Queen’s Park Rangers is a team that is at the bottom of the board right now and Liverpool has not had a great season so far; this could be an interesting match. QPR is not the strongest of teams and their confidence level throughout this year is seen clearly in the numbers they’ve racked up – five games lost in the seven they’ve played so far and a singular victory. They are facing one of the giants of the game, a wounded one, but a giant nevertheless. If Liverpool wishes to retain its place on the top four of the list, they have got to come strong in the next seven games before meeting Chelsea and Real Madrid at home. The team had a rough September and after the international break, have found momentum, but will have to continue winning.
QPR has barely come out of the bottom three of the table and was also missing for a few years between 1996 and 2011. Liverpool, on the other hand is one of the ‘top four’ and this means these teams have not played too many matches against each other. In fact, in all these years, they have only met four times on the field in the last 14 years! Liverpool won three of these and QPR took one match, but what a match it was! Scoring 3 goals in fourteen minutes, they squashed The Reds in a memorable match.
Liverpool, just fresh back from the international break is operating on near full throttle on Sunday at Loftus road. Most of the squad is fit and Sturridge, Glen Johnson, Joe Allen and Emre Can are all set to return. Dejan Lovren and Mamadou Sakho are now facing fitness tests. The worry among fans will be if the pairing is not available for play next Wednesday against Christiano Ronaldo’s lot. It could be the most important match that the team has faced in a few years. The team will have a difficult decision to make as it will have to prioritise between the Premier league and Champion’s league.
QPR has a team right now that could have stomped anyone in 2008. Predicting a good line-up of them is easy as they have three defensive partnerships that have been used, all to varying degrees of success. Their most used of the three – Ferdinand and Caulker, have played for 462 minutes this season and conceded 11 goals, one for every 42 minutes on the field. This team just may not be fully equipped to handle The Reds.
The clear favourites here is Liverpool, but as the saying goes, there are no easy away matches, so they will be looking to take their much needed points and piling them up while taking their campaign forward. QPR will have to put up a brave fight and even if they manage a draw, it will be well worth it. If Liverpool can manage a four to nought victory, they can rise the ranks once more.