Premiership preview, table prediction: 14. Queens Park Rangers

Queens Park Rangers

Queens Park Rangers Barclays Premier League prediction 2011/12

Manager: Neil Warnock

Ground: Loftus Road

Nickname: R’s

Capacity: 18682

squad:

·         Goalkeepers 1 Paddy Kenny 24 Radek Cerny Elvijs Putnins ·         Defenders 2 Bradley Orr 3 Clint Hill 5 Fitz Hall 6 Danny Gabbidon 13 Kaspars Gorkss 16 Matthew Connolly 29 Danny Shittu Michael Harriman Gary Borrowdale

·         Midfielders 4 Shaun Derry 7 Adel Taarabt 8 Kieron Dyer 11 Alejandro Faurlin 14 Akos Buzsaky 23 Petter Vaagen Moen 28 Michael Doughty 35 Hogan Ephraim Martin Rowlands Bruno Andrade Lee Cook Matteo Alberti

·          Forwards 9 DJ Campbell 10 Jay Bothroyd 12 Jamie Mackie 19 Patrick Agyemang 20 Rob Hulse 21 Tommy Smith 22 Heidar Helguson 30 Troy Hewitt Leon Clarke Rowan Vine Antonio German Alessandro Pellicori

Last season championship champions are finally back where they belong. Now it’s only a few days until it all begins, and it’s going to be interesting to watch if QPRs return to the premiership. Manager Neil Warnock is an experienced and good manager who knows what is needed for QPR to stay up this season. Warnock have done some smart deals in bringing in a balance of experience to mesh with his talented and youthful players at the club.  Usually one out of the three promoted teams will supprise in the premiership. And my bet is that the team this year will be QPR. They look to me to be the strongest out of the three teams, and with an experienced manager like Warnock they should be able to take the premiership with storm.

Pre-Season Fixtures/Results
July 15 vs Harrow Borough 1-0 – Saikou Kujabi July
18 vs Tavistock 13-0 – Ephraim (4), Smith, Agyemang, James (og), Shittu, Helguson (2), Webber, Vaagan Moen, Connolly
July 20 vs Plymouth Argyle 1-0 – Helguson
July 27 vs Cesena 0-1
July 30 vs Braga 1-0 – Bothroyd
July 30 vs Atalanta 1-1 Faurlain
August 2 vs Crawley Town 4-2 Gorkss, Helgusson 2, Cook
August 5 vs Luton Town 1-3 DJ Campbell





Players in
07/11 Angelo Balanta FW
07/11 Jay Bothroyd FW  
07/11 Leon Clarke FW  
07/11 Kieron Dyer MF
07/11 Daniel Gabbidon DF
07/11 Antonio German FW  
07/11 Gavin Mahon MF  
07/11 Joe Oastler DF  
07/11 Alessandro Pellicori FW  





Players out
06/11 Lee Brown DF  
06/11 Max Ehmer MF  
06/11 Mikele Leigertwood MF  
06/11 Josh Parker MF  
06/11 Peter Ramage DF  
06/11 Wayne Routledge MF  






Most likely starting lineup for QPR next weekend:

Paddy Kenny

Bradley Orr        Danny Gabbidon             Fitz Hall           Clint Hill        

      

                           Adel Taarabt      Shaun Derry

Tommy Smith                                                              Alejandro Faurlin

                           DJ Campbell       Jay Bothroyd

I have a strong feeling that QPR will supprise the experts this season and be the one out of the three promoted teams to impress. With players like Kieron Dyer, DJ Campbell and Danny Gabbidon they got players with premiership experience. Adel Taarabt, Jay Bothroyd and Fitz Hall should also make contributes that should be noticed this season. I think QPR should be able to stay clear of relegation this season. 

Premier League in danger over rioting

Barclays Premier League

The news all of the Premier League fans have fared for days now have started to merge now. The FA could be threatened to fall victim to the London riots. First of all it’s the games that are going to take place in London this weekend, the matches at Tottenham, QPR and Fulham.

Riots being talked about spreading to other arias of England mean that more sad news could come for other matches in the premiership in the next days. Let’s all hope for the best, but it’s not looking good at the moment. This is of course a tragedy for England as a country but as well for the millions of fan around the world travelling into England and watching their teams on television.

But like I said let’s hope for the best. That being said the securetiy is always the most important, and in danger of upsetting some people I want to quote what a brilliant man once said;

Bill Shankly

"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."
-Bill Shankly

Fabregas and Nasri named for Champions League

Samir Nasri

Transfer-linked Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri have been included in Arsenal's UEFA Champions League squad to face Udinese. This doesn’t mean anything at this point of time, but if they play the match against Udinese next Tuesday they will be cup-tied. This would make them a lot less attractive to clubs like Barcelona and Manchester City, and might cool down the transfer talk.

Nasri is suspended for the first leg against Udinese but Fabregas could start the game next Tuesday. This could of course speed up the process of both Barcelona and other clubs that are interested in Nasri.

Cesc Fabregas

This means that we will see if Arsenal is a selling club or not within a week or so. I would bet Arsène Wenger wanting to use both players to secure the champions league spot. Udinese is no easy target for Arsenal, and it’s early in the season, so it’s difficult to say which team is in the best form at the moment. But in this game money talks and the question is if the club is willing to risk losing Nasri for free in the future. And of course if both players are unhappy at the club, is it wise to keep them there against their will?

Premiership preview, table prediction: 15. Wigan Athletic

Wigan Athletic

Nickname: Latics

Ground: DW Stadium

Capacity: 25138

Manager: Roberto Martinez

quad:

·         Goalkeepers 1 Chris Kirkland 12 Mike Pollitt 26 Ali Al Habsi ·         Defenders 2 Steve Gohouri 3 Antolin Alcaraz 5 Gary Caldwell 17 Emmerson Boyce 24 Adrian Lopez 31 Maynor Figueroa 32 Jordan Robinson 35 Roman Golobart 39 Jordan Mustoe 43 Adam Buxton

·         Midfielders 4 James McCarthy 6 Hendry Thomas 8 Ben Watson 14 David Jones 14 Jordi Gomez 16 James McArthur 21 Mohamed Diame 23 Ronnie Stam 28 Daniel de Ridder 29 Jason Koumas 41 Daniel Redmond 51 Callum Morris Adam Dawson Joe Holt

·         Forwards 7 Franco Di Santo 11 Victor Moses 18 Conor Sammon 38 Callum McManaman 20 Hugo Rodallega

I will just start this post by saying that I feel that Roberto Martinez and Wigan have not gotten enough respect, for the being able to produce good results season after season with little or no resources. Season after season they get predicted to relegate, but they come back strong and show the experts that they are still a still a team to be reckoned with in the premiership. Wigan has lost some players during the summer, but I believe only the loss of Tom Cleverly is a big one. So if they can hold on to Hugo Rodallega and Mohamed Diamé they could do well this season as well. But both are strongly linked away from Wigan and it’s still a long time left of the transfer marked. Robert Martinez is a young and talented manager who has done miracles with Wigan so far, and I expect nothing less from him this season. Wigan started the season with a 4-0 loss at DW stadium to top-flight debutants Blackpool, and Martinez know that this year opening match against Norwich will be just as tough. Roberto Martinez is confident Wigan will not be caught cold again by the Premier League's newcomers, with Norwich their first opponents. And Wigan's first three fixtures this term are against newly-promoted sides; with Norwich first up at home this weekend. This could of course look easy, but Martinez knows better at the start of a new season. "It is so much harder to play these sides when they have that extra bit of energy and emotion," Martinez told the Evening Post". But on the plus side we know exactly what to expect, and we'll be ready for the emotion of the day.”It's also important to get our home form up and running as soon as possible. We saw a real difference in performance levels at home during the first and second half of last season. "To be able to start the season at the DW is a great opportunity for us to reach new heights early on, with help from the fans, and we need to make all of that count on Saturday".

A blow for Wigan and Martinez is that star midfielder McCarthy suffered an ankle injury, though, and will be assessed over the next 24 hours. Latics boss Roberto Martinez: "He's an important player for us and has Premier League experience”. Hopefully he will be back in time for the premiership start this weekend.

Pre-Season Fixtures/Results

July 15 vs Ostersunds FK 2-1 – Moses, Boselli

July 24 vs Al Ain 0-0 July 26 vs Barrow 1-2

July 27 vs Al Ahli 2-0 – Moses (2)

July 31 vs Preston North End 3-1 McCarthy, Moses, Boyce

August 7 vs Villarreal 1-0 Moses

Players in

07/11 Mauro Boselli FW

07/11 David Jones MF

07/11 Jason Koumas MF

07/11 Lee Nicholls GK

Players out

07/11 Mauro Boselli FW

06/11 Steven Caldwell DF

06/11 Tom Cleverley MF

06/11 Daniël De Ridder FW

Most Recent Lineup vs Preston: Al Habsi (Kirkland 45), Boyce (Stam 72), Lopez, Figueroa, Caldwell, Watson (Thomas 62), McCarthy, Gomez (Dicko 84), Moses, Diame (Jones 62), Di Santo (Sammon 45)

Most likely starting lineup for Wigan next weekend:

                                              Ali Al Habsi

Emmerson Boyce      Maynor Figueroa  Gary Caldwell    Adrian Lopez

Mohamed Diame     Ben Watson       James McCarthy     Jordi Gomez

                             Victor Moses         Hugo Rodallega

Victor Moses have been looking strong in the pre-season matches and if Hugo Rodallega can deliver that gods that he have done the last season I think Wigan will pick up enough points to stay clear of relegation this year as well. The danger is that if Wigan doesn’t produce result against Norwich, Swansea and QPR in the first 3 matches they are going to get into trouble straight away. Since the next 3 matches are against top side teams like Man City, Everton and Tottenham. Martinez knows that the team needs to get a good start, and I think they will do just that.