End of Term Report 24/25 – Goalkeepers Monday, 19th May 2025 09:55 by Clive Whittingham The first of our annual four-part individual assessment of the QPR players’ performances during the previous season always starts with the goalkeepers. If you want to hear the LFW panel, including stats man Jack Supple, debate the marks for this year’s report you can do so via all three subscription tiers in our Patreon. Part one, keepers and defenders, is live now. 1 – Paul Nardi BOne of the recurring themes in this year’s end of term write ups is going to be the effect of expectation on performance. How the pressure of a price tag, a contract, a hyped-up record elsewhere, can weigh almost physically around the neck of a player already facing the not insignificant challenges of new country, new city, new language, new club, new and notoriously physically challenging league. Meanwhile others we hadn’t even really noticed arriving, and certainly hadn’t considered first team players, are able to come in, take that free hit, play with freedom and impress. In this regard Paul Nardi was onto a winner from the start. Asmir Begovic was in such lousy form for much of last season it felt at times like QPR’s goalkeeper was actively working against their survival bid. Age, physical conditioning and unflattering pink kit combining to make him little more than a bouncy castle between the sticks, capable of saving only that which was hit straight at him, or possibly within toppling over distance. When 2024/25 started badly he rather snarkily told a podcast they “thought they could replace us all on the cheap”. No, Asmir, in your case we thought we could probably replace you with a decent sized pot plant. No surprise, therefore, that a new goalkeeper was the first order of priority last summer and whoever that was to be was in the rather blessed position of surely, surely not being any worse than what had gone before. Initially, Paul Nardi felt like a lot more than that. He made a good impression in the pre-season games, with some excellent stops against Spurs at Loftus Road in particular and carried that on into the season proper – a triple stop at Ewood Park to keep Blackburn out had to be seen to be believed. That one of six man of the match awards we gave him across the season, although sadly it was one of several days (Derby away another) where his heroics merely served to keep the score down to a respectable 2-0 than the 4-0+ blow out it could so easily have been. It took him 16 games to register a first clean sheet, but I don’t think you could really blame him much for that. A terrific one-on-one save late in the away game at Luton secured the first win of the season, and his man of the match performances against first Stoke at home and then away at Cardiff that midweek were absolutely pivotal in turning the season around. When he finally did get that first shut out, away at Burnley, you saw what it meant to him and really felt that he deserved it. His post-match celebrations and fondness for Silver Lining through the winter further endeared him to the support and if you’d held a player of the season vote at the end of November he’d have won it by a country mile. Saves right up in the top corner at Pride Park, Vicarage Road and Carrow Road are literally as good as any you’ll see, from any keeper, anywhere in the world. That performance in the 1-1 draw at Norwich between Christmas and New Year was, however, the last of his six star man awards. I guess there is always a regression to the mean with these new signings that start in hot form, and you can see from the ratings below it goes from mainly 6s, 7s and 8s before Christmas to mainly 6s, 5s and 4s afterwards. This, of course, while playing behind an ever changing cast of characters in front of him – last year the Cook and Clarke-Salter combination was a bedrock of the survival, this year Rangers have rotated through Cook/JCS, Cook/Morrison, Cook/Dunne, Cook/Field, Cook/Fox (still in October at this point by the way), JCS/Fox, Dunne/Fox, Edwards/JCS, Edwards/Fox, Cook/Edwards, Edwards/Fox and Morrison/Edwards. There have been failings on Nardi’s part though. It’s been pretty clear throughout, and was picked up by Greg Spires in his scouting report about the signing, that Nardi will not come off his line for nothing or nobody. After the first set of fixtures other team’s video review departments obviously picked this up and started hanging balls up on the edge of the six-yard box to dramatic effect in games like Pompey and Coventry away. Even his shot stopping, which to my untrained eye looks good and his best quality, isn’t backed up by the numbers – of the 31 goalkeepers with ten or more appearances in the Championship this season he ranks 25th for save percentage. He's one of several players who does not look comfortable in our play-out-from-the-back patterns, and although it hasn’t directly resulted in goals yet his occasional propensity for an ‘ohlalalalala c’etait une catastrophe’ pass straight to the opposition has had ruinous consequences for several pairs of my jeans away at Bristol City and Norwich and at home to Burnley. Overall though I think this has been one of the recruitment team’s success stories. He won fewer games, conceded more goals and kept fewer clean sheets than Begovic, but did he fill the brief and perform better than his predecessor? I think, pretty obviously, yes. In numbers…
13 – Joe Walsh N/ABeing the cup goalkeeper at QPR is very much like being Jack Grealish’s copy of Finnegans Wake. Don’t expect to see a lot of action. Joe Walsh this season became the first QPR player ever whose first two league appearances came in the final matches of the season. His four outings in the cups were a real mixed bag. He conceded six goals from six shots on target at Leicester which isn’t ideal, though if you can’t see the ball that is liable to happen even without a melty defence in front of you. He also gave a bad goal away at Cambridge trying to pass down the middle of the pitch but without that error he’d have been man of the match at The Abbey Stadium on a night when QPR were very lucky to progress against the worst team in League One, and he was fantastic in the next round at home to Luton. This is a position QPR now have weirdly good depth in. It’s nice to have a second-choice keeper as trustworthy as this, who doesn’t spark a panic when his name appears on the team sheet. A clean sheet achieved with a couple of eye-catching saves at Sunderland on the last day further cemented that reputation. The question, as we move into a season in which Walsh will turn 24, is whether that’s his role for life? Do we, does he, eventually see Walsh as a starting number one, or is he going to be a Steve Harper, Chris Adamson-type career number two goalkeeper which is, let’s be fair, one of the greatest jobs in the world? If the goal of the club and the player is for him to become first choice then how do we engineer that handover? Another year of Paul Nardi playing 45 times while Walsh stands in the coconut shy of our lamentable cup performances and then gets a run in the last league game will do nothing for him other than burn off another year and you’d then be bringing him in completely cold the following season. Do you, if we’re fortunate enough to be safe in midtable, do more of a job share through the second half of the season with the aim of getting 15-20 league starts into him? Goalkeeper not, usually, a position that responds well to such chopping and changing. Or do you loan him out, try and get 30 games into him at the top end of League One, and sit somebody else on our bench? First world problems, but a problem all the same. In numbers…
Others >>> It’s a situation further complicated by the presence of Murphy Cooper who will also turn 24 this coming December. He spent this season on loan at Stevenage where he made 40 appearances and kept clean sheets in nearly half of those – 16 shut outs including games against promotion chasers Charlton, Wrexham and Orient. Stevenage finished 14th in a league where they’re very much one of the small fries, they conceded 50 goals in doing so and all seven teams immediately above them in the table let in more than that. Cooper won the club’s Young Player of the Year award. We asked Stevenage regular Reece Donnelly for a few thoughts and he said: “Yeah mate truly amazing. Got multiple peoples votes for POTS and won YPOTS. A real character, a strong keeper in all facets. We’ve had games where he’s had to do nothing but claim crosses and he’s done well. Had games getting hammered and done well. Really limited mistakes leading to goals. Behind a changing backline at times too. I’ve never really found his height a problem, he’s been claiming well when he’s had to. Never really conceded a goal where I’ve thought ahhh he’s just too small. Think he’s very aware of the disadvantages. Got a huge future and I doubt it’ll be back here.” Stevenage would like him back, but Steven Schumacher’s Bolton are one of several sides reportedly circling. With Nathan Sheppard and Matteo Salamon also catching the eye in Paul Furlong’s impressive development squad, and a whole stack of other U21 and U18 goalkeepers behind them, it’s a position QPR have plenty of options but also plenty of thinking to do. Links >>> Keepers >>> Defenders >>> Midfield >>> Attack If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via our PayPal account loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk. Pictures - Ian Randall Photography Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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