As it had been told in the last, I sold bunch of QPR players easing payroll budget and making some transfer income. It was just sad to say 'bye' to Sulley Muntari because he was one of the important players. But now I have better anchor man Ognjen Vukoevic…

The whole list of winter sold footballers:

I am still above $1M in wages but the gap between allowed budget and current one is pretty large already:

Most of the transfers were arranged basis on monthly instalments. Therefore you don't see any serious balance change. We should wait till the next season to see some positive shifts in a balance value.

Q.P.R. matches

OK, here are the latest results.

12 matches played: 6 wins, 2 draws, 4 losses.

Frankly speaking, not bad. But perhaps it's not good enough to reach so desired Top-4 in the end. If you take a closer look into QPR draws and losses, you will see that almost all of them were against English grand clubs. Getting points in such kind of matches is a real problem for me during this season. I felt helpless in the away matches against Liverpool and Tottenham. Another defeat from Man City had the same effect actually in spite of playing at Loftus Road. That was the worst match of the reported period. Fortunately, Rangers were playing equally against Man Utd and Chelsea.

On the other hand, we are very good when it goes about picking up points against all other Premier League teams. But I feel it's not enough to get into next season's Champions League. How do you think?

The best match

My guys simply devastated Wigan in this game making 2 fast goals in 8 starting minutes. Special thanks to the man of the match - Korey Smith - who was playing a playmaker and made 3 assists.

PL table standing

Well, all the struggle is certainly ahead here. I believe my chances to be in the Top-4 are pretty good because I have only 3 matches against grand clubs to play.

FA Cup

Very short story in FA Cup. I failed it the very first round against weak Championship team. I was too unconcerned in my rotation principles. Read more here:

I'm guilty… no cups this season

Q.P.R. players

It was hard to select the best player of the latest time. So the award can be divided between Popov, Rodriguez, and Vukojevic.

I am concerned with underperforming central backs Craig Cathcart and Gary Cahill. Though Cahill is still blending into the squad in my opinion.

Pay attention also to Korey Smith and Ivan Cosic. Both are backup players for Marco Verratti, both make assists and key passes having average ratings above 7.18.

Korey Smith

Ivan Cosic

It seems everything is fine regarding Cosic and Smith. But I have to confess I have a problem with them because both central midfielders want to play in the first eleven. It means one of them should be sold in the next transfer window.

Whom would you advice me to sell?

Englishman Korey Smith who can tackle balls

                               or

more young and attacking Croatian Ivan Cosic

Considering chances to finish in Top-4…

12 fixtures, 3 games against grand clubs where I could loose all points because as you see loosing to top English clubs is my trend in the current season. Let's try to make a quick calculation basing on the 3 first seasons.

1
2
3

In average I need around 75 points to get into the next season's Champions League. Now I have 49 points. It means at least 26 points should be gained in the last 12 fixtures. Is it a large challenge for the Rangers? I wouldn't say so. Though it's quite difficult to forecast a final result for my club now.

Excited to blog for you,

Vitaliy Mokosiy

True Football Manager

Yes, my dear readers… I got into quite serious crisis in December matches. 3 losses in row, getting out of Europa League and Carling Cup… Just look at the results below.

13 matches: 5 wins, 4 draws, 4 losses

Premier League

The most disgusting game was against Everton covered by It's not a day of Q.P.R. post at my additional blog. My leader and playmaker Marco Verratti was injured for 5-6 months!   And it looks like the injury influenced QPR performances in December very much. Though I can only assume but not affirm this thought.

Another very poor game was played versus Arsenal. My defence uncovered all their weaknesses getting 4 quite similar goals.

Let's analyze: Q.P.R. - Arsenal 2:4

We got 2 goals with strikes from flanks and 2 goals after crosses from flanks.

In my opinion Cathcart was the worst among all defenders making two rough mistakes:

- poor aerial kick that brought the 2nd goal

- inability to tackle a ball allowing Robin Van Persie to score the 3rd one

I decided to give chances to Cathcart and Zanev because Cahill and Digne were in poor form in the match before. It seems like I was wrong in this decision.

Table standing

Finally, Q.P.R. is located at the 9th position with 2-3 additional fixtures to play. It's not catastrophe obviously. If you add, for instance, 6 points, Q.P.R. will go up to the 4th table line. Nevertheless I expected better results after November-December fixtures.

Europa League knock out

Well, well, well. After the last season's Europa League final I claimed that I am going to win the tournament this time. But suddenly my Rangers didn't even manage to qualify from the group into knockout rounds.

I don't understand why but my attackers were not efficient while playing against Koln and Gaziantepspor. Too many draws caused loss of points we needed so much. As a result we had only an illusive chance to rise to the 2nd position in the last match against Napoli. My team manage to produce an equal but very unlucky game.

Just take a look at the score, shots on target, and clear cut chances

Q.P.R. players

I want to criticize my attackers producing unstable performance. Perhaps they are missing Marco Verratti who normally gives many key passes, I don't know.

Both right wingers Oscar and Alvaro Vadillo are underperforming what is certainly strange because their attribute values have grown in this season.

Regarding my forwards. Jay Rodriguez has just returned from his long-term injury and is on the way to get a great form. Anyway I decided to prepare some kind of comparison table whey you can see all my 3 strikers and compare their efficiency as goal scorers:

Rodriguez
Paloschi
Fierro

The best player

Q.P.R. captain Ivelin Popov became the best player of the reported period. He was really leading the team even in such bad games like the one against Arsenal.

Negative balance

I am troubled with negative balance. It's growing and growing due to high wages and some monthly instalments.

Wages is our main expenditure at the moment. Here is the list of my main wage eaters:

It's pretty clear I should sell several players to lighten the squad and the wage budget.

Whom I am going to sell

- Sulley Muntari. He is 30 years old and my main wage eater as you see from the screen shot above.

- Andrea Masiello. I wanted to use his as a right back but he isn't efficient on the flank. Andrea could be compete for centre back place but the competition is too high. I prefer to have Craig Cathcart as my 3rd centre back.

- Alexandru Bourceanu. Too large competition for DMC positions in the squad, the Romainian asked me for the first eleven and got transfer listed.

Whom would you advice me to sell as well?

Next fixtures

I have FA Cup and Premier League to concentrate on in further. The upcoming fixtures are very dangerous. I am wary regarding amount of matches against grands. Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man United, Tottenham in one and half of month. These matches can be really decisive in sense of my season target to get into Top-4.

And how do you think?

Upset with the results but still excited to blog for you,

Vitaliy Mokosiy

True Football Manager