For the second
time this season we could see a new look QPR side line up after another
transfer window closed on Tuesday night. With a clutch of new boys ready to
make their debuts will it be enough to earn a good result at Villa Park and get
us moving in the right direction?
Match: Aston
Villa v Queens Park Rangers Venue: Villa Park Competition: The Premier League Date: Wednesday 1st February 2012 Kick off time: 19:45
Mark Hughes could
hand out three debuts on Wednesday night. Nedum Onuoha and Taye Taiwo are set to take their places
in a new look back four alongside Anton Ferdinand and Luke Young with Fitz Hall
and Clint Hill likely to step out.
Up front Djibril Cisse is also set for his QPR bow
which will come as something of a welcome relief for Hughes who is likely to be
without the injured striking duo of DJ Campbell (hamstring) and Jay Bothroyd (groin)
and also faces doubts over Heidar Helguson who has a groin strain of his own. Bobby
Zamora is also a QPR player of course but his debut will have to wait until the
Wolves game having signed after the registration deadline.
Elsewhere Akos Buzsaky is also struggling with his ankle and
Danny Gabbidon remains sidelined with his hip problem. Armand Traore, Adel
Taarabt and new signing Samba Diakite are all
still on international duty at the African Cup of Nations so will have to wait
a while to stake their claims to a starting place.
Transfer deadline day also saw Rangers say farewell to
Bradley Orr, who got himself a good move to Blackburn, Matt Connolly who joins
Reading on loan and the released pair of Martin Rowlands and Peter Vaagan Moen
who are now looking for new clubs. We wish them all well and thank them for
their contributions over the years, particularly Rowly who leaves us with some
really good memories.
As for Aston Villa, they are hoping to have winger Charles
N'Zogbia available for selection in time for kick off on Wednesday. N’Zogbia
has been out with a heel problem but seems likely to be in the squad at the
very least.
James Collins’ calf and Marc Albrighton’s thigh will keep
those two out of Alex McLeish’s starting line up once again and the Villa boss
is also without long term absentee Chris Herd who has an ankle ligament injury.
The New Year hasn’t
been particularly kind on Villa so far, after ending 2011 on a high note with a
fantastic 3-1 win at Chelsea they’ve only won a single league game since. That
was a ding-donger at local rivals Wolves which they pinched 3-2 thanks to
Robbie Keane’s two impressive goals but they were been beaten by Swansea prior
to that and followed it up by being knocked out of The FA Cup at Arsenal and
only drawing against Everton.
At Villa Park
things have been pretty stale of late too, that draw with The Toffee’s is the
only point they’ve taken in five games on home turf, the defeat by Swansea
preceded it and they also lost the previous three home league matches to
Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United scoring just one goal during those
three games. Tough games for sure, but a bad run all the same.
The reverse fixture saw us draw one a piece at Loftus Road
with Richard Dunne’s last minute own goal handing us a point after Barry Bannan
had given the visitors a second half lead from the penalty spot.
These two sides also met twice during our sabbatical from the
top flight, both times at Villa Parkand both in The Carling Cup.
Last time we went there was back in 2008 when Iain Dowie’s
side snatched a 1-0 win via Damion Stewart’s winner. Four years previous to
that though we were on the end of a 3-1 defeat when Ian Holloway led The Hoops
in the same competition.
The win under Dowie ended a run of five straight defeats for
QPR at Villa Park and we have lost all of our Premier League fixtures on this
ground, 4-2 in 1996, 2-1 in 1995, 4-1 in 1993 and 2-0 in 1992. The last victory
we had up there was in the old first division back in March 1992 when Les
Ferdinand scored the only goal of the game.
A controversial appointment as Villa boss, Alex McLeish’s
arrival from Birmingham prompted protests from The Villa faithful when he was
appointed as Gerard Houllier’s successor this summer. The former Rangers and
Scotland boss had just overseen City’s relegation to The Championship, a
disappointment slightly diluted by their fantastic League Cup final win over
Arsenal. Despite the Birmingham board insisting his job was safe he opted to
jump ship to their local rivals, eventually resigning by email.
Things quietened
down a little for McLeish thanks to a fairly strong start. He made an astute
signing in Shay Given this summer, an excellent goalkeeper who I’m surprised
couldn’t do better actually, and he has helped revitalise the talented Gabby
Agbonlahor who struggled badly under the previous regime. McLeish kept his new
side unbeaten in the early going forcing the Villa fans to swallow their distaste
for a time.
However the form has slipped of late and the grumbles are
never far away from returning, they are perfectly safe in twelfth place but
clearly won’t pull up any trees this season either, will that be enough to
satisfy a partisan crowd in the long term though?
QPR have only
failed to score during a league match at Villa Park on one previous occasion.
Villa have followed
up both their previous away league wins this season with a home league defeat.
Mark Hughes has
never won a Premier League match at Villa Park in his management career to date.
I made just shy
of 500 league appearances in my eighteen year career, turning out for nine
clubs and representing England on 24 occasions as well.
My Aston Villa
career lasted three seasons after signing for the club for £450,000 in 1985.
I joined QPR
nearly a decade later but didn’t enjoy anything like the same success,
featuring just 15 times in the league before leaving for Watford 14 months
later.
Mark Hughes "Having to prepare for a game is obviously
important from my point of view as it is that my focus isn't taken away from
the game, which it won't be. It is the distractions you have to be conscious of
and make sure they don't have an impact on your performance.
"I have always set targets in terms of opposition
and potential to gain points, w've done that as a group of staff and obviously
not communicated that to the players as yet. I think it is an important period
and I think that is possibly why I am here.
“The club have this run of fixtures and felt they need
to acquire points during the period, which is why they felt it necessary to
hopefully instigate a run of form that will unable us to pick up points."
Luke Young "I'm looking forward to going back there,
"I enjoyed my time at Villa, but I'm a QPR player now and my focus is very much on us getting
a positive result tomorrow night.
"We need to start the game well, Villa are one of
those sides who can be fantastic one week, and then not so good the next, so
hopefully we can catch them on an off day and take full advantage. There's
still a little bit of unease up there with the Manager and what have you, so
it's something we need to try and take advantage of.
"If we apply
ourselves properly and start the game on the front foot, hopefully we can
perform to the best of our ability and get a positive result."
We’ll head to
Villa Park with a sense of hope and intrigue on Wednesday afternoon after
Queens Park Rangers completed a satisfying set of transfers on deadline day.
We might have to
wait to see Bobby Zamora’s QPR debut but with the likes of Cisse, Onuoha and Taiwo all set to debut
this will be a very different looking Rangers side and one that hopefully has a
whole new impetus. With Diakite still
to come too and Traore and Taarabt to due back soon things are looking very
bright indeed for the Loftus Road faithful right now.
Mark Hughes now has the task of
blending all these new faces with the existing squad but if this new batch
gives us the sort of boost we initially got after the August arrivals then we
could be having a pretty good time of it over the next few weeks.
We’ll need to as well because this couldn’t
be a more important time of the season with some really crucial games to come,
not least this one. Villa Park has not been a particularly fruitful place to go
in my Rangers’ supporting life but I’m actually pretty hopeful we’ll do well in
this one.
I might be all hepped up on deadline
day goofballs but I’m going to take us for a win over Villa and a 2-1 QPR win
with odds of 12/1 looks like decent value for my ten quid this time out.
Don’t forget you can stay in touch with the action from Villa
Park on Wednesday via our twitter feed. Just click the image below and follow
@qprnet
