QPR v Aston Villa player ratings
QPR fan Albert Adomah scored both Aston Villa goals as they came from behind to win at Loftus Road. Here’s how we rated each Rangers player in their 2-1 defeat.
Alex Smithies: 7
Produced two excellent saves when Rangers were ahead, but in the end he was unable to keep the visitors at bay.
Alex Baptiste: 5
Fully committed, and overall has proved to be a useful stop-gap signing during Rangers’ injury problems, but for the second game running he was found wanting in the build up to a goal being conceded. He was caused constant problems by Adomah who, having missed a chance after getting in behind Baptiste in the first half, slotted in the winner after drifting away from him in the second.
Joel Lynch: 5
Looks more comfortable in the middle of a back three but his performance was poor nonetheless. Made a ridiculous error which should have led to a Villa third goal when he inexplicably failed to clear and was dispossessed inside his own penalty area, with Robert Snodgrass blasting the resulting loose ball over the bar.
Jack Robinson: 6
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Unlucky when a penalty was awarded after Snodgrass’ shot struck the defender’s hand. Robinson wasn’t at his best but did produce a number of important clearances and interceptions.
Jordan Cousins: 6
Worked hard and got through plenty of running on the right-hand side. Rangers will hope that improves his sharpness, which has been lacking following his recent return to action.
Josh Scowen: 6
Worked hard in midfield but was short of his best and missed a decent chance in the first half when his touch let him down in the penalty area.
Massimo Luongo: 7
Surprisingly selected despite his excursions on international duty. Withdrawn at half-time because of fatigue but had been playing well. Won several challenges, looked a threat going forward and was missed in the second half.
Ian Holloway on Luongo: “Because Massimo had travelled around the world with Australia I had to bring him off because of how he felt. That left me, once we went a goal behind, one decision short in terms of being able to put an attacking threat on.”Luke Freeman: 7
Buzzed around, picking up space at will and always looked to create. His corner led to Rangers’ goal and several other deliveries into the box worried Villa, including one from the left which was fired wide by Matt Smith. Freeman also tested Villa keeper Sam Johnstone with a second-half volley.
Jake Bidwell: 7
Did well on the left. Solid defensively and was a decent attacking outlet, particularly in the first half.
Jamie Mackie: 7
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Showed his determination when getting to the ball first to score the opening goal. Did his job in terms of pressing Villa’s defenders before being replaced in the second half.
Matt Smith: 6
His presence up front posed a threat but also resulted in some very unsubtle route-one tactics from Rangers. Nevertheless, Smith was involved in the build up to the opening goal when he won the ball in the air, albeit messily, and he had a couple of attempts on goal himself in the second half.
Ryan Manning: 5
It’s wasn’t an easy game to be thrown into and the youngster found the going tough in midfield after coming on for Luongo at the interval.
Conor Washington: 6
Didn’t make much of impact after his introduction in the second half. Neither did Idrissa Sylla, who later also came on.
19/11/2017 @ 6:16 pm
It’s hard work being a QPR fan
I hope some of our defender’s are back fit soon I fear our lack of fire power in front of goal is not helped by a lack of confidence in the make shift defence & unless we beef up at the back I don’t see that changing.
19/11/2017 @ 1:17 pm
Obviously QPR work on a far smaller budget than Aston Villa. £83M spent in the summer. I understand that QPR are trying to move away from this business model but surely one or two signings / loans to sort out out attacking options are now required to keep us in the right half of the table? Time to move on from Mackie, passion we now have in the team through Freeman etc, Mackie will not get us the goals for a top half finish. Lynch bypasses the midfield when playing the ball out of defence, taking arguably our best players out of the move. Smith is not mobile enough, he couldn’t get into the Fulham team two seasons ago which proves Ollies lack of options. Washington is League One material. I feel a little happier about the team now than i did a year ago, however we have been well beaten in the last two matches, I now fear a run of defeats to come. To finish the season in the same position as last would be truly demoralising for the club, a year of hard work and not to have improved on the league position. To show that we are heading in the right direction and capable of mounting a serious promotion in the next couple of seasons we really need to be finishing top 12 this season.