New Queens Park Rangers manager Marti Cifuentes has a job on his hands, but at least enjoyed an encouraging first game in charge.
This time a year ago, when Michael Beale occupied the dugout at Loftus Road, they were top of the Championship with fans dreaming of a Premier League return for the first time since 2015. But 12 months is a long time in football. And this has been a harsh period for QPR.
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Since then they have been in freefall — ending last season in 20th, six points above the relegation zone — as they rattled through managers. First Beale was poached by Rangers, then Neil Critchley was an uncomfortable fit in a 12-game stint before club legend Gareth Ainsworth came in but was unable to get a real tune out of the team.
His departure last month and the subsequent arrival of Spanish coach Cifuentes already feels like the last roll of the dice for this season if QPR are to avoid the drop, with their record of two wins, 10 losses and nine points already putting them in a relegation fight. The exits are not confined to the club’s managers either, with chairman Amit Bhatia announcing he was stepping down to be replaced by chief executive Lee Hoos last week.
Ainsworth was sacked after winning only five of his 28 games in charge of QPR (John Early/Getty Images)It is, in many aspects, a club that feels like it has lost its way after previous flirtations with a serious crack at promotion driven by their production line of academy talent. The threat of a drop to the third tier is real — it is a level the club has not played since 2004, having bounced between the Championship and Premier League in the intervening years.
Cifuentes knows he joins the club at a difficult time, having swapped Swedish side Hammarby IF for west London, and showed understanding of their situation by stating his desire to create a team that “our fans can feel proud (of) when they go back home”.
Pride has been in short supply in terms of the on-field performances this season after humbling 4-0 defeats to Watford and Blackburn Rovers among their many losses. Only Sheffield Wednesday sit below QPR in the table, with six points. Last Saturday’s opponents Rotherham United are also in the bottom three, which made the clash a must-win for both teams’ hopes of catching the teams already five points ahead of them.
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Despite their situation, there is talent in the squad with Ilias Chair and Chris Willock key performers in past seasons, but they have felt the loss of summer departures Rob Dickie (to Bristol City) and Seny Dieng (to Middlesbrough) among others. There were nine new arrivals including Taylor Richards (making his loan from Brighton into a permanent one) and Steve Cook (from Nottingham Forest) but Cifuentes inherits a squad low on confidence and in need of results.
| Position | Team | W | D | L | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
19 | Plymouth Argyle | 4 | 4 | 7 | 16 |
20 | Coventry City | 3 | 6 | 6 | 15 |
21 | Huddersfield Town | 3 | 6 | 6 | 15 |
22 | Rotherham United | 2 | 4 | 8 | 10 |
23 | QPR | 2 | 3 | 10 | 9 |
24 | Sheffield Wednesday | 1 | 3 | 11 | 6 |
After successful spells at Hammarby, whom he took into Europe, AaB in Denmark and Sandefjord in Norway, he has plenty of experience in taking over at a club midway through the season — he’s done it at four former clubs. Tactically, he is a coach who favours getting the ball down and playing out from the back, as might be expected of someone educated at the Johan Cruyff Institute in Barcelona.
Cifuentes is still a young manager at 41 but has plenty of experience in a 20-year coaching career that started with his first managerial appointment at Rubi in the Spanish fourth tier. He then made the step up to the third division at Sant Andreu. He kept them up in a relegation battle against a backdrop of financial challenges but left the club following a takeover by Dinorah Santa Ana, the ex-wife of Barcelona legend Dani Alves.
A spell with CE L’Hospitalet, also in the Spanish third tier at the time, then led to a move to AIK in Sweden where he worked with the club’s academy sides. He maintained a good reputation while in Spain and his spells in Scandinavia since are cause for encouragement for QPR fans – even if he is a lesser-known appointment.
If he is able to get his message across quickly, then QPR could be in for a change in style to a more possession-based approach compared to their tactics under Ainsworth, according to the young coach.
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“I like to be dominant and to be dominant you can do it in different ways, but mostly by having the ball and then attacking,” he said following his appointment. “I’m not a coach who after scoring one goal likes to just ask the lads to just defend and protect the goal to maybe go on the counter. I prefer to be proactive and keep the ball high to create as many chances as we can. No coach in the world can control how many goals your team will score, but it’s about scoring as many chances as we can and conceding as few as we can, that’s the target.
“We’re going to have an identity. We’re going to regain the ball quick, to use the ball to move the opponent and not just to look fancy in possession or pretend that having the ball around the centre-backs will make us a better team. We want the ball to attack and create situations and when we lose it hopefully we will be in a good position to win it back quickly.”
The evidence against Rotherham United in Cifuentes’ first game in charge was that they had adopted some of his methods, but there is still work to do. Setting up in a 4-3-3, which Cifuentes favours, goalkeeper Asmir Begovic regularly looked to play short from goal kicks and when recycling possession. It was a physical match-up with fellow strugglers Rotherham, who made better use of possession in a scrappy and goalless first half.
Cifuentes received a rapturous welcome from the travelling fans who unfurled a Spain flag and sang his name after Chair, cutting in from the left flank and curling a shot into the top corner, opened the scoring early in the second half. The Morocco international was dangerous operating in a wide role as Willock returned to the starting lineup for just the fourth time this season.
A Georgie Kelly goal turned in from a free kick was a test for Cifuentes’ side and they responded by moving the ball well and attacking quickly to draw two big saves from Rotherham goalkeeper Viktor Johansson. Rotherham came close when Hakeem Odoffin’s header hit the woodwork, but neither side could find a goal as the game ended 1-1.
A point on the board in a performance that offered a glimmer of hope for QPR as they aim to become a side capable of both style and substance under their new manager.
(Top photo: Peter Lous/BSR Agency/Getty Images)
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