A much-changed Baggies team open the season at QPR

Queen’s Park Rangers v West Bromwich Albion; Loftus Road, Saturday 10th August 2024, 12.30pm

While Shilen Patel may have taken control of the club five months ago, but it is only this summer that we have seen the new era really beginning. The Chairman’s open letter at the end of last season clarified the approach and the upheaval in the squad that we have seen so far has been necessary to set the club up for a financially secure future.

Including those on loan last season, fourteen senior players have left since the end of the campaign with seven new faces coming through the door in advance of the season opener – more details on those can be found in my article from earlier in the week. Pre-season results are rarely an indicator for early season form, but I’m expecting a shaky start for Carlos Corberán’s team as the new players settle in, and there is no doubt that there are still holes in the squad to be plugged. Furthermore, I wouldn’t rule out further departures before the transfer window closes, and we will have to trust the club to leave Corberán with a squad he feels can compete.

QPR boss, Martí Cifuentes, has also had a relatively busy summer in the transfer window with five new signings of his own. The R’s were apparently also in for Gianluca Frabotta but the Italian opted for the Hawthorns instead, but they have signed Slovenian international striker Žan Celar, French midfielder Jonathan Varane, Brazilian full back Hevertton Santos, French ‘keeper Paul Nardi and Scottish centre-back, Liam Morrison, who has joined from Bayern Munich having been on loan at Wigan Athletic last season.

Former Albion favourite, Sam Field, scored twice in the corresponding fixture last season as the Baggies were fortunate to escape with a point following the “Hand of Céd” incident. Rangers had a strong finish to the season losing only five of their last nineteen matches to move them well clear of the relegation zone. Their final finishing place of 18th belied their late season form and I expect them to do much better in the current campaign.

With a much changed squad, it is difficult to predict Corberán’s starting eleven but it is unlikely to be massively different to that to start at St Andrew’s in the final pre-season fixture – Palmer; Furlong, Ajayi, Bartley, Heggem; Diakité, Mowatt; Fellows, Swift, Grant; Maja. Wallace and Diangana have been struggling with injury while there was no sign of Devante Cole in either Friday’s squad at Cambridge or the one at Birmingham. There is the chance that this week’s additions, Frabotta and Dobbin, could be involved but perhaps from the bench.

If ticket sales are anything to go by, Albion fans are getting behind the club in this new reality – not only have we seen record season ticket sales for the second tier, but both the game at QPR and Tuesday’s trip to Fleetwood Town have sold out for away fans. Hopefully the team will be buoyed by the level of support and start the campaign with some positive results.

History

Albion have lost just one of the last ten meetings with QPR, a run that started with the remarkable 7-1 win at the Hawthorns in the early days of Darren Moore’s tenure. The only defeat in that period was the 1-0 reverse at Loftus Road in the dying days of Valérien Ismaël’s time at the club when former Baggie and R’s legend, Charlie Austin, scored the only goal in the final minute.

Loftus Road has been the scene of some memorable moments for Albion fans, none more so on the final day of the 2007/08 season when goals from Kim Do-Heon and Chris Brunt secured the Championship title. More recently, Slaven Bilić’s team started to hit real form in September 2019 as Nathan Ferguson announced himself to Albion fans with what has proved to be his only goal in senior football so far, followed by an exquisite free-kick under the wall by the Brazilian magician, Matheus Pereira, and the controversial throat-cut gesture in celebration. It is sad that neither player has been able to fulfil their potential away from the Hawthorns.

The only time that Albion have previously opened their league campaign against QPR was in 1984 when John Giles’ team were beaten 3-1 at Loftus Road by a Rangers team managed by Alan Mullery (the man who should have been offered the Albion job a few years earlier). Simon Stainrod scored twice in the opening nine minutes for the hosts with Terry Fenwick adding a third in the second half; Steve Mackenzie scored a last minute consolation for the visitors.

Overall, the Baggies have won 45 of their 125 opening games, 18 of the 65 away from the Hawthorns. Their last victory on the opening weekend was in 2019 when goals from Kyle Edwards and Matt Phillips earned Bilić’s team a 2-1 win away to Nottingham Forest.

Albion lost 2-1 at Blackburn Rovers on the opening day of last season, but their previous defeat away from home on the opening weekend was 6-0 at Chelsea way back in 2010. Admittedly, there had only been four opening away fixtures in the intervening seasons – as well as the win at Forest under Bilić, two were drawn (at Bournemouth and Middlesbrough), while Tony Pulis’s team won 1-0 at Crystal Palace in 2016 thanks to a goal by Salomón Rondón.

For the record, the Baggies’ best away win on the opening day of the season was back in 1904 when a hat-trick by Albert Lewis and another goal by George Dorsett saw Albion to a 4-1 win at Turf Moor.

Stat Attack

Current Form

All competitions; most recent game on the right

Last matches

Last meeting

6 Mar 2024 – League Championship
Queen’s Park Rangers 2 (Field (2))
West Bromwich Albion 2 (Johnston, Diangana)

Last win

24 Oct 2023 – League Championship
West Bromwich Albion 2 (Thomas-Asante (pen), Diangana)
Queen’s Park Rangers 0

Last win at Queen’s Park Rangers

5 Nov 2022 – League Championship
Queen’s Park Rangers 0
West Bromwich Albion 1 (Bartley)

Albion’s Record against Queen’s Park Rangers