QPR 0-2 Sheffield Utd

Match Report

“Are you Wednesday in disguise?”

That was the chant the Sheffield United fans came up with at round the 60-minute mark, after yet another unforced error from QPR. Having suffered through our 5-0 loss at St Mary’s on Tuesday, I was hoping for a reaction, but this was another dismal performance from the Hoops. Yes, the Blades have got a much stronger squad than us, and they’ve recovered strongly under Chris Wilder after a poor start to the season. They may even make the play-offs. But even if this was a case of boys against men, you’d expect our youngsters to try a little harder. Esquerdinha, for instance, was completely ineffectual at left back, coming in for Rhys Norrington-Davies, who couldn’t play because he’s a United loanee. Not a surprise to see him given the hook at half time, with Rangers switching to a 3-4-3 formation and Ronnie Edwards shifting over to plug the gap. Daniel Bennie, too, was largely anonymous in the first half, as was Rayan Kolli, who replaced him at half time. Both managed a grand total of 12 touches each. Richard Kone put in a shift, as did Jimmy Dunne and Harvey Vale, and Paul Smyth made an impact when he came on at half time. But we looked like a League One side, unable to defend at one end and incapable of finishing at the other.

Julien Stéphan made five changes to the team he put out against Southampton. In addition to replacing Norrington-Davies with Esquerdinha, he benched Amadou Mbengue, moving Dunne over to right back, and bringing in Jake Clarke-Salter at centre back. In midfield, Kieran Morgan came in for the injured Nicolas Madsen and Jonathan Varane started instead of Isaac Hayden. Finally, Bennie was preferred to Kolli up front. That meant we lined up in 4-4-2 formation as follows: Joe Walsh between the sticks; Dune, Clarke-Salter, Edwards and Esquerdinha in defence; Varane, Morgan, Vale and Koki Saito in midfield; and Kolli and Kone up front.

The visitors dominated for the opening period, forcing us to throw bodies in front of our goal in what looked like some pretty desperate defending. Sure enough, the Blades scored in the 13th minute after the hapless Esquerdinha was passed far too easily by Tahith Chong on the left. The Curaçaoan put in a low cross which was deflected into the path of Calum O’Hare, who scored with a left-footed shot from within the six yard box. At that point, you just knew it wasn’t going to be our day. The only question was, how many would we concede?

The Blades should have scored again in the 23rd minute, when Tyrese Campbell found himself in acres of space in the centre of the box, but somehow managed to miss. No matter – he would get a chance to redeem himself soon enough.

In the 33rd minute, Varane, under no pressure at all, gave the ball straight to Sydie Peck in the middle of the park who then passed it to Campbell. This time, the 26 year-old leathered it into the top corner.

We matched this Keystone Cops defending at one end with the usual clown show at the other, managing just one shot on target in the first 45 minutes – a header from Kone that was comfortably saved by Adam Rhys Davies, the Sheffield keeper. Miraculously, we didn’t concede any more and, credit where credit’s due, Stéphan’s decision to bring off Esquerdinha and switch to a 3-4-3 formation in the second half at least stopped the rot.

The closest we came to getting back in to the game was in the 74th minute, when Kone nodded in a corner from Vale. The goal music was cranked up, we all started celebrating, but then the linesman held up his flag. That was met with complete incredulity by players and fans alike. How could it be offside from an indirect free kick? The answer, according to my son Ludo, is that a player in an offside position – Smyth – was impeding the keeper. But while I can see a goal being disallowed for that reason, can it be offside? Not according to Google – and exactly the same thing happened at Anfield this afternoon, when Van Dyke scored with his head from a Dominik Szoboszlai corner. West Ham fans thought the goal should have been disallowed, given that their keeper was being obstructed by Joe Gomez, but it stood after a brief VAR check. Why was our goal offside, but not Liverpool’s?

Had we got one back with 20 minutes left to play, the game might have turned out differently. It certainly would have made for a more exciting end to the afternoon. But that was the closest we came to scoring, with just one shot on target in the entire second half. The game fizzled out after that, with neither side offering much, and ended in a 0-2 defeat. Replacing Varane with Hayden in the 60th minute, Clarke-Salter with Mbengue in the 69th and Saito with Kealey Adamson in the 85th made no visible difference.

Is this how our season ends, with a whimper not a bang? We’re now on 47 points after 35 games, exactly the same as last time, and 15th in the table, exactly where we ended up. Martí Cifuentes managed to win three more times in the remaining 11 games, finishing the season on 56 points, but after the last two performances I’m beginning to think Stéphan might fare even worse. Will any of our first team players return in time to put some more points on the board? A reminder that the following players are all injured: Ilias Chair, Karamoko Dembélé, Kwame Poku, Nicolas Madsen, Rumarn Burrell, Ziyad Larkeche and Justin Obikwu. Without at least three of them becoming available – and I don’t include Larkeche – it looks all over.

You can watch the highlights on Sky Sports here.