QPR v Newcastle - Match Preview
Three days after triumph over Derby, the Magpies travel to the capital to face QPR. On the back of a 2-0 win that saw a debut goal for DeAndre Yedlin and a superb volley from Yoan Gouffran, Newcastle will head to this one in excellent spirits, with sights on cementing their place at the top of the table. With games coming thick and fast, Rafa Benitez will undoubtedly continue his squad rotation policy, with the possibility of introducing new boys Lazaar, Murphy and Atsu. Isaac Hayden was also left out from the starting XI to face the Rams, and given his stellar performances so far, we can assume he’ll find his way back into the team on Tuesday night.
Newcastle will face a stern test against the R’s. The tight pitch and partisan crowd usually makes it a cagey affair. And, as has seemed the case thus far, Newcastle will have to be well organised and disciplined to come away with another victory. Thankfully, it appears that Benitez has clocked on to the style of football Newcastle need to play to attain success in this league. Newcastle have been good in the last few weeks, but none of their performances have been spectacular. They’ve rolled over nobody. But they’ve also contained teams. They have been difficult to play against. They look, for the first time in a long while, like a team. While Rafa has acknowledged that Newcastle can still improve – and surely there will be times when Newcastle have a dominant performance – what will please him is the culture of winning being built despite having a team still arguably far from being a finished article.
Away from the specifics of Tuesday’s game, I watched Sunderland’s dreadful performance against Everton on Monday night. Watching David Moyes standing forlornly on the sidelines, I was reminded how desperate many of us (me included) were for the Scotsman to replace Steve McClaren last season. Not to say that Moyes isn’t a decent coach, but clearly, he’s no Rafa. Those in favour of appointing Moyes were so on the basis that a move for Benitez would be unrealistic.
Why would a manager of the Spaniard’s calibre come to a team in disarray, languishing at the bottom of the table, seemingly going nowhere? While, on the surface, this argument seemed like common sense, arguably it was part of an attitude that had built over time. An attitude, enabled in large part by the Ashley regime, that suggested Newcastle were no longer a big club, no longer a club that ought to dream big, set expectations high, demand success from players, coaches and managers alike. Kudos, then, to the fans who refused to be drawn into the malaise that has lingered like a large cloud over SJP in the last 10 years or so. Respect to the fans who refused to internalise the narrative that we ought to expect and celebrate mediocrity.
It was those fans that brought Benitez to the club, and it was those fans who persuaded him to stay. We may be in the Championship, but we are looking forward, and upwards. We’re being allowed to dream again.
