Ellerslie Echo

Ready or Not, here it comes

It’s hard to gauge where we’re at going into this season. Pre-season is a strange old thing where you’ll look comfortable against top opponents then get outplayed by a non-league club, or where players get tried out for a whole summer and look as if they may have a breakthrough season, to then not play a single league game. 

It’s also hard when you’re watching your team play, not to look into the results and performances and overanalyse. Pre-season is all about trying new things and assessing the squad, but us fans obviously manage to forget that every year. Regardless, there were some positives, and some not-so-positives to take away from this summer, and I’m just personally ready for the real thing to start again – but I’m not so convinced that the club is..

The R’s return from Europe was marked with a friendly against Cardiff at the training ground, which, due to the 2pm kick off on a week day, I was unsurprisingly unable to watch. Initially going 2-0 down in the first half, we managed to pull it back and finish on a draw.

To start with, Stephan trialled a double pivot with Sam Field and Harvey Vale – I doubt that will happen again when Varane is fit. Field continued his run of horror-shows, with his feet sticking to the ball in the middle of a sandwich between two Cardiff players on the edge of our box to give a goal away within 10 minutes. 

This was followed by a characteristic Ruben Colwill screamer, which not much could be done about. We did manage to get a response in the first half when the ball bounced off a defender’s shin for Dembele to drill home first-time from the edge of the box. 

Cardiff scored a third in the second half but this was given offside – I think because there was a player obstructing Walsh’s view? Either way we got away with one and managed to find an equaliser when Madsen played a lovely first-time ball on the half-volley through to Bennie, who made a good run to then lay it off for his mate Pearman to finish. 

A game which started badly looked as if it was going to be one of those ‘oh well it’s only pre-season’ kind of results but we managed to salvage something against a team who will likely be coming back next season anyway. 

The Saturday that followed then saw us return to Loftus Road to premier the return of green and white hoops in front of a fairly unbothered South Africa Road and a small crowd of drunken Dutch men who probably sounded a lot louder to me due to the empty ground. 

Heerenveen finished 9th in the Eredivisie last season, top of the bottom half, so I wasn’t expecting it to be an easy game but I was expecting slightly more from them. Rangers weren’t any better, and started with a familiar story – the midfield struggling to string more than two passes together whilst being wide open off the ball. 

Ilias Chair at false 9 is unfortunately a set-up we may genuinely have to see on occasions this season if we don’t resolve the striker issue. He’s almost completely taken out of the game when played here which is just frustrating for him to be a part of and painful for us to watch. 

Dembele started out on the left and effortlessly pinged home a screamer with his weak foot into the top corner – proving again to be the stand out player for us going into the season. Poku posed a threat down the other side but couldn’t quite get his delivery right, not that there was anyone to receive it if he did. 

Larkeche started at left back and got the assist for the first goal, before Kealey Adamson got the Santos treatment in the second half, being forced to play on his opposite side – an odd one since Esquerdinha seems to be raring to go, and the young Brazilian put out an interesting tweet after full-time, which I’ll touch on shortly.

It’s fair to say left-back didn’t go well for the Aussie, he was getting run all over the shop. Giving the ball away in midfield for the equaliser (from a weak Morgan pass, mind), repeatedly getting beaten down his side, and having the ball knocked around him like he was a mannequin, he certainly did a good job in emphasising our need for a left-back. 

Field and Morgan had a poor first half but definitely improved in the second, with much better movement and passing on show. Despite the equaliser we actually looked in control of the game for a short while and responded only 2 minutes later with a terrific long ball from Walsh to Bennie who cleverly lobbed the keeper on the bounce. 

As it’s pre-season, Stephan had to change things around, and this was where the game went a bit stale, as expected in a friendly. The rest of the game was about giving game time to some of the younger lads, during which we also saw some living proof that Rayan Kolli exists. He was put out on the left but not given good service, with almost every attempted ball in his direction failing to reach him, stifling his impact. Sutton looked hungry on the right but again had no natural finishers to support him. 

Lorent Talla, Alex Aoraha and Tim Akindileni were brought on and the two midfielders’ lack of first team experience was clear. Akindileni looked fairly comfortable on the ball and showed again his love for a diagonal pass, but was defensively shaky.

The equaliser came with 18 minutes to go when Adamson was beaten with a simple pass again followed by some pretty sleepy defending from his teammates, which meant a shot off the bar led to the ball falling at Jimmy Dunne’s feet without him realising, allowing the scorer to finish with no challenge. 

A 2-2 draw is probably fair for what was a typical friendly – nothing was at stake and that was how the game was treated, showing in both teams’ performances.

Brentford came to town after this, that lot were always going to be up for it and obviously sold out their allocation – why not? A huge day out for them.  

Anyway I was unable to attend due to the Gallagher brothers’ reunion finally reaching Wembley. Admittedly I could’ve attended both but I wasn’t going to let a friendly against our biggest bogey team in my lifetime drain any excitement in my body and ruin the mood. Therefore I have very little to go off for this one – and after speaking to fans of both sides, it doesn’t sound like it was one to write home about, or read up on either. 

Despite losing the core of their team and their manager, I wasn’t expecting a good result. I’ve always hated playing Brentford. It’s tiresome. So When Nathan Collins put them 1-0 up inside 2 minutes, I switched off mentally and expected a battering. 

From what I’ve heard though we held our own for the rest of the game against what I’ve been told was 90% route one, expected from a team who’ve just given their set-piece coach the manager’s job. It does sound like it was another toothless one from us where we still seem to lack the grit and physicality that’s been such an issue the past few years.

I will go easy on them here however, as 1-0 against a mid-table Premier League team is not bad going – they’re always going to not only out-play you but physically dominate you, and if it wasn’t Brentford we’d lost to, no one would be too bothered.

A lot of the post-game chat contained panic about our need for a new left-back ahead of Larkeche. I can’t comment on his performance in this game but I can say that if he is our starting left-back then we will probably have some problems. He’s been alright from what I’ve seen of him so far but a loan spell in Scotland may as well be a League Two loan so I’m not sure he’s developed enough to be a starter. 

Overall, there’s not much to say about the Brentford game, so I won’t bore you with any more on that. That concludes the rest of pre-season, so what follows is an assessment of the squad, going through every player and what I think of their potential impact, giving an overall review of areas we need to improve and where we are strongest. 

Despite a handful of shockers over the years we have historically been very lucky with goalkeepers. Paul Nardi definitely supports that statement and played a huge role in keeping us up. He has his flaws but he was never one I expected to be dropped, and despite having two talented young keepers behind him, I never questioned whether or not he’d be number 1 for at least one more year. 

It baffles most of the fanbase, then, why Nardi is being pushed aside for a 23 year-old keeper who’s made less than 30 professional league appearances. Joe Walsh has bags of potential but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. He‘ll still be finding his feet and it’s just an added risk that we didn’t need. 

We’ve seen hints of route one tactics in our own pre-season performances, and Joe Walsh’s kicks have come in handy a couple of times, including the assist for Bennie. So my guess is that Stephan sees more ability from Walsh with his feet for playing long balls and/or playing out from the back. But that is all it is, a guess.

Moving into defence, taking a deeper look at our options I’m slightly more concerned than I was when I posted my last piece. It’s pretty clear that Jimmy Dunne will be starting at right-back – obviously understandable after his performances as of late, but there’s every chance of this backfiring or an injury popping up, then our only natural option behind him is an Aussie who’s played one season in the A-League.

Dunne’s influence on the team not just as a leader but tactically is unparalleled, with his vocalism, strength and aerial prowess, so for now I’m not too concerned about this spot as long as he stays fit.

Amadou Mbuenge was a signing I was happy with, especially on a free transfer, and I assumed he was intended to slot straight in at centre half where Cook’s fitness held him back. However I’ve since heard that he can also play right-back and there’s whispers of this being a potential plan for him.

If this is the case then I’m even more confused why another central defender hasn’t been signed – Jimmy Dunne can be used here but it’s not where he’s at his best, and we basically stayed in the division because of Ronnie Edwards’ heroics, so while I can accept that finding someone close to his ability would be near impossible on our budget, I thought an effort would at least be made?

Kealey Adamson is another option at right-back but I genuinely have too little knowledge on him to be able to evaluate whether or not I think he’ll be good enough for us, so I have nothing to say on that front other than PLEASE BE DECENT. 

Steve Cook deserved another deal, and I hope he sticks around post-retirement to transition into coaching. I know he’s not ancient but after his injury last season, he just isn’t the same. I thought his role this season would be more of a dressing room influence rather than regular minutes, but as it stands he’s looking to be a starter – the only real justification for this probably being how much we’re paying him.

Next to him is likely to be Liam Morrison. This is probably the selection that the biggest chunk of the fanbase agrees with – solid defensively, calm on the ball, and capable of pinging good diagonal passes (which may be a tool used more frequently under the new boss), we are visually and statistically a better side when he plays. 

As defenders become more involved with ball possession, Left-footed centre-backs become increasingly important and valuable in the market. We already have a very good one in Jake Clarke-Salter (JCS). If you came to Loftus Road for the first time on the off-chance that he was playing – you’d question what on earth a defender as good as him was doing wasting his time at a club struggling in the Championship. 

It will come as no surprise that the answer to this conundrum would be his injury record. Since joining, the most games he’s managed in a season is 33. Last season he played a third of that. The even more worrying part is that it’s not just one recurring injury, it’s a mix of different ones – Calf injuries, hip issues, hamstring tears, the geezer’s muscles are tied together with dental floss.

This will obviously be more depressing for himself than anyone else, as if not for this he’d have had half a chance of competing with Levi Colwill for a spot in Chelsea’s back line. Two seasons ago when he was a regular, if he and Cook played together you knew not many goals were being scored (unless from set-pieces). It was arguably the best CB partnership in the division. 

Morrison slotting in next to him over Cookie would make for a very strong fix, but we just cannot rely on JCS to get a solid string of games together. Tim Akindileni has been utilised a bit during pre-season, grabbing a long-ball assist against Stevenage and getting more minutes in other games, but at only 17 you’d expect him to be sent out on loan rather than being given much responsibility for us just yet. 

On the left side is where more issues arise. Releasing Kenneth Paal was one that most saw coming and there were few complaints about, but that was over two months ago, and no replacement has been found. Ziyad Larkeche was on loan at Dundee last season where he scored 3 and assisted 3, and leaves as a name in the fans’ good books from what I can gather. I don’t actually think he’s been too bad in pre-season but many seem to think otherwise, and as mentioned earlier I can concede that he is not a starter at this level. 

When you hear that your club has signed a young Brazilian left back from Fluminense who’s been on Barcelona’s shortlist, your ears definitely have a little twitch. That’s why when Esquerdinha signed, some (including me) assumed he’d be the upgrade on Paal – even if only signed in January as a Development Squad player who’s likely never even been to Europe, let alone England. 

The 19 year-old (correction on my last issue where I said he was 18) has barely featured in pre-season, which boggles the mind when there may as well be a job advertisement on Indeed for ‘capable championship left-back’ at the club. If he’s too good for the dev squad, but not rated by the coaching staff – why is he here? A sentiment I think he shares, with his ‘Será que eu volto?’ (‘will I come back?’) tweet that was swiftly deleted.

On a pitch as small as Loftus Road’s it’s important to have competent midfielders who can play in tight spaces when in possession and keep a solid structure out of it. Ainsworth didn’t really care about this as his style of football belonged in the 1950s so Marti inherited a midfield that was NOT capable of the Spanish, Cruyff-style tactics he tried to impose on them. 

The Club made an effort to work on this with some recruitment but last season we may as well have just coned off the centre of the park as if it were a training drill where the non-hooped shirts were given possession of the ball and the hooped ones just shadowed them. 

Sam Field being our oldest midfielder at 27 is alarming, and raises more questions about the likely release of Jack Colback. I don’t like to speak badly of Fieldy as he genuinely has been one of my favourite players since joining and has been crucial to us when it looked like we were in the mud. Not once has he hidden when the majority have, and he’s always pulled his socks up and been there when things got scrappy. 

He just can’t be trusted with the ball at his feet. This will sound harsh and over-the-top but It’s quite impressive for a man with such a lack of technical ability to have made it to a level of football this high. It speaks volumes about his grit and determination that he’s managed to become a key player for a Championship side. 

However I think we’ve moved past this now. In my last issue I said we were a better team with him in it – this was because we actually did have a better win rate in games with him in the side than without. So I’m not saying sell him, he’s still useful and can even drop into centre-half when asked. I just don’t think a team can climb the table in a division that has seen such a rapid rise in possession-based, fluid football if their most senior midfielder isn’t comfortable on the ball. 

A *cough* Isaac Hayden *cough* would be the perfect middle ground between Field and Varane when it comes to ability, work-rate, defensiveness, strength and experience, and would make me a lot more confident going into the season. 

Jonathan Varane will arguably be our most important player this year. There were times last season where I felt so confident in his ability to protect his defenders that my heart rate would stay completely the same when attackers were marching with the ball towards our box – a rarity at Loftus Road. I don’t understand how he’s so much stronger than everyone else, players just bounce off of him. 

Strong he may be, but his back will give way if he continues to carry the midfield the way he does. The Frenchman has improved massively on picking the ball up on the half turn and moving it forward but he still needs someone next to him who can do the same thing and offer him support. Field is great for winning duels and slide tackles but if you want to play the ball through the midfield and find your attackers you need someone better. 

A Hayden-type player, next to Varane, would give us so much more structure, both in and out of possession, and would solve a lot of issues. If we don’t get this, Harvey Vale is probably the best option. He may not be a 6 but he is brilliant for carrying the ball forward so if it’s a case of working with what we’ve got, I want to see him next to Varane, and that could work – we are still yet to see it. The youngster just isn’t as defensive, or experienced as someone like Hayden (that’s the last hint I’ll drop). 

Vale is versatile enough to cover for Chair, Poku and Dembele, too. On top of a cracking left foot and solid technical ability, it’s very evident through his dribbling and passing that he was a captain at an elite academy set-up. Left-back is apparently another one of his positions but Stephan doesn’t seem to think so. His best position is clearly as an 8, entrusted with ball progression and a strong passing range, whilst creating chances where possible.

With all this being said, I do think a lot of these issues could be solved by keeping Jack Colback. He is almost the personification of everything I’m asking for here – comfortable on the ball, good on the half turn, strong in the tackle – an experienced, clever midfielder. He does have discipline issues but sometimes you need a player like that. It doesn’t look likely however, that he’ll stay and if the club can’t agree a deal with him then it is what it is.

I wrote about Nico Madsen in my league predictions but I’ll give a brief rundown of what I said – if he could use his size, develop a bit more of a footballing brain, and build his confidence, he could solve a lot of issues for us and progress in his own career. Technically, he could easily be one of the best players at the club, but in game situations, he’s been a passenger so far.

If he does work on those attributes, he could be like a new signing this season. I definitely don’t think he’ll be trusted with the defensive side of things, the bloke barely made 5 tackles last season. But if he can figure out how to use his technical ability to benefit the team, then his passing range and end product could become very useful tools for us. So far though, the only thing he’s really been good for is taking penalties, and he’s only taken one. 

Kieran Morgan has been such a bonus since making his debut against Coventry. No one had heard of him when he came on at 1-0 down, until he changed the game and scored the equaliser on the volley. We haven’t looked back since, with him becoming a regular in the side. 

His lack of experience shows on occasions, but his confidence on the ball and desire to drive forward is refreshing to see. He’s always looking up, which isn’t typical of a QPR midfielder as of late, and looking for options, looking for Chair, looking for wingers, looking for the strikers (if there are any). 

Morgan could definitely improve the quality of some of his passing, as well as his decision making –  he does get a bit cocky at times and gives the ball away attempting complicated balls or rushing his passes, but that will come, he’s 19 and going into his second professional season. 

It’s just exciting to see someone so young look as comfortable as he does at this level, I’m used to our academy being a feeder club for non-league so, to see someone come through and become a vital player is just brilliant (even if we did nab him off Spurs).

As seen in pre-season, there are a couple of young midfielders aiming to follow in Kieran’s footsteps, one of which I don’t think is far off being ready to break through – Lorent Talla. We haven’t seen much, if any of him competitively in the first team, so he and Alex Aohora both need loans, and aren’t ready this season, but I’d definitely keep an eye out for them in future. 

The man probably most grateful for Morgan’s sudden appearance is Ilias Chair. Before, he would always have to be the one receiving the ball from way deeper than he needs to be, and carrying it forward to create whatever he could. 

With Morgan playing behind him, it’s relieved a lot of pressure on him to be the only one grabbing the ball, scanning for teammates, whipping balls in or driving to shoot himself. The benefits of this are pointless when Chair is forced out on the left of course. Harvey Vale, as mentioned, is also useful support for the little man and I think the two of them will compliment each other well, if they don’t get in each other’s way that is. 

Ilias Chair is Rangers through and through. If not for Dunne’s obvious leadership qualities it would be between the Moroccan and Sam Field for the armband – both of them have been here through a lot of miserable periods and never hidden. Neither have pushed for a move (from what we know) or thrown their toys out the pram when things haven’t gone their way. They’ve put their heads down and done everything they can for the club. 

Chair hasn’t hit the levels that I thought he would, partly due to injuries, external issues and being forced into unnatural positions, but at least it’s meant we get to watch him at Loftus Road for longer than we thought. 

Ilias has been the one player that’s dragged me through the turnstiles in the years since Eze left. He’s unquestionably important to us and those that look at his low-ish numbers of goals and assists and say he’s not good enough, or have a pop at him for chopping or cutting in too much when his teammates offer no options or support, quite frankly don’t know what they’re talking about. He’s always been the one to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and try and win, there’s no way we’d be in this division without him. 

Reading all of this, you’re probably thinking, ‘well, how do you want our midfield set up then?’ And the truth is I don’t know. Stephan is one who likes to adapt his tactics to availability, the opposition, or match scenarios, so as long as we have enough profiles and the right variety of attributes to enable this, we should see improvements, but right now there are a couple of things missing. 

Karamoko Dembele unfortunately missed the majority of his first season in west London, due to a knee injury that required surgery, before which he was proving to be a very good signing. The young attacker didn’t manage to slot back in with ease after his return, but in pre-season has been undeniably our best player.

Dembele is capable of playing on the left but it’s probably third in his list of best positions, with 10 being first. Poku is similar positionally but offers more pace and strength. I assume with the fluidity of Stephan’s tactics, these two and Chair will rotate according to where the circumstances require them, playing off of each other and covering all three positions. 

Whatever the plans are for these three, I’ve said a few times now that we won’t be shy of chances, we just need the right man in front of them to tie it all together. Poku is probably most effective on the right, and loves an assist. Dembele and Chair are both best down the middle but can drift off to the left if it’s asked of them, though I think if any of these three will be based out there it’ll be Dembele. 

Speaking of the left-wing, we were kept in the dark all season about whether or not Koki Saito’s loan was to be made permanent until our questions were answered with a goodbye post addressed to all of the loanees. While his output took a while to come to fruition, he was a very skilful player who defenders struggled to handle – if he learnt how to get the ball into the box without running it off the byline half the time we’d have been laughing, and it’s a shame he won’t be developing at QPR.

Out of our current options, Rayan Kolli is my pick to play up top but if we do bring someone else in, it could work with him out left instead of Koki. I’m not sure what’s going on with him, we see him in short bursts and then all traces of him disappear again, so I don’t want to get my hopes up that he’ll be a regular this season.

If the case is that he is a regular, this offers us a lot more attacking threat. He’s quick, skilful, makes clever runs and can beat his man, all complete with his composure in front of goal. He can cross and has bagged some assists which is why he could work out wide, and even up top he isn’t afraid of a header and made an excellent leap to cushion it down for Field’s second against Oxford at home. 

The handful of goals that Kolli did score last season were all the kind that the strikers we’ve had of late would’ve struggled to score. They’d be fairly simple for established goalscorers, and he definitely made it seem that way in his case. The young Algerian is an exciting asset if whatever issues off the pitch that are slowing his exposure to professional football are resolved. 

Daniel Bennie deserves a mention, he benefitted from last season’s injury crisis when he had to suddenly step up with no warning. The Aussie is also one of the only players from the Premier League Cup winning squad to now be in the first team.  He struggled last season but he is slowly starting to impress me with his running, which has led to a couple of goals in friendlies now, and I think he’s one to watch when it comes to the left-wing or even up front. 

Poku on the right solves a lot of issues from last season, hopefully he can live up to the hype. It’s rare we manage to sign a player when there’s strong competition, but I’ve heard we’ve been watching him for 3 years now and credit where it’s due to the club for being able to pull it off. I’ve not seen as much of him as regular watchers of League One but he looks like a very solid signing who will take us up a notch. 

Behind him is Paul Smyth who, whilst lacking any kind of significant output, can come on for the last 20 minutes of a game and cause absolute chaos for defenders. He’s evidently not as skilful as a Poku or a Dembele but if you watch us week in week out and don’t just use stats to form your opinions you can see that he is definitely of use to us. He did put a nice cross in against Toulouse which is something we rarely see from him, so if he’s able to add this to his game he could be even more useful. 

I’ve left the best till last. Strikers. I’m getting bored of writing about this issue – I’ve only posted three pieces since starting this page up and it feels as though I’m only ever talking about our lack of strikers. So forgive me for repeating myself, but it is alarming that we play our first game on Saturday and don’t seem to have a fit striker for it.

Michael Frey has a lot of attributes that you want in a striker – he’s actually better at finishing than an outsider might think, he’s strong, and whilst not young, and built like a brick shithouse, he does not stop running. He’d be perfect in a front 2 but we don’t have the facilities to provide him with that partner.

I may be wrong but I don’t think we ever saw a front 2 of Kolli and Frey, and if we did it wasn’t for long. That could work with Kolli’s pace and skill and Frey’s poaching ability, but even Frey isn’t fit going into this first game. 

Call me mad but I still haven’t written off Zan Celar. If he leaves, he leaves, we’d have lost a striker who scored 2 goals in half a season. However I actually had faith that we still hadn’t seen the best of him and that he could be of use. If he isn’t happy then fair enough, and we should part ways, but he’s a prime example of how tough this division can be.

Alfie Lloyd needs a loan, that’s something I don’t need to give any justification for. Great effort levels and lovely guy but simply not good enough. That leaves us with – oh wait we sold League One top scorer Charlie Kelman without ever giving him a league start and haven’t replaced him yet. 

I’m only half joking – he’s a good signing for Charlton and we did not treat him well in my opinion, so I’m happy he’s made a name for himself despite not getting a fair crack. You could argue Rumarn Burrell is the replacement – and you know what? fair enough. I like the look of that signing. He offers something raw and different and I’m excited to see him make an impact. Will he start for us though? Can we rely on him to score 10+ goals? I doubt it.

I’m not one to entertain transfer rumours until official announcements are made. I’m not Fabrizio Romano, and quite plainly I find gossip about fees and add-ons and contracts and release clauses dull, tiresome and boring. So I mainly try to stick to football. 

However, when you’re going into a season with no striker and all you’re seeing is rumours, what else do you talk about? Richard Kone is the one that everyone wants, but who knows if Nourry is able to strike a deal there. The other one, that‘s apparently almost a done deal is Pape Meissa Ba, who looks like a profile we could do with but doesn’t have the best scoring record – he, like Frey, scored quite a few goals in a lower level European league, then joined Schalke and didn’t have a good time there, so looks to now be destined for White City. 

Whether it’s these two, just one of them and someone else, or neither of them, we are getting desperate, and I really thought we’d have this sorted by now. We are lucky that Preston are in a similar boat to us, which is something I’ll get to, otherwise we’d probably be looking at another opener like Watford away, or West Brom at home.

That rounds up our squad going into the season, I’ve missed a few names out, such as Jaylan Pearman. He’s fresh and I think it’ll take time for him to be first-team ready, but I definitely see potential in the youngster. 

Taylor Richards also featured at the start of pre-season until he got a knock. I saw potential in him as late as 2023 but I think it’s too late now for him to redeem his QPR career. He managed 5 games on loan at Cambridge and it just hasn’t gone well for him in football, so if he can get involved, great, he’s got bags of ability, but I’m not holding my breath.

In every weekly issue, I’ll be finishing up with a preview into the next opponents, one to watch from their team, and a score prediction. I’ll also be adding predictions for the rest of the fixtures elsewhere. As it’s the first game of the season, not much can be said, but here’s my preview for Saturday’s opener.

Up Next:

Matchday 1: Preston North End (H)

Score Prediction: 2-0 Rangers

One to Watch: Milutin Osmajic

I’ve got Preston tipped to go down this season, they’ve lost a few key players including last season’s top scorer Emil Riis, and a handful of other important figures. They were the third lowest scorers in the division last season so I’m not expecting this to be a goalfest. Daniel Jebbison on loan is a good pull, he might cause us some trouble if he plays, but my one to watch is Milutin Osmajic. 

The big Montenegrin scored on his last visit to Loftus road after Cook pulled up leaving him through on goal, which we eventually cancelled out and managed to win 2-1. He is the exact kind of player that always causes us problems, the only player on our team that will be able to handle him physically is Jimmy Dunne. I just have a feeling that he will bully us and cause problems, especially from set pieces. 

Preston are a big side overall and where we better them technically, we’ll have to outsmart them rather than beat them in the air or try to physically compete. Luckily, this is one of the only games as it stands where I can see us being in control in the middle. I just don’t feel very concerned looking at their midfield, so I think we will run the show in terms of possession, chances and overall dominance.

I don’t want to jinx us on the first day but I just don’t feel worried about this one. I’m doubtful about Preston’s squad’s suitability to Heckingbottom’s high press, attacking football. As for us, turning up to a season opener without a starting striker is not great, So as I said, it won’t be a high scoring one, but I think we have enough about us to cruise past this lot, so I’m going 2-0.

As for the rest of the opening fixtures, here are my score predictions: 

• Birmingham City 2-2 Ipswich Town
• Charlton Athletic 1-0 Watford
• Coventry City 3-0 Hull City
• Southampton 2-1 Wrexham
• Middlesbrough 1-1 Swansea City
• Norwich City 1-1 Millwall
• Oxford United 0-1 Portsmouth 
• Stoke city 0-0 Derby County
• West Bromwich Albion 2-0 Blackburn Rovers
• Sheffield United 1-0 Bristol City
• Leicester City 3-0 Sheffield Wednesday

Thanks for reading, check-in next week for a review of the Preston game, plus predictions for the following gameweek. I’m on holiday for the cup game at Plymouth, so while I’ll still be watching on my phone, I’ve left out a preview and prediction for it because I simply haven’t had time. League games will get priority until we reach further stages of the cup. 

You R’s.