This Saturday Ipswich will return to the capital for the first time since the eventful 4-4 draw with Charlton in October last year, this time facing Gareth Ainsworth’s QPR.
Ainsworth is one of the few managers in the Championship who has a head-to-head record with Kieran McKenna. The last meeting went Ainsworth’s way with his Wycombe side beating Town 1-0 at Adams Park.
The previous season McKenna’s side won 1-0 at Portman Road in his first game in charge with a James Norwood goal meaning we head into this one with each manager at one win apiece.
QPR had a bit of a rollercoaster of a campaign last season. A super strong start under Michael Beale saw him linked with a number of Premier League jobs, and as form then began to dip, he left the R’s for Scottish giants Rangers.
Neil Critchley replaced him but was sacked in February after 12 games in charge leaving with the lowest ever win percentage of a QPR manager.
That was when they turned to Ainsworth who did just enough to keep them up without ever really steering them away from the relegation battle. He managed three wins, two draws and seven losses in his 12 games in charge. Below is how he compares to Beale and Critchley last season.
Things haven’t started much better this year with most pundits and even their own fans predicting that they’ll have a relegation battle on their hands.
They ended pre-season with a 5-0 thrashing by Oxford and this didn’t get any better as the league season started as they were demolished 4-0 by Watford.
The West Londoners bounced back last weekend beating Cardiff 2-1 as Ainsworth made a couple of changes and tactical tweaks including going to a back five.
With a half-changed team, they were hanging on for penalties against Norwich in the Carabao Cup before conceding in the 99th minute. Let’s run through their squad.
Seny Dieng was one of QPR’s standout performers last season keeping nine clean sheets for a struggling side and making on average 2.6 saves per game. However, he has left the club to join Middlesbrough for an undisclosed fee rumoured to be around £1.2 million. In his place they have turned to experienced Asmir Begovic.
Now 36, this will be Begovic’s 13th club, a list that includes Town. He made six appearances and kept two clean sheets for Roy Keane’s Blues.
More recently the Bosnia international has been Premier League back-up at Everton and Bournemouth so will be looking to get more regular game time and hope to recapture his form from his time at Stoke. Begovic made nine saves and got in team of the week despite conceding four against Watford and has so far looked solid.
Also in the clubs goalkeeping department is Jordan Archer, who made the bench for the majority of matches last season without actually making an appearance. He’ll be looking to push Begovic harder than he did Dieng to get some game time this season.
Archer made his first start of the season in the Carabao Cup only to be substituted for concussion at half-time. He was replaced by third-choice keeper Joe Walsh.
When Ainsworth joined QPR he switched to a back three before changing to a 4-4-2 for the last games of the season. He returned to a back four in pre-season and then back to a three against Cardiff and Norwich in the cup, utilising the versatility of his players in the backline.
The base of the defence would probably have been formed by Jimmy Dunne and Jake Clarke-Salter, however, they are both currently injured or returning to fitness.
Dunne signed from Burnley in July 2021 and has now had two seasons at the R’s. He started 38 games last season and the tough-tackling defender should continue to be one of the first names on the team sheet once he returns.
Clarke-Salter joined from Chelsea on a free transfer in July 2022 following Championship loan spells at Birmingham and Coventry. He made 16 appearances last season although only twl of them came under Ainsworth with injuries limiting his appearances.
Rob Dickie played a lot of minutes at centre-back last season but he has left to join Bristol City. Coming in to provide both centre-back and left-back cover is Morgan Fox. Welshman Fox was released by last week’s opponents Stoke and has been snapped up on a free transfer.
One-time Town academy schoolboy Fox comes with 239 Championship appearances to his name and offers the ability to easily turn a back three into a back four with his flexibility to play at centre-back or left-back.
In the full-back positions, Ethan Laird has departed for Birmingham City leaving last year’s understudy Osman Kakay and Aaron Drewe battling for that starting berth.
Kakay is the more experienced of the two with 75 Championship appearances since coming through the R’s academy but without ever really making that right-back slot his own.
Now at 25 it’s a case of now or never for the Sierra Leone international. He also provides the versatility that Ainsworth will look to utilise of also being comfortable in the right centre-back role.
Drewe also came through the R’s academy but is three years younger than Kakay. He made five starts to Kakay’s 11 last season and will be looking to push him all the way.
The left-hand side looks a lot stronger with Kenneth Paal still around. Signed from PEC Zwolle in July last year the Surinamese had a strong season, chipping in with four assists and playing the most minutes of any QPR defender. He broke into the box late to net his first goal of the season against Cardiff last weekend.
Brought in to push Paal is Ziyad Larkeche from Fulham. The Frenchman spent last season on loan at Barnsley in League One but largely found himself coming off the bench for the Tykes. It’s likely he’ll play a similar role this season as he looks to continue his development.
With injuries to both Clarke-Salter and Dunne at the start of the season, QPR turned to experienced campaigner Steve Cook to fill that gap.
Cook is highly-experienced and has played 180 Premier League games in addition to 144 in the Championship. He’ll be looking to bring some experience and leadership to a QPR backline, which has so far been shipping goals and was straight into the team for the game against Cardiff.
This signing will also likely allow for Joseph Gubbins, who made his league debut in the first game against Watford, to move on to get some more first-team experience.
The most familiar man in the middle of the park for QPR will be former Town youth product Andre Dozzell. During his time at Town he racked up 93 appearances, scoring three goals and getting two assists.
Dozzell is yet to score in 71 appearances for QPR and never really got a run of starts last year averaging 51 minutes a game in 36 appearances.
Accused by a lot of QPR fans of being workshy and not doing the work tracking back, he’s not even delivered assists with only three in his whole time at QPR, but mainly due to lack of other options has started every game so far this season.
By contrast,Sam Field was Mr Consistent in the middle for QPR, starting all 46 games. The tall, combative midfielder won 268 duels and made 109 tackles last season. Sam Morsy by comparison last season won 211 and 97 respectively in League One.
Field is the player that QPR will turn to to stop attacks and let their more creative players do the work. He even showed his importance to the team by dropping in to play in the back three against Norwich.
A lot of QPR’s success will depend on the form of Ilias Chair. The Moroccan international was one of the Championship’s star players last season with five goals and nine assists. Chair’s early-season form was a key factor in QPR rapidly climbing the table.
His favoured role is either behind the striker or on the left wing cutting onto his right foot but his versatility saw him play at left winf, left midfield, attacking midfield, centre forward, right midfield and right wing over the course of the season.
His 55 successful dribbles were a team high and his 2.52 key passes per game was second only to West Brom’s John Swift. If Town can keep Chair quiet they stand a good chance of getting something out of this one.
Experience is brought to the team by 35-year-old Albert Adomah, who will be going into his fourth season with the club. Adomah was mainly used as an impact player last season making 26 of his 38 appearances from off the bench using his experience and guile to help QPR see out games.
Some QPR fans think the former Ghanaian international’s legs have gone and are surprised that he’s been given a new contract. His only appearance so far this season was as a right wing-back/right midfielder against Norwich and he was one of QPR’s better players in that game.
Beyond that, the R’s starting line-ups during friendlies consisted of trialists and youngsters Elijah Dixon-Bonner and Stephen Duke-McKenna who prior to this season had 16 minutes of Championship experience combined. Dominic Gape also played on trial but was not signed, leaving the R’s lacking in depth.
Enter Jack Colback. The 33-year-old joined on a two-year contract having been released by Nottingham Forest. The Geordie will add numbers and defensive experience to the midfield and will be looking to prove that his best years aren’t behind him.
Colback comes with 188 Championship appearances, 54 of which were across back-to-back year-long loan spells at Portman Road.
The final man who could get minutes in midfield is Taylor Richards. With a strong youth pedigree at Man City and then Brighton’s academies, Richards has never properly managed to break into the first team at Loftus Road and will be hoping this year is his year.
His most productive spell of his career was at Doncaster on loan in the 2020/21 season where he scored 11 goals in 48 appearances. This season feels like it could be make or break for him.
QPR’s main man up front is Lyndon Dykes. A strong, physical player his form has seen him become a regular for Scotland. Dykes has a decent scoring record in recent seasons too, netting 28 times in the last three seasons, nine of which were headers so Town will have to make sure he is picked up at set pieces and from crosses.
With Chris Martin having been released, Jamal Lowe returning to Bournemouth and Tyler Roberts joining Birmingham, the only other forward to play a decent number of minutes last season left in the building is Chris Willock.
Preferring to play out on the left and cut inside on his right, Willock has also been a fixture in this QPR side for the last three seasons. He scored six goals in 28 games last yearn. However, the former Arsenal youngster is potentially an asset that QPR will look to sell and was left out of the starting line-up for the first game against Watford, and then hasn’t featured in the next two matchday squads.
Again there’s a distinct lack of other options in the forward line too and the R’s have re-signed Paul Smyth having released him in 2021. Smyth has most recently spent time at Leyton Orient scoring 10 goals in 38 games as they got promoted from League Two. Although those are good numbers, returning to sign a player who was let go only two years ago sums up the state of the situation at Loftus Road at the moment.
Also in that frontline is another player who had success at Orient last season, this time on loan. American Charlie Kelman netted seven times in 43 appearances and has started the season in the 10 role behind Dykes with the Championship so far looking like a step too much. He was dropped after the first game and will face a battle to get back into the team.
Twenty-year-old Irishman Sinclair Armstrong looks to have stepped up to lead the line most effectively so far this season. A bit-part player last season, averaging 25 minutes on the pitch in his 22 appearances, Armstrong put in a man of the match performance against Cardiff last weekend with a goal and assist with his strong running and press causing the Cardiff backline all sorts of problems.
For Town, this was originally the game where I saw some potential tactical tweaks. This is a match where Town will expect to have more possession than in the first two Championship fixtures with Ainsworth’s teams set up to defend and sit on the counter. They had 35 pder cent possession against Cardiff, just 29 per cent against Watford and 37 per cent against Norwich.
If Ipswich hadn’t got six points out of six I’d have been suggesting Harry Clarke in for Janoi Donacien, Jack Taylor in for Massimo Luongo and Freddie Ladapo in for George Hirst, to suit the fact that Town should in this one have the lion’s share of the ball. However, consistency was crucial to the run at the end of last season so I’ve gone unchanged.
Taylor’s movement and added goal threat could still prove useful if the Blues do face a low block and still need to unlock the door late on in the game, as will Ladapo’s ability playing ball to feet and Clarke’s thrust down the right hand side (if fit). These substitutions could change the game much like Kayden Jackson and Marcus Harness last weekend.
For QPR I’ve also gone unchanged from the win against Cardiff, it was a far better performance that the 4-0 defeat against Watford with the combination of Armstrong and Dykes working well together and Cook’s debut providing more experience in the backline.
The cup game against Norwich was mix of that team and the fringe players with Kakay, Field, Dozzell and Dykes among the starters so there’s potential for one of them to drop out on Saturday depending on fitness. Still no sign of Colback as he didn’t make the bench on Wednesday so he must not be fit yet.
Against Cardiff, Ainsworth switched to a hybrid back five. Utilising Kenneth Paal and Paul Smyth as wing-backs and Osman Kakay as the right centre-back/right-back role. He then stuck with this against Norwich.
This more or less mirrors Town’s set-up for the first two games with Dykes and Chair essentially play as the 10s either side of Armstrong.
It’s the Town left-hand side that I think QPR will target. Cameron Burgess has been imperious in the first two games but he has looked weak against pace. Dealing with Armstrong and Smyth whilst also having to keep an eye on Dykes aerially could be his biggest challenge so far.
If QPR do focus there, it will leave their right side fairly unguarded, especially as Dozzell has so far played on the right side of that central midfield pairing and is not defensively-minded.
If Town get breaks down that side, it leaves Dozzell and the inexperienced Kakay facing up to the Nathan Broadhead, Leif Davis and Luongo/Taylor threat. There should only be one winner there.
This is a game that I wouldn’t be confident going into last year, but compared with the last time a Town side faced the Ainsworth deep low block with Wycombe when Richard Keogh and Kane Vincent-Young were in the side, Town now have a far stronger squad and set of players to break through and create the chances needed.
If an early goal goes in, it could be four or five but it could equally be a tense 1-0. Town are on a high, QPR are struggling, I’m going for the former and 4-0 to Ipswich.
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