easy goal.
Final Score: Q.P.R. 1, Chelsea 2
ARG, we had a legitimate shot at this game, if not for the two early goals. We did oushoot them 9(5) to 7(6) on the game.
Chris Day rated at only 5 while
Generoso Rossi did very well as his replacement, rating at 9 and getting the
Man of the Match selection.
We remain in 7th place with the loss.
| Pos | Team | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |
| 1st | Arsenal | 15 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 46 | 11 | +35 | 35 |
| 2nd | Chelsea | 15 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 32 | 15 | +17 | 33 |
| 3rd | Man Utd | 16 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 29 | 15 | +14 | 32 |
| 4th | Charlton | 16 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 21 | 15 | +6 | 28 |
| 5th | Liverpool | 16 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 19 | 15 | +4 | 25 |
| 6th | Fulham | 15 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 29 | 19 | +10 | 24 |
| 7th | Q.P.R. | 15 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 18 | 13 | +5 | 23 |
| 8th | Blackburn | 16 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 18 | 16 | +2 | 23 |
| 9th | Aston Villa | 16 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 19 | 18 | +1 | 23 |
| 10th | Tottenham | 16 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 21 | 17 | +4 | 22 |
| 11th | Newcastle | 15 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 22 | 19 | +3 | 22 |
| 12th | Middlesbrough | 16 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 19 | 25 | -6 | 19 |
| 13th | Sunderland | 16 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 25 | -14 | 18 |
| 14th | Wolves | 16 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 17 | 25 | -8 | 17 |
| 15th | Bolton | 16 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 11 | 21 | -10 | 16 |
| 16th | Man City | 16 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 15 | 21 | -6 | 15 |
| 17th | Southampton | 15 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 22 | 31 | -9 | 15 |
| 18th | Nottm Forest | 16 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 10 | 29 | -19 | 15 |
| 19th | Birmingham | 15 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 13 | 19 | -6 | 14 |
| 20th | Leicester | 15 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 11 | 34 | -23 | 7 |
Freddy Guarín, who ended the game rated at a lowly 4, will be banned for one match following his sending off in this game.
Following the game,
Generoso Rossi went to the media saying that not being part of the first team at Loftus Road is starting to unsettle him. A football website even conducted a poll to get the fans' view on whether Rossi should be part of The Rs' first team plans. The vas majority of the fans disagree with my decision to leave Rossi out of the first team. The full result to the question "Should Rossi be in the first team?" was: Yes - 87%, No - 6%, Undecided - 7%.
Hrm, we'll see about him starting for us again. He was great at one point last year.
FM