QPR vs Brentford - Extended Highlights Analysis
R's beat the B's in West London Derby - 17/02/2021
Queens Park Rangers 2 - 1 Brentford
17/02/2021
19:00
Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium
30 minutes - QPR 0 - 1 Brentford - Ivan Toney
Ivan Toney gave Brentford the lead after a cross from a free-kick was delivered from the left hand side of the area by Mathias Jensen, Toney was stood at the near post and Jensen fizzed the ball in towards him. Toney leant forward and raised his foot behind him to clip the ball sending it into the net, it was a fairly simple free-kick with a great finish from Toney that gave the Bees the lead. The free-kick was won after Rico Henry received a brilliantly spun pass by Jensen before being pulled down by Todd Kane.
41 minutes
Winston Reid cleared an oncoming ball with his head to Mathias Jensen by the halfway line who was beginning to cause QPR problems, Charlie Austin was closing Jensen down from behind and as he got close Jensen took the ball on his chest and lobbed it majestically back over Austin’s head and turned the QPR front man. As Jensen took the ball down on his feet Austin simply stood still, acknowledging that he’d been done by a great piece of skill. As Jensen progressed with the ball he beat QPR’s Dominic Ball with another piece of skill, Jensen trapped the ball with his right foot that was extended forward, Ball’s left leg was sweeping in behind Jensen’s front leg and inline with his back leg, as this happened Jensen slightly dragged the ball backwards with his right leg and then pulled his left foot inwards as the inside of his left foot dragged the ball through Michael Ball’s legs. Much like Charlie Austin who was still standing still having been previously lobbed, Ball looked visibly upset as Jensen drifted through him. Mathias Jensen then took the ball forward and struck at goal from about 25 yards out, it forced the keeper to parry the ball where the oncoming Sergi Canos looked for a rebound but unfortunately for the Spaniard the QPR defence were able to sweep it up.
45 minutes
QPR won a corner after Josh Dasilva put in a simple block to send the ball off the pitch, the ball was whipped into the the middle of the 6 yard box and headed clear by Henrik Dalsgaard. Dalsgaard’s header fell to former Bee Yoann Barbet on the edge of the box who rifled a right footed volley slightly to the right of centre of the goal where David Raya was to make a save with his thighs. The ball then bounced back off of Austin towards Reid who headed to Jensen who eventually cleared. This was QPR’s only real chance of the half, Barbet was being partially marked by Sørensen but when the ball was swung in Barbet peeled off to the edge of the box and Sørensen remained static to mark the zone. It was unfortunate that Dalsgaard’s header found it’s way in front of Barbet’s foot and maybe Sørensen could have got closer to Barbet, but eventually there were enough bodies in the way to stop the shot and Sørensen was clearly committing to marking zonally.
50 minutes
Yoanne Barbet played a long ball over the top from just outside the Rangers area, the ball and Ilias Chair beat the chasing Henrik Dalsgaard and forced David Raya to come out and clear. Raya met the ball just outside the Bees box and in an attempt to head it clear, he miss-hit the ball and scooped it behind him towards the corner flag. Dalsgaard was able to recover and clear the ball for a throw in, however Raya’s poor clearance may well have created a goal scoring chance for QPR had Dalsgaard not got to it first. This was a lapse in judgement from Raya and set the tone for the Bees second half performance.
51 minutes
Ilias Chair swung a right footed cross into the box from a QPR corner, the ball was aimed towards a crowded near post however David Raya managed to make contact with the ball first. Raya’s contact with the ball however was not clean and it sliced across his fist past the back post towards Charlie Austin who then scooped the ball towards the edge of the box before the ball bounced between heads and eventually saw Tariqe Fosu foul Yoann Barbet 8 or so yards out from the area.
59 minutes
Brentford won the ball on the left channel as Sergi Canos intercepted a cross field pass from Yoann Barbet as the Frenchman was looking to switch, Canos headed the ball forward and chased it into the left hand side of the area where Mathias Jensen was running to provide support. Canos cut in and a faked a shot on goal before dragging the ball back to the overlapping Jensen, Jensen was to the left of the 6 yard box but inline with the edge of it and opened his body up to attempt a right footed strike towards the top right hand corner of the goal. As you would expect from that sort of shooting position Jensen skied the effort, Ivan Toney, Bryan Mbeumo, Vitaly Janelt and Josh Dasilva who were all stood unmarked on the edge of the box bar Toney who was waiting for a cross outside the 6 yard box. Decision making in front of goal was an issue against Barnsley and it became an issue against QPR too as Jensen had the opportunity to put a volley, or half volley effort on a plate for all 3 players behind Toney or to try and put it on Toney’s head.
Jensen has noticeably began shooting more this season which is most likely why he went for goal here, however he’ll be disappointed with himself as he’s a man who rarely wastes possession of the ball.
72 minutes - QPR 1 - 1 Brentford - Sam Field
QPR’s equaliser began with a Brentford corner as Vitaly Janelt’s cross was headed clear into the path of Chris Willock outside the Rangers box who’s darting run had him clear of Mathias Jensen, Josh Dasilva and Bryan Mbeumo before passing the ball out wide to Ilias Chair as Ivan Toney closed him down. Chair played a forward pass down the line to Lee Wallace who’s centrally aimed cross into the box was headed away by Vitaly Janelt. Todd Kane picked the ball up just inside the right hand side of the area and played a dinked ball past the far post to Charlie Austin, however Austin didn’t win the header as Ivan Toney challenged the ball with Winston Reid and it then bounced backwards, Rico Henry got underneath and headed the ball poorly into the air as Sam Field fired an absolute rocket of a strike into the bottom right hand corner of the net as Henry’s headed effort found the floor.
Field’s strike was superb and was worthy of providing the equaliser, but the Bees will be frustrated with how this got away from them. As Chris Willock took the ball up field to the halfway line Mathias Jensen and Josh Dasilva had about 3 chances combined to take down the midfielder, Willock was galloping on the break and the smart choice for the Bees midfielders would have been to take him out of the passage of play and receive a yellow card for their sins. Willock was however allowed to run free.
The ball then eventually found it’s way to Todd Kane on the right after a defensive header from Janelt, this was the second error in the build up to the goal and it came from Rico Henry. Kane dinked the ball in, Austin tried to win the header but him, Reid and Toney just seemed to have knocked it backwards slightly. The ball was in the air and Henry tried to get underneath it before Austin could, Henry’s header was a poor one in both direction and power as he essentially nodded the ball right in front of Sam Field who reacted quicker to the ball than Jensen did.
It’s not a goal that the Bees midfield will want to watch again as they failed to make use of a tactical foul to prevent Rangers from breaking, Winston Reid didn’t cover himself in glory as he struggled to clear the ball that him, Toney and Austin went for. QPR had actually offered very little throughout the game and the 1-0 lead was a fair score line for the Bees up until this point.
76 minutes - QPR 2 - 1 Brentford - Charlie Austin
QPR had created little throughout the game and yet put their second goal of the night away, the ball was played out of defence to the halfway line where a long cross field pass from the right hand side was hit behind Henrik Dalsgaard and Bryan Mbeumo, the ball was picked up by Lee Wallace who dragged the ball back in front of the 6 yard box where Charlie Austin pounced and scored. This goal is an example of how poor the Bees defending has been since Jansson’s injury, to highlight we have conceded 17 goals in the 13 games played post-injury and conceded just 9 goals in the same amount of games prior to his injury.
QPR had possession deep in their half and the ball was played to Todd Kane on the right hand side of the half way line, Kane had a free pass on as he played the long ball over the top to Wallace. Dalsgaard was underneath the pass and seemed to misjudge it as it landed, which aided Wallace in dribbling past him. The defending got worse here as goal scorer Charlie Austin began the move on the right wing outside of Rico Henry, Austin then cut in past Henry and Henry failed to pick Austin up as he was too focused on the ball.
Vitaly Janelt also has some blame to shoulder as he jogged back at a normal pace to try and track back the Rangers front men, when Austin hits the ball Dalsgaard is less than a meter away from him. Had Janelt been sprinting then he most likely would have had a chance to intercept the pass or try and block Austin’s strike. As the ball landed to Wallace there was far too much space between Janelt and the centre backs and we required Vitaly to track back quicker than he did.
Questions could also be asked of Winston Reid who did not manage to clear the drag back, if Reid had looked over his right shoulder he would have seen that no Rangers players were between him and Sørensen and so he could have focused on preventing the pass back towards the penalty spot. However we can go easier on Reid as this is his first start for the Bees, he has not played a lot of football recently and he had an otherwise decent game.
84 minutes
The Bees won a free-kick deep inside QPR’s half towards the left channel after Ivan Toney was pulled down by Geoff Cameron, Cameron received a yellow card from the referee for this. Despite nobody actually getting a head onto the cross, this free-kick was a good move from Brentford that could have had us back in the game. Saman Ghoddos initially stood over it however he swapped with Bryan Mbeumo before the kick was taken, Mbeumo drifted a nicely dinked inward curling cross just past the penalty spot where both Ivan Toney and Mads Bech Sørensen were looking to pounce. Toney was the closest to the ball and he was the highest in the air, judging by his positioning and height if Toney had made decent contact with the ball it could well have gone in.
90+5 minutes
Brentford were still looking for an equaliser as Mathias Jensen had the ball on the half way line, Jensen played it wide to Henry who put in a cross to the centre of the area however the Rangers defence headed it clear. The ball landed back on the floor eventually to Bryan Mbeumo who looked to hit a left footed shot into the top corner of the net but his shot was blocked for a corner.
Jensen took the corner for the Bees in which David Raya came up for, unfortunately there were no late heroics from Raya as the ball never really found a Brentford player and when QPR had possession on the edge of the box Raya clumsily clattered Sam Field to the ground to give away a foul.
Overall thoughts
I think one thing we can all be grateful for is the introduction of Winston Reid into the starting eleven, Reid is so calm on the ball, in the air and in his passing and it’s something that we have lacked outside of Ethan Pinnock. Pinnock needed a rest in this game but I feel like Sørensen needs a rest now and potentially a prolonged rest too, Sørensen has been at his best for us in my opinion where he has been playing every now and then to help provide cover when Sørensen or Jansson needed a rest. It seems the longer his run in the first team extends the more obvious his shortcomings become, we all saw what the result of a poor decision can be when he rushed Conor Chaplin against Barnsley and left his side of the area completely vulnerable. There were two moments in the first half against QPR that highlighted poor decision making as well, the first was a pass early in the game. Sørensen had the ball on the edge of the area and whilst QPR were pressing, it wasn’t an overly aggressive one that prevent Sørensen from hoofing the ball forward. Sørensen looked to play a long ball to Henrik Dalsgaard out to the right and instead rifled a pass straight at Lyndon Dykes, fortunately nothing came of this move but it had the potential to put the Bees under serious pressure.
The second error was in the 27th minute when Lyndon Dykes headed the ball into the area, Sørensen controlled it with his chest next to the penalty spot and David Raya rushed towards him to pick the ball up. Sørensen mustn’t have been aware that there wasn’t anyone baring down on him and as he hoofed the ball out of the defence back to a QPR player which immediately gave away possession.
Had Sørensen of been more aware of his surroundings he could have made the better decision in letting Raya pick the ball up who then would have had a counter attack on, instead it led to Todd Kane firing a cross in from the right that fortunately found nobody and went off for a goal kick. It’s import to remember that Mads Bech Sørensen is playing his first full season at Championship level, is only 22 and played the beginning of the season as a rotation option, so there is still progress and improvement in him. Hopefully time out away from the hectic schedule when the Pinnock and Reid partnership begins will allow him to work on his weaknesses, he is after all not the player that Pontus Jansson is and has had a difficult job in trying to replace him over the last 2 months.
I don’t think we deserved to win this game however based on the chances that occurred throughout a loss is difficult to take, QPR were not much better than us at all and this game felt like it was between a team who felt together, had their key players around and were on a winning streak vs a team that’s depth was being pushed to it’s limits as 3 of our best defensive players all missed the game in Norgaard, Pinnock and Jansson. There have been complaints that we lack squad depth, but with that said it is surely a testament to the squad that has been put together that we can miss two very key players for so long, as well as an injury here and there on top of that and still be second in the league with the automatics well in sight.
The game against Coventry City is a not just a must win, but a vital opportunity for Pinnock and Reid to try and build an understanding together and keep a clean sheet as we soon have a top of the table clash against Norwich City just before the schedule starts to ease a bit and we move back to more Saturday to Saturday games.