Queen's Park Rangers are writing an all too familiar story in the Championship this season. 12 games into the season, the West London club sit 23rd in the second tier. There was a quite a bit of confidence going into the season for the R’s after manager Marti Cifuentes took them from bottom of the table to an 18th place finish in 2023/2024. But it has not been the season they have expected so far with just one win from their opening 12 games.
It was a busy summer in terms of transfers at the Matrade Loftus Road Stadium with ten players joining the club. Though signings such as Karamoko Dembele, Koki Saito and Nicolas Madsen have shown signs of promise, other signings have struggled for game time or have found it difficult to make an impact.
Striker Zan Celar has not found the net in his first fifteen games and defender Hevertton Santos has struggled to adapt to English football; it's been a real mixed bag in terms of the impact from signings with some of them needing to improve their performances.
On paper, the R’s have a squad that shouldn’t be towards the bottom end of the table. Their experience of players is at a good level. Players like Steve Cook, Sam Field, Jimmy Dunne and Illias Chair all have vast Championship experience while also having Jake Clarke-Salter, who has received Premier League interest in recent seasons.
So with these key players there are no excuses for the real lack of competitiveness of what is a very experienced squad.
Despite having the experience, balancing out with younger assets is a key thing to do, in the Championship especially. A point on Saturday against Burnley was well earned through a gritty defensive performance, but the lack of attacking threat may well have come down to the fact that only three starters were under 25.
This lack of hungry young players trying to break into the first team makes life somewhat difficult for the R's.
Most of their Championship rivals have young, promising players, many of them on loan from the Premier League, to deploy in the last 20 minutes of a game to make an impact.
Results have been difficult to come by for the West London side. They started the season with a defeat to West Bromwich Albion and draws with Sheffield United and Plymouth Argyle before earning their first win of the season away to Luton Town.
This was just days after beating Luton in the Carabao Cup, representing a fairly good start to the season for Cifuentes; five points from four games and the start of a potential cup run.
Since that Luton doubleheader, QPR have drawn four and lost seven.
But midway through this poor run, manager Cifuentes signed a new contract with the club a day before a 3-1 defeat at home to Hull City. The Spanish coach clearly has confidence behind him with the board as he has previously shown how he can turn clubs around after a poor start. He could prove pivotal to turning the R's season around.
What seems to be the problem at the moment for QPR is moving the ball far too slowly. In both the middle of the park and in the final third they lack the intensity of the majority of their Championship rivals.
This is causing R’s faithful a lot of frustration especially when chasing games and trying to get a result.
The slow build up has been shown in their attacking statistics. The Hoops are 21st in the league in expected goals and 23rd in big chances created. Difficulties going forward seem to be the biggest issue so far this season for the R’s as they have scored eleven in the league so far this season, only Swansea City have scored less with Cardiff City also on eleven.
If QPR are to start moving away from the bottom three, they need their signings to step up. Their style of football relies on energy and creativity, but at the moment they simply don't have either of those things.
Their fixture list doesn’t get any easier as they host Championship leaders Sunderland this weekend, where they will be looking to pull off a shock and have a change in fortune.
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