Tony Fernandes has tweeted his support for his manager, and even the most ardent of Hughes’ critics have to acknowledge the other factors in QPR’s poor results and subsequent league position.
It has become an interesting part of Premiership weekend to try and predict exactly how QPR will fail to take three points from the game they are playing. Watching the match, you see a team passing the ball well, frequently dominating possession and carving out more than enough chances to score. More interesting than all of those things though, is the wide variety of ways that QPR end up snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
I have seen three of QPR’s past five games. First against my own side Tottenham Hotspur, where a bizarre Alejandro Faurlin own goal helped spark Spurs’ second half revival leaving QPR with no points in a match they dominated for long periods. Then the last two games, where QPR’s own profligacy in front of goal saw them fail to take advantage of ten man Everton. The opposition’s equaliser was also an unfortunate own goal in that match, this time from Julio Cesar, though allowing Sylvain Distin the free header that led to the goal was simply poor defending.
Most recently this weekend, QPR were looking good to claim a hard fought point away at Arsenal before Stephane Mbia’s moment of madness saw them reduced to ten men. Even then it took an offside goal to beat them, but it was another loss, and it sees QPR bottom of the Premier League.
Last year Hughes pleaded with his side to stop getting red cards as they were costing them matches. The Mbia incident was an unwelcome return to that kind of implosion. I would however suggest if Hughes is really worried about red cards that much he may need to have a few words with Sambia Diakite, or indeed drop him in favour of the far classier Faurlin.
Looking at their league position QPR simply shouldn’t be there, and I don’t believe that Mark Hughes can take all, or even the majority, of the blame for their predicament. There are problems that Hughes has failed to address, QPR’s strike force looks weak in comparison to their midfield and their defence perhaps contains a few too many players over 30. Hughes also seems to have a fascination with playing Shaun Wright-Phillips that I cannot understand.
However surely the main brief of a manager is to put his team in a position to win matches, and QPR have looked capable of winning almost every game they have played in this season. It is mostly a mix of the players’ actions, and indeed some ill fortune, that has seen QPR fail and given time, both of those things can easily turn around. QPR host Reading this weekend, a game where they have every chance of their first league win, before then playing Stoke and Southampton. If they can gain a little momentum here they should be fine this season, eventually they’ll have to run out of ways to throw matches away…right?
images: © Tom Cuppens, © Tom Cuppens
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
