After throwing away a 2-1 lead on the last day of the season to Manchester City, Queens Park Rangers held on to their Premier League status thanks to results elsewhere going their way. ‘Never again’, vowed manager Mark Hughes, would they be struggling so badly at the wrong end of the table. But that is exactly where they find themselves now. So where has it all gone wrong?
Mark Hughes’ promise of a more successful QPR was followed by a massive influx of players this summer. The revolution in West London was beginning. But few could have predicted the 5-0 defeat they suffered on the opening day at home to Swansea City. And now, 6 games into the season, QPR are win-less and rooted to the bottom of the league.
It was my intention this week to take a look at QPR’s summer signings and rate them on how well they’ve settled at Loftus Road thus far. However, as a writer you are governed by the amount of words you are permitted to use and in no way do I have room to analyse all of them, such was the volume of their summer recruitment drive.
Ryan Nelson, Andy Johnson, Robert Green, Samba Diakité, Park Ji-Sung, Junior Hoilett, José Bosingwa, Júlio César, Esteban Granero, Sam Magri, Stéphane Mbia, Fábio Da Silva. All of these arrived on top of what was already a very large squad.
There are a few very shrewd bits of business wrapped up in there. Established players with Premier League pedigree like Park, Green and Nelson. Experienced and highly regarded foreign stars like Granero and César. Added to the likes of Bobby Zamora & Shawn Wright-Phillips and QPR appear at first glance to have a squad strong enough for Premier League survival at the very least.
However one problem that needs to be considered is that of squad integration. It’s been heard many times how a player needs time to settle when coming into a new team. Especially so when coming from abroad, having to familiarise themselves with a new team and a new league. Times that problem by 13 and you can see what QPR are dealing with.
And not only do these players have to bed in individually, they have to gel together as a team. Using an unbelievable 45 different players in the last 10 months probably hasn’t helped with this. There’s no quick fix. It takes a lot of work to turn a squad of unfamiliar individuals into a team, and a lot of time. But is this time that Mark Hughes has?
Common sense would suggest that Mark Hughes’ job is safe but this is modern day football and nobody’s job is ever really safe. There have already been newspaper stories about Hughes’ days at Loftus Road being numbered and an out of work Harry Redknapp being linked with the post.
All just conjecture at this point, but Hughes will want to silence the doubters sooner rather than later. His next three fixtures see QPR travel to West Brom and Arsenal with a home game against high flying Everton sandwiched in the middle. There truly are no easy games in the Premier League and Hughes’ boys will have to show that they can compete at this level.
One way they can help themselves compete is by keeping 11 men on the pitch. On Monday night QPR went 2-0 down at home to West Ham before Adel Taarabt’s strike pulled the game back to 2-1. QPR seemed to have momentum on their side as they searched for an equaliser. That is until their comeback was curtailed by Samba Diakité’s red card. QPR went on to lose 2-1. The frustration of the Loftus Road faithful was there for all to hear.
In the 10 months that Mark Hughes has been at the helm, QPR have had seven players sent off. Most notably in that aforementioned season decider away at Man City last season. The loss of Joey Barton for his now infamous red card came when the game was still in the balance at 1-1 and on another day could have seen Rangers relegated.
Mark Hughes and his coaching staff have a lot of work to do to eradicate this ongoing disciplinary problem. Making an overhaul to the way QPR play isn’t really the solution, it’s about eliminating individual errors which can’t be easy for Hughes or any other manager. You can’t just tell a player to not get sent off, it goes without saying. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen though.
Mark Hughes certainly has work to do to keep QPR in the Premier League if their early season form is anything to go by. If he fails then he’ll most likely just be seen as someone who couldn’t succeed despite having a talented squad at his disposal. But that probably doesn’t paint a fair picture.
QPR need to let their new squad of players adapt to their surroundings and become a cohesive unit. This does take time, but hopefully the QPR fans and owners alike will have the patience required to allow this the time it needs to happen.
However, the Premier League is incredibly unforgiving when you’re battling at the wrong end and it may not afford QPR all the time they need. The nature of the most competitive league in the world may dictate that the team from Loftus Road will need to start coming up with results sooner rather than later if they want to stay in it.